Here is a link to my new blog i made to separate my year 1 and year 2 work
3D Realisation Presentation (Final Hand In)
So this is my presentation for my final hand in for 3D Realisation. I will post screenshots and Jpegs of all my work and i will provide a copy of all my models on the disc for my final hand in.
So starting at the beginning with our first models that we did for modelling from observation.
We all drew cards and it corresponded to an item on the desk that we then had to model to the best of our abilities. (Bear in mind these are our first models that are more complex than a cube)
The first item i had to model was a toy Helicopter
I felt like this model was successful in what i was trying to achieve .
Because i had finished my helicopter i was asked to model another, soI modelled a mac mouse
After we had sharpened our skills we was then told an item in the building that we had to go and find and take our own reference photos and then model that object. However with this object we was given an additional challenge of modelling this to scale.
This was much harder to achieve a satisfying result, so i got the model as close as i could and to the best of my abilities. My object was a Loom.
The box on the right is the average height of a player in UDK
The next task we was given was to a bunch of electronic equipment in a low poly format.
So i set out modelling the objects, I started with the hardest model first so i could get to grips with it, because i had an idea of how i would go around modelling the rest.
But i will start with the 2 lowest poly models the Gamecube and the Wii.
The Gamecube (64 polys)
I wasnt fully happy with this model because i spent more time on the hardest model than i should have.
The Wii (64 polys)
This was definitely the easiest object to model
The next object was a Nintendo 64 (128 polys)
This was a much better object to model as we was allowed more polygons to make the shape more detailed.
Next was the Xbox 360 (128 polys)
This is my second best model of the low poly models
Next we have the controllers (256 polys)
Xbox 360 controller (256 polys)
I managed to get the shape right but the model is very flat and not the best
Nintendo 64 Controller (256 polys)
The same applies for this one as the Xbox controller
Guitar hero Controller (256 polys)
This is definitely my best low poly model.
After this i decided that i would continue my little project for modelling a Ditto. I have previously done a little silly shape using my kneaded eraser.
After this i decided that i would continue our session in clay modelling and produce a full 3d model of it.
And then finally i decided to model it in 3D software. I started this model in mudbox, another autodesk piece of software, and then i exported this model from mudbox into 3D Studio Max and applied a turbosmooth modifier and unwrapped the UV’s to apply a face to the model, because i couldnt sculpt the face as i would need to make the model to high a poly count to be able to render it in any decent time, and it was only mini side project.
After this the whole group had to work together on a simple 1 session task to create a garage with some items in it, but the main focus was to create hand painted textures. While everyone decided to make an item for the garage i decided that i would make a tileable texture for the walls of the garage.
After a significant chunk of assistance for a 2nd year student and some coaching for our tutor i was able to produce something that i was satisfied with
Here it is tiled
Our next and final project was the street building.
I had proposed that i would build a Pub on the waterfront
This was my first attempt, but i screwed up the topology of the model by extruding the edges of a NGon and because the extruded face has no uvw data of its own, it takes its data from the edges you extruded. and this was the outcome
After a bit of time messing with the model i decided to start again and this time not make the same mistake again.
This was the outcome of my second attempt at making this building
This looked much more simple but every time i tried to arch the door and the windows it would start bending the textures and ruining the topology of the data. so i had to compromise and not make them arched. I also changed the style of the roof so that it would fit the brief and but up against the neighbouring buildings in UDK.
With that being said i needed to make sure that this model would export successfully to the UDK.
After loading UDK i barely knew what to do, i knew how to import an object and place it on the plane, but that was my extent of UDK knowledge
This is my building un textured, i had to do some research to learn how to make my imported texture into a material and then apply it to a texture.
I finally learned how to do this and make the Material.
And this is my final building in UDK with a normal and colour map applied on it.
Thank you for listening!
Adaptation Story (Revised)
So i realised that my previous story was… Boring. I have decided to revise the story a little, more like finish the previous one as it was unfinished.
So the story that I have so far is: A village, plunged into darkness and poverty by a corrupt leader and one person has gone off to the temple of the gods in the mountain to recover an item that will help them to free their village. (In a nutshell)
To make this story a little better and linked more to stargate, i have decided that the village is not lead by a corrupt earl, but are actually tormented by a group of aliens that visit once or twice a year to take people as slaves and stop them from becoming too powerful and fighting back and to show their superiority.
There is a legend that if someone is strong enough to climb the mountain and smart enough to decipher the code written on the wall, they would be met by the gods and receive what they seek.
The earl of the village has asked for a volunteer in seeking the truth behind this legend. Straight away his daughter volunteered, but the earl dismissed her aid as he didn’t think that she had the ability to complete the challenge. Knowing that there was little time before the aliens came back and that everyone was too scared to embark on such a quest, she leaves without the blessing of her father and the fate of the villages future resting firmly on her shoulders.
The Street – Building Proposal
Building Type: A pub, 1 storey with a mansard roof in the centre with sloped roofs on the sides, aimed at serving groups of people with food and alcohol.
Period Built: The style of the building is a 20th century pub with some 21st century design. It was a Seaman’s Mission before it got re-purposed to be a pub/restaurant
Contemporary Changes: See additional notes.
State of Repair: Old and worn brick work but structurally sound.
Important External Features: Signage, a Black A Board with chalk writing on the deals of the day, hand written and a pub sign above the door. Picnic benches on the front of the building with umbrellas.
