Frugility

Now is the time of year for merriment and eating your own weight in meat. Tis Christmas. And as such I am travelling to the darkest depths of Devon where the invention of electricity is still a marvel. No broadband means that this is the last post for a while.....................

Looking at the responses I have received from my model I have been thinking about the changes I could make to my design. Nothing too dramatical but how to improve and make it 'more awesome'.

Looking through Edge magazine yesterday I came across Bizarre's Mass Effect 2 article. Looking at the suit designs in that article has given me some really nice areas to develop into my suit.

I also like the look of these two suits. Light is a strong element is the left suit whilst the right has a good flow of armour sections. Something to consider.

Back Story

I have been mulling over in my head who my character is. Obviously to be a bounty hunter there are some basic traditional elements that stay the same. As we have to link our character to the level we designed on the last project I have made mine futuristic. That is the suit covered.

In my level the central weapon was a soul harvesting device. The idea being that prisoners could not die or escape without a body. This idea I have transferred over into the design of my character as well. His backpack holds the souls of the bounties he captures...............

Humanoid in origin, his life has been spent searching for the holy grail, to cheat death. Barakus (or some other weird name that implies mystery and a little danger) is old. Very old. Before records began you could say. Bio-mechanoid, he has adapted his body armour to sustain his life. His only purpose to existing is to gain power. He is driven by the hunt, only taking bounties that are death marked, consuming their souls to sustain his hollow existence. He uses a specially designed weapon that removes the essence of a creatures life, their soul and deposits them in the canister on his back. (this is a good little life monitor for in game. The more souls you retrieve the more power and life you have). There are murmurs throughout history of his past, suggestions that he was once a man of blood and flesh, but now he has no ties, no family. He does not need to sleep or eat and as such is a perfect weapon of destruction...................................or something like that.

Development Stage 3

I have completed the majority of the modelling now. This week has been a good week for work. The whole character went together very quickly with there only being issues where I was unsure of my design and as such my blue prints were a little unclear.

As you can see I still need to model the hands and where the torso meets the groin I need to match the sections together.

I am really pleased with how it has turned out. There are a couple of concerns. When in front left or perspective the feet seem to fit with the scale of the character, but as soon I put it into the Top view they seem to transform into flippers.

This may be to do with the Unreal Skeleton as it has larger feet and hands but I am still a little uncomfortable with them. This may be something that I look into.

As the majority of the base modelling is complete I have begun to add the detail. Think of it as a level design. I have boxed out the rooms, I am now adding the assets.

Looking at the face I have begun to create the mask that allows my character to exist in low oxygen planets. This is at the moment something of my own design.

I have not looked at reference as such but created something that follows the contours of the face. I may develop this to something more future tech, but at the moment I am seeing how it sits and feels with the design.

I have added extra pipes running over the collar bone dropping to the backpack. I like the contrast in chunky edges with the smoother curved pipes.

Charatcer Development 2

I have had a really good week this week. I know it is only Wednesday, but that is the end of my tutored week as we are breaking up for Christmas. I feel I have developed my character well and am progressing at a steady pace. I have pushed on quite far over the last couple of days but I must admit I did have a stagnant stage yesterday whilst modelling the calf. It worked itself out though, I shouted at a couple of first years and all was well again in the universe.

I am pleased with the progress but now that my character is before my eyes in 3D glory, I can see that areas need resolving. The feet and calf are either too big, or the thigh too small. Bulking or slimming needs to occurs. As it is the UT3 engine we are modelling for I will no doubt be bulking out rather than reducing.

I still need to decide where I will go with my colour scheme. It has been suggested in a previous blog comment that Red and White may be a route to investigate. Next on the agenda is the arms and then resolving all the little niggley bits. But I am still loving it.

Development Stage 1

I have begun to model the main torso of my Unreal Character. This has brought some interesting things to light.

A) I really enjoy modelling my own designed items.

B) My blueprints are as wonky as a three legged donkey.

C) Modelling makes me really happy. I have found that the time passes so quickly but I am happy as Larry.

I am really enjoying this module. I really love the process of researching an idea, creating designs and then seeing it become something of form. I can understand why people buy those figurines a little more now.

