Coming and Going, Up and Down

We all have our ups and downs. I have my ups and downs. Sometimes I am inspired, I find myself bursting with passion, wanting to create something as these amazing ideas come to my mind. I find myself inspired and my ambitions sore, that progress will be made, and that my destiny is just around the corner and that breakthrough is nearly at hand. Or rather, the beginning of the fullness of my destiny. But really, we are all in our destiny in one phase or another I believe. Maybe we mess up, and we find ourselves learning from mistakes, so that we won't make those mistakes again. Those lessons learned from those hard times are critical. Or perhaps we might be in the very beginning of becoming who we are meant to be. But we are in our destiny, always and in some way or another.

We all go through that, well I do anyways. You go so high, and you feel as though God is behind you pushing you. Then there are those times when we wonder what happened. We look around and wonder why everything is so hard all the sudden. Why inspiration or hope is lost in your heart. Maybe you feel alone. Maybe you feel as though there is no point to carry on with what God had created you for. As though your giftings and callings have no effect. That has happened to me many a time in some way or another, yet I always find myself back at the top, breathing in the air God created for me.

Why am I saying all this? I'm not really sure. The inspiration is just there for it. May as well strike while the iron is hot right?

All this to say really, that these things happen to me on the occasion. I might start a project, get it done, then totally lose all inspiration to continue on. Carrying on your own after so long can take its toll at times. Then I will get over it, and push into God. With this He gives me inspiration to meet my goals, even if they may seem incredibly far away at the time. But I know that each step takes me closer and closer to that shining light off in the distance. Likely most of you have similar feelings and experiences happen to you at some point.

With all that said, I would like to loop you all in on what I'm doing. I may not know exactly whats going to happen when, and I may not know when the breakthrough financially (and everything else) will come, but I know that it will. With that, I continue to hone my skills.

And now... Maybe as well show my progress right?

So... basically here is the latest work in progress of what I'm doing so you all can see what it is I'm doing. I usually have some big goal for what I'm working on, but this one is just kind of for fun (still for my portfolio and very much a work in progress).

By the time I'm done with him, he will have pants (yay for pants!), maybe some shoes, a glove on the left hand I think, and who knows what else. He's kinda a steam punk goblin inventor adventurer kind of guy. : )

Also, if you have stuck through to this part, I have officially posted the video of my Wandering Knight character on Youtube. Check it out! And before I go on, I'd just like to thank Tyler Smith for the contribution to this video. He made the music!

If you'd like to see more, then just check out my newly redesigned website: 

http://www.tylergoll.com

And here are just a couple pics of him.

And there we go! Thanks you guys for checking this out, and check back later for more! :)

Games Learning from Film

As time has gone by, a lot of games have gotten more and more impressive, as you no doubt at least got a glimpse from my last post. Something that has been driving this, has been the use of many film techniques in games.

I was getting lunch with one of my friends just the other day who works in the game industry. One of the things we talked about was the ambitions of game designers to try and take a scene from a movie that was intense and was one of the favorite parts of a particular film, and try to apply it and recreate it in a game. As he pointed out, it actually became very clear that you can't just take an idea from a film, copy, paste, and play it and it turn out as suspenseful and glorious as it was in the movie. Why is that?

There are a couple of reasons, and these are things that the game industry really needs to learn, myself included in how to avert the problem. One reason it might not capture the spirit of that moment someone is trying to recreate in the game is simply because of narration. No, I don't mean having a voice narrate the game or movie for you. What I mean by that is things like camera use and such.

In film, the director has ultimate control what the viewer is seeing. He can elude to something, letting the viewer see the problem or danger, yet the character not knowing about it just yet. This builds up tension for the viewer. You can do this in a game, but most of the time it just isn't the same. I think in large part of this is because of control. The player is in control of the actions of the character and the player is also in control of the camera pretty much at all times. In fact, much of the time, the player seems to take on the identity of the character in the game, making it to where once something is eluded to the player, he or she can pretty much instantly respond to that situation, already knowing that there is a problem or something creepy around the corner. Whereas in film, the viewer sees whatever it is to see that isn't revealed to the character, and the viewer can't influence the actions of the character in the film. They are left to see how it will unfold as time progresses, requiring time, patience and such. This time between when the viewer is shown the creature (or what have you), and when the character finally encounters it is often very crucial to building up the tension in film. It builds anticipation.

You can achieve lot of tension in games by using and manipulating sound of course, and that certainly is a good way to go about it if you are trying to scare the player or something, but outside of horror or thriller type scenarios, I would say it can't be used as effectively.

