I have really appreciated and enjoyed having these small projects to focus on during the last week.  Although I try to make the best of, contribute towards, and enjoy the paid work I have, I do not find that it inspires or challenges me.  This has been frustrating.  Having these projects to work on has lifted my spirits and made life more interesting again.

My week is up, and as you can see from my previous posts I did not manage to achieve everything I’d wanted to do.  Sure I enjoyed it, but my purpose is to cultivate an ability to focus and work hard on tasks, to not be lazy, and be able to see things through to completion based entirely on my own determination and will power.

The goals I set myself where not unreasonable, however, I found myself wanting to do other things.  Heavy Rain came out on Tuesday, a games development I’ve been keeping an eye for a couple of years now.  I also started watching Prince of Tennis, an anime I can’t quite believe is good.  I also wanted to socialize, and not having my own space to work in also proved to be a challenge.

When someone asks me to do a job, I usually get it done.  When I ask myself to do a job, its a thousand times harder.  I enjoy playing computer games and watching anime/movies etc.  These are a great way to wind down and peace out, and can be extremely inspirational too.  During the next week I’m going to pay close attention my self discipline, and stop myself staying up all night when I have tasks to complete the next day.  I enjoy staying up all night, and I enjoy the following day too, provided I can just relax and moosh around for the 12 hours that follow after.  So I’ll get my tasks done earlier in the week, and save the late night gaming sessions for after projects are complete.

So what’s the plan for the next week?

1) Produce a Zbrush sculpt of last weeks cheshire cat
2) I still want to read and summarize that essay
3) another 4 chineseclass lessons
4) study another go lecture and apply what I learn in games throughout the week.
5) finish ripping all of Eva’s cd’s

Go! Go! Go!

Filed under: freelance thinking, life musings, personal review by kiamo
No Comments »

There’s a great many things I want to do in life, always has been, always probably will be. I can’t help but feel incredibly lucky, I have loving family, find amazing friends wherever I go, have plenty of opportunity, I’m healthy, and I never had to do any/much work in school to achieve average plus grades. However, I don’t feel I’ve really excelled at, well, anything.

I don’t tend to talk about myself on my blog because I feel there’s much more interesting things available to discuss, and starting a discussion where the initiator is the subject material seems a bit conceited. But this isn’t a discussion. It’s a reflection, and hopefully the beginning of an important change in my life.

There’s been many people I’ve met in various places that I’ll never forget for many reasons but one in particular; their incredible ability to work hard.

Somehow I’ve managed to make it through life thus far without really putting in much effort at all. I’d like to develop the skills these aforementioned friends have, and enable myself to excel at whatever I choose to apply myself too.
This probably seems pretty pathetic, as most anyone coming across this and bothering to read it will likely possess more ability than I to focus on tasks and see them through to their completion. However for all my faults there’s at least one quality that I can be proud of, and that’s my desire to weed out and improve on my weaker areas, of which, this is perhaps the biggest.

What I intend to do, is set some goals for myself to achieve this week outside of work and social activities. This I will do publicly in this post, so they are out, rather than inside my head where I can push them to the back of my mind. Throughout the week I will set aside time to get them done. I may or may not do this again next Sunday but right now, I’m just going to focus on the coming week.

1) I will study a minimum of 4 Chinese classes from chineseclass101.com

2) I will produce concept sketches and final textured 3d model of a small character or object.

3) I will read and summarise one of the essays in Emergence, Dimensions of a New World Order

4) Study a Go lecture on KGS

I will post my progress on what I achieve as I go. For now however, its 1.20am, so I’m going to chill out, watch a film, sleep, and starting tomorrow, I will become more focused and productive.

Filed under: freelance thinking, life musings by kiamo
5 Comments »

Over on Bahaiperspectives.com, something interesting was posted on the topic of constructive criticism.  The author challenges the idea that constructive criticism is any better than regular criticism.

Having recently graduated from an Art/Design course which encouraged a culture of constructive criticism and witnessing its success, my initial response was that, if people have bad experiences with constructive criticism, then either its not being delivered well, or not being received well.  Both of which are skills anyone can learn.

Certain things I feel are important to keep in mind when critiquing are to make sure that the person you’re offering it too is prepared to receive it, and to offer lots of praise.  To take an honest look at the persons work or character, and focus on how they or their work can become even greater.

As for the receiver, the main thing is to not take offence unnecessarily, and to remain detached.

As I read through the article, the author then mentioned a friend who, rather than picking up on all the faults of her children, reviews where they are, and then tells them where they can go.  This model is very similar to the model of “praise-review-visualize” which is the form of criticism that many of us started to employ on our Art/Design course.  A model which worked quite successfully.

