It was daunting beginning this project. Lost of Maya and New game engines to get to grips with. Over the course of the 5 weeks, i have learned an immense amount about not only software, but what i am actually capable of. I feel i really managed to exceed my own expectations of ability and perseverance, inspiring much motivation for the up coming Self directed study module.
Thinking back to my initial brainstorm, there are many threads of narrative and consistency of concept that are clearly visible in the level created. Initially, i was looking at Grey tones, juxtaposed with bright dashes of colour, organised and collected objects, the idea of a dystopian landscape that was barren and empty, references to old radio signals and military notions, even the initial games looked at for reference can be seen in the end result. However, due to wanting to remain adaptable and have a project naturally evolve, there are many things, that i do not think have had a detrimental effect on the out come of the project that have been discarded for new ideas and motifs. The Victorian steam punk idea rapidly disappeared once i started developing the techno-dystopic motif, this was realized further once i started creating audio assets and thinking about Dystopias. (like Ridley Scotts Blade Runner).... At this stage of the project, the only thing i wish i had done would have gone out with he camera and taken images of dilapidated warehouses and factories and just collected more RAW data and images to use.
I did this later on, but had progressed with an idea to the point where these new images would have detracted away from the eventual feel and ambiance of the level.
I did a pre-production time management chart, that due to unforseen external circumstances (Being broken into twice in two months, being mugged, my sisters decent into addiction that is slowly resolving itself, but the biggest killer of motivation was a 2 month period of minimal sleep that as we know from experiments conducted on American GI's during the war, sleep deprivation is a one way ticket to tempering psychosis)
This said i strggled to keep to my initial Gant chart and started late. This however did not effect my pre production product and managed to hand in the work on time, having picked up the slack in later weeks.
To focus and strengthen the narrative within the concept, i made multiple moodboards of collected images of dilapidated buildings and old steel mills.
This coincided with the sort of games i was looking at for research. In taking these images, they reminded me of the textures in Doom, Heretic, Duke Nukem, Hexen and quake, all of which carry some form of dystopian narrative and visual style. This is why my research into games was focused in this era. (Also the case study i did on sound development within games and the advent of MIDI) I feel this aided the ambient feel of the level in the end, however doing this again, i would look at much more contemporaneity games to give me more of a feel for industry standard gaming. For visual reference and for sounds.
Also, it must be noted that this informed the decision for the my Characters 'collected objects.' I saw trash, coke cans, wrappers and other discarded human waste surrounding the images that i collected. This reinforced the concept further.
I decided to investigate using sketches and charcoal drawings for backdrops, moved forward from the images and visual stimulus i had investigated previously.
These sketches far exceeded my expectations and i really enjoyed doing them. However, they have now been re classified as concept art as yet again, i felt they were fighting/contrasting to heavily with how i felt the outcome should look. Thus they were abandoned as a potential route through directly after Intrim crit.
I would like to investigate the 'sketched' feel at a later date, and having seen Ken's level, within which he had used the toon-shader to achieve an illustrated feel that i thought was aesthetically brilliant and suited his level to a tee.
Storyboards were also completed for the Idle and Reaction animations for my character that was to be imported into my level. These were clear, conciese and directed my goals for sound design. All in all a very useful exercise.
I handed in all my pre production work on time (email), despite the late start, but was unable to make the presentation as we had the second of our 'break in's' the night before and my flat mate and me were dealing with the police till 6 that morning and unfortunately, having put in the hard work, was denied this luxury.
After crit, there were a few things noted that needed to change. I revised and made a much more detailed time management plan that really over the course of the project helped me more than i ever thought. Having what you need to do layed out in front of you really helps ease the stress. Breaking things down in to bite size chunks makes chipping away at the mountain feel a lot more constructive and therefore productive.
I also re did a floor plan that was to scale and did accurate schematic drawings, that again exceeded my expectations, despite being crude attempts at best. This helped direct the layout and structure of the level making it a lot easier to realize the concept in MAYA.
Doing things again, i would definitely like to come up with clearer concept art and accurate scale drawings, before productions begins. However this time i feel i was let down by issues beyond my control.
Having imagery in my head, i felt it was time to start Sound design, as i wanted this to inform the direction of building the level. The audio was a reaction to the notion of Dystopia and A barren wasteland. Wanting spurious radio signals and interference, blips and blops and lots of swirling wind noise. Using my case study on sound development within games and the advent of MIDI, i wanted to experiment with MIDI. The sounds were devised in Ableton live and as MIDI is a relatively easy thing to get to grips with, the audio came together quickly. This is definitely a strong suit that i have always been able to rely on and its seen me right again for this project.
The sounds consisted of bit reduced synths, layered reverb, reversed percussive hits and imported radio signals, all automated and mixed out into a minute long seamless loop. Again making good loops is an art unto itself so i am proud that i have managed to create one. The time and effort this takes is always worth it for a more professional sounding audio sample...
