That is really nice, medieval halls should be the next sci-fi hallway! The fire at the base of the barn fire isn't up to par with the rest though, what happened there? It's noticeable and hurts the reel IMO. Did he do the snow as well? Just wondering cause there was no workflow shown for that.
To be honest, the fire at the barn was meant to be in the background in our final year film. It was a simple fire to give contrast to the scene, it's not meant to simulate the barn on fire. I'll remove it, if people think it drops the quality of my reel.
I'm responsible for any particle simulation seen in the reel, from the snow and the fog to dust motes and fires. I show the Cascade simulations of the fires because they are more complicated than the snow simulation for example, and I don't think it would be useful to the viewer to see some snow particles flying around in blank 3D space.
Yeah, just the fire at the very base. The fire coming out the door, and on the roof, is really nice. It's the animation of the fire at the base that bothers me, like there's not enough frames or something? I think just a few seconds of the snow workflow would help, maybe it's post processing if that's more interesting. Then again I am not a senior vfx artist, so maybe it would bore anyone looking at your reel for the purposes of hiring you.
Very nice reel though Keep meaning to dabble in vfx meself.
This student work continues to impress me more and more.
Can I just say that I think it's absolutely awesome that you guys are clearly doing such fantastic things at UH, it's quite clear that you are head and shoulders above other uni courses in content and quality. That's not to say there aren't other good courses, I just think the work coming out of Herts is really mind-blowing.
If only you guys were around 10 years ago when I was graduating! What I would give to get on one of your courses!
This student work continues to impress me more and more.
Can I just say that I think it's absolutely awesome that you guys are clearly doing such fantastic things at UH, it's quite clear that you are head and shoulders above other uni courses in content and quality. That's not to say there aren't other good courses, I just think the work coming out of Herts is really mind-blowing.
If only you guys were around 10 years ago when I was graduating! What I would give to get on one of your courses!
Thanks for the kind words.
Tell me about it, just when you think your course is getting where you want it to be, you see some student work on this form and it blows you out of the water. Students around the world are just get better and better.
I mainly cover UDK but I have touched on Crysis in the past. Next year I might open it up to Unity and Source as well, then let the students decide which tool they enjoy. If you have any thoughts I would love to hear them.
Wow a lot of this stuff looks really cool. I do have an offer from you for this year but I don't think I'm likely to meet the grades; though it's still lovely to see what your students produce
Wow a lot of this stuff looks really cool. I do have an offer from you for this year but I don't think I'm likely to meet the grades; though it's still lovely to see what your students produce
I will ask the higher powers and see if there is any thing we can do.
I have a feeling that the points are totally locked down, is there any chance you could make up some points, call the programmes office today and see what they say.
Maybe go and do a foundation course? that will give you 160 extra points!
Tell me how you get on with your grades over the summer.
I will ask the higher powers and see if there is any thing we can do.
I have a feeling that the points are totally locked down, is there any chance you could make up some points, call the programmes office today and see what they say.
Maybe go and do a foundation course? that will give you 160 extra points!
Tell me how you get on with your grades over the summer.
Thanks for the help, If I didn't make it this year I was just going to resubmit the coursework I failed to submit this year and that should be more than enough but thanks
Well its been a busy summer, almost 800 applicants for 78 places! at 20 minutes per interview...well lets just say we have seen a lot of artwork. Most of them have AAB - A levels and a foundation course so I am going to have to get my thinking cap on!!
To kick off the start of the year, this Monday 24/09/12 we have the honour of Ryan Firchau teaching us clay sculpture for one week in the clay sculpture lab, he is a phenomenal artist - http://ryanfirchau.daportfolio.com
I will post up some photos of the students work in a couple of weeks time
In the mean time here are some screen grabs of Ryan's work.
I've been looking into going to university and I'm unsure. I'd seen this course and it's the only one I would like to do and the work some students produce is fantastic.
I'm looking into going to St Helens or Bolton, as they have the course there and it's close to me. My question is... Does a person have to be good at drawing and modelling to get on the course? Or is that the point, to teach people all that?
Student that get into a course like this should have a basic understanding of traditional or 3D art. They don't want you to be a professional, but a portfolio is required.
PS. I'm not a student there, but I plan on applying next year.
Student that get into a course like this should have a basic understanding of traditional or 3D art. They don't want you to be a professional, but a portfolio is required.
PS. I'm not a student there, but I plan on applying next year.
Ah I see. That's alright then, I can model, but my drawing skills are out of whack. I'm thinking of applying, though my qualifications are crap. I have the points (120?) to get in and a decent portfolio, all modesty aside. I just don't want to be knocked back because of my college grades.
