2D Flash Games

I'm currently teaching another games course, this time based around the free cross-platform software Stencyl. This allows you to manage scenes, animations, collision detection and so on, as well as develop scripts called Behaviours to control how enemies react and so on.

The screens below are from a 2D shooter that I built as part of an in-class demo. Tiles made in Photoshop.

Games Technologies course - 'pixel art'

As part of an introductory course into Games Technologies, I've been teaching the students Adobe Illustrator. As part of a fun exercise in the last lesson, we produced bitmap style avatars for ourselves, limited to a very low 'resolution'. Mine is below!

E-Commerce Teaching

Updates have been a bit slow this year, as I've been teaching a whole pile of (new) courses. As well as the digital graphics / games development courses I tend to talk about on this blog, I've also got another hat teaching web development / e-commerce / eBay courses for people with small businesses.

As well as getting me up to speed on the current considerations, platforms and so on, it's been useful to approach website development from the point of view of different 'customer personae'. It's straightforward to assess a design based on what you think of it, but perhaps more instructive to put yourself in the place of a 'character' visiting the site, and see how it fares.

Hopefully I'll find the time to post more regularly, though with a flat move and upcoming summer courses, we'll see!

Character Design using Paths

As part of a level 3 Multimedia course, I've been teaching the students how to use the paths feature in Photoshop to produce clean artwork. It's slightly clunky compared to using Illustrator, but we are using PS for the unit. After scanning in the sketch, adjusting it and tracing over to produce the line art, we then used Multiply, Overlay and Adjustment layers to add the shading.

The demo character below is a futuristic version of the Wolf from Red Riding Hood, this time as a robot. He is designed to walk on two legs or four, depending on the situation. The large head on his chest can open up to swallow you whole! Click to enlarge.

Concept Art Class - Environments

I've been teaching a concept art class based around Adobe Photoshop, and it's been going pretty well. Some of the students have PS at home and have brought in some great work. I've even converted a few to Wacom tablets, and now most of the class have at least a Bamboo (which are really good for £50).

I recently did a tutorial about coming up with an environment from your imagination, blocking it in in greyscale before adding some colour. The pic below is the result; a futuristic re-interpretation of the forest from Red Riding Hood.

BTEC Digital Graphics

I'm teaching two units (out of four) on an IT BTEC - Games Development, and Digital Graphics. The overal theme of the course is video games, so for a tutorial in Adobe Illustrator I got the students to design a clan logo for an online FPS.

The demo below is for a team called "Frag Out", based on the military expression.