Conclusion

From my overall develop of the game and how I have time managed each submission to this Blog, I can conclude that overfall my time management were not that well organised until around to production of the game. But until a few personal issues accrued, my organisation failed once again which hugely effected the production time for when assets and other set goals were made before hand. 

But what went well during this production was the making of the concepts because they were already thought 

If I have a chance to redo this diary, I would have kept to my mile stones to begin with, and submit sections of my Gantt chart, following through with it as I meet deadlines, showing better time management.

Particle editing

By going in to the DataBase view panel, located under underneath the view options, I then went on to the Particle menu by selecting the tab menu found at the top section of the

I looked through youtube videos such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1nQ7xGQqh0
so to help me understand the particle system.

The overall process took a few hours figuring out what sections did what to the particles themselves.
During the process of creating the particle, I started to develop new ideas; as I played around with the particle system, I decided to make the flow of the particles more lively so to make the fireflies look more natural and alive.

Now all that is needed to be done is create the more around the map and add in more assets into the level and organised it around the map.

20/04/14

Objective: Creating particle effects to look like fireflies

Done: Made suitable particle effects

Next to do: implement statue. 21/04/14

Creating Assets for game

I created the tree by using a tool called the branch tool which extrude the face of an object or a plane and creates a a branch like shape from that selected face.

using this tool helped a lot of time and stress in making the trees because of how complicated making a tree in 3dsmax can be and long it would have took yo get it right.

while coming uv mapping the tree, I found that there are a lot of uv replacing in the uv editor.

To get around this, I had to rearrange the uv maps in the uv editor so that the texture that I created would not be mixed making it look like this.

Evaluation

13/04/14

Objective: Creating trees in 3ds max

Done: Made tree model and texture for the tree

Next to do: sort out UV maps 15/04/14

 

13/04/14

Objective:

Creating trees in 3ds max

 Done:

Made tree model and texture for the tree

 Next to do:

sort out UV maps

15/04/14

Creating environment in Cryengine

From not succeeding in making the landscapes for my game in 3DS Max, I figured that it would be better to create the game's level within the Cryengine. It'll save time on exporting and other technical difficulties that may come up if I had chosen to do so.

Overall I found that it was surprisingly easy and as an end result, matches quite closely to my ideals.

During the process, I did have a little confusion on how to textue the terrain due to not having that much knowledge with the Cryengine's tool's whereabouts.

Seeing how much time I had to play around with the Cryengine, I thought  that it would be suitable to try and understand how the particle system worked.

Took some time trying to get the grasp of what changed what in the particle editing window and at points where I tried to change the texture of the particles seemed nearly impossible to find. This took a lot of time which made me angry but glad because thankfully I chose to sort this out beforehand and if I had chosen to do this later on, I may have not enough time due to all the other things I need to do for the game.

7/04/14

Objective: Creating terrain for game level in cryengine.

Done: created a nicely made terrain suitable for my game concept.

Next to do: Try to get the particle effects to work in my level. 12/04/14

Rigging Kia Allynna

Re-rigging the character model in 3dmax because I came a cross a problem that showed up one i had the skin attched to the bones. The problem was that when the character was trying to move her shoulders, her sholuders would move the opposite direction.

I spoke to one of my tutors during a lesson to resolve this. Afterwards, the problem lessened right after he had told me to re attach the skin to the bones. 

When it came to creating key animations, I found out that the problem with the shoulders were still there some how.

Looking through YouTube didn't help because they didn't have anything information that could help this situation.

I resolved this issue by asking one of my friends in class if he could look into this. He told me that the shoulders's bones where set to go opposite. After hearing this, I knew that by rotating the shoulders to the direction i wanted them to go towards when moving around, I could solve this problem quickly 

Evaluation

 From all that experience, I've gain new knowledge on heat mapping and rigging the character to the bones which means that if I happen to go across this problem again, I can resolve the issue with ease.

