Mudbox so far

Right, forgot to update the other day so thought I'd do it here when the internet is all in norwegian :S
Sorry about the lack of posts but as everyone knows I'm a bit bad at using the internet correctly. Anyway, I've been changing my models to give it a more oriental sort of theme. Most of the models are the same but I'll be obviously making the textures very differently to how the others will.

Firstly, here is my skull.

The model wasn't right to begin with even though i was using a really nice piece of reference, so I've changed it from being human to some sort of a goblin, looking at a cow head to ge the nose looking a bit more like it's protruding out. I've been working on this for far too long though. Especially considering it's one of the smaller assets, I need to move on and get something more constructive out.
So, here is my archway.

I've just cut in using steady stroke to give the impression of bricks. As the skull didn't give me such a nice normal map and I'm going to rework it, I'm going for making things more simple for the time being. I've just added some quick textures so I know where the stone is and where the morar is. This way I think it will be easier for myself and the way I work to add more detail, such as areas crumbling or fallen away.


And finally the pillar.











The pillar is alot more colourful at the moment. I want the scene to have a sort of oriental tomb feeling, almost like there is a gateway to hell inside. So I've added some large chinese lettering between the larger subdivisions so with luck, they will come out as a flat piece when normaled. This should give an impression on the stone. And I'm hoping, giving it a dark red marbelled effect on the texture, should give it a near new look, even with some chips and wear. This is to be a main feature of the scene and, I think, I want to have the door and pillars to draw some atention from the pit in the middle of the scene, which is more of an obvious feature as someone would look at a picture of it

Scene finished

Here she is in her lack of glory. The pit beast has an extra tentacle and I've not cloned any of the other assets as I reckon they'll mostly be the same and just cloned in max. Time willing I might jimmy em a bit. May end up fannying about with the skull again or making a new one. Gonna see how she is in mudbox and make my mind up afterwards. Maybe see what senor bean thinks

Max being gay

Trying to register max but it's not going at all and keeps encountering a problem. If it keeps up I'm going to have to redo the scene in 2009. Won't have an update till it's been sorted otherwise. Gonna keep working at sorting this registration out for now.

exTREEme

Been playing with the old dirtbox with the tree mesh today. Worked into the mesh so I could get some nice definition and then started texturing. Here is mr tree for thee all to see. It's not perfect or finished, but I'm still of course learning and just trying to figure some nice ways to make stuff. Believe it or not it's the bulge tool :|

Stuff up

Just noticed I put the posts yesterday in the wrong place. They can be found here http://kevsdesigndoc.blogspot.com/
Think I will be just using that from now as it's less cluttered anyway

3rd year BA - post one

Into the third week of the new year and here's about what is going on. Self direction and choice in what we're doing. It of course has to go through the bosses, stean and dash, but everything we're doing is from our own back.

As most people already know, I want to design games from the ground up, so I'm going to be working on a design document for a game, which will include concepts, map design, missions, etc. I'm hoping to pull together all the elements I need to create a game and, with any luck, a pitch I can deliver to someone. In this case it would be Rebellion at the moment, as they own the rights to the idea because I am going to be working on a franchise. This will be Megacity One, the city Judge Dredd lives in, of the 2000 AD comic books, which have been running for thirty odd years now.

My plan is to create a design for a free roaming, sandbox game, set within Megacity one. This is likely going to be labeled as a GTA clone by the majority of people, but there are some major differences, the screaming example of which is, you play as a lawman instead of a criminal.

At the moment I am in the stage of researching and with luc, getting in contact with Rebellion so that I can get details on places within the city, as I want this to be as true to the franchise lore as possible. I've gotten some older comic books to see what places within the city looks like in the beginning. So for the time being I'm going to be "researching" comics...