Yes art skills are key, they will help you out a lot on the course, so if you have not got any then get a sketchbook and get cracking, lots more information on that subject below. If you want to stay up north then from what I have seen from Bolton they are looking good, also you should check out Derby games course.
To get onto our course please read the following, we had 800 applicants last year so you really need to be able to stand out from the crowd, best of luck you are welcome to PM me a link to your images and I can give you some tips or better still post up on our student forum www.3dhit.co.uk
Put in just your best 3D models and if you can flesh it out with some wireframes, sketches, AO pass and maybe some research like a small mood board to make a double page spreed for every 3D model that would be great. That way you only need to show 6-10 3D models. If you are new to 3D then flesh out your portfolio with Art work, pastel, life drawing, Oil Canvas or anything that you have tried we are an arts based course "Games Art". The majority of applicants have tried 3D, at least at the modelling stage, so you would need extremely good traditional skills to stand out against them. We do still accept students without 3D experience if there art work is exceptional good and they are very keen but they are becoming rare cases.
At Hertfordshire we interview into May usually, but the May applicants have usually applied by the end of March - obviously by that point there are very few places left, so competition for them is rather fierce, last year we had over 800 applications for 90 and maybe double through email and forum enquiry and this year I am sure the figure will go up as the fees are changing the following year.
We interview everyone for 15-30 minutes to make sure we are taking on the right kind of student, last year we made an exception to the rule when an applicant with okay art skills for a 23 year old explained he has found it hard to fit in the time for his 3D and art skills as he has been on the UK Olympic Ice skating team since leaving school J so he found the tipping point.
Our point system has gone up to 280 points this year and we require a minimum level of GCSE English and Maths or our application system will automatically reject you. That's nothing to do with the animation courses, it's a filter put in place by the management who noticed we had gigantic amounts of applicants last year so then realised they could increase the requirements without worrying about whether we were going to fill the course or not.
We are happy to look at applicants 3D and Art skills if the system rejects you, lots of new applicant post up on our student forum www.3dhit.co.uk and the students and Lecturers are happy to give you feedback until you reach a level that is worth interviewing.
Of course if you are from outside the UK and the automatic filter rejects you because it doesn't recognise your qualifications (it shouldn't do this, it is supposed to send a query to a admissions staff member to check any non UK applicant manually) get in touch with me and I'll find out what happened.
If using Zbrush the default red wax shader is not the best for showing your work off - something pale grey with a slight specular or matte quality work well - that sort of shader can't hide errors in the mesh, whereas a lot of the fancy looking metallic / wax shaders make it hard to see what has been modelled. Also are you working from a supplied base mesh or is this being sculpted out of Zspheres, or are you modelling the base mesh yourself? If you make the base mesh yourself please show a screengrab of that next to the smoothed high poly version in Zbrush so we can see your edge topology / basic form. Assuming the character design is not Super Mario etc, you can put in the concept design with your work, but label it as someone else's work clearly - the reason for showing this is we can then see how well you were able to match the concept.
If you are interested in character creation then personally I love seeing good anatomical knowledge and one or two animal sculpts with a photo comparison next to the final render. Read up on George Bridgeman and practise his style.
If you are interested in Environment, Asset or Vehicle then go and do some location drawing, spend the day in the nearest large town or city and if its raining then go to the station, library, Pub, Cafe or any other sheltered building that you can draw inside the building or looking out the window while you have a hot chocolate....yum yum now where is my sketch book and hat Im off out to do some drawing.
Best Wishes,
Neil Gallagher - Senior Lecturer & Programme Leader MA & BA Games Art.
That is fantastic Neil, you've been so much help. I'll copy this message into a word doc and keep it saved for reference.
I had found a game art course that only needed 120 points to get onto, which I have. I'm entirely self taught and I'm hoping that my lack of points won't lead me to rejection. I would hope that the people sorting out applicants would give some people a chance if they have the work to back them up.
As for what I do: I use blender and have done for about 8 months now. I've found that I'm quite the environment artist because I always seem to model props and buildings, more over than people or animals. I don't sculpt, I model from a base mesh and I'm getting better every day.
I'm currently learning how to fine tune my texturing skills in Photoshop and learning about convincing and clean normal maps. Once I'm alright at that I want to go ahead and implement my work in CryEngine 3, with the help from a few guides in level design.
I have a lot to learn, but I'm teaching myself every day. I hope that by next year I can prove myself and get into University. If I am rejected, then I'll have to carry on in what I do and make a job out of it.
Be careful of a course that has such low entry points, there will be good reason as to why its such low points.
