A new 3rd person game of the award winning TV series Game of Thrones is
being planned. A vital part of making an immersive game is detailed and unique
non-player characters (NPCs). Walk down
any street or play any AAA game and really study how different each person you
pass looks.
For this exercise you will be required to model and texture a NPC based
on photo reference of yourself to a fixed set of technical requirements. The model must look accurate to the collected
reference as well as showing good appreciation of the final aesthetic, proportion,
colour, silhouette and detail density.
The mesh must be well laid out with good clean flow lines in the
geometry and exhibit efficient use of texture space. It must fit seamlessly
with characters from the TV series; therefore costume design and some
background information on your character are needed.
(Upload pictures of your Sketchbook here Michelle!) Left it at home. :(
+ Some images that have helped me with finding who i want my character to be like.
I came to the conclusion I would like to do myself in a high garden/ Margaery Tyrell style.
However to understand what I am going to be making with 3DsMax I have been issued a task to write a 1000 word essay on topology as part of the brief.
(27/09/2013) - Before Brief Started.
So I'm modelling my own head D:!
Sorry for the really bad quality photo's... They where taken on a mobile device!!
Here is my Low poly model with topology visible at just under 2000 triangles.
Yes I used turbo smooth here but its just to make it look better :)
With a basic texture (not final) just to add a tad more human to the model :)
Next I shall create some better photo realistic textures, some good AO and Normal maps to create the high definition finish on the low resolution model!
I shall also in the near future create my body to fit my head onto!
In Game “Chunky Style” Mobile Friendly Boat Concept Generation.
In this task I must research concept and produce a boat in a a "Chunky" & "Friendly" style while still keeping some realism. This boat should be between 300 Triangle and 500 Triangles, to be used in IOS and Android devices. The textures should be at 256x256 and no larger. Where I got the "Chunky style" reference from. I mainly used games with similar styles for reference as I know most of them are aimed at the a market which is really wide ranged. While some of these games are popular abroad they are also popular in places like America and England. -Tear Away.
- Monster Life.
-Wind Waker.
- FarmVille. (texture style not model style)
-Viva Pinata. (Tad more realistic than others but still vibrant and chunky)
Each of these games have thier similarities and are all pretty popular games (Except Tear Away which is a newer release) all of which are aimed really at a global market thus the names ring bells in anyones ears.
Each of these games have vibrant colour qualities and interesting/ unique styles in art, making them more interesting and appealing to look at for long periods of time.
With my boat for Kwalee I would like to incorporate the interesting and unique with a vibrant colour palette into my work. Hopefully by doing this I can result in a piece that is appealing to look at and interesting to the person who is playing the game, no matter who they are.
General Boat Shape Research.
Using general internet research I found boats and boat shapes that I wouldn’t mind using as reference, I wish I lived near a harbour so that my research could’ve been more in depth. However while looking through the shapes and styles of regular fishing boats I came to the conclusion that I didn't really like the shapes or styles of normal boats, as they have too much of a realistic nature about them. Not out of the blue and crazy like models in the game references. So I took to finding the accessories which make a fihsing boat e.g Nets, Cranes, Buoys, Life preserver cirlces. etc... Then I made silhouettes of boat shapes and added the fishing boat accessories.
Here I scribbled a few really light ideas and i’m sure you can’t see them very well as I stupidly did them in a blue animator pencil. Moving on!
From the Internet research I decided to “de-clutter” some of the boats i’d found, and get the basic feel for the vessel so I could see what accessories are needed or not on the fishing boat.
Here are a few Charcoal scribbles “Squiggles” in which try to depict a “chunky” type of style.
These next couple of drawings are a tad more depth into what type of fishing boat I would actually like to do. (Still Idea Generation.)
A boat design that I quite like
This is a colour idea for the boat above. using Photo Shop I have created an idea for the visuals in colour and in design for the boat I will eventually create.
Looking from a modelling perspective with a limit of 300-500 triangles I feel that a boat with a sail may be rather unfriendly; Modelling wise and Animation wise it could arise problems for a mobile and tablet game.
Above is the water colour picture I am currently finishing of the boat I have selected and would like to proceed into making. With accessories :)
After this watercolour piece I am going to do an orthographic piece for this particular boat (modelling material) so that if needed I will have an accurate representation of the boat drawn and then hopefully a just as accurate 3D model. ( The boat may be viewed upside down so that is why there is a bottom part to teh ship)
While Texturing i happend to encounter an error when not paying attention to how I saved the texture. While resizing the 512x512 PSD I flattened the layers to transport the texture to a different file and fogot to unflatten the 512x512 PSD document. However having backed up files i was able to retrieve a earlier version of the 512x512 document and have managed to salvage eveything but the floor and, small light and crane layers. I have named the files in the PSD with (Affected By Flattened PSD) so when Kwalee get my PSD they know that some things are non-modifiable.
For submission I have been asked to hand in 3 256x256 texture files for the boat. This is what they look like with 256x256 textures on them. The Marlin Monroe I feel has been a fun task!
Just for a laugh I decided to make this image below... :D makes me laugh every time I look at it ! just thoughs i'd share.
Here is my link for my model on Sketchfab, Please take a look! (Please be aware, there are some old models on there!)
For this task I was asked to create a boat between 300-500
triangles, with chunky topology, using a 512x512 diffuse PSD with Ambient
Occlusion, to then re-size and make 256x256 with 2 other coloured
variants plus Normal and Specular maps. Just to mention I should have a good
enough texture to use just the Diffuse if there are any performance issues.
I feel that I have managed this task well and have been able to
stick to a timed schedule for this project.
However I think that I were to do this task again there would be
less problems.
1- I flattened my final texture PSD by accident and had to go back in
time to retrieve a closely finished document. This is a mistake I have learnt
from and am sorry for the fact there are some things on the boat you can’t edit
without re-drawing.
If I had the chance
to do this project again or a project like this, I would take into
consideration more than a couple saves on my PSD document and should save
numerous folders with all of the PSD’s inside of it (the last being the
finished product)
2- My UVW unwrapping
skills aren't the best and have caused a problem in my
design further down the line. This problem is that the UVW's that
make up the 'Man shelter' have been made symmetrical, this made me come to
the problem of do I have 2 doors (one on either side) or no doors.
I opted for no doors as I remembered that the boat is
going to be viewed from a high point at the rear of the boat, thus meaning
people may not notice.
If I was to do this again I would make sure that I took more care
in the unwrapping process and would have made room for the sides to be non-symmetrical
with 1 door on the side of the boat with the step.
3- I feel that I have lacked in providing my
research as I seem to have left a lot of it in my brain and not in a document
for all too see. However the research that I think really matters has been
included in this blog post.
If I was to do this project again I would make sure to put more
care into keeping the research that I have come across and not just leave it on
the computer screen or in my head. I feel that being the individual I am when
working on my own projects I forget to get all my research together, and
working on this was so much fun that I forgot to put in all the influences and
research.
All in all I have made many mistakes during this project and have
made a boat which falls within the
limitations. So hopefully I have done somewhat of what they expect and will
achieve some positive criticism on Monday the 18th of November 2013,
when Kwalee come back in to evaluate our boats!
