A New Semester!

I'm back in Pittsburgh (by the way, I know my SIGGRAPH post is a month overdue, so I'll get to work on that, next), well into the first few weeks of a new school year! This semester, I'm on project team Up+ (website currently under construction), working on a retail display for the upcoming Windows Phone 8. While we are based here in Pittsburgh, our client contact, Arnold Blinn, is up in Seattle. We've been NDA'd, so details will be scarce, but suffice it to say that we are only three weeks in, and I'm already super excited for this project!

Outside of school, I've been working on brushing up my UNIX skills and getting back into shell and Python scripting to automate the more time-consuming processes on my computer that I usually do by hand. In an effort to commit to this, I've given up mouse clicks in favor of full keyboard navigation while on my Mac partition at home. I've been doing this for about two weeks, and I'm slowly getting better at cmd+tabbing and cd-ing my way around my computer. Progress!


What I'm most excited about right now is my elective for the semester: Entertainment Design Studio. This class is an independent study, but better. Within the first week, the students choose a goal for the semester, come up with a plan to achieve it, and how it will be evaluated. From then on, it's all about following said plan and getting feedback. We have allotted class time where we can work on our independent studies in an actual classroom, present to the instructor, and get criticism from our classmates and instructor. For my EDS project, I've decided to learn Houdini, and I plan to create a Houdini reel by the end of the semester. I have to say that, so far, Houdini is really fun! I've used Autodesk Maya quite a bit (and 3DS Max a little bit), and while they are both useful and easy to navigate, I've found Houdini's procedural approach much friendlier to my math-oriented mind. The hours I've spent going through tutorials have flown by, and I'm looking forward to learning more! I've already gotten a good overview of the UI and contexts, lighting, rendering, and shading, and I just finished the section on fluids and rigid body dynamics. This week, I'll be diving into my first "assignment." Stay tuned for updates on my progress!

E3!

The Nintendo area of the show floor

I’ve been gaming since the tender age of seven, and since I was old enough to use the Internet, I have waited impatiently each year to hear and see what was announced at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). This year, I had the privilege of going to E3, as they opened up their industry passes to students in game design programs! I was super stoked for a number of reasons: because it was free, because I am an avid gamer and didn’t want to pass up the chance to play unreleased games all day, everyday, for three days straight, and for the bragging rights (all my friends were so jealous!)

During my three days at E3, I played many, many games, some of which I had seen the trailers for before arriving at the show. One such game was Lollipop Chainsaw (http://us.lollipopchainsaw.com/index.php), a hack-and-slash game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for Playstation 3 and XBox 360. The plot of this game is reasonably odd: a high school cheerleader (booth babe version pictured here) who moonlights as a zombie hunter must battle hordes of zombies in what was once her high school, aided by the severed-but-still-living head of her boyfriend (she decapitated him so he would retain his humanity after he suffered a zombie bite). Surprisingly, the quirky plot fits the game quite well, as the game has a unique art style to match. Though I usually avoid zombie games like the plague, I found Lollipop Chainsaw to be thoroughly enjoyable, and much more approachable than the usual horror-genre zombie game.

Juliet, the main character of Lollipop Chainsaw

Injustice: Gods Among Us (http://www.injustice.com/), another game I'm looking forward to, is a superhero fighting game set in the DC Universe. This game divided its playable characters into “Power” characters, such as Superman or Solomon Grundy, and “Gadget” characters, such as Batman. Each character can interact with the environment in different ways, depending on his or her character class. Players can also throw their opponents into different areas in the environment, each with its own unique interactive elements, providing many ways to use each environment to the player’s advantage. I am a sucker for great visual effects, and the visual effects (dust, explosions, water, etc.) are drool-worthy. They really take the game that extra mile to make the game world look real and to ensure the player is thoroughly immersed. When it is released in 2013, Injustice: Gods Among Us will definitely be one of the few fighting games I will actually buy.

For me, the best take away from this conference was a renewed appreciation for all genres of games. Over the years, I had slowly started playing fewer innovative games and prior to arrival at E3, I had been playing solely adventure and RPG games. During my time at E3, I tried to play as many games on as many platforms as possible and found myself enjoying quite a few outside of my favorite genres and usual platforms. I definitely recommend that others attend this conference. I had a blast!

Piloting a giant robot!

Lake District Trip!

My room - 4 beds all to myself!

A few days before I left Manchester to return to the US, I had the privilege to go on a 3-day trip with some of the students in the Creative Technology Masters program, basically the equivalent of the ETC at the University of Salford. We spent a few days exploring the flora, fauna, and notable sites in an area of the UK known as the Lake District. Specifically, we were in Grasmere, staying in a hostel called Thorney How. The Lake District was so beautiful!

