Flash Animation

For this flash assignment, I decided to make Hulk running through the streets.  To start everything off, I first started making each frame of the hulk moving in Illustrator.

When I completed the 10 frames of Hulk, I exported the file, and began doing the flash portion.  It took me a while to finally make all the frames of Hulk, I had to go back and fix certain body parts because they looked a little off.  Once Hulk was officially done, I made the shadow frames to accompany him while he's running.

When I started flash, my biggest concern was being able to properly loop certain aspects, and if I would be able to make things look smooth, but luckily I got some feedback from classmates to fix some things.

To make the flash scene look right, I decided to put some cars(Cadillac's) passing by to help make it look more like the Hulk was running through the streets, also accompanied by a looping brick wall, sidewalk, and some parking meters.

CLICK HERE to view the animation.

3D Scenes

 Making 3d objects in Adobe illustrator and mapping symbols onto them.

Skatedeck: The Takeover

Finally completed my official "The Takeover" skate deck.  The print didn't quite scale properly to fit exactly on the deck, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Full Throttle Poster Advertisement

This poster was a group collaboration I did with some classmates.  We were to make a new poster for a Coca-Cola product, and we chose to do Full Throttle energy drink.  

Credits for this poster goes to Arber Spaho, Laura Pinto, Henry Jubril, and Myself.

Virtual World - Second Life

In this post I will be reviewing the virtual environment world called "Second Life."  Second Life is pretty much an online world where users can socialize, customize their own avatar, and connect with other users.

Website Overview

My first thought for the Second Life website was that it was neat and organized.  Fonts and colors used were quite nice and suited each other, and they also did a good job highlighting the major buttons with a color that stood out from the rest of the site.  One tiny issue I personally had with the site was that they should make the client download button on the top of the screen rather than having it down at the bottom where most people would easily pass by it.  Moving on from what I disliked, the "What is Second Life?" tab I thought was unique of them to include videos of what Second Life was about, rather than have the users come on the site and just read a bunch of text, videos nowadays tend to get a lot more attention and circulate through the internet much quicker.  Personally I've played a number of MMORPG games, and have played numerous editions of "The Sims," so my first thoughts before going into this game was that it was going to be exactly like "The Sims" online with graphics that were probably going to be duller.

Avatar Creation

The avatar creation seems pretty cool, there are numerous things you can change within the avatar, some examples of them are, eye color, skin color, height, body fat, and clothing.  My first impression of the avatar creation was that to me it seemed a little hard to understand at first.  I found myself clicking around a lot even though I had read a bunch of how-to's, but after I figured out the avatar customization process, it was a lot easier to configure.  Tools within the customization are easy to configure, sliders are put in place to give users a range in which they can move sliders to configure their preferences.  When I finished making my avatar, I was happy with it, I didnt want to go overboard and spend hours making this look a certain way.  I checked out many different features, and then just made a simple guy wearing a pirate suit.  One thing I noticed about avatar customization was sometimes the avatar wouldn't change even when I changed its features many times.  I tried logging in and out, and waiting and still nothing changed.  At first I thought maybe it was just my computer I was working on, but when I tried another computer, the same thing happened.

There wasn't much that I disliked about avatar customization, other than the way the menu for the avatar was laid out.  I found it a little confusing, and thought maybe it could've been worked on a little bit more.  But other than that, avatar customization was pretty in-depth, and users could spend loads of time making their avatar.

Virtual Environment

Pictured above is my avatar in a virtual Toronto that I accidentally stumbled upon.  I clicked it as soon as I saw the word Toronto, and to my surprise it was done quite nice.  Being born and raised in Toronto, downtown Yonge-Dundas Square is actually a nicer looking part of our city, mainly because there are so many bright lights to look at.  There are a bunch of different destinations you can explore, more popular ones include ones that have the name "Club" in them.  Graphic wise, Second Life visuals aren't that bad for being a client you just open up and run on a pc, compared to games that have a heavy install.  At first I was expecting the visuals to be like Runescape (which I think sucks personally), but to my surprise, it turned out to look more like an online Sims game.  Animations were also okay to me, not mind-blowing, but again pretty good for something thats running on a client window.  

Interacting with your surroundings was pretty cool also.  There are a bunch of things you can play with, and also a huge number of things you can do with certain objects.  For example, sitting on a chair.  You can sit different ways, and aside from sitting in those different positions, you can actually choose exactly where you want to sit on a certain object due to an x and y coordinates you can manually adjust.  Because interactions are so in-depth, at times a user could easily be blindsided by the insane amount of things you can adjust, and I find that to be   somewhat a small issue other users may run into.  Aside from that, the environment looks great, and the amount of detail that goes into some of these surroundings are great also.

