3D workings and Multimedia

Texture update for jeep: details, details and more details details

2012-02-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

Further workings on edges and the windows. a few extra decals and writing on bumpers.

Texture update for jeep: finishing the under carriage,window masking and body dust

2012-02-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Today I ended up finishing the rest of the under carriage blending and texturing. I them moved on to the top side paintwork covering the shell of the jeep. This of course ment that I would have to be extra careful in my approach to texturing it as players would see this more than the undercarriage. The paint as it stood for the topside looked pretty bland and needed some dirt to add to its believability. Using some decaled textures, I screened over the top to give a dusted look with the aid of the smudge and eraser tools. I created a mask layer for the wind screen to give the opacity and to gain the illusion of the existence of glass in the windscreen. I still haven't got that quite right just yet but this will, as normal, change in time. Another thing I'm not quite happy with at the moment is the wheel colour and the dirt upon it. For the mean time the textiring for the tyres will stay as it is but when the model is more complete I will come back to finish them off a bit more. Further more I have had some good comments off polycount.com following the jeeps progression that has been quite encouraging. Working so hard in my room to get employed can be a bit disheartening so getting gems off proactive practitioners is golden for your motivation.

Another Hard days work textureing.

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here is today's progression on the body work of the jeep texture. Further workings into the chassis and exhaust and a bit of work on the suspension. I got some nice detailing but I still think the overall base colour of the body work is wrong. I'll look at changing that to be a bit darker tomorrow to see how that looks on the model. Further working into completing the underneath of the model, then working on the outside look for the overall finish.

Texture update for jeep

2012-01-30T06:56:00.001-08:00

After some hard work the Jeep finally starting to take shape in its final stages. I have done quite a bit so I wont go into all the details of what I have done, but here is the images of its progression so far. I have concentrated on the under carriage trying to get at least a fair amount of the base colouring in with a bit of detail. I changed a the colour of the undercarriage as it didn't quite fit the realism I wanted. I ended up changing it to a more rustic colour. I want this Jeep to look well used by really working on the wear and tear of the vehicle. Obviously there is a fine line between over doing it and it looking great so I will have to be wary of this. More posts onto Polycount to see what others think and get some artistic feed back. watch this space for more posts over the next few days.

Wolf among sheep

2012-01-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

Saw this and it made me laugh. Clearly worthy of a blog post.

Beginings of texturing the jeep

2012-01-25T06:29:00.001-08:00

For those who have been following this blog you have been reading about the whole building process from its begining concerning the Willy Jeep. I have managed to start on the texturing recently and its starting to take shape a bit. I thought I would post up where it is up to at the moment.
I had a bit of trouble getting to grips with the creation of realistic scaring of battle and wear and tear that showed the bare metal. I originally was cloning images and painting them on with drop effects in Photoshop but this came out a bit blotchy. I then resolved to selecting the scaring on reference imaged and refining the edge using smart radius. Hey presto, realistic looking scaring.
The texturing of the jeep is still in its early days so im just trying things out on a few things to see how it looks on model. I'll post again soon with a further update of work.

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 8

2012-01-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

It seems to have been a bit of a while since I posted up here last but after finishing my work experience at Hot knife digital media, I decided to get the ball rolling again but starting back on my Jeep... Unwrapping ( insert horror music here).
Here is the first half of the Jeep unwrapped. I would have to say this is the hardest thing I have ever had to unwrap with mostly minimal distortion in the unwrapping. Another half of the Jeep to go and this will be a epic achievement. I am really starting to get the hang of all the tool set involved with unwrapping, so really feel like I have progressed doing this so far.

I recently got offered a term of work experience at Raw Games as well so things are starting to look up at least. Chance clearly favours the hard working (and persistent =))

More Work Experience!

2011-12-29T23:38:00.000-08:00

Finally got a reply from some of the companies I have been applying to and have been offered a work experience placement at Raw Games Studios. Everything is in the planning stage at the moment but I am pretty damn excited about it. Perseverance is definitely a good thing!

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 7

2011-12-14T00:57:00.000-08:00

After looking over the forum posts at Polycount I realised quite obviously my jeep was starting to look a bit like a hummer.Heres a quick resized model to be a bit more realistic to the real life proportions. Seems that one simple mistake of not getting the blue print proportions right at the start of modelling was my down fall. I'll know to check this next time.

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 6

2011-12-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

Working on the Unwrapping now but first to post the model on Poly count to get some constructive criticism from artist with vastly more experience than me =)

Work Experience Finished and now back to work.

2011-12-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

After 4 weeks of hard slog at Hot Knife Digital Media my work experience finally came to a close and it never ceases to amaze me how much there is to learn with 3D. I have learnt a lot in that 4 week slot about tricks tips and on new software usage. I think I learnt more in that 4 week slot than I did a year in my University degree which was a massive shocker. I feel alot more informed but looking at my work alongside professionals I know there is along way to go but I feel even more determined now than ever (hence the 6 30 am post =D). I'd like to say a massive thank you to the guys at Hot Knife for giving me the opportunity to work with them and for their patience of my constant assault of questions. keep posted for new workings on this blog as I plan to get a few out over the next few weeks hopefully.

http://www.hotknife.co.uk/ to check out their site.

Work Experience

2011-10-21T08:58:00.001-07:00

Thought I might post here that I've managed to bag some work experience in a digital media studio. Three to four weeks of intensified work using the Unity games engine... that im not used to.

Time to commence learning all over again and just in the middle of my Jeep project. It looks like this will have to take a a place on the back burner whilst I get to grips with this new engine.

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 5

2011-10-18T03:02:00.000-07:00

Just finalising the modelling now before the push to the next stage of dividing the model up high and low poly for normal mapping and UVW Unwrapping. The renders of the model are looking good so that's half the battle done, then the horror of unwrapping this beast into two 2048x 2048 texture squares. If I haven't posted in around a month assume I've killed myself. =)

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 4

2011-10-14T08:34:00.001-07:00

A further update of modelling. A few extra details and some of the interior, exterior and under carriage has now been put into the model.