Problems to solve: The interior design of the building, however i may put some more black boards with writing on them to block the players view.
Additional Notes: A beer garden to the side of the building, with an awning/gazebo, benches with tables and a bucket of sand for the smokers to put out their cigarettes. A low brick wall with metal rails to stop people from getting in the garden.
Idents Part 5 – Typography Part 2
so i touched on this in my previous post, but i have decided that i would continue development of both company names and look into 2 very different type styles.
For Katana Studios i have decided that the typography will be closely linked to Katakana. This is a Japanese syllabary (Syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables that make up words) and the symbols have long strokes and very pointed edges
As you can see the type face that i have chosen matches the syllabary for Katakana slightly. I liked this type face simply because i has the appearance of being cut or slashed into the page.
As for LongSword i have decided to take the theme of Blackletter that has inspired most of the type faces that followed it. I wanted the style of the text to represent this type yet look more like a sketch but keep the middle age feel/style.
This is the Blackletter type
As you can see the type that i chose keeps the theme yet looks more sketchy and like a design company.
The next step i will be doing is making some storyboard sketches for a sting/ident for the company.
Idents Part 4 – Name Development
We was given the second part of our mini brief and this part seems like it will be fun to tackle. The first part (Technically part 4) we have to use methods that we have looked at before to develop a name for our production company.
The method we have looked at can be found Here.
I set out making, what can only be described as, an epic list
You have column 1 which consists of Metals, Precious Stone, Flavours, Colours & Textures. Column 2 consists of Emotions, Animals, Weather/Geographical Events, Flowers, Weapons & Appendages. With this range of things i rolled some dice and used an online number generator Which can be found Here. Through this i had made another epic list of possible names for a production company
I underlined a few that i liked and ones that worked well, I just had to bear in mind that when doing this it is not to make a final name, this is just the process to go through to start and get things going. I chose the best of these and started putting ideas together by taking the words that where in that category and replacing them with the words in the name (If that makes sense)
For example i took Bloodstone Katana (which is about half way down the first column) and i began replacing Bloodstone with other precious stones and Katana with other weapons and made some more names to see if anything pops out at me. Nothing really did, but i liked Bloodstone Katana, however a friend pointed out it was a but of a mouthful, so i dropped the Bloodstone and decided to just stick with Katana, i instantly knew what style of type i would have for this but i hadn’t drawn anything up because i wanted to see if i could change it some more.
I did a quick sketch of the style of font i would like, long line that look sort of like cuts or as if someone had pushed a Katana through a piece of paper (A Katana is a single edged blade, so it will be thicker at one edge and thinner/sharper at the cutting edge)
I then found that the name Katana was taken by a company already, so i decided that i would stick to the theme of blades and in my research into type faces i discovered the Blackletter/Gothic Type and in some more research i found that around the time this type face was used (Roughly 1150 – 1600 don’t quote me on that,) this was through the medieval period and into the renaissance period, at the same time that long swords where being used (Long swords where used late Medieval into early Renaissance around 1350-1550) That gave me a name i was happy with LongSword, before i did any sketches i did some research to find out if this name had been take and to my knowledge it hasn’t.
These are my initial sketches into the design i want for my production company.
I will be performing a lot more research on this typeface style. Both of these where found on Dafont. A website that has lots of type faces and styles of type, it is a great place to find a style you like and allow that to be a starting point of your design. This is the link to Dafont.com
The Street – Other Practitioners
We have been tasked with researching the work that other practitioners have done in a similar field, to give us an understanding of what research and process professionals have gone through in order to create realistic streets and atmosphere in games.
I have found a piece of work done by Sébastien Lagarde, in working on the Remember me game, the third part of this article looks at how different the environments are when wet, the sheer amount of reference pictures he has taken is astonishing.
This is the same scene but giving a drastic change in atmosphere, this links in with what we are doing by looking at the relationship to water and what an environment would look like wet. For instance if this street was a market that experienced a lot of rain, they may want to build some roofs and drainage system to prevent consumers from getting wet, but it looks intentionally left open to the elements and designed that way to let light in during the day and illuminated by the shops lights and signs on a night. You can see how many pictures he took for reference to make this scene here.
I will be continuing this research and finding more examples of practitioners who have looked at this urban theme.
Adaptation – Environment/Architecture (Update)
Since starting my adaptation project i have developed my idea into something radically different that what i started with. Here is my starting story for the project
This has since been adapted and worked upon to become this (Story)
With this new story i decided to revisit my whole environments.
Adaptation – Props, Objects, Vehicles (Update)
I have been working on my Adaptation project and i decided to do some drawings of props and objects that might be found in my game.
Project – Adaptation – Storyboards 101 (11/12/13)
Today in our Wednesday morning Creative Futures session we have been introduced to the idea of Storyboarding and being able to communicate, through images, a story or timeline of events effectively. We started off by talking how this technique has been used for hundreds of years in art and paintings to tell stories, this can even be linked to Egyptians and even Cavemen using images to communicate events or leaving stories of peoples lives, so that anyone can look at it and see what they had accomplished or done during the time.
We then moved on to speak about how storyboarding has been used in developing movies and games, in a game you can show, through a storyboard, the events of a fight and camera angles or player movement through the scene, or show a scene in different camera angles.
We was tasked with creating our own story board for a scene in our game, this was my outcome
I have since re-worked my whole project idea and i will be posting my updates soon.
Emerald Sword Gaming 