Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 20:Final Cut of Essay?

So after the feedback i had gotten from Garry Barker and Jay from academic support i was able to redo my essay and follow their feedback and notes and here is the final piece.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Essay

Throughout the years there have been many creations that have created widespread popularity since the inception of 'The Superhero' from the mid 1930s, involving the most recognized superhero in Superman. Within the past couple of years we see that the film industry has delved into the comic book genre which shows that this once children's form of entertainment has a much deeper root. This essay seeks to enlighten readers through the exploration of the superheroes’ roles within the current culture and to understand why even at an adult age we still have a connection to a media that was from our childhood.

Many children as they grow up are attracted to the concept of a superhero, what they can do and whether they could really become a superhero by radiation, spider bite or simply being born with superpowers. From an early stage in childhood, many children are spoilt by the amount of superheroes that are available. Superman and Batman are the vastly popular characters which originated from the Golden Age of comics (Miller, 1987) where they saved the world and stopped the evil villains and created a wave of momentum for the creation of household names from Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, the Hulk, Wonder Woman to the Green lantern and many more. Superman and Batman have always been the most beloved characters who graced the pages of newspapers and comics in the 1930s (Morris, 2005) and brought with them widespread media depictions of their characters through movies, radios, T.V. Through these medias, up to recent dates we have been exposed to the worlds of these characters and tie-ins of other characters from the two big comic companies DC and Marvel. From the wide range and forms of characters that we have grown up with, we see a common trait that has been passed on through the periods of superheroes, being either male or female and having powers that extend from themselves to fight for truth, justice and protecting the innocent. Superman has always been engaged with the fight for truth, justice and the protection of the innocent (Morris, 2005) since his earlier stages of his comic book inceptions and thus became an iconic figure, one which was well beloved because he encompassed what all of us wanted to be, a person who was more than what people see us as, someone who was destined for more than being a simple teacher, company worker or the person you were expected to be.

Superman allowed comic book fans to look into a world where the most unexpected people can become heroes, for example Clark Kent through to Superman. Clark Kent allowed fans to escape from the world of pain and suffering into a world full of crisis there will be someone to stand up and save us all. "Without Clark Kent as Superman's alter ego Superman wouldn't have a purpose to save Earth other than the right thing", (Rosenberg, 2008) wrote that because we have Superman and Clark Kent in the comic book series we see that Superman is able to save Earth because of his alter ego Clark Kent being normal. Through Clark Kent, Superman is able to 'mingle' with humans allowing him to have a purpose to save the race of powerless beings. From what the quote mentions besides Superman's reasons for an alter ego we get a means of 'Cinema as a door' (Elsaesser, 2010), from how the readers view Clark Kent as a disguise for Superman but also a springboard to get into the stories that he is in. Transforming from the working class to Superman makes the reader see that this depiction of reality shows how any normal working class can become a hero from their simple jobs. Another understanding of Superman's character from "Clark Kent’s upbringing by his Earth parents have influenced his whole character", (Rosenberg, 2008) this mentions how from Clark Kent's upbringing with his farming parents made him who he is and allowed readers to view the rising hero that becomes Superman and because he is brought up to being a good person he is seen as the hero and encompassing the American colours of red, white and blue as a symbol of protection and hope to the American people during the time of the wars.

However this repetitive notion of what superheroes are classed as being, the saviours of humanity due to their powers, is one that has changed when Batman had risen up, as he was more of the humanly superhero, rather than the superhero with powers. Batman became a hero to many people as "...he is just a 'human' being, even though he is much different than the rest of us", "Devotion of his life to avenge his parents death and other victims, by risking life and limb" (Irwin, 2008), shows that Batman had risen in popular fame to Superman as he was much more than a being that had powers, as he was one that was able to, without powers, use his own strengths to fight off the 'bad guys', all to find his parents' killer. Batman's complexity shows how ordinary human beings can become hero and through the Batman's comics we see how he learns and adapts to the teachings he receives will make up the Batman and how all that teaching leads him to the accomplishments of taking out the bad guys, the enemies and the villains and from the comic readers are able to see through Batman how they can become a superhero.

Batman comics allow the question of "what if we could take matters into our own hands?" and take an event which could occur in reality and making Batman use it as a reminder of what needs to be fixed. With events of sorrow taking place in reality a reader becomes connected with Batman because they may have gone through a similar event and wondered whether you could change it or stop it from happening again and gives the reader an insight of how becoming a hero without superpowers can be and the trials and tribulations he or she faces. Batman is a character who sees his skills as his power, not relying on superpowers to overcome obstacles, "...the reason that the more super an individual might be, the less heroic he or she could possibly be, and the more heroic a person is , the less super they'd have to be", (Morris, 2005) from this you begin to understand why Batman has become as popular as he has. Batman is in essence 'powerless' to the superheroes who have powers and thus makes him that much of a hero all be it that we would love to have superpowers however we understand that having superpowers is a fantasy and isn't capable of happening, which attracts us more towards Batman.

Not depending on having superpowers makes Batman that much of a realistic superhero, one which readers can connect to, compared to Superman and various other heroes that have superpowers who depend on their powers wouldn't be as appealing to their audience if they have no superpowers. Batman on the other hand is what people want to be, achieving his goals through humanly methods and trying to get retribution for the death of his parents. Batman's purpose is to find his parents killer and when he achieves his goal but thinks "...nothing haunts me more than finding out who killed my parents", "...their unsolved murder changed Gotham City", (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, 2005). So many children and adults like to become a superhero, having goals or intentions to that urge and when the goal of the superhero are fulfilled, what is the purpose of carrying on for the children and adults. Batman realises himself as being attached to a bigger picture, "...with great power comes great responsibility" (Spider-Man, 1961) is an influenced quote which applies throughout the superhero world and in Batman's case he realises that once he has achieved the knowledge of his parents killer he may not have a reason to be Batman, to risk his life and keep things in order as he has brought a big difference to Gotham City. But wanting to be a superhero would be to follow the stereotype of doing good, abiding by the laws and helping the innocent and such superhero stereotype had been consistent until Frank Miller had introduced himself to the comic book world of Batman. Although already recognised as one of the names to be accustomed to through his work on the reprise of the fading Daredevil, Frank Miller had switched to Marvels rival company DC Comics (O’Neil, 1987) which wanted to reinvent their most popular characters Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman and Frank Miller had put himself forward to reintroduce the story of Batman through the opportunity of Batman Year One.