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 3

2011-10-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

A further progress update, spent most of today getting the under carriage modelled. I'll next concentrate on getting the interior and extras on the car modelled before splitting into higher and lower poly models for normal mapping and L.O.D levels. Enjoy

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress) 2

2011-10-04T09:01:00.001-07:00

A further update in my modelling progress to bolster my portfolio. Enjoy!

Willie Jeep (Work In Progress)

2011-09-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

As my portfolio now has quite a few environments and the new ZBrush workings on it now I decided I should get down to some hard core modelling again. Here's a preview of what I have been doing.

Old African Man Sculpt final outcome. Whoop!

2011-09-21T02:44:00.001-07:00

After some playing with the lighting, adjusting some of the model (mainly the eyes) and adding some the final finishing touches this concludes some my first custom textured model completely in ZBrush, enjoy.

Old African Man Sculpt further further cont...

2011-09-20T04:59:00.001-07:00

Old African Man Sculpt further cont...

2011-09-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

further update on sculpting work. I worked a bit more on forming the ears and also skin texture. I've tried a bit more on the skin folds also. I think im done with sculpting now as I want to concentrate on learning to poly painting.

Old African Man Sculpt cont...

2011-09-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Old African Man Sculpt

2011-09-07T01:42:00.000-07:00

To further my learning into Z Brush here's another experiment that I've been doing so far. This sculpt started from a simple base mesh to were it is at the moment. Next step for this is to use Z brush to UVW unwrap, texture and normal map the model on to its lowest sub division level. Least then I will have some experience in organic high poly modelling to start pushing into hard surface modelling such as cars and weaponry.

Moving to Z Brush

2011-08-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

After my experiments with sculptress I thought that pushing into a High poly modeller would only help me to develop my Environmental Artist skills. After whipping out my anatomy book I started getting used to the tool set and user interface of a new program. After modelling a base head model in 3ds max of a very simple low poly mesh I took this over to Zbrush to start Sub Dividing and making something of the model. After getting the main human anatomy down in the mesh I started combining human anatomy with a hint of lizard but really this was pretty freestyle at the time but has produced some interesting results so far. Here is where I am so far with my model.

dragon head cont...

2011-08-17T02:08:00.001-07:00

Just got back off my hols from Tenerife, so heres another work up date from a bit more work.

dragon head

2011-08-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

A little experiment in development- sculptris software.

more development... about 2 hours of sculpting time =)

above is about 2:30 - 3 hours of work

Atlantian ruins vid

2011-07-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

Just finished off a Vid for my New Designers after some colossal un-organisational skills of my tutors leaving me little time to produce this as a back up. Just hope it fits the bill now =S

New Designers Exhibition 2011 and my new Arts Thread Porfolio site.

2011-06-20T06:57:00.001-07:00

In the next few weeks im going to be bound for London Town to represent my University in the New designers Exhibition that held once a year where all the best new British University students come and show case their work. (http://www.newdesigners.com)

I'll be heading down for the second week of the exhibition, which will be 6th to the 9th of July.

8 people from my course as well as myself get access to a portfolio site, Arts Thread, for one year so we can show potential employers what were made of. As I'm now on the search for a job this is a oppertunity not to be missed!

http://www.artsthread.com/pv/danielrohde is the address for my new arts thread portfolio. check it out.

Logo draft 2

2011-06-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

A few small changes but I hope better.

Logo draft 1

2011-06-16T01:55:00.000-07:00

So after a bit of working, tweaking and texture loving. Here is my draft one of my finished logo. Textures on the Helix needed to be altered to hide the seems running along the twisted cylinders. The tree at the start of the helix was built using speed tree modeller, and the fire effects were taken from the fire effect I had built for the UDK editor. All combined on one jumble of environmental love I think this has worked really well and communicates who I am as a prospectus games environmental artist, or just general modeller.

Working on my new logo for job hunting

2011-06-09T04:40:00.001-07:00

As its now come to the end of my degree and is slowly coming to the end of my degree exhibition its time to think seriously about job searching and my strategy. Looks like a new logo is in order to sell myself as a environment designer/ games developer. Heres a few work in progress photo's for my new alias DNA Arts.

Client Project:: A job well done

2011-04-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

Through the stress, turmoil, blood, sweat and tears, the client project has come to its finality, the level is as build as its going to be before hand in and its looking pretty swish! I was pretty disappointed to have to resort to some pre built assets towards the end to finish populating the level but if I hadn't then there would have been a big difference in the look. Over all I can say my knowledge base from when i started the project to its finish my knowledge base has grown exponentially and im hoping my work will show that too. But... thats enough of me doing the standard jibber jabba, I'll let you decide.

Monti Cristo Games studio's promotiona; dino animations for Dino Island

2011-03-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

A few little gems in animations by Monti Cristo games studio. enjoy

Live Client developmet... so far.. continued

2011-03-15T00:54:00.000-07:00

Now I had made a substantial start on the outside area with time running short and knowing how many weeks I had left I made a move and start on the construction of the challenge area one. Taking forward my knowledge of mistakes I had made on the construction of the outside area. I made sure before I started I knew what kinds of things I would be creating before hand. After recapping on my original design for this challenge ... (below) I got down to experimental building

I found 3DS Max a really good inventive tool. From my Drawings and research I could take certain aspects of things that I liked or was attracted and incorporate them into the design flow of a object as I was constructing it. after some considerable amount of building time here was a simulated look of how the environment would look like.

I quickly got on high poly asset building and texturing to create over all look.
Here are the assets from this scene in the games engine fully textured(with a design concept in there too).

When it came to the ball design I had a idea of a spindle designed ball that had water contained in the middle. The water colour in the middle would indicate the hole to shoot the ball in as the hole would be illuminated in the same colour. One ball in the correct coloured hole would open the door.

The only problem that presented this was how to create a convincing water texture using the games material editor. I will openly admit that I am pretty much a complete novice when it comes to textures in games engines. and water was going to be a challenge... and I can say with confidence I was right.

