BA2b (Project 2) - Week 6 Summary

Jobs and Roles for this Week

Charlotte (Myself): UI, Texture houses/well, staff, Camera Natalia: Goblins, Goblin hat, Directors Chair, Clapper, Hands

Jack: Finish Staff, Exclamation Mark / Lines

Billy: Table, Dresser/Box, Folding Chair,

Johan: Level Building, Mechanics, Sound, Implement Textures

Group Meeting (18th April 2016)

- Checkpoint under the bridge

- Exclamation Mark on top of goblins which acts an as indicator to the player

- Village houses spread out like Dragonbridge in Skyrim

- Jacks Anvil asset will not be used in the final game because there are no other forge/blacksmith assets, and we don't have to time to create and texture more

Voice Acting Scripts:

Today we also decided on what voice acted lines we should have in the game.

We will also add a filter to the directors voice so it sounds like he's shouting it from a microphone

Voices: Actor/Player - Jack

Director - Billy

Start:

'Annnnndddd.....ACTION!'

After Take 1:

'Keep rolling, keep rolling'

'Don't stop, keep rolling' After Take 2: 'You know Brad Pitt could've taken this role'

'Do you want an Oscar or not?!'

'My niece could do better than you!'

After Take 3 / Losing State:

'Cut! Cut! Cut!'

'No, no, no, it's all wrong! CUT!'

'Is this really an Oscar winning performance? Start again!'

'Nicholas Cage would've done this for half the money!'

End of the Level / Winning State:

'That's a wrap! Good job everyone! I knew we hired this guy for a reason!'

My Concept Art, Design and Process

Logo Design

Since we're coming to the end of our project, it was time to start developing the logo and user interface design. Firstly I looked into different types of fonts we could use, with a mix between thin and bulky ones.

Why I chose certain fonts based on their visual appeal:

- Relating to the film theme of our game: Hollywood hills-esque, film noire, old movie vibe (with one side of a letter being thicker than the other)

- Fancy/curly: Relating to the theatre/entertainment industries, where the font would be situated on a building outside

- Handwritten: Reminds me of a film script or the chalk hand writing written on a clapper (found in a movie set)

Why is one of the fonts more fantasy looking?

I chose one fantasy styled font which is the last on the first column, however I felt like it didn't fit with the overall theme of our game which is meant to be set inside a movie. The fact we also talked about having levels with different themes inside also strays away from the whole game being represented in a fantasy-esque way. This is why I only found one and not more, despite the level we made being fantasy themed.

My next goal was to create a few drafted logo designs to show to the team, as well as asking their opinions on what kind of typeface we should have. As well as showing them the individual logos on a plain background, I also created a set of them with a screenshot I took from our game.

Natalia - Liked the handwritten ones and the bulky one with the large film reel

Jack - Liked the bulky one with the large film reel

Johan - Liked the bulky one with the large film reel

Billy - Liked the bulky one with the large film reel

Personally my favourites were the bulky Hollywood font with the large film reel and the thin, handwritten font which had the 'the' located in the middle of it.

Well there was definitely a clear winner when it came to asking the team which one(s) they liked the most, which was the bulky font with the film reel! I feel like the logo is such a huge part of representing the game and I wanted to make sure that everyone was happy with the artistic direction we would go with for it.

Now that I had a good idea of what people wanted the logo to look like, I made some final iterations which included images of film reels, cameras and a clapper - which relates to the title and game theme.

I then asked my team mates again which ones they preferred the most.

Natalia - 1 and 10

Jack - 1, 2, 10 and 12

Johan - 1, 11, and 10

Billy - 10

Personally I thought the same as Johan and liked 1, 11 and 10 more than the rest. We were all torn between 1 and 10, however in the end decided to go with number 10 as the clapper fits the best regarding our game mechanics - as your 'number of lives', is the 'number of takes' you have before the player can fail the level.

Camera (Set Piece)

Jacks Untextured Model

Jacks Model with my Textures

My Diffuse Map

Strengths:

- Adapting to Change: Despite there being many differences between the model and concept art, I think I adapted to them both quite well in terms of making sure that the colours looked like they belonged in certain places as well as adding elements from the concept art into the 3D model.