Musical Gameplay

Finally finished making my music track for my game. The link is here:

 https://soundcloud.com/ewan-mcdermott/illuminate-intro-music

All that needs to done is to covert my voice in my dialogue into a female's voice. I have been trying to do this but the out come today turned out not what I was expecting. all I could do at the time being was make my noise sound like a young boy. So hopefully ill be able to get this sorted and done by tomorrow.

What I been up to

This is what my character looks like in after moving her into 3DS Max.

 Created my Main asset that was one of my milestones which is meant to be my main focusable point to my games level's theme.

 Created and textured a statue for my game level which took me 3 hours to complete. I made this in Mudbox using basic scripting tools such as th

The idea of this was to create a kind of ancient history that is untold to the person playing the game, making the game more mysterious.

Made a simple stone with texture in mud box. very simple because it wasn't really important, just thought that the level would look bare with not many natural assets in the game.

27/03/14

Objective: move character to 3DsMax Create 1 asset

Done: Successfully move character to 3DS Max and created 2 assets for level.

Next to do: implement statue and stone into level 1/04/14

Solving Hair issues

I finally found a method that'll work effectively when creating the hair for my character. As I was searching through various videos on YouTube, trying out different methods and later on failing on them, I finally found the right one. There was a video on YouTube that showed very clearly that by importing the model from Mudbox straight into 3DSMax, I can then use the tool under Object Paint to select an object such as plain or a cube (it does't matter what object you use, as long as its not big) and paint onto the surface of another object. Using this technique I tried to play a round with it into order to understand the tool more better. After feeling confidant about how it works, I applied hair texture to a diamond shaped plain with opacity along the ends of the hair lines, just for realism. I then used the tool by selecting the plain with the hair texture on it, saying that I want to paint with this object. Right after that, I select the object that will be the one that will allow the hair to be painted onto; this would be my character's model. Next all I had to now was simply stroke where I wanted the hair to go, and what this will do now is paint my hair on to the model.

Update of character

Just an update to my present models development. added more lines to the eyes to make them less creepy and more normal. I asked some of the people I know in my class who do the same course as me if they had any options that may help improve the character's model. Seeing that I couldn't see anything wrong with it, I wanted to make sure that I'm not looking through my eyes only. more than one perspective can really help open the mind to more creative ideas.

I was told from a few people that she looked slightly creepy because of how she stared, plus her face was quite flat which couldn't be help because that all to with skill and technique seeing that I only started using Mudbox quite recently. 

Right now am finally happy how she turned out and I'm now moving on to doing the hair, hopefully finding the right method through tutorials on the internet. 

Re-done Textures

Just to come back to what happened to my model when make the hair, there was a lot of issues I saw with it  later on right after seeing a friend who knows quite a bit on modelling. After been told that they could be some issues with this method, we couldn't really point out what it could be. I then saw one of my Tutors who teaches modelling, to have a look on my model and see if he could point out anything wrong with this method of doing the hair.

He said that the hair needed to be separate because when it comes to texturing the hair, it'll become hard for me to get the finer details right underneath the hair. Not only that, the UVs were a mess. He did say that if I wanted to carry on doing this, I would need to import the model with the hair into Maya and try to use a tool called 'Quad Draw'. This tool basically draws quads onto the model's surfaces. If done right, is will turn out perfect but seeing how much time it will take to do this, I would need to find a different method soon. 

Right after all that complication I gave up on the idea of doing this method and opened my back up model from back before I did the hair. Because, if kept on trying to do this method, I know it would turn out a messing seeing that there were overlapping vertexes and how unsure I was
Basically I re-textured the backup model and gave her a cleaner more finished look. I re-done the eyes, reshaped the ears, lips and head shape to look more stronger and define. Comparing the older version, its more cleaner which is good when its comes to texturing.

