My Career in Modelling (2)

I’ve been busy modelling for the demo of The Correction, and I think I’m getting there!

Who would have thought it would take so long though? I’ve been working on beds, mattresses, pillows, shelves, tables, books, plug sockets, photoframes, candles, padlocks, combination locks, screwdrivers and more, and the scene still looks pretty empty. It turns out life is full of different objects with complex shapes.

At the moment, the scene looks almost too clean. Imperfection is the perfection of CG, so I need to rough things up a bit, from scuffs on the walls to rounded off edges on the table so that it doesn’t look quite so dangerous. Everything’s also really right angle-y, but I’ve been saving the most complex objects for last so I expect those to liven up the scene a little.

Nevertheless, a lot of detail has been put into these models. You can’t see it from the view I’ve provided, but the combo lock has numbers on each of its wheels, while the wheels on the bed have been very carefully constructed. In the game there will be zoom ups, so that the player can move those wheels and see what’s going on.

I’ve lighted the scene a little more too, and I think that’s had a good effect. The lighting actually helps to bring out a bit more colour in the objects, so I’m really happy where that’s going. Nevertheless, it’s pretty simple lighting that I’ve implemented at the moment, so once I add a little more detail there, the realism should massively improve.

In other news, another character is complete, but I won’t post that here – I may post one more character before I release the game, but want to keep the bulk of the cast a surprise! Meanwhile, the story is growing increasingly complex and the characters are really growing in terms of both personality and backstory, so I’m pretty excited to see where that goes.

My Career In Modelling

“So what did you get up to this weekend Zak?”
“I did a bit of modelling for my game!”
“…”

That was the start of the conversation I had at work on Monday, which left my friends a little surprised. Modelling isn’t something a programmer does much of really.

So I explained that I was modelling graphics for my game and everything made sense!

I first studied graphic design at uni last year. It ended quite traumatically. The final assignment, which was to model a room using a photo as a base was one of the longest assignments I had at uni because it involved learning a graphics software from scratch and then recreating that room, which involved some objects that were pretty complex for a beginner. As such, many hours were spent on that project. It was due in at the very end of term, but I was confident that I could get it (and several other assignments) completed early, and so booked a holiday to Rome two days before it was due in. Not a smart move.

As I expected, the project was finished on the morning before I was going on holiday. I didn’t expect, though, that it would take three hours to render. That was annoying, but okay – I had time. When it rendered I saw – to my horror – that the door to the room was wide open to reveal the solid piece of wall behind it. A quick change to the door led to another three hours of rendering. And then – I noticed a single chair was missing! Again, another render. This went on until 11.30pm that night when the assignment was finally ready. I moved up to bed only to have to get up at 2am to go to the airport. Having had literally no sleep, I spent most of the first of my four days in Rome in bed!

I think it turned out pretty well though – what do you think?

I also made an animation, called ‘Paranormal Animactivity’.

So… after that trauma I stayed away from Blender until I needed to start modelling for my game! I was surprised at how much I was able to pick up with ease, but there’s still a lot to remember and learn. Graphic design is tough to get right, but once you manage it it’s very rewarding.

These are some very early versions of the first room in my game. There are still more items to be added in there, and it still needs to be textured – at the moment almost everything here is nothing more than a clay model that needs to be painted – but it’s a good start! The scene also needs lighting, but this is all stuff that can come later.

So I will post regular updates on how that’s going. I also plan to start work on a first draft of the script (still getting so many story ideas!), and there’s a fair bit of work to be done on the programming side of things, so I’ve still got my work cut out for me!

Hello again…

So this is one of those posts where I start off by saying it’s been a long time since I’ve posted… that’s a rite of passage for any blog though, so we’ll skim right over that!

I’ve recently started developing a web-based game. It’s a point and click escape room type game with an enhanced story along the same lines of the Zero Escape series. This is the first major personal web-based project I’ve taken on, so I’ve undoubtedly got a lot to learn! I’m purely focusing on HTML5 and JavaScript, with jQuery and a pretty neat set of libraries called CreateJS.

Those are Albert and Kate, two of the characters from the game. The story is set primarily in a prison, in which a group of friends wake up with no recollection of how they got there. As they try to find a way to escape we find that the group has a dark past and that everybody has a secret. The story has influences from the Zero Escape series (of course) and David Lynch amongst others.