So what's the point in all this? I don't know. This is just something that is on my mind. Something I want to do when I create a game is to really create a game that marries the best of game and film techniques together. If that is done, if the balance is just right then the results could be awesome! The reason for such importance in the balance is because it is a game after all. You don't want to make a game that is so directed, where it is almost like the game designer is in control of the camera and the characters most of the time. If that is the case, then the game designer almost may as well become a film director or something and go make a film, because games are very interactive in nature and they would pretty much defeat the purpose of the player "playing" and game.

There have been numerous instances where I'll be playing a game, and I'll be like, "What exactly am I supposed to be doing again?" Or I will just get a little lost in the story, why certain characters are performing certain things in the game. Often times I will be like, "Well they could have developed that whole part a bit more, done this, this, and this." And it would have been communicated so much better. The player would have a deeper understanding of what is going on, or might have a deeper understanding of the motivations behind the character and things like that.

So there is a balance to be found. Some games dance the line a little too close to becoming film, and other games hardly even try to incorporate techniques of film and such into it even if it would have benefited it a lot. Of course, there are those good ol' game that don't need to focus on that stuff, that are just a lot of fun to play, and story might just not be the focus of the game.

This is all just really interesting to me. I'm trying to think about how I could really communicate emotion effectively through games. I just know that mastering some of this could be key for me later on, so... yes.

Anyhoo, that's all! Phew... that was a lot.

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Game Tech - Ever Evolving

Today is a time of every changing technology. As you no doubt have seen in many recent games, they keep getting better and better looking. Well, that's one thing that has been on my mind a lot lately. The game technology has been getting better and better as time has progressed. The top tier game developers these days are finding ways to squeeze every last ounce they can out of current hardware. Some of the results are absolutely jaw dropping. Also, it helps that some of these games are some of my most anticipated games of the year (Uncharted 3, and Rage namely).


I posted the best examples just below so you can see what I'm talking about. Just a warning though, some of them are kind of violent.


And just noticing how small Blogger is showing these videos, you may as well just click on the videos and watch them on Youtube. Silly Blogger... 


Crysis 2 Trailer

Uncharted 3 Trailer

Gears of War Trailer

Battlefield 3 Trailer

Rage Trailer

A big reason why I've been thinking about game technology lately, is because of a particular demonstration that has been put together that showcases what mainstream games will be capable of looking like in 3 to 4 years. I could get all technical here, but suffice it to say, lighting, hair, skin, depth of field, etc., is all going to get incredibly realistic looking and run in real-time (no pre-rendered stuff for a cut-scene or what have you).

The demonstration I'm talking about is titled "The Good Samaritan." In fact, the same game engine powers this demonstration as what is used in Gears of War 3. The main difference is that Gears 3 uses 6 year old hardware, whereas the demonstration is using state of the art hardware. This is also the same engine that I use when I'm creating a level and such. So that peeked my interest all the more! 

Once again, posted below, it can be kind of violent, so don't say I didn't warn you. :)

Good Samaritan Trailer

Looking at all these games coming out, and especially the tech demo, it makes me think a lot about the future and how I and others will utilize it all in the future. Pretty crazy to think about, yet pretty dang exciting at the same time.

So count this as a sign to look out. Games are going to start looking as good as movies like Rango (a beautiful animated film) and such. Don't be surprised if I end up working on stuff of this caliber eventually. ;)

Side note: I have finished the video for my knight character, and have officially sent it off to my buddy (Tyler Smith) to put some music to it. Stay tuned for when it is finished and I post it! 

A Job and the Wondering Knight

Greetings and salutations earthlings! Hope all is well with everyone. It's almost been a week since my first post, so I figured it might be a good idea to get another one up on here. I figured I would update you guys on a couple things.

I said last time that I would fill you guys in on my job situation, so here we go. LA is packed full with game development and animation studios. When I first moved here, I was kinda freaked out a little bit and one of the first things I started doing when I moved here was applying for jobs. Well as time went by, it became clear that I needed to work more on my skills as a 3D Game Artist and as time went by, a peace came over me and I realized what kind of season I was and am in my life. With that, I decided to stop applying for jobs, and just work on my portfolio, trusting that there would be a job at the right time for me. I did that once with the level I created titled Windy Village (finished it around November), and that turned out to be the best thing I had created to date. After that was done, I began to work more on applying to studios in the area once again. Bellow you can see a simple screenshot from my level.

