Computer Animation Arts

The documentation of the creative process always provides inspiration and motivation for any project. Just the act of watching others make interesting things, is inspiration in itself. So, it will come as no surprise that the making of The Last of Us is a pretty good watch. The Last of Us  was one of the few video games from last year that felt interesting. It felt progressive, evocative and most importantly, it felt adult. It was a gripping take on a dreary world. The game has some issues, but at its core, it's a moving tale about character. Check out the making of this hugely ambitious game in this 1 hour 24 minute documentary. And if you have a PS3, play the game. It does explore some genuinely interesting themes and at times becomes both moving and horrifying.

Morphopolis is a computer game created by two architecture graduates Ceri Williams and Dan Walters distinguished by its densely detailed, near-psychedelic environments.   Morphopolis 's micro-landscapes have been hand-illustrated - and the craft shines through.  Part William Morris, part Yellow Submarine, the world of Morphopolis is a bejewelled, immersive delight. Morphopolis from Ceri Williams on Vimeo .

Welcome to the New Designers 2013 Post With The Most Special Edition - a showcase of graduate work exhibited at New Designers 2013 at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London. New Designers is the UK's most important graduate design exhibition featuring 3,000 newly graduated designers and for four days CGAA graduates represented themselves and their course to exhibition visitors - potential employers and industry contacts among them. We always like to push the boat out a bit for our graduates at New Designers and ensure their show is a talking point.  New Designers is a busy exhibition with loads to see and our challenge is always to find unique and memorable ways of encouraging visitors to engage with our graduates and their work.  In 2010, we got old-school and arty with screen-printed production drawings, and artists' easels - which just happened to win CG Arts & Animation the 'best in show' award! In 2011, we went wild for ...

   Written by Paul Richards (aka Autodestruc t ), the following two articles are a n absolute must-read!  P. Richards introduces truly useful distinctions to use for conceptual game/film design . You will find new  points to consider about a design task after his thorough yet clear walk-throughs of both, the professional field  and visualising techniques . Articles: 1. Hints and Hacks For Doing Conceptual Art in the Video Game Industry    2. Thumb War He also suggests to play a fun design game, which is close to what  a real game/film designer is experienc ing (particularly the 'canned reactions' :D ) :

With the first year's 'Secret Lairs' project very much in mind, check out Alien Apple Studios' presentation of their environment concept art for Eurocom's Bond 007 Legends game.

"Orcs must die" is comedic story driven game made by "Robot Entertainment". It is simple, but really fun and since "Orcs Must Die 2" has just came out I couldn't resist sharing some "art of" stuff from both parts.The best thing about it is that 3d designers of "Robot Entertainment" actually managed to keep the quality of original concept designs in game. In some of those images you can clearly see simple geometry that they used with normal maps to achieve exactly what they wanted. I found these as a very inspiring examples of character and prop designs. "Orcs Must Die! challenges players to defend fortresses under siege. With a wide variety of traps and weapons to choose from, Orcs Must Die! dares players to find the best ways to hack, launch, flatten, gibletize, and incinerate an endless army of filthy orcs and their vile allies. Orcs Must Die! features a vibrant look, addictive gameplay, and a blatant disregard for the ...

Did you know... "Nearly half of the UK's video game players are women, and now they are designing and writing them too, including top sellers Gears of War 3, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution..." Read the full article here.

A short documentary about video games and storytelling. Off Book: Video Games from PBS Arts on Vimeo .

Another hand crafted game here, made by an independent game studio called Cockroach Incorporated, run by Anders Gustafsson and Erik Zaring.  As far as I can see, this style of game is very different to their traditional graphic style but it's absolutely gorgeous! The models remind me of those used in Jiri Barta's Pied Piper animation and it gives the game quite an ominous tone too. You can play the first part of the point and click adventure game for free on The Dream Machine 's website here , and you can follow their work on the games blog  here  too.  I've just finished the first chapter and I now have to buy it to play the rest. I don't want to put up a trailer because the first chapter is so short it seems a but too spoilerific so these images will do for now. It's very eerie and very good! So at least try the first chapter to see what I'm going on about as after all, it is free! :D

If you haven't found your way there already, I suggest anyone who is anyone bookmarks Feng Zhu's Youtube Channel - a mouth-watering resource for video tutorials, in which Zhu demonstrates the ins and outs of his much admired design and digital-painting workflow on a whole range of specific subjects. Many thanks to Feng Zhu for sharing - it's a gift.