The Aftermath

Well, I've just woken up on the first day of being out of work. I remmeber how much this sucks, just now it's having been working somewhere I was enjoying myself. Good thing is I've learned alot (mainly about lego games) and have some idea of where I want to be soon. After chatting with my boss on thursday for a while, for some advice on stuff to go into a portfolio he suggested to 'make a game' so looks like I'm going to have to have a play about with some programming and making some little things with Game Maker or Adventure Game Studio. Been a while since I've played with any of these. Thinking of maybe making up a scene in the Dragon Age toolset, for a short video to go along with it, something dialogue heavy would be the best sort of thing, show off the old scriptwriting.
However, though what he had been talking me through was good advice he also said get modding and I'm glad that some Ad, B and myself have already got this on the go and from what I know we have a few more people on board with us. So Lucid is now full steam ahead with me not fannying about with this work malarky. I've pitched an idea to my other compadres, more about this during the presentation possibly, though I'm not sure if it's something to be pitching while going for marks. No idea if it'll help or just get boring, but certainly afterwards will get on the go after we've got the main dead farm up and running.
To summarise the experience, putting the fact aside that I met some rather sound people along the way, I have really and thoroughly enjoyed my time at TT Fusion. It's been an absolute blast. The atmosphere is really easy going, the help I've recieved has been beneficial, though some of it I was only grasping the last couple of days. Big bold statement is what Stas says, and what I've learned during the design process is making decisions about what is actually going to be there and giving some clarity, rather than just, might have a rock there, might have a generator. Big decisions will decide whether a level works or not.
So I think that's about it for my time at TT. I'd just like to thank Ste, seeing as he may read this. You helped me alot there and I'm grateful for everything. Hope to catch you down the line somewhere and hope you enjoy working there. Don't let Chris convince you to play World of Warcraft either ;) And hope you did well yesterday and got that distinction.
Other than that I'm glad to be out of Wilmslowe and not spending three and half hours getting there and back in a day. Will be nice to have a chill for the weekend before getting back to it on monday. See everyone then (Y)

Tired

Spent most of the day today trying to make one scene work. I've been trying to make a bit of an impact and make the scene tell a story and be more than just the usual thoroughfare (I have NEVER seen that word written and it might be so wrong). Tried several ways to make a big statement. Something along the lines of five hours scrapping everything I did, but five pieces later I have something I am modestly happy with and showing it to mark he was happy but thought of something to really top it off, so I'm altering that ever so slightly (it needs my twinge after all ;D). Should with luck be done tomorrow but I still have another 5 parts to go!! And only one more day!! I don't like my chances. After all this is a process that takes up to 3 weeks, as dex told me (the other stelens lot don't seem to know he's called ste and i'm mixing myself up at times). But with only one week left I am hoping to get the basic rough down so it can help and possibly get in game. Though tbh my hopes for that aren't mad high. I'm sure dex will appreciate having some basic layout to go over and rip to pieces, as i'm sure it's going to get sooner or later. Or might just be changed completely. No idea.
But overall now that it's coming to a close I think I've enjoyed myself. The only thing really hurting about it and making me think twice is the travel but i'm sure i can cope with that. after all, it's only time (Y)

PS. started getting an idea not long ago for some writing and I've posted a small summary of the general plotline that's going to be going up. So if anyone is bored enough http://ralzielswords.blogspot.com/2010/05/star-wars.html

Another day drunk on the job

Right, not quite drunk, but it was our last home match so i was still mildly inebriated seeing as the drinking started at twelve and lasted till i got in the taxi and then bed. But anyway,
Today has been a bit more of the same but I've been having a word. Well was a bit more like a twenty minute chat, after asking how something was working, which it wasn't, but I think I was trying to squeeze too much into too small a space. However it was all for the best in the end, as I have basically found the source of how to make it good. Con the player. Make them think they're not doing the same mundane puzzle they did five minutes ago by dressing it up to make it seem like something completely different. Don't think that every puzzle will be hugely different, but all in all should be able to get some things in there that seem marginally compotent.
Thinking about this presentation business, whch I've done naff all for yet, I'm gonna make something in sketchup, the same way as I'm doing something now and make it as though I'm designing something else so I can give everyone a talk through what I've been doing with some actual on hand demonstrative work. Time wise it may not be possible, seein as I'm only gettin in about half eight and the only day I really have any chance at some time to do this is saturday, sunday is chelsea (come on wigan). Hopefully I should be able to get something that might interest anyone, as I'm doing level design work and I know everyone is probably keen to hear something about that.
On personal feelings, I'm going to seriously miss this. I hate going to work and having purpose and then having it taken away from me like this. Not sure what I'm going to do with myself at all. Trying to get in on the ground floor of a company in the design team would be a dream, as now I've got a taster, I've got that motivation I've been lacking for so long now. I'm going to put it down to head modelling that killed me, bloody ball ache that it is. However, having some of this small stuff in as presentation work could help me in the long run anyway as it is. I think the whole working to make something interesting on a hand held is really beneficial. There's alot of ideas coming up in me at the moment, but none would work with such a small amount of polys and data to work with. With these skills in trying to figure out how we can get them onboard a handheld console on the other hand, that could make a great deal of difference in what is good to see in experience and what isn't. I'm beginning to think that being able to work to such huge constraints like we are doing is going to look damn good and is going to give me necessary skills to adapt from what I have learnt and putting it into actual practice.
Here's not looking forward to finishing (Y)