Frank Millers take on the Batman story had garnered much success due to his own interpretation of Batman being much different than how readers viewed Superman or Wonder Woman, with the concept of Batman having no power compared to the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman and Frank Miller tackled the idea of having Batman become much darker, involved in adult targeted storylines. Rather than the children based layout that have been used since the creation of Superman, Batman was reinvented in a way in which the character was meant to be, making him that much more of a popular figure whilst Superman had begun to fade in popularity because of the same character doing the same thing and knowing that he will beat the evil villain at the end of each story seems predictable. Where as Frank Miller had made Batman much open to getting the job done,making his motivation towards the identity of his parents killer but in another sense "Gotham's government is Batman's hatred as the state were incapable of maintaining their laws and order" (Irwin, 2008), perhaps gives an understanding that Batman also shares hatred towards the government as well as his parents killer because the government hadn’t kept control of their citizens and sees himself as an enforcement of the law a 'Vigilante'.

Vigilantes are in essence what all superheroes are (Kaveney, 2008), they take matters into their own hands, seeing themselves as the law enforcement even if it means breaking laws to reinforce them and Frank Millers depiction of Batman shows this side of a superhero although the subject wasn't brought up until the creation of Watchmen created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986) which showed a different perspective of the superhero. Both The Dark Knight and Watchmen were influential in raising awareness and questioning the vengeance that brings vigilantism and through Watchmen you see how some of the superheroes become vigilantes to carry on the name and protect the world. Dr Manhattan however had gained power through his research making him the only hero to have an ability but in the case of Rorschach his vigilantism choice was made because of a common reason to become a superhero to put right that which was wronged. Rorschach's upbringing affected his character (Watchmen, 1986), making him use violence as an extension of his power to fight crime and blaming humanity he bears the in-blot mask which makes his character unique as you don't see the visual expressions through humanly features but rather from the ink which had culminated after being "ashamed for humanity" (Morris, 2005). Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Millers take on Batman changed how comics were perceived as they brought in new perspectives that focused on the bad and good of being a superhero, sinking deeper into how Superman's take on the world being black and white, good and evil and not seeing the view from another side, that is what Watchmen and Batman added to the dynamic of comics, how these characters would react in different situations to a one that would always work out in the end.

From the revamped Batman and the vigilantism Watchmen bring these two comic books changed the perception of how superheroes were looked upon as heroes for doing the right thing, being there when needed but those were from the earlier stages of comics book fantasies which inspired younger kids to be like them. During many childhoods there had become an attachment to beings who had powers which were fantasies, achievements in which children would yearn to want and to change the world, these are what make us feel a sense of jealousy and longing to be more than ordinary. Morris (2005) explains that "...after viewing the Superman comic of being superior in any shape or form to those around you, to stand out and be visible to abide by your own laws" simply put that we lust for power, a catalyst to stand out from our peers and allows us to have a field of superiority over each other, without any limitations. Although this is true, "Part of the appeal of the superheroes is that through them we can live out our dreams and fantasies" (Rosenberg, 2008) which again is a sense of accomplishment that we want to have a lead over others to show we are different from the other people, giving us an edge. From those two perspectives they explain how we want power to prove something, to be 'top of the food chain' or have control to do what we want to but Hopkins (2009) explains that "allow us to imagine riches of life by having enhanced special abilities and extraordinary experiences-wondering what we could do if we weren't so restricted or limited/ordinary". Understanding that perhaps we want something that we know we can't have is what leads us to taking shortcuts by becoming a superhero and having no restrictions in the society we live in from the amount of suffering in the real world we see much more security, surveillance and restriction on certain areas. Many see having abilities such as a superhero allows us to stray away from these restrictions but with power we can lean over the people that are enforcing these restrictions and wanting to get our views across without limitations because of the equipped superpower we become an anti-hero who has his own motives to fulfil at any cost.

As Kaveney (2008) explains, the superheroes appealing nature is important to us as it ascertains to the fact of becoming something we aren’t and accomplishing such storyline based acts, living out fantasies and dreams. In other cases though, (Morris, 2005) there are flaws within the superhero character, (Moore , 1986) graphic novel, Watchmen exposes through their exploration of how superheroes would affect prolific moments in history if they were at that moment in time. In this sense for reality to be played into a world where fantasy is tangled with reality but because of this the portrayal human characteristics are brought into play and this is where jealousy, greed and others would begin to show the level of maturity coming across the comics. With the level of maturity rising due to comics such as Watchmen (1986), to the surprise of this maturity being in comic books it allows escapism into a world where harsh parts of reality are altered. From our addictions of the superhero being a way to escape reality, through Moore’s Watchmen (1986) we see how the appeal is towards an older audience and Morris (2005) states that the relevance of Superman within the reality of kids having to go through metal detectors at school is on which has no relevance to a reality which is more darker than that of a comic book. Although the superhero is a very intriguing and appealing piece of non-fiction we see reality as threat to want to escape it to a world where justice prevails and the bad are always gone near the end.

2647 Words

Bibliography:
Hopkins, P. D. Southworth, J, Kavaldo, J. Dunn, G. Darowski, J. Robichaud, C. Teschner, G. (2009) X-Men and Philosophy:New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Miller, F. Mezzucchelli, D. Miles, R. O'Neil, D. (1987) Batman Year One:New York:DC Comics
William Irwin, Mark D.White, Robert ARP,(2008) Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul:New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Tom Morris, Matt Morris,(2005) Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way:Chicago and La Salle, Illinois:Open Court

Roz Kaveney,(2008) Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films:London:I.B. Tauris

Robin S. Rosenberg, Ph.D, Jennifer Canzoneri,(2008) The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration:Dallas, Texas:Benbella Books INC.

Fingeroth, D. (2005) Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society. London: Continuum

Negotiated Study Week1:Statement of Intent

With the statement of intent coming along nicely i finished the whole process and knowing what i want to do, a Castle as this idea allows me to step away froom the futuristic aspect of my ideas and focus on the visuals of the game and here is the finished statement of intent which i believe to reach the expectation and further my skills at both concept art and 3D modelling:
Negotiated Study - OUDF203 Statement of Intent
Name: Ifraz Mohammed

Project Title

A Place in Time

The Brief

Game Synopsis:

'You are a medieval knight, sworn to honor the code of law known as "Chivalry". The time is mid-day and you return to your castle being the only survivor from the draining crusade, to find an empty castle from dungeon to top floor. Finding nothing but an empty, weapon stranded castle you realise that this was the work of no man or army, to leave no signs of struggle nor blood. From this point forward you know that you are alone, with nothing but your weapons, to wander in search of life and solution.'

To develop a game environment with a minimum of 2 floors (ground and top or underground floor), interior and exterior, within a confined amount of space, to focus on developing a building and some surroundings. Using visuals rather than gameplay mechanics to represent a start off place within a game or a setting within the game to reflect on the game synopsis.