I found a tutorial in my book that covered the basics and worked through to the advanced stuff. trying to learn what each node does in UDK's plug and play, and slowly but surly this was the result of my endeavours.

a convincing water texture nether the less but I wanted to see if i could work on with what I'd learnt and to see what other people did and combine my 2 findings together to see what I could get.

eventually and with along time I came up with this.

which was a lot more tasty than the first =)

This pretty much brings me up to speed on my blog so thanks for reading an keep checking as there will be more coming up soon.

Live Client developmet... so far

2011-03-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

As its been a while since I have last posted up on my blog ill try and cover a lot of there I am at the moment in one foul swoop. Its getting close to hand in time now so heads are down getting all the final stuff made.

Basically over the last few weeks I have been making and texturing like a demon trying to get enough assets out in this small time to make this project look half good. just as a recap this is more or less what my concept design was and where I thought it was going...

So in my development process here are a few of the things i made to fit in with the outside environment.

I knew I would have to revisit the base textures at some point so as a model to test them in the world space they were fine as they were.

After getting quite a few of my assets had been made I started to get towards the construction stage just to see how it looked when it was put together.

As with most developmental processes it needed a lot of work. I had a few play experiments with how the assets could be placed as well as changing the approach to the building to give it a few of a imposing building, but to little avail. I began to look over characteristics of different cultures temple like structures to gain some influence in how to create a temple like feel to the building as one it was very ridged in its structure, and two it didn't look like a temple. After looking over my images i had come to stockpile, I came to a conclusion that I had a lot of cultural influences in my workings which could lead to a confusion in how the piece visually presented itself. However I found that Persian style architecture seemed to embody the curvaceous stylistic approach I had worked towards.

I did a bit more designing and playing around with the environment but I felt I would have to leave the outside for a later date as I now had to start working on the inside to get the main bulk up my work in place to meet the criteria of my brief. this is more of less some of the designs and state of how I have left the out side area for now.

Artifact 3 test space

2011-02-19T13:13:00.001-08:00

This is a over look of the test space for my 3rd artefact. I have given a test player 3 choices of path from the start and each employ different methods of attraction to help the player wayfind to the area they think is right. The idea is I tell the test'e that they are trapped and need to find their way out to the outside world, and I record which way they go. I want to see if there is any indication to if new gamers or more skilled gamers are more attuned to different aspects of games (sound, light and textures) when they navigate round a level. For the texture orientated path I have used decal maps of bright red arrows pointing one way. for the light orientated map I have used light shafts to draw the players eye and a bright light indicating a outside lighting. For the sound I have used common outside sounds like birds and wind which a player will experience through a 5.1 sound system. Watch this space for the results =)

first environment tests

2011-02-18T06:45:00.001-08:00

My first Environment test inside the games engine. This was to see how the textures mixed together when put next to each other. The gems on the door need darkening but the textures them selves work together quite nicely.

Asset Creation

2011-02-18T02:06:00.000-08:00

after looking over my work again I realise that my topology needed looking at so here are some optimised models as a work in progress

Finalised Show Reel

2011-02-18T01:52:00.000-08:00

finalised show reel for the newly branded, DNA Arts =]

Live Client asset building continued

2011-02-14T08:48:00.001-08:00

Another over view of a asset I've made for my live client project. From top left to bottom right the textures in a square fashion represent; diffuse, specular, normal, and displacement maps. and the final effect is represented on the right with the model complete with all maps applied to it and wire frame below. =)

P.R.P Artefact 2: World of Warcraft observation evaluation

2011-02-14T08:46:00.000-08:00

For my artefact 2 I did a similar experiment to my first artefact. This was to broaden my perception in a comparison between 2 highly popular games and their use of stratagems to help the player wayfind in an interactive space. I found out that there were common things that games conformed to which a player responded to.

The common indications that computer games conform to for wayfinding elements are; highlighted items that are of interest or progression, light formation and presentation, sound indicating the coming threats or spatial awareness and display elements on screen feeding information to the player and helping them to figure out a response to a situation. These elements however, even if presented in a different fashion between games, was really what I expected to find after finishing my research on my first artefact. I had hoped for something else to present its self as a new find to me in the realms of Wayfinding through this observation experiment.

Although from doing this artefact I realised that not all players responded to all the necessary wayfinding elements that the game presented to them, helping them to work out where to go. I found that people that have had a long history in playing games had a 'trained' mind to take in situations and scenarios, and ended up adapting faster to the games in both artefact 1 and 2. New players however missed aspects presented within games that would help them progress and took longer to acclimatise to the games they were playing. I think that this is because games designers tend to stick to set rules such as the ones that I have found from researching Wayfinding, and more experienced players have a subconscious understanding of how games designers make games. These tend to make it difficult for new players as they aren't attuned to this communicative quality in games.

Spp branding

2011-02-14T07:38:00.001-08:00

Here is my new branding logo, enjoy

Show reel 2010-2011

2011-02-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

Show reel showing work through second year and the start of third year.
For a higher res video follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XbEITo1gg

Asset Creation

2011-01-30T10:49:00.001-08:00

Carrying on from where the last post left off, with the normal map completed this lead on to the final stages of the asset creation. The Diffuse map that makes up the visible covering of the model is one of the most important things to be considered, as it makes up the look of the level and dictates along side other assets Diffuse maps, the over all feel to the game.

The images below show the process of the Diffuse maps creation. During the texturing stage like this Crazy Bump provides a quick look at what each map looks like on the model, once you import a mesh for the maps to be projected onto. The images below show the initial adding of the main texture and and use of images being transformed into size and blended in accordance to how the model has been UVW mapped.

Eventually I got to my first finished Diffuse design which can still be worked on at a later date once I start getting together my level on the games level editor.

Asset Creation

2011-01-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

Just as an update for my wall panel I'm making here are a few pictures of its progression.

The above pictures show the high and low poly models (in solid and also in wire frame) I used to create the normal map. From here I unwrapped the low poly model, moved the high poly model inside the low poly, applied the projection mod, and then used the render to texture.

This gave me quite a nice normal map result as shown by the texture applied to the low poly version below. Due to the normal map being projected onto the low poly mesh from the high poly there is no need for messy unwrapping on the high poly models.This is a good method for getting detailed models without working overboard to get them.

