This summer I attended EIF (Edinburgh Interactive Festival). First of I would like to thank the city and people of Edinburgh for there hospitality, what a truly wonderful city it is. I could talk about how much I loved it all day but on with business side of things(Guns before butter as my dad would say). Edinburgh Interactive is a games conference where people gather to discuss the art and business of making games. Unlike E3 it is a series of lectures from industries leading protagonists.

Following is the schedule and my conclusions and findings from the conference. I also met one of my personal hero's but I'll tell you that story as a separate post. A quick hint, that halo 2 tattoo. ^_^

Edinburgh Interactive 2009 - Conference Schedule

Thursday 13th August:

10.00 - 10.15 Introduction; Chris Deering, chairman of Edinburgh Interactive.

10.15 - 11.00 Keynote; The challenge of Reinventing the Iconic Sports Brand Games, Peter Moore president of EA sports. This was a truly fascinating talk. Covering everything that it took to turn around what had become, in all honesty, a stale brand. From how to humanise a brand that was regarded as some what of a endorsement behemoth, to the importance of metacritic (A website that compiles average scores from all existing reviews). This was a genuine insightful look into how EA sports (Vancouver) turned its fortunes around. One of the most obvious examples was the Tiger Woods viral video video, where EA made fun of itself. This was a key moment in people changing there perspective. EA was mocking itself and its short fallings? A true classic piece of viral advertising if you haven't seen it click here. Also for the full breakdown on the talk click here.

11.00 - 11.45 The more things change, Sean Dromgoole of GameVision and Crawford Christie managing director of Arkenford. In this talk Dromgoole and Crawford, two industry analysts talked of the growing trends in the games industry. However the more important subject they covered was where the industry is headed. They do this by looking at trends within the industry and plotting them out into a series of gradually ever more perplexing diagram and graphs. Complicated but none the less fascinating. Casual games are the way forward apparently.

11.45 - 12.30 Sound only games, Marton Owen, CEO of Smalti Technology. A talk about essentially turning text based adventures in to audio adventure games using GPS and basic interaction to create the game world. Sounded like a fascinating idea, it was however in the very early stages of development. One example was using GPS on a school field to teach children how lions hunt. One group of children being the lionesses and the other being the gazelles.

13.30 - 14.15 Lessons from social games, Kristian Segerstrale CEO of playfish. Kristian talked about the advantages of developing games for social networks. The main argument being that if the game is not well received by the community you can tweak it accordingly or even abandon it all together. The investment is 10% to original launch 90% post launch, where as traditional games are vice-versa. It sounded a solid theory however he was very cloudy on his profit to expenditure figures , a little cloudy meaning he said " we have money in the bank when asked how much the company earned.

Also at EIF was a games room where there was a selection of games on offer to play, Mini Ninjas and Arkum Asylum where personal favourites while Nintendo had there usual understated affair to promote Wii sports resort. They just had an indoor beach, full steel drum band and more combined inches of television than an average small country. You have to love them. We salute you Nintendo.

"Producers don't do anything?"

This summer I attended an inspiring and highly informative lecture at BCU's TIC (Birmingham City University Technology Innovation Centre). The lecture was given by Steve Stopps, a project manger at Blitz Games, and was entitled "producers dont do anything, so why are they so important"? The lecture covered everything from development costs to time management.

Steve opened the lecture by addressing the growing role of the project manager within the games industry.

Starting with over all production costs Steve explained the rapidly increasing costs of computer game production. Average Wii development takes 18 months has a team size of 20 - 30 people and a cost of $25 million. This may seem high however, when compared to that of

Xbox 360 and PS3 $80 million it is clear to see why the Wii is the fastest expanding games catalogue.

He then addressed the roles contained within the studio. That of the Project Manager (or producer) Design (Designers) , Art (Artist) and Tech (Programmers).

The emphasise was placed on the role of the Project Manager. It is a Project Managers role to "free the creatives to do what they do do best". It is paramount that the Project Manager should not be the creative vision holder. The reason for this being that it is best for a Project Manager to be able to view the project from an external point of view. They must also be able to offer constructive criticism and concise feedback.

He then went on to talk about the Time,Scope,Cost Equilateral Triangle. This is a way of explaining that if you change one of the sides all of the other sides must change too as a result. In other words if you wish to increase Scope then you must increase Cost and Time also. It must stay equilateral.

