Monday 14 July 2014

Last Day

The last day of Confetti for me was Tuesday 1st July 2014 and then our showcase on the 3rd. Looking back I feel as though the last two years of my life has gone within 'a blink of the eye' - so to speak. Compared to the other schools I've been through, Confetti has been one of the best life changing experiences for me.

I've made many great new friends who all share similar interests with me along the way, I finally got to go to MCM London conventions in cosplay and all in all I've felt myself become more confident with the world around me. Sadly I've decided not to stay at Confetti and have planned to take a BA (Hons) Animation course at Norwich University of Arts, however even though I'm travelling down south I won't forget the amazing times I had with everyone at Confetti and I hope all of your get your dream jobs :)

Whether I make another blog similar to this at university- who knows? Thank you to everyone who has actually been reading every post made, I honestly hope you've learnt something from my ramblings ^^; For now though, if you wish to keep updated with what I'm doing then please head over to my Deviant Art or Youtube account.

Until then peeps, best wishes and good luck! :)
~KawaiixFukuro

Deviant Art- http://kawaiixfukuro.deviantart.com/
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Jn004Hs8y0uXcsvfqheDQ/featured

Student Showcase

So for our last official day at Confetti we had to be part of a Student Showcase, where we could present our work as individuals and groups. So at one end of the room, our group decided to show the game we made. Below are the cutscenes I created for the game.

Then on the other side of the room I had my own computer continuously showing my new show reel for people to see, also a huge thanks for David for showing me how to loop the video!

Portfolio Showcase Assignment: Creating A Webpage 2

Task 2
For this task we are now ready to begin making our personal websites. Previously before this assignment I’ve been making a website on Weebly in order to look more professional with my work, get more commissions and the fact various people on DeviantArt has requested it. Since I can’t use it for this assignment my decision has been I would like to make one on Serif WebPlus6 like the one I already have on Weebly. Obviously I’m going to change the designs like house styles and such, otherwise the content will remain the same but purely for college portfolios rather than other hobbies I have. Another thing I would love to incorporate is my DA page, Deviant Art is pretty much my digital showcase and has been for years, and collaborating with Youtube for any animations I may have done. If I get the time on Deviant Art I would like to create a personal journal, box designs which will include the following information of:
·         Art Trades, Collabs and Requests
·         Commissions and Prices
·         Cosplay Watch
·         Friends, Inspirations and RL Buddies
·         F.A.Q and Artist Statement
·         Terms and Conditions
Planning Considerations and Site Management
As mentioned above the website I have to make I want to basically resemble the same or at least similar order as the one I already have. Now the assignment states the website will be for a digital portfolio of our work. What I what to appear in mine at the least is a short biography about me so that people know what I’m about, have achieved and what I can do. Some pre-college art and animation work, college work and personal work which will be linked to other websites such as DeviantArt, Youtube and Blogger.
Now the reason why I’m adding pre-college work is because I want to show my audience how far I’ve progressed with my art since college, during college for different assignments and FMP work to personal pieces that are for my own projects or for other people. This means that I’m constantly trying to improve what I can do in order to achieve what I want to do which will obviously be linked within the bio.

Below are screenshots of the website I’ve nearly finished on Weebly which will show how my website is going to be structured.

Art Gallery
Now this is where I will be ending my new website to as the Art Gallery will be having a main page which will lead off onto sibling pages that aren’t visible within the navigation menu. Below is an initial concept of how this will pan out.
Now I’m going to show you how each piece looks like:
So now that you can see how the layout of my website will be, it’s main focus is on my art and how it’s progressed since secondary school to now as well as the different types I’ve done.
Pre-College Work- This is mainly works I did for GCSE Graphics and Secondary School which CAD seems like the beginning step to Autodesk Collection.
GCSE Art- This leads off into three separate projects we had to do in order to gain our marks.
~Project 1- Music
~Project 2- Animals and Backdrops
~Project 3- Animals
College Work- Every piece of art from sketches to models will be placed here.

Studio Work- This is my own personal pieces and again splits off into three different sections.
~ Section 1- Elemental Wolves. This is my biggest project I hope to one day turn into a story and animated series.
~Section 2- Secrets of the Guardians. So far my plans for this story are to be turned into a manga.
~Section 3- Saki of Miu. Finally my last project that will hopefully make it as a story only
Photography- This is basically pieces I’ve either taken myself or photo-manipulated to give of a mythical feel.
Specifications
Already I’ve mentioned a few that needs to be included in this website and this has been:
Ø  Needs to be a digital portfolio
Ø  Must represent a certain area in our work- art and animation
Ø  Must have links to other websites (Blogger, Deviant Art ect)
Ø  Must have a certain house style throughout
Ø  Be unique
Ø  Represent us as individuals
With my plans and I suppose what I’ve already created on Weebly, I’ve already met these points only I now need to incorporate them within the website I’m making from scratch.  My plans from now are to focus solely on one page at a time until the pieces of my art need uploading onto the website. So far I have begun work on the home and bio page creating an icon of an owl that will be the mascot for my studio and hopefully later little decorations similar to the cherry blossom flowers I have on the Weebly site.


                                                                                                                                                                            
Design Schedule
Although this will be on my on my Gantt Chart as well I’m hoping from now (20.05.14) until 25.05.14 that the basic structure of the house style and pages will be in place. After that for the next week I would like all my art uploaded and then that leaves me an extra week to conjure any other pieces of art that needs to be added to the website. Hopefully during the nest 2-3 weeks I will be continuously testing my website to make sure it’s in full working order.
Testing Log






More Testing
So above we’ve been able to see each page as it is and if there’s any problems laced within. So far nothing seems to be amiss apart from one page missing two photos. The hyperlinks on the pictures above work well and immediately direct people to the webpage I want them to visit, whilst the buttons allow people to navigate well across the website if they’re searching for a specific thing. Now during the preview we’ve seen the flash presentations working correctly with all the pictures being showcased along with similar music playing across each sub-page of artwork.
However if people wanted a simpler way to add social media icons and multimedia pieces into their website, Serif has designed easy alternatives we can use. Reasons as to why I didn’t use any of these is simply because I like the idea of designing my own icons to represent that webpage I’m on and make it fit with the similar house style as follow through the rest of the site.