To easily edit the normal maps I used crazy bump to give me extra definition, as well as quick spectral, occlusion and diffuse maps. The maps created by Crazy Bump can be used as a base for building the main diffuse texture. Images below show the effectiveness of the normal map on the main model; firstly in 3ds Max without editing in Crazy Bump, then with edits in Crazy Bump.

3ds Max Image

Edited using Crazy Bump.

Asset Creation

2011-01-27T03:37:00.000-08:00

This is a sample of the pillar I have created for my Atlantis level. It is currently in its preliminary stage, and I am still not sure about its colour or texture, but that can be changed in Photoshop or Mudbox at a later date if needed. This post is more of a update as to where I am with my Live Client project so far. The wall panel concept is being built in low and high poly so that will be mapped, textured and posted soon.

Artifact 1 Evaluation

2011-01-26T09:35:00.001-08:00

For my first artifact I observed players on Left 4 Dead 2(L4D2), watching them make decisions according to how the game was communicating with them through visuals and sound. The design of the artifact worked on the 3 levels; recording the screen as they played, taking notes and self observation. Each player personally evaluated at the end the main things that helped them get to the ‘safe house’.

I felt that the experiment worked well in how I began to realise how players interact with modern day games. From what I observed and also taking what people had written in their evaluations after they had finished playing, I discovered around 15 different ways that the game communicates with players to guide them to the finish. With each player only taking about 25 to 35 min’s to finish their test and write it up, it worked as quite an effective method of testing.

The flaw in this testing is that it only approaches one genre of game, this being FPS (first person shooter) which interacts with players in a different way to other game designs like platform or 3^rd person games. I feel that the test itself worked fine but may require that I test a different genre of game to see if the way games communicate with players changes across game types.

Due to the players inexperience of playing L4D2 next time getting them to actually read the instruction manual for 5 min’s instead of me talking them through the controls before play began would give them a better chance of understanding what the game was about and different aspects of how to use the game could be employed to strategise their approach to in game play. This would perhaps mean that players concentrated less on the controls and more on noticing the ways in which the game was communicating with them in terms of wayfinding.

P.R.P Artifact One: Left 4 Dead 2 Observation

2011-01-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

For those of you who play computer games, specifically zombie shooters, you will be very well conversed with this. As I have been researching how players 'wayfind' inside computer games I set up a observation experiment where I oversaw individual people playing Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2). In this observation I aimed to critically analyse how the game Left for Dead 2 communicated with the user in telling them where they were to go. The objective for the test subjects was simple... they were told the controls, then told to make their way through a level to the finish point. L4D2 is a notoriously hard game to orientate if you A) aren't really a gamer and B) have never played it before, so in my evilness I decided that it was best to choose as many people that were either A, B or both. I thought in this way the player would have to really concentrate on what the game was telling them and not have a innate sense of where to go through having experience of playing lots of computer games.

As a part of my course I have to write a 300 word evaluation of the artifact which I will post in another post after this one, as I feel 300 words isn't enough to describe my findings.

During my observation of each player working their way through different scenarios/level segments on the game, I started to pick out common traits that players were picking up on aid their progression. Here are a few of the things that I figured out that players are hypersensitive to whilst playing L4D2 for the first time.

Screen indications of damage give a visual feed to players to let them know they have to move or take action.

On screen objectives points shown on the head up display over highlighted objects or points on the map.

Green exit lights in dark areas clearly highlight way points for players to move towards.

The novelty of killing zombies draws players into areas that they previously haven't explored, thus drawing them to the correct path by process of elimination. Dead zombie bodies in areas also let players know they have previously been in that direction.

Symbols integrated into the textures on the walls show players the direction of the safe house.

None player characters move to and talk to players about locations and items in avertedly directing players towards nearby goodies and the safe houses/ finish point.

Special enemies such as Boomers, Spitters and Smokers tend to come from the direction where you need to go to finish the level, drawing players to where they need to go through the act of killing.

Suitable lighting draws players to move towards them as its easier than travelling through darker areas with just the flash light.

Music and sounds indicate to a player what kind of challenge they have to face, as most special enemies have their own unique sound. one players have worked out how to beat individual units they set themselves up in the appropriate manor. certain music cues tell the player a horde of zombies are about to ambush them or that they are close to a extra dangerous enemy. I found that sound cues however were frequently missed when sometimes they held vital information on either where to go or what enemy they had to face, but given some experience on the game I think players would take this in subconsciously to think about what they need to do next to progress.

Characters talk to the player telling them they are hurting, in combination to heart beat sounds, indicate their health is low and that they should heal or look for health.

These were the things that I noticed whist the test subject played. Quotations in the evaluation written up afterwards by the people doing the test, shed more light on what they used from the game to help them think about what they needed to do.

"As I progressed it was much easier to predict what routes I had to follow, for example, if there was a closed door or a set of stairs. Another visual aid that helped in the mission (a part where I actually got lost) was a helicopter passing by a window, which showed zombies on the street below. This aid made it clear which route I had to take by jumping out of the window."

"I was helped at times by the "pathways" that things like buildings and cars etc created."

"You can normally tell which direction you need to be heading in by hints such as lights in levels such as the dark swamp map I played on, and the direction from which the zombies attack from normally lead to a path to the next section of the level."

" The computer AI's fighting with you will rarely help guide the way to the next section but they will sometimes run towards buildings where helpful items/weapons will be found to help on the way."

"Onscreen advice telling you where to go or which direction with an arrow key eg: Turn the alarm off"

"The lighting on the level helps when finding your way through it, the next place to go is usually fairly clear."

To bring this post to its conclusion before my 300 word evaluation post, not every player picked up on every aspect of orientation the game presented to them and sometimes this resulted in the player dying. L4D2 in my experience becomes easier to play as in time you start to adapt to how to work your way through certain scenarios. On an easier difficulties the game helps the player more in the way of where to go, to accommodate for players new to first person shooters. For example, after being lost for a certain amount of time the game displays a directional counter to point them in the right direction. Weighing this up however, designers would have to be careful not to take the challenge away from the game, as doing so would quickly wear off the novelty of owning zombies.

