Michaela Bruckner BA Animation
Third Year Projects
I have a lot more to plan and decide upon but for now, this is what I envision for the environment. Note to self: turn as many things as you find suitable into a sci-fi theme. I don’t have in terms of environment right now.
Floor is old solid wooden flooring.
The platform below the rope and the stair steps will be anti slip metal.
The walls of the warehouse will be large concrete slabs.
Make my environment worthy of the name SCI-FI. Spaceship like?
The proof of concept is a great opportunity to figure out hoe to work the lighting I make in Maya into Unreal- how does that even work?
When making the proof of concept I had many problems concerning Unreal Engine since it was my first time using it. Many error messages came up about having to rebuild the lighting and even doing that didn’t solve the problem. Apparently, the UV’s were overlapping. I believe this problem is caused since in Maya I extruded the rope along a curve with the extruded faces too close together, causing the UV’s to overlap.
As you can see after I went back to try and make sure there were no overlapping models there were still error messages labelling models as either having “degenerate tangent bases” or “some nearly zero bi-normals.” I have gone back and edited the necessary UV’s and some of the error messages have gone. Not only this but now when I press “Play” the character model and camera acts strange. It automatically goes into first-person instead of the selected third and the character will not move at all. All I can do is move around the camera. I have tested if this is only the software, and if I open a new scene then the character moves fine. I noticed that the camera/character get messed up as soon as I import the scene from Maya. Maybe if I simplify the scene’s objects I won’t have any problems, if I model the absolute basic shapes since I only created these models as rough impressions of the finals. Therefore, since I may have not inputted as much care as I would to the final models, I may have left out important steps or made simple mistakes.
When trying to fix these problems, there were certain forums that resolved this issue, however these solutions did not work for me.
Check list in Maya- prep mesh for Unreal
There seemed to be problems with my mesh so I restarted from scratch on the proof of concept. When I imported this new mesh into Unreal, the camera and character acted normally until I moved the character and camera onto the scene. When the environment is scaled up to size NEXT TO these then there is no problem. I will try to remove a couple of the walls to see if this makes a difference. The step after that is to remove the floor. My teacher recommended placing the models into Unreal separately, this may also work. Either way, I feel I am finally close to overcoming all of these problems and close to starting to record the video!
Finally solved these problems and began making the video and now the rendered video camera doesn’t follow the same movements as in play mode. The camera follows the character fine, but not the movements of the mouse, so I can’t show the character looking around throughout the video.
Proof of Concept and tests:
I have tested/checked what the camera does in irst person and the recording and play mode perspective are the same. So, this is an option for the final video. I just have to get rid of the gun that is automatically equiped.
Time period: 9 Weeks. From the 17th March to 19th May.
Alloted time to update blog posts by end of each week.
2 weeks before deadline write critical appraisal.
Roughly 12 objects to model, texture and colour…
3-4 weeks max to make the models, 1 to texture and 1 to finish up and put in Unreal Engine to make the video.
Revised version:
Assassin’c Creed syndicate factory style building
Anatomy
Death stranding aura
Sci-fi style objects
TODO
Character Description
A boy about 16 years of age, caucasian of European Slavic origins. His body is thin and lean. His face narrow long but rounded. Personality themes: Self-conscious, doesn’t mind being by himself, used to only having to rely on himself.
Initial colour scheme moodboard
Actual character colour scheme
Colour Scheme
Silhouettes
Refined Drawings
Final Designs
Test Pairings
Below are my gathered words to help me decide on a title for the game. Something to do with survival and the helplessness of a task, especially under the circumstances of having no limbs.
‘Lapsed‘: No longer valid; expired.
‘Impotent‘: Unable to take effective action; helpless or powerless.
‘Weary‘: Feeling or showing extreme tiredness, especially as a result of excessive exertion.
‘Nonchalant‘: (of a person or manner) feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm.
