BA7 - Studio - Entry 1

 I have now gone through several ideas for what to do for my studio project. At the beginning of term, I knew I wanted to pursue my goal of becoming more proficient in 3D modelling. Having decided to give up on my original aspiration of becoming a concept artist. So I knew I wanted to create a small environmental scene, preferably in Maya, with a fully finished, textured, geometrically efficient model at the end of BA8. I just had to decide what to choose. This was a big decision for me, and as a result, I had lots of different project ideas.

My first thought was to create something from one of my favourite horror movies'; 'The Evil Dead'. I thought about the movie, and came up with the idea that the cabin was the ideal size for the project. I would re-watch the film several times if necessary, going over every frame in detail, so to get the most accurate recreation possible. I aimed to create the cabin itself, with the interior fully modelled and textured, as if being played from a first-person view perspective. I also wanted to model the shed outside, and the 'almost-iconic' Delta 88 'Oldsmobile' as well.

Another idea I had was to look at a fantasy universe that I have a personal passion with and a great love for; the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I wanted to create some kind of 'digital diorama' depicting a scene, telling a story with only a snapshot. The same basic form as the 'Evil Dead' idea, but just different content. Back in first year, in BA3, I created a bunker door from the game 'Fire Warrior', which is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I was very pleased with the end result for this project, and got my highest mark out of all the modules I've done so far for it.

My finished BA3 project from first year

For BA7, I will do something similar, a small but well polished scene that shows my potential with 3D modelling. So far, I have done a few quick concept sketches of what I might like to do.

Battlefield ruins 1

Battlefield ruins 2

Heretics Hill 1

Heretics Hill 2

Battle for Valhalla

BA7 - Contextual Studies - Entry1

So, I have decided to start with the question: ‘What is it that makes people spend so much time in virtual worlds?’ I came to this question after just thinking about video games for a while.  The amount of time in people’s lives video games consume astounds me. People spend most of their lives in front of a screen of some description.  When it comes to video games though, what is it that draws audiences in and holds their attention for so long?

For an example, ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ has a little counter, which is visible before a player is about to jump into a multiplayer game. This counter gives varying statistics about the worldwide audiences actions in the game. One shocking statistic I found, was that collectively, players all across the world have spent over 10,000 years playing ‘Call of Duty’: Black Ops’. The last time I checked this counter, was well over a year ago. At the time of writing, three more Call of Duty games have been released every November. I find this amount of time completely ridiculous.  And that’s just one game, and more than that, what if it was only displaying the time spent on the Playstation3 platform alone?! ‘Call of Duty’ games are typically released on PC and Xbox360 simultaneously with Playstation3.

What makes video games so addictive? Why do so many people play them? How are they so successful? I am not speaking from outside the frame here. Let me be clear in saying that I myself have whiled away hour after hour after hour on video games. Overall, I think everyone, myself included, spend to much time playing video games when theres a lot more to life than just 'Halo' or 'Minecraft'. I don't want to say that games are a bad thing, I think they can be enjoyed like anything else really, in moderation. I want to look at the things that make games so popular and attractive to an audience. To begin, I would say that games can offer people; control, violence, sex, and the means to do things they would never get to do in real life. The first word which springs to mind when I ask myself 'what is it that makes people spend so much time in virtual worlds?' is escapism. 

If we look at film for a comparison, we can see that James Cameron's 'Avatar' and George Lucas' original 'Star Wars' are two of the highest grossing movies of all time, even when adjusted for inflation against all others throughout cinematic history. These two films, are both of the science-fiction genre, both contain lots of action, but more importantly, they are both escapist fantasies.