DMUGA Assignment #1 - History of Video Games 1850's to 1970's

The history of video games... This topic is far too large to cover in detail. Therefore, this blog will just share my thoughts on some topics, hopefully picking bits out of the timeline that I feel are significant enough to mention; I'll see where it takes me!

The difference Engine

Firstly, I'd like to share my very quick overall thoughts on the presentation of the history of video games by Mr Powell. A big part of the presentation involved the "Difference Engine" and how it is an automatic mechanical calculator for tabulating polynomial functions. Alas, I've never heard of this amazing wonder and mechanical genius! Everything on it works in harmony; I was in awe of how precisely it functioned - to say that I found it astonishing is an understatement. This was not a game, but a mechanical computer, so it was a step towards automated programs.

In addition, I think it was the "Jacquard Loom"? Which was the first loom to run automatically using a pre-written program using punched card (1801). I found this particularly interesting due to the ingenuity of it.
Furthermore, I knew that technology had gotten much smaller in a short period of time, but it was intriguing to see that we've gone from taking up entire rooms for one computer, to filling entire rooms with hundreds of computers, all within 1 century. Another interesting point to note was the vast range of products created by Xerox; including the Xerox Ethernet, and the 'ergonomically designed' mouse... (I say that sarcastically of course). Michael then went on to show us the very first first person shooter called "Maze War", released in 1973. This was developed by 'Steve Colley', and it was first played on the "Xerox Star"; being the first multiplayer game due to the creation of the Ethernet. To some it up quickly, I loved to hear a swift run-through about the development of games in technology, and I felt proud to potentially be part of the next generation to create video games.

Schematic - Cathode-Ray Amusement Device

Starting with the very first patent for a video game in 1948, the "Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device", which was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr & Estle Ray Mann. Thomas was very interested in the electronic radar systems they used for WWII, and thought it would be a good idea combine the cathode-ray tube with it to create a 'sort of' computer game, where the player can interact and control what is happening on-screen. However, this was never released to the public as an actual game, as it just wasn't commercially viable. - Ref 5.

A.S. Douglas & "OXO" Game

A company named 'Loral'; In 1949, developed and manufactured complex military airborne electronics, instructed a young engineer 'Ralph Baer', to "build the best TV set in the world". So, Ralph, had the idea of including some sort an interactive game with it and advised them to do so, therefore, it would be a unique selling point and distinguish themselves from other TV sets. - Ref 4. Unfortunately, the management discarded that idea, thus, for now there still was no commercially available video game. Ralph's vision of a video game in homes became a reality a little further on in the timeline, 18 months after this. By this time, Claude Shannon created the foundation for computer controlled chess. Then, in 1952 Alexander Shafto Douglas, a British professor of computer science, created the first ever graphical computer game called "OXO". - Ref 5.This was Tic-Tac-Toe, and even though you can play this with just a piece of paper & a pen, this advancement was another step towards the entertainment we have today.

1954-1957 included: The first blackjack program, crated on an IBM-701 computer, "Hutspiel" was designed by the US military whereby blue and red players (Soviet and NATO commanders) battle it out, Arthur Samuel shows off his checkers program on national TV, and Alex Bernstein scripts the first chess program on an IBM-704 computer, capable of evaluating four half-moves ahead. However, none of these released to the public as actual games. In addition, David Rosen, former US Korean war veteran notices the rise in interest of mechanical coin-operated games on US military bases in Japan, and went on to start "Service Games" to export them to Japan. It wasn't until the 1960's that he made his own coin-operated games and adopted the name "SEGA", derived from the original "SErvice GAmes". - Ref 5.

Tennis For Two

Slowly but surely, 1958 crept up, and this was the year that would impact the greatest and influence more people than ever to be a part of this new technology. Willy Higinbotham Invented the "Tennis for Two" game, played on an oscilloscope, in order to keep visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratories in New York entertained. This was improved a year later with a bigger, 15-inch screen, although, this was not actually patented as he didn't think he invented something. 1959 involved students at MIT creating "Mouse in the Maze" on a TX-0 computer. The player draws a maze using a light pen, and the mouse goes through it looking for cheese.