So far I’ve included image, music and text which means all that’s left for me to do is show proof of search engine optimisation and add in video. My plans are actually to create another sub-page under both college and studio work named: Animations. Here I’ll be placing YouTube videos of my animated work onto this page because I’ve done things for college and my own personal practices of flowing movement. So here we go:

Search Engine Optimisation
This is where we can create ways for our website to appear in search engine results; so far I’ve incorporated hyperlinks into my site which is one way to optimise my website. Another is to go into the site properties on Serif X6 and type in keywords as I’ve done so below:

All that’s left now is to publish my website on the web, simply go to the top of the menu selection on Serif and click on the icon that shows a computer screen partially hidden by the Earth. In its menu selection click on ‘Publish to Web’ and then it’s done.
Testing By Others
Here I’ll be asking my fellow peers to test my website, see if they can spot anything wrong and what may be improved, before I begin to evaluate my website.

Evaluation
When we began creating these websites I didn’t really want to spend too much time on this because of two reasons. One being my role within my FMP group is to be not only the artist but the animator as well, creating the opening cutscene has been strenuous but in the end I can see all the hours I’ve spent on it has paid off. The second reason was I had already created a website on Weebly but because I haven’t done any of the coding myself, it’s meant I couldn’t use that site but my plan was to base the one I’ve now made on Serif X6 on the one I’ve done on Weebly.
Has it worked?
Surely I couldn’t completely copy what had already been done so I’ve followed a similar colour scheme of white, pinks and brown yet added in a little a blue which is my favourite colour and mixes well with the colours above. Sticking to those lines I’ve created extra pieces such as the Owl Side-Banner, which is the owl sitting on a branch. The little icons that show which external site you’ll be visiting, the header in a set word art and finally the KawaiixFukuro mascot owl- all created in Photoshop, so why owls? KawaiixFukuro stands for Cute x Owl in Japanese hence why these animals are important and they’re also my second favourite in the Birds of Prey list (Sparrowhawks being the first and Eagles being third)
With the pages I decided to keep to the art side of my original website as cosplaying, model horses don’t fall under a digital portfolio for college in a sense.  Yet all the art pages I had included on the original is now the same on this one and works quite well giving people a show of what my art level was before I started college to how it is now and the different forms I work with.
Testing and Fixing
To be honest testing seemed quite easy because my plan was I’ll make my website first and then begin testing for bugs. After pointing out the initial faults like the photographs not being there, I was quite happy that when I introduced my website to my peers, who had agreed to test it, that they had managed to find faults that could easily been fixed and already have as shown above.
All in all I feel I’ve accomplished what the criteria has asked of me, I’ve been able to produce a digital portfolio that’s referenced to all my work for both college and myself. On the webpage I have followed a house style throughout, added in images, music, text and video as well as showing evidence for search engine optimisation. Going by the comments others have made all are in agreement my website has been well created, easy to navigate and demonstrates the purpose of why I’ve created it.
If I were to do this piece again, my next steps would probably include more hobbies of what I do such as the cosplaying, video-editing, model horse making, or improve what I already have by changing the design completely instead of making something similar to what I have done on Weebly.

Portfolio Showcase Assignment: Working To A Brief 2

With our last assignment, Web Authorising, having been completed this next assignment Portfolio Showcase links well with its predecessor. Why? Basically I’ll be expanding on both subjects (working to a brief and web authoring); yet adding my personal twists within. For example in the first task I’ll be explaining about our recent FMP brief and how it’s developed since last August. Task 2 involves me making my own personal website to design an online portfolio for potential employers.
Task 1- Working to a Brief 2
At the start of our second year at Confetti we were given a brief to make a computer game, either as a group or individually where it was to be completed at the end of the course. The design, structure and genre of the game was left up to us as long as we don’t use commit copyright and plagiarism, plus keeping the game’s rating under 16 at least for the prospect of having the demo displayed at GameCity nights in Nottingham. With that in mind, the group I’m in now (Drastic Studios) decided to get organized and we basically began putting our response to the brief together as a group effort.
At the start of our course we all made separate GDDs for separate game ideas, when we came to making a game together we had the option of taking somebody’s current GDD so that pretty much all the initial designing, planning and structures were laid out. Or we could create a whole new game between us using characters from our previous games into this one. With the idea of working someone’s game without anyone else’s creative inputs didn’t seem fair to the rest of the group, although it meant more work our team decided to work on one game together using our personal characters to take on the main roles. After having a few discussions during some spare time in our lessons I jotted down notes of initial concepts for story, arranging who’s character should take what role such as mentor, protagonist, villain ect. The major problem was though a few team members what certain roles which I then came up with the idea of doing things based on chance- probably not the most professional way of doing things, yet it meant less fallouts within the new team and character’s roles would be decided on a game of ‘Rock,Paper, Scissors’
Content Outline
‘The Depths Between’ is our modernised game where our renegade hero Tai  ( a deceased supernatural) has to combat his way through his own personal “limbo”  hunting down his nemesis Greed, who slaughtered him on Earth and encounter “Death” so not only can  his soul can rest peacefully, but the afterlife realm once again be restored to its retrospective form .
Following the art styles such as: Final Fantasy, Disgea and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, we aim for a possible semi-realistic feel, adding in darker themes which reflect on our chosen target audience sort to be young teenagers to young adults. The game’s core play will be on the verge of over-world exploration in various central hubs and warped environments, including battles that will fight out in an action RPG style, once again resembling the franchise mentioned above. For the fights, the action will pan out with a battle palette that can be used to select various moves that will be used and have different effects in battle. The main protagonist can also level up, upgrading his elemental skills in numerous parameters.
So how did all this develop?
As a team consisting of six members and two free-lancers we decided to take everyone’s old game concepts, creating one huge brainstorming idea that not only includes all our concepts but a character from each story. The reason why as a team we decided this was because it wasn’t morally right for one person to see their whole game idea come to life, when others deserved the same opportunity as well; it’s for this reason we’ve decided to start from scratch and build a ‘team-game’.
Target Audience
Already we’ve given a slight hint towards our audience, being between young teenagers to adults as well as looking at the unisex reception. Our research for this is by looking closely at what games we love playing and how they appeal to us as teenagers with unique selling points, gameplay, styles and even the story compared to possibly how they affect younger or older audiences. ‘The Depths Between’ takes on a more mature approach that will contain an emotional storyline revolving around war, death, betrayal as well friendship trust and team spirit. The darker themes would comprise more exposure to horror/ fantasy styles of characters, the situations they’re placed in and even the quests themselves as well as gameplay that will ask you, to use such powers such as ‘Hell-Fire’, or complete certain puzzles/tasks that will be created for a more experienced mind.
We find games like Xenoblade Chronicles, Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Disgea all follow these certain trends, known under the genres of RPG and Action-Adventure which is where we believe our game lays. For research on different genders and how we can appeal to males and females is by showing our unique selling points. Stereotypically males prefer more violence and conflict within the game which is what ‘The Depths Between’ is focused on, for the female audience however we’ve added a deep storyline, creatures that you have to communicate with (one of them being a wolf, resembling Twilight Princess) and different ways to combat using spells and wit- rather than brawn and fighting techniques.
Using this hypothesis we created a survey asking 10 questions that relate to the game and thus the survey concludes that between four girls: five boys, with ages from the lowest being 13, the eldest 46 and the majority being between ages 17-22  the favourite game genres consisted of : Action-Adventure, RPG and MMORPG. The next set of questions were based around what games others had enjoyed and why, 65% had mentioned games we used to familiarise our game with such as Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Legend of Zelda with comments mostly praising about how the creators have collaborated both an amazing storyline that instantly grips you the moment you begin gameplay, as well brilliant play that allows you to feel as though you as yourself is battling within this world. Yet our last question in this category was what do the public believe is more important in a game. Is it gameplay, story or both? More people chose story with 3 people asking for both. Now the last set of questions was about what people would enjoy seeing in our game.
In unique game elements Superpowers won by 56%, Zombies, Steampunk and Weaponry become joint second with all being 44%. The next question was about whether Leash’s fauna being a wolf popular, giving our audience a list of animals she could be now wolf and dragon came joint first which worked well in my favour as Leash is a wolf/dragon hybrid. Finally we asked the question of what weaponry would people be interested in and we basically left it up to the public to decide. Some people thought the companion should carry certain pieces like swords, potions, elements or really sharp claws, again tying in with Leash having claws as she’s a wolf/dragon and carry an Elemental weapon; others again went for swords, claws and knuckle dusters. With all this in mind our team did create a relatively good game that incorporates what a lot of the public would want to see in a game and possibly enjoy our game because it’s similar to some of their favourite franchises.