Communication

As far as socializing and communicating on the game goes, you can either chat by typing or chat by microphone and use your own voice.  In the picture above, I sat in on a conversation with some people who were using mics, and they were talking about some pretty interesting stuff.  One girl was actually a elementary school teacher who was talking about finding a job in Baltimore, Maryland, which I thought was insane just because they have one of the highest crime rates in America.  It seems as though these people were chatting like they were sitting at a cafe, and just talking about their lives, which surprised me because I thought most people who played this was just doing it to mess around with other people and trying spoil their time.  As far as meetings go, it would be cool to experience a meeting in a virtual world like this maybe once, just to get a feel of what its like, but doing it on a constant basis wouldn't be that great.  Again, even trying to attend a class like this would be a pretty cool idea the first time around, or even if this was an online course where your avatar would have to attend class.  But dont forget a lot more goes on in the real world, and sometimes the internet isn't as efficient as it seems.

Interface

In the picture above, you can see that the structure principle was used nicely.  The developers made any toolbars and buttons around the screen rather than having anything obstruct the center.  All the buttons and toolbars all have another menu that pops out once those buttons are clicked.  The contrast between the buttons and and fonts also are neatly done, making symbols and text that appear on buttons stand out on a darker background.

 

Pictured left, is an error message saying that I wasn't able to be teleported to the destination I wanted to go to.  This is a good example of the Feedback principle.  If I did not receive this error message, I would've been confused as to why my teleport wasn't able to go through, and I would've probably got mad and closed Second Life.  Feedback is key to the users.  Any application or game must provide feedback for their users to let them know whats going on in the case of an error, and let them know whats wrong.

The Visibility principle was another principle Second Life incorporated into there interface.  As you can see on the picture to the right, similar tasks are grouped together so users can find them more easily.  For example changing your avatar, customizing your clothes, and buying certain things, can all be found on the toolbar to the left of the screen, and also the main menu bar tasks are all grouped on the top left corner for users to access menu options all in one place. 

Overall Experience

To conclude my final thoughts on Second life, I'd like to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  To me, I don't really see a point in playing a game like second life when we can live our own lives.  Not to bash on Second life, it is pretty cool to see all these environments being built for users just to hang out and explore, and to see the amount of work that go into designing all this, I do commend the developers and people who put work into this.  Its amazing to see how in-depth virtual environments can be, with its textures, and models, but Second Life could use a lot more developing and fine tunes.  My major issue with Second Life was that customizing my avatar was difficult just because every time I changed its features or clothes, they would change only sometimes, but didnt most of the time.  Avatar creation to me still feels a little buggy, and could be improved much more.  Would I ever use Second Life again? probably not, but if you're into online simulation games and are looking for a place to socialize through your computer and not in real life, Second Life is the perfect place to be.

Vector Character Illustration

For this assignment we were to pick a sketch on Deviant Art, vectorize, and color it in.  I chose an Iron Man sketch drawn by Guido Guidi.

The first step was to outline Iron Man, and I chose to start on the head first just because it seemed logical for me to start from top to bottom.

After getting the face and head done, I moved onto the arms, starting with the right arm first.  Outlining these parts weren't to difficult, the more I did the more I could see the figure come together.

Once I had all the major outlining done, it was time to move onto the tiny details.  This for me was probably the hardest part just because there were so many little details to include.

When outlining and detailing was complete, it was time to start the fun part, coloring.  For the most part coloring wasn't too hard, it was more of figuring out which colors go where, and which shades of colors I should use.

Once I got the colors figured out, I started coloring in the major body parts.  I started to put a little bit of shading in just to see what it would look like, then I continued to color in.

This is the final product after I completed coloring in.  The shading part was a little tricky because at times I didnt know if the shading looked right.  Overall it wasn't too much of a hassle, and I enjoyed digitizing the Iron Man sketch by Guido Guidi.

Video Game Review: NBA 2K12

                                         1.

                                                        

With the NBA lockout postponing this years NBA season and delay of Electronic Arts version of the NBA,  many were wondering if there was still going to be a  2011-2012 NBA video game.  Luckily the people over at 2K Sports, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, have published their major blockbuster NBA 2K12 video game, back by popular demand due to its major success in the previous year.  

                                                                                                                                                    
2.

2K Sports is made up of a single development studio called Visual Concepts.  Visual Concepts was purchased from Sega in 2005, upon being purchased, 2K Sports was the new publishing label created within the same purchasing year.  2K Sports mainly develops and publishes video games that are sports popular among Americans.  These sports include, Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Hockey.  Of those sports games, the NBA 2K series has been the most popular and critically acclaimed.  2K Sports and Electronic Arts have an ongoing feud due to the NBA games developed in 2011.  When 2K released its rendition of NBA before EA had, EA found that 2K had developed a game miles ahead of them, and thus, caused EA to scrap there 2011 NBA video game completely. 

NBA 2k12 is widely available for many platforms, including major consoles like PS3, XBOX 360, and Wii. A PC and PS2 version is also available, and for those who enjoy handheld gaming, it can also be found on the Playstation Portable and the IPhone IOS.  NBA 2K12 is a sports simulation video game, specifically a basketball simulation game.  NBA 2K12 content is rated by 2 different boards and organizations, these organizations are, Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and Pan European Gaming Information (PEGI).  NBA 2K12 does not include any violence in their game therefore it has an ESRB rating of E, which means it has content rated for everyone to view and a PEGI rating of 3, which means it has content suitable for all age groups.