Space War

It wasn't until the 1960's that games became more graphically advanced than this. 1962 was groundbreaking, MIT student "Steve Russel", designed a game called "Space War" which was the first interactive computer game, created on a Digital Programmed Data Processor-1 minicomputer. This was amazing because you could have two space ships on a starry backdrop, fighting it out in an environment with varying gravity, which affected how the player would have maneuver the ship. Recreations of this game included "Asteroids" & "Galaxy Wars". - Ref 4.

"The Brown Box" Sketch

The words of John Kemeny from "Everyone is a programmer" - 1964. Himself and Thomas Kurtz created the computer time-share system and BASIC programming language at Dartmouth college. This was an amazing leap forward because it meant that now, anyone who learnt it could program games, and they did; a large number of games were now being spawned into the world of computers through many creative minds. Right after Dartmouth beats Princeton 28-14 in American football, a student from the college programs the first football game. 1966 was the year that Ralph Baer pops up again, this time with designs for his vision of playing a video game on a television set, he drew concepts on September 1st, which became the foundation of his development in TV video games - This one became patented.

More than a decade later from his initial idea, Ralph Baer invents the first video game console that works on a television set - "The Brown Box". The game that was played on it was called "Chase" and it consisted of two squares controlled by two players, chasing each other on the screen. Ralph and his team then add a light gun, and developed a total of 12 games for the 'Brown Box'. This was patented 1 year later in 1968. Baer & his team showed their work to a company called "Magnavox", who then released "Odyssey"; the first economically viable console in 1972. However, many dealerships failed to see its potential and turned it down, plus, a rumor spread that it only worked on Magnavox TV's, damaging potential sales.

Tele-Games - Pong

Furthermore, Nolan Bushnell tried out Odyssey, and informed Dave Nutting that he found it uninteresting in comparison to "computer space" (His version of space wars). However, this is did not sell well at all because of its complexity for the user to play. Bushnell idealised that if a simpler game was made, they could be on for a winner. When Bushnell doesn't get the third of "Nutting Associates" he asks for, he leaves the company to start anew with Ted Dabney, called "Syzygy" - Later to be renamed "Atari". I few years on, the game that everyone knows "Pong", was released to the public for home use on their consoles in 1975. - Ref 1. It was so simple and easy to play, that it soon became a household name, and was a massive hit.

space invaders - Atari 2600

A couple of years later in 1977, Atari then went on to release the "Atari 2600", which included many more things i.e. Joystick, interchangeable cartridges, difficulty setting changes, and coloured graphics! This went on to play host to games such as "Space Invaders", "Breakout", and "Missile Command". In fact, in 1978, there were approximately 60,000 Space Invaders arcade machines flooding the US; It was so popular in Japan, there were 100-yen coin chortages! Finally, in 1979, Atari also develops the "Cosmos" - A handheld machine which has holograms within the graphics. - Ref 3. Although, this was never released as they didn't add to the gameplay, it was just for cosmetic reasons.

A little extra thought I'd like to explore are the factors that drive the technology to advance and become better. Before all of the video games we've come to know and love, people lived their lives without the entertainment we have access to now. We as human beings don't need computer games, and consoles etc, however, ever since the popular games hit the market (i.e. Pong, Space Invaders, Tennis for Two), the demand for these types of games has risen massively. As always, as demand rises, development rises, and over the years, they have become such a big part of our lives, we almost need it in order to get away from daily stressors in life. As a side note, a big factor driving the technology is money, everything is about making money, making the next best selling thing to generate profits. However, you can't make the next best seller is it doesn't improve on what has already been done, or is something original...