Windy Village screenshot

While I was doing that, applying as a World Builder or Level Designer, I was also toying around with some new ideas for characters and environments, just sketching them out. A couple ideas were awesome, but would take forever to complete, one in particular was especially really cool, but it would be a bit too complicated for my skill level. The character idea that I'm speaking about, was none other than this ent drawing. 

ent concept

As tempting as it was to create that guy, I decided to keep coming up with some ideas. Resulting from that was this knight concept. Not only would he be something that I could achieve, but it also would help strengthen my portfolio with a good human character, since most of my characters thus far have not been the typical fare.

original knight concept

Conceptualizing with him a little more, I came up with a more detailed version of the character. This really helped give me a clear idea for what I was going to do with him. And as a bit of time went by, I decided to name him Wondering Knight. Perhaps that would be the actual name of the game he would be in, because of the background story I created a bit for him. But anyways....

refined detail concept

I figured it would be doable. It would require a little extra work than my last environment I had created, just because I would have to re-learn this program called Zbrush (something every 3D Artist should have). So as time went by, I worked away on him. Went through some tutorials and such, and after a couple of months of working on him, I am happy to say that he has turned out really good. In fact, I am rendering out a rough animation that will demonstrate him in different poses and such as we speak. You can get a glimpse of it just bellow. I will probably tweak the lighting, and I might work on some special effects and create some cool scenery around him, but for now this more than suites my needs. On top of that, I hope to send it to one of my best buds back home in TN, Tyler Smith, to see if he can put some music to it. Yay!

final result of Wondering Knight concept

So all that to say, now that I am just about finished with the character, I believe I will now move on once again to applying to studios. I guess I should have said it earlier, but no, I do not have a job yet in the industry. Bummer. But I feel the time is approaching soon. This season in my life has really been a time of preparation, and God has really been teaching me on how to have a keener eye for excellence, and how to achieve that in my work. Who knows though, maybe I will get a job by the traditional means, but I have a feeling it will be through the right people. After all, as they say, it's not about what you know, but who you know. Although what you know sure can help. : )

There you have it, a little bit about what I've been working on, along with my whole job situation. And as far as my finances go, there really isn't any need to worry. While I was in school God gave me wisdom to save up money. Thanks to that, I will be good out here for at least a few more months without a full time job, so it's not like I'm just wracking up a bunch of debt while I hone my skills.

Thanks for checking this out everyone, and check back soon for more. I'm thinking I will either create a desert environment to go with my knight, or create a new character. We shall see!

The Grand Introduction

Well everyone, welcome to my blog! This is a big day for the world just for the reason that it's my first blog... ever. I know this may come as a shock, but the picture you see is how I dress every other day. It was my brother's idea really, that is, the whole wearing of the kitchen appliances thing (and bananas of course). I kid, but that is what life is like from time to time. ; )

Of course, the name of my blog is "Life of Goll." I guess a big reason I chose it is partly because, well... it's a blog... about me... and Goll of course is my last name, that was enough reason for me right there. On top of that, back in the day, a number of my friends would always call me Goll, Golly, and the like. So I'm sorry to all my siblings and my dad, I have claimed Goll for my blog, and none of you can take it! Haha. Ok, just kidding, buuuut... I'm kinda serious.

So I've been trying to figure out what direction I will try and take this little blog thingy, whether I try and be really funny and random, or just talk about really technical stuff about my trade, or what have you. Well I figure I will post pretty much whatever I feel like putting up on here, that is, probably everything. I would love to talk a little technical (sorry if I alienate you guys a little!), but will try and keep it to a minimal amount. But I'm excited about keeping you all in the know in how I work and how my ideas are formed and stuff as far as all that is done.

Aside from my work, of course I also plan on sharing about my life in general, what I'm doing, how life is going physically and spiritually, and other things that are just really interesting to me.

I do got to say, just as a teaser, I've been working on this one character, creating him in 3d for a while now, and he is finally almost complete. I'm just wrapping up some work on him, and doing some little refinements at this point. So I'm super excited about that.

Some of you are probably wondering what's the deal, do I have a job yet? Well I'll try and touch on that very soon hopefully along with... practically everything else.

Also, if you haven't checked it out, you can take a peek at my website at: http://www.tylergoll.com

Remember that video I made a few months back of my latest level/environment? Well it has officially gotten past 1,000 views! So thank you everyone who helped it get to that point! If you haven't seen it before, then you can see it on my website, or just check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS3ouX11Rzc

Thanks for stopping by everyone and be sure to check back soon!