Resources
As students we are going the Indie way, meaning we will have to pay for licensing, programs such as the Autodesk collection (Maya, Mudbox, 3D Max), Photoshop, Renpy, UDK ect, all of which can costs thousands to pay for. When piecing this altogether it will cost a heck of a lot of money, luckily all members of the groups all attend the same college (Confetti Studios) which supply the programs and licensing allowing us to download student versions of the programme for free, giving us more time to work on projects at home. Another good thing is some of the group members may already have programs such as Photoshop or even hardware like Wacom Bamboo tablets, so they don’t have to fully relay on using college meaning more work can also be done at home. The only drawback to this is it means we can’t sell our idea, that doesn’t mean though we can’t create a reputation for ourselves by giving free demos away to the public, friends and family and requesting their feedback for you guys to see!
Each member of the group may/ may not need personal resources. For one of the members they have to supply their own art materials to make concepts, paintings, storyboards, animation cycles ect.
Personal Requirements

In our team we’ve each taken a main role within the group so far consisting of: modellers, coders, concept artists, animators, scripters and then given ourselves, ‘sub-roles’ where although we may not feel as comfortable in this role we can help out other team members that are trailing behind or just need a boost. The team that way can work more effectively as well as build bonds amongst ourselves so we don’t get confused on how we are maintaining our progress. We plan to create a demo that consists of one major quest revealing some of the main characters and how the situation blows off between the protagonist and the antagonist before we complete our 2nd year of our diploma. Naturally the team has decided that if the production of the game was to be completed before the time given, as individuals we will try and complete our own NPC Quests that give our customers a little extra if they really enjoyed the demo. Before then though, each  week our leader takes into consideration what each team member has done and explains to them what needs to be done next and when by once again avoiding confusion, tracking down our production on a team Gantt Chart and Sprint Sheet. Even though we are at college, we also have online meetings via Facebook and a Dropbox account where we present all our work for others to see. Finally we have meetings in town or at college to discuss the team’s progress and invent team-building exercises to give our minds a break from creating games.

My role within the team so far has been quite mixed between modelling, planning, scripting and concept art. I feel I have to do these roles in order for my team to progress further in the production, for example if I don’t have the concept art done for my level design, characters and enemies than how will I or anyone else be able to model them? For the group I’ve contributed in making the team’s GDD before passing it on to the leader and then re-writing the next version so more information is stored in there. Added two characters with a backstory, bio, concept art, mock up-images of the designs and mock storyboard pieces, an enemy concept with bio. Level design sketches, animation walk-cycles, started models of my main character and finally a fully scripted NPC quest that contains two more characters with final design images, backstories and much more. Other than that I’ve helped the leader organise certain things within the groups like meetings, progress, homework ect
Budget
For me it costs:
Travel~ £2.40 one way from my house to Nottingham (so for a week of going to college (2 days) £9.60)
Food~ £4 (Covers days at college)
Art Supplies ~ £2 (Pencils)
                          £2 (Pens)
                          £0.99 (Rubber)
                           £ 3 (Paper
                           £30 (Printer Ink)   Total: 37.99 / 7 = £5.42
Now when working in the industry or as an indie company it is going to cost a heck of a lot more than what I’ve stated here.  Shown below is a sample clip that shows what the budget would come to if our group were to work solo.