As computers became more apparent for almost everything, it is only in our nature to improve on it and make it better & faster. The better the computers, the more popular, the more people could contribute to development. "A true creator is necessity, which is the mother of invention" - Ref 6 The republic, book II, 369c, Plato. People started to rely heavily on computers, and so we need them to be reliable, efficient, and fast. This lead to a huge improvement in the physical technology; chips, circuit boards, resistors have all gotten smaller and more efficient. In addition, the constant need to improve on what has been done before, inspires others to do better - Thus, driving improvements not only on graphics, gameplay, storyline etc, but the power of the electronic components we're using. These kind of changes are only going to continue, and it's happening faster than ever, who knows what the games we play in 20 years time will be like? Would it make today's graphics look like Space Invaders?

Thank-you for following along up until this point, I will continue the timeline at a later date :)

References:
1-http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2029221,00.html
2-http://www.make-video-games.com/make-video-games-articles/a-brief-history-of-video-games.htm
3-http://www.icheg.org/icheg-game-history/timeline/
4-http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm
5-Leonard Herman, Jer Horwitz, Steve Kent, Skyler Miller. (2002). The history of video games.
6-The republic, book II, 369c, Plato.
Image Ref:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/186w2tvup4yuupng/original.png
http://iasl.uni-muenchen.de/links/GCA_ill193.png
http://www.gamerobs.com/geekames/fichiers/2010/7/6/1278426382.jpg
http://www.bnl.gov/coreImages/D2231008_TENNIS4TWO-300px.jpg
http://img.bhs4.com/C0/1/C01F477814B746ACA2C015152DA1DD82F9920A95_large.jpg
http://www.ralphbaer.com/video_game_history.htm
http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2010/post-17711-127736023296.jpg
http://nodebox.net/node/documentation/concepts/subnetworks-space-invaders.png

DMUGA Week 4 - Bradgate Park + More work! ^_^

So here we are, 1 month into the course and I'm just about keeping up - the reason I say 'just about' is due to pulling a few late nights to get the work done... Would recommend it short term, but definitely not a sustainable timetable.

I was pretty excited to go to Bradgate because I've seen some images beforehand and it looked fantastic! The weather didn't look to be great, nevertheless, we all turned up in the rain and soldiered on. Despite the bad conditions, the scenery was amazing, you could literally look anywhere and draw that as a final piece (If you could even get your sketchbook out without getting wet). Aside from the scenery, I found Chris's words about the history of the park really interesting; the fact that sticks in my head is about the memorial being in the shape of a tankard, due to his drinking; not sure why, but it does. In addition, Chris also put things into perspective a little bit more for me, his point about us only being here for a few weeks and improving rapidly, showed me that maybe I can do this?
Anyway, after a small talk, we decided to head up to the memorial because the view would be absolutely amazing... it was; if only we'd came on a better day. I sat down with my umbrella at the top and attempted my first ever thumbnail sketch of a landscape, and in my opinion it wasn't very good at all. One thing I've learnt from this course is that your first few attempts are most likely going to be bad, so I just carried on. I only managed to get a couple of sketches done at the top before it started to pour down, and it didn't really stop too long to get any more done that day, however, I did manage to find a good spot and map out what I wanted to do for my final this week. I went again on Thursday so the weather was a little bit better, got some more sketches done and was surprised at how hard it is to render trees! To this point, I'm still not very good at drawing trees & leaves, only slightly better than when I started. Overall, I think the visual design this week went ok, it could have been better, and I only hope to improve on drawing foliage.