Steve also talked of X and Y managers. These are two different management styles, (for a full explanation click here). Essentially the theory entails that X managers work by being the enforcer, where as Y managers work by being the supporter. This is illustrated in the following Diagram.

Two things that Steve said that truly stuck out in my mind was that, firstly, a manager "should take responsibility for everything, credit for nothing". The reason for this being that it leads to trust. Secondly " A creative project is never finished; it's abandoned". I think anybody creative or indeed has worked with creative people can empathise with that.

Also he made it apparent that using SCRUM management (A well established management theory) we can understand the difference between the involved and the committed or the pigs and chickens. I feel this comic strip illustrates the theory perfectly.

He also believed that end users expectations where changing as they gain a better understanding of the system being built. Marketing will also require change, as to them the market is feature driven , where as it is now content driven.

"The longer the project the more it will change."

In this section he touched on development scheduling and time scale.

Months: 1-5 Pre production

6-12 Production

13-18 Post production

The average 8 hour working day: Email 1 hours

Meetings 1 hour

Training 1 hour

Which leads to a 5 hours actual working day. Meaning you should always allow contingency

low risk: + 20%

medium risk: + 40%

High risk: + 60%

Pro's of contingency: better retention of key personnel, increased organisational agility, an improved ability to invest in the future

Cons: Adds alot of additional cost

Ultimately a manager should ask three questions, what did you do yesterday? What are you doing today? Is there anything stopping you?

Since attending the lecture I've been in touch with Steve Stopps on a few occasions now, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for his help and advice.

Hello all, me again.

After a long summer away from university I am now back for my final year. My summer has been been a considerably full one from Edinburgh to Beesands and from Manchester to Faro: But now it's back to business. Over the coming days I shall be posting my experiences of the summer, as I trawl through my notebooks and diary to summarise all I've learned.

I shall also from now on be attempting to post as often as possible as i use my blog veritable reflective journal. Ideas, thoughts and findings will all be laid bare for your scrutiny and hopefully pleasure.

Regards,

Kyle ^_^

Potential animation ideas

Potential animation ideas:

Telling the same story through two mediums – the impact it has on audiences with a view to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of both mediums – visual essay.

My Bitt story of a mans need to be remembered

The method in your madness – story of schizophrenic method actor

Outed – a story of an action film director who is falsely outed as gay.

All three of the above are my original ideas. They are satirical pieces based on instant fame and sensationalism by the media. What is satire? 

satire   
noun [C or U]
a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, or a piece of writing or play which uses this style:
political satire
Her play was a biting/cruel satire on life in the 80s.

satirical   
adjective
satirical cartoons/magazines

satirist   
noun [C]
a person who writes satire

satirize, UK USUALLY satirise   
verb [T] 
to use satire to show that people or ideas have bad qualities or are wrong

Second Home

After the lecture from Second Home I was blown away. I thought , heres a studio based in my home town that are truly exciting and most of all innovative. Afterwards I stayed behind and talked to Jim (Producer at the studios) about he came to do what he does. I explained that I was Hoping one day to become a producer and he gave me a huge amount of really sound advice. I also asked about work experience("I will make your tea I think is the way I Phrased it).He mentioned the possibility that I may be able to get in on some work experience at some point and said to e-mail him some time. 

I sent the following e-mail.

 Hello Jim and Chris.

My name is Kyle Jobson. I attended the lecture you gave about Z printers at Birmingham City University; the lecture blew my mind(I am actually seriously considering pawning my family in order to fund one). I spoke to Jim after the lecture (hopefully you remember me). I am aspiring to become a producer and am looking for as much experience within industry as is physically possible. Not only will this expand my knowledge of animation and film production further, But also it will help me to put into practice the theory and skills i have learnt during my degree course and see how they work in real life production situations. 

Jim did say that when there isn't a project some of time. He also said at these times the majority of your time is spent phoning clients, finding possible projects, if you ever need an extra pair of hands(or vocal chords), tea making, or to that ends anything, i would be willing and more than glad to help out. I think it is important that i have experiences of working studios to ensure i leave university with as much knowledge of industry as I can.

If there are any opportunities within Second Home Productions, either working on an animation project or helping with anything else, (i also have experience theatre and live action) it would be much appreciated.

If this is not possible then i understand and thank you very much for your time.

Any advice would be willingly received.

Yours sincerely 

Kyle Jobson

To Which I quickly received the following reply

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for your email, and your offer of an extra pair of hands or vocal chords! We're currently in a pre-pitch stage of production on a project, but already have a small team assembled to help with that. If you can bear with us, we'll definitely keep you in mind for future work experience.