Project Breakdown
When making a game there are stages in which we must complete in order to advance. So far our team has finished the planning stage which is where the creation of the game begins. Next is our production stage which is where we make our game, the next stage is the testing which allows us and others to play our game and find little bugs within the code. Finally we go back and fix these errors, giving the game one more chance to play through and fix any more errors before present again to an audience such as the public other than testers.
Beforehand I’ve already discussed what our team does and how as individuals we help the progression of the game. All of us look up to our leader to point us in the right the direction and in return he allows us to give him pointers on what should be done next if they are needed. The good thing about the group is we always have a contingency plan so that if the leader was to disappear it doesn’t mean all our information goes with him, but stays with us so we can still work on our game.
In any group we need to have a back-up plan in case something happens where a member of team becomes frequently absent, or can’t get into college to hand in work or simply the files on our memory stick is lost or broken. For the team members part if something were to happen to the team leader, my job in a couple of groups is to take in everything the leader has said/wants then distribute it to the rest of the team members if need be- this way if something were to happen to me, everyone would know what to do and how to carry on. The internet is also another way we can all stay in touch other than relying on meeting up at college or other places in town, on sites like Facebook, Google and IM messengers- plus in some groups there’s an online meeting held every week for the group to discuss anything and everything that concerns the game which is a brilliant idea.
Now if we were to lose work or couldn’t get in to college to hand it in, the teams usually have a storage place on the internet for other to have access to and retrieve like Google drives and Dropbox, which if anything did happen to your memory stick you can get your work from there also. It may also help if someone else has a copy of your work just in case of this situation of well but the internet would be much better.
Our team planned out our production pretty well sometimes using assignments to develop certain pieces further like the level designing, on the other hand by looking at my sprint sheets you can easily see we had a few problems within the production of team.
Reflecting
Our team has gone through quite a few problems since we started. I think the major problems were lack of communication and management. In the beginning I found that I was keeping the team afloat with working on the GDD by myself, getting my character’s thoroughly designed with both art and character’s backgrounds, arranging team meetings and much more even though I wasn’t the team leader or vice-captain.  After having a discussion with the team leader I agreed I would step down yet the work on the initial stages weren’t being done so again I started completing things for the group, giving it to the team leader to quickly adjust and then distributing it throughout the team.
Coming close to the end of the year this has been continuous until quite recently. Having another discussion with the team leader after Easter holidays about others needing to pull their weight, everyone being on target and getting things done for the game at this crucial time. He agreed and since then it’s been like working with a brand new team with some members, we are on track with what needs to be done, whoever needs someone to do something for them it’s done and all of us are communicating better on Facebook. The team leader I find has changed most of all, even though I’m still giving everyone homework, he’s making sure people get things done, writing down both sprint and gantt charts regularly and paying attention to online discussions on Facebook.
Our next major problem was the lack of communication within the group. At the start we had 7 members of the group and two left because for most of the time, the team leader wouldn’t tell us what needed to be done and when, what the structure of the story was and sometimes left certain aspects to the last minute.
So what have I been doing to help get the team further? Through most of the year I’ve been having frequent meetings with the team leader about the game and what I’m doing as that contributes to the game’s progress. There have been times where I’ve created documents for all the team to use such as mood boards, mind-maps, initial notes and a pitch speech for the team during the production management assignment. I’ve based a couple of my assignments on the  game as well making assets that can be used during a later stage, a preview of my level that’s to be included in the demo along with a level design document and various sketches. During the start and quite recently I’ve been giving people homework to be getting on with each week and check that things are ok which has been proved to help.
As I mentioned before things have gotten easier since I had a discussion with the team leader after the Easter holidays. When we came back everybody decided on a certain role they wanted to pursue to create the game such as level designers, artist and asset builders so I’ve taken on the role as animator and artist. With this in mind I stated to the group I can’t continue what I’ve been doing for most of the year because I’ll be busy animating cutscenes. The team leader since then has been getting people to get on with their work and have helped me try and sort problems with people getting scripts ready, finalising the GDD and structure of the story. He’s also giving us mini-deadlines to work to and checking that the game’s process is on track. There’s still times I have to chase certain members of the group to do certain pieces that’s vital to the game’s completion but I suspect in the end it’s all worth it.


Preparing for Web Assignment: How To Create A Webpage

Web pages to the amateur eye seem extremely easy to make which is why many people get confused over people who declare they’re web designers and such. On the other hand many do not realise that web pages and the internet itself is made entirely of script, markup languages and coding. However the main one, people use to lay the foundations for their webpage would be HTML which stands for Hyper- Text- Markup- Language and then back it up with a CSS document which now stands for :  Cascading Style Sheet.
HTML
As explained earlier Hyper-Text-Markup-Language proceeds as the ‘backbone’ of a web page, being written in the form of tags enclosed in angle brackets that are either open, to allow coding to appear on your web page, or closed to tell the system that’s the end of the tag.
The purpose of this is so web browsers can easily read HTML documents and compose them into web pages, now the browser doesn’t display these tags yet uses them to interpret the web page. Some HTML elements have empty content which are then closed in a start tag.

Tags
Tags can be various formats and mean specific commands, if we look at a webpage we shall be able to distinguish the difference between tags and what they do.

At the start of creating a webpage we always begin with <Doctype html>, <html> <body> . Basically this defines the page as a web page and allows us to start coding what we want to appear on our page.
<H1> Stands for first heading. H is a basic command for headings and will appear once the h has been used in conjunction with the angle brackets. On the other hand unless you only plan to use one header, then you have to give the number of what heading you want to appear on your page. For example <h1> KawaiixFukuro Studios</h1> stands for the first header in the script. Now what I’ve written above is <centre> which again is another command, that makes my header appear in the centre of the page.
<p> Means paragraph and follows similar suit to the headings and how you use them, all that’s different is you’re now writing a paragraph instead of a header. Just remember to end the tag by using </p>
To add in a hyperlink you need to start with <a href=”(add the websitelink you want!)”</a>, I’ve used Deviantart as mine, go to the end result of this code and you’’ be able to see what the hyperlink looks likes.

So now that we have the basics covered, what else could be potentially used at our arsenal?
To get an image appear on your webpage can be quite tricky but here is the code:
<img src= “(add your image destination here, so for example I used a DeviantArt link to one of my art or use a folder within your laptop so it would go Pictures/image name.jpg)” alt=”(Name of your image)” >
The src basically is telling the web where you can find this image whether it be on another website or on your computer. The alt is also another important factor as it allows the image to appear on different web browsers rather than just one and then if you want your image to be a certain height, then all you have to do is carry on with that html code before the tag ends but write: width=”(enter your size here)” height= “(enter your height here)”>
<f> stands for footer, so if you want something specifically at the bottom of your web page you use this tag and command, just remember to close it using </f>
The next two are pretty simple and allow you to use emphasis on your words, for italics simply use <em>  then as usual write what you want to be in italics and close up with </em>. Bold typography is also simple, same with italics write <strong> instead on ‘em’ and end on </strong>. Below is how the code above now would look like on a web page.


Now a Metatag/Metadata is actually information about data. The meta tag (<meta>) provides metadata about the HTML document but isn’t displayed as the final product like most of the other coding, but is machine passable. Elements of this kind are basically used to specify a page’s author, description, keywords, recent modifications and other metadata meaning this can be used by browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera ect by helping them display or reload pages, search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing for keywords or other web services. An example of writing this type of code can be found below:
CSS Document:
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet, they allow you to define a certain style for HTML elements meaning external style sheets can actually save a lot of time and effort, as they’re saved within CSS files.
The rule for CSS consists of a selector and a declaration block as shown below:

Now the selector goes with the HTML element you wish to style, meaning each declaration has to have a property name and a value separated by colons, yet if the block contains one or more declarations they must be separated using a semi-colon as shown above whilst the group of declarations are surrounded by curly brackets. To make this easier for you to read, instead of having the declaration all on one go you can spilt them up so each declaration is on one line.

