I must say, Unity seems at least ten times easier than 3Ds Max. Granted, it's not the software you'd want to use to exclusively create 3D models. The interface is much more user friendly and the ability to drag and drop items is satisfying and easy to do. I can definitely see how it could get complicated fast with all the potential properties you can assign to objects, but for now it seems fairly simple. What I really struggled with was the packages editor. It's nothing complex, but there's a lot to take in when you open/use it. I like the hierarchies window and how organized all the content is, I like how simple it is to edit a specific object with the inspector window. I have to say: I'm a bit worried that we were looking at specifically 3D stuff. No 2D game design at all. Anyways, the Unity Game Engine is pretty cool in my books, but I know this class is going to screw me over somehow.
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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 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.
What are these grades I keep missing related to my portfolio? Did I miss where these were introduced? The heck? Please tell me what is going on. Anyways, I'm really wondering how the Gamestop stock could affect video game purchase. It probably won't, but it's always interesting to see. The RE8 demo is out. I've chosen because I do not want to be spoiled. I tend to shy away from demos. Hitman 3 has come out and it's amazing. The fact that IOI has obtained a 007 game is quite interesting to me. I'm not sure it quite matches the feel of Hitman, but I do think they could pull it off. The real question is; will it in any way be related to Goldeneye? Because, of course, Goldeneye was one of the most successful games of its time, and it makes me wonder if they are attempting a remake. Then again, a remake was already and it sucked. Can you even remake a game twice? It has yet to be seen. On to the main topic of schoolwork. I greatly appreciate this semi break. Lord knows I hate 3D modeling. The only problem is that it requires artistic individuality, which I lack. I really hope my art conveys the feelings I was going for and doesn't come off as boring stereotypical nonsense (which sadly it is). The amount of personal problems just keep piling up over here. This is getting ridiculous.
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.
So we've got the basics of animation down, although I still have no idea how most of animate works and it seems very janky. This new idle animations project is very exciting for me. Finally we're doing something related to video games and its character based. But I have no idea what software I'm going to use. I still think that Illustrator isn't an effective arts tool (or I'm just bad at it), Animate is new grounds that I haven't fully mastered yet, and Photoshop is frame by frame. Not to mention the pens are still not quite registering with my brain. I think the problem is the pads, they're too big and don't fit anywhere on the desk. I don't even know if smaller pads exist though. Maybe digital art will never be my forte, or normal art for that matter. It feels like I'm getting worse at drawing rather than better.
Mr. B certainly set us up for this one. Our first animation project was the most annoying thing I've done all year. I can't imagine the people back in days of yore to put so much effort into something so unimpressive and bland. No offense to the classic Disney movies but they are the most basic, bland films. Watching Cinderalla nowadays is like putting on an hour of static. Luckily, this last project was much more engaging. I'm still looking forward to making something more advanced, but knowing this class, it's probably going to feel like less of a milestone and more like a curb stomp.
In game industry news I've been looking into uses of motivation in video games. That's probably not very interesting, but I think it's fascinating how incredibly bad the triple-A developers can screw up their new titles. Motivation is the only reason people play video games, so if you mess that up then you should probably quit your day job. One of the most notable uses of motivation is a nice little sound effect everytime you do something exceptional. A good example of this is getting a coin in Mario. A bad example of this is pretty much any game that uses a voice line instead. Even if you have multiple voice lines for things like this they are very likely to be repeated and players will absolutely hate it. I felt like my last month of school has been way too controlled. I finished everything so fast I thought for sure that I'd messed something up. But everything seemed to be fine. I had an entire week to chill. I worked on extra work and work from other classes but I still had plenty of time left over. I hate to jinx myself, but I think I've gotten the hang of this. I really disliked Adobe Illustrator when I started but it has a simplicity to it that I can't deny. Now that we're moving to animation, I'm pretty sure the struggle will resume in full force.
In the games industry, the hype for next year is boosted to an all time high while people have pretty much completely forgotten the games of this year. It makes me sad that the games that were so popular in the last couple years were uber simplistic and completely multiplayer, meaning that when they fade away they won't be playable anymore. This was the first year that a Star Wars video game came out and not only was it leagues better than the last two but people didn't care anyway. What a sad year in the games industry. |
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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