A years foundation course gives you 160 points and will teach you good art skills that so many colleges are not doing these days, I'm shocked that more and more students I interview tell me their colleges don't do life drawing any more, so sad.
Be careful of a course that has such low entry points, there will be good reason as to why its such low points.
A years foundation course gives you 160 points and will teach you good art skills that so many colleges are not doing these days, I'm shocked that more and more students I interview tell me their colleges don't do life drawing any more, so sad.
Best of luck,
My bad, I've had another look at it all and it's 260-260 points needed. I must have gotten mixed up with entry course.
I did graphics and art in college and I don't think we did life drawing.
I find it odd that "the university of hertfordshire" has pretty much it's own thread on PC whereas other big name schools and universities don't, hell Gnomon definitely deserves it's own special little thread
its the choice of the school or its students/lecturers to create a thread. personally I think its an awesome thing that they feature their students' work in such a manner as its a good indicator that they are much closer to the real industry than 90% of the other schools!
You should get the students posting their work and interacting with the community. That would benefit them a whole lot more than just posting random work.
Not sure if they are already so just sayin..
@ dpaynter26, yeah it would be cool to see work from Gnomon, not sure if you get a BA qualification from them though? I think it's a private school like escape studios which is also a great place to study, I was sent there when I worked for Sony.
I would also love to see other Uni's showcasing there work on Polycount, it would help keep our students on their toes, like you say there are some great places to study out there. It might even encourage collaboration between lecturer staff and our students.
@ e-freak, thank you
@ JohnnyRaptor, thank you, lots of students do post here but I quite like showcasing the good ones in one easy to view thread as it saves me having to hunt for their work when companies ask me for graduate showreels, many have got jobs from this thread by simply posting their work and website. I would also like to see more of our students posting as I think Polycount is a magic place to get feedback.
Also its worth posting students work on forums not just to showcase our course but for the individual student, like this one by Aidan Gibbons from quite a few years ago which has had over 21 million views and he has gone onto head up the Mill in Singapore. By having work remaining on a thread you can quite easily showcase and chase up the individual on linked.
The level of work coming out of UH is really quite incredible, seems to improve all the time too. It's so awesome that the students are obviously keen to get their heads down and work too, I'd say that in itself is a sign of success for the course/lecturers!
You seriously need to do distance learning degrees/masters. I would LOVE to study with you guys to further my skills a bit but there's no way an old fart like me can afford to leave a full time job and be a student again.
Thank you, Why not apply for the MA part time? or for a scholarship
The higher powers are thinking of doing distance learning in the near future but for now I am more then happy to have one to one contact with a human but you are right we need have further outreach and it would be great to have people like yourself on our course.
Here is our new real time showreel for our BA Games Art course, most of the work is from 2011-12. It was all made using UDK or Cryengine apart from the helicopter shots, enjoy.
Replies
Real time particle graduate
Full Name: Yanni Tripolitis
Showreel:
[vv]43731949[/vv]
Website: http://yanni-tripolitis.blogspot.co.uk/
Email: yanni.tripolitis@gmail.com
I'm responsible for any particle simulation seen in the reel, from the snow and the fog to dust motes and fires. I show the Cascade simulations of the fires because they are more complicated than the snow simulation for example, and I don't think it would be useful to the viewer to see some snow particles flying around in blank 3D space.
Very nice reel though
http://floydbillingy.wordpress.com/
Showreel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEXRwNo2knI&feature=player_embedded
Can I just say that I think it's absolutely awesome that you guys are clearly doing such fantastic things at UH, it's quite clear that you are head and shoulders above other uni courses in content and quality. That's not to say there aren't other good courses, I just think the work coming out of Herts is really mind-blowing.
If only you guys were around 10 years ago when I was graduating! What I would give to get on one of your courses!
Thanks for the kind words.
Tell me about it, just when you think your course is getting where you want it to be, you see some student work on this form and it blows you out of the water. Students around the world are just get better and better.
Valves new source engine tools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zri1c_If6Ic
I mainly cover UDK but I have touched on Crysis in the past. Next year I might open it up to Unity and Source as well, then let the students decide which tool they enjoy. If you have any thoughts I would love to hear them.
UDK
Crysis
Unity
Source
http://www.kendaldean.com/
https://vimeo.com/45336955
[vv]45336955[/vv]
https://vimeo.com/45431783
[vv]45431783[/vv]
I will ask the higher powers and see if there is any thing we can do.
I have a feeling that the points are totally locked down, is there any chance you could make up some points, call the programmes office today and see what they say.
Maybe go and do a foundation course? that will give you 160 extra points!
Tell me how you get on with your grades over the summer.