42:31

Finally completed pokemon an hour ago. The dream team lineup, in no particular order was Terror the Totodile, Pulch the Ninetales, Tyrant the Pupitar, Fart the Gengar, Queenie the Beedrill and Frightney the Lugia. 42 hours and 31 minutes in and BOOM. Lance the dragon trainer, champion of the pokémon league and best trainer in Kanto was defeated quite resoundingly, though his Aerodactyl was an utter bugger. Pulch showed her stuff and defeated the majority of the elite four on her own, but the praise of the hour goes to Farty for her stalwart performance and use of Curse to take down those pesky Dragonites. Anyway, onto less serious matters.

So today I got in there at half nine. Later than usual because I just couldn't be bothered getting out of bed. Thank you three hours worth of travelling time every day. Think that's being the main killer for me at the moment. Making me so tired I can't even sleep at times. But the good thing is, once I got in, I got down to the gritty bits and bashed out a few more mini game design ideas, as boss told me I was likely not getting anything solid till next week. However after the big wigs had a meeting and I moseyed on over I was met with,"Right you've done fuckin loads of these. Lets get you to design the level for " That were round about the words. Minus the ofc. That's me and the old confidentiality business (Y).
So, excited? Well I damn near shat myself for one as it's making the entire level. From scratch. On my own. Fair enough I'm not modeling any of it or doing any texturing, but an entire level of the game is likely going to be down to me to get finished and ready to pass onto one of those pesky artist types to make. Until now I thought I'd been a bit wasted in some ways, though I thought the last few bits I've been doing since tuesday have been more to my sort of way of working. The whole making it so one of those "making things work" guys can understand how to get it going. Now I've got quite a bit of a project to do, seeing as it's desiging up the equivalent of three main levels to go into a game (imagine making the dead farm map, item placements, openable doors, switches, that sort of stuff, just three times over). A little bit of a daunting task but I'm very ready for the challenge and after last nights little stray into the emotional no go zone of EMO, I think I can safely say I'm back on top of myself again.
On a side note I think I merrily managed to show my strange inner mind workings to several of the staff and I might just be the bloke who when I walk out of a room everyone says "does he seem weird to you or is it just me?" Curse my poor drug addled brain. I must be going demented before my time. Possibly again. I'm not sure if it's not happened a few times already.

Final note for the night before I go to sleep after just over an hour at home, I think I've got a bit of an idea for writing. Seeing as I've been doing a tonne of reading up on Star Wars recently, while getting distracted on wookiepedia, I started thinking of some of the general lore and stuff around the extended history and in particular the species 'Yuuzhan Vong' have grabbed my interest. Not writing anything about them like, it's just piqued my interest and got a bit of a development going on inside my mind and on my phone atm. This weekend there may just be something up on my writing blog ralzielswords, so I think altogether the experience here is making me think a bit more about everything and giving me back that drive I've been lacking for so long.