By looking at the image above we can see that to set up a style, we start with the usual HTML style but then after adding or leaving behind your header (<head>) , add in the CSS which starts with <style>, choose what your selector is which here is p for paragraph and then write in your style format. End of the CSS with </style> and then continue writing in html as I have done below.
The system already knows we want the CSS style to be based on paragraphs so when we command paragraphs in html format and write what’s going to be in that paragraph, then everything is going to be in the CSS style so my writing should be in blue!
If we wanted a certain set of paragraphs to be in different colours then instead of using p, we would have to write p1,p2, p3 ect and create a different style for each one as shown below.

Now to name each of your styles so it doesn’t look as confusing as mine, simply do this as shown below:
If we use /*(enter comments here)*/, then the browsers ignore this information and when we come back to change certain pieces in our CSS styles then we know where each one potentially starts and ends. Again I’ve shown how you can do this multiple times!

If however you wanted the same paragraphs to have the same colour all you have to do is put all the selectors you wish to be the same on the same line? The image below shows that we want header 1 and 2 and all paragraphs to be in the same style, this saves time instead of having to write out every selector and style if you want them to be the same. Other people would class this as grouping selectors.

Inserting CSS styles can be dealt with in three ways, them being: external, internal and inline. All three are written different so I will show how you add each one in that order.
An external style sheet is usually applied to web pages because you can change he entire look of the web site itself by altering one file. Each page must link the style you’ve made using the <link> tag which goes within each head section of your code. Any written CSS can be done in any text editor, meaning the file should not contain any html tags and should be saved as a .CSS extension
This is an example of where you shall place your <link> tag in an html document, if you want to use an external style sheet.
An internal style sheet should only be used when a single documentation has a unique style and again written in the head of your html document, using the <style> tag instead of <link> tag. Look at the example below

 Inline styles have a disadvantage because it mixes content with presentation unlike other style sheets, meaning you can’t use this method all the time. To use inline though you use style attributes in the relevant tag which can contain CSS elements. The example given below allows us to change colours and the left margin of a paragraph.

Now that we know how to insert CSS inside of our HTML, we can go back to designing our web page. To add a background, it’s pretty simple can be done either using a web index colour which you can find a colour code palette on the internet, then look for your wanted colour which will reveal the code needed, otherwise using an image for the backdrop of your webpage.
By looking at the document above we can see we use the usual CSS format to colour code our lettering but after your first curly bracket write in:
Background=colour: (then add in your index colour code)
Which will then appear around whatever selector you wish to have the colour around. Up above they’ve chosen three different blues that define headers, divisions and paragraphs. To add in an image follows closely to how you would add one in html tags. Instead you would write:
Body (your selector) {(your background images name or background-image):(the url of your image/ file destination) “(the name of the image).jpg or gif ect”;} Then you should get the result as shown below.
Going back to font and typography we could also change the styles that we want our text to be in, making our web page more unique and personal. To change the typography we have to declare it using the usual CSS style:
p.serif{font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif;}
p.sansserif{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;}
The P stands for paragraph again but Serif stands for certain types of typography that have small lines at the ends of the characters and sans serif means that these types don’t have the lines. Usually Sans Serif and Serif are the main font’s people use on web pages, magazine articles, books ect. Now to make sure these actually work, when you come to declare your chosen selector in html (like h1 for example), you have to write:
<p class= “Serif/Sansserif”>
This will then put whatever you’re going to write in that typography, but remember to write one or the other!
Another way to define your typography would be to create bold, italics or oblique. Again go to where you declare your styles and write in:
p.normal {font-style:normal;}
p.italic {font-style:italic;}
p.oblique {font-style:oblique;}
These here will allow your characters to be shown on the web page in these fonts yet just like the typography, when you come to write in your commands in html you have to write in:
<p class=”normal/italic/oblique”>
Remember to choose either one and whatever is written in that paragraph will appear on your web page. Below is an example of incorporating both typography and font styles:

Finally all that’s left is to style hyperlinks so that when someone clicks on one of these on your webpage, go onto a new page then return back to the page they were on that hyperlink would then be a new colour so that people knew which hyperlinks they’ve visited. Do to this we need to know the different types of hyperlinks.
Ø  A:link- a normal link that no one’s visited
Ø  A:visited – a link someone has viewed
Ø  A:hover – a link when someone overs over it in some text for example.
Ø  A:active – a link the moment it is clicked
Please note though when setting the style for multiple links, you have to put them in a certain order. That being a: hover must come after a:link and a:visited and a:active must come after a:hover. To use these again go back to your style sheet and type in as well as adding a colour to each link:
Then to add them into your html you have to write something like:
<P><b><a href=”(add in your wanted url as I have done below)” target “(Name your link, e.g Youtube)”> (Write what you want to appear as your link) </a></b></p>
The p stands for your paragraph but the b and a stand for your hyperlink style formatted in a true for false style. So if the person hasn’t viewed the link it stays in that colour until they have, for more information check out the example below:
Bibliography
Disclaimer: The websites below I do not own any images used above belong to the owners.
1.       http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp (Used on 22/3/14-1/5/14 for images and referencing)

Preparing for Web Assignment: Working To A Brief


With our time at Confetti coming to a close, it’s important that whatever course or even job we’ve performed in, that we grasp hold of what we’ve learnt, made and show an audience what we’re capable of doing. For this assignment we must return back to briefs and how we can follow them for not only our sake but for the clients as well whilst doing extensive research on how we can create our own personal website from scratch.
Working to a Brief
To put it simply, a brief can be something from a simple set of instructions to that of a full-blown fifty-page project. Both are effectively the same subject where clients hand out directions to other people in order for them to choose whether or not they should follow these obligations which may be unattainable to follow because of certain circumstances or maybe the employee refuses to do it. An example of this could well be a person is given a brief for something like architecture which asks that person to maybe design/ build this house in a very complex matter but only with a short amount of money- hence why the client might ask to change circumstances for them to achieve the client’s dream or just refuse it altogether.  Throughout our time at Confetti, you could say each assignment we’ve been given was another brief we had to follow and complete in order to receive our grades. If we did not meet the requirements for certain grades then we would have to negotiate with our tutors in order to see what else needs to be done to reach that level, or basically walk away as there may be too much work to take on at that moment.
Now as I’ve stated before briefs come in many different ways and types which help us understand what we are working for/ towards and how to keep our clients happy. The different types can be:
·         Formal-
These types are the most popular in any industry, specifically the creative one. Formal briefs focus around an industry sector involving mostly written work that describes what the client’s idea is, what they want within the project, time, maximum budgets and deadlines. It can also include the interactivity between the clients and the people taking on this project such as having a meeting once a month, as well as they’re intended deadlines. These kind of briefs are also written in Standard English with no slang, no false pretences being basically straight to the point and cutting out all parts of unnecessary information, on the other hand these documents may not be legal and are usually offered to groups rather than a single person.