Asset Creation

2011-01-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

For those of whom are following my blog my Live Client is full swing into production. The bain of most 3d artists is learning unwrapping techniques properly, as it is a lengthy process to learn effectively. From my previous posts you have seen my door model, to which here are the finished moving parts of the door, with all the maps applied (normal,diffuse,specular,custom light maps). Using a combination of Photoshop, 3dsmax, and UDK editor here are the assets in the game editor. The first image shows the door closed and second shows the door open.

Image 1

Image 2

Normal Mapping

2011-01-14T05:53:00.000-08:00

As a part of building assets, getting used to different styles of mapping seems to be a necessity. Normal mapping is where a high poly object is projected onto a lower poly model to give the illusion of a higher poly piece using less geometry.

Here is a image of the wire frames of my concepted door concept (see older posts) and another with the normal maps applied. Enjoy!

Wireframe Image

Normal Mapped Model

Beginnings Of Concept Finalisation

2011-01-08T04:29:00.000-08:00

The identity of the game so far is starting to shape up quite nicely, so now to get more of a idea as to what the game flow is going to look like, I drew up the best ideas I had on mini games. This so far brings my blog up to date.

I have been working on my Personal Research Project in the time since my last massive upload onto my blog so im going to see if I have the OK to post that up here before my hand in on January 10th.

Idea Building for Live Client Project

2011-01-08T04:10:00.000-08:00

With my baseline research together with reference images and ideas beginning to formulate, the time came to get out the trusty pencils and pen and put those ideas on paper. My ideas for this game were starting to formulate around a multi room puzzle game, each room presenting a element of skill and problem solving applied in a different way to progress to the next stage or room. For this kind of idea for the game to work I had to get lots of ideas down as possibilities as potential problems and challenges I could build using the games engines systems I had most understanding of. The sketches below show some of my ideas I bashed out as preliminary ideas.

Now I had some preliminary ideas down it was time to take a quick break from them to consider which ideas were going to work best in the game. In this break I cracked out some rough designs on designs of items that could be made to go in and stylize the game. These designs are shown below.

Live Client Project: Initial Research

2011-01-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

As with all projects its good to start at seeing what other people have produced on the subject area I will be making things for. As the theme set out by the brief is Atlantian, here are some of the images I looked at that other artists have done on conceptualising the Atlantis style.

Looking at the different conceptual designs it was clear to see most people had used either Roman or Aztecan style architecture as a base to build on their concepts. From this I went and searched into images on Roman and Aztec structures and buildings. Here are a few of the research images on their areas.

With these images as a reference point, I could now start to think about how I wanted the level to feel and also how I am going to go about structuring the puzzle and skill games that were going to be built into the overall game.

Live Client Project: Brief

2011-01-08T03:37:00.000-08:00

For one of my projects in my final year I have to gain a client that works in the industry to over see the working progress of a project, that could in theory be used by them professionally. After much searching for a client, I finally got a brief that I could work to that is outlined below.

Brief description of the business need.

Design, build and construct a working computer game level.

The theme that will run throughout the game will be based on Atlantian Ruins

The aim of the project is to create a original map based on either a new game or pre-existing game.

The map can be of any style of play or design.

The level should be geared to target audience ages 12 and above, including intuitive design features that will challenge a player's in problem solving.

Design elements must be conservative to accommodate for medium spec computers to produce minimum lag.

A development diary must be kept to show the clear choice of design and development for the theme in achieving the best possible feel to the game.

Pre-existing assets (that have permission to be used) can be used but must be made up of mostly original assets.

Brief description of the multimedia products to be produced. E.g. website with database or broadcast quality format video or 3d animation of 30 seconds length etc.

Working model that can be played on hand in on disk at submission .

Full design diary or blog submitted with final product showing conceptualisation, design flow and problem solving throughout the project.

This pretty much sums up what I will be working to for the next 10 term time weeks. This should help people who are following my blog see what I am working to =)

Life Drawing and random sketches

2011-01-08T02:54:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests I've been doing some work outside my course to keeping my drawing skills up. Here are some of the images. Enjoy =)

simulated client project and summer work continued post 3, story boards

2010-10-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

As a supplement to the visual and audio aids inside the level I have designed I thought with a strong story line to work alongside the game it would push the moral understanding further than if the game just stood by itself. Here are a few story boards that I produced to give a preliminary introduction before the level that's a prologue for the main story, before it brings the player to the present with the present time. Please excuse the dramatic writing as I am by no means a script writer. The images are pre-existing images pulled off the internet to give a round about idea to the visuals that would be used in the cinematic, not as an overall representation, as most are just Google searched.

Opening Cinematic

Ending cinematic

I thought that with the aid of these cinematics the player would really get a sense that through playing the level and ignoring what the facility, protecting the corperation's hard work; they could really get a feeling that what they have done was wrong, in turn supplementing the subconscious learning aspect to the level.

simulated client project and summer work continued

2010-10-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

continuing for the last post and the concept map drawing, I began to build my map from scratch. after a few teething problems with ut3 editor I transferred my work to UDK editor, I began sculpting the map terrain. I already had the idea for a hidden base in a jungle environment to make it see, like the corporations hiding the software were going to large lengths to protect their software, but also thought it controversial as a representation of all the treasure Britain still retains from other cultures that we are slowly giving back over time to the country's of origin taken at the times of the British empire. The route to the base was going to be quite linear so to make orientation though out the level pretty one way to the objective.

I progressively started building up the level bit by bit. adding different variations of static meshes making the environment more believable as I went.the working process is represented below in chronological order of photos.

so after all the static meshes had gone I worked on the lighting and special fx of the level and this pretty much brings me up to date with where I am ..... few lol

I'm currently working on new static meshes to go into my map so im sure there will be a new post about that soon. cheers =)

simulated client project and summer work

2010-10-21T01:33:00.001-07:00

So final year begins and im not going to hide that im scared as hell! summer was a fun filled experience being back in my time warp town of which the people get older but don't move on much. Moving away from the drama and drabness ill start with my work over summer.
Over summer with the long hours of work trying to earn back some of my student overdraft I managed to draft up a sketch of a level design and build the geometry in unreal tournament 3 editor. this was based off a similar drawing but was revised to a design i thought would better work to help the movement about the map. as the only map really i have made was more of a way to show off my skill set in using the tool set I wanted to make a playable level this time. Here was the sketch of the revised level from top view.

