Why Hello There.

Hello.

Well, I haven't been on here for a while, I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with life! I currently have a job, it's interesting enough and its got me thinking about other careers paths other than the 'creative' route. My dream job is ultimately writing for a games mag. Oh my that would be amazing.

It's just so hard when you search for jobs and all of them require 'experience', how can you have experience in something you want to do when you can't even get the job to gain the experience needed!

In an ideal world I would write something and somebody would take notice...

Hmm, although I'm currently working loads I'm going to start writing again in my free time. I enjoy writing. :)

Chow x

Coma

Coma, Made by a young guy called Thomas Brush is without doubt one of the best adventure flash games I have seen since the 'Never More' series. I play hell of a lot of games online and its only rarely do you find a game of such quality free for everybody to play on the internet.


Anyway! Coma is a flash adventure game where you take the role of a character called Pete along with his little companion a small bird (who comes in very useful at times!), controls are simple, use your arrow keys, and unlike a lot of games out there on the web these controls are really good, especially as you have a lot of jumping onto tiny platforms to do!


You travel through a strange but beautiful land completing small tasks set by the lands bizarre inhabitants, helping you progress to where you need to go. The art work of this game is phenomanol, and the music, also by the creator, Thomas Brush, is melodic and peaceful, fitting with the art work beautifully.



The only downside to this game is its play time, It takes the average player around 10-15 minutes to complete the game, which I found a shame because I didnt want it end! The creator however should be throughly pleased with himself, he made this as a solo project and it took him a year. Its obvious he put a lot of time effort and energy into this game, and its simply amazing. so dont take my word for it. give it a go yourself and let me know what you think :)


Play Here :)

Doodle God

Doodle God is a wonderfully simple but addicting game. The aim on the game is combine different elements to produceand find new elements, (all 115 of them!) by elements I dont just mean, Earth Water Air and Fire, it means things that can be produced from these, like coal, or storms.


Game play is simple, You start with 4 groups of the well known elements that I have mentioned and go from there. eventually you build up a menu of earth, wind, fire, water, animals, humans, bacteria, plants, and technology. (14 of them)

Each time you successfully combine two elements you are rewarded with not only a new element but also a quote from a famous person in history.

Combine human and poisen and hey presto! you get a corpse!


The graphics are simplistic and sometimes humourus,and the music is relaxing, kind of like music you hear in a yoga class..
Overall this game is really fun, to find some combinations you really need to think out side of the box, especially to get elements like a Ghoul, or a Vampire! But its a great mind workout and will take up at least half an hour of your time (if your good ;) )


Click Here to play :)

Easy Joe

Easy Joe is a wonderful 2d flash game, created by Gamystar. The character you control is called Joe a cute green bunny, and the aim of the game is to help him explore his world whilst trying to get to a party filled with girly bunnies.


Game play is very simple, you simply click on items in the enviroment in the correct order, then click on Joe so he can progress to the next screen.
The look of the game is awesome, the main colours used are green and purple and the overall design of the game is sharp and crisp,

although this game isnt difficult, its still fun and a great way to spend ten minutes. so give it a go and get Joe to the party! and let me know what you think :)

Play this game HERE

The Harry Stick Journey

So I came across a game today called The Harry Stick Journey and I was pleasently surprised. The game is about a stick character with a mane of blonde hair called Harry who has to make his way successfully across very dangerous terrain, this my friends, is where we come in.



The bottom of the screen has a small inventory which, on every level contains different tools you will need to select and place in order on the screen, these can vary from a chainsaw, ladder, flame torch and even a cannon. This whole game is about trial and error but its a great time killer. If your sucessful on the first attempt, lucky you! because if you make one mistake, poor Harry will most definately meet a grisley end.


Oh and did I mention that every level is timed? yup youve gotta work quickly! With charming colourful graphics and simplistic game play this is incredibly addictive, but probably not suitable for those aged under 13 :)

play Here at Bubblebox.com

Graduated!

DIGITAL ANIMATION, 2007-2010 FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY =)

It was an amazing day highly emotional but amazing, the ceremony was lovely and the speeches where inspiring, Ill hopefully keep in touch with everyone in the picture, our class was tiny for a uni course but we all got on so well and I wish all of them love and luck for their future.