All the best

Jim

So Nothing just yet but fingers crossed for the future.

Second Home (Z printer notes)

Second Home Notes

Second Home: founded 2004, based in Digbeth Birmingham. Predominantly stop motion.

Ask about little girl on Balloon?

Z printer – They call it the "witch craft machine"

Z printer – youtube it for demonstration

Z printer – is a 3D printer, transforms CAD into fully realised colour models

Z printer – can make gears and mechanisms

Z printer – uses STL files from 3D programmes

Z printer – one of the down sides is that it can over interprets and trys to print clothes separately. The powder is very delicate. Very good for hand made look.

Michael Clifford – Bafta award winning director

Willard Wigan – micro sculpter, work in at hall in the mailbox. Bullied as a child and was made to small. “nothing doesn’t exist”

Ripomatic – “half animatic, half mood reel” using your work and existing work to help communicate ideas.

Home made super macro using a microscope, a super 8 lens video camera and radwelding used for test sequence.

Test sequence then became story board.

Final Shot Breakdown 008

Moving background plate – motion control

(Beauty pass) beauty state

Master animation pass

Master animation  pass breathe sequence

Checkerboarding in animation. Levels adjusted using photshop. Garbadge masked out and matted together. Rotoscpe rig removal. Additional elements.

All in all took 6 weeks. Take weekends off to allow for the benefit of reassessment and fresh perspective

Coraline 40,000 faces. All done in rapid prototyping, how they did shower.

Rapid techniques in Derby – Specialist 3D printers.

1 character takes 4 hours but you can print 4 at a time due to surface area of print.

Rough cost per model £1.50 - £3. per cubic inch

A crystal “tough stuff”

Expanding foam, sand paper.

Sculpture uses pulse as a jack hammer. Or model inbetween heartbeat – james petrie.

The British Museum and The Barber Institute Part 2

My recent trip to the British Museum was incredible and left a profound and lasting effect on me. Never before have I been surrounded by such a rich tapestry of ideas. Not only was the museum the most incredible collection of artifacts from through out history. It was also a playground for the imagination. Everywhere you looked rich textures vivacious colour palettes, characters shapes and patterns. I am going to use all I saw and draw on it to inspire and fuel my finals next year. I'm going to root out shapes, patterns and colour schemes to assist my character design.

The British Museum was truly awe inspiring and i cannot recommend enough you visit there. 

I am currently trying to process the ideas that i thought of in the museum into physical drawn manifestations, short script ideas to work on over the summer. I shall post them up over the summer as i develop them into more fully realized pieces.       

The British Museum and The Barber Institute

I try and visit museums and art galleries as often as I can, here I Have decided to take a look at two of my more recent trips. The British Museum and the Barber Institute.

Firstly the Barber institute which is part of the university of birmingham. the exhibition I went to see was entitled Northern lights. the exhibition was a collection of Scandinavian landscape artist. These ranged from the sublime to the not so . Personal highlights included Eugene Jansson's Riddarfjarden Stockholm and Gustav Fjaestad's Winter Moon light. There was also an exceptional piece entitled The factory by Prins Eugen that for the life of me i cannot find a picture of, if I do I shall posed it below.

It was a truly fascinating experience. For most of my life I have walked the halls of art galleries, seeing everything from Rueben's to Rembrandt's and perhaps this is why i was taken aback. I feel as a British person you become almost use to looking at British and main land European landscapes and that is why these Snowscapes as they where came as such a refreshing lift. 

A mixed but mainly excellent exhibition.    

Audience and Communication. Final Animation.

Here it is ladies and gent's. Team eggs final collaborative project. 

Audience and Communication. The Characters that didn't make it.

These are a selection of early character designs that didn't make the cut. I design them based on magicians props. The cards,where a family that argued constantly, the hat ,the magic box, rabbit (Based on my rabbit Jimmy)  and the cups that where supposed to be like the T-Birds from Grease. 

Probably best they didnt make it to be honest.

Audience and Communication,References for stage

I was tasked with finding references for the stage in the magician piece. I looked at Victorian stages as i love the aesthetic of victorian theatre. The lush red velvet curtains and wooden stage. This also pays homage to Punch and Judy which i believe ties in with the themes of the piece.  we tried to replicate this in the final production . The character of the magician i also thought of as being much like a Victorian magician. Over zealous, spoke in a traditional RSC hammy Shakespearian accent. He should be full of the showmanship of Victorian theatre, especially the bow. 

bow.    