Solution:

I plan on doing a 3 floored game environment of a castle, using the ground floor as the entrance to the castle and then allowing the gamer to go deeper into the dungeon as well as above to the top open floor and giving them the freedom to go through each area as well as in and out of the castle. Inside the castle will be bits and pieces such as fallen weapons, swords and shields preferably with option of mangonel and other objects to the limit of polycount. Entirely made of stone and wood allowing texturing of the model to be of substantial benefit of working more on the detail and colour pallete (light stone with eroded and rubble effect and dark wood covered with contrasting markings). Having an unplayable character to perhaps appear as the gameplay furthers to tell the gamer to not venture further on the happening within the castle to leave after telling gamer the warning.


Outside the castle will be the drawbridge open on trigger and the only means of entry as the ground in which the castle wil be built open a small area of land beneath the castle and the gamers start off point will be on another piece of land connected to the castle once the drawbridge lowers. Behing the castle will be another door but this will be from the castle going into an open area limited to the castle and at the edge of the cliff which further down has a waterfall, covering the lower portion of the are of land as well as the window of the dungeon. The waterfall animates down and into the ocean which surrounds the gameplay area as it confines the gamer until the objective is done within the castle to which the gamer leaves the castle and its greenery around the outside and down the land, to the drop in from the start of the game to a small boat which will be a form of transport to the next level.


The Project size will focus more on the castle than its surroundings as it resides on a rocky, cliff setting similar to that of a lighthouse which prohibits the gamer to wander off the created space. Relying more on textures and bump mapping to give detail and depth allows more of a wider scale of modelling so i chose a dungeon and interior of a castle but not to the scale of castles normally seen. The Waterfall idea is just to have it placed under the cliff, behind the castle a smal waterfall which covers one of the dungeons "window" and the main focus of the project is quality. Gameplay is not much of focal point as i would like to focus on the visuals, the concept art and this project gives me a chance to develop my skill at concept more to the poor level of art i have shown in previous work.

Resources Required


Computer
Wacom tablet
Adobe Photoshop
Autodesk Maya
Unity 2.6
Leeds College of Art Studio or Mezzinine
Home Laptop with stated softwares

Self Identified Reading List


Understanding Game Theory By Vassili Kolokoltsov, Oleg A. Malafeyev
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses By Jesse Schell
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals By Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman
Pervasive Games: Theory and Design By Markus Montola, Jaakko Stenros, Annika Waern
Games and Information: An Introduction to Game Theory By Eric Rasmusen
Game Theory at Work By James D. Miller
Game Theory: A Critical Text By Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Yanis Varoufakis
Game Design: Theory & Practice By Richard Rouse, Steve Ogden
Game Design Foundations By Roger E. Pedersen
Video Game Art by Dr. Henry Jenkins
Game Character Development By Antony Ward

Additional Research Opportunities


Ninja Theory (Company)-Visuals of Enslaved Odyssey To The West
Daarken (Concept Artist)-Youtube Tutorials and getting in touch for guides
Kotaku (Online Gaming Website)-For latest gaming news and similar websites
Videogames and Films Companies that have worked on Tron 2, Deus Ex III, Prince of Persia, Assasins' Creed, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Waredevil: Unleash the beast within and so on: Barontieri (Industrial Design and Interior Architecture)-Videogames and Film Concept Art Steambot Studios (Concept Art Company)-Study their images to benefit from
Splash Damage (Game Developer)-Look at the use of modelling and textuing


Luke Wakeford (3D Character artist)-Contact to ask for help or steps to improve modelling
Massive Black (Illustration, Artwork, Animation and 3D assets for the entertainment and advertising industry)
Unity Game Development Essentials Will Goldstone
Photoshop CS5 for Dummies By Peter Bauer
Maya Projects and Game Environment and Props Mike McKinley

Considerations


Target Audience-12+
The polyount should be no more than 10,000 and focus more on detail through texturing and bumped maps
Visuals should be focus point rather than the overall gameplay, to further concept development
Not to spend too much time on final project but the development and planning of game

Deliverables


Research & Development
Game Environment (Minimum of 2 Floors), Interior and Exterior (Web Player and Mac Standalone Versions)
A modelled unplayable character Turnaround (Quicktime Movie HD Format)
　

Negotiated Study Week1:Final Major Project Ideas

Here are the ideas that i had come up with and following through these guidelines

• Open space
• Limited distance of area
• Greenery
• Interior
• Exterior
• Visual Importance
• Stone texturing
• Quality not Quantity
• Concept Art is the focus through the game environment

I had many ideas that i could and as you can see from the images i had jotted down the possible ideas under the guidelines i had come up with. At first i felt of doing something similar to the Enslaved:Odyssey to the West game as i had played it and found the quality was so impressive that i could do a Enslaved inspired destruction of Leeds. However knowing that i had done a destroyed environment and wanting to do my own creation rather than a variation of someone else's idea, so i chose to look at many other possible ideas such as

• Small island with a building covered with greenery
• A 3D based game environment going inside a building to a 2D platform game
• Plant life environment
• Aztec Buildings
• Sci-Fi Building
• Island
• Floating City
• Underwater City
• Jungle
• Spaceship
• Medieval
• Mountainous Area
• Colosseum
• Tower
• Tree house with three levels
• Buildings change textures as you go in and out of the building
• Castle, Courtyard, Tower, Waterfall. Dungeon

After all the various ideas that i could do i went ahead and chose one that i hadn't done before, going with the idea of a castle game environment consisting of a dungeon, Courtyard, Castle with three floors, Tower, placed upon a cliff setting with nothing but a water surrounding. Quality will be the objective with this project and choosing a different type of setting to the regular sci-fi type of setting that i have done before and gone with a medieval environment. I believe that going with a three floored game environment consisting of interior and exterior i will be able focus alot more on concept art having more of a project to cover.

Negotiated Study Week1:Potential Ideas to Look At

Learning of the final project of the course being a negotiated study i had various possible ideas to do. Knowing that i want to focus on the visuals and concept art for my project i wanted to carry on the production of game making. With the previous game module i had created a cityscape game environment and with that project i had over complicated the situation by focusing much more on the quantity of the project.

So i began the process of possible ideas with the intention of creating a game environment which is a limited amount of space preventing the gamer from going into areas that they shouldn't be going into and that this environment should consist of interior and exterior. I started by looking at game environments that have been used for certain games such as Crysis 2 to get an understanding of what i could do.

