Time Management

Time management....So, to start this one off i found it a shock that i have 40 hours unaccounted for a week, which as said by people is like a full working week, so in terms of time management i have a lot of room to talk about. But where does all that time go? because its not like its 40 hours i cant physically remember or account for, there hours are still there, its just whats being done with them. This have made me think that it isnt about using up every hour of everyday, but rather just about knowing what is going on with that time and what your doing with it

So with that in mind i though it'd be best to explain what i do with my time in terms of work. Me, like a few other people are blessed (or rather cursed) with having dodgy sleeping patterns due to multiple reasons. I would use what precious hours of daylight months like November and December had to do the necessary things like food shopping and sleeping, then during the night when all was quiet i would crack on with work. For pretty much all of the first term this was in fact my working pattern. But was this really for the best, I mean doing the tasks like food shopping during the day when you can get away with distractions and doing work at night when all is quiet so distractions are a bit more rare seems to be for the best? In heinsight i think it actually wasnt, and this needs fixing. Working at such a time might provide no distractions but working in the place i do might provide temptation, my room contains the internet, TV, games consoles which means work can still be slowed down. I thought it was at first, i mean it was my preffered working environment, your room at 4am has no distractions, your phone sure isnt going to ring with any phone calls or texts because everyone is asleep, and everyone else snoozing means going out and socializing isnt on the table either. But Ive come to realize that you cant really plan every minute of the day, unexpected things happen, phone calls, people unexpectedly popping round to your flat, even friends and family going into hospital so there are moments when it all goes out the window. Which comes to the fact it doesnt matter what time of day it is, weather its night or day, weather its your fault or not, you can still end up wasting time.

This is why time management is so important, because after you have your events that are unexpected the rest of the time is yours to control, and it needs to be looked after., and it needs to be looked after for that one key word...deadlines. The clues kind of in the name, you have to manage your time so you can get things done on time! So Ive been looking into what time management is and how to do it. To be honest it mainly just about organization, something as simple as knowing what you've got to do with your time and getting it done, not sitting around your workspace going ermmmm soooo whats next? Sort it out, write a list, Ive started keeping post it notes everywhere so when i sit down i have something in my face telling me whats next and when it has to be done for.

So when is your best time to work? I looked into this and i read that...... In terms of time management, you are at your most efficient the day before you start your annual leave. Your time management and efficiency on this day is probably awesome. If you really want to, you can be that well-organized every day. In my opinion that's because you are making sure it gets done ( but not at the cost of quality of course) so u can finish off and go enjoy yourself, nights out, watching a film etc etc. But i do think this can work if you put it down into simple forms. Everyone is a fan of some kind of TV series for example, if the new episode is out, make sure you get the days work done before you allow yourself to watch it, that way you'll enjoy it more and feel satisfied because its like the treat you get for keeping on top of your work. So in this simple for, i think it could be right.

But still looking at things like having certains times while working to have your 'own' time such as films, you have to remember it has to be balanced. All play and no work has bad effects, and vice versa. I mean there is only a certain amount of hours in the day, but there is things you can do to get more time out of it. less nights out for example, just even one night out less a week. Like its not the end all but it does helps. When work needs to be done socialising is one hell of a distraction, but it doesnt mean you have to spend your time at uni being boring and sad. Instead of saying “no” learn to say “later”. You'll enjoy it more without that black cloud hanging over your head of an upcoming review

Some more looking into time research i found the Chinese adage of the longest journey starting with a single step has a couple of meanings: First, you launch the project! Second, by starting, you may realize that there are some things you have not planned for in your process. Details of an assignment are not always evident until you begin the assignment. Personally i find this quite true, more so when it comes to 3D. Even if you know the project is to make a character you still find find issues in terms of making it...How do i make it? where do i start? Again this is organisation, but more so just developing and knowing your own work ethics is the best way to fix this. Personally i strip model heads, so if i need to make one i know that im going to start by doing the eyes, blending that into a cheeks, then into a mouth etc etc so from day one i know where to take it. I think that just having your own work ethics and knowing what they are can get you to work more efficiently, and more importantly, get the work started. Because i think thats quite an important part too, actually getting the work started and getting on with it. I find it best to not sit around wondering how to make it look like how i want it and rather just starting it,make a cylinder, start to divide it, make a box, anything to get the work flowing so the ideas can come with it. But this can something border no planning which can also have it downsides, so again, more time management issues for me. To be fixed.