Thanks for the help, If I didn't make it this year I was just going to resubmit the coursework I failed to submit this year and that should be more than enough but thanks
Going to start a UH MOD team this year if you wish to help out, going to flesh out the New Found Land Project above?
http://www.jamescullen3d.com/
[vv]45439561[/vv]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gprAqA1t5yE&feature=player_embedded
http://youtu.be/gprAqA1t5yE
To kick off the start of the year, this Monday 24/09/12 we have the honour of Ryan Firchau teaching us clay sculpture for one week in the clay sculpture lab, he is a phenomenal artist - http://ryanfirchau.daportfolio.com
I will post up some photos of the students work in a couple of weeks time
In the mean time here are some screen grabs of Ryan's work.
[ame="
[ame="
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I'm looking into going to St Helens or Bolton, as they have the course there and it's close to me. My question is... Does a person have to be good at drawing and modelling to get on the course? Or is that the point, to teach people all that?
Thanks.
PS. I'm not a student there, but I plan on applying next year.
Ah I see. That's alright then, I can model, but my drawing skills are out of whack. I'm thinking of applying, though my qualifications are crap. I have the points (120?) to get in and a decent portfolio, all modesty aside. I just don't want to be knocked back because of my college grades.
Yes art skills are key, they will help you out a lot on the course, so if you have not got any then get a sketchbook and get cracking, lots more information on that subject below. If you want to stay up north then from what I have seen from Bolton they are looking good, also you should check out Derby games course.
To get onto our course please read the following, we had 800 applicants last year so you really need to be able to stand out from the crowd, best of luck you are welcome to PM me a link to your images and I can give you some tips or better still post up on our student forum www.3dhit.co.uk
Put in just your best 3D models and if you can flesh it out with some wireframes, sketches, AO pass and maybe some research like a small mood board to make a double page spreed for every 3D model that would be great. That way you only need to show 6-10 3D models. If you are new to 3D then flesh out your portfolio with Art work, pastel, life drawing, Oil Canvas or anything that you have tried we are an arts based course "Games Art". The majority of applicants have tried 3D, at least at the modelling stage, so you would need extremely good traditional skills to stand out against them. We do still accept students without 3D experience if there art work is exceptional good and they are very keen but they are becoming rare cases.
At Hertfordshire we interview into May usually, but the May applicants have usually applied by the end of March - obviously by that point there are very few places left, so competition for them is rather fierce, last year we had over 800 applications for 90 and maybe double through email and forum enquiry and this year I am sure the figure will go up as the fees are changing the following year.
We interview everyone for 15-30 minutes to make sure we are taking on the right kind of student, last year we made an exception to the rule when an applicant with okay art skills for a 23 year old explained he has found it hard to fit in the time for his 3D and art skills as he has been on the UK Olympic Ice skating team since leaving school J so he found the tipping point.
Our point system has gone up to 280 points this year and we require a minimum level of GCSE English and Maths or our application system will automatically reject you. That's nothing to do with the animation courses, it's a filter put in place by the management who noticed we had gigantic amounts of applicants last year so then realised they could increase the requirements without worrying about whether we were going to fill the course or not.
We are happy to look at applicants 3D and Art skills if the system rejects you, lots of new applicant post up on our student forum www.3dhit.co.uk and the students and Lecturers are happy to give you feedback until you reach a level that is worth interviewing.
Of course if you are from outside the UK and the automatic filter rejects you because it doesn't recognise your qualifications (it shouldn't do this, it is supposed to send a query to a admissions staff member to check any non UK applicant manually) get in touch with me and I'll find out what happened.
If using Zbrush the default red wax shader is not the best for showing your work off - something pale grey with a slight specular or matte quality work well - that sort of shader can't hide errors in the mesh, whereas a lot of the fancy looking metallic / wax shaders make it hard to see what has been modelled. Also are you working from a supplied base mesh or is this being sculpted out of Zspheres, or are you modelling the base mesh yourself? If you make the base mesh yourself please show a screengrab of that next to the smoothed high poly version in Zbrush so we can see your edge topology / basic form. Assuming the character design is not Super Mario etc, you can put in the concept design with your work, but label it as someone else's work clearly - the reason for showing this is we can then see how well you were able to match the concept.
If you are interested in character creation then personally I love seeing good anatomical knowledge and one or two animal sculpts with a photo comparison next to the final render. Read up on George Bridgeman and practise his style.
If you are interested in Environment, Asset or Vehicle then go and do some location drawing, spend the day in the nearest large town or city and if its raining then go to the station, library, Pub, Cafe or any other sheltered building that you can draw inside the building or looking out the window while you have a hot chocolate....yum yum now where is my sketch book and hat Im off out to do some drawing.