(im in the middle polka dot dress :) )

End of an Era, start of a new one :)

WELL. University has ended, and what a fabulous ride!, I was so relieved to hand in my work but it only feels real now Ive moved back home!, I worked my absolute hardest and Im praying that I get a decent grade, Im going to be so upset and dissapointed if I only get a third as I feel I worked my ass off! but its not in my hands anymore... Im going to miss everyone on our course and our graduation, although will be an amazing day will also be really sad, it will be the end of an era.

Im currently looking for any work, purely to pay off my overdraft and to learn how to drive!, Im still going to continue with my online community thing with Newgrounds and Twitter as I really enjoy chatting to like minded people, Ive even sent off a few pieces of voice acting to a couple of people on there which is cool, just another avenue Id like to go down :) I will (as soon as i get a job) Upgrade my website so Ill be able to put up more pictures as Ive reached my limit which sucks. I didnt put up a showreel as I though animation isnt the route I want to go down, so I think if i continue to update it with new images it will be ok, it will be nice to drop the moonfruit though :)

good bye for now x

Work Experience yippie!

Hello,

I applied for some work experience about a week ago and wasnt really expecting to hear back but luckily and thankfully the company I applied to have offered me some unpaid work experience when I go back home in July, the company is local to me, which is why I was so drawn to it, theyre called www.brightercreative.com and they do graphic design, web design, logos, branding etc. it all sounds really interesting and Im very excited to see what a real work enviroment is like!

Nat.

Game Review- 'The Sound Walk'

So during my scheduled tea breaks during these last few weeks of uni (not joking) Ive found a great way to relieve stress.

As most of you know Im usually on either Twitter or Newgrounds, Newgrounds is my favourite website, a place for anyone to upload their games, art, and animation and even sound scapes, it has a huge online forum and its great, any way. I came across this game called The Sound Walk, its by a guy called Cccplay, the aim of the game is to hit your arrow keys in time to the music so that you avoid things like monsters and stones blocking your path, there are three levels, Dream, Nightmare and Dementia. the latter being the hardest and without any guide as to when to hit your arrow keys.

I found this game completely charming and addictive, the game play its self can sometimes lag a little but you can turn off the sfx in the menu and that loosens it up a bit, the music is amazing and if you dont hit the right key or miss one it turns off making it harder to find your rhythem again. My favourite level is the second one, its soundtrack reminds me so much of the ost for American Mcgees Alice and I love the mechanical setting to it.

the character reminds me of Jack Skeleton on The Nightmare Before Christmas the backgrounds are beautiful but will make your head spin (litrally I felt so dizzy after playing the second level) and the monsters are intriguing and unique.

There are three levels to beat, and as I said before each with a 3 tier difficulty setting, there is also a fourth level which can be unlocked by beating 25 acheivements, I have so far only beaten 12! its very difficult as you cant earn an acheivement by playing the easy setting but it sure keeps you coming back!

I recommend everyone at least try this game, it can be frustrating when you think your on a home run with 100% near the end and then you trip... but still, its a great game. so TRY IT.

Nat

CV.

Heres a glance at my CV, I looked at quite a few websites for inspiration and I found Deviant Art especially helpful. I wanted a CV that obviously reflected how I like to work, and I wanted something Simple but effective, Im keeping the paint splatters a theme along side my website and my business cards.



Let me know what you think

Nat

Business card Ideas,

Heres a few ideas! Feed back would be appreciated, just say 1-7 when talking about them, I love 1,2,3,4 and 7 are my favourites, 5 and 6 where the beginnings, obviously they dont all have the info on them yet, but please be honest and let me know what you think :)

1

2

3

4

5

6
7

STUFFS

hihi

So we had our rough cut deadline last friday and it was Hideous. I had so many problems with my laptop, programmes, hard drive, memory stick. ugh it was not good.

I managed to submit something and to be honest it wasnt great. Andys feedback was to make it more snappy and to look at adverts for games instead of making it like a game, so This week ive been re-doing work and its looking better already. Im beginning to feel excited about it all again. which is long over due because our deadlines in 3 weeks. :s

Nat

collaborations? good times??!