So in conclusion i do feel last term my time was far from managed and with the seriousness of how important actually managing your time is i think im going to keep it all in mind and make sure that next term is goin to be a whole different story

2nd to 3d

I remember people saying that second years is just a buffer between 2nd year and 3rd, much like a film, the only reason its there is to prepare you for the 3rd one. But i was thinking in order to prepare you for 3rd year there is actually quite a lot to do. For example if you have recently aspired to be something like a next gen character artist then its going to have to show in your portfolio, which means your 3rd year fmp will probably be along the lines of character designing. But in order to be good at a character artist you need to get certain skills up to scratch, character modelling, texturing, zbrush if you want next gen, rigging, topology and so on. and if you plan on doin this for a 3rd year fmp that means u have the space of second year to not only learn it all but to get good at it, and that to me sounds like a lot of work.

This has got me a tad worried about how much work is actually involved in 2nd year as all this practice has to get done in such a short space so you can utilise it and be ready to put it into practice in your 3rd year. Because lets face it, if you want to be something like a character artist and dont know the basics about topology and alpha maps by your 3rd year your a bit fucked. This kinda gives me the idea of stress much? its made me realise how serious and how much work this course is if you truely are driving towards being good in the industry. Which considering the second year is the year where there is a slump at work, i mean with all this in mind shouldnt it be the other way round? with second year being the year out of the 3 where you work the most so you can be prepared for the final hurdle? im finding this worrying. So ill keep this one short and sweet and all im saying is second term a lot more has to be done...beacuse if you want to be good at this second year is important isnt it?

Beethoven vs. solid snake

So in the blue corner we have Beethoven, and in the red corner we have solid snake. Why am i putting these two together? because in the video games industry Beethoven (or at least his musical style) is still kicking arse.

See i found a youtube video that recently made me realise that me along with the majority of the gaming community unknowingly loves Beethoven (or at least his musical style). If you dont believe me then hear me out. Like most other gamers i frequently fall in love with game soundtracks and love listening to game OST's, and i think everyone else does too. I mean how many people dont know how to hum the tetris theme tune? good, or sometimes catchy soundtracks stick and are enjoyed. But its recently hit me that the best and most memorable soundtracks come from classical orchestras. This also applies to film aswell.

This has hit me as quite a wierd dilemma because video games as we know are always pushing the boundaries to find the newest technology and keep the ball rolling forward. But if a game or film is in need of a cracking soundtrack they dont really go to the newest music scene. You dont hear any x factor winners or black eyed peas in video games, they always take a step back to classical orchestral sounds. This combination of the new and the old i do quite like. Most good soundtracks were created with classical orchestras. So an industry always looking into the future and pushing ahead is still relying on a thousand year old medium to give them the good stuff and i find this rather wierd.

I mean look at Star Wars, done by John Williams and the London symphony orchestra. The Call of Duty games still relies on a good old bugle and even Metal Gear Solid, one of the best gaming soundtracks of all time uses Harry Gregson-Williams and the eminence symphony orchestra. And that orchestra was etsablished over 50 years ago, its like gamings grandad doing the soundtracks and yet its still pushing boundaries in the industry. So next time you hear your favourite soundtrack just think that its probably a 500 year old orchestra kicking arse with it.

Ill leave u with the link i was on about earlier to show u what i mean, just watching this video will be able to sum up and explain everything im trying to better than i can, and its pretty awesome too.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfKA4b5SFq4

More 3D

Once again just so people can see larger images

Quick 3D Work

just posting a larger image of 3D work so far so people who are looking at it on facebook can get a better look

Bit 'o' Work

yeah erm i aint posted anything in ages so av decided to get me work up on here aswell as facebook, been cracking on with bits and bobs over summer, av been doin the summer projects but at the same time just modelling random crap to get me skills up, got some pics up of the horse almost finished for me jousting project and a violin which i randomly deiced to model, ill be back when their both finished so enjoy!