‘Catatonic‘: of or in an immobile or unresponsive stupor.
‘Catatonia‘ #1: a syndrome characterized by muscular rigidity and mental stupor.
‘Catatonia‘ #2: Or appearing to be in a daze or stupor; unresponsive.
‘Vitality‘ #1: capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence.
‘Vitality‘ #2: exuberant physical strength or mental vigor.
‘Capacity‘: actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand.
‘Endure‘: to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo.
‘Tolerance‘: the act or capacity of enduring; endurance.
‘Resistance‘: the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding.
‘Resist‘: withstand the action or effect of.
‘Lasting‘: continuing or enduring a long time; permanent; durable.
‘Withstand‘: to stand or hold out against; resist or oppose, especially successfully.
‘Counter‘ #1: Boxing= To give a return blow while parrying.”he countered with a left hook”.
‘Counter‘ #2: in the opposite direction or in opposition to.”his writing ran counter to the dominant trends of the decade”.
‘Parry‘: ward off (a weapon or attack) with a countermove.
‘Repel‘: drive or force (an attack or attacker) back or away.
‘Elude‘: escape from or avoid (a danger, enemy, or pursuer), typically in a skilful or cunning way.
‘Avert‘: to see coming and ward off.
‘Dodge: avoid (someone or something) by a sudden quick movement.
‘Evade‘: escape or avoid (someone or something), especially by guile or trickery.
‘Calamity‘: an event causing great and often sudden damage or distress; a disaster.
‘Deflect‘: cause (something) to change direction; turn aside from a straight course.
‘Tragedy‘: an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.
‘Devastating‘: highly destructive or damaging.
‘Crisis‘: a time of intense difficulty or danger.
‘Cataclysm‘: a large-scale and violent event in the natural world.
‘Misfortune‘: bad luck.
‘Ruin‘: the physical destruction or disintegration of something or the state of disintegrating or being destroyed.
‘Convulsion‘: a sudden, violent, irregular movement of the body, caused by involuntary contraction of muscles and associated especially with brain disorders such as epilepsy, the presence of certain toxins or other agents in the blood, or fever in children.
‘Upheaval‘: a violent or sudden change or disruption to something.
‘Accident‘: an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
‘Tribulation‘: a cause of great trouble or suffering.
‘Trouble‘: difficulty or problems.
‘Destructive‘: causing great and irreparable damage.
‘Pernicious‘: having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.
‘Detrimental‘: tending to cause harm.
‘Malevolent‘: having or showing a wish to do evil to others.
‘Malign‘: evil in nature or effect.
‘Malefic‘: causing harm or destruction, especially by supernatural means
‘Pestiferous‘: harbouring infection and disease.
‘Keep at bay’
‘Hold Out Against’
‘Keep out’
‘Fend Off’
‘Ward Off’
Final Name (I think)
Within this page, I have disclosed my early, pre-sketched out ideas for the visuals of the project contents. Such as how items within my video game world will look etc. Here are all of my preproduction rough sketches. Designs that I can imagine after being refined towards the style that I choose best fits with the game.
Here I have compiled all of the visual research that I will implement into the development of my preproduction work. These will help me plan and imagine how the 3D outcome will look. Overall, I would like quite an illustrated style, cartoony, fictional looking but somewhat realistic (like the benchmark below).
This is the style of 3D model which will be my character benchmark, however, if I gain the time I would like to add a little textured detail, especially to the face. I will have to figure out what to do about the hair as I have not modelled hair before: helmet? Or just learn quickly https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DAL5A
Benchmark environment:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lVdrge
Find more.
These images are from the Art Station account Patrick Martens, the piece is called ‘Whiteout‘. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8zX1m
The next source of inspirational is more focussed on the feel I intend the audience to get from the environment. I do not want to simply maintain a haunted house mood but a room in which it’s eeriness makes you want to leave it. This is what I originally had in mind, however, I feel that I do not want to create a horror game. The best way that I can describe what I have in mind may be to use Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding game (2020) as an example.