An example of this would be our team’s FMP group. At the beginning we were all set a brief together writing what we’re basing our game on, such as genres, target audience and who/want we want to appear in the game like our characters. Milestones were set initially to give the group an idea of how much work we should have done and when by which ties in with the deadlines, obviously our expenses for programs like UDK, Autodesk, Adobe packages and licenses are covered by the college. Then attempts at having regular online meetings together with a homework check being done.

Another example of a formal brief could be an equestrian company has taken on the thought of creating a saddle that not only fits the horse perfectly, but requires aids to help people with disability problems such as paralysed/ broken parts of the body, artificial limbs, blindness or may require the horse to be more responsive to the rider keeping in the mind the rider will want better grip and comfort from the object- which is the complete opposite to a Treeless saddle which allows the rider to get better response from the horse but loses grip and comfort.

Now with this in mind a lot of extensive research would have to be taken into account starting from what’s already out there for disabled riders, how the equipment is used and what effect does this have on the horse (similar to our research when we’re looking to see what’s already out there on the market and why a certain target audience may like that product) Afterwards it would be case of bringing in top specialists and can design this saddle to help with these problems, make the product and begin test phases on both horses and riders separately then putting the two together and seeing how their performance goes otherwise it’s back to testing.
·         Informal-
Informal briefs basically mean the opposite of formal where the discussion between client and specialist, don’t necessarily have to be written down in paper work as though it’s industry-standard business. It could be simply where someone has discussed what they would like to have done but haven’t got either all the details to supply the person taking on the job or not entirely sure if they want this person to do the set task, meaning the brief isn’t generalised or completed. It could be where you are being asked to complete a favour for someone or as an example doing an art trade.

On DeviantArt I usually get asked by other members and friends to do an art trade with them or requests. This means nothing has been set in stone and it’s up to me with the view of drawing something for a member of the website (so the client) for free.



 By looking at the evidence shown above we can clearly see this is an informal brief. After accepting the fact I don’t mind partaking in an art trade, where both artists will draw something for one another it meant we were now in an agreement to start working. By looking at the language used as well, we can see both parties are using slang, improper use of grammar and emotocons which wouldn’t be present in a formal brief. To clear this up my part of the art trade was to draw HellAboveHeaven’s horse OC: Zitox which I made an animation for- my part  was eventually completed however the end result didn’t match what I had asked my partner to draw.

Similar to the example given above if you were to attend a convention such as MCM Expo’s, Alcon or maybe even J-Con they usually have a section at the venue where various well known artists are taking on commissions on the spot from spectators who’ve come to the convention for various different reasons. Now what will happen is once a client has seen what a certain artist can do and like’s their style in which they create things, they’ll ask if that person is free to draw what they want and if so the client would then have a normal every day-to-day discussion with the artist on what they want to be drawn, how they would like it done and then ask questions of how long will it take to make this piece and how much.

·         Tendered-
This kind of brief follows suit of a Formal because once the project has been given, everything within that brief is written to a formal standard. With this in mind it could mean specialists may have to bid for that contract in order to gain hold of the project for clients, which means again tendered briefs appear more in industry and governmental practices because you’re implying this project on a group of people, not a specific person which then leads onto contractual briefs.

An example of this would be when Studio Ghibli made Spirited Away they offered up a spot to work in partnership with another company that would allow them to become more recognised throughout the globe and their stories translated into different languages. As this was an amazing opportunity many companies came forward with offers for the studio that asked too much of them or seemed non-practical until Disney stepped in. Now Disney offered that the movies Ghibli produced would be part of the Disney movie collection and released under both Disney and Studio Ghibli’s name meaning that people from across the world would feel better buying these movies because Disney was a very well-renowned company and still is today, yet nothing was taken away from Ghibli because Disney states that it was this company that made these movies. From this Studio Ghibli would gain popularity from across the globe and their movies translated into other languages and distributed internationally- with this the company accepted their offer.

Similar to this may be the game: Pandora’s Tower which was created by a Japanese team called Ganbarion. Now because this team made an epic game it wasn’t very well known so in order to gain more profit they offered well known distributers the chance to acquire this game and publish it under their name as well as Ganbarion’s so that both parties will make and share a profit. After many offers Nintendo pulled through and were allowed to alter the game to fit the Wii and published for that console as an exclusive.

·         Commissionable-
Now commissionable does still collaborate with the formal part of a brief where a client has given you a necessary description of what they want with along with times, budgets and an outline of the plan but they tend to leave you more to your own devices. So a customer requires you as an individual or a specific studio for example, to start and finish this project for them without having to go through a set industry practice meaning you’re left to your own devices because you’re good at the specific thing. Similar to what I discussed earlier in informal briefs.

An example of this would be if you work as a freelancer then usually you get commissioned by various people whether they’re agencies, individuals or even working studios to create a particular thing for them in order for a project to work meaning it’s up to you to take what the client wants and create what the brief states along with the clients requirements in mind. So when I was commissioned to draw somebody’s horses it meant I had to take pictures of the horses as references, find out their breed for further referencing as well as the horses characteristics and begin drawing. With one of the horses I didn’t have a time limit, yet with the other I had to have it finished and printed out before the client’s daughter’s birthday. So I made the one with a deadline first and then finished the other horse after so that if anything was wrong with the first, I could take my time to fix that picture before the deadline. My budget was £15 for each picture to cover cost of materials and personal time. Later on I was commissioned to draw someone’s dogs with a winter- theme in mind.


