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Lakshmi Prabhala
issue 3
november UNITED ARTISTS GUILD
Think . Create . Inspire
UAG
Think . Create . Inspire
issue 3
november
index
w h a t t o f i n d i n s i d e
Dear All,
Creative freelancer
and sound artist, has
been in the feild for 3
years. He is currently
many of you might even be writing pieces, looking to get into DJ
stories, poems or making logos, graffiti sitting school to learn music
in that boring lecture of yours! Some out of you mixing.
reativity is a pure bliss and an amazing gift might be budding website designers or
to have in oneself. There must be so many of working your way through 3dmax and Maya!
you creative heads who like to take it out in Akshata
various forms. Doing all that and letting out your creativity is Mukund Shastry
just a heavenly experience. It feels so good
You might be clicking beautiful shots with your when you see your baby completed in front of Based in Nashik, this
camera or editing it in your Photoshop suit. You your eyes. Well you can have a nice add- on to author and journalist
might be drawing things or making a cartoon all of that. How about earning nice bucks with freelancer has
strip sitting in a cafe. God knows how many of all that feeling and satisfaction? worked with Nashik
you might even be writing pieces, stories, daily’s for 1 year now.
poems or making logos, graffiti sitting in that Now, you don't want to go out traveling and She also is an artistic
boring lecture of yours! You might making a working some small workspace. You may be a photographer.
cartoon strip sitting in a cafe. God knows how college student, or into some other profession!
There are a wide variety of websites and portals offering you
tons work on freelance. It ranges from Graphic, website, logo
designing to article writing, photography and many more things.
All work available for you. You do the work and get paid with
you pay pal account.
Rules of Engagement
Moving on now lets discusses next the rules you need to follow,
the tasks you need to handle when starting off as an artist and
also the real life pitfalls when working as an freelance author for
publications.
Freelancing as we have mentioned, is fun. You
decide how much work to do and when and
how to do it. Now for the bubble busters- it’s not
all fun. Initially at least there is a lot of slogging
and a fair amount of begging involved, here are
a few pointers to make it easier.
Present
The words ‘font’ and ‘typeface’ are all the same thing. They are a set of characters, punc-
tuation signs, figures and symbols that share a common design. Like Arial, Rockwell,
Times etc.
A large variety of fonts are available today. They range from the classic typefaces that
originated from the ancient letters carved on stones and centurie-old hand drawn samples
of master calligraphers to the modern typefaces created on computers using sophisticated
softwares like GLYPH. It is very important for a designer to choose the font that conveys
the right mood for a publication or a particular design.
typography
But the lesser mortals who do not have the luxury of owning or buying a sizeable or
the research facility to experiment, and the unintiated who can not make a simple differ-
ence between Arial and Akzidenz Grotesk(sans serifs), may find it a daunting task to pick
the ‘right’ font for their job. Arial, mostly found on PCs, is a mixed blend of Helvetica and
Grotesk; Akzidenz, a classic sans, is a full blooded German invention, mostly found on
the Machintosh
typography
ABC of Typography
For those who have a burning desire to go deeper into the mysteries of fonts, rather than
merely seeking ‘how-tos’ or ‘silly shortcuts’, here’s the first thumb rule of Typography.
There are no 3A’s 4B’s or 5C’s of Typography that one can learn at a design school.
Design schools teach only the history, aesthetics, semantics and applications of ty-
pography. To achive excellence and true knowledge of tons, one will have to self educate
himself/herself. One must understand and love fonts, one must learn to feel and caress
them. Fall in love with fonts and see the magic!
typography
The convention of expressing the size of a typeface in points dates back roughly 300
years, to the Parisian typefounder, Peire Fournier Le Jeune. He invented the usage in 1737
and it took 40 years since then to standardize a ‘point’.
A point was defined as 0.013837 inch(0.3515 mm), by american Typefounders’
Association in 1886 and then by the British in 1898. There are approximately 72 points to
an inch or 1 ‘pica’on the desktop computers. Picas are the standard units for measuring the
widths of lines, sometimes called ‘ems’
typography
Font anatomy
A
2
c
M
3 X
4
1
B
2
D
A
7 2
6 12
C 10
8 X M
9
9
B
11 13
5 D
BlocK
featured ar tist of the month
What are your educational qualifications and how you started off as an artist
Technically, I am an Engineer who has been into software for a good number of years.
Currently on a sabbatical, I am using the time to learn as well as discover the joys of
photography.
While in school I did sketch and paint but that’s about all the formal training I had. I
consider myself a self-taught photographer but I cannot deny that I have benefited
immensely from the works of so many professional/amateur photographers that I have
seen online on various websites.
CreativE
BlocK
What is your family background? Did anyone
from your family or friends inspire you in your
work? If yes, please do tell. If not, what inspires
you today, what drives you as an artist?
BlocK
featured ar tist of the month
One event in your life that you found was most Which is your proudest moment as an artist?
impactive to you as an artist
Maybe, when my brother gifted me a Point and Shoot When I showed my pictures to someone I didn’t know at all and he was willing
Camera, because that’s when I took to photography to publish a few in his book, I was very pleased.
like a fish takes to water. I went berserk clicking
everything I could. Of course now, wiser by two and But it’s the creative high that makes all the effort most satisfying when
half years, I think a little more before I press the everything just falls into place and we are able to ‘see’ and allow the viewers
shutter. to feel the same
CreativE
BlocK
Your philosophy about art /
photography
To me photography is a wonderful
blend of art as well as technology.
The cameras and lenses keep
getting better but you have to have
the imagination/visualisation to
hold the viewers attention or tell a
compelling story. Sometimes you
need to wait for at least an hour
and sometimes it happens in a
fraction of a second.
