TT Games - Portfolio Critique

TT Games Website

Traveller's Tales

Canute Court
Toft Road
Knutsford
Cheshire
WA16 0NL

Tel: 01565 757 300

Back when I was in year 10 at the Kingsway School I did work experience at this games company in Cheadle. This company created games for Playstation, X-Box and GameCube etc. Warthog was created in 1997 by ex employees of Electronic Arts Games Company and tended to produce games with space flight and science fiction themes as well as a lot of games for Children. When I was working there, I spent two weeks testing their current game Mace Griffin Bounty hunter and then reported any errors back to the technical team.




I unfortunately didn’t learn much whilst I was there as I was young at the time and lacked the confidence to ask the important questions but I was hoping I would be able to make contact again. I have found out though that they had been taken over in 2004 by Tiger Telematics. This company later became part of Gizmondo Studio. This companies focus was on developing a creating there own Gizmondo handheld consoles and games, which didn’t really appeal to me much. This company was disbanded in January 2006 by bankruptcy as the game console was named one of worst consoles ever made and was failing to sell.

Here is an image of the game that I tested at Warthog -




The man that gave me the job was called Phil Mellor, who was friend of my Dads. He recently made contact with my Dad again and is now working for a new games company in Manchester called TT Games. This TT company was established in 2005 when games publisher Giant Interactive and the developer Traveller's Tales merged into one. The original company, Traveller's Tales had been around for 15 years before the take over. Warner Bros then purchased the company in 2007. The studio is in Knutsford under the leadership of Managing Director Jon Burton.

The biggest seller of TT games is the Lego franchise, the has had great reviews for being appealing to both the young and adult. I have played the Indian Jones version of this game before, which I found to be entertaining. I was always enthused by the concept of developing Lego into a 3D world for character design, character design being one of my favorite areas of 3D work.





Back when the company was Travellers Tales, they worked on one of the more recently versions of Crash Bandicoot.




Travellers Tale's also have worked closely with Pixar to produce games for some of there more important films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo -




They have also developed the game for the Transformers film -




Not only does this company produce popular games, they have produced some favorites of mine including some childhood favorites e.g. Toy Story and Crash Bandicoot, which makes the studio more appealing for me to work for in the future.

On Friday 12th December, I got in contact with Phil Mellor about whether he would be able to give me a portfolio crit. He discussed what area I like working in, which I told him was 3D modelling and texturing. He seemed impressed that I have used the program Maya as that is the program they use a TT games, and has offered me to come in to visit in the New Year so I can talk to the 3D developers and learn more about game development. He did ask whether I have experience with games design, which I told him that I only have modelling experience. This was going to be something we discuss further when I go to visit.

Students from Salford Uni visit on a regular basis, but he said it would be interesting to have a student from Stockport College come visit to see some of the work we produce.

He was happy to take a look at my 3D work, which I have sent by email. I used the same draft as the email I sent to Dvein. When I visit in the New Year, I will show him more of my portfolio so I can get feedback on work from different design areas -

From:	Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com)
Sent:	16 December 2008 18:44:28
To:	philbevs@hotmail.com

Hi Phil,

Thanks again for offering to take a look at my portfolio. I am going to send my animations by separate email, but here are the descriptions of what you will see -

animation. mov

This was the first brief I had done using the program Maya. The brief was to model an object and packaging to promote aftershave, then create a simple animation. I chose to model a bottle of aftershave on a drinks Hip Flask for the purposes of a unique way of branding. The idea of the brief was to get us to learn the basics of modelling and animation in Maya, and it was this brief that awoke the passion of 3D design in me.

e4_ident. mov

This brief was about designing an ident for a T.V. channel. I decided to use E4 as the channel has an entertaining and fun theme, which I thought would be interesting to work with. I modeled the logo creating a solar eclipse to create an epic and powerful feel to the channel.

bungee_rendered. mov

This one is still a work in progress, but is the animation I am most proud of. The brief was to design and develop a character and to give it life via animation. I wanted to create a character that was unique and original, so I began by playing around listing objects, activities and emotions to see if I could create any interesting patterns. The idea I developed was sellotape being too afraid to bungee jump. I worked long and hard on creating the model for the characters and getting the textures to look real. The hardest part was to get the animation to make the sellotape look alive. I still need to work on the environment and sound effects to finish off this piece.

city_rhythm. mov

The brief for this project was to create a video edit and sound composition to show the rhythms of a city. Whilst most people used film, I wanted to explore 3D again, so I created a minimalist city landscape to support my sound composition. The sound composition was created by various sounds you would experience in a city, which worked with music which I hoped create a mood of the early morning rush, urban nightlife and the peace of sleep.