Using Mudbox to do Hair

As you can see, by using the sculpt tool in Mudbox, I sculpted the hair. In order for this to be made possible in Mudbox, I first made sure that the rest of my model would be ok by using the freeze tool which highlights parts of the model you wish not to be altered when modelling. I froze only the head area, leaving an open area that wasn't frozen. I then used the sculpt tool to then extrude that area out into a afro like style to start of with. Next all I did was concentrate on putting time using the both the sculpt tool and the grab tool to get the style and shape I wanted.

This right here is the final development of what I ended up with. With satisfaction of how it looks, all that is needed to fully finish the hair is to texture it by using the paint tool provided in Mudbox.

Of course the sculpting of the hair was a long processes. Sculpting the hair was difficult, because I choose to do this method, the hairstyle I planned out on my concept art fro my character became something completely different.

But overall I'm happy that after looking and comparing the hairstyle to the face, it turned out slightly better than I thought due to how the waviness makes her seem to look more anime-like which is what I'm after.
Still not sure if this will have issues in the future because of its shape or maybe that I have stretched out the wrong parts of the head that may cause complications later on during the development. Just to make sure that everything I make is safe, I made a copy of the model without hair as a back up.

Level creation

While using 3DS Max, I found it difficult to handle and took to long to make 

 was a bad idea because it was hard for me to bend around the shapes in a way that made it seem hard and not what I was planning it to look like.

11/03/14

Objective: Create a environment in 3dx max

Done: nothing usable

Next to do: Re make level in Mudbox 20/03/14

11/03/14

Objective:

Create a environment in 3dx max

 Done:

nothing usable

 Next to do:

Re make level in Mudbox

20/03/14

Texturing the eyes

By taking advantage of using the the paint tools, I drawn out where the eyes are, simply by selecting the right colors. While deciding what color her eyes would be, I thought that a light green color would make her look more spiritual, making it fit her character more.

After I was sadified with the eye, I looked around the model just to see how it looked. Turns out that in a 3D perspective, it didn't look right around the outer sides of the eyes. Because of this, I'll have to re-model around here the eyes by bring it out so it look more rounded then when it was flat.

Scenario Script

This is my scenario script I made for the level of my game. Due to not having made one before, I'll have to work on this during the production depending if it goes with the game play.



EXT. SACRED FOREST# 1 - NIGHT

Action/Adventurous music. Piano sounds, Smooth Violin sounds + plucking sounds, with

slightly fast flute sounds mainly. Chinese themed music.

Tree/leaves rustling, Music Background, River splashing/streaming, some kind of ping sound

when the Black box shows up with the annotation shows up.

Bright, yellow, sunny lighting with a few bright green due to the tree’s leaves. Bits of light

particles to help give an enchanted, magical feel to the game’s level. A few shady shadow

areas where light won’t be able to reach, such as the rocks and underneath trees etc. Mainly,

darker shadows will be where the player can’t reach which will be deeper areas of the forest.

The Level will be in a Forest with a river streaming around areas of the level. At the very

start of the scenario, the player is introduced to the map area by showing a few panning shots of the

level.

Shot of the map will focus on the level’s layout, another will focus on where the player needs to go

to. The Camera will then focus on a visual of the crystal in order to show the player that the crystal is

where they need to get to.

KIA ALLYNNA#1

Phew… you can really get lost in this place…

I can kind of sense where about the crystals are… but it’s a little weak.

AH! I see something that’s glowing not far from here!

Must be a piece of the crystal.

I need to get there.

The camera then pans over where Kia is in the level. Camera then get a front eye to

eye level to the character. Displaying the character’s full body. Kia then does a short hero like

stance animation; while holding her staff, she will pull out her sword from her waist with her

other hand. She will then bring out her chest slightly, making her look like a warrior and at

the same time showing in her stance that she is both proud and strong.

Tree/leaves rustling, Music Background, River splashing/streaming at the background. As the

she pulls out her sword, it’ll make a scraping steel sound. It then makes a sharp ‘Ding’ sound

right after the swinging sound from after being pulled out fully. The staff the character holds,

will make a pulsing glowing sound constantly throughout the gameplay when not being used.

