Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts

Friday, 24 April 2015

I'm now 99.1% done with this project. Up until now, I've been enjoying myself and the work I've been producing. However this week was just horrific. I feel as if I'm doing more things and not moving forwards at all, it's so frustrating. It doesn't help that the deadline is two weeks away and we're nowhere near finished.

We've been speculating over the last few weeks that our level should probably be cut down, however, this is now seeming like something necessary. We're unsure of what areas need cutting as of yet, as they all seem pretty vital.

My group had a presentation with some lecturers one Tuesday, and we came out rather happy with the result! They liked our level, and gave us some suggestions on what areas need to be cut. So, drum roll please...the study, the area you fall into from the rabbit hole and the first corridor are being cut! One of the puzzle areas containing two rooms is also being cut down into one. Phew. This means less work to produce, but more time to polish! Which is exactly what we need to be doing at this stage.


So, the room above is the first puzzle area - containing the anamorphic puzzle - the door on the right hand side now leads to nowhere! This is the first room that was to be cut down. Initially, you'd have to answer a riddle in order to unlock the door which would lead to an anamorphic puzzle. However now, its all been merged into one room.

One of my team members. James, has been playing around with something in engine called diffuse boost. It essentially lightens the value  of the materials before baking the lighting which means softer lighting! Although, in the last project (container city) we had this awful yellowy/purple haze going on. Which seems to have appeared again, it must be something to do with the bloom. Either way, it's going to need fixing before the hand in.


We've also encountered a few issues too. I reimported the White Rabbit early on in the week and it completely broke. Firstly, there was no animation attached to it, even though it was showing up in the editor. Secondly, the pivot was way off, even though it was centred in max and finally, when you played the level, the rabbit would flicker on and off. However, I managed to fix all of these in a short space of time after having a little cry. The flickering was due to a lighting problem in the map - I figured this out by testing it within another engine file. He works again now, and I'm a happy egg again.


Also, the essay and character resubmissions are finally done! It's almost as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Although, it does seem a bit odd knowing that tomorrow is the *sort-of* last day at term, but we're still working on Off The Map. I'm looking forward to be able to focusing on a single project for the next 2 weeks though. Hardcore propulation!

Week 30: IT'S DONE, IT'S ALL OVER.
03:42

Week 30: IT'S DONE, IT'S ALL OVER.

Sunday, 19 April 2015

It actually feels pretty good to be back in the swing of things! Minus the fact we've all got to do presentations on Friday (welp), I'm feeling pretty optimistic about this week. Which is worrying.

I've been modelling and unwrapping random assets this week so you could say its been pretty chilled out. We're all focusing on the essay, presentation and character re-submission. There's so much going on at once it actually hurts. I've almost finished my essay, which is one less thing to worry about, however I've yet to write the conclusion. I'll get there eventually. The character re-submission is going quite well too! I haven't done too much on it yet as I've been focusing on other projects, but I've started to act on the feedback given to me in the last assessment. She already looks so much better!


door_corridor.JPG



I modelled a couple of different iron variations for the door between the lobby and the first corridor, however the one above was deemed the most suitable for the level. I'd tried to keep it similar to the railings we've got on the staircase in the lobby so nothing seems too random and out of place.

HighresScreenshot00000.png

You know when you've got what looks like a lot of stuff in a Max file? Then it looks like hardly anything in engine? Yep. We're going through that right now. In the group meeting we had this week, a couple of us are swapping assets and taking more on board in order to get our level looking as awesome as possible for the deadline. I mean, it's not the end of the world if it's not 100% perfect, it's never going to be, it'll just be nice to have something to be proud of. 


On the topic of presentations, I chose to do mine on one of my favourite games, Road Not Taken! I was thinking about doing it on Uncharted, but I was a little worried about fangirling my way through the whole thing. Woo. It actually went much better than what I thought it would! I was bricking it before-hand, but the feeling after you've done it is so good, I wanted to do it again!

Week 29: Can it please just be over?
16:40

Week 29: Can it please just be over?

Sunday, 22 March 2015

So it's the last week of term 2, and we've managed to get the bulk of the assets completed! Yay. Everything is finally starting to come together, and it looks pretty damn awesome.