The original design was based on a one floor approach where moving from room to room in a lateral sense was how you orientated the level. I felt that could be a bit restricting on the design over all so I devised this rough multilevel to encourage a high level of movement and ultimately more intense game play. This however was a very rough sketch, and as all rough sketches they always change in the process in the attempt to make it a more successful test project.
the images below show the build process of the level and the relevant changes in top, side, front and perspective views.

As you can see from the pictures of the top view they no longer really look like the original design. As i was following some of my ideas from the original idea I saw ways to utilize the space to give a freer flow of movement to the player. I started to apply materials and textures to the walls before static meshes but it came to the time of going back to uni so everything holted to pack move an settle in in my new fantastic flat! (good student digs are always a must)

First lecture in and a new project is set and with a four week turn around to boot. Time to start the ball rolling to how I will be in the rest of this year head down engrossed in work. as much as student can be I suppose =)

Our brief is to tackle the issue of/or informing about piracy, such as digital piracy in what every way we want. A pretty open project as we could choose to go pro or against piracy. Leaving this decision to students to make that kind of decision may have been a mean one as in little more than 6 months we will be looking for jobs it may be frowned upon if we decided to back piracy.....
So naturally my thought process was to incorporate being a digital pirate into a game (lets see how that works out for me =S).

I have never really had to think about a set story line into my games before as I have never really considered the idea of being a games story boarder and most of my experience was in the death match multiplayer area of games. There are probably too many multi player map designers coming out into industry so i thought i would try and push the boundairys a bit and design a objective style map where a player works towards a finish point getting collectables enabling the finish point after a certain number are collected.

Considering my brief I was working to in all of this, keeping in context its piracy nature, I went about setting some kind of storyline to work to before I went about the whole design. I am still amazed even to this day the learning potential of games as a whole. I find in enthralling that a child of 5 to 7 can have such a intricate knowledge base through playing games learning things that maybe a child that didn't play games would not. Most computer game playing children have a extensive knowledge of weapons in first person shooters that are real life weapons today, they also know about ancient civilizations that they explore that they may not learn about until older or studying history of cultures. Just through the interaction of the game they can learn so much about any era of subject matter the game is based on.

Taking things a bit more out of concept, Disney films old and new play on moral teaching to enhance their storyline, such as love and hate and good overcoming evil. Even though the child isn't actually engaging with the film for the moral understanding, me as a kid never watched it for the morals but more the interesting characters an animation, but the engagement causes a subconscious knowledge of right and wrong or what ever the films message was about.

In a similar way to the learning process of computer games and moral understanding in the subconscious I thought that I would put the player in the persona of the pirate trying to steal a piece of software, but through out game play informing players of consequence of what their damage their actions of stealing are causing through sound lighting and visuals.

I had a idea of a story building movie setting the scene of a money starved culture where stealing in any sense was become more prevalent. police were now becoming less powerful as they are now stretched capacity. corporations realising the instability's start moving underground to protect themselves and their products. piracy for many is a very tempting outcome of the modern society, making lifestyle cheaper and rich with accessibility, but not without great risk. The player is a pirate that has come to a far out and hidden facility so steal software for money, but finds that the consequences of his actions causes more instability to society causing corporations to go into liquidation, causing humanity to go into regression. Ultimately the player would move towards becoming a saviour by taking back from pirates what they stole and returning the vital developments back to the corperations to atone for his sins.

Being realistic a game of that much intensity isn't what i could do start to finish in 4 weeks so i wanted to do like the prologue where the pirate steals the software sucsessfully whilst playing through the level I was to design and sends the world into chaos, as this holds the most weighting morally of the game.

few now that the explanation of my thought process is over now to some of the designs. =D
this is a top down view of my original design of the map lay out

animation complete

2010-05-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

lovely cup of tea project by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

lovely cup of tea project 3 by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

lovely cup of tea project 2 by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

lovely cup of tea project 4 by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

This concludes second year. scarily fast which isn't cool but... anyway enjoy!

Hi Res Renders

2010-05-25T01:56:00.001-07:00

more airport Hi Res Renders. this brings this project to a close now. hope you like what you see

airport design 3 by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

airport design 4 by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

Hi Res Renders

2010-05-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Exactly what it says on the tin! deal
airport design by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

airport design 2 by ~reaperreal on deviant ART

Airport the finished animation!!!!!! whooooooop

2010-05-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

The final finished product. Enjoy!

Night scene light working for the Airport

2010-04-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of the lighting going into a night scene. The test was to deem how lights mixed on the fore ground of the mountain and to realise how to highlight the architectures organic flowing nature onto the mountain. The idea of the design was to keep the building flowing like freshly dropped snow onto a mountain, pretty much seamless, rolling and untouched. I think that the shadows emphasis the natural feel for the building to be there which was something I wanted to get out of this. there is still alot of inside lighting to go yet to get it looking right inside the scene but as far as the ambient lighting goes im pretty happy so far.

To pronounce the mountain that was seeming to be lost in a black abyss, I used a omni with the shadows turned off in a deep blue colour to emulate the glaze of the moon washing onto the snow. This highlighted the mountain a little more so to set the scene. This was shown in the third image but I still think the light needs toning up a little into a lighter blue

2010-04-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

here's some updated photo's of the scenes of some of my projects. their coming along slowly but im finding that different renderers are better at certain things than others. im using the default scan line for my animation for the speed of its rendering an mental ray for its accurate photometric calculation of light passing through glass.

Thipit the tea loving demon

2010-03-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

for some reason the images always seem darker when I upload them but here's the finished character Thipit.

Thipit my new animation model is almost finished!