Hello.

So Ive probs blabbed on about how much I love Newgrounds (check them out at http://www.newgrounds.com) and recently Ive been thinking about what I really want to do with my self when I graduate. Anyway, I randomly made a post in the forum on the site about being a designer/artist who was looking for programmers to make games with.... and ive had a few replys :) so fingers crossed it leads somewhere and Ill be able to do what iVe dreamed about doing.

Nat

AARRRGH

:( Im currently feeling rubbish, all the work I have done is refusing to open and its making everything incredibly frustrating.

I need to use flash/after effect and premier, but being unable to use these programmes at home is really going to hinder any chance I have of getting this thing finished. Im also now really worried about getting my rough cut done, I wont be able to put in any animation I have done if I cant get the files open. ARRGH.

I f worse comes to worse, im going to have to simply use shots of my story board in place of the animation until I can sort out this mess.

wish me luck!

Hi Hi

Hello.

So my animation is a ment for a game, so ive decided to make the beginning even more like all the wonderful flash games I waste so much time on on Newgrounds :) heres a few screen shots

let me know what you think. :) The actual animation Im doing for this is kinda like a prelude to the game. (which ill make one day....) kind of like final fantasy and such. most games have an animated intro.

Cheers.

Recent going ons.

Hello.

So we're in our final term SCAREY. anyways. new stuff. Im still working on my animation and its coming together verrrry slowly.. im not going to lie and say its a piece of cake because to me, animating is one of those things I find really hard to do, so once this piece is finally finished (hopefully in a few weeks) ill be more than happy.

DREAMWEAVER: I recently signed up to do an intensive dreamweaver workshop with my uni, its a course over about 6 weeks with an exam at the end, on how to build websites from scratch, the first lesson I had was the past friday, 7 hours of knowledge went into my brain that day!, I actually surprised my self, and found Dreamweaver a very nice tool to work with, the only thing I found difficult was keepiing folders in specific places, if dreamweaver couldnt find something, it wouldnt open it... but I guess Ill have to work on it. :) At the end of the workshop after the exam Ill get an recognised adobe qualification certificate for dreamweaver cs4. which is great, only thing is If i wanted the certificate to remain valid Id have to resit it everytime they brought out a new dreamweaver, but anyway... Im sure it will help me immensly in the future, just opening up a few more doors and so on.

MENTOR.: We all got asssigned a mentor for this term to help us learn what its like to be in the industry. My mentor is called Tom Evans, hes a free lance animator/designer and seems great.
we have emailed a few times and his emails have been very insightful into the life of a free lance animator, its also been very interesting learning about how other people get into the industry and what made them decide to take the paths they did, Hopefully Ill learn a lot more about Tom in the next few weeks and Id like to be able to take what he teaches me with me into what ever work place I end up in :) check out his website http://www.tomwe.com

bye bye for now x

Innovation Project

2D animation is the most traditional form of animation, hand drawn and cell animation has developed with technology such as Flash and Toon Boom, making animations faster to produce and opening up a whole new way of producing animation to animators.

What makes programmes such as Flash valuable to animators is the fact that files can cross over into over digital programmes such as After Effects to add even more exciting dimensions to their work.

IN this project I hope to add a darker atmosphere to my 2d animation using after effects to help me create effects such as fog, various lighting and shadows. Even though Flash is a powerful tool I hope to achieve a darker looking animation, something I dont think I can acheive through Flash alone.
Using After Effects gives me a chance to turn 2D objects into 3D objects which allows me to set them up on different planes letting me add a certain depth to my work.







This Video from Ruggero Tomasino shows just what after effects can do to create a completely different atmosphere to a piece of footage.

here it is

vid of my wolf on jess's background. sorry for bad quality. blogger doesnt like videos :(

Fire vid.

Hello,

Heres Jess's background I promised, she gave it to me in just a line drawing but I gave it a bit of colour in photoshop, I love the style of the trees and I think its all going to tie in nicely together. Im going to try and put my animated wolf on top to see what it looks like! Ill post it when Im done :)


and Leah coloured her back ground and It looks great




As the only light source in the room is the fire I wanted it to be big and glowing, I was going to animate the flames in flash but found an awesome tutorial on youtube on how to make flames yourself in after effects so I gave it a go and it worked! yay.