Tuesday's Game Production went well, in the morning I managed to quickly get my alpha channels sorted (was having quite a few problems with it not showing/the Ps files weren't 100% correct etc). I think my wheelie bin turned out really well! Considering that a week ago, I thought I wouldn't be able to do it and was going to fail because it seems I just suck at everything on this course. So, in the end, I was very proud I'd done it to a reasonable standard. However, the next project Steve issued us with scares me far more (I'm sure they're making me fear for my life every single week). The architectural project is going to be a hard one in particular, getting all of the textures for whatever building we pick will be a challenge, especially to get some to a decent standard. It's quite hard for me to pick a building and go with it because I'm really picky, I don't want it: Too challenging that I won't do it in time, too big for the budget, too hard to access all the textures, too modern so that it's boring... ugghh! I'll have to pick one eventually, but I can't leave it too late.

The critical studies seminar this time was replaced with a library session in which we had a tutorial on how to properly use the available resources that we have access to. This was really helpful since we have to do a blog about the history of video games, and I have no idea where to even begin!
After this session, the Guru's and Grasshopper's brief this week is to create 20 silhouettes of potential weapons for out zombie apocalypse scenario, plus, 5 completed drawing of the ones we've chosen to carry forward. Now, don't get me wrong I'd love to do this without a doubt, but the work we already have will make it a challenge to get it done on time!

In conclusion, a pretty good week in terms of my mental attitude, although, the work is piling on fast and I just hope I can keep up with it all

DMUGA Week 3 - Hoping I will improve :)

Wow, what a first 2 weeks eh? I'm now into my 3rd week battling through and trying to stay alive.

Visual Design this week actually went well for once, it was raining heavily so we couldn't go outside, so we went inside the Queen's building instead. Moving onto 2 point perspective, getting a good view indoors for 2 point perspective was hard at first, but we settled in a spot and just went for it. I wanted to get the general idea of how to draw in 2 point from real life first, so I did a few construction lines and went from there. My first sketch turned out kind of alright, the idea was there and I could see how the perspective worked. To do a final piece in 2 point of inside the Queen's building would take forever, so I'm glad we don't have to do that. Having done 1 sketch, Jack recommended drawing looking up, and one looking down, so we went directly up to the next level so we had the same view as before, but higher up - the horizon line was lowered for this one and it too turned out ok. First time leaving this class and feeling good about myself.
There was no live model for life drawing this time, so we went round taking turns being the model, doing quick sketches standing, and seated on the sofa. What I found difficult about this was trying to draw the figures but in clothes this time; surprisingly hard. However, I liked the way my silhouettes turned out - what I thought would not be very good at all, actually ended up being my most favourite part of the lesson!

Game production was rather interesting as it always is, still having difficulties with the texturing of the bin. I'd mapped the bin lid in such a way that the corners joined up all the way around, just like a net. However, I still don't know what the correct way to do it is, but when I did this and tried to relax the net, things kept on going crazy and I couldn't find a solution. Thus, I did what is best in this situation... do it again. So I unwrapped it/broke up the net completely and started again, this time without joining the corners together. Success! It worked, now I could relax it properly and have the chequered map all in its correct proportions. Satisfied with this, time for Photoshop (of which I only know basics). It took me a while but I finally blended the main body of the bin together so it looked seamless, and not like the front & side views just pasted onto the model.

I thoroughly enjoyed the seminar where we got to discuss our favourite game and why these games are as likable as they are. According to our brainstorms, the highest occurring game was Skyrim, coming up in 5 different groups; I mean, how can anyone dislike Skyrim!? One the most fascinating things I found whilst playing the game is how well-done all of the textures are. I would stand in random places just to enjoy the scenery, not even to play the game through the story line; just wonder around and admire the work of the artists that created such an engaging world. Another very popular game series by Rockstar Games which has had many successes and recently released the most profiting game of all time: Grand Theft Auto 5. Despite not having played this game for longer than 20mins round a friend's house, I'm amazed at how detailed everything is, from the actions & activities you can carry out, to the physical moving world that you have an all-access pass to - It is incredible. To think that not that many years ago, our generation were playing on the old Nintendo 64's, Sega's Dreamcast, Gameboy's etc, that compared to today's entertainment, were very limited in what you could experience.
In the 'Gurus & Grasshoppers' meeting last week, the 3rd years were very helpful in explaining some things in 3ds Max, and reassured me that thing's aren't that bad - which is always good to know. Also, we decided on zombie apocalypse weapons as our project which should be a blast! So, at the moment, we just have to make a little mood board of weapons for some ideas. Hopefully, it'll turn out good!