This is the reply I got -

From:	m20 2thphil meller (philbevs@hotmail.com)
Sent:	17 December 2008 14:45:58
To:	adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com

Alright Adam

Just checked out the animations but i dont know if i am really qualified to critique them as i work in game design. What is you want to get into when you graduate? If its games i could tell you what you need to be concentrating on. If its Multimedia thats not my bag although i do know of someone in this field. I'll ask around and try and get his number and get back to you.

Cheers

Phil

This is the response I sent -

From: adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com
To: philbevs@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Stockport College Multimedia 3D Portfolio
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:48:31 +0000

Hi Phil

Thanks for looking at my videos. The main feedback I need is on the quality of animation, modeling, texturing and on the ideas behind my work.

The area I want to go into is 3D design. Games design is definitely an area I would be interesting in working in, although I only have experience of working in Maya modeling, texturing and animation, I don't have much experience with the interactivity of games design, although I wish to learn. Any advice on that would be great.

Thanks

Adam

This is the response I had -

From:	Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com)
Sent:	17 December 2008 17:48:31
To:	philbevs@hotmail.com

Hey Adam

Did you do all the modelling your own? The Diesel Aftershave bottle for example. Didn't see much evidence of texturing, as in textures you've created your self. Being a games artist half the job is knocking out textures, you could be the best modeller in the world but if you cant back it up with solid texturing skills it'll only hold you back. The animation side of things I'm not so sure about although i would say they look like something out of a tutorial, go out on a limb and try something different.

If you want to get into game design, thats a tough one, we get a lot of guys out of test and graduates from specific games design courses, the chap who sits next to me came from Salford uni, the course being Computer and video games design.

Any more questions just give us a shout.

Cheers

Phil

This response was not the most encouraging response I have had from a company, but I have learnt a few things from Phil. First off, I need to start working with texturing more in my 3D work, the only animation I have so far used textures in is the sellotape bungee jumping video. I also need to work harder on the animation side as to get a response saying that the animation looked like something from a tutorial knocked my confidence back, but does back up what Dvein said so therefore need to improve. I'm still going to keep in contact with TT Games, even though my future career may not lie with them, it would be useful to have contacts that specialize in 3D modeling, texturing and animation.

This is the reply I sent -

From:	Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com)
Sent:	09 January 2009 13:52:28
To:	philbevs@hotmail.com

Hi Phil,

Sorry I took so long to reply, my internet hasn't been working the last few weeks.

Thanks for your reply. I took on board what you said and my aim for the next project is to work harder at creating my own textures and working harder with animation.

I was hoping you may be able to provide me with an opportunity to come visit with my portfolio and maybe talk to one of your 3D people about some of my projects and where I could go with them.

Thanks

Adam

For some reason I didn't get a reply, so I left it a few weeks and tried again with a new email -

From:	Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com)
Sent:	10 February 2009 15:06:59
To:	philbevs@hotmail.com

Hi Phil,

How you doing.

You said in a previous email you know someone in multimedia. I was wondering if you would be able to give me some details so I can get it contact.

Thanks

Adam

I never got any responses to these emails which was disappointing after I had got a good communication started. From the tone of the email I got the impression that Phil decided he didn't have much time for someone who isn't being educated in games design so therefore decided to cut the lines of communication. The 3D people who work on these games are experts in modeling, animation and texturing, and could have probably given me some very useful advice. I learnt from this experience to keep my contacts within my area of design and not wander into new areas which involve technical skills out of my Multimedia area.