That’s a very early look at the game with a lot of placeholders. Using the arrow navigation you’ll be able to change your view of the room you’re in. Meanwhile, you’re able to click on various areas of your current view to make observations of your surroundings or pick up items. It’s pretty obvious what you can click in this scene – the table and the lamp – because they’ve come straight out of Google Images! That colourful bar at the top is your menu.

I’ll be modelling all scenes and items myself using Blender, a task I’ve just started. I haven’t used Blender in over a year, but getting back into it is surprisingly easy, so I’m looking forward to developing my modelling skills in that way. 

Anyway, I’ll be posting the occasional update on how the game’s development is going. The content may be technical, graphical or even about the story, but all should be largely accessible to anyone. Looking forward to documenting the progress on here!

Oh, and one last thing – the game’s title is still to be decided, but the main one that’s working at the moment is THE CORRECTION.

2014

2014 sure was a memorable year! Let’s have a look at it…

January

• Going to see The Book of Mormon! Such a fantastic play with lots of catchy music and brilliant jokes. One of the best parts was hearing the thoughts of the traditional, middle-class theatre-goers afterwards. Definitely not a play for a lighthearted!
• Going for an assessment centre for a Marks and Spencer grad scheme… and receiving an offer for the job the following day! Such a relief to have some direction after uni!

February

• Joining the Canterbury Homeless Outreach Society. I met a lot of fantastic people there and got to open my views towards the homeless as well. Going out and giving sandwiches to homeless people in Canterbury really showed me that the homeless are people just as much as anyone else. Today I, at a minimum, will talk to a homeless person in the same way I would talk to anyone else. A little respect and a smile goes a very long way.
• Going to see The Lion King! Wow, brilliant show. He Lives In You is phenomenal on stage!
• A New World! My first experience of live Final Fantasy music. No Final Fantasy IX, unfortunately, but a great day out.

March

• My 21st birthday! Going out for a meal with family and then a meal and clubbing with my best friends. What a night. Also, got given tickets to make one of my dreams come true…
• The sleep out to raise awareness for homelessness! One of my best friends came down to Canterbury to join me in sleeping outside on the campus of my university with the Canterbury Homeless Outreach Society. Such a fun night in a good cause. Lots of memories for future – I’ll definitely be going again for the 2015 one!

April

• ROME!!! I’ve always wanted to visit Rome, and watching Spartacus made me desperate to go! Visiting the Coliseum, taking a tour through the Vatican and having dinner and cocktails by the Pantheon was one of the best experiences of my life!
• Getting a new dog. Amber is a rescue dog from Romania and though she was tough at first she is now a massive softie – and loves me to bits. A welcome addition to the family.

May

• Finishing exams – university finally being over! University was a mixed experience for me. There were some times when I was lonely. There were some times that will go down as the best days of my life. Overall, it was a great chance to gain some independence. Also, no more exams… that makes me very happy.
• Getting dumped – ouch – heartbreak. With all the highs it’s only natural that there will be lows.
• Presenting Likely at the demo day for Ambition House. I met a lot of very interesting, intelligent businesspeople. Lots of inspiring people!
• Finishing my group project. I met fantastic people during this project – people I became close friends with very quickly. Almost sad to see it go!

June

• What I consider to be the first day when I really started getting close to the friends I met through a Kingdom Hearts event. A brilliant day spent with friends I will know for a very long time.
• Getting my results from university… I got a first. Sweet!
• Beginning my driving lessons. Very scary, but a long time coming!

July

• The start of this blog! I have documented a lot of my life here, and really enjoy doing so. Great stuff!
• Graduation! Being able to see all of my uni friends again, and walking down Canterbury Cathedral holding my degree. What an experience!
• Meeting a tonne of M&S people for the first time. A fantastic evening.

August

• Finding out that I was going to have a nephew! Little Millie was to have a brother!
• My Grandfather’s 80th birthday party. Got to see a lot of family I haven’t seen in a very long time, and sang along with my best friend playing Ukulele. Excellent day!

September

• Starting work at M&S! I met some amazing people who I’m sure I’ll be friends with for a very long time. Working in store for a week was a great experience too. Really good to see how a store operates, from delivery to shelf-stacking.