Where I Want To Go, Apart From The Pub

Ive been asked the question where do you want to be in 5 years so many times now, and over the past 3 years theres been so many different answers to go with it. But the thing is im really open minded about that subject. At college i stopped on for another year to do a foundation in fine art because i didnt want my portfolio to just contain graphic design. I wasnt prepared to dedicate myself to just one thing so early in life, and here at uni i still kind of feel the same way. I stayed really open minded about what i wanted to aspire to while still thinking about what im passionate about, at first i thought illustration might be a good route because i love music and doing something like creating album artwork could be a good start. But it wasnt until i was casually flicking through prospectus' at college that i first layed eyes on this course. Ive played games for god knows how long and my parents always bug me at home for how i dont have enough storage space for them resulting in my floor being littered with game cases and controllers, so i thought following that route could be it aswell, id love to sit and play a game with my friends and then when the last boss appears on screen i could casually point and go yeah i made that. so here i am.

But thing is all the passion aside, when it comes down to experience in whats nessecary to be a game artist i didnt really have that much. When i first joined the course i didnt have experience with any of the modules. Essays i had done (and despised) but blogs no, and in terms of drawing sitting in a park with no more then a sketchbook and a pencil was even new to me, and i remember before uni started i downloaded 3ds max and gave it a go but the second it opened it just baffled me. I knew i wasnt going to suddenly and magically become some shit hot artist so my target for the year wasnt to create awesome artwork and models because it was all new to me and i knew i had to learn it all first, so i simply wanted to keep up with the learning curve.

Since ive been hear ive learnt a lot though which has gave me ideas into what i might want to be. My digital painting still sucks big style so i need to put more time into that. But the 3d work is something ive kind of clicked with, i know im not the best modeller yet and my character project shows that but once again i have to walk before i can run. Since being here ive downloaded about 4GB of tutorials for 3ds max showing me how to do everything from modeling a super high poly head to a low poly rubber ducky...seriously, i have a tutorial on how to model a rubber ducky, and personally i enjoy doing the 3d work. Theres nothing better than sitting in your nice warm room at 1AM with a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other cracking one with some editable polys, i fucking love it. Like i said im still very open minded about where to go from uni but something 3d wise wouldnt be too bad for me i think.

For reflection i do know ive came along way from merely 6 months ago when the likes of a target weld on max got me confused and drawing the canal was bewildering. My first ever attempt on max i simply sat there making lots of teapots being amused like a simple child and now here i am having to hand in a 2,000 poly character, and thats just 6 months. so my ultimate goal from next 2 years is just to quite simply get better at what im doing, and well see where it gets me by the third year with any luck.

Creativity Part Two

And so we take a second look at that wonderful word creativity. My last creativity blog just tried to define what it is so its time for a new discussion point. After goin on about what creativity is i started looking at how it gets used and is required within the creative industry, and especially that of video games.

The words creativity and original do not go hand in hand in this day and age. Nearly every game is basically the same, I mean when was the last time you played something that wasnt an FPS or RPG, when was the last time you played something that didnt involve guns and shooting people or futuristic environments? not to say that no one is creative and is just instead stealing each others ideas but you get the point. So where is creativity's place in game if its not about making something original and new?

Well most of the time games are about setting the bar, with the same ideas as their predecessors being used but looked at in different perspectives and used in different ways to up that bar. Better storytelling, better graphics etc etc, a story isnt original but creating one that can better the previous requires creativity, and that where it can come in for the games industry. That and games can sometime act as inspiration for bigger and better ideas, adding new storylines and characters, weaving in new plots, this is someone using creativity and finding imaginative ways to add to and already exsisting idea in order to improve on it. Once again, creativity in the games industry involves setting the bar.

