Now that we've started over with coding, everything seems so much easier to understand. I still don't think I could code an entire game or anything, but I think I could make a few minor things work in Unity. Unity in general has become a lot easier to understand thanks to this coding tutorial. The Linkedin course was alright, but it was a little difficult to work with in some regards. In gaming news, Elden Ring has just come out and it's the biggest thing since sliced bread. Not surprising, given FromSoftware's reputation. They're what I aspire to be one day, a well respected game company known for quality and pushing boundaries. Although, they haven't pushed the boundaries much since their success with Dark Souls. It's to be expected, I guess. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
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It feels good knowing that I won't have to update this stupid portfolio for a while. The last couple units for DDA have been pretty easy, just messing around with light and camera settings (thank goodness we didn't have to do animations). Still, I feel like I never really got the hang of it. For some reason every time I take a test relating to camera angles I inevitably fail. I don't even know what I'm doing wrong, it's just like canvas hates me. Then there was the PBM. Talk about a train wreck. Just one thing going wrong after another. I did the best I can, but due to some comically bad timing on technical errors I might be completely screwed. I wonder if my Youtube account will ever be fixed. Anyways, here's hoping I manage to graduate high school after this complete mess of a year. At this point I don't think I'll ever have a good school year.
Man, third quarter has been a drag. The good news is it's almost over, finally. I feel like almost nothing new has happened but we did get into lighting. I thought it'd be easy but for some reason I keep messing it up. This should be really simple, so why am I struggling? Still, it's definitely far from the hardest unit we've done. You know, all this 3Ds Max work is really making me wonder what game design is going to be like. I would've thought that we'd be making 2D games first, because I'd imagine those are much easier to make as well as program, design, and create art for. If we're doing all this work in 3Ds Max then maybe it will all be 3D? That would be a complete pain, so let's hope not. But if it really is going t start off 2D, then what's with this formatting? In fact, why did we even have to get through digital design at all? I can't imagine using Photoshop very often in a game unless you're going for an incredibly weird art style. Heck, I don't even think Illustrator would be used that much. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking. I'm not complaining at all, I'm glad I learned those skills and it was a fun class, but how exactly does it relate. I mean, yeah, they both use computers, but they should really be separate. Anyways, that's enough rambling for one post. Cole out.
I no longer know whats happening anymore, but now I only have one late project in this class. Hopefully with its completion I can keep up with everything else that's going on from this point forward. I can't seem to get a hold of bitmapping. I know I'm doing something wrong but I can't figure out what it is. The model always comes out looking wrong. In the meantime, Fromsoftware has announced a new game with some interesting shake ups to their standard difficult combat genre. They're proposing that their new game will be fully open world. This is quite the interesting development, as many see this as a bold risk that could payoff in spades or result in a horrible monstrosity that won't make back it's budget. Personally, I've always thought their Souls games were somewhat open world, so I believe they can absolutely pull it off. Their talented game designers to boot, which gives them a high chance of success in my opinion. A startling amount of people are making a big deal out of the Super Mario 3D World port DLC, of all things. Why Nintendo would choose to put in such a high quality product into a port of 3D world is completely beyond me, but I'm definitely intrigued enough to get it. Despite having a Wii U, I never got the original 3D world because I wasn't as big on platformers back then. Anyways, that's all I've got for now.
I can no longer keep up with all the work. I'm never getting enough sleep these days, and when I do get t it's filled with horrible nightmares that make it impossible to relax. I'm behind in basically all my classes. I have no idea what's going on anymore. Anyways, enough about me. The games industry is seeing some interesting advancements, notably a new Mario game got releases that I somehow didn't hear about. Another Nintendo direct is coming out son, as well as another Smash Ultimate dlc announcement. I'm excited to see who it is, although I'm really hoping it's a character I actually care about and not another Fire Emblem character. Basically, Nintendo's on fire right now. Sony and Microsoft are still kind of meandering, nothing super amazing has come out right now. I think this is quite the bumbled launch for both of them. In DDA news, I have no idea what's going on. I must've missed something, because mapping isn't clicking for me at all. It should be so easy, but I'm still missing stuff! What the heck? Well, no point in complaining about it, I just have to get it done. I just wish I could have a break.
I missed my earlier blog post. Dang it. And at a time when I could really use a grade boost too. Hopefully these quizzes will be enough to boost them though. Anyways, with 2020 behind us many journalists are reviewing the top games of 2020, and I am seeing some interesting results to be sure. Usually there's at least one overlapping game that every journalist puts somewhere on their list that I use as a sort of baseline. But this time, it seems that people just can't agree. The Last of Us 2 was incredibly controversial, either ending up in people's best or worst list but never the same. Hades, although largely successful and very popular, seems quite forgotten by most people. Spirit Farer, a game that had huge build up and was even at the top of one list, was almost completely ignored by the public. This year truly divided us all. Anyways, 3Ds Max work has been a pain with my corrupted copy and whatnot, but it's not necessarily hard. I could probably get through most of this stuff with relatively good grades (here's hoping). A lot of stuff is happening in my life, but this isn't really the place to talk about it. I thought modifiers would be the absolute worst to deal with, especially since I couldn't even access them for most of my time, but they're actually pretty easy. Takes me back when I used to make incredibly bad scratch games. Well, I pray 2021 will at least be tolerable. Two of my favorite games are getting sequels (Hitman and Darkest Dungeon). Please please please let them be good.
