As he says, “believe it or not, these guys spend a lot of time making the games you love, and they have a lot of knowledge to share.” Now, I don’t know if I could make such claims of myself, but it’s definitely a noble idea – I’ve long believed that games developers (and not just the famous, high-ups that you’ve probably already know about) should get a bit more recognition for the hard work they put in to make the games that you play!

It’s still early days (you can already find me on the Artists page) but the site needs more blogs and more input! The more the better! If you’re involved in games development and you’ve got a blog, you should get yourself over there and submit your site for listing. If you don’t have a blog, maybe you should consider getting one? GameDevBlogs.net also has a presence on Twitter, so get going!

If nothing else, it should ensure I keep my blog more up-to-date! ;)

People have been asking me how my first week has been. By it’s nature, the first week at a new place of work is rarely as exciting as you imagine it will be. Alas, it’s true!

You tend to get bogged down in paperwork, reading documentation and the new tools and procedures you need to learn, when all you really want to do is crack on with work. Of course, in this instance having been a Maya user almost exclusively since I started university, it will be a little while before my work performance in MotionBuilder will be able to keep up with my enthusiasm. When you throw in trying to remember everyone’s name and how to get in and out the building without getting lost, it’s a wonder new-starters get anything done in their first week!

I’d never really thought about it before (and I don’t suppose you will have either unless you’ve changed 3D software), but one of the worst things about using new software is learning the camera controls. If you feel like you can’t navigate a scene properly, it massively compounds the sensation that you have no flipping idea what you’re doing and that learning the new software is going to be a near-impossible task. If only you could remember what button combination controls pan and which activates tumble, you’d be able to concentrate on learning the important stuff… the new stuff!

People are telling me not to worry about it and that I’ve got plenty of time to settle in, which is really nice but it does highlight the sense of frustration; that the software and workflow are hindering my ability to just get on with it and if only I can get that stuff out of the way, the fun stuff can really begin.

I had a little breakthrough on Thursday when I got a good bit of pace going, turning out three or four animation cycles. On Friday a totally new thing landed at on my desk and I felt completely lost again! 8)

Despite all that and with a great deal of help from Andy and the other guys on the team, I already feel like I’m starting to get used to MotionBuilder, it’s camera controls and it’s slightly obscure “thought process”. It’s only been a week; I suppose I ought not to worry too much!

My first week at Rockstar was absolutely brilliant; the people, the project, the office are all completely awesome, but it was  intermingled with a heck of a lot of frustration! I should also say that (since I wrote most of this post last week) I feel like I’ve made tons of progress in MotionBuilder today and yesterday – things are definitely starting to click!

I think I’ll have to do a post about the bonkers way MotionBuilder works/thinks sometime soon!

Twitter is incredibly flaky in this regard; 99 times out of 100 it claims Twitter is over capacity. Apparently the maximum image size limit allowed is 800k, but I rarely get it to upload unless the image is somewhere in the region of 200k (a.k.a. hideously compressed).

Get it sorted please Twitter!

Anyway, here it is in action:

Should you wish to follow me on Twitter, you can do so here: http://www.twitter.com/asphaltOnline

I am aware that this post might come across as a shameless, shallow attempt to gain more followers, but it’s really just so I can show off my new background, honest guv!

Oh and the Rockstar website does have some awesome wallpapers and avatar images by the way. If you’re into that sort of thing, you should definitely visit the Rockstar Downloads page.

So first things first! A new city to explore! Edinburgh! 

Edinburgh is awesome, I absolutely love it already. Mind you, moving into an amazing apartment for a month whilst I find a place of my own doesn’t hurt! 

It’s lovely: 

Of course, it can’t last forever and eventually we’ll have to find somewhere else to park our stuff. We had quite a few viewings last week and I think we’ve found somewhere to stay. As long as the application goes OK, we should be able to move in quite soon. Rather inconveniently, the weekend we’re leaving this apartment is the same weekend we go to Sweden for a wedding. Very bad timing. 

Anyway, as I was saying, Edinburgh is awesome. It does have it’s fair share of weirdos too though! I’ve already had one mad old woman threaten me for accidentally bumping into her (I tried to dodge out of her way, but she ploughed into me, then gave me a death stare and swore at me!) and there are quite a lot more daytime drunks than I was anticipating. 

On the other hand, within an hour of landing in Scotland I’d already seen someone playing the bagpipes. Swings and roundabouts!

I’ll be uploading and backdating my work from the last few weeks as soon as I remember where I put the the files ;)

Of course, the other reason I want to take a break is because I’ll be starting at Rockstar North next week! It seems foolish to spend the first 3 months of a new job, in a new city, being locked away in a new apartment when I should be out socialising, learning my way around, making friends and throwing my all into the new job!

I’ll do another post about the move up to Edinburgh, but for up-to-minute news you can just follow my Twitter feed or search for the hashtag #operationEdinburgh ;)

http://messypolygons.blogspot.com/

(WARNING: May contain arty nude people!)

Marie is actually coming back from her 10 months in Florence, Italy rather soon, but doubtless it will continue to be updated as finishes new work, but it’s beautiful stuff — you should check it out!

A little late to the party I admit, but I’ve only just got hold of my post and this May copy of EDGE magazine. There’s a rather large feature on the upcoming PlayStation Move controller and games, and who should appear on page 68? Why, it’s none other than yours truly. Hello!

At last, my plan for world domination is finally in motion! Shame they didn’t think much of TV Superstars! 8)

Thanks to @MrTom for the heads-up all those weeks ago!

This sensation is actually pretty typical. In at least the past two classes I’ve had “dips” during the middle few weeks of the term where I’ve felt bad about either about my work or my effort levels. It’s something I’ve always broken out of so I don’t expect it to last long, I just needed to tell someone :)

I’ll try and get my recent work and critiques posted first thing tomorrow!

And where is it that I will be going? Well…

Heck yes!

That’s right folks, in July I’ll be heading up to Edinburgh to go and work as an animator at none other than Rockstar North, the studio that brought you GTAIV, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, to name just their recent hits! I don’t even know what I’m going to be working on at this point, but I do know that it’s going to be awesome.

This really is like a dream come true. It certainly makes me feel like all the hard work I’ve put in (particularly the past 16 months of Animation Mentor – which have nearly killed me) have been totally worth it. Talk about a confidence boost, eh?

It’s all happened rather fast but I’m really excited about starting. Fortunately I’ll be allowed to finish my current term at AM before I start (it was after all, the main reason I decided to leave Cambridge). In fact, I will be working alongside former SCEE colleague and AM chum Andy Davis, who is a fantastic animator!

As you might be able to tell, I’m quite excited. Many thanks to Jim Jagger for offering me an interview and to Facebook for putting links to my reel and CV on his News Feed ;)

So again, this is old news by now but I’ve only just got round to writing about it (I am both easily distracted and incredibly slow at composing blog posts), but LittleBigPlanet PSP won!

All the incredibly hard work SCEE Cambridge put into transferring the fabulous world of LBP onto PSP paid off! The game was nominated for both Best Handheld and Best Use of Online and whilst FIFA10 took home the gong for Online, we beat back some tough competition to take home the award for Best Handheld.

The other nominees were: Gran Turismo, LocoRoco Midnight Carnival, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Professor Layton & Pandora’s Box and Scribblenauts. You can read more about the event on the BAFTA website.

Congratulations to all the guys and gals at SCEE Cambridge – it was certainly a nice milestone to round off my time at the studio!

I guess now I can say that I’m a BAFTA award-winning games developer?