Overall I’m happy with it , I’ve obviously learnt more and shall take what I have learnt and develop my skills further and identify my strongest and weakest assists. Looking back at my work I can identify that my lighting needs more practice , (I know what I want , I just don’t know how to get it …yet) & in general keep practicing everything that has relevance to what I want to do in the future . At the moment though, it’s in my best interest to practice everything & have a comfortable background knowledge on the majority of tasks/skills & then of course specialise . Hard times ahead .

Technical issues and problems .

Technical issues and problems .


I’d love to write about problems I’ve had with this to make it look like some amazing self evaluation, but in all honesty I’ve barely had any . The only problems I’ve had are already written down the page. Apart from those problems I’ve already mentioned, its been rather problem free.

testing

This image is nothing more than a guideline, that I rendered and edited so I could see what would work best .. I eventually got this , which is works to a degree . The lens on the camera was eventually change , as I felt this was far to confined & restricting . The exterior environment has been influenced by fith element , star wars (films and games) , predator 2, the running man , left 4 dead , half life , sin city, hellboy , Underworld's , Blade , Queen of the damned . & general messy city streets that you see on films & games.
So many other films i can remember watching that have had an influence , but i cant remember the names. grrrr
I really do wish i could of put a more personal touch on this environment, its a bit cliché & naff for my liking . Some more expression within the environment is needed

Details

A breakdown of the enviroments,With everything in one layer to show you (OOoohhh noo dangerous! :P )

I was extremely shocked at how low the polygon was on my environment . If I knew the final thing was going to be so low poly, I would of perhaps started the brief a little bit sooner to try and fit more objects into the scenery . (mainly for the outside) .




*the screenshots of the poly counts can be found on the DVD & up the page*

The exterior part of my environment proved to be annoying (not to make) but to structuralise the L.O.D so that it would work effetely & compliment itself and everything around it ,without looking ridiculous and ugly . This was only an issue because of the camera/animation , which unfortunately due to the way I was constructing the *film* and doing it in stills, as it couldn’t capture the real true essence of the landscape behind the initial part of the environment . This is not a problem though , live and learn .
While editing the footage I did think about putting some moving clouds , flickering lights & general moving ambient objects within the image . Almost like a semi animated still (like the ones you see on some web pages ,especially for films - games funnily enough) But I didn’t have the time , as unfortunately(sarcasm) I have other things to do outside uni other than work.


That idea is still something I’m thinking of practicing over the holidays coming though , as its something I know I will be very comfortable practicing .

Complete

Ok its now complete. Time to evaluate the current situation.
As it stands the video shows stills from my environment starting from the outside working inwards towards the interior environment . It’s very basic very simple , but that’s how I want it . I’m not trying to show anything else in the video other than what I set out to do in the first place for this brief (if it was anything else, I would elaborate more on the video and my work , but it will achieve nothing) . The video shows my texturing (note: that some stock textures HAVE been used) rendering and modelling.

notice

Update coming 14th march

Objects, how they work in space

Here are some references I gathered while on some free naff zombie game . Its pretty obvious here that looking at those pictures its shows *us* especially me, that one or two or several decently placed objects in a room can make a room look like its full of junk .Combined with good textures, it could make a room seem very full of *life* and *story* when in fact its just a couple of well placed objects within the environment .
Of course these also helped provide useful texture references as to what i was looking for.

the bkground

This is the image i painted for the background of my environment exterior
If I can find the picture I based this off of (can be found on LEFT 4 DEAD ) I will upload it into this section
Within my environment you barely see all of it , As a whole it just carries a very nice atmosphere .


(see update below for a more detailed picture description)

Update

The interior environment is pretty much complete and is good to go , I’m fairly happy with is out come (you’ll see the finished out come when its all rendered out, and post edited etc later on) . The whole thing has been extremely time consuming , but very enjoyable . I haven’t had too many difficulties in this project , The biggest issue was technical know how with render options , as at one point the occlusion layer wouldn’t render out correctly , and I had to play around with its options to basically get it working again, that was extremely annoying . I did have another issue with some *nodes* not connecting and screwing up the layers in my environment on some later saved versions of my file (I found what the problem was )It was a really stupid error and quite annoying, considering how petty it was that maya would pull a huge fit over it . Either way I reloaded a previous saved file , retextured what was missing and carried on .
I have been able to focus a lot of my attention on textures , which of course = photoshop or anything similar, which again means -- painting or editing photos , which I’ve been doing for years already. That’s proved to be a huge help . The environments both consist of textures from sites , stock images and painted .

The most obvious painting in my environment is the landscape for the exterior part of my brief In which you can see a large landscape of a city . The concept/layout/design of the city alas it is not my idea , the basis of it is directly from Left 4 Dead (buy it) as it fitted PERFECTLY with the theme I had going already , but it sure was fun to paint ! (the picture will be posted in a future post)

The polygon count has remained amazingly low throughout the whole entire project. I did think at the very beginning that I would be vastly restricted by the polycount , but I have found myself very flexible/comfortable within the polycount limit .