2010-03-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Again i seem to be skirting round posting my progress up on all my projects but here's a update on what I've been doing with my animation project. The rigging is complete and all of the envelope editing is done, so the character now has fairly believable movement without folds of the skin and massive imperfections. So some good headway! I realised that I turbo smoothed after I added the skin modifier which wasn't really how we have been taught to do it, but in the long run I think it made it easier to edit the envelopes on the rig. I tried switching it over but it ruined all the envelopes I had edited and was really hard to alter to get them to work again to I decided to just keep it as it was. Its made it harder to model the final out of the character look as Fine tuning the model with the extra vertexes would have made it easier, but because of this I have to keep making small changes and putting turbo smooth on to see how it has affected what the model. I think im stronger in doing the small tweaks in modelling but I've got used to how turbo smooth interacts with a base model so its worked out better that i made this mistake. Noted for the future though =D anyway here are some pics of the model so far. im just about to do some morphers on it to give the character some interesting facial expressions so thats why there are the floating heads in the scene.

Airport design continued

2010-02-18T04:04:00.001-08:00

here's the latest update of how my main building of my airport is coming along.
there's a few thing that need changing but its pretty much all there

Airport design continued

2010-02-18T02:55:00.000-08:00

I recently posted up some of my initial ideas and influence for my airport but didn't post up any of my other stuff I had done at that time so this is like my catch up session.
After doing my research I started to formulate what I wanted to get out of this design. I wanted it to have a flowing organic feel that expressed in itself its elements of futuristic design. With all architecture the design is built around its purpose so I looked into peoples ideas of futuristic transport.From looking at these I realised that convensional shaped craft in the future would probably not exist as planes may then be vertical take off and have some sort of anti gravity function (being all sci fi like =D) i thought this would aid my design of my airport as this would be based in a mountain. On snowy peaked mountains there is obviously little ground to build run ways so a vertical take off hanger would fit quite nicely into my design aspects.
I started dgetting initial ideas drawn downI started to draw out ideas from my head to get some initial ideas down. and what I came up with after a while of drawing was this...After I finished doing this design I knew this was perfect for what I wanted to achive from this airport. the curves were organic in their look and looked similar to avalanche precautions they put over the top of roads to stop them being cut off and blocked if a avalanche occurs.

The hanger was going to have to be a special kind if it was to accommodate for V.T.O's taking off and landing in it. I designed a revolving hanger bay that spins to accomodate mor planes at its front. It shelters planes one inside by keeping them away from the elements as only a limited fraction of the hanger is visible to the cliff face, and with closable doors at its front its protected there too from the snow. this is what it looks like...

animation of the lovely cup of tea

2010-02-18T02:31:00.000-08:00

For my animation project I have to design a character making a cup of tea in the most inventive way that I can. I started to sketch out a few designs of my character and this is what I came up with. I realised this wasn't the sort of ergonomic design in which we were getting taught how to build our characters after the first few weeks of tutorial, rig them with bones, but then again I've never taken the easy way with any of my projects so far.

I started to get my ideas down on a page in a spider diagram, more for myself just so i could see what ideas I had down in front of me. If there was any influences I think I should look at at least they are in some sort of list ect.

With my general ideas down i did a story board of how I envisioned the animation should/will look by the end of my animation.

Whist doing all these designs I had already started to make my character. Here is a picture of my fully rigged character.

This is my progression so far with this project. Ill put my next post up soon. =D

Airport design

2010-02-02T01:04:00.000-08:00

It seems to have been a little while since I've posted up anything on here. after the finishing of my last projects, (which i need to post on my blog) we've now been given new projects of building a futuristic airport, making a cup of tea in the most inventive way that we can, a board game and a 3000 word essay on my development as a multimedia practitioner. I thought I'd kick my first post off with talking a bit about my thoughts for my airport.

I'm pretty heavily involved with my university's snow sports club and every year we have to endure the same 20-24 hour coach journey to the resorts located in the French Alps. What i thought was that there was a definite lack of direct travel to resort to make travelling more..... painless. My initial idea was to build a airport directly into the mountain as I thought by this point planes wouldn't be restricted by run ways and would probably be vertical take off.
This gave me the idea for a hanger that was stacked not in in rows along the ground, but in a vertical fashion, on-top of one another where the taking off points extend and retract to give planes easy take off and landing points.

For a starting point I gathered some initial photo's of existing air ports, mainly from aerial view to begin to get a feel for how a present airport it built and laid out.

I also wanted to get a feel for how the architecture was like inside airports so i started to gather some images on buildings that are in everyday airports like radio towers and waiting rooms ect....

I realised these were pretty good examples of today's use of buildings on architecture but I started to wonder, if in the future things are going to change so much, how will airports, if there are still uses for airports, change. Will there still be uses for passport checks or will there be some other form of checking, how will security checks have changed, will their be long waits and needs for large waiting rooms, will airports be like taxi ranks as transport may be so efficient the may no longer be need for larger planes but many small ones? I feel these are all valid questions that i will have to figure before I really start to design the lay out of my airport.

first render output tests on over ground rollercoaster scene.

2009-12-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

here are a few previews of my track above ground. to down size the file's im doing 3 renders where im joining up the files on final cut pro to make the complete animation. this enables me to do individual lighting for each scene rather than having to do it on one land scape. hopefully this will work better than what i've been doing before.

2009-11-25T17:09:00.001-08:00

here's a picture of my finally modeled robot. iv got a few more things to do to him but he's pretty much done =D

2009-11-23T09:18:00.000-08:00

part of tutorial lesson in animation. just a quick test to get used to the movement of the robot rig

unreal tournament level update

2009-11-09T02:45:00.000-08:00

After posting up my drawn out designs of a computer game level. here are a few pictures of the main floor that i've constructed and started putting in static mesh's. its only rough working at the moment but I'm pretty positive that this is going to be a pretty awesome level so I have high hopes on how it's going to turn out when it's done.

2009-11-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

this is a pic of my concept track. just to bang it down on my blog as a work in progress.

Mental Ray light testing

2009-11-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a light test that i did with mental ray trying to emulate a ocean scene. Im currently doing a tutorial i found on the net to add rays into the lights which ill post soon. I recon this is the effect that ill be looking for when i do my final animation of the rollercoaster. adding some density into the lights will give the cloudy effect of water and changing the enviroments colour should give a better over all look.

