Tag Archives: Game Art & Animation

Train2Game News: Matty Wyett-Simmonds – Week 45

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Week 45! Weeks are getting faster and faster I think. I’ve had a pretty awesome weekend as it was my birthday. I went out in Southampton for the night and hung out with some friends and my girlfriend flew down from Leeds as well which was cool! One of my birthday presents is a trip to Sea Life centre! Since I was only little I’ve always liked sharks, they’re awesome! Also it’s shark week there so bonus!

PlanetSide2 has been awesome too, Craig got a beta key as well now so we’ve been attempting to play it at the same time but Craig has a crappy computer at home and the servers are down every day during lunch time at work so I’ve still been playing on my own. If anyone actually has the beta come join in!

Not too much to say about work yet, sorry! It’s been the same as always, tight deadlines and what not. I had two late nights (10pm ish) and got my work done pretty quickly so that I could go home early on Friday to get home to Southampton. The release date for the current project is set and it’s very soon so you’ll all get your hands on it soon if you have a smart device of some sort. It’s a very tight deadline and we are probably going to be working nonstop to get everything done on time!

We have a new person coming to work for us soon that used to be here before, I think he’s jumping right in to this project asap which will be good! This project will be a bit bigger than My Sea Park hopefully, as it will be for a wider audience and a wider range of devices.

So yea, more late nights, more takeaway food and less sleep for me over the next month or so I think.

Til 46!

MattyWS

Train2Game News: Ezekiel Morris student diary – Week 18

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So what have I been doing this week? Well I’ve finished animating characters and now I’m going back to doing vector art again. The project manager wanted me and Amanda to change our roles, my task for this week was animating characters and Amanda’s task was to create character costumes in vector art, so we mixed up, she does one animation and I do one character costume.

Matty and I were helping Amanda to use the tools in Maya so hopefully she will pick it up, I will be there to guide her if she needs any help.

I was knackered working late on Wednesday and also Thursday but the end result is that all the animation for this week is completed and now I’m starting to create one costume for the character.

I know there’s a tight deadline coming soon but I feel confident that all my sprints will be done before the deadline hits. I’m glad that I’m getting my work done and I’m learning a lot since working at DR Studios.

Train2Game News: Craig Moore student diary – week 47

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We now have a date for when this next title is due to be available, and we have a lot of work that needs doing. I’m not going to let it slip yet, but it’s still coming on in leaps and bounds edging closer and closer to a releasable game.

Due to the nature of the title release will be a minor milestone. We are looking to further support it after release and add content, modifications and updates as we go.

I keep saying it but work is still incredibly busy, I would never lie to anyone and say this job is easy because it simply isn’t. There is no slacking, no twiddling of thumbs, if work isn’t done it is your fault and everyone is responsible for their own work and workload. It’s great as long as everyone knows this, thankfully everyone here does and it seems to flow pretty well.

Next week we have more work to do, polishing, fixing, tweaking, updating, and balancing. All the fun of the fair!

Craig

Train2Game News: Amanda Blatch Student Diary – Week 4

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This week has been a productive week once more, creating five characters and a single animated sequence for one character in it’s home environment as given to me by our project lead as he wanted to see me and another colleague try something different to see how easily we adapted to different roles.

It was a tough start on the animation of the characters as I had never animated in Maya before and barely scratched the surface with animating in 3Ds Max. I  was fortunate however that I have had a lot of experience in animating traditionally and in film-software packages so it was very easy to pick up once I learnt the processes.

With the combined efforts of Eze, Matty and good old online tutorials I managed to grasp the basics of it overnight and was about to complete my animation by the end of the next day. Overall not a bad turnaround methinks! Also… two more awesome characters coming into the game that I am pretty happy with and hopefully you guys will be too! Anyways.. back to work with me.

Train2Game News: Kickstarter rides in to the UK

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The popular business model, Kickstarter is coming to the United Kingdom on October 31.

Kickstarter is the service that allows developers to show their plans and ideas to the public and, if it is liked, people can donate money to the development of the project. It lets consumers decide what gets created.

Kickstarter has announced that it will be opening to projects in the UK on October 31, 2012. Users can begin building their projects today.

The Kickstarter team said “We thought the three-week gap would give everyone plenty of time to build and tweak their projects before launching. Beginning October 31, they can launch and share their projects with the world.”

Kickstarter really flexed its muscles in February earlier this year with Tim Schafer’s Double Fine. Their latest project earned record breaking funding. It has seen many high profile developers creating new interesting projects, which some publishers may not of allowed them to do.

UK campaign amounts will be listed in pounds sterling but international parties that attribute will see their donations in the approximate equivalent of dollars.

Other localised changes see UK backers not being redirected to Amazon for payment, international shipping has been streamlined, and new options are available to campaign organisers to alter reward tiers for international backers.

