Friday, 28 October 2011

Other ideas.

So got a couple more ideas I had alongside the Antarctic one. The first and probably the one I wont be doing is a n American dinner. Got work there is supposed to be one in Leicester. Saw some pictures on the internet and it doesn't look very much like the ones you see in films etc. My other idea and the one I feel more inclined to follow is working along side Tom. He is doing the interior of a bank and we said before that it would have been a cool idea if I was to do the exterior of the bank. the more I think about this one, the more exited I get about it.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Feedback from crit

So I had my presentation and my idea went down like a lead balloon. The one thing I can say I can take from this is that the idea of getting first hand reference for this is a little ridiculous. It didn't involve me going to the Antarctica, but I was thinking of going to a ski resort. Even that would be out the question as it would be far to expensive. Time to think more on my other ideas I think.

Friday, 21 October 2011

Aerial plan

did a top down concept of the environment.
Some more pictures showing some possible themes for the playable area.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

What I Imagen it to look like.

I've been preparing some conceptual images to show off my idea for this Antarctic scene I want to do for my FMP. Gathered some photos I found on the internet to convey what I want the scene to look like.
This is a quick panorama I did. This is the sort of scenery you would see if you looked out form the camp-site situated in the middle of the scene.

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Talk It Over

After a chat with Chris about my FMP, I've got some new ideas. My main worry was what exactly to set the main focus of the level on. He mentioned Captain Scott and his men.
Was lookin at the hut theat they lived in. It have been presserved to exactly how it was found. It still looks like it is being lived in .
The inside of the hut looks very complex. It would need allot of assets. Really like this idea though. I'll think it over.

Monday, 10 October 2011

Antartica

I've been throwing allot of ideas around in my head about what I want to achieve from my time in the 3rd year. The biggest choice for me is to decide if I would like to spend the time improving on my environment skills or my character skills. The possible project that I have put the most thought into at this time, and the one I feel most passionate and confident about is an environment. I think this is the path I will choose to take in my final year at university. The most simple way to describe it is if you have seen the opening scene to the 2004 film The Day after Tomorrow, written and directed by Roland Emmerich. I won't go into the full film as its irrelevant but if you haven't seen it its worth checking out. Now I know it's probably not the best way to pick an idea for a game environment but my initial thoughts for this were to think of an environment that wouldn't include you typical bricks and mortar buildings. I also wanted and environment that would offer me a chance to experiment with lots of effects such as weather, time of day, atmosphere, colour pallet, etc. So I thought of the Antarctic. I had watched an episode of Human Planet on BBC1 that was about inuetes and the scenery took my breath away. Now this concept got me exited but it still felt as if there was something missing from the complete picture. A centre piece for example. It was at this point I thought about the film. The opening scene basically shows the hero and his colleagues as ice core scientists in the Antarctic. They have a simple camp set up with a portable laboratory. This would be the perfect eye candy to accompany the beautiful surrounding environment and also add a contrast from vast open areas of snow and surrounding mountains etc with the compact and confined working environment they had created for their research. I've done some research into this and there is allot of resources into ice core research on the internet. It basically allows scientist to construct a high-resolution record of climate and environmental change on timescales covering several thousand years. Lead character / NPC The project wouldn't include a lead character of a npc but I would like to make it feel like there is life around. Have maps or documents on the table used coffee mugs etc. Vehicle The are many vehicles used to get around the Antarctic but the coolest looking one are the piston bully and the sno cat. Both have tracks (or belts) hat help plough through the snow. The actual laboratory would be a portable attachment that would be pulled behind. Environment Obviously a vast open snow covered area with surrounding mountains. I could also include sea with floating ace burgs etc. Weather effects would add to the feel of the level such as heavy falling snow and snow blowing across the ground. Props / Scenery objects There wouldn't be a great deal of objects to model just enough to stretch my modelling muscles. Thing like the drill and tubes for the cores. boxes to hold equipment. In the lab there would be microscopes and screens and computer etc. One thing I would like to look into would be things like flags and tents blowing in the wind. There's a tutorial that come with max that shows how to create a flag animation using wind simulation I could also apply it to the tents and export the animation to unreal witch I've also found tutorials for. I probably wouldn't need to use Zbrush as most of the object would be hard surface so I would mainly be using max and Photoshop for assets. Also over the winter I would use my camera for reference for textures. The whole scene would be built in UDK creating terrain and sky domes etc. Particle effects for the snow. Also as the sun would stay in the sky through the whole day I could have the sun rotate around so I would be peering behind the mountains varying casted shadows instead of a day night cycle it would be a day day cycle.