The Coronavirus has sparked a ton of controversy, and has been at the center of everyone's lives these past few months. Although, I must admit I didn't usually get out much outside of school anyway, the Coronavirus has put a huge hole in my plans education-wise. This summer I was looking forward to taking several art and game design related camps to help improve myself and get guidance, however this may now be impossible because of how many things have been shut down. It is also still controversial how grades will be looked at by colleges for the second semester and what it will be like moving forward. I know personally, learning from home has had a ton of challenges, whether it is finding the motivation to force myself to sit on the computer and finish hours of classwork, or learning without a teacher as readily available in a classroom environment. However it has had benefits such as giving me more time to practice my personal art skills and explore new hobbies, as well as work on classwork at my own pace. One of my biggest troubles was my AP exams. It was a lot of work to prepare for them on my own and the technology/upload concerns worried me. Having to navigate my way through the new format of these exams was difficult and they were very strange to do casually from home at my computer. It also concerns me if the submission process went smoothly and how colleges will look at them comparatively to exams from other years. The exams also contributed to me getting caught behind on my other work by focusing my attention to relentless studying and reviewing, without the usual compensation students would get after taking an AP exam. For example traditionally classes lay off from assigning mass amounts of work during the weeks of AP exams, but now it seems they just post regularly despite the exams. Doing outside community service has also been made extremely difficult due to the virus, and may effect future college applications or getting into NHS. Overall, I am ready for this quarantine to be over since it has complicated school so much. My heart goes out to families suffering from the virus, and I hope we can find a vaccine soon, or at least resume to a more regular lifestyle. I am thankful for the time I have gotten to learn new things, and going through something like this is certainly a one-in-a-lifetime experience. Conclusively:
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Supecell is one of the leading mobile app developers, with huge hits such as Clash of Clans, followed by Clash Royale, Boom Beach, and Brawl Stars. I have poured tons of time into both of the Clash games, especially Clash Royale. First, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of competitive gaming on mobile and how hard it is to compete with console and PC games. Despite this, Supercell managed to make games perfectly tailored to the capability of a mobile device and better yet, are in my opinion competitive of mainstream console/PC games. To start I will summarize how to play Clash Royale, which is a super unique card-based game. The goal of the game is to collect cards to unlock, upgrade, and then use them in battle to increase your rank. The gameplay revolves around building a 8-card deck with the cards you own and then taking it into battle, hopefully with enough capability to beat your opponent. Each card acts differently, whether its a wizard that can attack both air and ground troops with tons of splash damage, or a golem which is a strong tank that targets buildings and breaks into golemites upon its death. Cards are assorted into 3 distinct categories: Buildings, Troops, and Spells. During the match each player has an elixir bar that can reach up to 10 and that slowly builds up over time. A deck is made up of 8 cards that cycle out as you use them in the match. Each card has its own elixir cost as well, so it may take time to be able to play them. Both players use their cards to build up attacks, or a defense in order to protect their own towers, and destroy the opponents towers which are made up of two archer towers (destroyed for 1 crown each) and a crown tower in the back, which is the final defense (if destroyed, the opponent wins 3 crowns and the match immediately ends); whoever has the most crowns by the end of the 3 minutes wins. If it is still a stalemate, the match will go into overtime. There are almost a 100 different cards, thousands of different deck combinations, and many different ways to combo the cards in your deck while battling, offering the game tons of variation and constant new ways to play. The winner receives trophies that contribute to their rank, some gold, and a chest which can be unlocked to get cards. There are multiple different types of chests to win; the better the chest, the more rare it is and the longer it takes to unlock. Outside of the actual matches, there are also cool unique game modes with slightly different objectives or ways to play, as well as a card and chest shop. Carried over from Clash of Clans, is also the aspect of clans which can enact clan wars, while clan mates can chat, donate cards, and share replays of their battles. Overall this pretty much covers how the game works, so now I will go into its downfall.