Right after that, the camera will then move behind the player’s character, getting itself set

and showing that the game is about to start. The game start right when it’s in a third-person

view. This then triggers three different HUDs to fade in onto the player’s screen, displaying

map on the top right corner, health and special meters together across the bottom left hand

side of the screen.

ACTION

Sounds of a breeze of air for when the HUDs pop up on the screen.

Visually the scene slightly blurs as the HUDs come up on to the screen.

EXT. SACRED FOREST# 2 - NIGHT

Kia follows path which will be presented as a stone path. As Kia follows the

Path, she is confronted by walls of vines and other weird looking plants. She holds onto her sword ready to cut something as it is still in its casing around her waist.

With an irritated voice, she says…

KIA ALLYNNA#1

Annoying plants… looks like am going to have to cut through this.

Kia unsheathes her sword as she puts herself in a fighting stance as she cuts down the plants are in her way.

EXT. SACRED FOREST# 3 - NIGHT

After cutting down obstacles, she enters a wielder path area.

Cut-scene triggers when player reaches wider walking path. Camera zooms out as it

shakes as though it was an earthquake.

ACTION

Lighting in the game becomes darker and all most

colourless. The camera then zooms in on to an area where the player’s character is facing. As

camera is focused on the area, monsters come out from the shadows in the forest as an

ambush. Audio changes dramatically into a tension filled battle music. Strong bass

KIA ALLYNNA#1

Heh! Time I kicked some ass!

Kia gets her fighting stance ready again, ready for combat.

Camera then cuts back to showing the player’s character in 3^rd person perspective, going

back into gameplay mode. Monsters stay mobilised from a distance. As player

approaches the monsters, they will then start to move and start attacking.

EXT. SACRED FOREST# 4 – NIGHT

She leaves the area to see a huge crystal fragment in another large area. Camera pans out to

see the area surround by monster, who are all over the place.

She defeats the monsters surrounding the area and starts to approach the huge crystal

Fragment. She carefully leans out as her hand reaches out towards it. From a small touch of

her finger, the huge crystal fragment lights up.

ACTION

Camera zooms out as it shakes making a sound of an eruption. The area around the crystal

starts to brightly light up, leaving the area lit.

EXT. SACRED FOREST# 5 – NIGHT

Kia enter another area which is slightly similar to the other areas that had a huge crystal

fragment in the middle.

A huge monster among normal sized monster emerges and stand in front of the last crystal.

A grunt sound from the huge beast monster as he approaches Kia.

KIA ALLYNNA#1

Whoa… am going to have to be careful about this one

Defeating this guy going to take longer than the other ones

She goes straight in with her sword and her staff fighting against the huge and small

monsters.

She finally makes it to the crystal right after she had defeated the monsters in the area.

Using the same technique she used to light up the other crystals, she lights up the last crystal

fragment.

ACTION

Camera zooms out, music changes to a ‘count down’ drum beat sound. A camera view of the

entire level.

EXT. SACRED FOREST# 6 – DAY

Zooms in to the character as she has a victorious stance, with her one of her hands one her

waist and the other pointing towards the camera with a thumbs up.

With the words ‘Level complete’ across the top with rewarding music; happy and victorious

kind of music.

KIA ALLYNNA#1

Phew… much better!

FADE OUT

THE END

Musical Inspiration

I use to play a game for the GameCube years ago called 'Phantasy start online episode 1&2'. I still have the game. I thought to listen to the music once again, seeing how I could still remember how soothing it was and still is today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IuWoILBZgk&list=PL8A6E4B20E712D2BA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IN0hFy0JDE&list=PL8A6E4B20E712D2BA

After listening to all that music from that game, I saw that they was a very up to date version to the game called 'Phantasy start online 2'. Checking out all the music I could find and listen to, I was blown away on how much they have changed and improved. With this, I've concluded that ill be using this as inspiration towards my original piece for my game's musical background.
These are what kind of music I am looking towards to making, something similar of course.
Going on the line of soothing yet action filled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MhWx9NOjmg&list=PL96B0F2D70E1A2AEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-0nG2VFu_Q&list=PL96B0F2D70E1A2AEE

Ill be publishing my original piece on here shortly.

