Did a drawing

My cousin Nat asked me to draw him a picture after he placed pretty highly in a fencing competition.

So I gave him this:

Drawing remains difficult.

Nat remains adorable. 

I was 21 today.

Blog the blog blog blog

Not had much to blog over the recent weeks, been trying to get to grips with building some levels in Unity using the wonderful tools BenG has programmed for us.

Mainly focused on the Camera system and after a few tests, managed to get things to a place everyone was somewhat happy with.

Below is an "Alpha" test of the very first section of the game.

Nothing much is meant to happen, this is literally the moment you will start playing with the main goal to be exploration and allowing the player some time to adjust to the controls; however just provides and example of the stage we are at visually.

Hopefully by tomorrow I should have the second half of this level completed and some examples of gameplay with the Faun ready to go.

Doing this has highlighted a few areas we need to focus on in terms of Art, as well as allowed me to get to grips with the world building tools in Unity.

Terrain is not something I enjoy.

In any case, consider this a WIP of the opening level to be updated muchly.

I learnt today that I draw some damn fine thumbnails.

Seriously, zoom out on this shit man, looks uh-mazing.

Just don't enlarge it....never enlarge it.

Storyboards - Red

Some of the folks on the Futureworks Film Course were awesome enough to let me do some storyboarding for their latest short film, "Red".

Cant say much about the story since it isn't mine but, its a twist on the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

I enjoyed doing these storyboards, managed to crank 16 pages out in a couple of days (since I've got a game to be helping make as well  ha). Some of the drawings are a little wanting and my eye for filmography isn't amazing but, hopefully it helped the guys out!

Ill post a link up to the film once its finished, I'm eager to see it myself.

Some of the better panels below anyway:

Animations!

Just thought Id drop a quick update, I imagine a group wide blog update is imminent so I wont go into so much detail but Id just like to mention the two characters.

So I textured and rigged up the Faun and Kiddie:

Please forgive the render. Our game will be using a "toon shader" inside Unity and I did my best to emulate this effect straight out of 3DS Max. Roughly looks the same but without the shadow ramp and lighting effects it looks flat. Plus dem eyes...

The characters are rigged and I'm slowly working my way through the animations, the kids run cycle looks as follows:

Animation isn't really a strong suit of mine but I am doing my damnedest  This run animation for the Faun is about 90% complete and I will update the animations on here as I progress.

I should be working in Unity very soon and will be able to provide a more steady increase of art and animation once I am able to export directly into the game and tweak values myself. Maybe even build some levels.

We will see.

Kinda let things slip a little over Christmas.

Will start getting back on track starting from....

...

...

...

now.

Heres the base for my Faun character. View it here its better: http://p3d.in/ekuS1

Want to finish some digital painting off tomorrow and then Ill work on texturing these characters and rigging them up!

Good Morning Blues

Been on my "to-do-list" since summer and I finally got some free time:

Decided to blog this, it isnt finished.

UPDATE: I have lost interest in this. 

Ill either update the above image or re-post when I'm done with it. Still need to fix a few things with the faces and stuff, but once I get the background in there and some extra detailing, I think it might look nice. 

Been at it the better part of the day, so I doubt Ill finish in time to blog before the world ends, hence the WIP.

Below are some development stuff, various stages as well as the reference I used. 

Hopefully be done before Christmas.

The film was much nicer than this drawing. 

More update

Almost finished this brat now I think.

Well, I'm not sure.

Few areas I still need to work on and the face sucks overall but, least its more finished.

It also looks nothing like my sketches. Goddamn.

I didn't include the polys in the image because its way way wayyyy more than what it should have been. I'm hoping that when Ben said not to worry about a poly count, he reaaalllly meant not to worry about a poly count.

Fuck going over this guy to take polys out, I've gotta make a goddamn Faun next, what in the world.

Heres an image anyway cba doing lighting:

Ive thrown it up on this awesome 3D hosting website aswell if you want to get a 360, its pretty niffty:

http://p3d.in/aBDhW

Id type more but its 6.30am and Im sleepy.

Ramble ramble.

Update

Wip shot.

Torso is essentially done aside from a couple of details I want to add to finish the character off, all other details I want to make through texture information to complement the art style of the game.

Anyway, onto the head next.

Heading for trouble...

Line-Ups

Just a quick update.

Here is a rough concept sketch and the line up shots I'm going to use to try model this brat.

AS always the profile shot has messed me up but I think Ill be fine.

Ill be modelling next time I get chance.

Faun will probably come in a few weeks.

Level Design

Mark whipped up a level design for Ben to start the technical prototype. Ran into a few problems and issues with it however, mainly in that we all forgot how to play it.

I went over it anyway and made a few amendments so that Ben had a more concrete and structured plan to work with, below are essentially the exact notes I passed onto Ben.

I WONDER HOW HE IS GETTING ON!?!?!

Before I begin below was Marks initial level design on paper:

We had a little trouble explaining the height shifts and how things worked. Ben was essentially working blind which I can empathize with.