BlocK
Something for the hundreds of
people who aspire to be like you,
words of wisdom?
Image Credits
All images (including cover image for UAG) are
copyright by Lakshmi Prabhala, all rights
reserved.
Cover Page : Innocence
Intro Page : Arches
Page One : Solitude
Page Two : Fortune Teller
Page Three : Filmy Shave
Page Four : Ethnic Door
Page Five : Self Portrait - Tones
Page End : Smoke
y
i cl e B oan
Ar t ay Bh
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a dram don't until --
At one point of time you too would be Based on the initial idea; one can start I can imagine that one can build a great
stuck between trying to make a decision brainstorming what might be a good game script around a simple game like Tic-
on how to handle game stories. Do you mechanic that facilitates building up the Tac-Toe as well; probably it might not
let the player go into their own thought premise. Ideas must be prototyped and sell well to hard core audience but can
process and imagine what comes next evaluated for fun and then should be built become a great product for young 7-8
or would you decide for them? Or is it further. It is like going hand in hand with years kids, who in general love stories,
just better to leave the story alone for the one leading the other during the initial fairytales and epics.
time and push forward with the other phase of development.
elements of the game. In my opinion one should not “stop
India current production trend mostly thinking” scripts or for that matter
As we now look from a game writers relates to mobile game design. And as anything, just because the current state
prospective, what would be the best always we in India have always been of the market does not support it.
way to start wring a game script? thought as coders rather than artists.
Should we stop thinking about
We discussed this with Sumit Mehra complex ideas just because currently
and this is what he had to say: India is not publishing games of that
level like Metal Gear or Final Fantasy?
It depends on what drives what; do you
have a game mechanic/play under A “complex”; I would use the word
consideration/evaluation or already “deep”; A deep story does not
tested and ready. Now you would like to necessarily require a complex
come up with a game script that game mechanic to support it.
SSuum
a g miit
deepens the play? Bookworm Adventures anyone?
ks a m e t M
is
OR do you have the script first and now wo
M
vel eh
e hr
bile . He n div per a ra
Ga w d
a
are looking for a developer to build a me i th e
Mo s a o
game around it. In my opinion a script
starts with a premise, theme or a and has isio nd
Par also n of curr
philosophy. The script is not fleshed out ado w en
x S orke Micro tly
on day one. tud d s
ios with oft
EA
Every year somewhere about 400 Original ideas are always invited. An concept of the games might be same
games are released in the interna- idea if original no matter how primitive (such as Need For Speed Vs Asphalt),
tional market. It’s quite easy to can be explored and expanded into but where it can be prevented it should
understand that not all of them are something glorious. The industry will be.
new and original concepts. Some are always welcome something new and
closely inspired, some remakes and fresh and this should be just the point In the end just like Sumit pointed out, it’s
some just pure copies. Thinking as a that should drive writers to be creative, the studio to decide if the game idea is
game writer, should we stick to only original and thoughtful. worth the effort.
purely original ideas? What if they
are too controversial like "too But as ideas are not always easy to Coming to the second part, studios will
violent" or "too imaginative"? come by and hence the reproduction of usually not work on games which turn
one or more element occurs. In some out to be too controversial especially
Where Sumit said: games it can not be prevented as the when we think of developers in India. If
underlying the same situation would be faced in
”Both of them are personal choice US, there might have been a different
questions (either as an individual or as reply.
a company), there is no right answer
and a wrong answer”, we had more to
say.
In todays high polygon XBox and play, visuals, sound and over all direc-
PS3 environments, do you think tion.
gamers give a lot of attention to just
the visual part of the game (graphics) On the other hand I did not like Max
and not the storyline or the logic Payne storyline despite of all that new
behind it all? cool visual effects and intense Havoc Thanks to Sumit Mehra for the
physics. So I think lot of factors govern ever valuable comments. Sumit
I think visuals has always been a strong why one follows or does not follow a can be contacted at
criteria while game purchases are done, game's stroyline. Major ones are: per- sumit@sumitmehra.com
even if you go 10 years back, better sonal preference, boring storyline, bad
visuals always attracted. So I think it is direction, poor lighting and camera
not something new, but the definition of work, too deep and meaningless. Send feedback to UAG at
good visual has changed 10folds. uag_contact@yahoo.co.in
Games have always been built around
Caring about storyline is again a tough ideas and dreams. Fun is an side
ask? How many games come with a product of it all. Even though today
good storyline anyways? If a game does computers are able to generate photo-
not have a interesting story should realistic graphics and run superb
gamer still care? physics engines, the interest factor is
generated by game stories. Stories
Do you have data to support gamers are generate momentum and keep the
not paying attention to storyline? player motivated.
In my opinion games like Warcraft 3 Stories and writers have always been
(and expansions), Onimusha 3, Half Life important and will continue to be even
Series, Splinter Cell Series, Bioshock with new games.
and even games like Diner Dash and
Serious Sam have stories that I like, By Akshay Bhoan
BUT it is not the only thing that makes
me like these games. The story is
interesting but it is driven by great game
Hey! Wanna hear
a fish joke?
Issue 3.0B
Archive : www.esnips.com\web\uagissue
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Credits
Concept - Design - Layouts : Akshay Bhoan
Pencil Art Tutorial & Images copyright of Vivek Singh (2007)
Creative Block - Featured Artist images copyright Lakshmi Prabhala (2007)
Freelancer article by Aman Kochar & Akshata Mukund Shastry (2007)
The Greatest Rapper Of Typography article by Vishal Kumar
Game Scripting Article by Akshay Bhoan
The Century Is Here Special Thanks to Sumit Mehra for notes on Game Scripting