Audience and Communication. Full story board.

This is my refinement of the original storyboard. It includes notes on the action, dialogue and also the FX to be used in after effects. Live action sequence is also included.

Audience and Communication. Animation Storyboard Draft

Lauren's first draft storyboard

Audience and Communication (Who's Doing What)

Who and what are the various elements?

*Ben S, flash animation of small boy.

*Ben W, stop motion animation and compositing

*Kyle J, Live action acting, post production, editing and sound

*Lauren N, Rotoscoped animation of magician

*Natasha W, little witch animation and clothes change.

 

Case Study (what in the media did we love as children. Why?)

I have chosen to look at Mario. Why and how my biggest childhood favorite caught my imagination. A true fondness that i still feel today.

There are so many reasons have always, and will always, adore Mario. I feel the reasons I am emotionally attached the character are the reasons that so many are too.

Who is Mario? 

Mario is the most famous computer games character of all time and the mascot of the largest computer games industry in the world.  He is a slightly over weight italian plumber and the brain child of Shigeru Miyamoto, the man considered by many to be the god farther of computer games. He has a big mustache and wears a cap adorned with the letter M (Famously all Miyamoto's characters all wear hats as he feels he cannot draw hair).

The simplicity of the character design is what makes him so appealing and universal. His clothes are coloured only in primary colours and he is undoubtably instantly recognizable. What I feel is a testimony to how good of a piece of character design he is, is the fact that even in 8-bit and drawn only from fifty odd pixels he is still incredibly recognizable. In 2006 a survey found that world wide he was recognized by more people than Ronald McDonald , Sonic and Bugs Bunny. In-fact the only character more recognized was Mickey Mouse, and he got a 70 year head start.

The reason also he appeals so greatly to the masses I feel are his adventures. The world he inhabits is clearly based on our own. There is grass, trees ,flowers, even some familiar creatures. The world is however completely idealized aesthetically. The sky is blue, the trees are green and gravity is slightly weaker. By basing the games in a world that is familiar it asks little of the gamer, only to believe in the lore of the land. Mario's world is viewed from the eyes of child everything is exaggerated. Everything that inhabits his world is just that little bit extraordinary and slightly surreal. I think the wonder of The Mushroom Kingdom (Marios world) is that it is rooted firmly in the thoughts of a child and is not afraid to make you suspend your disbelief and just except that a flower can eat you.

The final and most important reason i believe Mario impacted so greatly on me, and others across the world, is this. It is the most universal story ever told.

 A look at the characters of the Mario universe and identifying the archetypal roles within the world. Using  Vladimir  Propp's  Narrative  theory, based on Russian fairy tales and believed to be the root of all good storys. Propp was a great inspiration to Joseph Campbell

  It follows the three act structure equilibrium ,disequilibrium, equilibrium. This is found in everything from Greek tragedies to Shakepheare, Citizen Kane to Coraline. 

1. The Villain- Bowser, struggles to over come the Hero in attempt to prevent him from achiveing his goals and normally kidnaps the princess.  
   
2. The Donor- Luigi, provides The Hero with the magical helper he he needs in order to complete his quest.   
   
3. The (Magical) Helper-,Power ups (mushrooms, fire flowers and coins), assists the Hero in there quest by providing assistance beyond the capabilities of the Hero.
   
4. The Princess  — Princess Peach Princess acts as the Hero's Reward For Completing the Quest.
   
5. The Dispatcher-Normally the Princess' Castle, the dispatcher provides the missing link to the hero and is often found in the second or third act.The Dispatcher offers the final piece of the puzzle.
   
6. The Hero- Mario,The Hero always responds to the donor character.The Hero Always falls in love with and often marries the princess.
   

These are the reasons I believe Mario is the success it is now, and then reason why I love him so.

Audience and Communication.

For our Audience and Communication project we where tasked with coming up with a short animation. that would appeal to children. The aim was to act as a small glimpse into what the animation department at BCU does and to promote children's animation at our university.

Our first task was to consider our target audience, in this case children around the age of 7. We began by looking at how we ,when we where 7, thought and behaved.

Brainstorm of Being  7 

  

Kolb's Learning circle

Where do you fit in this circle and how will this knowledge affect the sort of things you try

in the next 12 months?

There are four types of learner according to Kolb's learning circle.

*Activist, draws on concrete experience, prefers doing and experiencing.

