Photo shooting basic class - Photography

When you want to take a good photo, a basic understanding about camera function like ISO, aperture, speed, lenses, etc are needed. So in this class we were taught about basic photography such as technical and practical use as well. 

Here are some of the best photos that I have been doing for this class;

The school - lego building 

Model - Frida Brander

The Verdict

It was nice to learn again more about basic photography even if you already know about it before. I am not too good with the technical so this class was really helpful for me. If I could do it better I want to take more photos. 

Last time I was annoyed since at one project I forgot to charge my camera battery, lesson learned...always check your battery the day before.

Orientation to game design class - Game design

When making a game, it need a good planning and design from the start. In this particular class, we were taught how to design and planning a game from scratch. We are introduced how the games industry works and what roles that in it.

For the project, we learn how to use Game Salad program which is a really easy to use if you don't have experiences with programming. You just basically drag and drop all the build in code and stack it with the images you have, and you have a working game yay! XD

Individual game project - Muriel game

I choose an endless running game type for this first game project that we need to do it individually. I got the idea from Badlands game for the graphics and Geometry dash for the main game design. I manage to do most of the easy part of the coding with the help from my teacher and husband as well since i'm really new with programming.

I decided to name the game "Muriel". Muriel is the black round cat that ran away from "Lily" the black goat-like main character. The game purpose is to "chase" Muriel while avoiding obstacles by jumping.

Here's the video for the game ;

Early concept design for Lily the goat

Main menu design

In game design

The Verdict

This class is really crucial in basic game development. Even if you probably not going to make a super fancy polished games but you got the idea of how game building works. 

And lastly, 
my friend Emmi Malkki did this awesome clip from all of our's first game in one package. Check this also! :D

Introduction to character design class - Graphic production

When making character design for anything we want to make it unique. 

A good character design are the one that we can distinguish and have a characteristic. We learn about basic theory and drawing in this class. How to simplify and exaggerating a character so it stands up from other.

Character design final project

We made a fantasy game character based on a description that teacher gave us. I chose "femme fatale" theme  for this project. 

1. A femme fatale (/ˌfæm fəˈtɑːl/ or /ˌfɛm fəˈtɑːl/; French: [fam fatal]) is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art. (wikipedia)

I mixed it with steampunk style since I never tried it before. I also added a machine-like chameleon as her sidekick, representing that her characteristic same like a chameleon; she can change it whenever she want to accomplished her goal.

The woman have a long golden hair, with the attitude of arrogant, sexy but not cheap, mysterious and proud. The description said that she have a long neck and colorful head, with large eyes that made her look like an exotic bird.

For this project I was looking for references like crazy and trying a new drawing style. I rarely sketch straight with the tablet so it was challenging for me. 

It turns out really nice but not finish-finished at this moment. I want to finished it for future personal project :D

Early sketches

Graphic design class - graphic production

In this class we learn about the basic graphic design theory. We did some basic exercise with fonts and layout as well. The final project is to make a logo design for our game/ an game you want. I decided to make logo for my orientation to game design class which I made a running platform game.

Muriel game logo project

Since the game is a casual game that targeting older kids and up, I want to make the logo design more "kids friendly". It should be simple and cute like, easy to read and remembered.

Here is some early sketches and concept I made ;

Then after I choose 2-3 best one, I made the rough version into Adobe Photoshop just to see which one work the best. Some of them are too much detail and some are too hard to recognize since I want the main character's cat (whose name is Muriel, hence the game name) to be visible in the logo.

And after more tweaking and choosing the best color, these below are the final version of the logo. I made it into colored version and the BW version as well. Personally, the curly style of the cat's tail is the cutest ;)

The Verdict

Even if you are an experienced graphic designer, it is good to always learning basic skills and having exercises. To be proud and love our work, it is a mandatory in my opinion to create a good design. This is what I always remembered when doing any kind of works. 

Image manipulation class

We learn to use Adobe Photoshop program most of the time. How to use basic tools and being accustomed to it. We did photo manipulating for making textures and doing drawing exercises as well (such as ctrlPaint tutorials). Then we were introduced to Google SketchUp program as well and doing some scene. 

Here are some of the projects that we made in this class :

Background project

We need to do a quick sketch for background in grayscale. It is nice for me since I need more training in making background. Since we did it fast and loose, I think this is a really good way to build up a scenery for a background.

SketchUp project - Tavern scene

I am really happy with this project since I could make props design and hand painted textures. The theme is a fantasy tavern interior. The program was easy and simple to use.