- Making Changes based on what I need to Polish: One thing that I found quite difficult was making the 4 end panels of the camera look good in a hand painted style. I struggled for ages with colouring them until I separated them from the bottom part and added bolts, which meant I could add more highlights around the rims. Without that change, I don't think my camera would have looked as well developed as it does now. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Team Collaboration: This model was quite difficult to texture to begin with because Jacks model was quite different from Billy's concept, so I had to make some guesses with which colours went well together. This was definitely the case with the tri-pod/legs of the camera, as on Billy's concept it was all one piece of wood, whereas with the 3D model it has two separate parts to it.

- Brass Texturing: One thing I definitely need to improve on is drawing different metals and materials, and in this case - Brass. Because it was the last week I had began to finish assets quite quickly which meant less time to polish. If I were to do this again I would spend more time on the brass and look at a variety of references.

Fruit

Jacks Untextured Model

Jacks Model with my Textures

My Diffuse Map

Strengths:

- Watermelon: My favourite fruit I textured was the watermelon because I'm fond of how I drew the long lines on them to be more fur - like instead of just straight. Real watermelons have vein like lines running all through them and I wanted to capture that with the lines going off in different directions.

- Rendering: The fruit are one of the simplest assets in the game and don't particularly look that great on their own, so in my renders I placed them on barrels and in clusters. I think this is a good way of showcasing the fruit despite their simple textures. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Render Colours: I didn't really think about it at first but I made the renders too orange looking by accident, I will keep this in mind for future renders and make sure I don't go too overboard with the lighting intensity.

Candle Staff

Jacks Untextured Model

Jacks Model with my Textures

My Diffuse Maps

My Emissive Map

Strengths:

- Free reign over the design: Because there was no official concept for this staff and Jack had just made the 3D model, I was able to play around with what I could add to it. In this case it was the red orb at the top, the red straps and fiery streaks inside the staff. I think my extended design choices really added a lot more visual impact to the staff than it just being completely wooden (with a candle).

- Saving Time: Instead of completely painting new wood and metal textures for the UV's, I copied them from my other diffuse maps I textured. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Fire Polishing: I could've polished the edges of the fire more and made them less messy, however because it's the last week I thought it wasn't such a major issue; especially as the goblins will be seen further away from the player.

Shield Re-texture

Minor Visual Problem:

Overall I'm really happy with how the shield looks in game (especially when it's brought up by the player and you can see the whole of it) , however one slight thing that's rather annoying to me is how messy the top half looks. It's very noticeable since it's so close to the screen too.

Example 1 (Less Serious): Some of the metal edges aren't very clean and look a bit messy.

Example 2 (Most Serious): This is the biggest problem I have with the shield, which is the metal edges which look very messy and uneven. Because the shield is such a focal point for the player, I will definitely need to fix it.

Here are the finished renders and my new diffuse map, including some in-game comparisons. I have added a lot more polish to the metal and the wood.

New Renders:

New Diffuse Map:

Comparisons between the old and New:

Updated House Texturing:

Jacks Untextured Model

Jacks 3D Model with my Texturing

My Diffuse Maps

Strengths:

- Additional Design: Even though it wasn't on my concept, for the house top I added stripped back plaster which showed brickwork, as well as a welcome mat on the stone base.

- Saving Time: Instead of completely painting new wood and metal textures for the UV's, I copied them from my other diffuse maps I textured. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Stone Texturing: The stone didn't turn out terribly although I don't think it turned out particularly well either. I really need to practice drawing things with hard edges as well as hand painting different types of rock in a painterly style. I struggle with objects that have harsh shadows and highlighted areas and will need to improve upon it over the summer.

- My concept translation to the 3D model: Because I created the original concepts for the houses, I feel responsible for how the 3D model turned out in terms of its overall shape and form. There's nothing wrong with the 3D modelling at all, it's just the design changes. Now I wish that I added wooden beams just along where the inside of the roof is because that's how the medieval houses were built. I also feel that the shape of the roof and height of the building itself didn't look as visually appealing as I thought they would. Next time I will do some more extended research into medieval houses and look into how they were built from scratch, rather than just looking at images and not much factual information.