*Reflector, draws on reflective observation,

*Theorist, draws on abstract conceptualization. Wants to know underlying reasons, concepts and relationships 

*Finally Pragmatist, draws on active experimentation. Learns by doing and "having a go"

Where you come in on this circle acts as a guide, or template as you will, as to the best course of action to take in order to further your work.

In my opinion I fall in the Theorist category. I Have come to this conclusion based upon my inquisitive nature. I like to know how things tick. I enjoy theory. Be it film theory, narrative theory etc. I like to find out why people animate, write, film or paint what they do. This I feel can some times be as much a negative as a positive as it means often I over analyze. 

I feel that perhaps I could attempt to push more into the Pragmatist category my work would seriously benefit. Also it may allow me to communicate my ideas a little more clearly. I tend to rely on verbally articulating my ideas.   

Hereford Cathedral School Visit (5th June) Lesson Plan.

This is a document I wrote to assist both my fellow students, the staff(both Hereford Cathedral School and BCU) and the pupils, in understanding what the day entailed. Also what they where doing, how they where doing, but more importantly why they where doing it.

 Lesson Plan for Hereford Cathedral School for Boys

Equipment list:

2 x sheets of black card

1 x digital SLR

2 x DVD cam – Standard

2 x Tripods

2 x Top down rings

6 x sticfas kits

10 x blank DVD’s

1 x bucket of plasterscene

All equipment has been reserved in the stock room. Plus we already has stickfas and plasterscene.

Ben W: Stop motion workshop

Using plasterscene to create explosions using primary and tertiary colours. In smaller groups (of no more than 3) assign each person a particular colour. If a group does consist of four or more pupils they can be split into two groups and therefore have one group for each rig. This allows everybody to be simultaneously involved and helps with time constraints; it will also improve the one to one aspect of the tutorial.

It will be shot on black card for visual impact, making colours more pronounced. 

The aim of this tutorial is to teach pupils the fundamentals of stop motion animation. (Both the principles and the practicalities)

The reason for the theme of explosions is to use an exciting, vibrant and engaging exercise to provide an enthralling learning environment for pupils.

Ben S: Flash Tutorial

Ben will give a brief introduction to flash, What it is and what it is used for.

An explanation of Ben’s wonchop character and universe will follow.

Also a small glimse into weeble stuff and bens showreel to show pop culture use of flash.

There will then be a flash basics tutorial.

This will include: drawing tools, tweening (automatic movement of symbols between key frames) easing (slowing of speedy or snappy motions near peaks) FBF (Frame By Frame traditional animation) and onion skinning. 

Also a brief teaser of advanced flash techniques and also how flash is used in other mediums such as Fosters, castle crashers and yellow pages.

The tutorial will take place in 004 in order to gain use of the projector.

The use of a graphics tablet is integral for drawing accuracy. I have made prior arrangements with the stock room for the loan of a graphics tablet. Ben will bring memory stick containing a powerpoint presentation.

The aim of this tutorial is to teach animation principles such as exaggeration, squash and stretch and also encourage an interest in Flash animation.

Kyle J: Editing and post production workshop.

The aim of this workshop is to show the importance of post production. I intend to take source footage from the stop motion explosion work shop and edit with titles, credits and sound effects. I will provide a brief outline as to how and why certain editing techniques are used. This tutorial will be based on Imovie. The main reason for this is that it is intuitive to use and doesn’t have the complexities and subtle nuisances as final cut pro for example. 

The objective of this workshop is to bring the animation process to a tangible conclusion, allowing the pupils to gain a brief yet concise look into the world of animation and film making.

Once all of the above is complete I shall take all of the photos, test footage and final footage and commit it to DVD Disc complete with stills gallery, functioning menu’s etc.

The day will wind down with a feedback session where pupils are encouraged to ask any questions raised by the days activities.

Schedule:

10.20: arrive at new street

10.45: Arrive at BCU – introduction by Neil Hadfield

11.00: Tour of university equipment and studios lead by Neil Hadfield, Kyle J, Ben W and Ben S

12.00: Stop motion workshop with Ben W. A look at fundamentals of stop motion.

13.00: Lunch Break in cafeteria with staff and pupils.

14.00: Flash Animation Workshop with Ben Smallman.  

14.30: 15 minute break.

14.45: Post Production workshop with Kyle Jobson.

15.30: Conclusion, feedback ad Q&A

16.00: End of the Day

Group 2 animation 2

Hereford Cathedral School Visit (5th June) Photo's 3