Evaluation
Overall found a good amount of musical material I could implement into my game and I now know what kind of instruments I can use in my music.

13/01/14

Objective: Get research and inspiration for game music

Done: Gained inspiration for music ideas by going on YouTube

Next to do: Create Music for level in Reason or other software  16/01/14

Texturing my main character

From a nearly finished concept of my main character Kia, I thought that it would be ok to color in my 3D model of her in Mudbox,  since I knew know most of what she would look like, I wanted to know if it would look different on her in 3D because of the lighting.

Sprint Sheets

In order to keep keep up to date with my milestones, I set targets for each each. By listing objectives on to a 'Sprint Sheet' ill be able to clearly see my progression and also help me set targets that may need top be done before certain dates.

This is what I have listed for far on game 'Illuminate' so far.

DATE	OBJECTIVE	Achieved	Comments
07/10/13	·         Researching Main Character’s Appearance. ·         Sketching Ideas for game concepts.	·         Researched information  ·         Got plenty of ideas for character creation	Gained more ideas for the game concept
14/10/13	·         Sketching Finalised Character Appearance. ·         Scan Image into Photoshop.	·         Done 5 rough sketches of main character appearance ·         Scanned sketches  imported into Photoshop	Quite satisfied how my character looks because of how detailed she is. The scanner was slightly playing up, was a bit worried.
21/10/13	·         Create Female body Structure Template in Mudbox. ·         Use template to create a 360 degree concept of main character.	·         Sculpted a well balance female structure ready to be edited even further. ·         Done all screen shoots of a 360 degree view.	Went smooth and was done quite quickly than expected. The head of the model still needs a bit more editing.
28/10/13	·         Sculpt Main character in Mudbox. ·         Sculpt clothes.	·         Sculpted clothing and started texturing the face (eyes and mouth)
04/11/13	·         Concepts of Monsters. ·         Concepts of Environment.	·         Created 2 concepts of monsters ·         2 Environment concepts	Had more time than expected. Started to create one of the Enemies in Mudbox.
11/11/13	·         Story Boards for Scenario script ·         Sculpt hair ·         Painting Main character In Mudbox.	·         Hair sculpted, not textured yet. ·         Painted all the main parts of the character’s clothing	The hair took time but unexpectedly took less time to sculpt in Mudbox. Very rough sketches of the character in the Story Boards needs to be cleaned up.
18/11/13	·         Painting Main character In Mudbox. ·         Export finished model into 3DMax. ·         Scenario script	·         Done most of the model, just the minor details that needs a few touches and it will be completed ·         Tasted exporting into 3DMax	Exporting the model into 3DMax had a lot of complication, mainly to do with the texture not exporting with the ‘normal mapping’ along with it.
25/11/13	·         Re-Model Main character in Mudbox ·         Export Back into 3DMax	·         Re-done the face and texture of the main Character ·         Researched methods on YouTube	Face looks a lot more improved and more realistic. Exporting the model wasn't straight forward
02/12/13	·         Create Hair piece for hair	·         Created hair pieces for the characters head	Took some time to understand the order of creating the texture for the hair pieces which consumed too much time.
09/12/13	·         Creating environment using UDK Editor Terrain system. ·         Lighting in UDK	·         Done a basic terrain ready to be textured	Took ages to sort out and get use it. Might have to re-do the terrain because of textures not showing up.
06/01/14	·         Slightly change character model ·         Re-do hair	·         Re-did the hair using a different technique in 3Dmax	Using the new method made so much easier than last time and didn't consume that much time.