I went over Marks initial design, adding the starting section we had only spoke about and made sure to make the mechanics as clear and concise as I could.

The first image is an overview followed by my notes on the level.

- Player enters and moves through forest style area (jumping up ledges moving through trees).

- Player moves under bridge and reaches Ood, chained to a tree.

- Makes Ood chase player until the tree becomes dislodged and collapses, allowing access to the higher tier 2.

- Climbing along the tree, the player can reach the ledge of tier 2 and enter the cave.

- Inside the cave, the player can explore with Ood and reach the tunnel blocked by a boulder.

- Ood moves the boulder and allows player access.

- Tunnel snakes upwards and reaches a ledge higher up (tier3) *See video.

- From the vantage point, the player can access the first rotating platform.

Player moves along platforms with the help of Ood, to eventually collect the first of 2 cogs.

- Carrying the cog (rather large) the player moves across the rotating platforms.

- The cog is placed on a spindal allowing the player to push and rotate it. *See diagram, bottom right.

- Turing the cog raises the next rotating platform.

- From this platform the player can reach the next ledge and tunnel, taking them to the higher ledge on tier 4.

- At the end of the tunnel, the player Is able to collect the 2^nd and final cog.

- With the cog in hand, the player must jump down the ledge back to their previous position on tier3.

- Ood automatically realigns the rotating platform. (This is the only time in the level Ood will do this unprompted.

- Using the platform the rotating platform, the play can reach the farthest most right ledge of tier3.

- Using the 2^nd Cog and placing it on the spindle at point 2, the player can turn the cog and raise a platform for Ood to clamber and join the player.

- Ood can lift the player up the next ledge, following the player afterwards.

- The player and ood exit the cave onto a ledge, overlooking the starting area and cross a bridge to the end of the level. 

Thats essentially it. Short level used to explain the rough concept of the game and act as a technical prototype to test the mechanics and technical needs.

Just in case Ben reaallllly hated words and reading, which is probably a bad trait in a programmer, I also made a very quick video animation in 3D.

I intended to just use the model to demonstrate perspective shots of the height on different tiers (since I didn't explain it well) but I got carried away and fancied myself the Steven Spielberg of Games Design. 

Yep.

Paranoid Tortoise Update

Thought Id do a little drop of the Art (and design) I've been working on in my class group, Paranoid Tortoise.

We've progress pretty far with a concept document deadlined for Wednesday and we are on track.

Our game, working titled "Ood", is a companion game based on a small child protagonist and his companion Ood, a Faun. (Or at least our version of such.) 

I wont go into much of the mechanics or games design here until later in the project, but for now here is some conceptual art I've been working on. As bad as it is. 

The game will have a very stylized cell-shaded, almost cartoon look and feel. As a result I've done my best to style these initial sketches roughly playing with different shapes and designs for the characters. 

Shading was kept to a minimal in the interests of time and patience. 

Started to like the designs of the characters and kept them consistent in the next few. Also attempted to emulate how we would go about modelling the forest and using the flat cell shaded colours in place of textures. 

I have mixed feelings about its success. 

Oh you!

Our document will probably get featured on the company blog, as soon as we`re ready to post something, but for now here is the cover of it:

Thats all for the Art I suppose right now, Ill be working on doing some more drawings over the next few days. I'm not really loving the quality of the results but with time pressures, need to move quickly to ensure momentum is kept up.

Takes me way to long to draw mediocrity. 

Ill make a new post about design. 

Frog with arms.

I literally have no idea how or when he became Mexican.

So, a Faun.

Just to update on what's being going on recently.

Started the 3rd and final year of my Diploma course. The class has been split into two teams of four and work has began in our respective teams to concept and create some initial game designs that will make up the project for the remainder of the year.

My team settled on its company name, "Paranoid Tortoise", with an assortment of logos below.

So far we have 4 concepts that must be boiled down to just one, which will be our main idea and project for our student company. I don't have much to tell about these concepts but there are these crappy animal sketches roughly related to a companion based game:

Think the Fable2 dog mechanic, only not terrible.

Thats essentially it for college work, Ill have more to report after our next design lesson. 

Here is a screenshot from a tech prototype I've been working on. Its paaaainnnfully basic, but Ive been given some hints on research avenues I should take in regards to pathfinding. So yeah, Ill do that.

BUG BOSS!
I've also (sort of) started work on a small side project spoke about with a friend of mine. Its for a small game concept that the two of us might work on assuming we have the free time.

The game only exists in document form with a rather short GDD but there are these two images for the main protagonist of the game, "Bug Boss". 

Very heavily inspired by one of my all time favourite comics, "The Exterminators" as well as a totally hilarious Metal Gear Solid reference if you really didn't get that. 

Id really like to work on this idea seriously since I've had loads of fun concepting ideas, I hope It does come to fruition. 

Thats essentially it for now, I'm hoping to update some more on Bug Boss and actually begin some prototypes for it in the next few weeks. Likewise college work should start to take off in the next week or so and Ill have much more focused blog posts to blog post about.

Amazing.