Visiting a Lecture.

I went to a Lecture on animation in Cardiff on the 6th March. I learned a few things of how determined you have to be to go far in the animation industry.

I found it interesting how him and just a few friends started something massive, and how he overcame many obstacles in the way of his business

This is:

Nathan & Rob

llama.

this alpaca is making me a jumper.

wat.

i felt like posting something. so here's a picture of a kettle.

How A Movie Is Made.

Video: How a Movie is Made

Screenplay

• Every movie begins with an idea that is translated into a screenplay. The screenplay may change over the course of the movie due to a number of factors ranging from the demands of a star to the death of a cast member to ideas that pop up as the story begins to evolve. Even movies that are said to be improvised like mockumentaries still have screenplays that work out specific scenes if not specific dialogue.

Principal Photography

• The part of the movie-making process where everybody shows up on a set and the cameras roll is called principal photography. Today, principal photography is likely to be the shortest part of the process. It can last as little as 2 weeks for a low-budget movie to 1 year for an epic. In cases where a movie and its sequel are being shot back to back, like "Lord of the Rings" or the final two "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, principal photography may last longer than a year.
• Effects

• The effects stage of making a movie includes spectacular special effects such as you'd find in a science fiction movie, but it also includes less obvious effects that most movie audiences aren't aware of. One of the most common of these post-production effects is something called looping. Looping is the process of having an actor re-record dialogue in a studio that didn't record correctly on the set or location for some reason.

Editing

• Editing is a very important part of the film-making process. Editing involves taking all the footage that has been shot during principal photography, applying the effects to it, and then placing it into an order that corresponds with the director's vision, or at least the screenplay. Editing is all about choosing which shots work best, and creating a rhythm and pace that reflect the tone of the story.

Music

• After the film has been edited, the composer creates the musical accompaniment to the scenes. Imagine how successful "Rocky" would have been without that rousing score. A great music soundtrack can mean the difference between a hit and a flop.

  from: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4910856_how-movies-made.html

How A Game Is Made.

In the Beginning: Preproduction

Every game begins with a story. Often story ideas come from game designers themselves or are pitched by outsiders, but increasingly they are based on other forms of entertainment like popular movies. Other common sources are sequels or spin offs of existing games and simulations of real-world events.

Once the basic game concept is decided upon, writers and artists work together on a storyboard. A storyboard consists of rough sketches and technical instructions sequentially organized to depict each scene of the game. It is a visual representation of the story and a reference for the writers, artists and designers just as it would be for a film. But while a film has a single storyline, a video game can have thousands of outcomes. Therefore various levels, or "worlds," of the game must be sketched out.

Creating the Characters
As the storyboard is made, designers begin to create the characters. Rough sketches of major characters are drawn and redrawn until they are perfect. It's important for the artists to refine the characters as much as possible at this stage because it will be costly to make changes later.
Once the character design is finalized, it's time to transform the sketches into controllable 3D characters.
According to Steve Thompson, art director for Gas Powered Games, it takes about five days to design and program a character.
The sketches are first scanned into the computer. Then, a digital exoskeleton is created to define the character's shape and to give the computer the control points necessary to animate the figure. The more detailed this exoskeleton is, the more realistic the motion of the character will be. Next, layers of "skin" are added, followed by layers of color and texture.


Putting It All in Motion
At this point, the character is basically a digital marionette. The game programmersbring this figure to life by instructing the computer to move the character. Several techniques can be used to do this, depending on the type of game and motion desired. In some games (not Dungeon Siege II), the motions of a human actor are captured using a special suit of sensors to represent the control points of the character's skeleton. These movements then can be mapped onto the character's skeleton to produce ultra-realistic motion.


The Game World
One of the most important aspects of modern game creation is the environment. Subtle touches like reflections in shiny surfaces and varied cloud patterns often go unnoticed by players, but they help create a much more immersive environment. And often such details can propel the story forward: for example, a twig snapping under a character's foot can signal approaching danger.
As the power of home computers rapidly increases, game developers are able to create ever more realistic and complex environments. Levels of detail that were unimaginable only a few years ago are now commonplace. It's hard to imagine the game worlds that await us in the future.
The majority of 3-D objects created for computer games are made up of polygons. A polygon is an area defined by lines. Each polygon has a set of vertices to define its shape, and it needs information that tells it what to look like. The most commonly used method to transmit this information is "texture mapping."
You can think of texture mapping much like wrapping a present. Each side of the box being wrapped is a blank polygon and the "paper" is an image of the texture to be applied. Most video game consoles and computers contain a special chip and dedicated memory that store the special images used for texture mapping and apply them to each polygon on the fly. This allows games to have incredibly detailed 3-D environments that you can interact with in real time.


Code
Unseen to the user, but making all of the game elements work together, is the code. Code is the set of computer language instructions that controls every aspect of the game. Most games are written with custom code based on the C programming language. A 3-D code engine is almost always used to generate the incredibly complex code necessary for all of the polygons, shadows and textures the user sees on the screen.
Another important aspect of the code is the artificial intelligence component. This is the logic of the game, and it also establishes the physics of the game world, detecting the interactions and collisions between objects and controlling their movement.


Postproduction
Once the game is complete, it enters the postproduction phase. This phase includes extensive testing, review, marketing and finally, distribution.
Testing
The job of the testers is to play the game repeatedly to find all the mistakes, or "bugs." Problems are prioritized in many ways, from "fatal" bugs which must be resolved immediately, to minor issues which may or may not affect the game's release. When a problem is discovered, a detailed report is sent back to the developers and the error is corrected.
The first version sent to testers is called the "alpha" version, and it is tested to detect any major flaws in the game while they are still relatively easy to fix. Once all of the major flaws are addressed, a "beta" version is released, often to a larger group of testers that sometimes includes the public. The beta version is exhaustively tested, fixed and re-released until the developers are satisfied that the game is ready for primetime.
Usually during this testing phase, a copy of the game is sent to the Entertainment Software Rating Board to be given a rating. These ratings are intended to give consumers an idea of the content of the game and its appropriateness for different age groups.


Marketing
Games are big business. According to the Entertainment Software Association, a blockbuster game like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City can cost between $3 million – $5 million to develop, with an addition $10 million for promotion and marketing.
With so much money at stake, the publishers go to great lengths to hype their games. This begins early, often while the game is still being designed. Companies send their designers and public relations staff to trade shows and conventions all over the world to promote their latest games. Demonstration versions, or "demos," are sometimes made available for download from the Internet to offer a sneak peak, and theatrical trailers like those created for Hollywood movies are released. All of this is done so that buyers will be willing to spend $15 to $60 (or more) to be immersed in the imaginary world that that game designers worked so hard to bring to life.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/inside/how/index.html

RESEARCHING GAMES! SO FUN! >:D