However, upon reflection, while this model has proven constructive, is it really criticism?  Would it not be more accurate to call it encouragement?  Its just more useful encouragement than the shallower “go on, you can do it!”

The more I think about it, the better the form of criticism I can think of, the more it seems to look like encouragement.

Reading through the various definitions of criticism reveal an orientation around fault finding.  Picking out the faults of others doesn’t seem like a healthy way to live my life, and “constructive” criticism just seems like putting nice icing on a bad cake.

Definitions of encourage on the Web:

• promote: contribute to the progress or growth of
• inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to

These definitions of encourage seem to be what I would intend constructive criticism to be.  So if this is encouragement, what’s constructive criticism, and why do we need it?

What are your views on criticism and encouragement?  Leave your comments below, or for any readers via facebook, head over to Coffee Stains and Ink Spills and comment there.

Filed under: Baha'i, freelance thinking, life musings by kiamo
2 Comments »

Recently I started working on a theme for the haphazardMEDIA website.  I enjoyed mashing it together in photoshop, however the lack of thought I put into design left me feeling stuck.  Something just isn’t right.

After reading a brief amount about web design on Mark Boulton’s Blog, I did a quick little experiment in photoshop to help me break free from the haphazardMEDIA theme.

What are your thoughts on these designs? Particularly the first one?  It would be really helpful to hear other peoples points of view.

Filed under: freelance thinking, geek by kiamo
1 Comment »

My employer at GoKidsGo discovered my blog last week, and yesterday he joked that I obviously have too much time on my hands.  A notion I’d easily go along with, but, it did trigger me thinking about why I choose to take the time to blog.  For me it seems to come down to three main reasons, any one of which is good enough on its own.

1) Writing regularly improves our ability to think and communicate well.  The written word is increasingly becoming a part of every day life.  We email, tweet, text, instant message, comment, write proposals and reports, and blog now, more than ever.  Learning to write well is a skill well worth taking the time to pursue.

the words we use to write with are the same words we use to think with, learning to write well has ramifications that go beyond the merely technical. As we improve our writing ability, we improve our ability to think – to build an argument, to frame issues in compelling ways, to weave apparently unrelated facts into a coherent whole. – Dustin Wax

2) Taking the time to think about things on a deeper level, helps define who you are.  In addition, culminating your thoughts into coherent conclusions leaves your mind free, and better able to focus on other tasks.  I find it’s worth the effort, and results in better efficiency and productivity in other areas of my life that require attention.

3) Online identity and personal brand.  Blogging is the corner stone of your online identity, and is a great way to make the world more aware of who you are and what you do.
People google people now more than ever before, and will do so even more tomorrow.  It makes sense, and is completely morally sound.  If I might be working with someone, it’s worth taking the time to get to know them, as best I can before taking the plunge.
It’s extremely likely that google will have results on me, so its worth taking control of those results to better define who you are and why your valuable.  Your name is essentially a brand that gets associated with the skills and qualities you have to offer the world.

What other reasons do you think its worth (or perhaps not worth) blogging?  If you already blog tell us why you choose to do so.  Or if you don’t, what’s held you back?  Share you’re thoughts in the comments below.

Filed under: freelance thinking by kiamo
2 Comments »

A fellow game art student from the year below me wrote on his blog about the film United 93.  He also talked about emotion and gaming, which evoked a response from me.

People engage in entertainment to feel emotions, whether its to feel excited, relaxed, and happy, or to feel inspired, and motivated, or even sadness.
We are feeling creatures, we do something because we feel.  (or don’t feel if that’s the case)

Good stories take the watcher, reader, or player for an emotional roller coaster.  It’s the contrast between highs and lows of the ride that brings out the emotions in us.  Books are a very matured art form which do this well, after all we have been writing and reading for a good while now.  Films although a significantly younger form of story telling, have also matured significantly over recent decades and also do this well.

Gaming as a media is still in its infancy, and creating emotion in games is a big subject that demands much thought and skill to achieve.  The day when a game evokes such sadness and grief that players break down and cry has still yet to come.  Emotioneering in games is considerably harder than well… any other media form.  It requires ingenious script writers, who weave a diversity of paths a player might take into a coherent whole, a story the player is unfolding at their own discretion, which evokes a sense of this emotional roller coaster.  The script writers also are required to write believable dialog, and develop strong characters which the player might engage in.

The visual artists also, need to understand what it is about a their art, that will contribute towards this quest in emotioneering.  How do I compose my scene? What features about my character will tell their history and increase their believability?