October

• Twin Peaks is coming back! Yes, this really does warrant a note from me. Twin Peaks is one of my favourite TV series and to hear that it was returning to TV after 25 years of being off-air was brilliant to hear. Looking forward to 2016 for Twin Peaks Season 3!
• Getting my first tattoo. I got a tree, which is similar to the tattoo that my best friend has. The tree is representative of several things. The main thing is that it represents duality. If you look at the tattoo upside down, you see that the roots of the tree look like the leafless branches of the tree in Winter. The message there is that one appearance may hide many hidden realities. It is also symbolic of the Tree of Life, which has its own connotations and is also ever-present in the TV show Six Feet Under, which is my favourite show of all time, and that tree is especially present in a certain riveting scene.
• DISNEYLAND! I went to Disneyland to film a trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix. It was an amazing few days – I’ll never forget it – and I met a bunch of amazing people there and had a fantastic time.

November

• Distant Worlds! Okay, so I loved A New World, sure, but Distant Worlds was the real deal! A full orchestra playing some classic Final Fantasy tracks was my childhood dream come true. I was able to go with some brilliant friends and share enjoyment in some brilliant music including Answers performed live by Susan Calloway and Dancing Mad performed using the massive organ of the Royal Albert Hall. A true experience I’ll never forget… very much looking forward to the next concert!
• ClueQuest! This was a great way to bond with friends while solving puzzles to escape a room. It really reminded me of puzzles from Silent Hill (and I actually employed some of the experience I gained from playing those games while playing ClueQuest). Such fun – an hour of enjoyment that went by way too quickly!
• The M&S Fly The Fairies game went live! My colleague spent a lot of time programming this and I spent a lot of time including the translations for it, as it was displayed on the M&S international websites! It was a great success!

December

• Passing my driving test! I really didn’t have faith in myself that I could do this, especially not the first time, so it was a great boost to my self-esteem to pass. I can’t wait to get my own car!
• The Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX launch event! Again, this was a night spent with brilliant friends and meeting wonderful people. Also, I was given a VIP seat for the night… I feel like I’m getting closer to closer to developing for the game series I really love!
• Christmas parties with work. The first was a 1920s themed night with a live band, free beers and a shooting gallery. I won a barbie doll from the shooting gallery! The owner told me to give it to somebody I love. And that’s why I still have it… The second was a Vegas themed evening. There were a lot of dancers scantily dressed. Quite annoyed at myself that I didn’t get a photo with them… On the other hand, I was a boss at the casino!
• Christmas, of course! I spent the morning with my mother, stepdad and stepbrother and then saw a lot of family the rest of the day. Such a nice festive period.
• New Years Eve, spent with some of the people I am closest to. A wonderful way to end the year.

… January 2015

• My nephew was born on January 2, 2015! And guess what – he was sort of named after me! Declan James Zak Bowyer. Got to say I’m completely honoured with that one. Can’t wait to meet him properly.

So as you can see, it was a bit of a crazy year for me. Really looking forward to what 2015 will bring. From what I can tell so far… it will be a very interesting one. See you for a similar post next year!

The Hungry Games

And that’s Christmas over for another year! It’s been quite an exciting one for me.

I took the 23rd off to go and see my friend in hospital. She’s been in for over a year now and though she’s not massively improved she’s in a stable condition and is being well looked after. It was nice to go and see her for Christmas as I haven’t seen her since I started work. It was good to be together with the old lot too – four of us went to see her and we haven’t had that group all together in quite some time. The hospital visit was followed by a trip to the usual pub for a Christmas meal, drinks and a catch up. Just like being a teenager again!

As such I was very tired to go to work on Christmas Eve. Thankfully it was quite a relaxed day – very few people were in the office and the tube was dead, lovely! – and we went home after lunch. A nice way to start the Christmas celebrations.

Christmas was lovely this year. I spent the morning with my step-brother and parents having breakfast and opening presents. I got a nice selection of clothes and a couple of games and books. Enough to keep me entertained! I got my mum tickets for Wicked, which she was completely surprised by, so it will be nice for us to go and see that in February.

Later on we went to my brother’s to see him, his wife and my niece. She got a tonne of presents… lots of pretty dresses! It won’t be quite the same next year though – her little brother is very nearly here. Could be a NYE baby!

That was followed by a lovely turkey dinner – lots of turkey leftovers for sandwiches! – and relaxing with the family. We watched Inglourious Basterds which is perhaps not the most Christmassy movie but absolutely fantastic. I love Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Django Unchained was fantastic as well. Pulp Fiction, of course, is a classic, so it’s good to see Inglourious Basterds following suite on that front. Those movies have the best soundtracks!