Another day

Got the last finishing touches on three of my projects today but I'm unsure of how to handle it next. Still nothing solid I'm supposed to be doing, though something might come up next week, so I'm thinking of writing up coherantly some of the ideas I've had that haven't been put to the probably pile yet. Not quite sure what to make of everything at the moment. I'm enjoying it alot but the lack of something to do has me stumbling just a bit.
I don't think this would be a huge problem if it was in a different period of development for the game, or if I'd gotten a grasp of the fact I'm meant to be coming up with finalised ideas to be throwing at the "let me make this work" men earlier. I have however been told I 'might' have something proper to do next week, though it's sort of feeling at times I'm just doing these things for the sake of it. Sort of bashing out the four weeks till they're rid of me and don't need to worry about me asking anything any more.
Don't want it to end and I'd love a job out of it but at the same time I can't wait for it to be over. Doesn't feel right now like an involvement in a team so much as doing substitute work if anyone catches my drift. There's plenty of communiication but not so much to do with work except the occaisional chat I have with the boss. Not that I want it over my shoulder the whole time but working in a project and coming in this late on isn't really making me feel quite as needed? Not sure if that's the right word or not. I suppose it has only been three weeks and it's joining a new team and all.
Would've loved to have been here in the beginning during the first development stages of the project, but I guess we can't have it all. Here's hoping I'm doing enough to show my work and effort. Different with modeling where I'd have a bunch of assets and stuff to show off, but here it's all getting condensed down more and more and looking like less and less work. Making me feel I've not done enough as much as anything.

Tuesday coz I were gettin stabbed on monday

Righty, daunting prospect of the write up and diary business aside for the time being, I've been given something to get on with today. So far I've written up two of the mini game ideas with things for the actual makey people (them wot speaks binary) to be given so they can extract the players into some of the nice hum ourous setting. 2 of the ideas I've got have been ok'd seeing as they've got some humour in, and a third has but unsure as of yet it's goingt o be used, but cracking on anyway.
Writing these up as design documents are a bit different from how I've done it before, need to actually get stuff in that those binary people can look at to determine how the games will actually work when being implemented. Not what I'd call my strong suit, but at least I can write it all up in english (Y)
Two done so far, and going to have to bring my comp in again on the morrow to actually make some general layout designs, which may be a combo of modeling and photoshop, which I've had a bit of a dabble in here but this should quite suit me as it's going to be showing the actual look of how the levels will be. With regards to the process here being different to how I've gone about it before I'm actually enjoying it. Seems to be more and more while I'm here I'm actually interested in it and pretty sure this is where I want to be at.
Had a good session this morning throwing a couple of ideas about and looking through a doc for the only other approved mini game, sort of to get my head around a general layout, even though the boss said he'd have preferred his to be in a bit more detail. To me it looked fine for what he wanted to achieve, but I've tried to go into that much more detail on stuff like point scoring and spawn times and other crap that makes about as much sense to me as bot pathing does (which, just incase your wondering, is still well over my head).
All said he thiks the general layout and the stuff I've covered is about right in this new doc. From what was said this morning the other set of thirtyish ideas I originally came out with should've all been to the level I'm doing them now, though I think that might've been a bit of a wasted effort tbh as I've done two today, and with trying to compile some of the ideas I haven't got passed, which is probably alot of coding and random stuff, again that I don't understand, is going to be alot of work, though I guess I'm getting the hang of when it's working and when it's not.

Mini Games

Right, been using sketchup to make a few general layouts for the games I've done. Think I'm proficient enough in it now to have a go at modeling something with it, however need to figure out this exporting malarky at some point as it's a major ball ache. So got about 7 concepts for stuff done up, 2 of which won't be getting used, and i did another one but I stopped when I figured it wasn't going to work at all, so think I've actually learned something there and managed to stop myself before spending too much time on it all.
Other than that, everyone get your arse on L4D2 this weekend and we'll crack on with some realism versus and try out this new expansion. And Bob. By the pain I see in others. NO EXCUSES!