Isometric project - props and building

We made this isometric project with pixel art. I am struggling a bit at first but get used to it after a while. I decided to make a really simple scene in some fantasy "countryside" theme. I love how the trees and the mushroom-like house outcome :D

The verdict

I love this class and I learn a lot of it for graphics exercises and game graphics development. I got a really nice feedbacks, suggestions and critics  from the teacher and the other students so I could improve more. 

Game jam 2015 - other project

I decided to joined the Finnish/Global Game jam 2015 since it would be a good experience and interesting. We decided to make 6 person group and do some platform jumping game. 

This is our game "Karma Cat" in short; 

The player need to choose whether it want to free the poor little chicks in the cage or to eat the tasty chicken legs. Each of the decision the player make will affect the game.

The chicks will make you slimmer, but faster the game's pace.
The tasty chicken legs will make you go fat and more fatter and harder to jump, but slowing the game's pace.

The fun part is the two player mode that either you can work together to the top, or kick others down.

Hence the name "Karma Cat" (We hope you got what we mean xp).

Here's the gameplay video or you can go to this link;

And you can play it also in this link. Don't forget to put the sound on, it is so awesome that it will stuck to your head after a while.

The verdict

I learned a lot in this event. I was surprised that you can actually develop a good decent games in really tight time. I learn how you organized your work and team mates as well. It was super fun and tiring. 

Our awesome group :3

All the participants

Credits 

Graphics : Emmi Malkki, Maureen Lukito Alkkiomäki, Moona Miettinen
Programmers : Antti Alkkiomäki, Joonas Jakobson,  Sakari Malkki
Sound designer : Jan Kanerva

Game design basic class

As the name of the class, we learn about making concept and all the basic understanding of making a game. We have a theory lecture then split into smaller group of 2-3 people to make one game concept that we are going to choose the best 3 for bigger project. For the bigger project I will put it on separate post since its still on progress currently.

First concept

In 3 people group, we decided to do a point and click game name "Krovendell". The main story is a shy guy that accidentally teleported to a fantasy elven world where he will find a way back home with an elf girl he met there. There will be mini games and solving puzzle along the journey.

Here are some of the concept that we did ;
Credits goes to Moona Miettinen and Pablo Serrano

Early logo design- final on the right by me

Main characters design by Pablo Serrano

Sidekick character design by Pablo Serrano and me

Supporting characters by Moona Miettinen

3D basic class

Nowadays 3D game are almost everywhere. A basic skill on 3D is good to have. In this class we learn how made 3D objects in Maya program. It was a struggle since it was the first time for me to use 3D program and in my opinion the Maya is quite complicated to use. But I manage anyway to make some of it :p

One project was to make a curiosity shelf object of our choice. I chose to made a glass dome for now. The last project which is to make a humanoid, I made that in Blender program then export it to Maya since Blender was more easier to use for me.

Pretty glass dome that supposedly have a brain inside but apparently not

The mighty temple...looks like a pancake dome XD

Evidence that prove that I need more training in 3D

Sound production class

We were introduced to basic sound theory and how to use Pro tool program. It is a powerful program since it could do almost everything related with sound editing. I think its the equivalent of Adobe Photoshop for editing.

We did some interesting projects like radio play recording (We did a bacon cooking channel), environment sound, put a music and sound effects with the provided video, making own music (I did some ambient lounge like music), etc.

Doing the recording, and we even have a guest from Germany to help :p

The tools

And you can check my work project by clicking the link below ;

Environment sounds project

Background music project

Webdesign basic class - Graphic production

Back then I've been into web design internship in some graphic company. Even if it looks familiar but I already forgot most of it. So it was nice to remembering and learning new tricks of web design in this class. We use Adobe Dreamweaver CC for doing the web design and code.

We did this codeacademy task which was super nice in my opinion since you can learn code anywhere, anytime, and its really easy to follow. I recommend this website for code learning basic (and did I mention it is free :3).

Simple web design project

This is the final project for the class and we need to make some simple, working website. I choose to made a website for my pug dog "Elwiira" since I don't have any other idea :p

You could try the working website with this link.

Orientation to animation class - Graphic production

We were introduced to the history of animation and how animation industry works. How was the past animation was and introduced for all kind of techniques people been using for making animation. 

Stop motion project

The project was intended so we know how the basic making of animation work. For this one we use the stop motion technique. It will be a short animation and we are allowed to use clay modeling for this project. 