Yesterday, Boxing Day, I checked out the sales. I bought even more stuff from Next – can’t believe how much I’ve spent there this month – and that was about it. Later on I went to the cinema to see Mockingjay Part 1. It’s had mixed reviews but I enjoyed it. It remained action-packed and Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic as usual. Looking forward to the next one.

Well, it’s back to work next week. The lay-ins have been much appreciated but there are websites to be built!

Swingin’

I had my first proper work Christmas party last week! It was 20s themed so I had a reason to get my hat out – haven’t been able to wear that since my prom in 2009! It was better than I expected. In one room there was a live band, the bar (all drinks free) and food being given out. In another there were classic games like Blackjack and a shooting gallery. There was also a white chocolate fountain. Never had a chocolate fountain before, so I definitely made good use of that…!

It was great fun to get to know my colleagues in a more social environment – before beginning the dance moves! I even won a prize on the shooting gallery; obviously my time with the air rifle in the summer was useful… even if the prize was some barbie ripoff… I think I drunk just the right amount – I was merry but not hungover the next day. It made it great to see my colleague completely hungover and cuddling up to his One Direction pillow… my secret santa gift to him.

It was strange on the way home from that party. I got the midnight train and everybody in the carriage was chatting… even though nobody knew each other. It made for a nice evening to have some friendly conversation with strangers – the sort of people I’d never have a chance to talk to otherwise.

Next up is the IT Christmas Party tomorrow night… Vegas themed!

The Secret Diary Of Laura Palmer

THE SECRET DIARY OF LAURA PALMER by Jennifer Lynch

I’ve gone a bit Twin Peaks crazy recently. The release of Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery got me back into the show, and especially for the prequel movie, Fire Walk With Me, which though at first glance is extremely strange (in the way that only Lynch movies can be) and, to some, unwatchable, is on later viewings a masterpiece following the torment that Laura Palmer endures in the final days of her life.

So after that, and finding out that there was a prequel novel acting as Laura’s secret diary, I had to read it! It’s more intense than I expected. Laura Palmer is abused by a demonic entity that she’s not even sure is real or not from a very young age (the diary starts at age 12). We see Laura’s gradual decline from an innocent young girl into a sexualised, broken sixteen year old. Laura’s pain is expressed here firsthand, and we see a deeper side to her that can’t be shown on film. It’s only more saddening that as we approach the end of the novel we approach the end of Laura’s life even though she doesn’t know it.

So all in all this has excited me all the more for the 2016 continuation of Twin Peaks and I look forward to reading The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks, a novel bridging the end of season 2 to the start of season 3, when it comes out next year!

1. The Marriage Plot
2. Freedom
3. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer
4. The Corrections
5. Nineteen Eighty-Four
6. The Virgin Suicides

“Oh Laura, you’re more than a superstar.”

Next up: The Walking Dead: The Fall of The Governor by Jay Bonansinga

Who Killed Santa Claus?

So the past weekend was pretty fun. It started on Friday with a murder mystery/Christmas dinner at the Sherlock Holmes hotel with one of my vet friends, Sophie. The mystery revolved around Santa Claus’ successor (following his untimely death choking on eggnog) getting shot and the audience has to figure out who amongst the suspects did it. Most of the people who went were in office Christmas parties, so Sophie and I were sat at the table of misfits. Sophie had next to her two American women, a mother/daughter duo, the mother being extremely (extremely) chatty and the daughter being more withdrawn. I was getting tired of talking to the mother before dinner had even began! Then a woman, who’d come with her husband and parents for her 40th, came and sat next to me and proceeded to get very drunk and very chatty. So Sophie had Mrs. New Orleans constantly chatting to her while I had the birthday girl chatting to me for the whole night! It was pretty funny – the birthday girl soon got into a story about how her husband’s ex-wife had cheated on him with a builder, then had cheated on the builder with a solicitor, so that she could use the solicitor to divorce her husband, and then when the builder had discovered this he killed himself! All of this was said with a massive grin with the added remark that her ex-husband wasn’t such a bad guy, really. I could see her husband getting increasingly anxious about how much personal information she was giving out. Oh dear…!

That’s us with Sherlock himself.