Believability is another massive issue all on its own so I’ll only just touch on the subject.  Believability doesn’t have to mean everything looks and moves and sounds realistic.  Something completely unrealistic can still be believable.  The stunts Neo can do in the Matrix are believable because of the atmosphere that is created.  Right away, before you know anything about the matrix, zion, or anything, you see Trinity doing unbelievable things, which are believable, because the film has already created a sense of ’somethings not quite right here’, which tells the mind that things out of the norm might happen, and thats ok.  Also the use of advertising before the film came out would have contributed towards this.  (major point of thought into the use and value of adverts)

I’ve focused a lot on the telling of stories, but thats not the only purpose of entertainment.  Regardless, of whether its to tell a story, to just have fun or any other reason,  emotions still play a big role in the quality and value of what is created.

If you’re interested, check out David Freeman.  He does a lot of work in emotioneering, both in film and games.

As usual I’m interested to hear other peoples thoughts and insights into the subject, so if you have something to share, comment away.

[note:  The photo up top is an olde which cracked me up when I found it, of two great friends that wouldn't harm anything or anyone.  Nothing to worry about.  haha]

Filed under: Games, freelance thinking by kiamo
No Comments »

Game design often doesn’t get the respect it deserves, and gets taken lightly.  In fact, I think there’s more to game design than people might initially relate to it.

Creating games requires massive amounts of consultation and flexibility, strong storyboarding/comic book skills, strong music skills (organic adaptable music), strong film direction (some of you may have played MGS4 which fills up a 50gig blue ray and has HOURS of the best animated movies I have ever seen in a game, the ending movie of which totalled around 75mins long).  And also strong digital and traditional art skills, and its worth noting that games are reaching a point near equal to that of animated films with regards to graphical beauty already.  A lot of friends and people I know are interested and skilled in a variety of arts which have a place in game design.  I think its very exciting to work with a vast diversity of talents and skills, to produce a finished piece of work that incorporates it all.

It is also worth noting that the game industry as it is now brings in more that double the revenue than that of the film industry, and the margin is increasing.  On top of which we are now seeing people starting to play games from as young as 3 until people of old age, its an industry that is growing exponentially.

The game industry is HUGELY exciting, and is growing and transforming at a rapid rate, and is becoming embedded into every aspect of our lives, whether we are a hardcore traditional gamer, or a social wii player, or playing on our phones on the tram to work, or (and this is of particular interest to me) the role games are going to play on spiritual, psychological and material education.

In a world where the current music and film industries are being forced to evolve the way they operate, and with the successful growth and development of the game industry it seems entirely possible, that more and more, the application and use of these aforementioned media’s will dwell primarily within interactive entertainment and interactive education.

Its important to not only look at the problems we see in industry now that need to be overcome, but also to look at what is on the horizon.  Fully immerssive virtual reality is in the not so distant future and super high speed bandwidth connections being standard in all homes (if not freely available wirelessly from any location) opens up pandoras box.  In 5 or 10 years the media world will be radically different.

In a world where full emmersive gaming is possible, where we can write images directly onto peoples retina’s(something that is estimated to be possible within a few years), there are going to be mega social and spiritual problems emerging from this and it seems critically important to have a positive foot in this industry which is closing in on us.

The industry which is in fact already established around us, and known as “the game industry”.

To quote Ray Kurzweil: “the word game is unfortunate, because it makes it sound like it isn’t real, but in multiplayer games and virtual worlds we do real romance, real learning and real business.  Second Life has $2 million a day in real economic transactions.  Unfortunately, these names have stuck.  Artificial Intelligence is real intelligence.  Virtual Reality is real reality.  In the 19th century, the telephone was virtual reality. With a billion fold increase in performance and a hundred thousand fold shrinking in size over the next 25 years, you will be able to implant blood-cell sized devices that are even more capable and can expand our intelligence and provide full immersion virtual realities”

The age of doing what your told and following instructions without creativity is coming to a close, and an age where all business’s crave creativity and innovation is opening up. And education is slowly starting to reflect this demand.

The transformation we have all witnessed on the internet testifies to mankind’s growing desire to interact and express creativity in a wide variety of forms, from customizing our myspace page, or creating music/pictures/videos and uploading it to places like icompositions, or flickr, or youtubeand so on.  All of this is a clear indication that people want to be creative and interactive.    Clearly interactivity is the future.

As I said in the beginning, I think there’s more to the game industry than people might initially relate to it, and in my opinion its worth exploring.

phew… that ended up to be quite the rant.

Filed under: freelance thinking by kiamo
No Comments »