The Front Cover

Today we started off with a talk about our options after this course. The options include university, gap year and apprenticeship. I felt this talk was both informative and helpful as it helped to broaden my mind further when it comes to my future. We then moved on to talking about the key features of a front cover for a game. This included a title, an image of the main character, an age rating and much more. I felt this exercise was helpful because it aided me in my design of my front cover which we had to design later on. When it came to designing our front covers I felt mine was very good up until the issues I had with my canvas size. The canvas size had to be 120 millimeters I did not know how to change the size of the canvas originally but I do now. Finally we presented the front covers to the rest of the group. I was dreading this because when I had seen a few peoples just before hand they looked about ten times better than mine but I realised that some people hadn't even finished so I felt  that at least I managed my time well.

I enjoyed picking out our favorite game and talking about it's front cover. I liked this because I was interested in seeing everyone's favorite game and how they felt about it's front cover.

However I did not enjoy they initial problems I had with the canvas size of my games front cover. This was sorted eventually but only five minutes before we had to present our front covers to the rest of the class.

I feel that I do not need any assistance because I am not struggling or having any issues with anything that is still outstanding.

Overall today was a very good day because I manged to complete my games front cover and learn a bit more about my options after this course is finished. The only negative I did have was the canvas size issue that I have mentioned earlier in this blog.  

Designing The Games Key Features

Today we started off by playing two example games and stating what we thought about the characters, enemies, power ups and the background of the game. I thought this exercise helped me to understand what is required from the game I need to design and what features I need to add the game to make it fun and enjoyable. We then moved on to designing the key features needed in the game such as the enemies, power ups and what the main character will look like with this power up in effect. I felt I did quite good at this task because I looked at the tutorial for creating eight bit characters and followed it exactly in order to create the assets shown below.

 I feel that this unit has some benefit towards my future career because I want to be a web designer and a web designer has to understand about colour resolution and primary colours.

I enjoyed the first exercise of the day the most as it got us thinking about what we could put in our games when it comes to designing them and it was different from just having it shown to us on the board.

I feel I do not need any help at this current time because I fully understand the unit and what we have to do for this time being at least.

Overall today was a good day as I managed to have many of the assets for my game designed and ready to have in the final design when the unit comes around. I also made more corrections to my assignment one which I should now have completed very shortly.

Character Design

Today we started off with a PowerPoint about hygiene and what to do should we suffer any hygiene problems. I felt this talk was a bit pointless as we have already been taught at school about hygiene and how it effects our bodies. We then moved on to marking an example design log that had deliberate mistakes riddled through out it. I felt this exercise was a bit easy as most of the mistakes were quite obvious and were corrected with ease. We were then given the rest of the time before lunch to continue on with any work we were behind on. I used this time to polish up on my assignment one and address any mistakes that were highlighted to me in the marked version of my assignment one. I felt the concerns raised in the final marking were all addressed and I hope my assignment meets criteria. After lunch we had to come up with a design for our video game characters and it had to be eight bit. I came up with a robber and painted the eight bit character black and white to represent typical robber clothing. I felt this went very well because my character meets criteria and it matches the story line of my game as well as looking good.

I feel that I do not need any help at this present time as I do not have any outstanding work that needs dealing with other than my assignment one re submission which I am hoping to have up to standard and completed by the deadline.

Overall I felt today went very well as I achieved all of the tasks that were set today to the best of my ability and I particularly felt my eight bit character went well and I am hoping my assignment one that needs re submission meets the criteria.

The one positive from this week for me would be that I completed my design log to a great standard but then my video game character was also good so for me this week there was more than one positive outcome. On a side note I managed to get my phone I lost on the bus back so this week was very good for me.

Design Logs and a Quiz

Today we started off by learning about how we could broaden our descriptive vocabulary and not constantly repeat ourselves by using the same words over and over again. I felt this was very to understand and it will now help when it comes to writing this blog post and future blog posts. We then moved on to our design logs which was separated into 7 tasks which were to put an introduction at the beginning, put a header and footer in, put two mind maps in, the second being more detailed, pick three images to use as our game backgrounds that were royalty free and to pick a colour for each of the main characters in the three game ideas. I thought this went very well because I came up with five game ideas and managed to narrow them down to three and come up with background images and colour choices for all three. Finally we moved on to a quiz subjected around one six minute video about artificial intelligence. Unfortunately I could only manage to achieve a 4 out of fifteen but I did manage not to come last as we all found the quiz to be very difficult.

