Business: Ultimate Image

As another submission for the business module I had to create an 'ultimate image', which is like a promotional poster to demonstrate my skills and abilities. I struggled with this project to start with as I didn't have any ideas to show my skills as an animator in a still format. After looking at a great deal of film posters and album artwork I was inspired by posters that featured reflections as part of their design. Although I explored a few variations on this idea, I didn't really experiment with any other formats, which perhaps I should of done.

However I'm very happy with the outcome of my ultimate image, by showing the rig controls and the thumbnails reflected in the ink wash below it's clear that I'm an animator and not a rigger or modeler. I chose blue to correspond with my business card and the ink backdrop as a lot of my graphics work in college featured this effect and it's something I enjoy doing. I also think the layout works well as I carefully laid out the different elements of the design with diagonals and the rule of thirds in mind. The only possible improvements I can think of are on the renders themselves, the posing could be tweaked further and the colour balance improved but overall I think it's a solid design.

Business: Industry review

As a part of the business studies module I also have to do an industry review on five companies I'd like to work for. So this is basically a list of games developers that I admire for various reasons as I'd really like to go into the games industry when I finish uni. It's by no means a comprehensive list as there are dozens of companies out there producing amazing work that I admire.

Rockstar North
Rockstar has studios worldwide, however the studio I'm talking about specifically is the one based in Edinburgh. An animator from Rockstar came in to give us a guest lecture in our second year and that's what sparked my interest in the company. I haven't played many of their games due to being too young when a lot of them were released, but I'm enjoying Red Dead Redemption and am looking forward to the new GTA.

Ubisoft Reflections
Again Ubisoft have studios worldwide, but it is their Reflections studio based in Newcastle that I'm interested in at the present. What I find impressive about Ubisoft's workflow is the fact that their studios collaborate on a game simultaneously, which must take a lot of work and organisation. This is how they produced the majority of the games in the Assassin's Creed series, one of my favourite series of current gen games. The same strategy is being used to produce one of their latest titles, Watch Dogs, which from the current trailers and gameplay footage is shaping up to be something pretty exciting. However it's not these games, but the original Rayman that initiated my interest in the studio, as it is one of my favourite childhood games.

Media Molecule
I wasn't expecting to love the LittleBigPlanet games half as much as I did, but they drew me in with their charm and addictive gameplay. Based in Guildford, Media Molecule has the appearance and ideology of a small, friendly company despite producing such a bestselling series. They are currently working on a game called Tearaway, amongst other projects, which looks to be as innovative as LittleBigPlanet.

Valve
Valve is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, and is possibly my favourite developer on this list. In my opinion they've never released a bad title and the games Portal, Half Life, Team Fortress 2 to name but a few are amongst my all-time favourites. The reason for the level of quality found in their games can be attributed to Valve's artistic integrity, they will never compromise on quality even if it means pushing back a game's release date because they are committed to the end product. The company is also responsible for creating the Steam digital distribution system, which allows users worldwide to purchase games from a wide catalogue, from the latest AAA title to an independently produced game from smaller studios.

Naughty Dog
Based in Santa Monica, California, Naughty Dog are responsible for creating two series that I cherish from my childhood, namely Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter. What I admire most about the company is that they recognise when it's time to move on to a new IP. Each series they've worked on only has a few games made before they move onto something fresh. It's this dedication to quality rather than profit that I find inspiring, as Naughty Dog could have continued to profit off of the Uncharted series by making more games and relying on the series' reputation to sell more units, however instead they chose to focus on making another new IP. This new game, The Last Of Us, is due out this year and judging by the trailers and behind the scenes footage released thus far it seems set to follow in the footsteps of the company's past games in terms of quality.

Business: CV, cover letter, business card

As part of our business module we had to produce a business card, CV and covering letter. Unfortunately I spent a little too much time on the writing part and not enough on the design. The content is there now at least, but I'll definitely be working on the design a whole lot more before I send these out to any potential employers.

The purpose of the business card is to act as a handshake and introduce ourselves to an employer whilst showing our skills and personality. I chose the colour blue as it is my favourite and is often viewed as a calming colour. Instead of using a render of a still I instead chose to use an animation thumbnail as the main focal point of the front of my business card. My reason for this is that I didn't want to be mistaken for a modeler or a rigger, despite the fact that my area of expertise is stated on the card, it is the image that most people will look at first. I didn't really know what to do for the back which is why it looks so plain, so I'll definitely be rethinking that aspect of the design.

 

As I spent too long on the the writing I didn't give much thought to the design of the CV and covering letter. I made them match the business card in terms of colour scheme and the use of thumbnail drawings, but I didn't give much thought to the layout which is fairly boring as a result. I think that this is the design element that needs the most change, so at some point I'll be reworking these a lot to make them more interesting and stand out.