James G
(Webmaster, Site Designer, Artist and overall genius)
Date of Birth: 30th October 1985
Age: 22
Occupation: Future saviour of the computer animation industry
(I wish)
Place of Birth: Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
Location: England/Wales, UK (I'll put both in just to save time
in the future)
Pets: Kat (think you can guess what animal she is?)
- qualifications - hobbies -
- my fave: movies - music - videogames - books - tv -
- biography -
- my computer -
12 GCSEs |
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Maths |
B |
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Statistics |
C |
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English |
C |
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English Literature |
C |
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Science Double Award |
CC |
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Graphic Design Long Course |
B |
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Religious Education Short Course |
C |
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French Short Course |
E |
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Information Technology |
D |
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Geography |
C |
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History |
C |
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BTEC National Diploma Graphic Design |
Pass |
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Currently studying for a BA (Hons) in Computer Animation |
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Going to the cinema WORLD OF WARCRAFT!! |
Likes: |
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30 Seconds To Mars Click here to see a more comprehensive list.
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Battle Royale Click here to see a more comprehensive list.
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Bioshock Click here to see a more comprehensive list.
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The Adrian Mole series Click here to see a more comprehensive list.
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American Dad Click here to see a more comprehensive list. |
- introduction -
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my "career": uni/college -
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computers: web design/3D modelling -
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the site -
- in closing -
Pretty much everyone who visits the site will know absolutely zip about me, so what do you wanna know? What do you NEED to know about me? Well I guess you don't really need to know much, except that I'm the guy behind this website and all the work you see on it. Other than that though, I don't think anything else about me is required information ... but if you're still here reading all this crap that I'm spouting I guess you must be interested in knowing something about me.
Ok, well I'm 23 years old, I come from a small-ish town called Burton upon Trent which is about 13 miles south-west of Derby/about 30-35 miles north of Brummieland (Birmingham). I no longer live there though and if I told you where I live now I would have to kill you ... *cough* South Wales.
At the moment I'm inbetween universitys/jobs/whatever for reasons that are currently out of my hands. Suffice it to say its a rather nasty illness I've had my whole life and which has gotten worse in the last 9 years, with it seriously affecting what I can and cannot do during the past 5 years. But oh well, treatment is underway and it should get better soon so there's no need for any more to be said about that particular subject :P
Just over 2 years ago I started studying for a BA(Hons) in 3D Computer Animation at Swansea Institute Of Higher Education, down here in South Wales. Unfortunately due to my illness I could only handle being there for the first semester and ended up having to quit. Alot of days off due to illness = dropping behind in a complicated area of learning = having no idea what to do = no chance in hell of catching up = quitting.
Before starting uni in Swansea I was out of the studying process for a while, not doing much between starting there and withdrawing from a Multimedia course at Wrexham university in late 2004 for the same reasons for having to leave Swansea.
However, before that though I attended the college back in my home town, the unimaginatively named Burton College, where I studied for a BTEC National Diploma in Graphic Design, a course I did in fact complete ... by barely scraping a pass but at least I got that much. You see, the course wasn't really for me - sometime during the start of the course I lost my drive, which I credit mainly to the fact that on my first 2 projects I got sucky marks and absolutely no input about how I should go about improving my work. The tutors didn't seem to care, they didn't put their efforts into teaching us so I ended up with a lax attitude to my work aswell. I'm sorry if you read this Jo but it's just how I saw it.
Just after starting the second, and last year, of the course I started to wonder just why the hell I was bothering and so at some point I all but stopped doing any work and when I did it was on half-assed projects that I handed in even when mostly incomplete. Most of the work just stayed unstarted though. At the end, on the final major project (the one that would contribute alot of marks towards my final grade) I didn't see the point in failing a course I'd spent 2 years of my life on just because I couldn't be bothered anymore so I got down to it and I worked my ass off to create multiple examples of work that would ultimately lead to me scraping my way towards that pass grade.
I'll admit that I made a mistake, giving up so early on and not bothering to put the effort I could into the work, because I know that if I had stuck with it I'd most likely have a much better final grade than the one I have. But it doesn't matter because no matter what, I am proud of that grade - I'm proud of the fact that I was most likely facing a big fat fail before the final project and that I was able to turn that around with just one big project, a few months of hard work. It might sound stupid but, to me it kinda feels like a bigger achievement to end up surprising both myself and Jo (my primary tutor) by working hard enough to gain that grade than to have just been a consistent worker over the whole course. I was an idiot to let it get that bad in the first place but to pull something that big out of the hat at the last minute is what makes me proud of finishing the course with a pass.