·         Contractual-
Basically this means you are bound to an agreement between yourself and the other party in order for you to start working towards the brief. In the contract the client will discuss what he/she wants as stated before yet if you were to break the set rules given to you it could end up in a lawsuit case where you will lose rights to continue working on the project and with the client, possibly losing a lot of money because the other half has backed out the deal. Usually these types of briefs end in a non-disclosure agreement.

A good way to look at this would be when I’ve hopefully completed my time at university and have a job, where I’m earning over 21,000 a year then by law I have to pay back what borrowed with 9% interest on top. If I do not comply with these rules then I won’t get the loan in the first place, but I will be fined and possibly sent to prison for my actions.

·         Collaborative-
This means the brief has been shared out amongst a group and mainly used in interactive media industries like Confetti. This means all the roles created by the brief can be given out to individuals in that group that are more specialised in that certain area which evens out the pressure of the project, yet it could also cause more problems later down the line because everyone will have a different approach to the project given meaning ideas may clash with others so negotiations have to be made.

A fine example of this would again be our FMP group. My role is artist and animator but if other sections of the game desperately need doing then it’s my job to lend a hand. Currently I’m asking the group to help me start script work so I can begin animating cut scenes, which I believe if we all do it together as a group then we won’t clash later on with how our characters are being portrayed through the story, which then doesn’t waste my time animating unnecessary  scenes. The huge problem about how group however is the lack of communication between individuals and the fact only a couple of us are only pulling our weight, as well as not having instructions from either team leader or vice-captain. To try and resolve this issue I keep having meetings with the team leader about what should be done, request online meetings and personally keeping a homework check on board so we know who is supposed to be doing what.

Now that we know what a brief looks like, the different types and understanding them, we have to move on and decide whether the project will be able to work or whether we feel the need to negotiate with the client to change certain aspects that might help smoothen the process in case things seem unrealistic.
o   Consultations-
Consultations clarify with the client about whether or not you feel the brief was clear in what you are being asked to do. It’s also the time where if you or your team mates have any issues within the brief like maybe the budget isn’t enough, there’s not enough time to finish the project by or some wild demands such as if the project isn’t completed the client now owns your company/name, then you have the right to come clean about these troubles to the client and try working something out between both parties.

For example when I’ve been to a dog walking job, I have a consultation with the owner first so I understand what the dog is like in its own territory and what the client wants. Within this meeting both parties arrange suitable times for me to walk the dog with a reasonable price which is usually negotiated to cover both time and expenses. I suppose another way would be when I go and work for people with horses, I get shown what they want me to do such as stable duties, how many they want doing, if there’s an special requirements such as diets, behaviour, allergies or if certain horses need to stay in their stable because of worming days or illness such as strangles and whether jobs need to be done within certain time limits especially if it’s a riding school and not a livery yard. With this in mind sometimes I have to negotiate the times because of bus routes and request I will only work if I either get paid or have a free riding lesson/hack on a safe horse.

o   Discretion-
If you feel the need that minor details need to be altered or as explained before, more time/ money needs to be given then these are your discretions about the brief in general. So in order to sort this out you have to work closely with your clients and meet halfway so that you can both come to agreeable terms, if the client refuses to hear your problems out then it could be you’re making a ridiculous request or the brief is a lost cause that can’t be done until the owner sees sense.

Again going back to working with horses, most places I worked at I would do stable duties and care for the horses needs from 9am-6pm most weekends without getting a ride. When I voiced my concerns to the owner they usually promised I would get a ride next time, yet next time never came so I quit because it was a lost cause. As this carried on for a couple of years I ended up getting my own horse as an early birthday present.

Second example could be in our FMP team my main job is to be the artist and animator, now after creating the first cutscene that requires people to voice act three characters I explained to my team members they’re welcome to voice the characters themselves however whatever animations I’ve created they’ll be going up on Youtube as that’s my video playground in a nutshell. After agreeing to these terms and later on uploading the first cutscene onto Youtube, one of the members insisted I take off the video because he does not wish his voice to be up on the web and that the other team member may not want this either. So to quickly resolve the matter I set the video’s settings to private. Now after a few I went back to my team members and again explained to them that animation I create will be on the web and if they do not want their voices up on Youtube to tell me immediately so I can find someone else. Now one the team members who didn’t dispute the fact  I had put this video up in the first place, agreed to my terms and said he will continue to voice this character now the other who did dispute hasn’t come back with a yes or no.

o   Constraints-
Constraints are pretty straightforward where problems may arise and hold back your team or the project itself from getting on with what needs to be done. Localisation could be maybe your team can’t all gather at certain places at certain times because of other priorities and hobbies. Ethical restraints would be where we have to take other people’s feelings and beliefs into consideration, meaning this is probably one of the most difficult subjects to approach in the creative media sector. How we can affect other people could be by how we portray characters in situations. An example would be in Resident Evil 4, the trailer clearly shows Chris Redfield being the only white guy and going into Africa shooting most of the population because they’ve turned into zombies, but they’re all coloured. This itself, created a huge controversy between the general public and the creators, who didn’t intentionally mean to offend anyone and basically didn’t do enough research first-hand to see this was in fact a big issue.

I suppose how you could counter something like this, would be to look at what Nintendo done with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The only coloured woman there didn’t star in a huge protagonist role and wore slightly revealing clothes, yet the creators made sure she helped Link and his friends through the story and that if it wasn’t for her, Link and Midna wouldn’t have been able to defeat Zant or Ganondorf.
Finally when designing the game it’s important to understand that the initial thoughts on when creating the brief for the designers is that it’s original and not a copy of someone else’s work, this stands for everything from brief to the producing of the game. Copyright protects people’s work from others who dares to commit plagiarism, meaning that there are people who try to steal the original work of someone else because they haven’t given credit to the original owner, or proclaim the work is theirs when it isn’t.

A recent example of this is the plot behind Assassin’s Creed III which is supposed to be released in North America on 30th October 2012 under the PS3 and Xbox 360, later being released on 18th of November as a Wii-U platform and the same for Europe but on the 30th of November. John L.Beiswenger, who’s a research engineer and sci-fi author, claims his book ‘Link’ shares various similarities as the game- insisting Ubisoft are ‘allegedly ripping off his novel’ . 