Lighting is an extremely valuable tool when it comes to creating a render or scene in any 3D modeling program. For one of my assignments I had to place two easily modeled dumbbells and on a simple planar. I was able to make an extremely realistic and advanced looking scene with simple models that took a few minutes to make, using just lighting and materials. First, I applied a texture to the plane and used a UV Map to alter it to fit the scene better. To compliment that, I added in a bump map which gave it more texture. After that I added the brushed metal preset physical material to my dumbbells and messed around with the parameters a bit to create a more realistic looking texture on them. Then I added a skylight and spot light to create the effect of a street lamp shining down on the dumbbells, and altered the color a bit so it looked more like augmented light. I turned on shadows so it appeared more realistic and more interactive with the ground/plane. Finally I added fog to create a more ominous effect and to top off the scene. As you can see, the image without lighting is tremendously worse and appears bland. Not only do the dumbbells feel distant from the ground, but the scene is basic and doesn't appear to be realistic at all. However, with the lights and environmental effects, the scene is surreal and the environment sets a tone/mood. Overall this goes to show that lighting and materials can go a long way and can turn simple models into a very advanced and realistic scene. Summary:
School has recently been closed down due to the Corona Virus, or COVID-19, and everything has changed completely. As great as it is to be able to sleep in and not have to listen through hours of school, life at home can be boring and school is still stressful on my mind. With all my teachers adapting to online teaching differently, it has been hard to keep track of my assignments and all of their different expectations. It is also hard to get myself to sit down and work on school work at home with so many distractions around. Knowing school may be shut down and all my uncompleted grades could be locked where they are, is stressful. I am thankful for DDA and the fact I can still work on everything from home and can bring my grade up. One of my favorite parts about DDA is how easy it is to access all my previous work, communicate with my teacher online, check my grades, receive announcements, and turn in assignments all in one spot. Schoology is the ultimate tool, and with schools shut down, I see a perfect opportunity for teachers to begin transferring to a more regular custom of online teaching, particularly with an app as convenient as Schoology. Powerschool is hard to access and very inconsistent/problematic with updates and maintenance. Schoology could be used to give students a way to view their past assignments which makes study material more available, and allows them to communicate and receive notifications from their teacher all in a way more organized space. Schoology combines both Remind and Powerschool into a more organized space with even more to offer. Google Classrooms is very similar though it is way less organized and can become very cluttered, making it harder to scroll through and find previous assignments. Overall with schools in their current state, teachers need to begin adapting and start using the best tools available. Summary:
There is a game that was behind the scenes far before Clash of Clans took over the mainstream; Edgeworld is an online, sci-fi themed, defense-building game where you join clans, attack enemies in order to help your clan take over the map, and build up your base. Edgeworld is the first video game I ever played, starting since I was in 2nd grade. I logged in EVERY day for the rewards no matter how hard it was to get to internet. Not only was it addicting, but it was also better than Clash of Clans would ever amount to be. Edgeworld is an extremely fun community with hundreds of different servers and clans. The goal is to build up the strongest base and be on the best clan, which is the one that has most of the map. To get territory on the map you had to take over regions by surrounding bases and building up troops to attack and steal bases from enemy clans. Similar to Clash of Clans, you focus on upgrading your town hall which subsequently leads to you being able to upgrade your defense units and resource units more. However Edgeworld is a sci-fi themed game and also involved taking over the map which Clash of Clans never adopted. However, Edgeworld's demise was the factor of luck and paying-to-win in getting crates and the best upgrades for your towers.
Overall Edgeworld never gained popularity to the same extent as Clash of Clans even though it was created first, and in my opinion had many cooler aspects such as claiming bases on the map which I would spend hours staying up doing. Edgeworld was a large part of my childhood and is still one of my favorite game concepts of all time. In conclusion:
This quarter my class has been learning how to use the material editor more in depth in 3ds Max. Materials are extremely helpful in making a scene more realistic and to create more detail on the object. Personally I love working with textures and shaders. Working with textures is extremely convenient, and by allowing you to transfer a detail from a photo into a material for your model, it gives you the capability to replicate real life surfaces very easily for your models. For example when creating my board game, all I had to do was take a picture of the box in real life and then Photoshop it and mess around with the material parameter editor to completely replicate the box into a 3D model. Although not all textures are as easy to apply as a game box, it is a super convenient tool in creating texture by pulling them off of photos. Shaders are also very useful. Shaders create realistic lighting effects and there are several different types of shaders for creating different levels of lighting. They are very useful for creating realism and are super fun to mess around with. As you can see the shaders brought a lot of depth and realism to my robot walker, as well as emphasized the metallic structure of it. Maps are also very useful, especially for creating more depth in the surface of the material, though I am still struggling to learn how to use them.