What I haven’t been able to do
Is complete the textures properly, I would of liked to of had enough time to complete all specular maps / normal’s etc for the environment, but i just don’t have the time and I’m having to sacrifice so much detail because of time constraints . What if I went for something smaller and really detailed ? Pff no fun in that, I can do that anytime ! I thought I’d really try push my productivity boundaries on this brief and see what I could do. I never planned out to make as much work as I have done . To me , what I have at the moment is less than I actually want . I’m perfectly capable of doing more but like I said before it’s time constraints , which is a true shame . None the less, it’s proving to be a excellent experience & I have picked up so much more *technical know how* working on my own . I still have so much more to learn , I cant wait.

Things that I must address later in the week
Well as the environment is near completion ( as it’s near the end of the brief) , its safe to say all I have to worry about is how long the renders take haha! . The post production in Photoshop should be ok , as that’s my strongest ability .Then I have to make it into a film and put sound on it . Should be fun as I fortunately like doing sound as well ( www.myspace.com/svsnband ) my band ;) .



.more updates and progress reports to come.


Apologies for any bad grammar or spelling mistakes .

update of outside environment

going very well , getting absolutely no exercise, but hey ho … quite literally waking up and going straight to work and staying up all day/night and then going to sleep & repeating the same thing over and over till it is done . Which is fine with me as it gets results . Progress so far is going normal , should be finished with the outside environment by end of the week , which gives me several days to render and post edit .With the time that I have left I’m having to sacrifice some details that I would usually apply to my work , but it doesn’t bother me that much .Always got the holidays to make improvements & create even bigger and better work (plus learn more *tricks of the trade* )
Anyways back to work I go .
Updates and progress reports yet to come


.......
ps




a good lil tune that helps me concentrate
John Williams is a legend

Update

Interior complete, need some minor adjustments .. Outside environment started + L.O.D

Progress reports coming soon!

update

UPDATE


Nothing but texture & lighting , no other layers no Photoshop editing .
Update and progress report to come later when I have the time to spare .

Further changes to the layout will be made.

I think its about time I discus my inspiration for this in a little bit more detail. I’m very influenced by the half life/swat games as the interior design work is so perfect for this type of environmental design, it’s pretty much uncanny ( http://br.geocities.com/darlan_sk8/swat4-b3.jpg ) . My aim is to try and capture a fairly dingy garage area of some sort, that has signs of people living within it (food on floor , *interactive* objects being on/used etc )Also having some knowledge of security, despite looking run down . Similar to an escape house , except this *house* caters for other things as well(similar to an escape house in blade for example) now, it’s a little bit of a cliché design , I think most other people are going for something similar . I was originally going to make something in middle of the desert, inside a tent and then changed my mind to a futuristic star wars / unreal looking type environment but I thought I would play it safe for this and create an environment based in a semi futuristic time but I don’t plan on making it that obvious, more of a subliminal hint.


Further information about inspirations , texture maps , layers & renders & other info to come later

This is NOT an update of the last version.I'm just showing the textured canisters by the table

More objects in the room still to come + diff camera angles of course !

This is really nothing special aka it isn’t finished *Doh?* it’s just a quick composition of my shot just after I got my occlusion working which I have applied along side an actual normal textured render.. ( you know what I mean? , I don’t want to get to technical for those who don’t understand ) lighting needs to go up . Etc etc
No need to make any crits on this lol

Overall, I’m glad I fixed the problems . Who wouldn’t?

extra stuff yet to be added to the room + of course different camera angles but not yet !

UPDATE

Right well , this week has been eventful !


I’ve spent most of my time researching into layers /rendering /and fixing bugs that come up
And this has REALLY upgraded my skills Dramatically.
I’ve have just spent the last 2 days trying to find out why one of my layers wasn’t rendering out an occlusion and after some serious in-depth option changes within mental ray & the camera as well as the occlusion itself I fixed it, though its not perfect ! But hek it shows now , where as before it only showed on one other layer .
Finding random forums of people having similar problems helped me so much for this ! . Thank you so much people who whom I don’t know !

Example

Texture applied to AK74 & Shotgun model about a week ago. Nothing else added , this is pure texture . Cant wait to see the final out come of the whole room will be like with all layers applied.

Source engine

Valve's Source engine ..
well, what can i say .. it's amazing to be honest .
and its perfect for game environments ..
so hek , I’ve taking as much influence as I can from this engine and applied it into my own work

epic!

" Source combines leading-edge character animation, advanced AI, real-world physics, shader-based rendering, and a highly extensible development environment to produce some of the most popular computer and console games. These games deliver the most intense, visually-stunning gameplay experiences on modern hardware, while scaling smoothly on older systems, enabling developers to reach a diverse range of gamers.

