15 Oct
Portfolio :: Project C
Cone Lady – A Lady made of cones
CS4085 • Computer Graphics II: Tools and Techniques • Year 3 (October 2009)
This was an individual project worth 10% of final grade.
Objective: The objective of this project is to consider two elements of the games / graphics tool chain by developing a model in Blender and then displaying this model in a game development environment (e.g., XNA).
High-level Description: Having created a 3-D model using Blender you should export the model in a format of your choosing. You should apply a U-V texture to your developed piece. You should then import this model into the XNA game development environment. In this environment you should be able to perform various “standard” camera operations such as zoom, rotate (the model) or move camera position.
I really enjoyed working on this project. It gave me some practical outcome of the module and some skills to mention in CV. Here is proj2.zip – the XNA part of the project (Visual Studio required).
A face was recognised by Picasa Web Albums on this picture..!
15 Oct
Portfolio :: Project B
Green Harvest
CS4043 • Games Modelling Design • Year 2 (October 2008) • Group of 4
Our task was to write a game design document and present it for the class and two lecturers. Theme of the game was: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today”. We didn’t write any implementation of this game. It was a great (and only) opportunity to improve public speaking skills before final year project presentations.
15 Oct
Portfolio :: Project A
Interview with a pirate
CS4053 • Digital Video Fundamentals • Year 2 (October 2008) • Group of 6
This was a 4 week project, worth 30% of final module mark.
You will shoot an interview-story on-campus.
The story will be an interview of some sort, fictional or fact.
It could be an interview on the typical day of a student or lecturer,
the work of the barman in Java’s, the life of a squirrel in a college tree!
The outcome of this project was the development of:
• Basic Video-production skills, revolving around good planning
• Team Work in a Production Team
We followed this sequence of events:
1. Form groups of 6
2. Come up with a story
3. Plan a timetable and book a camera-slot
4. Make storyboards and a script to guide you on day of shoot
5. Shoot, log and capture in no more than 1 day
6. Edit a short movie, with a beginning and /or ending title (text)
7. Add over-dubbed narration, and transitions, if needed
8. Export 2 versions: Quicktime Movie and mp4
9. Upload the mp4 movie to the Youtube account: cs4053video
I am considering this project an important achievement of mine as I had never done video shooting and editing in a group setting before. This module was also my first experience in using Mac and Final Cut Studio.
This is what I wrote in the report we handed in:
This project gave us a valuable opportunity to put the skills learned in this module into practice. Setting white balance right is a very important part of quality video and photography. This assignment didn’t prove to be an exception. Importing footage from the camera tape can be more time-consuming than I imagined. It’s vital to leave enough time before and after a clip when shooting to make sure to get the right in and out points.
14 Sep
Ludologist OR Narratologist?
In my opinion excessive analysis of the storyline of a game reduces the enjoyability. I am equally likely to learn from a game whether I know it’s labelled educational or not.
I know I must be ignorant but I don’t really understand the purpose of ludology vs narratology debate. Every game needs to have an element of gameplay for it to be considered one. The amount of storyline one sees in a game depends on the point of view. If you like, you can see a ‘deeper meaning’ behind Tetris or Pac-Man. You can choose to skip cutscenes and play without giving the story a second thought.
14 Sep
Summary • Monday • Week 2 • 13 Sept 2010
I feel like a scientist – ludology and narratology fail proofreading by WordPress. Suggested spellings are pedology, urology, Indology and dermatology. Chrome’s spellchecker has heard of narratology. What are they? Before answering I was about to download today’s lecture notes from Sulis. LM is consistently a fan of M$ proprietary office software and publishes his lecture notes using .docx and .pptx files. Let’s hope that there’s nothing fancy in the slides that OOo would not show. There was a mention of dangers of gaming in class and a man dying of a heart attach caused by having no liquids in 18 hours. Or was it 80? It reminded me about a 3-month old South Korean baby who died of malnutrition because her parents were too busy raising a virtual child in an online game.
In a few words: ludology – gameplay, narratology – storyline.
Glog of Liivi M 