Showreel and Reflection

In a previous group tutorial I had talked with my tutor about how it would be best to approach the show reel and the result was a few pieces of advice:

-Keep it focused

-Use Artwork to back up gameplay footage

- Try to maximise sheet space and show everything.

I kept all of these in mind when it came to constructing my show reel in iMovie. Originally I had planned to use After Effects but when I arrived at the media lab it was entirely full which meant falling back to iMovie – which proved to be a happy accident as it was perfect for the show reel and very easy to use.

(Recording the video)

Recording gameplay footage was actually a substantial amount of hassle as far as finding reliable screen capture software and actually led to an entire day almost being wasted without video being recorded. At first I believed that machinima friendly ‘Fraps’ might be the answer, so I downloaded it only to discover that it would only record in game…and by that I mean in a full release title such as Left for Dead. This was immensely frustrating and led to a Google/ YouTube fuelled hunt for software to do this properly.

Through trial and error with DuckCapture (which proved to be simply more advanced print screen…) and CamStudio (Littered with bugs and made my screen go weird often – in addition to recording in poor quality), I found Microsoft Encoder. It did have its own issues (recording in sound for example) but nothing that was fatal. At the end of this day I managed to record footage of both my levels in addition to a brief play through of my point and click ready for the next day.

Here is the finished Showreel:

And also as promised the link to the Portfolio Website:

 http://www.wix.com/at_eas6/kylebamfordportfolio#!home|mainPage

On Reflection…

Aside from making an offline mock up using screenshots for submission purposes I have finished both Project 2 Tasks. I feel happy with the portfolio as far as core layout and look – with the feeling that with more impressive work behind it this can only get better as I grow as an artist. The Showreel is something I’m very happy with also, with my only issues perhaps lying with the quality of some of the gameplay footage – but this is down to the quality of the recording which could not really be improved. Although, out of the two, I can see myself returning to the Showreel to make larger changes in the future.

On reflection maybe this was due to the issues with project 1 (in addition to external projects) bleeding across into the time planned for this project not leaving me enough time to be as happy as I could be with the Show reel but I am nevertheless satisfied with the outcome.

Project Bibliography:

Juno’s Online Portfolio:

http://studiosis.com/3rdBASS/

Maxx’s Online Portfolio:

http://maxxsoul.com/

Jason Chan’s Online Portfolio:

http://jasonchanart.blogspot.co.uk/

(All of the above visited: 05/05/2012)

Portfolio Design

For the actual creation of the portfolio website I decided to use Wix.com – a free drag and drop style website maker that allows the user to create galleries of images and import movies among other features. I thought at first that I might use a free template so I mucked around a bit with that to get to grips with what I could do with my site before starting again on pencil and paper to get a simple plan made of how it would be laid out.

The composition, layout and content I considered very carefully as the phrase ‘’three button rule’’ was used in the introduction to the brief – essentially meaning that the visitor must be able to get to what they want to see in three button clicks. By dividing my pages up into Environment Art, Character Art, Projects and Contacts each section is clearly labelled and the galleries of images are laid out to abide by the ‘L’ composition to make the pages each look aesthetically pleasing, with a decorative design in the bottom left.

Projects page design

Final Version

When it came to constructing the pages themselves in Wix, I created or altered existing artwork to make the pages as I went. I also utilised a dark grey, light grey and a gold colour in order to create theme between the pages with a strong title at the top (my name and role). The Result is a little different from my page plan but I think it still retains the clarity, content and core composition. I still have to create my show reel so haven’t published the site yet but I will post a finished link when it is finished.

Possible Portfolio Items

Character Art

Backgrounds

Projects:

- Interactive Narrative Comic: Orion's Gambit
- Zork: Point and Click
- Page Turners Demo

Portfolio - Research

In order to create my online portfolio I decided to look at a few different portfolios to get an idea of what I could do for my own.

http://studiosis.com/3rdBASS/

Notes:

Pro’s

Sounds work

Negatives

Takes too many button clicks to get anywhere

Too simple

Images aren’t big enough

For this one I felt that the design was too simple and wasn’t immediately engaging me with artwork. It took a few clicks for me to get to each area because of the precision of what the artist was displaying. I think that it works as a portfolio but I can’t find any inspiration in the design.

Maxx

http://maxxsoul.com/

Notes:

Pro’s

Clean look

Very easy to get to the artwork

Cons

Can’t think of any

Sections

 Illustration, Character Creature, About, Contact

I thought that this portfolio worked very well as far as clarity was concerned, it clearly presented the work under broad banners with a level of precision. I couldn’t think of many issues with this site and as a no nonsense portfolio it definitely acts as a perfect example for me.

Jason Chan

http://jasonchanart.blogspot.co.uk/

Notes

Blogspot design, works well, all the art is very easy to access with a nice title page with access to contacts at the top of the page.

This site really jumped out at me when it was shown two weeks ago, but I couldn’t find the original website. Even so the blogspot design worked. It wasn’t over packed with needless detail because the artwork told the story. It allows access to contacts as well.  

Next step

From this research I’m now going to organise the artwork that I will be using for the website  and look at Wix, which is a free website builder in addition to Blogspot as possible options to create the portfolio with.