Looking at interior and exterior game environments that have already been made i saw throughout the images that the environment is spaced out with many areas of greenery, alot of stone, ground textures are used and surrounding the buildings is an environment which gives the building a focus point. By looking at the images above i have a rough amount of guidelines for the idea of my negotiated studies brief and that i will follow  these guides as i want my game environment to be:

• Open space
• Limited distance of area
• Greenery
• Interior
• Exterior
• Visual Importance
• Stone texturing
• Quality not Quantity
• Concept Art is the focus through the game environment

Creative Industries Level 5:Google Apps Business Assistance

During the research into business, i came across the Google Apps business assistance. This allows users to manage their business all from one location through Google Apps and with E-mail, video chat, translations, real time updates and more. On the page was a youtube based video which shows off the assets of this Google App:

Here is the link to the page:http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en-GB/business/smbs.html#utm_source=EnterpriseSMEQ111&utm_campaign=en-GB&utm_medium=oa&utm_term=pid_59554392-cid_40503189-aid_235714054

Creative Industries Level 5:Protecting your business interests

I had found this article on the protection of businesses and why it is so important to protect your own business, particularly in the economy we are currently in and here is the article from the website:

Protecting your business interests

In these days of economic downturn and tough competition it is vital to protect your business interests as best you can.

Unless protection is in place former employees could have a devastating effect on your business. How can you do this? The only enforceable way to protect your business is to incorporate enforceable restrictive covenants into your employee's contracts of employment or (if appropriate) compromise agreement, these are known as Post Termination Restrictive Covenants.

The covenants, if drafted correctly, can be used to prevent former employees from soliciting or dealing with your clients or suppliers, encouraging other key workers to leave and join them or disclosing your trade secrets and competing directly against you.

For any covenant to be enforceable, it must be reasonable, and it must protect a legitimate business interest. For a covenant to be reasonable it must go no further than is necessary to protect the business. If a covenant is viewed as unreasonable then it will be void and unenforceable, therefore great care must be taken at the drafting stage.

You must ensure that the covenant relates only to that type of work carried out by the employee, and you must ensure that it complies with any accepted industry standard. The covenant must be set for a reasonable duration and geographical extent. Generally the covenant may only refer to the area where your company carries on its business. Finally, you must be able to identify an actual or potential harm which would be caused by an employee's breach.

What can you do if the covenant is breached? Provided you can show an actual or prospective harm, then there are various remedies available the most important of which is an injunction. An injunction can be granted at an interim stage to prevent the employee breaching the covenant pending a full trial. This provides the quickest method of protecting your business and in the majority of cases will be sufficient, as a full trial may not take place until the duration of the covenant has expired.

An alternative remedy is damages. If damages are awarded they will be for breach of contract, and therefore seek to put you in the position you would have been had the contract been performed. A third measure of damages is an account of profits, where the profits the employee makes from his breach of covenant must be paid over to the employer. Finally, you could bring a claim against a third party if an employee is threatening to disclose confidential information, or is threatening to take up employment with that third party.

Don't delay check your contracts of employment today and if in doubt seek expert legal advice.

Gillian Markland is head of employment law at Ingrams Solicitors

Link:http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/business/columnists/8135286.Protecting_your_business_interests/?ref=rss

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 19:Essay Feedback via Academic Support

After getting feedback from Garry Barker on my draft essay i was told to seek the help of academic support to go through my essay thoroughly. With the academic support scheduled for Tuesday 15th  i left my essay for a week after getting feedback from Garry and returned to the essay with the help of academic support, Jay who helped me understand that i needed to give breathing space for my readers. With him we went through near a page and a half of my essay and re-wrote certain bits of text to make sense and so hear is the essay with a page and a half of redoing.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Essay

Throughout the years there have been many creations that have created widespread popularity since the inception of 'The Superhero' from the mid 1930s, involving the most recognized superhero in Superman. Within the past couple of years we see that the film industry has delved into the comic book genre which shows that this once children's form of entertainment has a much deeper root. This essay seeks to enlighten readers through the exploration of the superheroes’ roles within the current culture and to understand why even at an adult age we still have a connection to a media that was from our childhood.

Many children as they grow up are attracted to the concept of a superhero, what they can do and whether they could really become a superhero by radiation, spider bite or simply being born with superpowers. From an early stage in childhood, many children are spoilt by the amount of superheroes that are available. Superman and Batman are the vastly popular characters which originated from the Golden Age of comics (Miller, 1987) where they saved the world and stopped the evil villains and created a wave of momentum for the creation of household names from Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, the Hulk, Wonder Woman to the Green lantern and many more. Superman and Batman have always been the most beloved characters who graced the pages of newspapers and comics in the 1930s (Morris, 2005) and brought with them widespread media depictions of their characters through movies, radios, T.V. Through these medias, up to recent dates we have been exposed to the worlds of these characters and tie-ins of other characters from the two big comic companies DC and Marvel. From the wide range and forms of characters that we have grown up with, we see a common trait that has been passed on through the periods of superheroes, being either male or female and having powers that extend from themselves to fight for truth, justice and protecting the innocent. Superman has always been engaged with the fight for truth, justice and the protection of the innocent (Morris, 2005) since his earlier stages of his comic book inceptions and thus became an iconic figure, one which was well beloved because he encompassed what all of us wanted to be, a person who was more than what people see us as, someone who was destined for more than being a simple teacher, company worker or the person you were expected to be.

Superman allowed comic book fans to look into a world where the most unexpected people can become heroes, for example Clark Kent through to Superman. Clark Kent allowed fans to escape from the world of pain and suffering into a world full of crisis there will be someone to stand up and save us all. "Without Clark Kent as Superman's alter ego Superman wouldn't have a purpose to save Earth other than the right thing", (REF QUOTE- HARVARD) The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration (REF THE AUTHOR NOT THE TITLE) write that because we have Superman and Clark Kent in the comic book series we see that Superman is able to save Earth because of his alter ego Clark Kent being normal. Through Clark Kent, Superman is able to 'mingle' with humans allowing him to have a purpose to save the race of powerless beings. From what the quote mentions besides Superman's reasons for an alter ego we get a means of 'Cinema as a door' (REF THE CONCEPT- QUOTE), from how the readers view Clark Kent as a disguise for Superman but also a springboard to get into the stories that he is in. Transforming from the working class to Superman makes the reader see that this depiction of reality shows how any normal working class can become a hero from their simple jobs. Another understanding of Superman's character from "Clark Kent’s upbringing by his Earth parents have influenced his whole character", The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration this mentions how from Clark Kent's upbringing with his farming parents made him who he is and allowed readers to view the rising hero that becomes Superman and because he is brought up to being a good person he is seen as the hero and encompassing the American colours of red, white and blue as a symbol of protection and hope to the American people during the time of the wars.