                                                    3.                                                                4.

In the NBA, there are the traditional 30 teams, 29 from the United States and 1 from Canada.  These 30 teams all play 82 regular season games, and the top 8 from the eastern and western conference make it to the playoffs and whichever team beats the opposing team in a best of 6 series, moves onto the next bracket.  Whichever team then beats every team they face in the next bracket, wins the NBA title.

                                       

5.

6.

In NBA 2K12, primary game modes included are Exhibition, My Player, Online, Association, Online Association, NBA's greatest, Playoffs, and Season.  The most popular mode "My Player," is where you get to create your own NBA player, and take him through the process of entering an NBA draft, and play for an NBA team.  From there its up to the user to play through the regular season and upgrade their players stats, all while trying to make it to the playoffs and win a championship.  Online is also another popular mode where users can go online and play against other people in ranked matches to determine who really is the "king" of online basketball.

As far as the rating system goes for the game, this is how it will be broken down.

Out of a maximum of 10, the game will be rated by, 

graphics, presentation, sound, gameplay, and online experience.

                                        7.

The graphics and visual in NBA 2K12 are fantastic, visuals have been upgraded since last year, improving on individual player faces and bodies.  On court visuals are almost on par with a real game, and with the extra on court visuals like mascots, cheerleaders, bench players and crowds, the game visuals tie up quite nice.  Although you can tell that some players visuals were rushed and looked generic, more fine tuning could be done, and there is still room for improvement, so a perfect 10 cant be given for graphics.   8.5/10

                                                                8.

The presentation of NBA 2K12 is outstanding, menus and navigation are simple and have great visuals as well.  The fact that they made this game almost like the real thing, will amaze anyone that's a sports fan.  The realism that the game brings to the table is incomparable to any other basketball simulation game to date.     10/10

                                                                   

In NBA 2K12, the sounds and soundtrack are amazing, if you were to play this game and have someone close their eyes and just simply listen to the game in action, there is no way they will ever distinguish between a real basketball game and the video game.  Crowds, announcers, and player collision voices are exactly on point, and couldn't have been done any better.  As for the soundtrack, there's plenty of songs that will get you hyped up to play and get you in the right mood.   10/10

                                                                      9.

Gameplay in NBA 2k12 is great but not outstanding.  At times I found myself losing the ball due to glitches, and turnovers due to glitches.  Computer AI difficulty is also a bit off, whereas rookie mode at times is too easy, and Hall of fame mode makes it almost impossible to enjoy the game.  The learning curve for this game isn't too steep, once you get the hang of the buttons and the release timing for shots, everything is smooth sailing from there.  Advance moves take some time to learn, but when that's all figured out, the game becomes nothing but great fun.   8.5/10

Lastly, is the online experience.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge online gaming fan, but when it comes to playing this online, you might as well not play.  At first it was nearly impossible to connect to another user, and after numerous patches, online gameplay is still a drag.  Connections now connect but when the game starts, expect lag and delay after every movement and shot.  At times the lag was so unbearable I just quit.  Keep in mind all these were ranked matches too, so even if you were the best player at this game, you wouldn't be able to prove it because playing NBA 2K12 online was pretty much a different game.  6/10

Overall Score

8.6/10

NBA 2K12 is hands down the best basketball video game to date, with stunning visuals, presentation, gameplay and sound.  There's a reason why Electronic Arts scrapped their rendition of an NBA video game, and NBA 2K series is the reason.  NBA 2K12 shines at every aspect aside from online, but looking on the brighter side, the online experience is just one bad issue within a phenomenal game.

References

1. Image courtesy of Counterkicks

    http://counterkicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/michael-jordan-nba-2k12-cover-2.jpg

2. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/2K_Sports_Logo.png/755px2K _Sports_Logo.png

3. Image courtesy of wikipedia

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/ESRB_Everyone.svg/215px-ESRB_Everyone.svg.png

4. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/PEGI_3.svg/426px-PEGI_3.svg.png

5. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

    http://students.cis.uab.edu/jphan/nbateamlogos.jpg

6. Image courtesy of Bomeiquan

    http://www.bomeiquan.cn/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/The-First-NBA-2K12-Screenshot_2000x1333.jpg

7. Image courtesy of pastapadre

    http://www.pastapadre.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/nba2k120824kobe.jpg

8. Image courtesy of Rivalspot

    http://blog.rivalspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110915181821.jpg

9. Image courtesy of g4tv

    http://files.g4tv.com/rimg_606x0/ImageDb3/279670_l/nba-2k12-nbas-greatest-screenshots.jpg

TEL Building Tour

Style Guide

This is a style/brand guide I created for my brand dubbed "The Takeover."  Its not a real brand, I just made it up on my own.  The guide talks about certain aspects of recreation of my brand, enjoy.