Demo Reel Updates

ok, so I finished a whole bunch of stuff for my outdoor level and I'm going to share here with you guys some tidbits of what i've finished:

One of my destroyed buildings mostly completed... just need to polish more:


A capture of my in game waterfall that is mostly complete:


I'll post the full details of everything i've completed around wednesday (way too much to do to be talking about what i've finished XD)

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Student iPhone Commercial

Hey everyone,
This week was a pretty eventful one, me and a classmate Janel Jolly (that Is her real name) created an iPhone commercial as part of a greenscreen project. We spent most of yesterday making it and put a lot of hard work into this, so I hope you guys enjoy it. The song is Grace Kelly by Mika:

if the sound still doesn't work by tomorrow, I guess I have to re-upload it.
(edit) ok... reuploaded, maybe the sound will work this time XD

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Redesign - Reader Stickyness

Moving Away from the 'Blogger' Look

I will be doing a massive redesign of the blog in the next few weeks and was wondering if I could get some opinions on how it looks so far. Just click on the Image for the full size. It should be 1024 X 768, representing the average viewer resolution.

Only about 30-40% of the actual graphics are complete and the rest is just the 'colour scheme' of the website. I'll be moving on to the actual coding of the website shortly as I now have enough graphics to create a working website before doing the rest.


The main focus of this new design is to catch the eye of the new commer so they might actually read my articles which may help them. The concept is that the farther you go from the look of a template, the more eye catching it is, because users who surf blogs see the same template 2000 times.

Here are some resources for redesigning your blog or website which helped me emensely when figuring out my design and theory:

How I Redesigned My Blog by Ben Yoskovitz
Talking about Blog Design: Podcast [41 minutes long]
Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog’s Usability by Skellie
The Last Word on Minimalist Blogging by Blog Bloke
Anatomy of a Successful Blog by Blog Bloke
Who Says your Blog Design has to be Boring? by Blog Bloke
Blog Design Tips
How to design a sexy header for your site using CSS by Woork
Code Readibility 01 by Woork
Code Readibility 02 by Woork

I encourage anyone, not just designers, to critique it!

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Put the Spotlight on Your Questions!

Getting Answers

Heres a chance to get all your burning questions answered by some real industry proffesionals. If theres a question that has been bugging you about the Gaming or CG/3D industries then now is the time to ask!

Next Saturday(March 15th) a few industry proffesionals will be attending an Industry Spotlight Event and the students of the Centre for Arts and Technology will have the oppertunity to ask them any question.

Presenting:
- Peter Hogan: Senior FX Artist (simulation and particle guru) Peter was also a modeller on a few other projects. His advice will be invaluable to all modelling students with an interest in simulation FX!

- Peter Ricq: Art director. Peter will breakdown his process of designing an animated series, developing its atmosphere and characters. He will also show clips from his films.

A breakdown of the animation pipeline, from the original concept to the finished product that is ready to go gold will also be one of the main focuses of the discussion.

So post your questions in the comments. A list of the Ten best will be posted a few days before the Spotlight!

I impore everyone who wants to be in these Industries to post any and all questions they have about the industry. This is a rare chance that they are giving us and I personally can't wait to meet these guys. *two thumbs up*

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Tips for 3D Students: Networking - Work

Networking – Work Exposure

Getting Noticed by Thinking Small

Yes, that’s right, I just told you not to ‘THINK BIG’ but what I’m really trying to tell you is how ‘Thinking Small’ will help you more, down the road, than you know. I’m going to explain how to use your talents to get noticed through the internet, not through your Big portfolio pieces but by the much smaller unrelated pieces you can make.

When I say ‘Think Small’ I don’t mean by any stretch of the imagination that this will be the easier way, compared to making one big portfolio piece, so all the slackers giving a big sigh right now, I’m sorry. This path will boost your networking capabilities while giving you the practice to maximize that Big portfolio project that you will Have to do to get a job. This tool isn’t designed to get you a job in any direct way, though there is a chance that you might get a job offer through this, so that isn’t a guarantee. This is a Networking tool and will help you snag a lot more industry contacts than not doing it... so read on!

The principle of this idea is that instead of spending 30 hours and up on one big 3D or CG portfolio piece to put on your demo reel, you instead create three 10 hour projects that are smaller and more achievable than the behemoth that you might not even finish. This simple concept will vastly improve the speed of your work, which is a huge thing in the Gaming Industry especially, and expand the fold of people which know you and recognize your work. That is the most important part, that more people will know you and be able to recognize your art at a glance.

This works because while you’re working on that big 3D piece you get virtually no exposure till the very end, but if you work on multiple smaller projects that are still the same high quality (just scaled down) then you’ll get a boost to your exposure after every release. You will see that after 4-5 of these smaller projects that people will start visiting your blog/website (if you have one) more often; people will comment on your work more often; people will instantly recognize your work.

This is actually an age old trick that has been used mainly in marketing and has worked since the idea of marketing started. It’s breadth versus depth or as they like to call it, “Diversifying, but not too much”. The idea is that you want to balance the two; too much depth (too deep into one thing) and your company crashes the instant the market for that item decreases; too much breadth (too many things) and you make no profit because you appeal to no specific group. Think about it for a second. Isn’t trying to get a job in the Gaming industry pretty much like marketing to a customer? Although the roles are reversed, you have to market yourself as someone with something of value to give to their company in return for their hard earned cash. In that light, using marketing tactics to gain a meaningful job just makes sense.

As a final note, just to make sure, I’m not suggesting you sacrifice quality. Do Not Sacrifice Quality! Merely scale down the project so it’s more manageable.

Last Networking Article: Linked In
Next Networking Article: Elance
List of 3D Student: Networking advice topics so far

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