The book ‘Link’ explores an idea of memories recorded by an ancestor that eventually get brought to life only by using a special device known as: ‘Bio-synchronizer’. Another reason for the claim, made by plaintiff, is the book talks about assassins and assassinations which at one point in the novel, someone is trying to fit the pieces of the past together. Finally spiritual and biblical tones with references of Jesus, God, the Garden of Eden, forbidden fruit and a reliance on historical moments portrayed through ancestor’s memories all lead identical occurrences in Assassin’s Creed series.
So now that we know what can be discussed with the client about negotiating certain aspects for the project, it’s then that we can begin to lay down amendments to the original brief. Now these can be made up from the list above or pieces you feel that aren’t right but whatever changes you need to make has to be shown to the customer first so that they can accept the new terms and conditions or refuse them if they feel you’re being unreasonable like wanting more money than you need, or maybe initial concepts of the foundations aren’t what they have I mind. The best solution to tackle these problems would be to tackle how much each piece is going to cost and write a good plan on how you’re going to manage your/teams time through the entire project. Request meetings with the client so that they may also see your progress or if you have initial stages planned out explain your thoughts as to why you’ve done them and how they’re linked to the brief. This way it keeps your client involved with what you’re doing so that less problems may occur later down the line.
So with that underway do we actually believe you can still learn new things from working on projects? Me personally I believe we can, when working on a project we are honing our skills in that subject and experimenting new things that can effectively make a project better but more defined from what others are doing.  For instance when I started doing digital art I didn’t want to copy what other people were doing to make their images look better, so during my spare time I was open for requests meaning people could me to draw something for them and I would, as well as entering drawing competitions on Youtube. In the beginning my art was really poor but the more I worked on projects from simple things like requests to digital pieces that were to be included in my GCSE Art portfolio, the more my techniques were improved and defined to point where now people have said my work looks realistic in some places.


By comparing the two I believe both my art and digital skills have greatly improved because for the years I’ve taught myself to draw, I come to develop new ways at  obtaining different techniques that improve my art style in general. With this in mind I do believe that whatever project we take on, our skills will improve and along the way we learn new things that may surpass our previous work or simply find an easier route to completing the same task.
When I began Confetti I didn’t really think about the processes of how a game is made and distributed as well as how vast the gaming community is and that in there group there’s subject terminology that many people who play games but not obsessively understand. To begin with I quite understand the terms of DLC, real-time, FMP or even open world actually meant. As far as my understanding was a game was a game that was defined by an age rating and classified under similar genres that books go under. Now that my time at Confetti is nearly over I’ve learnt the process in which a game has been made and has ultimately opened various other career paths I can now take. An example would be I never knew how to model a 3D program and to be honest I was quite scared to have a go because myself and shapes don’t really get on, since then I can effectively model, texture, animate and render something in 3D which means that when I go to university for my animation course I feel confident in not only 2D hand-drawn animation but 3D animation as well. Another would be if animation didn’t work out for me I could try the concept and final art paths for games, as I know understand the different gaming genres and what selling points are aimed at different target audiences which means when I come to create concepts for clients who’ve given me a set brief I won’t be going off topic. Then there’s the gaming community itself who all share similar interests such as anime, cosplay and crazy fan obsessions meaning I get to meet more people, make new friends and acquire certain contacts which again could help me in my career.
Finally my last example would be the equestrian world. Now when you start becoming a fan of this adrenaline-rushing, cold, dangerous sport you don’t actually realise how much there is to learn not only about your riding, but the horse disciplines and the people around you. To begin with the horse world is a very cold and cruel place that seems to be a playground for the rich, when I started getting addicted to this sport I began helping a nearby woman with her three competition horses which began my education on how to handle and look after your horse, at the same time I went back into riding lessons learning the basics and building my confidence in how to control the horse using aids like your hands, legs and speech which is how most people start out. When I finally got my first horse which was an ex-race horse, the whole perspective on what I had learnt changed and life became a complete different ball game. With looking after Paddy my Mum and I learnt how life on a livery yard can be a real pain in the backside with many other people being stuck-up because you didn’t have the right clothes or even the right horse for that matter. We also learnt that Thoroughbreds are very costly horses after many call-outs to the farrier and the vets, we discovered how to try and retrain a horse that had been abused in his previous homes both on the ground and in the saddle despite all bites I ended up getting and fact I had a real bad fall where it shook my confidence.
However I think the best thing I ever got out of having Paddy was the fact he taught me how it felt to feel free, whether that was in the school or out in the fields. He took me away from whatever troubles I had at school and put me in an entire situation completely- it was as though I had a best friend where whatever I said he understood and that I understood him. Sadly after the fall and the bullying I still got from school I lost my nerve around Paddy and things began to turn sour where I couldn’t ride him because I began to fear him, his nasty attitude returned and the livery yards just kept getting worse. In the end I had to let him go and after trying a couple of other horses after that and having bad experiences I honestly thought I wouldn’t be back in the saddle again. After a long period I began lessons again and went back to working for people where I found I as ok on the ground just not the saddle, then I went to a certain riding school to find my old horse was there and the person who we entrusted him with was keeping him in poor condition. As we couldn’t get him back I decided to get over this fear of riding and eventually got my second horse Cleo last year. Now Cleo was completely different to Paddy, she was lazy and stubborn but looked after you in the saddle and had a very fast trot because she had driven in the past. With having spent time with her my confidence grew each day where I began to get ready to start jumping again, then because of college commitments I had to give her up- shortly after I sold her I found out by a friend Paddy had died and his owner had broken his leg by racing him on the flat.

So what have I learnt from all this?
In the horse world you have two options, you either keep your head afloat or you sink. You don’t listen to what other people say about you or your horse and you don’t change for no one unless someone of importance tells you and even then be sceptical. With horses themselves I know how to look after them throughout the entire year, what to do when they’re ill, groundwork, tack-up and clean the tack and bits of Parelli. In the saddle I can ride English, Western and a tiny bit of Spanish, I know how to lunge, build muscles and flexibility, begin to start jumping a horse and slow down a fast trot or make help stop tranter. Above all I’ve learnt that horses are a big part of my life, when I feel scared or unhappy about something and my family can’t help fix it, I go and visit nearby horses and I feel at peace. I know that they don’t care who or what you are so long as you look after them and treat them with respect both on the ground and in saddle. Finally I know they can become your best friend and part of the family, give you wings and the taste of freedom when both parties know how to trust one another.
With all this in mind I do want to attend another college that deals with horse care and riding, get a diploma there and take a degree in equine rehabilitation so that I may be able to save other horses from the meat factory, or from people like I had entrusted Paddy with. One day when I retire I aspire to set up a rescue centre for horses of all ages and breeds, especially ex-racers, trotters and competition horses.