Source technology powers some of the most critically-acclaimed PC and console games, including:
(1) Half Life 2 + Episodes One and Two (2) Portal (3) Team Fortress 2 (4) Counter-Strike: Source.

Thanks to Source’s comprehensive, road-tested collection of tools—the same used to create Team Fortress 2, Portal and the Half-Life 2 series—your team’s time and effort can be spent building creative gameplay and unique content rather than fundamental systems such as rendering technology or network code or collision detection.

At its core, Source is designed with a modular, component-based architecture that enables the seamless integration of new features and technologies. Since its 2004 debut to third-party developers, Source licensees have benefited from the very latest tools for level design, modeling and character animation, online play and communications, console development, and more—all available at no extra cost or additional licensing fees.

Source’s updated animation system brings expressive characters to life with an unlimited palette of facial expressions that allow them to convey a message without having to say a word. These characters possess the industry’s most advanced artificial intelligence, making them extremely capable allies and foes.

Characters populate beautifully rendered and physically simulated worlds that, thanks to Source’s integrated and versatile physics system, immerse players in realistic and responsive environments. This allows developers to break from authoring the pre-scripted events featured in previous generations of games, and opens the door for the creation of completely new styles of play.

Source’s multiplayer platform supports some of the world’s most played online games—including Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2—and one of the largest online gaming cultures in the world. Robust networking and multiplayer features include support up to 32-player LAN and Internet games, an integrated server browser, and voice and text messaging. "

taken from

http://source.valvesoftware.com/

nothing serious here , just a simple old lil test .

nice lil mood setting no?

AK74

This was a fun lil model to make . The Assault rifle will defiantly add some character/story! To the environment.

a little laugh

excuse the names of my files haha!


i misspelled environment...

the end ...

My rubbish little chair . haha!

On a serious note, this is a low poly count chair that fits perfectly for the *GAME* environment.

reffs

I was searching around the web looking for reference pictures / models for me to work from and I came across some sites that let you purchase models for money . Of course that gave me a great idea to look at peoples existing models in full detail as it listed poly counts , showed the wireframe of the model etc so it would make BRILLIANT reference material .
Apart from seeing roughly how these people went around to constructing these models, it turned out to be pretty useless to me. Most of the models had an absolute obscene poly count !!! And provided no help to me as they had gone OTT (over the top) on them and had more polys than needed, though it did provide me with some understanding of construction.

Either way, these are amazingly built .

Models set up example

Close up

Collection of models placed into the environment

Models inside objects

Here are some of the objects that have been placed within the environment already on a different layer

;)

Model building Update .

Model building Update .
INSIDE ENVIROMENT;
The general layout of my environment. Chances are I will add some extra features to the building later on but at the moment it works very effectively . The design of the environment is very simple, keeping this environment as simplistic but making it effectively *pleasing* to the eyes is CRUCIAL .

As you can see I have a character size reference model located within the environment to give me and *you* an idea of objects size

This LOD caught my eye . Its basically going to help me make my level of detail . As I plan to have a similar set up to this minus the flying hmmwv. More info on this when I start it.

Even though I haven’t yet started what my LOD (level of detail) will look like (aka the outside area of my environment) I have a rough idea how I want construct it . Here are some pictures showing LOD in action hoorah!.

note: i did not take these pictures. THESE ARE REFS THAT I WILL EXPLAIN LATER ON

collect pic/refs

I will go into more detail about these pics later . At the moment I’m very much hard at work making the bloody thing haha!
I will bring forward ;
problems i have encountered
how I solved them
possible issues
major inspirational themes
progress reports
and so on ..

ideas

I started to conceptualize the desert themed environment and make it on Maya .Once I started to make it on Maya I had to used Ncloth for the majority of its body (the tent) but I wasn’t quite happy with the way Ncloth was *behaving* so I didn’t want to waste my time messing around with Ncloth trying to fix bits and pieces so I scrapped that idea after 1 day .

The 2nd idea was something a little more promising , at first I wanted over the top futuristic unreal tournament/star wars etc style but I knew that would be a extremely hard task to make , as I would have to make everything up with no reference and could easily ruin everything, especially with the textures .So instead of going over the top I thought of toning it down . Having a normal real environment but with some knowledge of the setting *not being set in the present time* with little hints of slightly differently designed objects , posters on the wall & maybe bizarre * car components *

Initially I had two main ideas;
Outside open area chop-shop in a desert theme environment within a run down tent
Futuristic themed chop-shop in a back street alley environment.

GAME DESIGN

GAME DESIGN
My brief is the Rockstar north Chop-shop , meeting the requirements that they have set accordingly.


Concentrated areas
Visualisation & modelling
Visualisation & texturing
2d conceptualization