Well I won't say it's been easy, but at least nothing's been late. My work sort of took a decrease in quality for a second there but I think it's back to being acceptable. I can not say the same for my other classes, though. Everything was going fine until all of a sudden I get a huge influx in work from nowhere. But I turned most of it in, save for one history project I'm dreading. The game industry is on fire as of late. With the upcoming release of the Xbox series X and the PS5, there's a lot to be excited about. As per usual, Microsoft is majorly screwing everything up and the numbers show an incredibly low interest in the new Xbox. It's no wonder why: what are these exclusives? They're awful. Make fun of Bugsnax all you want, but at least they have the new Spiderman, the Demons Souls remake, The Pathless, and a new Ratchet and Clank. What does Xbox have? A bunch of sequels to decaying mainstream titles. That's it. Who's going to buy from a notoriously unfaithful company who can barely produce their own games anymore? They are going to become the new Sega. But it's still pretty hype to see all these new games coming out. Although not exactly the most popular, I always look forward to Arkane's titles. I'm ultra hyped for Darkest Dungeon 2, although I'm nowhere close to completing the original. Spelunky 2 has come out to mainstream success yet again (why they didn't do this earlier is beyond me). Resident Evil 8 is in production, and I'm certainly worried. When it comes to Capcom, they either smash it out of the park or make an unplayable mess. Having played Resident Evil 7 and it's DLC recently, I truly believe they can do an excellent job with the same team, it will just require a lot of resources.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually having fun in 3Ds Max. I think it comes down to the creative license we've been given. When I can make something that actually lets me do what I want instead of having to follow a template. I hate having to follow exact instructions in 3Ds Max because I can never get it to look exactly like the given product. And now that I can competently make some 3D models I can actually have fun. It also helps that I can actually use 3Ds Max now. It took forever to even get competent at these complete basics. I still can't imagine making a competent game with them though. Physics engines sound like a nightmare. This year is starting to look up. The gaming industry has gone quiet. Amazon's latest game sounds incredibly ambitious. An MMO as not only your first big project, but the project that's going to put you on the board? I'm highly skeptical, but if anyone has the money to do it, it's amazon. Cyberpunk is finally coming out, and my dad is explicitly against the project. He's very sheltered when it comes to gaming and, as usual, I think he's being too harsh. But I'm also a little doubtful. They promised a lot for this game, can they live up tot the expectations?
Now we're getting to the meat and potatoes of this class; 3D modeling. As you know, 3D modeling is not my forte, and my first project was not the best. The good news is that I've gotten 3Ds Max working again. The bad news is that is there's a definite feeling of dread I'm experiencing. I'm having a real problem with procrastination, which is weird because at school DDA is my most productive class. I need to just buckle down and get this stuff done in the first couple of days, just like the good old days. I can't believe I'm missing being in a classroom, and the class that was the easiest to port over no less. Although, to be fair, this blog has always been the one thing that I can't keep up with. I just always forget about it you know? And the dumbest part is that I know you're not reading this fully, Mr. B. I bet at most you just sorta skim these. Of course, I could be wrong, which would make the previous two sentences completely wrong. Whoops. At least I can write whatever I want as long as its related to the class. I'm getting sick and tired of some of these incompetent teachers, man. Another thing I can't believe: I hate ELA now. It used to be my favorite class, but this new guy sucks. He clogs up my announcements with useless information, his classes are boring, he's inflexible, he can't grade worth a dang, and to top it all off his canvas page is set up in a completely ridiculous and in-navigable way.
Over the past few weeks I've been using Sketchup to create 3D models. I've used Sketchup a few times before so I was somewhat familiar with the program. I liked experimenting with the software and seeing what I could make out of the basic shapes I was given. Sketchup is much easier to use than Studio, although somewhat limiting when it come's to creative ability. I think my best creation is a standard crate. It looks professional and convincing.
I started with a simple box and tried to think of a way to turn it into something interesting. Then I realized that the most commonly used video game object were crates. I started working; first I made multiple vertical rectangles on each surface except the bottom. Then I put rectangles around the borders and pulled them out slightly. Afterwords I put a diagonal rectangle lengthwise stopping at the borders and pulled that out as well. Then all that was left was rendering. I decided to use a lighter, almost orange color on the inside rectangles while the pulled out rectangles would be darker. During this assignment I quickly learned that copy-pasting the side and moving it onto the other surfaces wasn't going to work very well due to Sketchup's finicky movement. Whenever I placed my design onto another surface it would clip through most of the time and ruin the design. So instead I made sure to check the measurements of the boards and make them exactly like the first side. I also learned that the 3D models would have to be grouped since its very easy to accidentally move only one part of the entire creation and cause serious distortion.
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Cole ThomasInto video games and the likes. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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