Train2Game News: Games industry jobs – 10.5.12

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This is going to be another regular blog where I post up the latest jobs from around the games industry. Making it easier for you to find the jobs you want.

ART

CREATIVE ASSEMBLY are looking for an Animator. The job is based in Horsham.

Key responsibilities:

Full responsibility of producing high quality animation for in-game animations and cinematics as set by the animation lead.
Deliver work in the required time.
Make sure all work is implemented correctly, providing feedback to other members of the production team so all issues are driven to closure.
Reports to the Lead Animator

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Have an excellent understanding of animation principles – timing, weight and staging
Must be self-motivated, enthusiastic and a team player
Good knowledge of a 3D package (Motionbuilder, Maya, Max, XSI)
Good knowledge of human and animal anatomy
A strong passion and enthusiasm for animation and video games
Critical analysis and problem solving

You can find out more about the job HERE.

Futurlab is looking for a Junior Artist for their studio in Brighton. As Junior Artist you will be assisting the Lead Artist in the creation of both 2D and 3D game assets. You will be working closely with all other members of the team to ensure high standards of presentation are maintained across each project.

Requirements:

Exceptional 2D draftsmanship essential.
Strong ability in 3D modeling and texturing a plus.
Animation, lighting and rendering skills a plus.
General understanding of game design and development.
Ability to work both individually and in a small team.
Excellent communication skills with a friendly and positive demeanor.
Self motivating and diligent.

You must also be excited about working in the sci-fi genre!

You can find out more about the job HERE.

DEVELOPER

SEGA is looking for a junior developer for their studio in central London

Key Responsibilities:

Learn and help develop various areas of the game on handheld platforms
Work with Senior Developers and increase skill set
Help analyse existing projects and improve upon them.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Experience in C/C++
Comfortable with game design and implementation
Examples of own demos, with source code, very beneficial.

You can find out more about the job HERE.

Q & A

Creative Assembly are looking for a games tester. The job is based at their studio in Horsham. These fixed term contracts are for our established Total War team, testing our project currently in development

Requirements

Test games in development for software bugs

Enter bugs clearly and accurately into our bug database

Verify and recreate bugs as required

Report additional balancing, design and accessibility problems

Essentials

A clear understanding of QA process

A keen enthusiasm for gaming

Good communication and reporting skills

Driven and flexible approach

You can find out more about the job HERE.

Train2Game News: Game Jam on the Guinness World record site

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Train2Game’s World record Game Jam has a story on the Guinness World Record official website.

There are some great pictures from the weekend in the story.

You can read the story in the link below:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2012/10/games-development-students-lose-sleep-but-win-game-jam-record-45209/

Train2Game News: World Record Certificate

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We have been sent our Guiness  world record certificate! The certificate was awarded for most participants at a 48 hour Game Jam. Well done everyone once again! It is a huge achievement.

Train2Game News: Matty Wyett-Simmonds student diary: Week 43

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The weeks go by so fast I forget about writing these diaries!

As usual it’s been a busy week. We had a late night again to get some work done. If I haven’t mentioned already working in this industry is not easy, I can never slack otherwise I won’t finish my weeks work! I do enjoy it though so the amount of time I put into it doesn’t feel like much and it’s rather easy to overdo it sometimes.

Over the weekend I went to Leeds to see my girlfriend, who seems to be settling in well, the city is pretty fancy with lots of old buildings, it’s all pretty impressive. I also went to the museum there and saw a mummy! I had to take a coach up there (first time taking a coach anywhere) it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, didn’t sit next to anyone annoying. ^^

The project I’m working on at the moment is starting to look really awesome and it’s only a matter of time till everyone will get to see it! It will be my second commercial game which I think is pretty good going, I’ve sat through My Sea Park from the beginning to the end and now I’m doing the same with this one, however this time we have a lot of artists (4 and a half if you count Craig), but I’m still working just as hard! ‘Til next week!

MattyWS

Train2Game News: Ezekiel Morris student diary: Week 16

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This week has been excellent, so far, as I have finished all my sprints. I am now double checking that the animations are working in the game engine.

Last Friday I went back to my home town to see my family and friends, to catch up on stuff and it was great to see everyone. After meeting everyone I had a fat meal then I’m chilling down with the family watching The Big Bang Theory.

I went to Eurogamer Expo last Saturday and met up with some students and the tutors from Train2game. I took some good photo’s. I didn’t get to play all of the games on show as the queues were ridiculously long but the ones that I did play were Devil May Cry, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 6 and Doom 3 in 3D.

Monday Oct 1st I had a team meeting with Commando Kiwi, we were discussing schedules for the new project that we are working on. My sprint is to create three concepts, so I will be working my ass off 6 hours a week. I’m happy to be working on the project as I like to doing realistic characters so yep it’s time to get to work!