Emma - How cute is this one!?
I finished unwrapping the rabbit mesh earlier this week and I've been texturing for the rest of it. As we're following a specific art style, we've decided to hand paint all of the textures for the characters. After receiving feedback on Tuesday, Emma suggested I look into a variety of different hand-painted methods and decide which one would work best for me. I've never enjoyed hand painting textures for some reason, but I had an absolute blast with this one! I think it might have something to do with the fact my unwrap looks slightly like Grumpy Cat...


I've been using this Dan LuVisi tutorial to help get a better understanding of fur and how to make it look slightly fluffier. I'd decided from the beginning that I wanted to use alpha planes to achieve a good level of 'fluffiness' so I just used a basic fur brush to create the initial base layer.


Ahhh 4k textures look so much nicer. I'm SO happy with how his ears turned out - I'm planning on testing out subsurface scattering on them to make him seem a little more realistic.
After placing a few more fur alphas down, he was starting to look a bit fluffier...but also quite tiled. Gahhhh. This was due to the planes being so small. So, back to the drawing board, I resized the planes, and boy, I'm glad I did. Here's how he's looking now.


I've still got quite a lot of planes left to place, but he's starting to look a little more finished now. 
Week 25: Alphas are wonderful things.
05:55

Week 25: Alphas are wonderful things.

Sunday, 15 March 2015

So this week has been pretty fun. Last week I was modeling clothes, frames, architrave and sculpting candles. This week I was finalising the clothing, sculpting detail into it and rigging. 


I managed to get this all finished pretty early on in the week, to allow myself more time on the rigging process. Before I started the rigging, I had a brainwave and realised that I should probably be doing the animation first, so I'm not wasting time moving bones forwards and backwards. Possibly one of the most time-saving ideas I've had throughout the duration of this project. I'm an idiot. 

Using the above chart, I created a short animation which I enjoyed a hell of a lot more than what I thought I would! The only thing that's really irritating me is the horrific jolt at the end...ughhhhh. I've been playing around with timing and placement of keys to try and fix it - trust me, it's not nearly as bad as it was. But, it's getting there, which is the main thing. 


I spent the majority of the weekend rigging, and he's finally done! For some obscure reason, I actually find rigging quite therapeutic...weird. Needless to say, time flew by anyway.
Week 24: Animation
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Week 24: Animation

Sunday, 8 March 2015

I should probably start by apologising for the images in this post. As we have warped corridors in our level, why not populate them with warped paintings? I had to do some research to make sure that the paintings I was using were out of copyright and I'd be able to use them under Creative Commons licenses. So..here we go. I'll just post the creepiest ones. The right is a Waterhouse piece, and the left is by William Merritt Chase.


I'm so sorry.

Our group actually had to email the British Library and GameCity to ensure we weren't going to offend anyone. We're yet to receive a reply so they're on hold for now. However, Emma has told us that they might be a little too creepy and that they need to be made more 'Looney Tunes' as opposed to super creepy horror film.

Moving on...

I also modeled the architrave, frames, candles and clothing for the rabbit this week.

Door model courtesy of James
There were a number of iterations for the panelling, but these two were the ones we felt fit best into the level and the era itself. I've also been teaching myself a bit of ZBrush too and used alpha masks to create the bottom two photo frames. This took me around 10 minutes each, including baking. I don't even want to think about how long it would've taken to sculpt it by hand...


Here's how the clothing is going to far. I selected planes on the rabbit mesh and used the shell modifier to save myself some time. He's even got a little fishtail jacket that his tail's going to pop through. If it doesn't work I'll cry.



Week 23: 2spooky
08:31

Week 23: 2spooky

Sunday, 8 February 2015

Yep. You guessed it. It's that time of year again which can only mean one thing; DMU are entering the OTM competition for the third year running!

Tuesday meant judgment day, we all found out what the project was really about, previous entries and the people we were going to be working with for the next 12 weeks. Luckily, I'm in a fairly balanced team with some pretty awesome people, so...no complaints from me! The GA team set us the task of creating a 3D side scroller game, which by the sounds of the debate, a lot of people hated. Ah well, I guess you can't please everyone. However, this was later changed and we're free do do whatever we want! Awwwww yiss. Anyway, back to the brief. There's three topics to choose from - Oxford, underground & the gardens. Of course, they can all be incorporated together, but there has to be a 'main theme' of sorts. There's also no texture or tri budget so we're free to go as crazy as we like...providing it runs.

