Evaluation of Digital Showcase

The Digital Showcase was last week, where all the teams trailers were shown off, and everyone's printed artwork, drawings and what not; were all hanging up on big poster boards, and on tables for everyone to look at.

I personally think that the showcase did what it was intended to do, i.e. showing off everyones completed trailer and work, including printed work and drawings and what not. Also, I got to see everyone elses trailers, and I hadn't seen before. I was really impressed with some of the 3D work in some of the trailers; really professionally made.

A lot of visitors turned up at the showcase, including a few professionals, and student's parents. They all went around looking at all our trailers and artwork.

There was a football match on a TV in one of the rooms that a few people were watching. I personally don't think this was a very fitting thing for the showcase, as it distracted quite a few people.

Overall, I think the showcase went well; it did exactly what it was intended to do; show off everyones completed trailers and artwork/concept art.

Evaluation of the 4 game trailers

I really liked the first trailer by Team 42, for Zero G. It had a really sci-fi feel to it, and the whole racing part with those vechicles that reminded me a bit of Pod Racers from Star Wars Episode 1 are a really great feature. Also the point when the track went wire frame was very nice as well.

Our team is Team Paradox, and our game is Dark Shock. I like our trailer as it is the only one to include voice acting (by me) and lipscynching (by Andrew). However, I could have improved the dialogue between MBM and Officer Jones; and just have his head bob up and down once rather than continuously, as this didn't seem realistic.

The third team was Negative 1 with Desolate. The trailer was good also, albeit a bit long. Also they're could have been a bigger variety of music; all it was was just this monotinous loop of rather dull music it has to be said. However the 3D models, and environments were excellent.

The fourth and final team is Team Lazerbaby with Tempus: Limit Before Which. The trailer had a very eerie and mysterious feel to it, which is great. The old projector type affects and the calm music all the more made for a quite chilling experience, in a eerie type of way. Excellent stuff.

My favourite trailer in my opinion is Tempus: Limit Before Which. I just really loved the eerie and strange atmosphere it gave; really got me.

How to set up an Atari 2600 part 2

Now turn your TV on. Insert a Game Program cartridge into the consoles cartridge slot on the front of the unit. Flick the power switch on. If the unit is already tuned in, the game will be displayed right away and you can start playing. If not, the TV will just display white noise and static. Take your TV remote and tune it to Channel 36, as this is what the unit is designed to tune into.

If you have followed all these steps correctly, you will now have your game on the screen ready to play. Have fun!

Safety notices:
Never carry the unit by its RF lead. This is very likely to cause damage to the unit.
Never store the unit, power supply, or game cartridges in damp places.
Do not play when tired or drowsy.
Do not play if you are susceptible to seizures.
Store the unit in its original box when not in use. This will also protect it from dust.
Do not attempt to dissasemble the unit. There are no user serviceable parts inside, and doing so will void the guarantee warranty.

How to set up an Atari 2600 part 1

Hello, and thankyou for purchasing the Atari 2600 video game system. We hope it will give you many hours of entertainment.

First of all, you must set the system up on your TV before you can use it. Look at the back of the system; you will see an input for the controllers, power lead, and a cable coming out the back. This is the RF lead; it carries the video and audio from the system to your TV. Plug this lead into the aerial jack on your TV. Take the power brick, and plug it into the mains. Then take the other end of the lead and plug it into the power input on the back of the unit. Make sure the unit is on a flat surface when in use. Plug your controllers into the controller ports on the back of the unit.

Summary of Final Major Project

In the very beginning, we were asked to create a game trailer.
The brief is the project, the client is Shipley College, and the end product is the actual trailer. Production deadline for 3D work is 18th June. Our main objective is to show our trailers at the Digital Showcase on the 23rd of June.

First of all, we organized ourselves into teams. We then had to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each team member, and choose a logo for our team. For example, my strengths are I have good knowledge of video games or all eras, and I'm good at researching. My weaknesses are I'm not very good at listening, and I need a bit of help with 3DS Max.
We eventually decided on "Team Paradox" as our team name; first of all by us all thinking of our own team names, then voting on the one the majority of us liked. Then, we all designed a logo; again, with all of us voting on the one we liked the most. We chose Charlotte's logo in the end.

We then all went and started developing our own stories for the game trailer. My story involved the King of Hyrule meeting up with various characters from other games series, and going on an adventure through time and space, fighting Radioactive Mutant Killer Ponies.
I think my story is quite good; it has the basic plots and characters for a nice little compeling story. However, if it had been chosen, it would've taken far too long to model, animate, etc.
The team chose Andrew's story in the end, as it was a much simpler story that proved to be a lot simpler to animate and model; plus the story seemed a bit more interesting too, and more fitting for the idea we initially thought of in the first place; a story set in a post-apocalyptic environment.

Over the weeks, we've sometimes had team meetings when we have come to decisions, like when we were choosing our team logo, showing each other our stories, choosing each others roles, etc. When we decided on Andrew's story, it was then my task to design a 3D environment, and Officer Jones, who is a character in Andrews story.

My 3D environment consists of several buildings I designed from simple primitives; cubes, pyramids, etc. and a road with lots of street lamps. This environment represents part of the "Self Contained Super City" which is the main city-like environment the story takes place in. Officer Jones's body consists of a cyliner I shaped into his body, a sphere for his head, cylinders for his arms and legs, cuboid I shaped alot for his feet, and cubes with a lot of small cuboids for his fingers.

We also had to design merchandise for our project. I did a simple T-shirt design, and a mug.

Officer Jones in Obama Street render

A simple render of Officer Jones after he was merged with the Obama Street environment.
To do this I went to File>Merge>Find Officer Jones file>Okay.
I scaled him down to the size of a door on one of the buildings. I then saved it as a different file name, incase it went wrong so I didn't lose the original files.
As it was taking a long time to render, I switched the lighting off. I will reinstate this later on.

Putting Officer Jones in my/an environment

I've been thinking about how I'm going to put Officer Jones in my environment. In the actual story, he is going to be standing outside the Police Station where he works, and talking to MBM when he runs into him. He then goes and walks over to some chairs with MBM and stands against a wall while he tells him about his wife. This is the last you see of him, because shortly after this, MBM then blows up the city with a nuclear bomb.

My environment will be used where the main story takes place; it is a little part of the city. Andrew's environment is the whole city, and is seen when the nuclear bomb is used.