Starting some work

Anyone who has delved into World of Warcraft at any point is likely to know about Booty Bay, home of both gobin pirates and incredibly bad design. The place was a confusing nightmare. I'm going to attempt to redesign it, in an attempt to make it more accessible and make it easier to navigate, as it's one of those places people dread to go.




I'm going to be doing this in the October UDK and designing it as a full walk around level, complete with assets and textures, done in Studio Max and Photoshop. It was originally set out in a kind of cove, with the entrance being through the side of a cliff face and then the whole town being built of wood on top of the water, a kind of shanty town more than a thiriving pirate commmunity. What I am aiming to do with the new design is make the cliffs of the cove, that the town is built, be where homes would have been built and make it more of an actual fortress built into the rock itself, than keep the majority of the run down buildings.

I'm going to begin with some preliminary design work and then begin the blocking out, which will hopefully be completed before the close of shop today.

The Unreal University and UnrealScript

I have just posted this on the new BA Game Art blog which Stas got me to sign up to last time I was in, but I thoguht I'd stick it here too for everyone else, if people are still reading blogs much. The website for that is;

bagameart.co.cc

I think anyway. Check with Stas if it's not doing owt. Anyway, on with the blog.

Well, thistime last week Lee and myself were in London at the Unreal University learning about all things to do with the UDK. Most of it wasn't new,but they did tell us a few interesting thigns, such as only work in additive meshes now, as open world areas need it and when importing things such as wall meshes, you don't need to make collision for them and you can just change what was once walls into simple blocking volumes. Quite handy. We had a great time; they rented out PCs which are a good 5 times better than the one I am on, swarm agent was building in under 10 seconds in most cases. Win win.

Soon as we got there they ahd all kinds of tea and coffee and buscuits and croissants and such, which Lee, hyper on coffee, spent no time jumping into. We'd been up since about 2am so once we started we were flagging more than a little. They said if we asked relevent questions that they had a hard time answering then we would be given a Gear of War 3 exclusive mousemat. First question I asked he couldn't actually answer. So mousemat for me.

Across the day we learned about alot of things, most of which we already knew, but we picked up some interesting pointers for some other stufff, of which I've taken lengthy unreadable notes for. Now onto the stuff that this is basically all about. UnrealScript. I asked him the question I ask everyone. What do you want for a designers portfolio. Well I was shot down more so than expected. I don't hire designers, everyonethinks they can be one. Well, I was undaunted and I think he misunderstood what I meant so I explained the level designing to work up to design. Again, he shot me down so I carried on. He said to design a game and to basically be a druid in Warcraft. Learn everything, excel at nothing. So I'm going to have to learn this scripting polava, which I must say I have not been looking forwardd to since I was told last year at TT.

So I'm sat right now, trying to avoid doing anything and writing on the new blog. One of the things I'm having trouble with about all of this, is the fact I don't seem to be learning anything from it. Everything is alot of crazy code words like;

var Vector CamOffset;

and I don't feel as though I'm going to know how to compile stuff like this without llooking at a huge list of these variables every time I want to figure something out. They make a little sense when I see them, apart from (()) and >><< in certain places. CamOffset = Cammera Offset and would mean this is how far the camera is set from the player in the context it is being used in. So I think I may be sat here for a while longer trying to understand all this, and popping onto WoW or Max every time my head starts hurting, which is alot more often than I'd like to think.

Lift and door

Right. Sorted out the kizmet for this. Quite simple really. This is the main lifts in the level. Once the player presses a switch, the door closes behind the player and the lift moves up. Then if the switch is pressed again, it will move down, and upon reaching the bottom the door will open. Enjoy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tgHe6G95HE

The level

Redone the Bsp and here are some screens of it as it looks at the moment. Need to alter some of the assets now. Not screwed with the sizes of bob's or chris'. This is just the station and the street and me and dex have been working on it all day to get the scale and everything right. Not in any particular order alas coz this is a ball ache to fix the way it shows me. Would be nicer if I could show the progression from station to street.

Light Business

Dynamic object. Screwed up shadows. EH?!?!!!!?
Anyone has a clue lemme know. Even a decent tutorial wiould be good

Back to basics

Right, thought I'd model a plane seeing as I'm up to 4400 on me word count for the production doc. Just done the body. Taken a short while. Here they are. Can't remember what the heck it's called. But hey, win win.

Renderoonies

Final renders of the scene handing in today. Sorted (Y) Two different types. One lit to show the assets. The other is dark and moody the way I saw the scene should be in my head. Realise now I should've increased the strength on some of the normals, but apparently my nice HD screen had shown them a bit better and tiredness may have got the better of me. Enjoy.

Been a while

Just remembered i've not even looked at my blog in over a month, and seein as hand in is monday i thoguht i'd just show quickly that i've got me room walls and floor done and set. just need to grab the other work off my pen and sort out that barrel and box which i'm not liking still, and whack the textures out onto the tentacles on the morrow ready for a burn. They're all just some nice sick tentacles which i might stick some specular on. Oh and the stairs seeing as i remodelled them, but again, made a stencil for them too.
Done a lit and unlit. Not sure if i'm gonna keep the lit as it is quite dark but i like the atmosphere, so am thinking of doing 2 different scenes lightings. One the way i first envisioned it, as a dark and moody scene, the other lit so the assets can be seen.