So to get involved with the creative industry what do you need to do? Well i remember Mike once said about how many a people will model ninja soldiers or whatever with the aspiration of being the next Tekken artist and so on, and send them to companies. Like the majority of them they will be put in the 'filing cabinet' AKA the bin, but someone who models their pet dog will probably get person sitting down and looking at it.

This is beacuse when it comes to creativity what companies and game are looking for isnt originality because originality is a spin off of predecessing ideas, but more the uncommon and imaginative. Imagination is whats needed to fuel games, afterall ever game out there is someones brain child right? In terms of what ive said theres loads of games with ninjas and all that in them but things like dogs and cats arent really used in games (except for NPC's and Nintendogs for the DS) so to model something like that doesnt show you abilities to model a good looking but generic ninja warrior but your imagination to go for whats uncommon and can be seen as creative and original, and i think this what kind of creativeness the games industry is after.

Life Changing or Career Building?

When i was at college i was given a lecture on how you can basically fail college and still get into university with unconditional offers based on your portfolio. It was about how your skills and abilities can sometimes over rule qualifications and that if you are good at what you do, and have a shit hot portfolio to prove it, you dont really need qualifications to say your good, your work does it for you. But with some game companies wanting the exact opposite it comes down to which one gets you places in life, the grades of the highly trained programmer or the creative individuals portfolio?

Im my opinion i think the portfolio is the more important of the two, the biggest example to back me up here is this. Your at a job interview and the person sat next to you after the same job has left uni with the exact same grades as you but theres only one job available...bam...thats grades getting you the job go out the window because yous are both even, the only way to win this one is with your portfolio.

Im a strong believer in the portfolio because of the fact its personal to you, unlike grades which can be as identical as the person next to you portfolios are different. I left college with a final grade of MMM, which is the same grade as like....about 10,000 other students? But i bet none of them had my portfolio and vice versa. Their completely unique to you and show your work and your work only. They can be tweaked to show off your strong points and they can be used to give the employers what they want, bonus points to you. Company vary as much as the weather does these days, which each company making completely different kind of games to one another. So having a portfolio containing the kind of work they do in it will help twist their arm more than a grade ever will i think. So if you want to work for microsoft on the next gears of war, dont go putting your my little pony models models in your portfolio.

But specializing in one area to satisfy someone can be a bit dangerous. Specializing in one area can leave you weak in another, while getting good at everything can turn you into the handy man of gaming...good at everything, but not brilliant at one thing, and the word mediocre doesnt seem to get you anywhere in this industry. Also ive heard of universities having 'house styles' where all the students come out with the same kind of stuff in their portfolios. So do universities need to teach it all and give it all to students?

Which leads to the question how can education meet these opposing views and yet provide a valid and fulfilling experience to students? Well when it comes to the good experience university living provides that anyways, afterall getting drunk and pursuing women becomes second nature in this kind of habitat, and who doesnt enjoy that? So its what can students learn from education that should be the question.

Well I think its down to the student really to specialize and learn about what they are passionate about and seek in life. Uni cant 'teach it all' to a student so its up to them to develop the style that suits them so they can get a job they want. Uni is a stepping stone to teach them their A,B,C's in 3ds max and visual design etc etc, Giving the students the tools that they need to get the job done. The rest is just motivation and passion on the students behalf.

Sound for Games

sound is used in games to create a variety of things. It can create atmosphere, pace and emotion. all of these tasks can be performed well by the right music and sound, helping support and portray the emotions and feeling that go with the certain settings of the game. If there is a fight scene or you are on the run then a fast paced soundtrack supports the action, creating tension. If a deserted eerie feel is needed as the player explores spooky environments then the classical slow spooky music will be used. Sound seems to be extremely underestimated in games when contrasted against visual looks and effects, as afterall people do generally get more pleased by the look of a giant explosion then the sound of footsteps echoing through a hallway. This i believe gives sound in games more of a background role in overall gameplay, but it is still one of the key components in creating an authentic and rememberable gameplay experience.