However this repetitive perceivement of what superheroes are classed as being, the saviours of humanity due to their powers, is one that has changed when Batman had risen up, as he was more of the humanly superhero, rather than the superhero with powers. Batman became a hero to many people as "...he is just a 'human' being, even though he is much different than the rest of us", "Devotion of his life to avenge his parents death and other victims, by risking life and limb" Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul, shows that Batman had risen in popular fame to Superman as he was much more than a being that had powers, as he was one that was able to, without powers, use his own strengths to fight off the 'bad guys', all to find his parents' killer. Batman's complexity shows how ordinary human beings can become hero and through the Batman's comics we see how he learns and adapts to the teachings he receives will make up the Batman and how all that teaching leads him to the accomplishments of taking out the bad guys, the enemies and the villains and from the comic readers are able to see through Batman how they can become a superhero.

Batman comics allow the question of "what if we could take matters into our own hands?" and take an event which could occur in reality and making Batman use it as a reminder of what needs to be fixed and with events of sorrow taking place in reality a reader becomes connected with Batman because they may have gone through a similar event and wondered whether you could change it or stop it from happening again and gives the reader and insight of how becoming a hero without superpowers can be and the trials and tribulations he faces. Batman is a character who sees his skills as his power not relying on superpowers to overcome obstacles, "...the reason that the more super an individual might be, the less heroic he or she could possibly be, and the more heroic a person is , the less super they'd have to be", Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way from this you begin to understand why Batman has become as popular as he has and that is because he is in essence 'powerless' to the superheroes who have powers and thus makes him that much of a hero all be it that we would love to have superpowers but because we understand that having them is a fantasy and isn't capable of happening and which attracts us much more towards Batman.

Not depending on having superpowers makes Batman that much of a realistic superhero one which readers can connect to because Superman and the other heroes that have superpowers depend on their powers and wouldn't be as popular if they didn't have them but Batman is what people want to be and he achieves his goals through humanly tactics. Batman's purpose is to find his parents killer and when he achieves his goal but thinks "...nothing haunts me more than finding out who killed my parents", "...their unsolved murder changed Gotham City", Superman/Batman: Public Enemies(2005) which is a question that would need to be answered when we see ourselves to wanting to become a superhero and is we had our goal achieved when wanting to become a hero then what is our purpose to carry on and that's what Batman sees, himself as attached to a bigger picture, "...with great power comes great responsibility" Spider-Man, was quoted as an influenced quote which applies throughout the superhero world and such to Batman as he himself realises that once he has achieved the knowledge of his parents killer he may not have a reason to be Batman and would see it as a shame as he has brought a big difference to Gotham City and would not have a reason to risk his life. But wanting to be a superhero would be to follow the stereotype of doing good, abiding by the laws and helping the innocent from the wicked and such superhero stereotype had been consistent until Frank Miller had introduced himself to the comic book world of Batman, although already recognised as one of the names to be accustomed to through his work on the reprise of the fading Daredevil, from then Frank Miller had switched to Marvels rival company DC Comics which wanted to reinvent their most popular characters Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman and Frank Miller had put himself forward as to wanting to reintroduce the story of Batman and was given the opportunity through Batman Year One.

Frank Millers take on the Batman story had garnered much success due to his view on Batman being much different than how readers viewed Superman or Wonder Woman, although the concept of Batman having no power such as Superman and Wonder Woman remains Frank Miller tackled the idea of having Batman become much darker and having him involved in adult targeted storylines, rather than the children based layout that have been used since the creation of Superman and Batman. Frank Miller's work on Batman reinvented the way in which the character was meant to be and made him that much more of a popular figure whilst Superman had begun to fade in popularity because of the same character doing the same thing and knowing that he will beat the evil villain at the end of each story seems predictable but Frank Miller had made Batman much open to getting the job done and Batman's motivation is towards finding his parents killer but in another sense "Gotham's government is Batman's hatred as the state were incapable of maintaining their laws and order" Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul, from this understanding Batman shares hatred towards the government as well as his parents killers and sees himself as an enforcement of the law a 'Vigilante'.

Vigilantes are in essence what all superheroes are, they take matters into their own hands and see themselves as the law enforcer even if it means breaking laws to reinforce them and Frank Millers depiction of Batman showed this side of a superhero although the subject wasn't brought up until the creation of Watchmen created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons which showed a different perspective of the superhero. Both The Dark Knight and Watchmen were influential in raising awareness and question to the vengeance that brings vigilantism as through Watchmen you see how some of the superheroes become vigilantes to carry on the name and protect the world, Dr Manhattan was changed because of his research and gained power but in the case of Rorshach his vigilantism choice was made because of a common reason to become a superhero to put right that which was wronged previously in this case Rorshach's upbringing affected his character and made him use a violence as an extension of his power to fight crime and because of humanity he bears the in-blot mask which makes his character unique as you don't see the visual expressions through humanly features but through the ink which had culminated after becoming "ashamed for humanity" Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way. Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Millers take on Batman changed how comics were perceived as they had brought in a new perspective one which hadn't focused on the greats and goods of being a superhero, sinking deeper into how Superman's take on the world being black and white, good and evil and not seeing the view from another side, that is what Watchmen and Batman brought and how these characters would react in different situations to ones that would always work out in the end.

From the revamped Batman and the vigilantism Watchmen these two comic books changed the perception of how superheroes were looked up as hero for doing the right thing, being there when needed but those were from the earlier stages of comics book fantasies which aspired younger kids to be like them and to follow them through their victories and that is what made kids become attached to this being who had powers which were fantasies, achievements which children would yearn to want and to change the world. These are what make us feel a sense of jealousy and longing to be more than ordinary as in Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way "...after viewing the Superman comic of being superior in any shape or form to those around you, to stand out and be visible to abide by your own laws" which simply says we lust for power, a catalyst to stand out from our peers and allows us to have a field of superiority over each other and not have limits. But although this is true, "Part of the appeal of the superheroes is that through them we can live out our dreams and fantasies" (Rosenberg, 2008, p45) which again is a sense of accomplishment that we want to have a lead over others to show we are different from the other people to give us an edge. From those two perspectives they explain how we want power to prove something, to be 'top of the food chain' or have control to do what we want to do but from X-Men and Philosophy "allow us to imagine riches of life by having enhanced special abilities and extraordinary experiences-wondering what we could do if we weren't so restricted or limited/ordinary" we get an understanding that perhaps we want something that we know we can't have because it would lead to a shortcut and having no restrictions in the society we live in due to the amount of suffering in the world we see much more security and surveillance restriction on certain areas but having abilities lets us stray away from that because we have a power a sense lean over the people that are enforcing these restrictions but if we have the power we would be able to rule the world under our orders trying to make the world a better place, in other word an anti-hero who has his own motives to fulfill at any cost.

