3 month work placement at Neon Play.

Since early February I have been invited to spend a week at Neon Play Games and have since been going back to continue work on their unannounced title. Last week I was offered a 3 month, full-time (paid) placement with Neon Play! I have now organised sabbatical leave from my part-time job and will be starting the extended work placement from next Monday. I can't wait to get stuck in and continue working on this game full-time for 3 months, it's coming along great and is sure to be a hit when it is released!
Oli Christie (CEO at Neon Play) took some time yesterday to type up a blog on their website, about how I got the chance to gain some valuable industry experience check it out!

Happy as a fat man with cake!

Week placement at Neon Play.

I was lucky enough to be invited to spend this week on work placement at Neon Play, a mobile games developer based in Cirencester, working on a model for their upcoming unannounced title.

This opportunity actually came about when I attended a web chat with the CEO of Neon Play, Oli Christie. I was the only person to turn up for this and was duely rewarded by having my work looked at and invited to a morning at the studio, with the possibility of gaining some work experience. That came to fruition and this is my diary of my week spent at Neon Play.

Day 1:

I left home bright and early for the first day of my work placement at the Neon Play studio. First up was the Monday morning meeting, a time for everyone to sit together and hear about the plans and general goings-on about the place. Once this mini-meeting was over, I was taken around to meet the Neon Play by the art lead; everyone seemed really nice and were enthusiastic about their job and work on the current unannounced project. With the formalities done with, it was time to sit with the art team and see what I would be working on for the week.
Being shown the current build of the game for the first time was awesome. Just from spending a little time playing around with what had been created so far and hearing plans for the coming weeks, I can tell this new game from Neon Play is destined to be a big hit! I felt lucky to have the chance to work on it with the team for a short while.
There is some stunning work being produced at the studio and the concept work provided for me to work from was no different. Time for the fun to begin! I got stuck straight in to this piece, admittedly a starting a little slowly as I knew only a little about using Maya. By the afternoon I was beginning to get a better grasp of navigating Maya and using its tools. With day one over, I was making fairly good progress on the modelling phase considering.

Day 2:

During day two I continued to model the asset, trying slight design variations to see which one suited the purpose, had the strongest silhouette and read the best. Tuesday afternoon was spent optimising the mesh and getting to grips with Maya's UV Texture Editor to start the unwrap.

Day 3:

A couple of hours on Wednesday morning was used to finish unwrapping the mesh from the previous day. Now it was time to start the texturing! The first challenge was to get some solid base colours down, that both suited the purpose and read well in-game with animation. At the end of day three, after adding some big detail pieces to the texture, it was decided to change the colour palette ever so slightly. The new version was looking much better.

Day 4:

Thursday was largely spent working on the texture for my model, continuously adding new details and testing them out in-game. Things were starting to come together, just lots of tweaking with the texture.
Towards the end of the day I was called into the board room with the CEO, CTO and lead artist to talk about how I had enjoyed my week at Neon Play. Obviously I had a lot of fun working in the studio, getting to spend the days creating 3d art for games was awesome and something I hope to do full-time in the future. They told me my skills were coming along nicely and they had been fairly impressed with what I had created for them. My texturing work is slightly weaker at the moment, but will improve as I continue to relentlessly work and study. The conversation ended with me being told I could continue to work in the studio on work placement basis if I wanted, helping out with other bits of artwork for the current game. I was really happy with that. It's great to see a company going out of their way to help students like me, giving me some valuable experience and the chance to have an important addition to add to my CV and portfolio!

Day 5:

The final day of my work experience week was spent polishing the texture maps I had been working on, continuously iterating to create something slightly improved each time.
By the end of Friday, I had wrapped up work on the model I had been working on for the week. The lead artist seemed to think I had done well, considering the first day and a half was a little slow, trying to get used to using Maya properly for the first time. I was pretty happy with the model too, it was great to see something you have created put into a proper working game!
Just before I left that evening, I said goodbye to some of the team and thanked the artists for helping me out for the week. I had a great time at Neon Play and loved helping out on the fantastic game in the pipeline.

Thanks to Oli and Mark for giving me a chance to gain some real experience at a really great studio. Also, thanks to the whole team for being really kind to me and helping out during the week. I will definitely be back over the coming weeks to help with the game even more! 

The moral of this blog is to go that extra mile, put yourself out there and show your enthusiasm. How much do you really want this? By doing so, you will eventually get great opportunities like this.

Blitz Games Studios: Open Days 2013.... DENIED!

