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Thursday, 20 December 2012

XB2002 - Robot Modeled

Upon completion of my Mulefa I then turned my focus to the second task for the semester, the Ashley Wood Robot. The robot I had chosen was the Mk 3 Bertie, Mode A armed with a spas-12 shotgun, as I really liked the look of it with it's green colour pattern (which is the Marine I believe) and shotgun at hand I really couldn't resist.



The sketch I did of Bertie a while back

Robot Blueprint
Below is the finished modeled robot, however the tri count was far too high for it to be the final piece at over 3000 tris, a 1000 over my limit.


Shoulder Joint
As you can see in the above shoulder joint there is a high concentration of polys (never mind tris) and there were 8 of these in total as I simply copied and pasted the objects around the model, so this was one of the first things to change.

Newer, Simpler Shoulder Joint

So unfortunately I had to remake the robot from scratch, however I was able to complete the second one much quicker as it was a simpler model but also because I knew how to model it from the first.


I was very happy with how the robot came out in the end as I feel it is a much simpler and much more successful model coming easily under 2000 tris, excluding the shotgun of course because I couldn't resist putting in lots of detail into it. Next step, texturing!

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

XB2002 - Mulefa Unwrapped and Textured

After modelling the Mulefa all I had to do then was unwrap it and texture it. As I had created the main body and head as a separate object from it's legs, horns and ears, I used 2 separate unwraps to texture it.

For inspiration for a colour scheme for the Mulefa I looked at carious animals such as hippos, elephants and pigs. However it didn't quite seem right as the Mulefa, with it's claws, didn't seem to suit the colour scheme of a herbivore, so I looked at other references and happened upon a very simple colour scheme used on some dinosaur drawings with a simple green body with a yellow underbelly.
Body and Head Unwrap with Ambient Occlusion


Legs, Eyes, Ears, and Horns Unwrap with Ambient Occlusion

I was very happy with the way the textures came out and I really wanted to have a good amount of space for the eye so I was able to put a lot of detail into it. My only annoyance would be the trouble some of the ambient occlusion maps gave me as they would give off dark areas where there shouldn't have been at times, though this was editable within photoshop.

I did however completely forget about the wheels of the Mulefa, so I was forced to quickly model and unwrap them and texture them as well. However as they are rather simple shapes it didn't take long to do them, however I felt that the ambient occlusion maps didn't quite work on them either, and I'm guessing this is due to the mirroring in the wheels.

Wheel and Claw Unwrap with Ambient Occlusion
After creating the hand painted textures I then used crazy bump to quickly make my normal maps for added detail on the Mulefa.

Normal Map of Body Unwrap

Normal Map of Legs, Eyes, Ears, and Horns Unwra

Normal Map of Wheel and Claw Unwrap
 I was very happy with the way my normal maps came out and also how quickly they were made using Normal Bump. I felt that I was able to create some really cool looking textures for my Mulefa and I hope that the extra detail stands out.

Below is my finished Mulefa which all in all I am very happy with, as I think it looks great, I feel that my skills in modelling and unwrapping have significantly improved since last year and I look forward to improving my skills further.

My finished Mulefa

XB2002 - Mulefa Modelled

Once I had the blueprints and began modelling the Mulefa was completed fairly quickly as the blueprints proved to be very very helpful in the modelling process.


 



I think that the Melufa turned out very well and I am very pleased with my modelling skills as I was able to accomplish the task well within my tri count of 2000 with the model totaling to 1800 tris, hence why I felt I had the luxury of modelling eyes and eyelids into it.

Thursday, 13 December 2012

XB2001 - Game Concept Doc. Environment Mockup

Below are a couple of screenshots I've taken from the UDK scene which would be fairly similar to how I imagine the game would look like with dense vegetation and very few signs of civilisation, portraying a very harsh and animalistic environment.











To say the least I'm very happy with how this turned out, I will most likely photoshop one of these screenshots for a front cover, and I'm very happy with my skills in UDK which is definitely something I want to improve upon.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

XB2001 - Game Concept Document

Our next task is to create a Game Concept Document of a game idea I would wish to create. Rather than simply choosing any ole thing I thought I would take this task as an opportunity to explore an idea I've had in my head for some time and see how it fleshed out.

The idea of the game itself is a combination of several ideas and thoughts I have randomly come up with or thought of for some time now. Whilst playing through Amnesia: Dark Descent I was simply compelled to make a horror title (a long long way into the future now) as I simply found the gameplay completely unique. Amnesia to this date (12/12/12 by the way) is the one game that I have been scared and felt fear whilst playing it, something that Dead Space or Resident Evil failed to do and something which I felt was a bit of a niche market, which was evident as Amnesia was ranked 8th Top Rated game on steam at the time.

Over time multiple little ideas filtered into the general game idea, such as a the way the fog-horn like sound of a walker from "Falling Skies" caused the human rebels to flee as the sound of the droning getting louder as it got closer and closer to it's victims. Or the twisted and dark environments within Snow White and the Huntsman (girlfriend made me go to it, not my choice), or even how the sound of something following you, (but never revealing itself, like a schemer) and making little skulking noises and the sound of claws on stone bricks could apply stress and fear into a player, maybe even drive them to paranoia within the game.