Best Wishes,
Neil Gallagher - Senior Lecturer & Programme Leader MA & BA Games Art.
Also for inspiration try these threads.
http://3dhit.co.uk/index.php?showtop...9&st=0&start=0
http://3dhit.co.uk/index.php?showforum=136
And my favourite thread in the world.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870
I had found a game art course that only needed 120 points to get onto, which I have. I'm entirely self taught and I'm hoping that my lack of points won't lead me to rejection. I would hope that the people sorting out applicants would give some people a chance if they have the work to back them up.
As for what I do: I use blender and have done for about 8 months now. I've found that I'm quite the environment artist because I always seem to model props and buildings, more over than people or animals. I don't sculpt, I model from a base mesh and I'm getting better every day.
I'm currently learning how to fine tune my texturing skills in Photoshop and learning about convincing and clean normal maps. Once I'm alright at that I want to go ahead and implement my work in CryEngine 3, with the help from a few guides in level design.
I have a lot to learn, but I'm teaching myself every day. I hope that by next year I can prove myself and get into University. If I am rejected, then I'll have to carry on in what I do and make a job out of it.
A years foundation course gives you 160 points and will teach you good art skills that so many colleges are not doing these days, I'm shocked that more and more students I interview tell me their colleges don't do life drawing any more, so sad.
Best of luck,
My bad, I've had another look at it all and it's 260-260 points needed. I must have gotten mixed up with entry course.
I did graphics and art in college and I don't think we did life drawing.
Showreel
[vv]50341748[/vv]
Senior VFX Technical Director
www.chunkified.com
Crowd TD @ Framestore
framestore.com
Founder and Lead Developer of TD-Toolkit
www.td-toolkit.com
Nice Alumni Showreel with final shots from Wrath Of The Titans, Sherlock Holmes 2 and John Carter
Wrath Of The Titans - Pyroclastic smoke and fire simulation using Flowline.
Shot 1 - Fire explosion
Shot 2, 3, 4 & 5 - Trailing pyroclastic cloud which creature interacts with
Shot 6 - Trailing pyroclastic cloud
Shot 7 - Swirling cloud coming out of volcano
Shot 8 - Pyroclastic smoke trails
John Carter and Sherlock Holmes 2 - Crowd simulation using MPC's ALICE
Siemens, Flying Fish - Developed a custom directable flocking solution in Maya using Python @ Smoke And Mirrors London
MTV 10 for 11 - Python based procedural rigging and animation system for Maya and pipeline tools
Welsh Rugby Union - Custom hair/shard system development in for Maya in Python, pipeline tools, particles, debris, dynamics.
Huggies - Procedural rollercoaster building developed in Houdini and pipeline tools developed for Houdini and Maya in Python.
More details and work available @ chunkified.com.
And Mr Grumbel
They made this video with a cheep SLR camera and put it together in Adobe Premiere, just shows you what you can do on the cheap
[ame="
He does have a showreel to show that I am not going totally off topic
[ame="
Not sure if they are already so just sayin..
@ dpaynter26, yeah it would be cool to see work from Gnomon, not sure if you get a BA qualification from them though? I think it's a private school like escape studios which is also a great place to study, I was sent there when I worked for Sony.
I would also love to see other Uni's showcasing there work on Polycount, it would help keep our students on their toes, like you say there are some great places to study out there. It might even encourage collaboration between lecturer staff and our students.
@ e-freak, thank you
@ JohnnyRaptor, thank you, lots of students do post here but I quite like showcasing the good ones in one easy to view thread as it saves me having to hunt for their work when companies ask me for graduate showreels, many have got jobs from this thread by simply posting their work and website. I would also like to see more of our students posting as I think Polycount is a magic place to get feedback.
Also its worth posting students work on forums not just to showcase our course but for the individual student, like this one by Aidan Gibbons from quite a few years ago which has had over 21 million views and he has gone onto head up the Mill in Singapore. By having work remaining on a thread you can quite easily showcase and chase up the individual on linked.
[ame="
If you would like to see some Stats on the course then you can see them here, they make for some interesting reading.
The official website for comparing UK higher education course data
http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/Subjects/Overview/10007147-CCANM-3D_GAMES_ART
Thank you, Why not apply for the MA part time? or for a scholarship
The higher powers are thinking of doing distance learning in the near future but for now I am more then happy to have one to one contact with a human
Here is our new real time showreel for our BA Games Art course, most of the work is from 2011-12. It was all made using UDK or Cryengine apart from the helicopter shots, enjoy.
[vv]53611822[/vv]