My Journey on the NextGen Games, Animation & VFX Course

Mohammed's Synoptic Project (MOCK)  It is the second year of our course, and our teacher has assigned us with a mock synoptic project, This was to give us a taster on how it works and how well we can work as a group. We've been given three briefs to choose; a games brief, an animation brief and a VFX brief. Since there are four of us who chosen the animation brief, our teacher put us into a group. Our group consists of;  Leon - Storyboard Artist, Concept Artist, Rigger Jamie - 3d Character Creator Mohammed (me) - 3d Character Creator (Robots), Concept Artist, Animator Miles - 3d Scenebuilder  The animation brief explained to make a 30-40 second trailer of an upcoming animation series. We went with an idea where it's set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where robots have taken over the world and it eradicated almost all human life.  Pre-Production We began by making concept art for the characters. Leon is making the concept art for the two human characters and the robots, I will

  Final Major Project 2022 (Evaluation) I've made this blog to specifically to evaluate and reflect on how I think the Final Major Project went.  Personally, I think it went alright. Not good, but not bad either. I've encountered a lot of errors & techincal difficulties along the way and it got me drained mentally. If it weren't for that and if I was a lot more resilient, I would've gotten a lot more done, I would've gotten the animation done, one which I wasn't able to do. On the miro board, I've set "Managing my time better" as one of my targets and I'm ashamed to say that I've failed.  There was going to be much more in this project than what I've done, for example, in my storyboard, my CG Character would come to life and make me a cup of coffee the old-fashioned way. And I would've used fluid simulations to animate him pouring the coffee into the cup. I've encountered a lot of technical difficulties along the way. One of

 Understanding Games in Culture - Task 4 (The other documents will be sent in their original files as I can't post them in the blog) The Idea Outline For this task, I've been asked to design a final addition/update to the game as if I was making it in 2022. My idea is to expand the story, specifically in the events between Chapter 6-8. This section of the game displays how Aperture Science came about and introduces a couple of additional characters in the game. Cave Johnson & Caroline. Cave Johnson was the founder & CEO & Caroline was his assistant. Through their pre-recorded messages, as Chell explores through Old Aperture, a lot of information with it's origin story is revealed however, I wanted to expand on this idea & expand on how Caroline became   GLaDOS and what made her lose her mind when she was reactivated as an A.I. Supercomputer. So, I've made a moodboard on how i'd do it; As stated in the moodboard, I wanted to make a more-immersive sect

 Understanding Games in Culture - Task 3 From a gameplay perspective, Portal 2 is one of the most phenomenal games I experienced. The action, the story all the way to the mechanics felt so comfortably overwhelming which kept me wanting for more. The gameplay design is structured, making sure everything goes as planned to keep the story moving. The objects/puzzle elements such as cubes & the gels work well.  But, a game isn't without it's flaws; on a rare occasion there's a glitch in the game where if you crouch when you're in a Excursion Funnel you can carefully exit out & float around the map. However that exploit can be carried out in rare chances, it doesn't happen every time you practice it.  Another downside with the game is that the test chambers  consists of more deep pits filled with acid  or deep bottomless pits  than in the first game, I can imagine it can make some gamers feel a bit dizzy & make their hands tremble like it did with me when I f

 Final Major Project 2022 (Production) Now, that I've got all of my Pre-Production documents finished, it's time to do some filming. I was originally had planned to do filming over the Easter holidays but, I've not had anyone to help hit record for me so, I've had to wait until that has finished. I've been using some of my lesson time to film.  I've used a Nikon D3300 DSLR Camera to film and these were the settings I've used for the indoor shots were; Shutter Speed: 1/50 ISO @ 200 or 300(depending on room lighting) Frame Rate: 25fps Aperture: F3.5 Filming outdoors was a bit of a difficult experience for me this time, mainly due to people coming in & out either to go to their next lesson or their leaving campus, for the day. The weather changing was also a bit cumbersome during filming, and it kept me adjusting the camera settings repeatedly. It was a bit of a hassle and some of the harassment from pestering students I experienced didn't help either.

  Understanding Games in Culture - Task 2 When Portal 2 was announced in 2011, it definitely grew a lot of attention due to the success of the first game, Portal. Many gamers became huge fans of the two-portal, puzzle platformer and wanted more. Not, just puzzles but, more of the story as well. As the first game had a deeper meaning than just a series of puzzles featuring portals.  To summarise the first game; Chell, the main protagonist of the game, wakes up in the lab, Aperture Science. She's selected to participate in a series of tests, using the portal gun to help guide her way. As you're playing as Chell, you realise that the facility seems bare & empty, unitl you're greeted by an A.I Supercomputer, GLaDOS. She provides an introduction to the testing track before you begin & will provide some guidance to help further along. At the end, she was promised cake. Instead, she almost falls to her death as the A.I. Supercomputer, GLaDOS (anatagonist of the 1st game),