Showing posts with label white rabbit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label white rabbit. 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, 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.