After doing a bit of homework into the key composers in the games indusrty it striked me that the majority have common traits. For the most part the key composers dont just work in games, they are known throughout all media. Harry Gregson, the man behind all of the Metal Gear Solid soundtracks is also known for his work in the Shrek films and the number 23. Martin O'Donnell has his name to fame through the Halo series and Masami Ueda is the man behind both the Resident Evil Games & Films. This also stirkes me as it comes across as if there are no such things as 'freelance' composers, people that just drift in and out on films and games composing bits and bobs for them here and there, all composers are dedicated to entire series' and are called back in when sequels to a franchise are on the drawing board.

my key sonic moments in gaming history would be a punch up between Resident Evil 2 or Super Metroid. Super Metroid being one of the first full games i played when i was a child, to complete it in under 10 hours was an achievement deemed near impossible and the length of the game meant it had quite the soundtrack to go with it. Also the soundtrack wasnt just some cheesy bit of music that was present on all the other games on its time like super mario, it was one of the first game i played with music that had meaning. each and every theme in the game fitted perfectly. With creepy themes in abandoned areas interrupted by fearful themes when you encounter space pirates. Each zone also had its own theme, electrical fast paced music to complement the zones with lots of action and eerie almost choir like music to accompany unexplored, mysterious zones. this all added to the game and made it on hell of a game for a 8 year old me :D

Resident evil on the other hand goes down as one of my key moments aswell because it had music in it that i ended up getting to hear for years after, giving it a more nostalgic value than anything else. The save room song was one used in every res evil game and one i always remember. After half an hour of running around basements getting your arse kicked your low on health and ammo praying to god your not going to die and have to start over from the last save point, then you enter a room preparing for the worst and you hear the save room song. Instantly you know your safe, no ememies, health, ammo and a save point to sort you out on your way. It was almost like heaven. That on top of the fast paced song at the end always accompanied the laboratory tannoy blaring 'self destruct system has been activated, all personnel evacuate emidiately' res evil has a thing for always having that at the end. When you heard that you knew it was time for the final boss, sort of like a psych up song for the final battle. and its why i love it so much

To end im gonna answer the question is it true that the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards composition 'Good Times' is the most influential recording made in the 20th Century? Well i did some looking up and found the song on ye olde youtube and at first i thought this was a trick question because in my own personal taste that song isnt very good which leaves me to personally answer the question with no. But at the end of the day music is all about personal taste, some people like it, some people hate it, but getting into the likes of that is a bit deep so ill probably go on about that some other day

toodles for now

Gaming Engines

Game engines are vital pieces of software that put realism into a game, real life physics such as weight, density and buoyancy are put into games using engines. Without these we would have tanks acting like they were the weight of a marshmallow or boats being confused an trying to be submarines by sinking the second you get on them. This is done using complex code which us as artists will probably never see or understand, well leave that for the programmers thank you. So in short engines make the game work. It also handles all the main factors of a game such as AI, lighting and animation and makes them work together for the game. The key engine technologies pretty much boil down to the source engine from Valve, The Havok engine and the Unreal engine. Each with their own personal traits and games including Half Life 2, Bioshock, The force unleashed, Gears of war etc etc

Gaming engines can be resuable with the like of the source engine being used in half life 2, counterstrike and team fortress 2. Making them middleware. This resuable technology can save a lot of developers time as instead of creating their own engine they can simple buy other companies engines, quite a bonus considering creating an engine can take years and cost from £10,000 to 3 million. Also not having to create your own engine can be seen as a good thing. Not having to worry about making your own engine means less focus on technology and more time spent on gameplay. games such as BioShock proves it works with the game not concentrating on next gen physics and instead just buying one, the unreal engine to be exact, so most of their time can go into making the game being both creatively and beautifully designed.




