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!

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.

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?

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Week 29: Can it please just be over?

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So I'm surrounded by Easter eggs and life couldn't get much better right now. So much chocolate. Anyway, it's the last week of the holidays and I'm super bored now. I just want to be back at uni. I mean, I've been in the labs the majority of the time but it's just not the same.

As well as writing essays, sorting out presentations and continuing with OTM, I've actually been trying to set aside an hour or two a day to do some paintings. I'm soooo happy I've done this, as I seem to feel a lot more positive about everything! God knows why. Today I've done two animal studies from the game 'Road Not Taken' - if you haven't played it, you should. Cutest game ever!

"I'm scared of her...she's like the big bad woof" 

On Thursday the 9th, I had the opportunity to go to a Q&A session with Nolan North - hosted by Sony - in London. Best. Day. Ever. The event was amazing in itself and I still feel so overwhelmed by the whole experience, but it was just SO nice to just be able to get out and explore such a big city. We also visited a few museums throughout the course the day - the Natural History Museum, The Wallace Collection and finally the Science Museum! However, we only spent around half an hour in the science due to timing. Wah. Also, being on the tube at rush hour is so not cool. 

I've got too many ideas on what I want to do my presentation on, and I can guarantee that I'll only decide around 3-4 days before *sigh*. I used to love being given free reign when it comes to choice, but this was just a big lump of no. However, I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable with my essay now too, I've finally realised what it is that I want to do with my life and what I need to do in order to achieve it. In a way, writing this essay has helped me to sort my life out. Two birds with one stone hey. 

But apart from that, my Easter has been pretty uneventful. I ate way too much chocolate and got a bit fat. That's what Easter's all about though, right?

Week 26, 27 & 28: Have I eaten too much chocolate? Probably.

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Week 26, 27 & 28: Have I eaten too much chocolate? Probably.

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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.

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Week 25: Alphas are wonderful things.

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Following on from the recent assessment, I've been advised to make an action plan for the next stage. This will help me decide which areas of my work need to be improved and how I can improve them. The two projects marked at this stage were the container city and the dichotomy character so I'll mainly be creating this plan based on the feedback I received on these specific projects.

Technical Aspects to improve on:

• Seam placement – For the dichotomy character project, I’d unwrapped her pretty badly, and decided to put a seam straight down the middle of her forehead. This meant that the normal maps were shading horribly in both 3DS Max and engine and was something that could’ve easily been avoided. 
• To improve - I plan on resubmitting the character project at a later stage, so this will give me the chance to fix up all the awkwardly placed seams. The main one I'll need to correct is the seam placed down the middle of the forehead.

So gross.

• Texturing – Texturing is possibly one of my weakest points, and is something I’d definitely like to improve on in the near future. The textures on the dichotomy character looked a bit too flat and there was no real material definition.
• To improve - In order to achieve this, I've been advised to look at different methods of how other people produce hand painted textures etc. and follow a similar workflow. I’m also planning on looking into colour zones to make my textures a little more interesting and less flat.

Stick leg.

• Anatomy - Emma pointed out that some areas of the model were too 'straight'. For example, the calves looked way too flat, no curves were included to suggest muscles. 
• To improve - I mentioned earlier that I was planning on redoing the character, this means I'll be able to fix all of these issues and look into the flow of topology around joints to ensure she deforms correctly.

Action Plan for the Next Stage

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Action Plan for the Next Stage

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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

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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

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Week 23: 2spooky

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How is time going this fast? It feels like the deadline is next week already, send help.

So you know the rabbit I was remodelling last week? Here he is all finished and pretty. I'm a little happier with how this guy turned out - the topology seems to have a more consistent flow to it and he'll be soooooo much easier to rig! I haven't put any clothing on him yet as James wants him rigged and put in engine ASAP.

I started a basic rig on Friday so I can start animating him on Monday. Apparently in the new update of UE4, it's possible to animate within the engine. LIFE. MADE. I wasn't sure how to tackle the rigging at first, bones or CATrig wise. I've never done the latter of the two before, so I decided to give it a go anyway. Sweet Jesus it's so much fun. Everything is a funky colour and is 10x easier to place than regular bones.

Well. It might've been easier to place, but it didn't last long. Firstly, Max kept moaning at me that there were issues when exporting, which I was told to ignore, but that was nothing compared to the nightmare I had when importing into UE4. Apparently, at some point I'd managed to include multiple roots within the rig. God knows how. But it sent everything to hell. It didn't really help that after 2 and a half hours searching for something that might help, I still hadn't found a fix.

Brilliant.

Week 22: UE 4.7? Hallelujah.

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Week 22: UE 4.7? Hallelujah.

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