Overall, a good week of lessons, and I want to get into the swing of things more, so hopefully that'll happen.

DMUGA Week 2 - Are things getting better? Not really!

Another week, another chance to get back on track and do what I came here to do... Succeed! Little did I know what this week would hold for me, but I can tell you now, it was a barrage of tough decisions with my mind all over the place! - This one's going to be a long one!

Between last Wednesday and this Monday, I managed to get the Dalek done, get the materials & homework for Life drawing, and do a final outcome of the bridge that I would be happy to hand in (This took me 12-13 hours though!!!...(Shh, I'm a slow at drawing).
Back into visual design, dreading what we will have to do next, I walked in rather apprehensive. Chris talked about how we got on with the bridge and saying that things are good etc. Down to business though, me sitting down rather nervously, feeling like at some point I will need to say I've struggled to get the outcome finished by today as I have spent so long on it that I haven't even had time for much else. Then he comes out and says "So, has everyone done the 12 sketches and final outcome then?", 95% of people are like "yeah totally", there's me going "12?!??!!" I've done one and it's taken me all my free time! Little did I know, the 12 sketches are only thumbnail sketches that are used to get the composition, not full out detailed drawings. At this point I was hyperventilating in my head thinking "I'm.Screwed." - I need to catch up and fast.

Moving on, I found out they had to be thumbnails when he explained about the archway and how we need to use these sketches to get the perspective right - this time it is harder because we are unable to see the vanishing point + the road curves round to the side, so it is trickier to get it right. Down to the archway we went and cracked on with 3 thumbnail sketches, they sucked and it took me a long time, but I'd done more than of the bridge.
Into life drawing class, we all brought a long with us pictures of a pose from pre 1950 that we liked and shared with everyone what it was we liked, this was mainly to get us to learn each other's names better. The drawing boards hadn't arrived as they should have, so once again we did a few quick poses and a longer 20-30min pose at the end. Mine still looked terrible, a few were ok, but mainly shocking. I still have no idea why in 8mins, mine look like outlines and no tone at all, but others look like finished pieces like it's taken them 30mins! It baffles me, and I hope that in the future I too will learn how to be better & faster.

Visual design again, 6 hours at the computer, struggling to get through the lesson this time without thinking "I can't do this...". Steve (Our teacher for VD), went through a couple of tutorials on UVW unwrapping and how to do it, in order to prepare us for the next project due in 2 weeks: The wheelie bin. This time we have to model & texture it, both from reference photos we've taken ourselves. As you can imagine, there's nothing strange about finding a random bin in the street and giving it the paparazzi treatment. Anyway, stupidly enough I wanted to get it done asap so I started modelling it right away - without properly re-sizing my reference images in photoshop first. It didn't turn out too bad, but the top view just wouldn't look right because the reference image wasn't correctly adjusted to fit the side & front view. Although, I wan't to get at least one done this week and then texture it next week so I can have time to catch up on those 12 thumbnails for visual design. The afternoon, I practiced texturing on a phonebox, but for the first hour & a half, Steve didn't show up, so we were all unaware of the extra tutorial that wasn't on blackboard... *Sigh*. I left feeling both good, but unprepared to finish the project.
One comment I'd like to make is that they claim a thumbnail takes 10mins... I can't do that in 10mins, if I did, it'd look like a child's drawing, so before anyone thinks "Ohh you don't need that long to catch up"... Yes. I do. Not to mention the hours I now have to do the remaining 9 + final for the archway by Monday.