I really need to make smaller moodboards. Argh.
This week was just spent figuring out what it was we wanted to do, research and a shed load of Pinterest. We haven't yet decided on a style which isn't an issue yet, but after meeting with Chris and Steve on Friday, we were told that by the middle of next week (11th Feb - ish) that we needed to have this sorted. Help. Everything is so pretty.

Storyboard of our initial idea

Towards the end of the week, I also helped out with some engine work and managed to get a couple working. More on that on next weeks post...
Week 19: Alice's Adventures Off The Map
14:20

Week 19: Alice's Adventures Off The Map

Sunday, 21 December 2014

For this project, I was required to design two characters that were total opposites of one another. I got to choose what my tri and texture budgets were – providing they were sensible. The only other major requirement was that the characters had to look as if they were from the same world.

Now, normally Pinterest provides me with a huge amount of inspiration however, for some reason, I really struggled to gain any whatsoever. I’m not sure if it was the thought of having to design two characters that spun me off course or the fact I had to have the majority of my concepts and the final idea done within 3 days. I initially thought about doing a kind of cowgirl/something duo but after going home one weekend and finding an old history book, I decided to delve further into researching women during the Second World War. This led me to the idea of a WAC Colonel and a young evacuee. After doing a massive moodboard full of random ideas, the finalisation of my idea meant I could produce a more specific one.


On the first Thursday of the project, I had to present my work so far to the critical studies team in order to receive feedback and inform them of how I’m getting on so far. This went better than I thought it would and I received some really helpful feedback - which did mean I had to change my idea slightly, but definitely for the better. Mike said that he wasn’t too sure what the relationship between the two characters was and that it was something I really needed to push in order to successfully convey my idea. It was also suggested that I look at WW2 propaganda posters and how they’ve inspired films such as The Incredibles.

After speaking to Jack about my idea, he suggested I read a book called ‘Put Out More Flags’ by Evelyn Waugh as he felt it’d aid me in my research. This actually really helped me with developing the relationship between my two characters more. Books are awesome.


I've spoken about modelling in previous posts, so onto the unwrapping...or more commonly known as the part where I broke down and did the most stupid thing ever. I was trying to work out where would be the best places to put seams on the face and for some reason, my brain thought “smack one down and across the middle of the forehead!” I definitely wasn’t thinking of the consequences at the time to say the least. I normally make my normals first to get some similar details in the albedo, but this time around, I did the albedo first so I didn’t notice the horrific seams right until the last minute. I applied them in 3DS Max, and this happened.



So not cool. Luckily, it only shows up in the viewport and it’s totally invisible in UE4 and Marmoset so I’m trying not to kick myself too much over it.

Now, the brief says that we only have to model one of the characters, but for a stretch goal we’re allowed to make the second character, or rig the one we’ve already modelled. I knew from the start that I probably wasn’t going to have enough time to model both, who needs optimism? So I planned my time accordingly and left a day towards the end for rigging purposes.

Luckily, I’d had some practice throughout the summer project which did really help me out but the hands are another story altogether. Instead of rigging every single joint etc, I decided I was just going to rig her into a pose. So, going about the usual business, I started moving the biped around into suitable positions and everything was actually going really well! Right up until the hands. I knew the success wouldn’t last.


Fingers are 100% the most VILE things to rig. Luckily, Steve came to the rescue and advised me on where to place more edge loops to prevent seriously shoddy deformation! It was like being back in first year again drawing loops all over my hands.

As you can see, the briefcase also wasn't too happy. 
Overall, this project has been an absolute blast/nightmare for me! On one hand, I enjoyed trying out a new style and working in a different way but on the other, I'm definitely not planning on making a stylised character any time soon. I decided to create my character in this style as I thought it would be easier to manage with the set timescale, however looking back, it would've been 1000 times easier to stick to what I know and produce a realistic character. I can happily say I left the dreaded comfort zone over the past few weeks, but I feel if I'd have stayed there I probably could've produced something I was much happier with.
If I were to change anything, I'd definitely spend more time focusing on making my idea stronger and possibly allowing myself enough time to create the same character in a different style. I feel that's what's bugging me the most, not how strong the idea is, but the actual style itself. Ugh.

I'm staying in Leicester until the 23rd so I'm planning on doing a couple of paintovers and improvements on the textures and rigging to make me feel slightly happier about the whole thing!


Week 11: A Dichotomous Post Mortem
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Week 11: A Dichotomous Post Mortem