I just hope that it continues to be as fun and exciting all the way through. I can already see areas that I want to develop and change and I think that there will be some interesting challenges to conquer.

Face to Face

I find it very scary modelling my own face. It is a little like the wax work sculptures. It is me, but it looks like a dead version of me.

I have really enjoyed making this model and even though I am not completed yet, really like the outcome. I need to neaten areas up and make the facial definitions clearer, but for a first attempt, I think it isn't half bad. I must admit, my tutor helped considerably with the ears. I spent a long time chasing triangles around until he pointed out a solution I could not see.

I have also started to colour my blue print. I just wanted to get an idea of what colour scheme I might choose.

Modelling and Refinements

I ventured into college on Friday seeking a progression report. Talking to Dean we resolved some areas of the characters design that would have had issues when it came to modelling.

Looking at the legs there would have been an issue when they bent. There were also areas that Dean did not like, and I was not too happy with them either.

I plan on developing the side view a little more and incorporate the slats from the shoulder into the leg panel. I am also unsure about the arm spikes as they are a little too mcu like the batman suite.

I began modelling the face in Max. We are all modelling our own faces so had to get photographs of the front and the side. These we then put into Max on two sides of a box set to 14x14 which is as close as damn it to UT3 Scale.

For a start, I knew my nose was big, but how often do you look at a profile of your own face. It is very weird...............................................................................

Big Red Button

Well it is in fact probably more like a little red button, but the theory is the same. I have not posted anything for a while, mainly because I have been unhappy with the characters development. Looking back over the development sheets I realised that I had lost something from the initial designs. I decided that I was going to re develop the design. I have used the main design features from my development but slimmed the design down. It fits the UT3 skeleton without being huge.

To get to this stage I found that I had to do a lot more drawing. I have sheets of scribbles and frustration but I am pleased with the result so the madness was worth it.

These two sheets I found were the most helpful. Being able to draw arms and legs quickly without thinking about the whole too much enabled me to get my ideas down and develop then to work with the final character.

I am at a stage at the moment where I am happy with the developed character so I want to create a coloured image, but I am under no illusion that this design will change as I build it in 3D Studio Max. I will keep it as close as I can to the design but I am sure I will continue to develop the model until the deadline.

Filtering Out the Faf

From the few images I chose off the the second generation development sheets, I developed my ideas and tried to progress onto the first larger design. I wanted to take something more substantial into college so that I could develop the character and get feedback.

I am really pleased with some aspects of this design but it is too narrow and does not give off that bounty hunter feel, it seems to be a bit more like someone into extreme sports.

Dean my tutor suggested something more along the lines of this, with a lot more amour and chunkier backpack and legs. It fits more with the Unreal 3 engine and design.

As we are importing our character into the UT3 engine we will be using the skeletons that they use for their characters. As such I decided that I wanted to see what scale they used. I got an export of one of UT3's characters in 3D Max. Straight away you can see that it is extremely chunky. Also my design would not fit the skeleton so I am now going to use that as my base for the character and develop the armour to fit that structure.

Working over a print out I am starting to develop the armour and thinking about how it will all fit together on the joints. I have found when drawing that the arms feel too short on the skeleton and the hands seem far too big. I think this is Unreal exaggerating areas to give a bulky feel.

I am having trouble with the shoulder pads on the design. I want something that will enhance the silhouette but I also want it to be there for a reason. Maybe an emblem, or an area to show trophies of captured bounties?

I am pleased with this design. I like the chunky shoulder pads but I think they come down too low over the upper arm. I wan to see if I can develop the shoulder pads and stomach armour.

I feel I am getting closer and closer. I am definitely feeling better about the design. I think that the arms will be different in armour styles as I want the backpack to come over the right shoulder and pipes to sun down the arm. I think that a little more research may help me resolve how the armour ill work on the arms.

I need to have my blueprints finished for Monday of next week ready to commence modelling. As such I have given it a lot of time today but I am unsure with the design still.

These are the further development images that I have been working on. I asked my fiancée to look over them and chose a couple that she thought had a striking or interesting silhouette and she selected the jacketed character, the robotic armed character and the middle character with the more medieval armour on the next sheet.

