Week 20, Year 2 Not much to do and painting slow

So a lot of last week was just getting ideas down but now we had to try and narrow it down to a more solid idea. We have some sort of an idea with how we want to start the level and how we wanted it to play out but we needed more of a layout of the level and start working on a block out as well.

We were still in the early stages of the project and because of that there was not much modelling or engine work to do. So I was asked to do some concepts for Lewis Carroll study. concepting is one of my very weak points but it needed to be done and I could use with the practice.

I’m happy with how it came out but not too happy with how long it took me to do this. What I think I need to do is really look more into painting fast and also look up some different brushes to use. I also made a moodboard looking at doors and some furniture, for when you are in the rabbit hole area.

Week 19, Year 2 Let the games begin

So Monday was the hand in for container city and I know that I and my team are all happy that it is over but now the really fun begins.

The next day we started the off the map project (OTM) which is a computation ran by the British library. this is the 3^rd year it has ran and the first time DMU won and the second time DMU came in the top 3 but now it’s my years’ time to have a go.

My year was split up into 9 different teams of 6 people in each. Each person had put down their own strengths this was to make sure all teams could have someone doing what they wanted to do. I put down modelling and engine because from past projects I found I could model fast and I love doing engine work.  

The theme for this project is based around Alice in wonderland by Lewis Carroll. We have to make a level with interactive elements in it. There are 3 themes and we have to pick one oxford, underground, gardens.

For this week I and my team made sure we read the book and just started coming up with some ideas and finding images that could give us ideas.

I’m really looking forward to working with my team mates on this project and I would really like to try and go for the first place in this computation.

Also 1 of my team mates showed us this guy who makes suits of armor for cats. It’s so cool and amazing how detail they are.

http://imgur.com/gallery/GaqLo

Container city project post mortem

What went well?

Floor Plan

I like the way we came up for the floor plan of the level. We had many different ideas that could of work and it was done very quickly.

Modelling and texturing

Even with the time we lost. All the assets and texturing that we had planned was still done in the time that we had left.

What didn’t go well?

Over thinking the idea

So I and my group spent a lot of time coming up with a theme. We had too many ideas that we wanted in the level. That we went too far away from the brief and wasted a lot of time because of it.

What did I learn?

Pay more action to the brief

If we had read the brief a bit more at the start of the project. We may have not gone so far away from it.

Photo bashing

I did a lot of photo bashing in this project as of a way to come up with quick concept ideas for the level and for some of the assets

What would I do different next time?

Keep looking back at the brief to make sure we are flowing it right.

Try and do less concept work and look at doing more of the modular building parts. Just to learn more about it and how to do it.

Week 18, Year 2 Last minute modelling

It is now the final week for the container city project and things are all starting to come together nicely. All the assets have been model and textured. All that was there was left to do was populating the level and add the finishing touches.

There were still times when we found that we need a small asset for something and it was me that my team look to.

I’m very happy with how I and my team have work together. I’m more impressed by how we really lost a week and still managed to bring it back and create something amazing. There are still a lot of stuff we could have done differently and much more stuff we could of added but when does that not happen to anyone.

I’m glad I got to do a project like this and would happily do it again with same people granted do it to our own brief, so we can go with some crazy idea like we wanted to.

Week 17, Year 2 So much modelling

After last week I think me and my team were starting to get a little scared if we were going to meet the dead line or not but we now finally had a final idea down, after the pain of last week. We planned out what assists we need. We split up all the modelling between us. I had a lot of assets to make but most of them were very small and simply to make.

I’m very happy with a lot of my modelling I did and how quick I had done it. I think this help make up for a lot of time that we wasted trying to come up with are theme for are level. My texturing also went very well and fast. Is has surprised me a little knowing that my texturing has sometimes let me down in the past. 

Some of the models I made I passed onto another team mate to texture after I had finished unwrapping them.

All in all I’m happy with the progress that I and the team have made. I think we are all now feeling more confident about getting this project finished.

Week 16, Year 2 Photo bashes all the things

So carrying on from last we were still conecpting for the level but we now had a block out as well. So taking screen shots of the level I then photo bashed over the top of them to make quick concepts.

We were still finding it hard to a solid theme down for the level. There were so many different ideas that we like. The problem that we had because of this was that we start to go too far away from the brief that had been set for us and made it very hard for us to get to the next stage.

After a long team talk we finally started to remove a lot the ideas that we want and got it back to where it matched the brief more. We kept the Aztec underground theme but made it work with containers.

Once we had done this we finally started to plan out what each room should look like and what assets we would need.

Week 15, Year 2 A new year and a new project

So I had a very nice Christmas break. I got my first real job working as a salad chief in a harvester. It was funny but killed my legs and back but I’m very happy to be back now and I’m already looking forward to the next project, the “Container City Project” and I’m looking forward to it because we have to do level design, which is something I have been looking forward to doing.

So this is another group project what I’m happy with because we only have 4 weeks to do this and I feel like when working in a group, the end result comes out a lot better what makes everyone happy. So the first thing we had to think of is if we were going to do a SI-FI level or a dystopian level. As a group we all felt like doing a dystopian level more than a SI-FI level just because we fell like we can get more creative with it. After that we came up with a plan on how the level would play out and what the player had to do because the level need to have some iterative parts.

Once we knew what need to be in the level, we all make 3 floor plans each from a top down view and from there we showed them to each other and then pick the best 1 out of the 3 so there were 4, one for each person and then that person would whitebox of the level in 3DS max. This part went really well because one of my team members had set up a 3DS max file that made it really easy to block out the floor plan. So he sent it to all of us so we could do it all the same way.

Once that was done we had to think about a theme. We already knew we were going to have a dystopian theme but we wanted to add more to it, so we all came up with different themes that could fit in and made a mindmap out of it from there we pick out the once we like best and gave 2 ideas to one person each this way we would come up with 8 different themes.

I had pick mines and caves because I think that they could work well, seeing how we going to have most of the level underground and think there would be good ways to add the containers in there as well and the caves could help with the mines idea as well there would need to be tunnels and broken rocks. We all decide to make one moodboard each for are themes but when I was making the moodboard for the caves I came across something that was really amazing.

In Mexico there are some caves there with crystals in them but not your normal crystals once bigger than humans and this is not some small little cave it’s very big. If you want to find out more I have left a link that you can follow to find out more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals

So looking at these crystal caves just gave me some great ideas with what we could do because we want it so that the power is off and all you have is a flash light but looking at this crystals gave me the idea that maybe the crystals could be glowing and this could be a good way to show the player were to go.

So once all the moodboards were done we all meet up and talk about what we like with each idea. We really like the temple theme. So I started to concept some ideas by photo bash images together.

I’m really happy about this project and can’t wait to get more into it. I think my group have some really good ideas and can’t wait to see with what we come up with.