We look at how superheroes have affected us through their storylines and character traits and how we yearn to be like them because of their concept of power being heat vision, spider features, Adamantium claws and other powers but having that power we feel we can change things as the setting of Watchmen being around the 1980s and showing how superheroes being a possibility would affect certain moments in history. Our addiction of superheroes could be a way of escaping the harsh reality we currently live in or seeing the good triumph and even to have connection of what we might do in circumstances if we chose the other options as Batman had chosen to become a vigilante and aren't vigilantes a justification of power, they take things into their own hands and that's what attracts us to wanting to be like Batman or because of his parents being killed he wanted to find his parents killer and justify through that goal for his actions of rule breaking and wanting to be above the law.

Try and make this conclusion more academic:

As …. states, the reason Superheroes are important to us is……… However some writers (example) have more recently begun to examine the flaws in the Superhero character, (Moore, date) a graphic novel such as Watchmen (date) has explored how Superheroes would actually affect certain moments in history if they were real. This realistic portrayal though immediately brings into the fictional situation the fact that ordinary human frailties, such as jealousy, greed etc. would begin to operate. This has long been the central feature of the novel, but it is a surprise to see this in a comic book. If our addiction to superheroes could be a way of escaping the harsh reality we currently live in, perhaps new comic book genres such as Moore’s Watchman reflect the fact that the audiences for comic books are now older. This is supported by Morris, 2005, who states that….

2500 Words

Bibliography:
Hopkins, P. D. Southworth, J, Kavaldo, J. Dunn, G. Darowski, J. Robichaud, C. Teschner, G. (2009)
X-Men and Philosophy:New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Miller, F. Mezzucchelli, D. Miles, R. O'Neil, D. (1987) Batman Year One:New York:DC Comics

-William Irwin, Mark D.White, Robert ARP,(2008)
'Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul':New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

-Tom Morris, Matt Morris,(2005)
'Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way':Chicago and La Salle, Illinois:Open Court

-Roz Kaveney,(2008)
'Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films' :London:I.B. Tauris

-Robin S. Rosenberg, Ph.D, Jennifer Canzoneri,(2008)
'The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration':Dallas, Texas:Benbella Books INC.


Fingeroth, D. (2005) Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society. London: Continuum


Within Text:
-'Quote From Book' (Patrick D. Hopkins, Jason Southworth, Jesse Kavaldo, George A. Dunn, Joseph J. Darowski, Christopher Robichaud, George Teschner, 2009)

-'Quote From Book' (Frank Miller, David Mezzucchelli, Richmond Miles, Danny O'Neil, 1987)

-'Quote From Book' (William Irwin, Mark D.White, Robert ARP, 2008)

-'Quote From Book' (Tom Morris, Matt Morris, 2005)

-'Quote From Book' (Roz Kaveney, 2008)

Eventually to cut out

Game Art Design and Animation Week 19:Game Environment Character and Collectable Animation

Here are the animations to my character as he is in the game environment to which he will react to when the gamer comes within a certain area range towards him and finally to beginshooting at the gamer once they trigger the second animation the thrid will play and the other animation is of the game environments collectables, which is a simple spaceship which does a 360 turn in mid air and will be gone once the gamer collides into it.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 19:Game Environment Particle Emitter

We were told about the particle emitter and had a chance to try to make a particle emitter during one of our tutorials and now was my chance to use that skill and place it into my game environment and even adding water to add a little bit of substance and reflective surface.

Within the environment i wanted to take full advantage of the particle emitter and used it for the sparks to show building wires broken apart, fires started and also smoke, all of which come with sound.

From this final image you can see how i wanted atleast one of the building to contain a larger fire which helps to cover up the flaws it had with visuals of textures and building designs.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 18:Game Environment Feedback

This is the stage i had gotten up to with some additional textures and was ready to show my classmates and receive feedback to tell me if there were any flaws and problems which i could solve.

Here is there feedback:

-Good use of space/Terrain textures(in helping with character)

-Good Development, Nice colours, add some texture to UV map to join aesthetic

-Nice building design, needs collision-detection, though, look at the Ratchet+Clank Series

-Feel the soldier could be bigger

-Like gravity levels-Does oddly feel like being in space

-The buildings have a great feel of a town being built in the middle of nowhere like Los Vegas

-Nice building design, good textures will make them look really alien

 

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Level 5 Week 18:Essay Feedback

After completing my essay i was able to have someone read it and give me feedback and here is the essay with its feedback.  The red text is the feedback within the essay and after being read the essay had needed improvement with refrencing and cleaning up the sentences so i was told to seek help from academic support. Feedback of the essay is from Garry Barker.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies Essay

There are many creations that have created wide spread of popularity than the inception of 'The Superhero' from the mid 1930s involving the most recognized superhero in Superman. Within the past couple of years we see that the film industry has delved into the comic book genre and shows that this once children's form of entertainment has a much deeper root. This essay seeks to enlighten readers through the exploration of the superheroes roles within the current culture and to understand why even at an adult age we still have a connection to a media that was from our childhood.

Many children as they grow up are attracted to the concept of a superhero, what they can do and whether it was true to become a superhero by radiation, spider bite or simply born with superpowers but from an early stage in my childhood, many children are spoilt in the amount of superheroes that are available. Superman and Batman are the vastly popular characters which originated from the Golden Age of comics (Miller, 1987) where they saved the world and stopped the evil villains and created a wave of momentum for the creations of household names from Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, the Hulk, Wonder Woman to the Green lantern and many more. Superman and Batman have always been the most beloved characters who graced the pages of newspapers and comics in the 1930s (Morris, 2005) and brought with them wide spread of media depictions of their characters through movies, radios, T.V. and through these medias, up to recent dates we have been exposed through the worlds of these characters and tie-ins of other characters from the two big comic companies DC and Marvel. From the wide range and forms of characters that we have grown up with, we see a common trait that has been passed on through the periods of superheroes, being either male or female and having powers that extend from themselves to fight for truth, justice and protecting the innocent. Superman has always been engaged with the fight for truth, justice and the protection of the innocent (Morris, 2005) since his earlier stages of his comic book inceptions and thus became an icon figure, one which was well beloved because he encompassed what all of us wanted to be, a person who was more than what people see us as, someone who was destined for more than being a simple teacher, company worker or the person you were expected to be.