We planned the ideas individually at first then come into bigger group and combine all the ideas. 

For this project we made a fun project involving pop singer Justin Bieber being beaten (sorry for the beliebers out there :p). The character itself were modeled with clay and we made the props also ourselves. The project was made in the special animation room which have fancy equipment so it was easy to set the props.

The "props" craft session

Here's is the finished video of our project, unfortunately no music or sfx for now. Please do open it on Youtube website for viewing the video. No Justin Bieber was harmed in the making of the video...just the clay suffered :p

The Verdict

I've learn how to make a stop motion film, which were helpful for animation, composition and figures practice. If I could do it differently it would be making it more simple, stronger concept rather than throw it all together and just do trial and error.

Observational drawing class - Graphic production

In this class we were learning to draw basic elements in drawing such as objects, plants, portraits, human figure and character design for the last task.

We do most of the task with traditional pencil sketching. The last task was done digitally. 

Object to robots project

In this project we need to choose one object and de-robotize-draw it. I have trouble choosing what objects since there was too many and I want to choose something that not too mainstream. At first I want to do teddy bear but in the end I choose my tiny-lil' cactus since probably nobody going to do it. I got the idea from the bosses from Mega Man games that have really nice design for these hybrid robots.

Character design project

Last project for this class and one of the best task I loved so much. I choose monster hybrid design since I rarely make some monsters before. I got the idea after seeing axolotl salamander "fish".

Axolotl - Isn't she cute?look at those tiny eyes... photo from wikipedia

The outcome was my beloved monster "Zolach" (I don't even know where I got the name). This little monster with huge wooden barrel with tiny mushroom fairies was the outcome of it. 

I'm really proud of this little guy :D

The Verdict

Basic drawing class is always a good things, especially if you want to go to graphics work indursty. I would love to have more longer class also for this to sharpen my technical drawing skills.

Color theory class - Graphic production

As the title say, we learn about basic color theory in this class. We did more of projects than theory only since it is more easier to understand it. I enjoyed this class since its good to sharpen my basic coloring skills. At first we mainly use traditional painting and paper collage, but some projects are made digitally since it is a good exercise for digital painting.

Art and media culture class - Graphic production

We learn about history of art and how art culture from age to age. We went to 2 art museum around Helsinki such as Ateneum and EMMA (Espoo Modern Museum of Art) and to the Helsinki national theatre. 

Museum and theatre visit

At the Ateneum museum, there was the exhibition for the famous Finnish composer "Sibelius and the world of art". They celebrating 150th anniversary of the birth of the composer.

The national theatre was fun since I never been at the backstage. There was a guide lady that explained all sort of what they do in the theatre. One thing that took my attention was the props room. It was huge room with all the props they used for the performances.

In EMMA they have various of exhibition since the museum are big. I'm so excited when I am allowed to take pictures in there, here's some of them;

Art movement presentation

At the end of the class we do a short presentation about art movement. Each group get a different of art movement, We got fauvism and expressionism. Other than presentation, we need to make some kind of "advertising" poster individually. 

To be honest I don't know too much about fauvism and expressionism so it was nice to do some researching and reading more information about it.

Here is my poster design for the project. It's bit tricky at first since I don't want to "just-slap-the-painting-work" in the design. So I decided to paint over it and combine it together.

The Verdict

Learning about history of art always good if you want to take part in graphics industry. Even if you don't, it is always good for having a new knowledge and information. I love the visit to all kind of museum and theatre so its a positive influence for me. The projects we were having in this class also helping me to be a better artist myself.

Sculpting class

First time sculpting for me, so this is a really new experience for me. It was really interesting and fun to do face casting and clay-sculpting practice. 

Face casting project

In this project we literally casting our of our friend's face straight with plaster. We learn how to prepare the plaster casting and the process making one. I made hand cast also in the end since we have a lot of plaster stock. It was quite long process especially when we need to wait for it to harden. We could also chisel it whatever we like before its completely harden. In here I made a tree-bark like texture for the cast.

Clay head sculpting practice

With 2 friends and one model, we sculpt a clay head model. it was hard for me since we need to be quite precise with the scales. It was tough and long process to get it right that at one point we just playing around with it.

"close enough" 

The Verdict

I didn't know how do you measuring the scales when you doing details on human's face. I learn it that you could pinpointed it from your ears to other features. It was super helpful trick for me. 

I would love to have more longer session for this class since it is useful for 3D modeling. Either way it is a nice change to be far from computer for some moments.