More sketchup

Just been learning this today. Hopefully will be doing some level design tomorrow or friday which should be nice. Maybe get my filthy hands on the editor, but for now I've just been making the imperial city in Cyrodiil of OBLIVION!!! Started on the waterfront andI'm going to go from there (Y) This program is loads of fun so far. Has a few odd quirks, but i think it's coz it's for making pictures rather than 3d models, but for making 3d there are some very neat tools. Something like boolean that is for making all the nasty little cock ups you get with all the odd edges and verts coming from nowhere. Also soemthing alot like the lathe tool which works better than I've seen it done in any program I've used, which is what I did that light in earlier. I might do a bit of a tutorial over the next few weeks if people wanna know how, seeing as some of the toots are a bit crap, or rather advanced for just learning. So far, as I've said to Adam today, it's a bloody brilliant little program. Just don't expect splines, that add on costs money :( However the lathing tool can be used to make a spline in no time flat.

Sketchup

fannying about with some tutorials for this god of a program while waiting for mark to sort me some stuff, seeing as i might be needing to use this. just made a lamp. this program is pretty brilliant. i'd recommend everyone to get a go on it. really easy to use. can't find any quad views as of yet, but i think that'll come with time. got a shortcut pdf if anyone is interested i'll send it over.

Also

you might like to know the first thing I've found with safe search on is a japanese woman, hogtied with a guy rubbing her leg and another over her head doing god knows what, and what was typed in is, including the quotes, "shooting range nes". Was looking for screens of a game and got more than i bargained for ;D
Again I ask though, how the hell is that in anyway related to a hog tied japanese woman?

GAH

Finshed hammering out my lists of mini games today. Got quite a few. Not sure which will work or be 'fun' in game or not but i think some of them should be pretty decent. Just waiting on my boss to look through some of the stuff now to see where abouts I'm up to in it
Good to see all the stuff on Dead Farm. Is looking neat as hell. Can't wait to see it all up close and proper on monday.

End of week

So far ending up being cracking. On a computer finally and come up for about 30 or so mini games, some of which I don't think will work too well, seeing as they fit the far too much. However there are some they were already considering which I'm going to have to get up and try to start running properly so the people in the know can make them work.
Also been given a BIG task. Though it's not something that can be definately input in this game itself, it is something i can show my ingenuity on as it seems it's not been thought of thus far. So I'm going to have to do a fair bit of researching to try to get it right and hopefully passed through them there designers.
Something I'm really liking so far, MY TEAM IS SICK!!!! My boss wants an mmo where now and then you randomly abduct a player and give him a good bum raping. But you can only abduct the ones who have a warp core, such as our lovely ashley, so that they can see every slimy ripple. Am I liking the sound of this game? TOO BLOODY RIGHT!! We're wondering how long it would take before people believed it was going on, seeing as it would be randomly taking people and only one would be complaining at a time. If you're wondering why, it's come about after finding out about the new WoW mount which costs $25 and it hasn't got a limited supply. Blizz got something along the lines of $500k in 4 hours. So with luck I'll be taken on and that'll be the next game I'm working on ;D
Cracking this many ideas out at once is quite good. Giving me a chance to really flex my ideas again. Involving playing alot of games alas. When will my plight end :O
I'm looking froward to next week rather alot and can't wait to find out what else I'm going to be doing after drawing up some proper ideas for these mini games. Photoshop and Sketchup here i come :)

GEORGE!!!!!

Well, what a day. Didn't expect it to be as fun as it has been. Soon as I got in got told "Play this." and "You're coming up with mini games." Right, so fun plus thrown in at the deep end. Sounds like a right lark :D
Basically I'm working with the design team, right next to the kitchen (people will rue the day they left me near tea), on which I'm actually quite excited about after watching/researching on the for about six hours or so. Sat in with the rest of the motley Jakes while we're waiting for our computers to be set up and sorted so we can get raring to go.
Started the day off with Mr Burrows, looking at which he is working on, which is an upscaling of a Wii game being brought to the PS3 for the new wand thingy by the looks of it. Had a look at what I assume is called the Fusion Engine, seeing as all the script triggers are called Fusion script or something, though I may be wrong. It looks ALOT like max, which is nice and seems I might be using it a bit from what Mark, my nearest boss guy, seems to be doing with it.
Saw some brilliant animations while watching , a few of which really reminded us of the infamous jump of Chris'. Forever etched into the memory, much like gay tuesdays with Wayne.
I'm going to have to hammer some of these DS games so I can see what is achievable within what we have to work with, which I'm now rather excited about. Hopefully computers are up and running tomorrow so I can get on this tortoise and have a look around at the general stuff we're working on so I can make some decisions about what kind of mini games I can put forward to develop.
Hope everyone else is having a cracker. Speak to you all soon :D
ps. Wilmslowites not in TT seem to be a little odd shall we say. Swiss near enough got flipped off for being in a car near a woman with a pram :S