Anyway, I ended up feeling like graphic design wasn't quite what I wanted to do and that I was more interested in something that involved more work with computers, hence starting a Multimedia course at Wrexham. However, after I left there I started to hone my skills and my interests ...
I first got interested in computers in about 1998, when I got my first Pentium II, 233MHz "powerhouse" of a PC. Before then I hadn't had much experience with them, only having really begun using them when I started high school the year before. Since then I've pretty much gradually taught myself how to do most stuff, although basic things like word processing, spreadsheets, etc, were taught to me at school and were always as boring as hell (which incidentally is more horrifying than boring, what with the scalding, flaying and constant torture down in the deepest pits of Lucifer's domain).
I first got into web-design in 2002 when I started a small and not very good fansite on geocities for Devil May Cry (crap overload). My next attempt, my Matrix fansite about a year later, was a bit of an improvement, and since then I've had a few more tries, each looking more stylish and professional than the last. Only a couple of my sites have really seen the light of day though, because all I really do with them is make the interfaces and then when it comes to adding content I kinda give up. Designing is about as far as I go, I love the designing part but adding the content is where I end up getting bored, except for rare cases like my Matrix fansite ... which I have actually now become bored of filling in.
When I left Wrexham uni I somehow started trying to learn how to 3D model. It started off with some lame attempts at objects that were, and still are, way beyond my skill level ... until I discovered an old Legoman that I had packed up in a box, having just moved house to Wales. It was a simple object made from simple shapes and I thought it would be the ideal thing to start learning with. So I made a simple Legoman model which I was really proud of at the time and which eventually evolved, through experiments with joints and more detailed bodyparts, into the Legoman model you can see plastered over this website. Although it started off as just a simple character I also later had the idea to try making versions of famous characters, such as those from movies, computer games and even bands. To this day my favourites include my Matrix characters and the multiple versions of Dante from the Devil May Cry series of games, with the latter, in his DMC4 costume, being my overall favourite.
The Legoman model is obviously still a pretty simple one, made mostly from block shapes but I've used this basic character to start learning more advanced modeling techniques, in the way of ... accessories.
In the past few years I've modeled a good amount of weapons (guns, swords, etc) and vehicles (a truck and the walking behemoth that is the APU from The Matrix Revolutions) that were all meant to be used in conjunction with certain Lego characters, and it's from modeling these that my skills have slowly but surely improved. For example, if you were to look at the M1911 that I added to the site a few days ago and then look at the same weapon that I modelled 4 years ago, you would see a huge difference in the amount of detail, the modelling techniques and even the way I've rendered the images. It's a slow process, trying to learn such a complicated skill solo, but I'm getting even just a tiny bit better with every new model.
This site was initially created in August 2004 as a means for me to show my work to anyone and everyone that may be interested. The inspiration behind the site was actually a college project that I never finished (or started to be honest) where I had to make an online portfolio/cv. It never really got done when I was at college but I started it up about 4-5 months later when I finally decided that it was actually a good idea, and something to do. Now the sites been up for almost 4 and a half years, and in that time its been through 4 facelifts (the current design being the longest resident) and I'm not ashamed to admit that I've helped give it dozens upon dozens of Colagion injections to keep it looking young and fresh, and I plan to continue updating it in the future with any work I do that I feel to be worthy to represent my "skill" ... well as long as anyones interested in me and my work anyway.
I think that's all anyone needs to know about me, that is unless you're someone who I wanna tell more. If you can think of anything else that might be interesting enough for me to add and that I can talk about here just send me an email or post your comments in the guestbook.
Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying the site :)
Updated: January 2009
I have 2 systems, the first is my main setup for uni work, animation stuff, gaming, and any other demanding stuff. Its a pretty good system and it does everything I need it for, well it should do considering how much it cost. It took quite a chunk out of my student loan, I know that much. These are the specs:
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Dell Dimension 9200 |
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My second system isn't too great, its my old comp but its still useful and works fine. I mean I didn't get the new one because this stopped working, it just wasn't good enough for my uni work. This system may not have the best specs, its easily not the best computer on the planet but it does what I need it to do and it ran my old animation software ok, sometimes it didn't do it very fast but still. Anyway, these are the specs:
Compaq Deskpro EN
Intel Pentium III
733MHz Processor
320MB RAM
2x 10GB Hard Drives
16MB Voodoo 3 Graphics Card
CD ROM Drive
1.44Mb floppy drive
56k V92 modem
Microsoft Windows 98SE
Compaq V55 15" monitor
Compaq 3 button mouse
Logitech multimedia keyboard