I love the sci-fi feel of the unknown within this game.
The environment composition should look something like this:
The piece is called ‘Haunted Château‘ by the Art Station account Amber Marie Edwards. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQW8xe
While on the subject of making my audience want to leave the environment because of the eery feeling, there is no other game that I have found to give the audience this feeling that Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills P.T. video game. My concept may be lacking considerably in comparison to Kojima’s game since I will not completely undergo the horror/ thriller theme with jump scares (amongst other things).
Within this game, the player has a first person view (exaggerating the horror factor) and has to escape the building which consists literally of just a corridor and a few rooms. There are plenty of doors to move around between, one of which, most annoyingly, is the front door of the house (of course it is locked). At the end of the corridor is a door in which the player walks through and loops back to the door at the start of the corridor- the audience is literally trapped in this map. It’s a brilliant design! Most of the times you loop through the map it changed, objects are moved or smashed or there may be foreboding figures anywhere in there with you.
I found this 3D model, by Dennis Wormgoor on Artstation ‘SHC Old Factory hall’, which best describes the environment I imagine. Mine, of course, will have low-key lighting and be more foreboding than this bright scene but the layout and style of architecture are very similar.
This will be a simple test of the workflow that I have decided upon. What that means is that I will try out the modelling and texturing process and also remind myself/teach myself new things about modelling and texturing. For example, I have never been a fan of texturing in Photoshop or creating UV’s or trying to match up the points on the UV’s location on the model etc. But I believe that if I implement and teach myself Substance Painter software then the process will be much more natural like fine art and I can also make the model look more realistic.
Not only this, I would like to make a mini mockup of my environment and test it in Unreal Engine in order to get a feel for the world I have designed, the placement of items, and the time duration which it will be suitable for the run-through video to last.
I keep thinking about two things. Firstly, how will the character be able to see the objects on the platforms above the hanging rope (while they are looking around but obviously not in play)? Is that even necessary since I will show all of the hazards on the plinths anyway? Secondly, I need more of a purpose and challenge for the opening the container task- since the task of simply avoiding the hazards is not exciting enough (even if this project is purely based on my games art side of it rather than the game’s design). This task is exciting enough for the hanging rope task but not for this one. I keep coming back to the idea of them not being able to be opened somehow. Having keys to open them is too obvious and quite boring. Maybe only 1st, 7th, and 15th can be opened, and once the character has tried to open a single container then the sequence changes, and then a different three will be able to open- such as the next ones along, or the second next ones along. This may not be obvious enough, however, there could be a sign with some indication as to the code. Otherwise, the player would probably try to open all of the many containers one-by-one until they found them all. This type of task would certainly not require any more input from the art side of things which suits me perfectly.
My workflow will begin by testing the workflow on sample objects, going through a process and see if it is successful. The workflow will contain: preproduction (mood boards/research, sketches and refined drawings) – modelling in Maya – test lighting in Maya (if necessary) – detailed work in Mudbox (in necessary) – export base model, displacement map and normal map (if necessary=test) into substance painter – export model, maps and Uvs into Unreal Engine – make environment composition – test everything in UnReal Engine.
Maya
Mudbox
beside Base File Name and enter a file name in the Save As window that appears” Way to save file otherwise you can’t export. I didn’t notice this at first, easily missed.
Substance Painter
High res vs low resolution
Within this Youtube tutorial about ‘Map Extraction in Mudbox’ by the Autodesk explaining the process of creating maps within Mudbox is explained. Here I learned that a displacement map would help to alter the shape of the model (e.g. the solouettewould be considerably different in comparison to using a normal map, or others). The process is Maps (top menu)> Extract texture maps> New opperation> Name and select Displacement map> select the same model with the level you want (the first being with low resolution, either level 0 or 1, the second being about level 5)> Leave subdivision option on.