Superman allowed comic book fans to look into a world where the unexpected of people can become heroes, Clark Kent through to Superman and allowed fans to escape from the world of pain and suffering into world where when there is crisis the will be someone to stand up and save us all. "Without Clark Kent as Superman's alter ego Superman wouldn't have a purpose to save Earth other than the right thing", The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration writes that because we have Superman and Clark Kent in the comic book series we see that Superman's acts of saving Earth is because of his alter ego Clark Kent and through Clark Kent, Superman is able to 'mingle' with humans allowing him to have a purpose to save the race of powerless beings and from what the quote mentions besides Superman's reasons for an alter ego we get a means of 'Cinema as a door', from how the readers view Clark Kent as a disguise for Superman but also a springboard to get into the stories that he is in because from the working class to Superman makes the reader see that this depiction of reality shows how any normal working class can become a hero from their simple jobs. Another understanding of Superman's character from "Clark Kents upbringing by his Earth parents have influenced his whole character", The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration this mentions how from Clark kent's upbringing with his farming parents made him who he is and allowed readers to view the rising hero that becomes Superman and because he is brought up to being a good person he is seen as the hero and encompassing the American colours of red, white and blue as a symbol of protection and hope to the American people during the time of the wars.

However this repetitive perceivement of what superheroes are classed as being, the saviours of humanity due to their powers, is one that has changed when Batman had risen up, as he was more of the humanly superhero, rather than the superhero with powers. Batman became a hero to many people as "...he is just a 'human' being, even though he is much different than the rest of us", "Devotion of his life to avenge his parents death and other victims, by risking life and limb" Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul, shows that Batman had risen in popualr fame to Superman as he was much more than a being that had powers, as he was one that was able to, without powers, use his own strengths to fight off the 'bad guys', all to find his parents' killer. Batman's complexity shows how ordinary human beings can become hero and through the Batman's comics we see how he learns and adapts to the teachings he receives will make up the Batman and how all that teaching leads him to the accomplishments of taking out the bad guys, the enemies and the villains and from the comic readers are able to see through Batman how they can become a superhero.

Batman comics allow the question of "what if we could take matters into our own hands?" and take an event which could occur in reality and making Batman use it as a reminder of what needs to be fixed and with events of sorrow taking place in reality a reader becomes connected with Batman because they may have gone through a similar event and wondered whether you could change it or stop it from happening again and gives the reader and insight of how becoming a hero without superpowers can be and the trials and tribulations he faces. Batman is a character who sees his skills as his power not relying on superpowers to overcome obstacles, "...the reason that the more super an individual might be, the less heroic he or she could possibly be, and the more heroic a person is , the less super they'd have to be", Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way from this you begin to understand why Batman has become as popular as he has and that is because he is in essence 'powerless' to the superheroes who have powers and thus makes him that much of a hero all be it that we would love to have superpowers but because we understand that having them is a fantasy and isn't capable of happening and which attracts us much more towards Batman.

Not depending on having superpowers makes Batman that much of a realistic superhero one which readers can connect to because Superman and the other heroes that have superpowers depend on their powers and wouldn't be as popular if they didn't have them but Batman is what people want to be and he achieves his goals through humanly tactics. Batman's purpose is to find his parents killer and when he achieves his goal but thinks "...nothing haunts me more than finding out who killed my parents", "...their unsolved murder changed Gotham City", Superman/Batman: Public Enemies(2005) which is a question that would need to be answered when we see ourselves to wanting to become a superhero and is we had our goal achieved when wanting to become a hero then what is our purpose to carry on and that's what Batman sees, himself as attached to a bigger picture, "...with great power comes great responsibility" Spider-Man, was quoted as an influenced quote which applies throughout the superhero world and such to Batman as he himself realises that once he has achieved the knowledge of his parents killer he may not have a reason to be Batman and would see it as a shame as he has brought a big difference to Gotham City and would not have a reason to risk his life. But wanting to be a superhero would be to follow the stereotype of doing good, abiding by the laws and helping the innocent from the wicked and such superhero stereotype had been consistent until Frank Miller had introduced himself to the comic book world of Batman, although already recognised as one of the names to be accustomed to through his work on the reprise of the fading Daredevil, from then Frank Miller had switched to Marvels rival company DC Comics which wanted to reinvent their most popular characters Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman and Frank Miller had put himself forward as to wanting to reintroduce the story of Batman and was given the opportunity through Batman Year One.

Frank Millers take on the Batman story had garnered much success due to his view on Batman being much different than how readers viewed Superman or Wonder Woman, although the concept of Batman having no power such as Superman and Wonder Woman remains Frank Miller tackled the idea of having Batman become much darker and having him involved in adult targeted storylines, rather than the children based layout that have been used since the creation of Superman and Batman. Frank Miller's work on Batman reinvented the way in which the character was meant to be and made him that much more of a popular figure whilst Superman had begun to fade in popularity because of the same character doing the same thing and knowing that he will beat the evil villain at the end of each story seems predictable but Frank Miller had made Batman much open to getting the job done and Batman's motivation is towards finding his parents killer but in another sense "Gotham's government is Batman's hatred as the state were incapable of maintaining their laws and order" Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul, from this understanding Batman shares hatred towards the government as well as his parents killers and sees himself as an enforcement of the law a 'Vigilante'.

Vigilantes are in essence what all superheros are, they take matters into their own hands and see themselves as the law enforcer even if it means breaking laws to reinforce them and Frank Millers depiction of Batman showed this side of a superhero although the subject wasn't brought up until the creation of Watchmen created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons which showed a different perspective of the superhero. Both The Dark Knight and Watchmen were influential in raising awareness and question to the vengeance that brings vigilantism as through Watchmen you see how some of the superheroes become vigilantes to carry on the name and protect the world, Dr Manhattan was changed because of his research and gained power but in the case of Rorshach his vigilantism choice was made because of a common reason to become a superhero to put right that which was wronged previously in this case Rorshach's upbringing affected his character and made him use a violence as an extension of his power to fight crime and because of humanity he bears the in-blot mask which makes his character unique as you don't see the visual expressions through humanly features but through the ink which had culminated after becoming "ashamed for humanity" Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way. Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Millers take on Batman changed how comics were perceived as they had brought in a new perspective one which hadn't focused on the greats and goods of being a superhero, sinking deeper into how Superman's take on the world being black and white, good and evil and not seeing the view from another side, that is what Watchmen and Batman brought and how these characters would react in different situations to ones that would always work out in the end.