Also on this trip, I got to know the Creative Tech students and some of the things they were working on. Their projects were quite innovative, just like at the ETC! For example, one of the students is working on a game where the protagonist is an actual person in the world, being controlled remotely by another player. He's even created his own headset, complete with webcam for remote viewing of the world the "avatar" is traversing, for that purpose. I also learned about the use of the Microsoft Kinect for real-time 3D modeling. I think this in particular is quite exciting. There are so many useful applications for being able to extract this data that the Kinect comes up, especially for 3D modelers! So, not only did I get to relax and see some absolutely gorgeous scenery, but I also returned from my trip inspired and excited to delve into some new topics--I've brought quite a few ideas back with me, both for independent projects and perhaps for a future ETC pitch!

One of many stunning views!

Four months later...

After an extremely busy semester, I finally have time for more blog posts. So, my semester in Manchester, UK (Spring 2012) has ended, and over all, I would say it was a success. While our project was initially supposed to supplement a live performance, we ended up creating more of an art installation. You can check out the details of the project and my role on my website. Despite some rough patches, our team finished successfully, and learned a lot not only technology-wise (I did all of the networking for our project, with no networking knowledge to my name - quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself!), but in terms of the do's and don't's of teamwork as well. I'm excited to move forward with different projects in the future and to apply all my new knowledge!

Project stuff aside, I have absolutely loved every minute of my time here in the UK. I love the people here, the environment, the food, the accents, the countryside, and especially the shopping! This is a city and country that I could see myself living and working in permanently.

One of the things I love the most about Manchester is the food. Not just the fact that it is delicious (and not too greasy), but also the ease at which I am able to find vegetarian food. There are always vegetarian items marked on restaurant menus, and the food is in general much healthier and better quality than in the US. The shopping here is awesome too (albeit expensive) - no wonder everyone here is so fashionable!

The weather... leaves something to be desired. Eighty percent of my time in the UK, it was cold, rainy, and/or windy. The weather is my only complaint; it can make the commute to school/work downright depressing, and enduring it every day during an already stressful semester did fray the nerves a bit.

Travel in the UK was amazing - there is so much natural beauty and sprawling countryside that we just don’t see often in the US, and there are many cheap flights to other countries out of Manchester. It was nice to take a few days or a weekend off to just travel and see things.

Finally, the people. Without exception, every single person I met while in Manchester was wonderful! Everyone I met, even random people on the street, was so nice, friendly, and helpful. It was great to find the "Southern hospitality" I'm used to back in my home state, in another country! I do need to mention Ben Shirley, our advisor, specifically. He was beyond amazing, as were the other Salford faculty (eg. Fiona Broadbent, Marianne Patera). They went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed for our project, and were really awesome and friendly to boot! I was so sad to leave, but I know I will definitely be back, if not to work, then at least to visit!

My First Project Semester!

I love the design of the building we work in!

This semester I've embarked on a journey of a different kind - my first project semester at the ETC. To make it even more exciting, I'm part of the first ETC project group to work at the Manchester campus. We are here at MediaCityUK in University of Salford, working on a project with the university in conjunction with the Psappha ensemble. Our project team, Madhouse, has been given the task of creating an interactive visualization of Psappha's performance of the musical piece, "Eight Songs For a Mad King," with the input of the composer, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

I am lead programmer on this team, and I will be working with Unity3d to design and implement interactions using the Microsoft Kinect as well as several Microsoft surface tables. I am so excited to be programming again! The area here and the facilities are all really nice; I'll definitely post more photos soon!

In addition to working here, we are each taking an elective class as well as some shorter classes. I'll be taking a virtual environment design class (basically BVW, except that I will be filling all of the roles on my own) as well as a short NUKE class.

The view from my bedroom window - beautiful!

Aside from school stuff, we have gotten settled in at our apartments and have done a bit of sightseeing around Manchester as well. Carlos, the ETC's liaison with Manchester, was amazingly generous with his time. He gave us a great tour of the city and went above and beyond in getting us settled in, introducing us to the right people, and, most importantly, feeding us! We love you, Carlos! Some of the places he took us to include the Manchester Cathedral, John Ryland's Library, and Chetham's Library (the oldest public library in the English-speaking world!) More photos to come soon on this front as well, once I get around to uploading things from my camera.

Cheers!

The "Manchester Eye" - a ferris wheel in downtown Manchester.
It's much smaller than the London Eye, though!

Boot Camp: Mission Accomplished!