I have circled a couple of areas that I think could have some potential. I quite like the idea of having an open faced helmet as I feel that the suit should be able to travel safely in a vacuum and I think it could add to the recognition factor.

Whilst researching for the development part of this project, I collected many images. These next three are very close to where I think I will be heading in my development.

In my initial development thumbnails, one character chosen by a few people as interesting was wearing a full length cloak/Jacket. I really like the mixture of future armour and monk style robs in this Jedi character from the Old Republic. I am not sure if we will be learning how to deal with fabric in this module but if I can I would really like to try.

For the weapon I mentioned that I was thinking of a soul catcher. Seeing this image gave me the idea that capsules could be used and stored on the characters back, making it an area of interest and linking into the level. As the player will be seeing the back most, it needs to be interesting.

Finally this amazing image from the Star Craft II website was something that I found early on that started the idea of a soul capturing weapon on the bounty hunter. Maybe the gauntlet can harvest the souls and transport them directly to the backpack. Either way this is a brilliant image and just makes me want to improve.................................

Silhouettes

Here are the silhouettes of my rabble. I have circled around the characters that I stood out to me. There are aspects on many that I like and I will no doubt try to incorporate them into the design but for this process I am going to take the ones circled and develop them further

I am not sure about the history of my bounty hunter yet, which could change the design so I will have to think about that as well. I think I am going to follow the stereotypical route of a male character who has a shady background. I am also unsure whether or not to have him as a full humanoid or alien influences.

CHARACTER DESIGN

Well here we start a new project. A project I must add I have been rather looking forward to. 'Design a Bounty Hunter' (not Boba Fett) Jango it is then.

We have to link our bounty hunter in with the design of our level. So mine will be a futuristic, advanced weapons, soul hunter. As my prisons main torture devise was the soul weapon (ripping your soul from your body and storing it in eternal soup) I think that my bounty hunter should have something similar. We have to design a weapon to accompany our character as well so this fits quite nicely.

It has always been stressed that the silhouette of the character is the most important thing to get right. You want you character to be instantly recognisable and having a good silhouette is the key.

I know this is not a silhouette but you can get the idea. His helmet, armour and rocket sticking out the top of the backpack make him a very distinguishable.

Design then is my priority. I want a design that is interesting but also not so intricate that I can not make a well structured character model. This is my first attempt at character modelling.

Primarily I looked on the Internet and found many images to fuel my imagination. I drew a small stick figure and scanned that into Photoshop to create a template that I could replicate over and over again. I then used that template to create some small thumbnail designs. I don't know where I am taking my design yet I am just, dipping my toe in the water, as such.

From these two sheets I plan to take ten designs that I feel could develop into something very nice and then do the same process again but larger. Primarily I am going to take them into Photoshop and turn them all into silhouettes to see which ones are the most striking.

The End

Well, what a relief that was. I handed in the ever exciting level design to day and what a relief. feel really good. Very fun project but very stressful at the end. Had a mad rush to complete the level and had to cut some very big corners but all in all I am pleased with the outcome.

I will put up some renders of the level. all in all I am pleased with the way it turned out. I think that there are some massive improvements that could come about and I think I will carry on fiddling with the assets in the level. I think that it could be something very nice.

A Lesson Learned

Today I have been working on the static mesh that makes up my caves so that it will be ready for texturing by the end of the day. Looking at how dark the caves were in Unreal I decided that I needed a light source that could be dotted around the caves. I sketched out a design aquickly created a model in Max.

Bringing it into Unreal I placed it around the caves and added the light points that would create the radiating light in the level. Well that was the plan. The light would not show up in the level.

I am ashamed to admit that it took me nearly half and hour to work out the problem. From some dark recess of my subconsciuos a little voice piped up.

'Isn't the light source inside the mesh, stopping the light from travelling any distance?

What a plonker. This was right of course. The light needs to be outside the mesh so that it has a free reign to spread and illuminate.

I have also started to look at creating textures in the Unreal Editor. This is something that seems difficult but is really quite straight forward and produces some really nice outcome. Worryingly when I went to save my document all the textures disappeared taking with them any meshes using those textures. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

More worryingly, why do I hear little voices in my head and why the more I sit at the computer do I have whole conversations with myself?

'I don't know, why do you talk to yourself?'