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?'

Texturing Is Nice

I feel really good to be texturing. I have a strong feeling that I will not manage to get everything that I had planned completed for the deadline, but this is the usual. I really don't want to rush the texturing and lighting this time so I am going to texture some assets well rather than a lot badly. I want to improve my texturing and next project I can take a look at my ambitious ideas.

This is one of the two barriers on the central walkway. I have started to build up textures using a base of metal and concrete. I want an unfriendly feel to the textures but also have something interesting for the player to look at.

This is the texture sheet in it's current stage. I am trying to map out similar items together so that I can try to keep textures and colours similar. I do find that I end up zooming in and in so close that I end up deleting pixels that make absolutely no visible difference. Hopefully there is some anally retentive person out there who will stop playing and look really close to appreciate the subtitles before being blown away.

This is a sheet showing the main textures I have used so far. I have also taken a couple of samples from other similar images for gunk etc.

It would be nice to texture as much as possible in this fashion as I am really enjoying myself and feel that I am progressing. But there is always a deadline looming.

UVW Forever

I have spent the last two days unwrapping some models so that I can texture them with full control. This has been a timely process and made me realise that I need to think about this whilst modelling rather than at the end. I have these intricate models that are now taking far to long to texture. I needed to have unwrapped them as I progressed so that there was not this huge task at the end. As such I am only going to texture the assets that I have already unwrapped using this method and fall back to the milt sub method for the remaining meshes. This should be fine as I have focussed on unwrapping the major assets first that are close to the player. I also what them to have specific details that the others wont. Lets hope it speeds up the process a little.

I have also been thinking about my colour scheme. I have had the idea of light being a major part of the colour, breaking up the level and areas but I also want a contrast between the terrain and the buildings. Similar to the following picture maybe.

I recently went to the lake district and which climbing an endless mountain, took a break to have a heart attack and found myself looking over this beautiful valley covered in dead bracken. The bronze/brown looked magnificent against the green. This will bee my inspiration for the terrain.

For the building interior I want it cold as it is a prison. So this following picture although a little silly when dealing with the idea of 'cold' will be the main base for my colour scheme. Pale blues and white will be the main colours/shades but I will also have greens and of course rust.

Textures Away........................

Wooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I have textured something that I am pleased with. I think I may finally be getting to the point where I am almost happy with the outcome.

I have just textured my base door frame and I am quite pleased with the outcome...........

Here is the door model with no texture; looking like a door frame with no texture.

Here is a door frame, the same one I must add, looking a little more interesting.

And here is my many layered Photoshop file, UVW map that has enabled this box to become a thing of rusty smudgy beauty.

Many thanks to CGTextures, a wonderful website '10 top tips to Texturing' another brilliant website and also Swiss for being a bloody good texture artist and a form of continual motivation.....................nah your rubbish.

Its Been A While

Ok so it has been a while since I last posted, but that does not mean that I have been idle by any means. Over the past week I have been creating as many of the assets needed to flesh out my level so that I can focus on getting the lighting and texturing correct.

The easiest way to explain is to start from the beginning. I have created a level that is based around a hexagonal shape.

This level consists of three playable zones. The main level that uses the walkway in the centre of the picture, a set of caves below the central walkway and a platform situated over the prison complex in stationary orbit.

As this level is octagon in shape I can make major assets in quarters and then mirror them in the level.

I have made almost all needed models now but just need to finish the caves and make some scatter able items like crates or barrels.

This is the central walkway with a crevasse surrounding it. There is the boiler/generator on the bottom a lift (light blue) and a wall(darker blue).

The four walkways lead off in to the main building.

These are my door and scanner unit. The scanner will be dotted around the corridors of the main hallway. The door is the basis of all the doors on the main level.

This is the lift that runs from the caves to the main level. I have tried to mix a little future technology with old ideas just to have a little fun really. I also think it is more like a service lift so it is not built to be pretty.

This is quite a large asset. It is my main prison building. As mentioned previously it will be stationed above the main building held aloft by the four repulsor engines. The cylinders are cryostasis prison cells.

These are the sleeping quarters and showers for the prison guards. I wanted something that was self contained and stackable. Once again something utilitarian rather than eloquent.

And last but by no means least my boundary walls and watch towers.

There is a hole in the wall as we need to show evidence of an escape. They got out the hole..................................

I am now focussing on textures for the assets. This involves unwrapping and laying textures in photososhop. I would like to have the majority of this completed by next Monday. We shall see.