It would of been easier to do it in flash but I wouldnt of been able to get the glow of the flames, Im a bit unsure about how to put in more shadows but Ill figure it out. :)

Nat x

braap braaap

Hey Peeps.

So Leah and Jess have been getting on well with the backgrounds i asked them to make for me,

This Leahs:

I love the layout and I think the bear rug and the furs on the wall really make this house creepy and old, I like how it looks like quite a traditional house, and not somewhere a young girl would be, so yeh, its creepy, Jess's trees are awesome but I cant seem to find a file for them on here.. but as soon as I do Ill post a pic up, all in all good stuffs! except my adobe suite has decided to die so I dunno what Im going to do over easter, as I cant physically do no work for four weeks :s

Nat

UPDATE

hello,

so we found out who we had to help us out and I have Leah and Jess, pretty happy, their styles are very similer to mine and they both seem to like the dark side of things... which is awesome... anyway, Ive asked them to help me with some of the larger more detailed backgrounds because they were taking up so much of my time.

After a mini break down and freak out, I composed myself and had a chat with Andy, we decided that because there is only a small part of actual animation, i could do this in Flash, and then bring that file into Aftereffects to complete the camera moves I was after.

I was unsure at first as Im not the best animator but after looking at a few pictures by Muybridge and doing a few online tutorials I managed to put together a short animation of my wolf running. Im pretty pleased as it was very frustrating!

I just couldnt for the life of me remember how to make the motion a symbol so I had to move it across the screen manually but thats my own fault for have a brain like a sieve!

Chow,

Nat x

FINAL PROJECT UPDATE.

So as I said in my last post i've changed my idea..... I dont think my lecturers where to happy but I think they were more worried to be honest, I just wasn't happy working in the style I was working in, and so Ive gone back to the style I was originally using, all hand draw, using black white grey and red, to give it a more of a scratchy feel but Im still keeping it in aftereffects to get the 3d layer look, Ive also changed my story slightly, for my innovation project headed by Georg, I've decided to make a point and click adventure game, using my characters and the majority of background work Ive work. there fore meaning, the animation I produce will be a 45 second trailer for my game, Im glad its a lot shorter than originally planned because I am majorly behind now. but fingers crossed, Ill be ok :)



any ways heres some story boards and doodles for you, and an upload of my animatic, its just a rough cut to get the length and sound right. enjoy!

Alot of this work is inspired by Matuesz Skutnik who has a website (http://www.pastelgames.com) its awesome and I recomend you check it out, it has amazing flash games on it, and alot of his style is similer but hes very versitile and the games all have different themes and looks, hes my inspiration to make a point and click game, as its his website that got me obsessed!

big love

Nat

Its been a while

Hey Guys so yeh its been a long time since i wrote on this and a lot of things have changed recently..

any way before I start yappin on about my course work Ive decided to do a few mini reviews on games that I think people should play before they die.These are games that i completely love and could play over and over so this review will be a little bias ;) Of course these are my views and if you dont agree, leave a comment! discuss :) this is the first, hopefully of many..

enjoy...

1. American Mcgee's Alice (PC)

This is a 3rd person action/horror game released in 2000 for the PC. Although the main character Alice may look innocent enough its pretty evident from the start of the game she's one messed up girl.

Set after the two novels Alice's adventures in wonderland and Alice Through the looking glass. This adventure begins in an institute for the insane.... when her only companion her toy White Rabbit begins talking to her she is ripped from reality and thrust into the spotlight of the now dark and twisted wonderland.
As you play as Alice you battle your way through the world created by the author Lewis Carol created all those years ago, unimaginable creatures, friend and foe are brought to life, with amazing backgrounds and fluid game play this game is sure to give you a chill. the background music is almost as scarey as the game, composed by Chris Vhenner who once played drums for NIN and is now currently in the rock band Marilyn Manson.

If you like your games deliciously twisted and raw, I recommend this game. its beautiful, dark and disturbing. and fear not. your not alone during your travels of wonderland the Cheshire Cat is there to guide you. although...

I wouldnt always trust what he has to say...