Without delay I began working on the document and figuring out what exactly this game was that I thought was a good idea and what exactly would make it good, which turned out to be harder than I thought as I had never stopped to consider the specifics such as where this all took place, what setting was it in? Or even simple things like what was the protagonist called and why were they going out on this quest? I first started answering these questions with, what is the game called?



"Pernicious is a Horror Survival game set within the harsh fantasy world of Sarenus where the player must survive the dark wilderness and its inhabitants whilst completing tasks for the welfare of their people.


Sarenous is a dark and cruel world where mankind are at the bottom of the social ladder, merely cheap labour and entertainment for the Mesne, a rich and noble race of reptile-like humanoids who rule the lands from their fortress-like cities, leaving man to fend for themselves against the horrors of the outside world. The player’s character, Ferad, becomes unusually adept at surviving out in the wilderness and is employed full time to a Mesne Barron who promises to aid mankind in return for Ferad’s help. Ferad must move quickly and cautiously to achieve his objectives, all the while exploiting the environment to survive the wilderness."

 Mechanics, USPs, gameplay ideas will need refining although I feel that it shouldn't be a problem since I've lulled over ideas and things every now and then for some time, but for now below are my moodboards for the Game Concept Document detailing elements such as gameplay, interaction and environments.

Environment
The environments Pernicious would be set in would revolve around large bastion, fortress cities where the Mesne would live each surrounded by some minor human villages and dense deciduous forests.


Gameplay
Gameplay would involve the crossbow being the main weapon, however the game would by no means be as action oriented as say Skyrim but rather the crossbow would be used to slow enemies down or alternatively wound the prey of a predator, allowing you to escape.


Interaction

Whilst there would be lots of interaction between the player and the predators of the forests, there would also be lots of interactions between the different animals within the forests, as well as the interaction between the poor humans and the weather Mesne who look down upon them.
 

That's all for now although I will try to keep this blog more up to date in the future.

XB2001 - UDK Pirate Assignment (cont.)

I wasn't overly happy with the weird spooky forest I had created as it was all very flat and dull and I just thought it needed more, and my tutor agreed and he gave me back some more feedback. I took what I had and added a little more into it like fog, a skybox as well as a directional green light to give it more of a creepy, spooky mood. Below is the result.



 






Of the 3 I would have to say that the following 3 are my favourite and are my final "beauty shots" where I have altered each slightly in Photoshop.





Wednesday, 5 December 2012

XB2178 - Further Tank Research

It occurred to me that I never fully combined the tank hulls and turrets together to see what completed tanks I came up with. Below are the tanks that I liked most from the experiment.


 Above is a quick render of a tank and turret combination which does look very aggressive and interesting with it's raised front end, however there isn't a lot of room to store infantry it would need to be altered slightly to accommodate infantry.


Above and below is another tank design which I quite like as it looks quite different from standard tank designs especially with it's high raised turret at the back and it's long thin body up at the front, however it is not without it's flaws. The base is a little too thin, as it doesn't look as if it could support that many troops and the turret at the back shifts the centre of gravity to be quite high up and at the back, insisting that the vehicle would be able to topple over very easily, and not be able to go uphill.


Additionally after looking specifically at other APC designs I can see that there are some things I should take into consideration from them, such as how long they are, or that they have wheels as opposed to tracks mostly, or that the exit ramp is at the back so that the infantry can avoid taking fire.

So below are some examples of real world APCs from a variety of countries (with the exception of the Colonial Marine APC from Aliens) and I can't help but notice the very general shape they all follow as well as using 8 wheels standard. I think that I will possibly avoid this shape, although I will still keep it long and narrow as to keep the general sense that my model is an APC.










Sunday, 2 December 2012

XB2002 - Mulefa Blue Print and Progress Update [Long Time No Post Edition]

It's been a while I posted some 3D stuff, apologies it's sometimes hard to remember to blog things with different things going on at once.

Below is my Mulefa blueprint which ended up looking like nothing I had intended for it to look like which isn't a surprise considering what the blueprint is of. Whilst creating the blueprint many iterations of what in my head a Mulefa was as initially I would draw a body for instance and then have to alter the body as I got round to adding the legs and the body would make no sense or have no room for the muscles of the leg to intersect with the rest of the body or else I'd forget that the Mulefa has a diamond shaped frame and have to alter the body slightly.



I am quite pleased with how my Mulefa blueprint turned out as it looks plausible enough for such a weird creature, it has room for muscles and where it's limbs would attach, it has a dip between it's too middle legs similar to what a cow would have. I also looked at horse heads and necks for inspiration as to how the head and neck should be which really helped creating the blueprint. Though according to my vet student girlfriend the part about the cow is apparently wrong but I'm not changing the blueprint now, it looks great as it is..

And here it is in all it's glory, my Mulefa after 30mins or so of modelling, so far it's going quite well I think.


My only concern is that at the minute it's sorta looking like a duck, but that will change once I add the head and the legs no doubt