Year 1 Games Design student completes timelapse concept art film.

"The Man in the Black Suit" Time-Lapse Painting by Peter Dimitrov. 

Published on 6 Feb 2017

Peter was inspired to create this piece from Stephen Kings story "The Man in the Black Suit" 
in the lovely short story collection called "Everything's Eventual".
The reader witnesses a fisher boy that meets the Devil while next to a river.
The Devil is described to be wearing 3 piece black suit.
He has a fiery eyes and a mouth that is a furnace.

The video comprises of 8:36 hours of painting compressed into 27 minutes.

YouTube video.

See the full Painting here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RBYOm
Follow Peter on:
ARTSTATION: http://www.artstation.com/artist/peterdimitrov
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/PeterDimitrovArt
DEVIANTART: http://petardimitrov.deviantart.com/
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/AnirnPeter
INSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/peterdimitrovart/
Prints of this piece at: www.inprnt.com/gallery/anirn/

Introduction to TiltBrush by Google.

My first experience of drawing with Tiltbrush with the Vive headset was exciting as it felt like a very new experience.

 

We also arranged for students to test out the kit and try it out for themselves.

 

 

It felt familiar and yet a totally new experience at the same time! Your drawing surrounds you and you are totally absorbed in that world, forgetting about any other.

Paint life-size three-dimensional brush strokes, stars, light, and even fire. Experience painting as you have never before.

See the LINK for more details.

Introduction to PanoPainter.

Uclan Games Design Tutor, Josh Taylor has been working with our Games Design second year students recently, introducing them to PanoPainter and helping develop their digital painting skills.
The whole class have enjoyed exploring its potential. and it's great FUN!

Here's Josh's example for the students.
Skull Door by Josh Taylor, Games Design Tutor at Uclan  
Click HERE for 360 degree view.
 

 











Here's just a few examples. Click on link to see 360 views.
PanoPainting group on Facebook.

Mathew Lai

Marco Carmo

Natalie Herrington

Beth Martindale

The Impact of Play in Society.

First post of the new year 2017 :)

We asked our first year students on the BA(Hons) Games Design course at Uclan to discuss the The Impact of Play in Society.

Sadly, I can only post a small selection here from over 45 fantastic responses that our students submitted.
The amount of discussion and debate that this project stimulated must be noted, as it demonstrates how passionately they feel about the value of games in our world.
Please note, all used images and quotes are referenced in separate bibliographies that were submitted alongside the posters.

As a starting point, the students were asked to consider the quotes below:

"Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species."  (Whitebread, D., 2015)


"Play nurtures creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. It gives us the freedom to take risks, test the consequences of different actions, and iterate until a goal is achieved." (Gehorsam, R., 2015)


�It is in Apple�s DNA that technology alone is not enough�it�s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.� (Jobs, S., 2011)

"Research examines relationship between autism and creativity: New research has found that people with high levels of autistic traits are more likely to produce unusually creative ideas." (University of East Anglia. ScienceDaily, 13 August 2015.)

�Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It�s regarded as something trivial, or even as something negative that contrasts with �work�. Let�s not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let�s make sure children have a rich diet of play experiences.� (Cam.ac.uk, 2015) 

"Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry, theories of structures, or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture-- literally a vision--in the minds of those who built them. Society is where it is today because people had the perception; the images and the imagination; the creativity that the Arts provide, to make the world the place we live in today." (Eugene Ferguson, Historian, 2015)

Uclan Games students working with 'Soccer Manager'.

Great opportunity for work experience for twenty of our Games Design students over the last 2 days testing on Soccer Manager Arena.
This was an enjoyable event and both days were reported as very successful for both the company and the students.

Soccer Manager Arena@ManagerArena

The NEW football strategy game. Collect your team and play against other players in real time.

Our students have had two productive days of testing and work experience. The game is looking good and closed Beta will start later today.
Soccer Manager Arena is a card collecting, PvP real time football game.


With this game you can:

Play the team you are dealt!

Collect player cards and create your unique team lineups and formations. Each card has its combination of attributes to help you succeed in the Arena. Create your very own decks by choosing your cards tactically to compete against other managers.

Join the world of �Arena Clubs.�

Create your own Arena Club with other managers from around the world. Work together to top the Arena Club leader-boards by winning games and earning points for your Club. Strengthen each other's decks by donating players before each game. By joining an Arena Club, you will be able to play friendly matches with other Arena Club members and exchange information by using team chat.

Features:
-Compete in real-time matches with managers from across the world.
-Develop your team by unlocking card packs.
-Learn from other Arena Managers on Arena TV!
-Compete in different types of Football Arenas.
-Create an Arena Club and help develop each other's team.
-Play against friends.

THE NORTHERN FESTIVAL AWARDS.

Congratulations Sian Knight, Jake Taylor and Anthony Winbow who have been nominated for the Creative Achievement in Games Design Award as part of the Great Northern Creative Festival THE NORTHERN FESTIVAL AWARDS.

They were nominated by the Games Design Course Team because they've shown outstanding dedication to learning and demonstrated industry standard creative and technical ability � all in all we are very impressed and proud of their achievements!

 The Award Ceremony was on the evening of Saturday 12^th November in MiST, Media Factory.

Well done from the Games Design Course Team.

Also, big congrats to Anthony Winbow for being selected for the award. Really well done!

More pics to follow.

The Great Northern Creative Festival Games Event.

As part of 'The Great Northern Creative Festival' Games Design at Uclan, industry professionals were invited to speak and present workshops for the students.

See the programme below showing the awesome speakers that were involved.

Students enjoyed a fascinating insight into the world of Games Design from our very talented Alumni, Peter Field of Media Molecule, who shared his experience of composition within level design with a unique personal take on how to lead the player effectively using best practise guidelines from architecture.

Alumni, Becky Michelak and Ben Bennett gave a presentation on 'How to learn from failing' where they shared some very useful online resources.
A truly valuable talk about how to survive and progress in the Indie games sector of the industry.
This was followed by a workshop where Ben and Becky challenged students to create games that involved movement, utilising limited resources.

Alumni, Peter Bottomley of White Paper Games also hosted an hour long chat on Skype with another of our Alumni, Senior Games Designer, Steven Thornton who is currently working at Sperasoft in Russia. Awesome to hear first hand how Steven progressed his career through his willingness to take on challenges, learn new skills and being open to all opportunities for development.