Some of the key issues for gaming engines, both old and new are either issues that have cropped up due to the next gen era or ones that have been haunting gameplay since the dawn of time. Technology restraints are a big issue. As next gen engines are becoming more and more photo realistic with dynamic lighting and so on the technology to play them on such as PC'S arent quite being able to keep up with them, resulting in them not being able to support the engines. This is especially the case with PC gaming. When the Crytek engine first made an appearance it was more a showcase piece for the company then a reliable engine as barely any computers were powerful enough to use it. Technology is having a hard time keeping up with one another as yet another issue engines have is the old chestnut of AI, over the years of gaming AI has been constantly critisised in reviews due to a lot of games having a lack of good AI 'on a couple of times he just froze up while the enemy turned us both into bullet and hamburger sandwiches' or 'he ended up endlessly running around like a sheepdog with a piece of shrapnel stuck in his head' to say a few from zero punctuation reviews. In the world of next gen consoles graphics have reached the point where they are only one step away from looking pretty much like real life but in gaming engines AI hasnt seem to have caught up yet, leaving us with PS1 day cases of NPC's occasionally still being no use nor ornement.

Gaming Culture

Geeks and Nerds are typically associated with online gaming and making friends with strangers from the internet. Its chliched but in reality everyone does it without even knowing. So this isnt really the way gaming is, Its actually quite a different world

Playing games isnt always the case of lone teenagers in their bedrooms with the door locked, I often enjoy going around to other peoples flats and having a blast at whatever games just so happens to be on. This can range from halo to guitar hero and usually involves either multiplayer or a single player 'passy the parcel' style gameplay where the controller gets passed around to whoever fancies the next go at trying to nail a guitar solo. The night is casual, layed back and contains a light hearted atmosphere where jokes and mocking are usually made about someones futile attempt to pass a level, but this is all in good fun as what goes around comes around and the favour is returned during their next turn.

There's also another type of gameplay that usually gets stereotyped. this is the more serious nature of gaming, LAN gaming. Me and a few other from our course who have probably mentioned the same on their blogs go to gaming society every Tuesday night. This can range from comical peggle races to your more serious team fortress 2 competitions which can get pretty intense. This brings out the competitive side of everyone as on many the occasion you will find yourself defending a flag with no one over your shoulder to support you, so the mocking becomes real as you turn around to throw remarks at your team mates for their absence as back up only to find your brief absence of attention has left you open for a headshot with the resulting death of yourself. Enraging you even more as mocking continues to the blame game of who's fault it was you were left open. This competitiveness can also go a stroke too far, as abuse can get thrown towards the weird looking guy in the corner of the room who's joined your game of left for dead. No harm done until he starts deliberately killing your own team out of what we could only rationalise as boredom because of the time it was taking us to advance through rooms with tactical precision. Friendly fire isn't really the best idea to entertain yourself or to make new friends, but this is the nature our serious gaming

But this although this is an activity which is a considerable part of my lifestyle I wouldn't call it geeky or uncool is to be honest everyone does it, not as precisely as LAN parties but even online socialising and communities such as facebook and MSN can be branded under the same category as online gaming. I mean how many people on your MSN or facebook have you got added but don't know? Bout the same as we do on Xbox live me thinks? yet we get the nerdy reputation for it.

As a leaving present i thought id leave a link, i know its old but if anyone hasn't seen pure pownage its a perfect example of how online gaming can go just a little bit too far...BOOM headshot! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9qXbgrx9rg

An Introduction To The Games Industry

lay offs lay offs lay offs...The industry is currently going through recession. So how does the industry, us as aspiring game artists and the economy get effected by this? Well as past seems to put it not very much. gaming has come a long way from a few guys in a bedroom making a game the size of a 500 word e-mail. It has indeed matured and is now up their with film as one of the big dogs, a multi million pound professional industry. Bigger budgets, bigger and more experienced teams. In the modern world this mean jobs, salaries, and mostly profit. But with the recession doesnt this mean we just have more to loose? Apparently not since gaming CEO'S are convinced this is a recession proof industry and this deal shouldnt be too big.

But is gaming really recession proof? I think it could be because quite wisely put by NPD analyst Anita Frazier “The video games industry — like some other forms of entertainment — has acted as though they are recession-proof in difficult times” “People still want to be entertained and to enjoy a diversion from their everyday concerns.” During recessions people need an escape from reality, a mere 2 or 3 hours where they cannot be worried about the stresses of real life. Somewhere they can run away to and do as they please. If they want vent rage from a day at the office they can take a car for a joyride and mug and old lady in the process by playing GTA. If they want to feel more accomplished they can nurture and care for a pet dog on the DS.