The gurus and grasshopper's first session on Wednesday was really helpful, only 5 people in our group showed up so it was nice to finally get some direct help with my current mindset of "I'm not good enough, I need to change course or drop out". Jimmy M explained that some people haven't been the best at drawing, but have gone on to work at amazing places, raising my hope up a little bit. He also showed me a couple of tricks in 3ds Max which was really nice too. Our 1st project is on a zombie apocalyptic axe of some kind, which sounds pretty cool, I just don't know if I'll find the time to get it done.

Mentally at this point though, I was still extremely unstable, the course transfer deadline was creeping up on the Friday and I had to think fast as to what to do next. After quite a lot of phone calls again to my dad, we agreed it'd be best to arrange a meeting with my tutor and lay all of my options out of the table: a) Get info on other courses and perhaps transfer. b) Stick it out till Christmas and see how much I improve. c) Drop out now before the first quarter of the fee is payed and find something else. There are extreme consequences for dropping out, and I've already paid for 1 year accommodation, and I doubt they'll stop the payment of the fees in time. I arranged to meet & discuss what I should do, Chris was extremely helpful and helped me decide what to do next. Between now and Friday, I met with 3 course leaders: Product Design, Animation & Graphics. I'll spare you the details, but I decided that Game Art was clearly the best choice for me. I'm not sure how it'll turn out, but I have until Christmas to develop & improve to an acceptable standard.

Critical Studies this time got moved to Friday. The morning lecture consisted of a fire alarm, and more information about what to include in our blogs, with an example of someone's previous blog and how they laid it out. The seminar was very similar where we discussed why we are on this course in a group, but I had to leave for one of those meetings I had arranged with a course tutor, so the rest I cannot comment on.
Finally, I'd like to say I will be posting my work up at some point, but I haven't scanned anything yet (because I don't know how to!...)

DMUGA Week 1 - Overwhelmed much?! :S

Aahhhh! Well, I have to admit I've been excited to start this course since the results came in; everything was well. I knew I would be starting at a disadvantage not having drawn a lot in the past so it would be a challenge and a hard one at that. Nevertheless, the excitement was high and I couldn't wait to get stuck in!

The first day involved visual design with Chris W & Jack G, starting with a small presentation about how the course is going to pan out for visual design. Whilst Chris was flicking through some of the previous 1st years'absolutely outstanding work that I could only dream of producing, I remember thinking "What have I got myself in for!?" However, when he asked with a slight smirk: "So, put your hand up if you think you're going to produce this kind of work right now." I did what I thought most people did... Put my hand up whilst simultaneously saying in my head "There's no way".
Moving onto the task, we had to produce some sketches (then a final outcome) of the pretty cool-looking bridge just outside Bede Island, focusing on 1 point perspective. This is basics. I struggled. For whatever reason, I've never sat down outside and just tried to draw; getting everything to be in perspective was actually difficult for me. In retrospective, starting to go all out final piece A3 wasn't the best idea, I hadn't planned anything, so some parts looked alright, others just... dodgy. I left that lesson feeling pretty bad and thinking "This will be embarrassing." Although, I had life drawing to try and redeem myself! No. It was hot, I couldn't concentrate and my sketches looked worse the everyone's. - Pretty bad first day in my opinion.

Day 2 consisted of visual production, yaayy!! First time ever using 3ds Max and I couldn't wait to get stuck into the software. We got taught the bare basics for creating shapes and selecting faces to alter etc and it was a good 3 hour session. After successfully completing the rather blocky church, I was happy considering it's something I've never used before. However, the second session came along with the 1st project... The Dalek, at first I thought "Hmm, really shouldn't be that bad, most of the shapes are straight forward." However, after spending 2 hours just on getting the base to look right, it dawned on me that it certainly wouldn't be so smooth. It did get completed within the next 2 days after the project was set, but it was most definitely time consuming, and in order to keep under the tri limit I had to cut out a few blocks around the neck area - At least it was done! For a first piece... Not bad!