To sum it up:
Simulations are a very complicated aspect of 3D modeling and capture realism to its fullest. However downsides such as the amount of time it takes up and the level of technology you need for it to work, overall hurt the experience. During this unit I got behind because of technological limits and crashes as well as slow processing times, overall limiting the actual time I was able to work outside of waiting for simulations to process. I also found myself having to restart a lot. However I am pretty proud of my end products and think simulations are a huge step towards us becoming way more advanced modelers. Particle systems and forces are probably my favorite new technique. Cloth is fun when using it for simple assignments such as the tablecloth where it is easy to apply, but was high maintenance on the machines and very difficult to work with in the potato sack assignment and the bed sheet especially. Particle systems meanwhile weren't as high maintenance and are really cool to use. Creating the fountain and flag were the most fun because the level of realism is insane and it wasn't overly complicated. It was also cool to see technology replicate real life forces/physics and I enjoyed being able to control that. The final scene was also fun because the freedom we had, however rendering was very difficult and time consuming, and animating also took a while. Overall simulations are really cool to see but are very hard to accomplish, especially on budget technology. The recent assignments have put me to the test and I hope to do better in the future with time management. Summary:
As someone who takes both 2D Art and Game Design as DSA, I have a lot of experience with both digital art and drawing on paper. This Christmas I got an iPad and the Wacom Intuos Pro that have allowed me to be able to further compare traditional art with digital art. First off, digital art technology is a lot more expensive. There are costs such as paying for digital art programs, as well as buying drawing tablets, and having a computer setup that can process these programs. This can be thousands of dollars, and not everybody can put in that much money, making traditional art a great option for if you're on a budget. However in terms of functionality, digital art has many advantages. There aren't problems such as getting messy and lead breaking, or any inconveniences like that. There are also far more resources at your finger tips, such as thousands of downloadable brushes and effects you couldn't even get close to replicating with traditional art. Digital art has far more tools and they're all in once place. When it comes to drawing, it is still very precise, though nothing matches holding a pencil in your hands and drawing directly on paper. Traditional art comes with history and culture. The same techniques have been taught throughout centuries of generations and drawing digitally doesn't give you the same satisfaction as standing at a canvas and painting in a serene environment or touching your pen to warm paper. Technology can also have malfunctions and isn't as reliable as regular drawing. Overall it is indisputable digital art is a lot more efficient but price and experience come in mind too, as well as authenticity. I love digital art personally, and think its far more suited towards me, although I still love to pick up a pencil once in a while. (Here is some other art I did digitally that wasn't included in my selected works) Summary:
Throughout the last couple weeks my class has worked on creating a neighborhood. There was a variety of items we had to make however we got freedom in how we created them and overall this assignment was great for revisiting old skills and trying out new skills. Personally, this is the type of assignment I want to see more of. It is fun to get some freedom and break through from simply following a tutorial and not actually getting to apply the skills we learned or really grasp them. This project was a great break from that and gave us much needed freedom. I was extremely surprised by what I could do and overall think my items turned out surprisingly good. I was particularly happy with how well my fire hydrant, trash bins, and lamp turned out. I had a ton of fun experimenting with some tools we recently began learning as well as some older ones such as loft, which is my favorite to this day. Getting to apply a variety of skills to creating a bunch of different objects and creating one large scene/environment was challenging, but also a ton of fun. This is the model of assignment I look forward to in the future and think the tutorials we do should take up less time and be more straight to the point. They should simply teach us how to apply the tool, or should cover the concept without going so far in depth, beyond our current skill level, to where we are simply copying the tutorial completely without actually soaking in/analyzing what is going on. Everyone has different tools and types of modeling they strive with and this activity gave us the opportunity to explore that and get more practice with it. Overall I felt myself grow during this activity and had tons of fun with it. Summary:
I have already evaluated several different compound objects, and now I have two more to add to the list. Now that I have some experience with Terrain and Scatter, I am officially going to add them to my ranking! Scatter is an amazing tool that allows you to apply and randomly generate an object throughout a scene. You can apply it to any other object and specify how many copies of it you want as well as place other parameters. Scatter is extremely easy to use and is super great for duplicating an object throughout your scene, especially if you aren't too specific about its placements. It also adds realism considering the random placement, similar to in real life. For example in this Old West scene I designed, I was easily able to randomly place three objects (a cacti, rock, and tumbleweed) I made, throughout the environment in amounts I specified. As you can see it adds to the scene and makes it look more realistic and less plain. It took a matter of minutes to learn how to use and to apply it, several times, overall rendering it very efficient and productive. The other tool I learned and got to try was the Terrain tool. This tool is also one of my favorites so far as well. This tool is amazing for making landscapes and is also extremely simple to use. All you have to do is create splines outlining where you want the land to level in and move them to where you want the land to extrude or dip down. It is super easy to do this and gives the user a surprising about of control. I also used it to make a rock and can imagine it being applied to several other multi layered objects. It reminds me of Loft in some aspects but gives a little bit more control. Overall these two tools are great additions to my skill set and think they're two of my favorites that I have learned so far. Although they are great for landscape/environmental art, they can be applied to other objects and be re-purposed outside of that singular use. In conclusion;
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AuthorMy name is Quinn Peterson! I will be reflecting about my art work in this blog! Archives
May 2022
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