I feel that I need a bit of help with narrowing down my three ideas to just one because I think all three of my ideas are great but hopefully I can think about it this evening and come up with just one idea that I can use as my final design and I can then feel prepared for the games design unit that is coming up in the near future.

Overall today was both fun and interesting as I learned new things and had fun during the quiz and I currently am not struggling on anything too major and I am not behind on any work.

Game Concepts And More

Today we started off by learning about their they're and there and mainly when to use each of them in a sentence. We also talked about homophones which are words that sound the same but are spelled differently for example the word bear or bare which sound the same but are spelled differently and mean a completely different thing. We then went on to watch two videos about colour both had different information in them. The first video was about the basics of colour which is things like the three primary colours and when mixed the outcome becomes what is called a secondary colour. The second video was more about the different types of colours you get when you mix white with red or black with blue this is called tint and shade. I felt the second video was better than the first because I thought the information was given to me clearer and the voice was less annoying. After lunch we were given a drawing exercise where we were given eight different words we had to draw and then we had to go around the room with green pieces of paper and put them on who's drawing we felt was the best. I realised that I still cannot draw anything well and this was especially shown when we had to draw a cat which I am not good at. Finally we had to come up with five different broad game concepts and finally narrow them down to three.

I enjoyed the drawing exercise the most as I liked going around the room and comparing everyone's drawings and seeing what they associated with different words.

I did not enjoy watching the first video we were told to watch as I found the presenter to be a bit boring and her voice was particularly annoying.

I felt I did well at coming up with five different game concepts because I found it to be a very easy task because I am a very imaginative person.

I did not to well at drawing because I have never really had the talent for drawing this was evident form today's work.

I feel that I do not need any help with anything at his current time although I would like to improve my drawing skills at some stage.

Overall today was a good day as I found the activities to be fun and interesting and I did not struggle with anything.  

Colours And More

Today we started off by learning about the primary colours which are red, blue and yellow. We then talked about what kind of emotions and objects these primary colours remind us of. We also learned about secondary colours which are green, purple and orange and what emotions or objects these secondary colours remind us of. We then talked about the colour of video game characters and how the colour of them reflect how the character behaves. We then looked at our own chosen video game characters and how the colour or clothing on them represent the behavior of the character. We finally learned how to edit the colour of video game characters on Photoshop and learned about the monotone, duotone, complementary, analogous and contrasting tools on Photoshop.

I enjoyed changing the colours and tones of our chosen video game characters because it helped us out with our Photoshop skills and it gives us good experience for future units.

I did not enjoy picking out words and objects that we felt were associated with a certain colour because I particularly struggled with picking out 5 important objects or things that are yellow. Not many objects in the world that are yellow are important to me.

I feel I need a bit of help with understanding some of the colouring tools on Photoshop as I do not know what some of the tools do individually.

Overall today was a good day as I learned new things about colours and the psychology behind them and I learnt new skills in Photoshop and I hope I can improve on my Photoshop skills in the near future.

 

I lost my phone

Today did not start so brightly as I left my phone on the bus. When I got to Develop we continued on with our assignments and then had to feedback on our peers' assignments as well. We were then given a lecture on how to put things in a bin, wash things up and learn how to switch things off after use.

I felt I did well in evaluating a fellow peers' work. I also got some feedback and hope to iron out the negative points that were given to me by my peer

I did badly at keeping the common tidy, at least we all did and since we have learnt on how to tidy things up we hope not to make this mistake again.

Overall today was a bad day for me although there were a few highlights such as the lecture about bins and a fellow peer having to clean the common room badly. The bad points were my missing phone and the results of my assignment 1 which I hope to have rectified.

The Wonders Of The Internet

Today we started off with the different spellings of  there, their and they're. Unfortunately we could not access the sheets  properly as the internet was down and not working and Adam had sent them via email. So we printed it off and completed them by hand. I managed to achieve a score of 9 out of 10 but wished I had got one more correct answer so I could feel happier about the task. We then split up into groups to discuss the definitions of discussion, evaluation and conclusion. I contributed a reasonable amount to task which was to find the definition of discussion. We then moved on to a true or false quiz which contained 12 questions each with a true or false answer. I managed to achieve a very respectable 10 out of 12 despite the fact I was guessing for at least 4 or 5 questions. We then carried on with our assignments because the deadline is tomorrow I am hoping to have it finished relatively soon.

I enjoyed the definition task the most as we got to work in groups which we don't very often get to do however I did not enjoy the assignment that I had to carry on with as the internet was not working making research completely impossible.

I feel that I am doing well with the assignment considering the internet issues and hope to have the assignment in by the deadline tomorrow.