Although their are exceptions to this though where people have apparently done these things in games such and been apparently influenced to do them in real life. Warren Leblanc was an example of this as manhunt allegedly made him commit a real 'manhunt inspired' kill http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6103718.html But us as responsible adults know that isnt possible due a little known thing called the justice system and prison thus why we are dependant on games so much to be able to do it. Kind of a VR therapy.

Im not a strong believer of game violence influencing people into re enacting it in real life. Souly because the game is their so you can escape reality and actually do these things so they dont have to be acted out in the real world with catastrophic consequences, they suppress, not agrovate. Society has tried this one many times in the past like how they blamed the columbine shooting on trenchcoat mafia's and Marylin Manson Lyrics (if you dont know about the columbine shootings read up, its another insight into teenagers apparently being influenced by violence in todays society) http://www.slate.com/id/2099203/ But i say humbug to this. Games are an escape from the reality which can influence this, they do not cause this.

But never the less professional artists are being layed off due to cost cutting measures. And although we shed a tear for them now, we have to wonder how does this affect both the future of gaming, and us as aspiring artists to be? Well i think it means that with the competitive nature of the industry we are now not only up against everyone including rival universities, American graduates and even our own classmates but now professional, more experienced and reliable artists. and trust me 180 professionals against us is stacking the chips up. Im just glad i have 2 years left before im in that position.
Plus those that are left must help but think they can see their jobs and themelves as expendable, leaving a lot of job security issues. Heres to us, because we got a lot ahead of us with this on our hands.

Creativity

Creativity has some element in everything around us. Architecture, films, games .... their all products of creativity. Even a cup was someone being creative in ways of holding water. But what is creativity? where is it? and where is it in games?

In games creativity both can and cant hindered and by technical constraints, it depends on the medium. Concept art isnt nesseceraly hindered as a painting or a drawing can go as far as an artists imagination and creativity. But creating this world in a game can have its constraints. Ben Mathis' speech lay fine example to this as he compared Fallout 3's concept artists vision of an atmospheric Apocalyptic Washington DC to its actual gameplay vision. Not to shun the game but i would agree with him and say the constraints of actually making the game didnt add up to the artists vision and creativeness. But this is in just some aspects. AI and modeling can have these restrictions as the designs need to be plausible and able to work in a real time environment but plots and narratives on the other hand can house as much creativity as an artist desires.
But during the production of a game no one specific person 'does' creativity, as creativity is a thought process its always expressed in each individuals work through the medium they are working in. Creativity is not a final outcome nor can it present itself pyhsically, its more the thought process to accomplish the final outcome. Same as the final products themselves arent neccesseraly creative. Inventive or beautiful they may be, the creativity is in our own heads, a passageway, we express creativity through the product. Someone in charge of producing a character isnt making creativity, he is making a character, and the final outcome is a character. But the methods they use to make it can be creative and can be expressed through the design of the character. This is probably why College/Uni interviews like to see sketchbooks and rough drawings because they are the parts where your creativity is showing through being applied to reach the final outcome. Everyone has ideas and creativity in their heads, and people such as lecturers are curious to see everyones own creativity processes, but channeling creativity into a usefull format is sometimes the problem. But why does everyone think this has to be channeled as art?

Creativity, although usually stereotyped with art, can be expressed in literally any form of medium, clothes we wear, the nicknames and words we invent for each other ... any form of self expression can be creative. And as for art its also strongly present in nearly every other form of work. I mean the Aeroplane was a creative invention, showing scientists are being creative in producing final products. But it doesnt always have to be something thats never been done before. In this day and age if you have thought of it, it probably has already been done (rule 34 of the internet). So creativity can be taking of something old or used and manifesting it into something new, and this isnt neccessaraly plagarism. Not if the final outcome of your creativity is an original idea from ways of looking at and exsisting or old issue differently. Look at university or college projects, same breif (Organic Character etc) but yet 50+ different and creative outcomes.