So, the time of the Blitz Games Studios: Open Days has come back around, 2012 absolutely flew by! For this year's open days, I submitted an environment piece; The Recovery Room Incident scene I created in UDK a couple of months back, to be precise... Well, to cut the story short, I wasn't successful this time around either. While it feels a little disappointing to begin with, I know what I need to do to get much better as a 3d artist (and artist in general). Hopefully, with all my goals laid out for 2013 (>see here<), learning the techniques and software I aim to add to my skillset by the end of the year, I can be successful on my third attempt.
They do say that the third time is the charm...

An interview with Train2Game Radio.

A little while back I was interviewed for Train2Game Radio, speaking about things like what got me into gaming, how I'm finding the Train2Game Art and Animation course and other similar topics. It's kind of hard listening to your own voice, but for others interested in having a listen, here is the interview in all its glory.

Click here to listen!

A day at Criterion Games?... Not this time!

To get straight to the point, I was unsuccessful in my application for the open day at Criterion Games. I know that places were very limited and competition was extremely fierce, so this has far from doused my drive to get better at 3d art work, if anything, it has only made it stronger. I will continue to improve and one day I will earn my invitation to other great opportunities like this in the future!

A day at Criterion Games?

Criterion Games in Guildford, creators of the Burnout racing series, are opening their doors (sort of) in an open day on 12th April 2012 aimed at final year A-level and first year university students, who are passionate about having a career in the games industry. There are only 30 places available (A mixture of art, programming, design roles etc), so I would of thought the amount of unsuccessful applications heavily outweighs the number of invited applicants. A select few from the open day will also picked for a full work placement at Criterion Games! (Registration for the open day closed on Friday 9th March).
To be in with a chance of being picked for the open day at Criterion you had to send a ZIP file of your CV with a few examples of your work, alongside answering four questions:
- Why do you want a work experience placement at Criterion Games?
- What would be the top 3 learnings that you hope to take away from a work experience placement at Criterion Games?
- How would this work placement opportunity help towards achieving your career goals?
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and why we should choose you above anyone else for this great opportunity?
For me a chance to go to any games studio would be a great experience, but to be able to visit one of the UK's most acclaimed would be amazing, so naturally, I applied. I would take so much from the day to increase my knowledge of the games industry and how it works and also to help me take my work to that next level.
The chances are that I will be unsuccessful (à la Blitz Games open day), but if they can spot someone from a crowd that has bags full of passion for the games industry, an infinite drive to work and learn until they can be the best they possibly can be and see a glimmer of potential from what I have learnt and work I have produced in one short year, then I might just stand a chance, right? You will find out shortly what the outcome of this is...

Blitz Games Studios: Open Days 2012.... DENIED!

Unfortunately the character model I submitted to Blitz Games Studios, for a chance to be invited to one of their 2012 open days was unsuccessful. I gave it a good stab and poured every ounce of 3d ability I currently have into the piece, but this time it just wasn't good enough. I have learnt so much during the process and will be back with vengeance next year, applying for a spot at the 2013 open days. Revenge will be mine!

Blitz Games Studios work? Submitted!

Today I finally submitted my 3d model of myself as an MMA fighter to Blitz Games Studios for a chance to be invited to one of their 2012 open days (Phew! Just in time for deadline day).
Below you can see the final model I have been working on for the last month. It definitely needs a few minor tweaks, but I needed to send it today otherwise it would be too late.
I modelled my character in 3ds Max (9834 tris), textured it in Photoshop (Only diffuse) and rendered up a final image in the newly purchased Marmoset Toolbag (So awesome!); so check it out.
EDIT: Here is another link to the image below for a zoomed-in view, click here!

My 'Blitz Games Studios: Open Days 2012' work

Recently I have started work on a piece that I will submit to Blitz Games, for a chance to be invited to one of their open days in March 2012. I have chosen to create a model of myself as an MMA fighter, with the gloves and shorts on. I will be posting updates throughout the process.

Blitz Games Studios Open Days 2012.

I found out about the open days that Blitz Games Studios are holding next March today. 3d artists are required to produce a model suitable for in-game use, supplying a jpeg of the final model and also an image of the texture map sheet. Applications are then narrowed down based on pure quality and also beginners potential, in order to sort out who gets a place at one of the open days, where attendees will get to spend a day at Blitz Games Studios asking industry veterans questions and watching the work take place.
Leading up to Christmas time I am going to be improving my modelling skills with the intention of submitting a creation before the January deadline date. This is one opportunity that I really do not want to miss!
More info at http://www.blitzgamesstudios.com/open-days/

[Originally posted on my old Wordpress blog - 11/10/11]