I feel I need a bit of help with the assignment as there are moments where I am not quite sure what I have to do and the internet could not have helped me.

Overall today the work was very frustrating without the internet but I managed to pull through in the end so I am relatively happy now.    
 

The Sixth Day

Today we started off with a little starter activity in which we had to match up the file format images with the names of the file format. I found this to be easy although I got 7 out of 8. We then had to continue on with our assignment 2 which is to explain how different types of graphic images relate to file formats. I found this to be hard at first until the task was explained to me and then I managed to complete the pass section of the task. We then moved on to the merit section of the assignment this is where we have to justify software, tools, file format, image resolution and colour used for creating graphic images. I am finding this to be a little difficult although I will seek some help to make sure the work I have done is correct. I also learnt more about the different types of compression which are Lossy and Lossness and which file formats require which type of compression.

I felt I have done well in the pass section of assignment 2 as I completed it without seeking help and hope the work I have done meets the criteria for this section.

I feel that I need a bit of help with the merit section of assignment 2 as I am currently unsure if the work I have done is correct and up to the required standard.

Overall today I broadened my knowledge of file formats and I now know when to use different file formats for different situations. I also managed to complete a section of assignment 2 and I hope to complete more over Wednesday and Thursday.

The Fifth Day

Today we learnt about the different types of file formats (doc, x PDF, JPEG) and when they are most suitable to use like JPEG for web or PDF for a person that might not have Microsoft Office. We also learnt about the different types of compression (Lossless, Lossy) and the advantages and disadvantages of them both. We then had to hand in our first assignment as it was the hand in date. We also completed two surveys that were designed to show us all how well we knew each other with different questions like how long we travel each day and who was the eldest on the course.

I enjoyed learning about the different file formats particularly when we were each assigned a file format we had to look up the definition of without using Wikipedia.

I did not enjoy comparing the advantages and disadvantages of Lossy and Lossless as I found making another table to be repetitive and boring but I still found it to be useful.

I felt I did well in picking out my definition as I now feel more informed when it comes to file formats and it was good to see what everyone else had put down as their definition of the file format they were assigned.

I feel I need a bit more help with the second assignment that we just recently started. I do not understand what we need to put in our tables but this should be rectified tomorrow when we continue with the assignment.

In conclusion today was very informative as I learnt new things like file formats and I learnt more about the people that I am on this course with  

The Fourth Day

Today I started the day by going to an appointment all the way in Bury st Edmund's. I would have arrived quicker at develop if it wasn't for a bus breaking down.

When I arrived I learnt that we were recapping over Harvard referencing and citing images. Citing images is when you type down the number of the image, the title of the image, the year it was published and the URL we got the image from. I finally got to use this skill when I got to the final part of my assignment.

I enjoyed being able to play around with Illustrator and learn it's many features. I hope to gain even more experience of Illustrator in the near future as I enjoyed it very much.

I did not enjoy the referencing at first but once I was shown through it I eventually learnt that it was not that difficult.

I felt that I did well in using Illustrator because I learnt about it's different features and what kind of  things you can create on Illustrator.

I felt that the things I needed help with that I listed in the previous blog have now been rectified and I hope I don't find things as difficult next assignment.

In conclusion today was a good day as the problems I had highlighted previously have now been sorted and I feel confident when it comes to both illustrator and citing images.  

The Third day

Today we learnt about illustrator and continued on with our assignments which was to compare different PC items and choose hardware, software, input and output items.

I enjoyed working on Illustrator and using the pen tool around the images we had chosen.
I did not enjoy working on my assignment as I started to find it a bit repetitive.

I felt I did well in Illustrator because I managed to complete the task and use the pen tool all the way around the character I had chosen.

I feel that I need more help with my assignment as I am not sure about certain things like referencing and the distinction task that was set to us.

Overall today was a very average day and I struggled with a few things that I hope will be rectified on my fourth day.

Second day

Today was my second day at Develop and we started a new unit on graphic design. I am currently finding this topic very interesting and I am constantly learning new things.

We learnt about what makes a good logo and then we learnt about hardware,software,input and output of a computer and how to compare different things against each other. We then learnt about Photoshop and it's different features  and eventually watched some tutorials.

I enjoyed picking out different logos and explaining and justifying why we felt they were good logos.
I did not enjoy watching the Photoshop tutorial video as I found it to be very dull.

I felt I did well at learning the difference between the inputs and outputs of a computer.

I feel that I would need a bit more help with Photoshop as there are so many different options and ways of doing things on Photoshop.

Overall I thought today was a good day although I needed help with a few things it is a natural part of learning.