From the revamped Batman and the vigilantism Watchmen these two comic books changed the perception of how superheroes were looked up as hero for doing the right thing, being there when needed but those were from the earlier stages of comics book fantasies which aspired younger kids to be like them and to follow them through their victories and that is what made kids become attached to this being who had powers which were fantasies, achievements which children would yearn to want and to change the world. These are what make us feel a sense of jealousy and longing to be more than ordinary as in Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way "...after viewing the Superman comic of being superior in any shape or form to those around you, to stand out and be visible to abide by your own laws" which simply says we lust for power, a catalyst to stand out from our peers and allows us to have a field of superiority over each other and not have limits. But although this is true, "Part of the appeal of the superheroes is that through them we can live out our dreams and fantasies" (Rosenberg, 2008, p45) which again is a sense of accomplishment that we want to have a lead over others to show we are different from the other people to give us an edge. From those two perspectives they explain how we want power to prove something, to be 'top of the food chain' or have control to do what we want to do but from X-Men and Philosophy "allow us to imagine riches of life by having enhanced special abilities and extraordinary experiences-wondering what we could do if we weren't so restricted or limited/ordinary" we get an understanding that peraps we want something that we know we can't have because it would lead to a shortcut and having no restrictions in the society we live in due to the amount of suffering in the world we see much more security and surveillance restriction on certain areas but having abilities lets us stray away from that because we have a power a sense lean over the people that are enforcing these restrictions but if we have the power we would be able to rule the world under our orders trying to make the world a better place, in other word an anti-hero who has his own motives to fullfill at any cost.

We look at how superheroes have affected us through their storylines and character traits and how we yearn to be like them because of their concept of power being heat vision, spider features, adamantium claws and other powers but having that power we feel we can change things as the setting of Watchmen being around the 1980s and showing how superheroes being a possibility would affect certain moments in history. Our addiction of superheroes could be a way of escaping the harsh reality we currently live in or seeing the good triumph and even to have connection of what we might do in circumstances if we chose the other options as Batman had chosen to become a vigilante and aren't vigilantes a justification of power, they take things into their own hands and thats what attracts us to wanting to be like Batman or because of his parents being killed he wanted to find his parents killer and justify through that goal for his actions of rule breaking and wanting to be above the law.

Try and make this conclusion more academic:

As …. states, the reason Superheroes are important to us is……… However some writers (example) have more recently begun to examine the flaws in the Superhero character, (Moore, date) a graphic novel such as Watchmen (date) has explored how Superheroes would actually affect certain moments in history if they were real. This realistic portrayal though immediately brings into the fictional situation the fact that ordinary human frailties, such as jealousy, greed etc. would begin to operate. This has long been the central feature of the novel, but it is a surprise to see this in a comic book. If our addiction to superheroes could be a way of escaping the harsh reality we currently live in, perhaps new comic book genres such as Moore’s Watchman reflect the fact that the audiences for comic books are now older. This is supported by Morris, 2005, who states that….

2500 Words

Bibliography:
Hopkins, P. D. Southworth, J, Kavaldo, J. Dunn, G. Darowski, J. Robichaud, C. Teschner, G. (2009)
X-Men and Philosophy:New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Miller, F. Mezzucchelli, D. Miles, R. O'Neil, D. (1987) Batman Year One:New York:DC Comics

-William Irwin, Mark D.White, Robert ARP,(2008)
'Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul':New Jersey:John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

-Tom Morris, Matt Morris,(2005)
'Superheroes and Philosophy-Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way':Chicago and La Salle, Illinois:Open Court

-Roz Kaveney,(2008)
'Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films' :London:I.B. Tauris

-Robin S. Rosenberg, Ph.D, Jennifer Canzoneri,(2008)
'The Psychology of Superheroes An Unauthorized Exploration':Dallas, Texas:Benbella Books INC.


Fingeroth, D. (2005) Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society. London: Continuum
Within Text:
-'Quote From Book' (Patrick D. Hopkins, Jason Southworth, Jesse Kavaldo, George A. Dunn, Joseph J. Darowski, Christopher Robichaud, George Teschner, 2009)

-'Quote From Book' (Frank Miller, David Mezzucchelli, Richmond Miles, Danny O'Neil, 1987)

-'Quote From Book' (William Irwin, Mark D.White, Robert ARP, 2008)

-'Quote From Book' (Tom Morris, Matt Morris, 2005)

-'Quote From Book' (Roz Kaveney, 2008)

Eventually to cut out

Game Art Design and Animation Week 18:Game Environment Bump Mapping and Collectable

I had brought in the texture for my buildings and found they didn't show the quality i had wanted from them and was told to try bump mapping. So i had gone back into Photoshop and gathered the textures by themselves and placed them in the necessary places and made them into bump maps.

Immediately  after applying them onto the buildings i noticed that the quality had risen from showing detail through drawn on texture to bumped on texture.

For my final peice of model and animation from Maya i made  a small and quick model of a spaceship to which i will make into the collectable of the game, as this game environment is meant to be a collect the collectables in the certain amount of time bonus round game, similar to a Mario Brothers game.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 18:Game Environment Fog and Sound Placement

Finding out about Unitys render settings and being able to create and atmosphere i wanted to try it out and so wanted a gritty and dusty atmosphere as if it was a, 'when the dust settles' kind of period. Creating the same colour but having it fade upon the buildings within a certain distance.

Showing the tools and functions available to create the fog i wanted one that covers alot of the environment to an extent in which within the midpoint of camera view, which will be the fade out point to being able to see whats in fron of the gamer.

I started to look around my environment and found this great viewpoint overhead and as if the wind has blown over the fog and dust to cover most of the buildings but leaving enough space to have areas of the buildings visible. After implementing the fog tool into the game i began to insert sound effects to areas of the game create wind, bird and more.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 17:Game Environment Terrain Textures

Here are all of the textures i had gathered and used for my terrain and some of them are not of the dusty deserted texture i thought that i would need but after i began to see that maybe the odd coloured texture would help to single out certain areas of the terrain.

Many of the textures consist of stone or rubble and pebbles, mainly rock based textures as this is what i feel the terrain needs a stony based underlay and with these textures across the terrain you see that the darker bits of area are much older than the lighter areas as they are recent formations of rock.

Game Art Design and Animation Week 17:Game Environment Terrian Tweak

I had gotten the placing of the buildings right and went back to the terrain settings and tried to create the distance visuals, making more rock formations and uprisings.

When you look at the over view or top perspective you can see how adding the different texture, differentiates the types of rock formations.

By using the tools and shapes to form the rocks i had trouble with adjusting with the use of diffrent tools to make the formations but after using it longer than a quick knock up of a mountainside the whole software becomes instant.

As you can see from looking from the position behind the buildings how the difference is automatic once the textures and a more detailed back drop comes into play and creates an ideal setting of desertion.

Looking down upon the buildings and how the ground has formed around and onto the buildings making it to show how these buildings were destroyed over time and battles over those periods causing the sand or dirt to foram around them.









Then i took to the further back drop of the skybox and to give the final touch of a space planet, i wanted a skybox image to show that it's space and found this image.














Here is the skybox in play and fits nicely with the overall setting and mood of the game and causes no worries other than the repetition of its image.