Computer Game Level Design

2009-11-01T07:58:00.000-08:00

These are a few of the pictures of draft levels iv done. they are a fairly rough but a start but i think this has been a better concept than my last one. I'v still got to present it to brad my games lecturer to see what he thinks but im going to still build the base geometry. when i run round it ill know how well it flows as a game to decide what kind of level type it cou;d be used for.

robot animation, the foot

2009-11-01T01:49:00.000-07:00

with the continuation of building my robot here's a post showing the foot segment of my robot design. after the leg tutorial it helped to pinpoint hwere pivot points had to be placed in order to be put together for the final model.

2009-10-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

Game City is back in nottingham again! After a brief visit to the tent in the market square i came across a mass gaming experiment, 50 players playing a ever changing flash style game. every 5minsthe game is changed by the players voting for a game of choice from a selection screen. i sat down to try it out playing a game called fall down. The game is pretty simple fall down the gaps in the floor as the floor moves upwards towards spinning disk blades..... sounds simple? Well with 50 players spotting your avitar is really hard and with a ever increasing speed of the floor it becomes a frantic battle for survival. The game went through various changes with the avitar speed being accelerated and decreased challenging the player in a stratigic route or just blinding speed choice making. The game was halariously great and really worked because of the mass communial play. If you haven't been to it get yourselves down there and check it out!

2009-10-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

This is one of the quick tutorials that i did for visualisation with soft selection. This is going to be a large portion of whats going to make up the enviroment accompanying my rollercoaster enviroment maybe lofting a tube round the track and using soft selection to manipulate the tube into a more natural organic look. I used NURMS subdivision to give a smoother out look. thou i don't think that'll be needed when i do the inside of the cave as rocks are more jagged and sharp shapes in a cave enviroment.

2009-10-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

after doing the hand rigging tutorial i felt like i needed to go through the tutorial again to get a better understanding of the process of putting it together. after finishing the construction i wanted to try my hand at some animation to get a feeling for it. here's one of my test runs. i found that there's alot more to animating than i thought. there's alot to concentrate getting the movements in a organic way.

Roller coaster concept cont....

2009-10-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

With a good stock pile of images being a basis to work off when modeling the enviroment i wanted to get a better idea of what kinds of roller coasters were actually out there in real life.
youtube was a great resourse to dip into to get actual on coaster footage.
this was one of the video's i came across

roller coaster concept.

2009-10-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

Just to get some of the ideas down that i think will be things for me to consider whilst doing the rollercoaster enviroment and design i thought it'd be best if i just blurted it down on here.
With both space and underwater their is alot to consider with the lighting and enviroments in mind to make the scene believeable and work in a rollercoaster animation.
Lighting underwater varies alot dependant on depth so i decided that it'd be best to get together some research on enviroments by stock pilling some photo's off the internet to get a feeling as to how things are in real life.

Here are a few of the pictures that I aquired from searching off the internet. These photo's show the specular propertys of light being refracted by the waters surface to create quite a beautiful lighting. Within 3dsmax im not quite sure how i'd go about recreacting these kinds of effects but this will be something to look into but I think doing something in after effects may be a easier way of producing some of the larger changes. Plus it'd probably save me a bundle of time in rendering and computing power too.

The more i keep thinking about this project the more I like the idea of a underwate cave theme. I think this would give me alot of playing power with the design of the track enviroment. The thought of weaving in between stone pillars in a vast dark cave where they become visable only a few milliseconds before you pass them from the ambient lighting of the carrage or a quick twist in the track that sends the rider down a crack in the cave straight into a underwater section gives me a real passion to get on with this to see how it turns out.

2009-10-17T04:49:00.000-07:00

For my robot animation i have been set iv started just modeling some parts out so i can get a feel as to how its all going to come together.

they're still very rough thou this is the jet pack and knee node iv designed. i still have more work to do on them thou its a start.

Im still not sure about the back pack whether its over the top for a cartoon style animation. but maybe the serious nature of it will work well in a out of context situation so ill make a choice whether to keep it of not later once iv assembled all the parts of my robot together.

For the Knee joint I thought a floating segment would work pretty well. I think this will help my characters cartoon apearance as i could give the charicter to exagerated but believeable movements and make it seem realistic. I can just see him doing a robot style brake dance now =).

its pretty hard to visualise how the walking movement will turn out once i've animated it with a floating knee joint, in the way that it would look right. I may have to do a solid leg design just in case but i feel its to earlie to tell.

2009-10-15T08:11:00.001-07:00

This was a quick build exersise from images given by our lecturers. It was a fun problem solving project that took about 25 mins.

3D modeling of a truck

2009-10-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first experiments i did with 3dsmax. i got a hold of some schematics of a truck (front, top and side) and built the truck from scratch.
im not sure wheather to attempt to texture it as with building this i feel i'v learnt alot through doing it but i short cutted a few things where i didn't know what to do so when i unwrap it i know its going to mess up. I think it looks ok just by itself as a first go but i think i could definatly do it again and do it better next time.

Unreal tournament editor 3 animation

2009-10-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

For my level i put together a animation sequence leaving up to a door opening giving access to invunrability. i thought it would to have 2 animation sequences running off each other. one to start the sequence that hid the dragon ( that symbolized the fire trap if trapped inside beforethe doors closed) and the other of the mechanics that oppened the doors with multipule cog movment. all in all about 130 moving parts. here's some stills of the opening sequence.

Unreal tournament editor 3

2009-10-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

With knowing i was going to start a new course that I'd never done before i knew i would be behind on a few things that people will have covered in the previous year. to get my self up to spead i started to learn how to build computer game levels on unreal tournament 3. Learning to use unreal tournament 3 introduced me into motion graphs and simple animation that prepared myself for 3dsmax so if your new to the area i recomend getting the collectors edition of unreal tournament and sitting through the 60 hours of tutorial that they have on there. not only does it teach you all of the tools but it give you a real head for how to put together a real level with mesurments in mind. It was a lenghty process but here are some of the images of the finished results.

Orrery

2009-10-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is the first exersise that we did just to get us back into the swong of things getting us used to rigging up models so move together.
applying lathe and loft modifers to make the base and legs and copying the spheres and reducing the size of them making the modle was pretty simple. With being fairly new to animation