The sounds were imported into Unity, then attached to a Box Collider. This was then directed by a simple bit of script that was attatched. The sound now operates, functions and is triggered when the player interacts with the objects, or steps into the level.
There are a couple of samples that have been attached to the 'digital boxes' / receivers that are placed in the level. This made the level feel so much more interactive and therefore a much more immersive, convincing environment for players.
Doing the sound again i would like to spend more time creating samples and assets, taking more time over effecting parameters such as 'roll off' and the intensity of sound in 3d space that can be achieved in Unity.
1. Import your audio files into your Unity Project. These are now Audio Clips.
2. Go to GameObject->Create Empty from the menubar.
3. With the new GameObject selected, select Component->Audio->Audio Source.
4. Assign the Audio Clip property of the Audio Source Component in the Inspector.
The main basis for the level was created in Maya out of cubes and cylinders, mainly to keep the poly count down, but also, being skeptical of my Maya abilities, wanted to keep it simple to ensure i didn't waste time.
Once the basic shape was in place, i decided it was time to begin Photoshopping textures, making them seamless and adding dynamic. By this time my focus was on Re creating the Duke Nukem feel, deciding to use images of Andreas Gursky, amoungst many others, to create the dystopian feel i was aspiring to.
Importing these textures into Maya, using Lambers and Blinns went well. This has been learned from previous projects and saved me lots of 'working out time.' At this stage in Maya, the textures looked good.
The issues started in starting to export the Maya files (.fbx files) into unity.
Trying to decipher the issues that have occurred through trying to bring my character animation into Unity is going to be a challenge in itself.
Firstly the issue lied with selecting everything across all the layers in Maya. I had just been selecting the geometry and trying to export that as an .fbx file. This obviously meant that when i imported it in to Unity, there was just a vacant robot. This was fixed by turning on the skeleton layer, geometry layer and the animation/control layer, deleting the history, edit select all, and export the lot as a .fbx file.
Further issues lied in forgetting to toggle the 'bake animation' function in the export window and define the set keys that were required. This meant going back, having importing it into Unity again and finally getting it right.
However, there were several warnings when the fbx file was translated out of maya. The animation working fine, My character was now missing a leg. Where this has gone i don't know. In the preview window in Unity, the model is there, fully formed with all his assets attached. Both me and Annabeth looked over it and really could not understand why this miss translations happened after 4 or 5 different methods were tried. So after 4 hours of trying to get the file to work, we left it. Hopefully tomorrow the issues can be resolved but if not then the character will have to go in as a static model, potentially without animation. However this has been a technical issue that so far has not been resolved.
I had a few problems in Unity to. I had to Scale up the fbx file to 1, and generate colliders to add basic physics to the engine. However, a lot of objects had a 'shimmering' effect. It happened that a lot of the objects had been duplicated for some reason. Due to the previous mishaps i decided just to delete all the spurious objects one by one. This took time but the results are evident in the surfaces and textures of the objects.
I speeded my character up as it felt sluggish and slow in first person mode.
Essentially being let down by technical issues that neither me or the Tutor could get around.
The next challenge was getting the scale right for the character, which i got round by scaling the model up to 1, and making sure the first person controller was a large enough size for everything to be in a harmonious scale frame.
Finally imported all my assets into unity. Has taken a while to ensure that textures translate properly and the scaling of the level is now much more accurate.
Started off having imported the level from Maya that i had been working on at home, but initially forgot the embedded media toggle and had to re open and export again. the fbx file this time worked. The level now, in Unity, has all its assets imported, including sound, all that is missing is the correct animation files.
My revised concept art came as a reaction to seeing the level complete. It was really to develop some artwork and bolster up the portfolio work and as my drawing skills are poor, they were all made using Illustrator and Photoshop. A fun process but i hinesight should have been made much earlier on in the process. Next time, i will allow much more time for the development of concept art, or ask someone who can draw to visualize the concept for me, delegating the work would save time.
Overall, i have really appreciated the time to reengage with Maya. It is such a useful asset in the creation of 3d visuals. Now i have the fundementals locked in my head, i intend to use it in a slightly more abstracted way in the up coming self directed study. The interface has revealed a few of its secrets to me and this has given me the motivation to push further and harder with future projects.
Unity was a relatively simple piece of software to get my head round, however i did not do anywhere near enough tutorials. Now this was gotten around to a certain degree as most of my assets were created in Maya, but looking at other levels that have been made in Unity, i know the engine has so much more to offer. I barely scratched the surface in terms of Unities functions and scripting capabilities.
I had little interest in Game Art before this module. But the last 5 weeks have helped me realise that these pieces of software combined can produce some really interesting results. The potential for interactive art, installations and live visual is immense. I never thought i would be able to create a Level for a game, and although crude at best, i am very happy with the result.
I, for once, have exceeded my perception of my own ability.
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