Well Texturing:

Jacks Untextured Model

Jacks 3D Model with my Texturing

My Diffuse Map

Strengths:

- Commitment to each stone: I decided not to cut corners with this asset and just copy my previous texture, but make sure each stone would fit the normals and ambient occlusion. Because of this commitment to making sure everything fit, it meant that there would be no strange cut-offs or weirdly placed straight lines in the middle of the stones which was good.

- Lantern: Despite it being very simple, I really enjoy how the lantern looks with the orangey-yellow glow inside. I did think about drawing a candle but it would look strange when rotated on the panels. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Stone Polishing: The stones didn't look bad on the well, however I still believe they could be improved and polished more with highlights and stronger shadows.

UI Design

Logo Polish

Because Nat had now finished texturing the clapper, I was able to implement it into the games logo! Not much of a huge update but it's good to finally replace the vector I made!

Loading Screen

Here is the loading screen I put together, the dialogue mentioned was written and thought of by Nat whereas the artwork in the background was created by Billy.

Start Screen

This is the start screen I put together which includes the camera asset created by Jack and textured by me. I wanted it to correspond with our overall movie theme, so I drew some red curtains and added the planks I had already made; symbolising a cinema/theatre/place of entertainment. I also thought the film reel was pretty fitting to the theme.

Level Select

Similar to the main menu screen, I incorporated the red curtains, planks and film reel. I think the play button was a good idea because it's a similar user interface to if you were watching a film. The padlocks are also indications that the other levels are locked, as well as the fake arrow button indicating that there would be more levels.

Health/Takes

For the number of lives the player has, we depict them as 'takes'. If a player is hit by one of the goblins attacks, a red marker will appear on the clapper. If the player gets hit three times then they will lose. Surprisingly the X in the square comes from the Webdings font, as I accidentally clicked on it when searching for another. I think the result is pretty good though, and it's a very clear indicator for the player to see; being so bold and a bright red.

Stamina Bar

For the shields stamina bar, I used the shield I had already textured. In addition to this, I also used the metal I had previously drawn for the edges. In order to create the shadowed effect on the green bar, I used a black brush and lowered the opacity - while the background was still a transparent png.

Arm Vambraces / Armor

After Johan received Nats skin texture and used it on the players arm in-game, we both agreed that it really needed to have some more clothing added. There was nothing wrong with Nats texturing as it was great, it was just that the arm may be a bit too immersion breaking in game if you're a knight with no armour.

Since our deadline is only a few days away, it was too close for Johan or Jack to model a separate piece of armour. However, I was sure that we could make something look good just by texturing over it instead! So because I had finished everything else that needed to be done early, I began to texture the arm with one of Billys vambrace concepts (that we all liked) as well as making it slightly more stylised to fit the games art style more.

Billy's Vambrace Concept

Here is a screenshot of what the arm currently looks like before my added armour texturing. I also thought of the idea that adding dark scales around the arm would not only look visually appealing, but may even hide the strange shadows issue which is shown towards the edge of the arm.

Johans model with my Vambrace/Scales Texture and Nats Skin Texture

My Diffuse Map (With Nats skin Texture)

New In-Game Screenshot (With Nats skin Texture)

Strengths:

- Overall Aesthetic: This is one of my favourite things I have textured throughout this project, as well as it being the last thing. I think the progression regarding my hand painted texturing skills overall can definitely be seen within this. The rendering is definitely the best I have done and I spent a lot of time on making sure it looked polished close up (as it will be very much in front of the players view a lot).

- Learning from mistakes: With this, I wanted to make sure that I didn't make the same mistake with the shield and complete something that would look rather messy up close, so I'm glad I learnt from it and took extra time making sure that issue wouldn't happen again. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Scale Texturing: I think my scale texturing could be improved a bit with being more polished, although that's all I can think of for now and I'm super pleased with this texture I have made.

My final screenshots of the game itself and my thoughts about the project are on the next blog post, however this concludes the last of my progression from this project.