Willows Mechanical

Posted, 23rd October 2016

I missed last weeks post, but I’ll make up with it with two for this week (Y) I was working on the design of Willow Mechanicals website. Working from a power point presentation, I thought the best way to display the site would be in a one page format. Each section is anchored with smooth scroll for a crisp and sleek glide movement from section to section. The header with the links is fixed to the top at all times. The purpose is to have an online presence more than a way to get in contact with the company. They mostly work with big vendors and are contracted.

Here is the mockup, its heavy with Lorem Ipsum. I’m nearly done coding it. I’ll most likely add the final piece to my portfolio.

mockupwillowmechanical


Production Design for Paramount Pictures

Posted, 19th July 2016

I have been busy the last few weeks doing work for Paramount Pictures. I’m not entirely sure what I can post, so I will do a blog post with some of the work I have done after Terminator Genisys and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation have been released.

I am really into my movies so this is possibly the best job I will ever do in my life. Everyone is surprisingly human and really down to earth! It has been a really insightful experience so far and hugely rewarding. I went to see Mad Max Road to Fury at Manchester’s AMC cinema yesterday (It was fantastic btw), and saw three double sided banners I did for the new terminator film! You can see it below. I only took a quick snap.

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Learning With Lynda

Posted, 16th June 2016

As someone who is self taught in design and coding, Lynda.com is a saviour. You want to learn about Indesign or any other industry program? Log into Lynda and you will find a massive library of video tutorials. You can complete them at your own pace. I had never used the site until 2 months ago as it was suggested by a good friend. Now whenever I have 10mins to spare on a train or while traveling I have been downloading the offline files to watch and recap on techniques and just learning in general. I find it a lot easier to consume than reading.

I’m quiet frugal, so for me to recommend this as a service monthly service it must be worth it? Think about enrolling for a course, it would cost you thousands and they aren’t that flexible. Take Shillington college for example. Courses start at £7k, you need time off work and have to work to their guides. If your self motivated and don’t need the push I would suggest Lynda. You can even trial it for free for 14 days!


How to Emulate Shadow of Colossus on PC

Posted, 15th June 2016

In light of this years e3 and the announcement for The Last Guardian by the renowned Team Ico, it has been brought to my attention that I have never played Shadow of Colossus. This is one of their more acclaimed games and highly recommended. Due to my PlayStation 2 being packed away, I have emulated the game instead and it runs surprising well!

I’ll talk you though the process to get the game running and to optimizing the emulator to play Shadow of Colossus. You can also use this for other PS2 games with a few tweaks. If you have any questions or just want to say thanks, please leave a comment at the bottom of the article.

To do this you will need to get hold of an ISO of Shadow of Colossus and a Bios for a Playstation 2. I can’t supply these as it illegal unless you own them. Once you have sourced these two things, follow the instructions below.

1. Download the latest PCSX2, this is the emulator for the Playstation 2.

2. Install it and then run the program.

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3. It’ll run a wizard for setting up. Press ‘next’ and you will eventually come to this screen. Choose the same or similar plugins as the screenshot below.

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4. Press ‘Configure’ for the first option ‘GS’. A new window will open.

5. 3rd option down should be ‘Renderer’ make sure this is set to ‘Direct3D10 (Hardware)’ or above. Mine was set to Direct3D11 for best results.

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6. Now press ‘ok’ and click ‘next’. This will bring you to a Bios list (It will be empty). Find the bios you sourced before the guide.

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7. Click ‘Finish’.

8. Now go to ‘Config’ and click ‘Emulation Settings’

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9. A new window will come up, click ‘SpeedHacks’ and make sure ‘EE Cyclerate’ and ‘VU Cycle stealing’ are toggled to 3. Then press Ok.

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10. Now go to ‘System’ and click ‘Boot CDVD (fast)’ and select your Shadow of Colossus ISO image. It should now run at 60fps.

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To get the most of out this I would recommend using a PS4 or Xbox One Controller and configuring the buttons to it. I used a Xbox One controller and it must better than using a keyboard.

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Content Management Systems

Posted, 8th June 2016

Also known as CMS, these are life savers for anyone who has little to no knowledge building a website. They make the upkeep of a website easy to control. You want a new page? Click new page and you just fill in the appropriate boxes with the content that is needed. No hassle, no coding necessary.

I used the WordPress framework to create this site. I have a blog and it is very convenient to log in, start typing up a draft and publish when I see fit. I find it the most flexible to use too. As a mainstream CMS there is a huge library of plugins and support to tailor a website.

This week I did a little bit of work for a friend using ekmPowershop. It’s built on .asp, which is quiet outdated. This is all hidden with the ekmPowershop CMS, which is fair enough. I was assigned to move some content from the top of the page to the bottom. If this was any other content management system I’m sure I could have completed the task in less than 5 minutes. This took a long time. I had to call ekmPowershop for them to amend the code for me to implement the changes.

They don’t give the option to create elements outside of their given preset. To me that seems extremely backward. While the CMS fulfils it’s purpose to make a site with a shopping basket quick and easy. It limits the possibilities for anyone wanting to create something more bespoke with is lack of format management.

Anyway everything worked out in the end. ekmPowershop offered to implement the changes personally and were very quick about it. As a developer though we should have the option to create new content easily.


Offline Portfolio

Posted, 26th April 2016

Finally got round to redoing my offline portfolio. The last time it was updated was about a year ago, so seemed like the right time to update it again. If you want to see it in all it’s glory click here or the link at the bottom of the page. If you are viewing it on an ipad open with ‘ibooks’ it will display very nicely.

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Link to the portfolio.


Dead Space 2 Poster

Posted, 22nd April 2016

Completed Dead Space 2 a few weeks ago and had the hopes to create a nice clean vector based on Isaacs’ helmet. In between work and the exceptionally nice weather recently, I locked myself away, shut the blinds tight (we don’t want glare do we) and beavered away on a poster. Here is the out come. I’m in London next week but hope to have enough time to try to animate the poster in some form or another.

deadspaceposter