Wow, it's been a while... An entire semester, in fact. I survived! My first semester at the ETC--the Immersion semester, also known as "Boot Camp"--ended about a month ago, and I enjoyed every minute of it. During this semester, I got to know and work with nearly everyone in the class of Fall 2011--a class chock-full of amazingly-talented, wonderful people, I might add. I have made some great friends this semester, bonding through the work we've done in our classes (we semi-jokingly refer to this bond as "a bond forged in blood").

One of the most time-consuming (but also one of the most fun) classes we took was BVW (described in my previous post). We made some really awesome virtual worlds in that class, with many different platforms. It was a great experience! I also tried my hand at being a sound designer and a producer (we had way too many programmers in our class, so a lot of us ended up as sound designers or in other roles). I thoroughly enjoyed both being a producer and being a sound designer, but I think they're maybe not something I'd want to do for the long haul. I'd miss programming way too much! However, I am pretty proud of the work I did for the class. You can check it out on my website (andrew.cmu.edu/user/bmahadev)!

Also check my website for the work my group (Mad Scientist Productions) did in Visual Story, our film class. I had taken a film class before during my undergrad, but this is the first time I've gotten the chance to actually apply the concepts I've learned in making short films. I did some compositing in AfterEffects in some of our videos, and actually tried some acting as well! Overall, it was a great class!

Another class I thoroughly enjoyed (but didn't expect to) was Improvisational Acting. Before I started the class, I would never have considered going up in front of a class and improvising a scene, but by the end of the semester, I was improvising like a pro (well, almost). One of the things I loved most about this class was that every week, when it came time for Improv, I never wanted to go to class, because I had so much work to do, but I left every class feeling relaxed, stress-free, and giddy from all the fun I'd had that day. In addition to being a great way to unwind during a stressful week, Improv taught us how to be "fun to play with," i.e. how to work well with others. It also taught us important concepts when designing a game or narrative (see CROW - Character, Relationship, Objective, and Where - things a player or audience must know at all times).

My final class, Fundamentals of Entertainment Technology, was key in that it taught us valuable skills and concepts applicable in the Entertainment Technology space, in addition to aiding us in professional development - from mock interviews, to career counseling, to resume reviews.

Something else I tried for the first time - a kind of side project with a friend - was modeling. My good friend and fellow ETC-er Heidi Hastings is an amazing makeup artist and photographer, and she suggested we do a photoshoot together! It was a lot of fun, and some great photos came out of it.

Overall, my first semester at the ETC, while being a crazy amount of work, was amazing. I learned so much, met so many wonderful students and faculty, and had so much fun! I look forward to future semesters, and I hope that they'll be at least as awesome! :)

Grad School, Go!

Summer has come to an end, and I managed to stick with all of my summer goals (except for learning to cook, which I really only started on a few weeks ago). I've been here at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) for about two weeks, and in Pittsburgh for three, and I feel so blessed to be here. It's hard to explain this feeling that I have, that I am in the most perfect place right now, and that I belong here. I've been working nearly every minute I've spent here at the ETC these past two weeks, and I've been here literally every day since the first day of classes. However, I have thoroughly and completely enjoyed the work I've been doing, the classes I'm taking, and the people I've met. It's an incredible feeling to be doing something I really, really love, with so many like-minded people!

Like all the other first-semester ETC students, I am currently in the Immersion semester, affectionately called, "boot camp." All of the first-year students are taking the same four classes - Building Virtual Worlds (a.k.a. BVW, which is, essentially, video game design), Visual Story (film-making), Fundamentals of ETC (self-explanatory), and Improv Acting (really helps you learn to work in a group, and is a lot of fun and stress relief, besides!). BVW and Visual Story are group project classes. Of these two, BVW is easily the most intense and taxing course, with groups of students designing a new game every 2-4 weeks, each time with different team members. My role in BVW is sound design, something I I've dabbled in previously in a Computer Audio class and later a film class I took at Georgia Tech, and something I very much enjoy. We're currently halfway through Round 1, so stay tuned for some awesome games!

While I do love video games, the class I'm most looking forward to is Visual Story. We have the same teams for the entire semester, and in said teams, we will make several videos, such as a team promo and a music video. I'm hoping to use this class to improve my skills in Adobe AfterEffects and Premiere, and to learn more about film in general.

So, careers. When I first arrived at the ETC, I was sure of my decision to pursue a career in visual effects animation in film, probably as a Technical Artist. But, as Don Marinelli, the executive producer of the ETC, so aptly puts it, "We are here to confuse you." And so I am. I've found that I may also be well suited to a career in production - either as a game or film producer - but further research into this field is necessary.

More to come on BVW, Visual Story, and my life. Cheers!