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Articles by: Elizabeth Laurie

Introducing Character Creation!: Part 2

Introducing Character Creation!: Part 2

By /August 13, 2019 /0 comments /Blender, Student Posts

Welcome back to character creation! This is part 2 of my blog series, which I call, “Introducing Character Creation!”. In the previous blog, we left off at step 3, and now we’ll start this blog at step 4! Step 4: Draw Sample Character Designs This is where we draw various designs of our character, review them, and decide which one we like best. Usually, we draw a few character designs, but sometimes, we can end up drawing many more. Be patient, and have fun! You can draw the designs in a sketchbook and scan them into your computer, or you can use an electronic pen tablet and design software. Personally, I like to use my sketchbook. I draw a very rough sketch, scan it into my computer, and then, I edit and finish my designs with my pen tablet. My favorite digital drawing software programs, which I use for this process, are Krita and Adobe Photoshop. Step 5: Draw Character Turn-Around Sheets A turn-around sheet shows the character from the front, back, right-side, and left-side. If you have details from other angles, you can draw the character partially turned so those details are visible. Traditionally, characters are drawn in a […]

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Introducing Character Creation!: Part 1

Introducing Character Creation!: Part 1

By /February 7, 2019 /0 comments /Blender, Student Posts

Some of the big animation and video game companies have employees that focus just on character creation! It’s a very important, irreplaceable facet of video game and animation production! Character creation has different phases and I’m going to introduce you to some of them. In this blog series, “Introducing Character Creation!”, I cover some of the basic character creation techniques used in the video game and animation industries. There is more to character creation than I can cover, so what I’m presenting here is just an overview of the character creation process. You may also do these steps in a different order and that’s OK. Do them in the order that suits you best. Step 1: Find Inspiration First of all, let’s find our inspiration! Some of us don’t know where to start, so we need a little inspiration. Go out somewhere and look for inspiration! We can find inspiration all around us! Some of us get inspired by a walk through the woods (Disclaimer: Watch out for bears and stick to the walk paths). You can find inspiration walking through a mall or during a trip to the game arcade, and sometimes you will find your inspiration in your […]

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Start Designing Your Game!

Start Designing Your Game!

By /January 16, 2018 /0 comments /Student Posts

In the Unity RPG Core Combat Creator course lecture, “Start Designing Your RPG”, our instructor Rick Davidson teaches us how to fill out a Game Design Document and shows us examples of different types of  game designs! In this blog I’m taking my inspiration from Rick’s lecture and my experiences with playing video games, and I’m going to share some thought provoking discussions about the game design process. A lot of this is based on my opinions, and there are so many game design techniques that I can’t cover them all in this. Study game design and learn all that you can, and please refer to Ben and Rick’s course, the Unity RPG Core Combat Creator, for more information about designing and programming an RPG (Role Playing Game).  Ben Tristem and Rick Davidson are awesome instructors! Instead of thinking about a Game Design Document as something that you have to fill out quickly, so that you can get something done, please think of it like this: Think of it as a manual or a map, which will help you focus on certain tasks and, in turn, help you develop your game. This framework and your experiences will help you decide […]

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Rick Davidson’s “How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry” Course is Awesome!

Rick Davidson’s “How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry” Course is Awesome!

By /July 20, 2017 /2 comments /Stories, Student Posts

We’re obviously super proud of our courses (we wouldn’t put them out there otherwise!). So it’s nice to have independent feedback on what makes them so great 🙂 In this article Elizabeth Laurie reviews our “How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry” course. Have you ever wanted to program or design video games for a living? Well, Rick Davidson has teamed up with his buddy, Ben Tristem, to bring you a course that teaches you how to present your skills and get your dream job, in the video game industry! The awesome course I’m talking about is “How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry”, and I’m going to tell you about some of the cool things that you will be learning when you take this course. First of all, Rick has worked in the video game industry for 13 years and also owned (and sold) his own game studio. He has been the employee and the employer, and he uses all of this experience to help you work through the job application process. He shows you how to identify the game industry skills you have and categorize them. He also helps you look at […]

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