Wednesday was critical studies with Michael P, he gave us all a very interesting (yet scary) introduction to the course & what we will be doing for the next 3 years. The seminar was very useful as it broke it down even further, letting us know more about times & dates etc (from what I remember, I could be mixing it up with another seminar though!).

Anyway, that concludes first first week of actual lessons. At this point I am feeling so overwhelmed as to what they expect of me, that I do admit to a couple of phone calls to my dad saying how I don't think I'm good enough; my artwork is totally not up to standard with everyone else, or to what is demanded. I am wishing that by week 2, I would have got to grips with things a bit better...

Introductory Blog! :D

M.E, writing a blog?? (Hah, my initials... M.E, oh nevermind) Didn't think I'd see the day, nevertheless, you always have to start somewhere. So here it goes! :)

My 'somewhere', is studying on probably the best Games Art Design course that is available! Is it something I've always wanted to do? Well to be honest, I didn't know such a place existed before the second year of my sixth form but I have always been interested in 3D models, CAD and drawing (Not the best at drawing, but we'll get to that in a bit). I chose art as one of my subjects at gcse and thoroughly enjoyed producing outcomes and getting positive feedback... however, I well and truly knew that for A-levels, It would be a push to do Art, Product Design, Chemistry, Physics and extended project, so instead I chose psychology due to my interest in how & why people behave & act the way they do (Oh how I regret not picking art!!).

In terms of the 3D side of things, for my work experience way back in secondary school, I had a 2 week placement working at the NISSAN Technical Centre Europe in Cranfield. I worked with a member of the CAD department - his name was Toshi, and researched materials+costs of them to produce a toolbox for the engine bay of their latest creation the "Cash Qui" in their own exclusive CAD software! To my amazement they allowed me to 3D print it and keep for myself!! So ever since then, I have been fascinated with making things in 3D and appreciating the time & effort that goes into making things using the computer.

From this, I chose to do extended project because I loved having the freedom of picking any subject that interests oneself and going on to look further into it. Thus, I chose "Digital Art". This was the perfect opportunity to obtain and create things using the computer and turn them into what can be considered 'Art'. People seemed to love them so much, they asked me to make them their own personalised backgrounds and I loved doing it, despite spending hours on end at the computer screen trying to make something which to me looked great aesthetically.

When it came to the big decision of what to study at university, I looked around for courses which focused on creating wonderful 3D work; out came De Montfort University & Games Art Design! It combined 3D, art and games, I mean, what could possibly be better?! I went to the open days and said to my Dad "I can definitely see myself here in the future". Alas, the interviews are a whole 'nother story... It became clear to me that traditional art skills are essential in succeeding in this as a career, so off I went to attempt drawing still life/even taking a life drawing class during my studies but was still certain I wasn't not good enough for the course - Seeing that acceptance E-mail made me the happiest I'd been in a while, but it dawned on me again "Should I really be doing this if I'm not any good"... I'll discuss my current progress in the next blog, but to give you an idea - Stress, stress & more... STRESS.

So what do I do in my spare time? Well currently, WHAT SPARE TIME?? Seriously though, my number one thing that I love to do... Spending time with close friends & family, cherishing all the time I am with them and enjoying their company. Generally though, I'm pretty much like most guys i.e. hangs out with mates/goes out to various activities, plays video games, enjoys sports etc... The usual. Music-wise, I have a small drum kit at home and play every now and again  - listen to mainly rock/metal/nu-metal. A few examples of bands/artists I find enjoyable to listen to are: Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin, Disturbed, 30 Seconds to Mars, Rise Against, Skillet, The Prodigy, Pendulum, Trivium, System of a Down, but my favourite band hands down is Linkin Park. Favourite cartoons: The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, American Dad and finally, good ol' South Park!

In order to not make this too long, I shall stop here and save my first experiences so far at De Montfort University for another blog.