The day continued with me going back to Potters Bar where I stayed in the RVC dorms for the night. It was weird being back in uni dorms – I left mine three years ago now! In some ways I miss uni life; I met a lot of brilliant people there, especially in my third year; but in some ways not; the abundance of free time could lead to boredom and loneliness. Of course, free time is a commodity I would love to have more of now that I’m a working man!

The following day Sophie, Grace (another vet student) and I went straight back to London and met our friend, Tom, at Winter Wonderland! We went on various rides, and going on some of the really high rides just as darkness was creeping in was amazing. It’s rare that you get to see a clear twilit horizon of London… upside down! Afterwards we exchanged secret santa presents. I had been tasked with Grace, so had given her a Ripleys book seeing as we both went to Ripleys museum in London back in summer, and Tom gave me a Final Fantasy mug – sadly broken, but very cool anyway!

The following day was the usual roast dinner/drinks/Torchwood session with one of my best friends, Deborah (“Deblah”). We’re almost finished on series 3. We’ll see how she fares next time when one of our favourite characters dies…!

Anyway, over the next few weeks I’ve got a couple of big work Christmas parties – all drinks free! – so we’ll see if I survive that. See you soon!

Take Care Of Her

So Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX (that’s a mouthful isn’t it?) came out on Friday. On Wednesday I went along to the official launch event in London along with my KH friends. Because we were in the trailer filmed in Disneyland, the four of us were treated to VIP status – we sat at the very front of the auditorium!

The show consisted of the trailer as well as some exclusive, private footage from the next game in the series (looks fantastic!) and raffles with great prizes. Didn’t win anything, but my friend won the collector’s version of the game – very lucky.

The trailer is below. I actually got a fair few lines in there!

Otherwise the event consisted of getting photos in front of an iconic backdrop from the game series (we got some fantastic pics but they’re yet to be put up on the Facebook), creating a 7-second video in front of another scene which was turned into a flipbook, playing the game itself, free pie/drinks, but best of all to chat to the Square Enix team. I’ve met them a few times at previous events (Disneyland, Distant Worlds) so it’s great to see them every time I do. 12 year old Zak would be very excited to know his future self would be doing stuff like this!

That right there is one of the saddest scenes from a video game.

Coda

The word ‘coda’ means a finishing event, the last thing to happen, notably in music. The big bang before it’s over. The word ‘coda’ is also the title of the latest The Walking Dead episode, the mid-season finale of season 5.

The episode focuses on the main group’s mission to save their friends Beth and Carol from a group keeping them captive. It starts with one of the best moments from the show yet: the main character, Rick, relentlessly pursues an escaped hostage and mercilessly runs him down. The character has changed massively since his debut in the first season. Long gone is the man with the strong principle of never killing another human being.

Beth is another character who’s changed a fair amount since she’s been on the show, starting in season 2. She has gradually taken on a more prominent role, particularly towards the end of season 4, and we’ve seen her relationship with other characters – Daryl, in particular – grow. She’s always been the innocent, sweet girl, shown by the contrast with her older sister, her tendency to be a Daddy’s girl, and her focus on song. Moments where Beth sings The Parting Glass and Be Good are true silver linings in the dark cloud that is The Walking Dead. They’re a reminder of the way things used to be for these characters – the way they want things to be again.

Through this season Beth has strengthened but has retained that innocence, showing an ability to be cunning and defensive when she needs to be, and so it’s saddening, then, that it’s that evolution in her character that ultimately kills her. An attack on her kidnapper ends up backfiring and the next time we see the character she’s being carried away, limp, by Daryl.

I’m torn on the decision to kill off the character. Many of the characters in the main cast are popular, and Beth was only beginning to gain popularity, but the rest of the characters are too similar: Rick, Michonne, Carol, Tyreese, Daryl, Abraham, Maggie and even Carl are “badass” characters, well-capable of defending themselves, whereas the rest of the characters are generally on the other end of the spectrum, completely helpless. Beth showed promise in that she shows a different side of things. The fact that her character is a new addition to the show, having not existed in the original comic material, would give drive for future storylines, in particular one that will be coming up very soon: Alexandria. It’s a shame she’s gone. Nevertheless, season 5B is bound to be fantastic and will likely serve as the dawn of a new era for the show.

And we’ll buy a beer to shotgun
and we’ll lay on the lawn,
and we’ll be good.