Lucid Dreams

Right, you know I always say don't take me seriously. NOW you can finally take me seriously. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. I have a dream guys. LUCID DREAMS. That is the idea of my company. We make games that are like a lucid dream. Every game we make is like a lucid dream, hence the name. If you want out, and don't want to help the rest of us get of the ground, do your work, but don't hold anyone else back. If you don't want in, fine. But I figure, the worst we can do is a few good mods, the best we can do, is make the next Brink. Whoever is with me can join the fun, everyone else, don't stop us. WE are the next big thing and it starts with this, work based learning, "The Hunt for Rufus Clawe". Big up and get in. WE are the future of our craft. WE are the new influx of ideas. I say, WE get the ball rolling now!
Hope everyone is in agreement. Lets make something big.
Kev

Armour

Just updating before I leave school. Darkened up the armour a smidge and stuck some shadows in places, and generally tried to make her look like she's walked through a fire :D The spine needs fixing a bit, but once that's done i think all i need is the skin and probably gonna stick some kind of control panel thing on her bracers, bit like Leela has.

And post number two :)

Listening to a bit of the cure while making a couple of renders to show off. It's wnedy time everybody (Y) Just a couple little things I'm showing. Really looking forward to getting the normals on the model now. They'll make such a huge difference. With any luck I can get the boots sorted before footie tomorrow, then it's mainly fiddling with flesh and shadows, and anything of input from my loyal followers ;)
Looks like a nice bit of rusting and some lazer burns. Just really want to get some normals on now to get a see at how nice that back will come away from the armour. And maybe some more scarring on the shoulder pads, seeing as they stand out a bit.

Occlusions :)

Crikey I'm being good this week. 2 posts in 2 days? :O Anyway. Just spent a trip to tescos and then some rendering my occlusion for the body and can't believe how much it's added to the texture. Astounding difference. Anyway, here's the body occlusion and the texture of the body with the occlusion overlayed. Soon as my head is done rendering I'll stick up a couple renders of how the body is looking witht he texture on (Y)

Texturing

Right been at the shop all day and got a couple updates.
First up is the house crest. See if you can figure out with death metal bands logo I've completely destroyed to get something modestly evil looking :)
Second we've got a patterned inlay I've made for the chest which I'm hoping when it's all normal'd up it should look spanky. Going to brush some off it off and add some battle scarring and burns from some lazers and such, some inlay on the pads too, but not started that. Thinking maybe to go with the house crest.
And last up, got what I'm currently calling OUCH. Yep, the back with the skin bolted into place. It's not turned out looking quite as nice in this pic which is disappointing, but it's quite spanky apart from some of the bolts being a bit stretched. Gonna fix the skin up a wee bit to make it look a bit more dead. Been working some bruising into the area immediately outside the bolts for the time being. Just got to blend the blue in so it looks a bit more skin like and muscled as making it an overlay and such isn't looking as good as the original concept plan, so may just fanny about with the one I have already and etch it onto my back, though will obviously need to slim it down a little :)

Wings you say?

THE WAITING IS OVER!!!! If anyone actually looks here regularly sorry I've not been keeping up with this but I've been a bit hectic lately /closes the mass effect 2 box and tries to push it out of sight. The good news though, they've been finished. Eerylia now has her wings. Hope you enjoy

My Bottom

Right finished the bum off. Needs joining and the front needs smoothing over a little, but will sort that when the legs are done. Just thought I'd get this up to show what's been finished so far.

Top done

Righty. Thought I'd stick this up before i move onto the legs. This is the torso chestplate and the shoulder pads for her. No triangles :D Got some alright looking boobies. And the model ain't too bad ;) Need to fix how it's smoothed a bit but otherwise rather happy with it. 1294 polys so far. Will start on the legs and belt tomorrow so should have some more up this weekend.