Personal Assessment

Do you think the overall look and feel of the project, reflects your initial ideas and concepts?

I think that the overall look of the project now reflects what I initially hoped it would.i wanted try and cover a range of different rolls when creating a game. I managed to move threw the stages starting from concept sketches to my final outcome and gained some understanding on all the different elements that go into creating a game.



What problems did you come up against and how did you solve them?

I felt like i was constantly pushing myself to do something new i had made single levels and used my graphic design before so i diverted away from what i knew best i wanted to use the rest of my time learning about other aspects of the industry.When i had problems with the proportions in concept art i used photographs of myself and superimposed different layers of armour and weaponry, i didn't finish with my storyboard i took it to the next level and crated the hole island it was set on and created a flyby video sowing each frame from the storyboard.


What do you think has worked best and why?

i think what worked best was my approach of looking into all different rolls within the making of a game, when you look at the project as a hole you get a good look at the different stages and see a the game evolve from beginning to end.

Do you think you used the time given to it's full potential?

I had a big challenge managing my time in my final year. For 9 months of my finally year my girlfriend was pregnant and i found myself traveling from north wales to south England allot. My solution was to set an hour or two every week day no matter where i was. this allowed me to find the balance between my work and my family.

PLOT

Plot

The plot of an English special agent sent into North Vietnam to investigate the advance of Fringe weaponry being created by scientists operating inside of Vietnam. Intel has told him that thay are developing a type of EMP Nuke capeable of causing even the most miner electronic objects ito overload and explode. With the standoff between south and north viatnam esculating both sides are putting massive funding into the research of deadly weaponry that can not only disable the power in cites but deal out big damage. the british and the American are working together sending teams inside to gether intell on what exactly id going on.

Environment

The hole invoroment is based in the south Vietnamese jungle. Its a very dense dark, green loacation. Small villages and wooden huts. Vietnams army is tightly guarded with their own base's located deep inside the jungle which meens movement by day is all impossible so alot of the game is based at night moveing threw uncharted areas using stealth to avoid and get in and out unnoticed.

Character info

My main charictor is a british commando he has had spechel training all over the world also done tours in major battle’s or operation’s all over the world his names Jack skarden but go’s under the codename of Alpha primed he is in his mid thirtys and is a weapons, explosives expert and can fly and drive pretty much anything with an engine.

Rationale/Working Statement:

I intend on making an opening cut scene for the game i am going to help create. I want it to have atmospheric walkthroughs and exciting battles leading threw a continual open landscape.

Aims:

I want to make amazing concept art for this project to fill my portfolio to show off my artistic side as well as creating textures,skins and moleing to be used in my video and to show off my ability to work in sandbox style game editors such as the cryengine . I would also like to work with someone to concentrate on the graphics while i work with the art, design and storyboarding. by the end i want to have covered all the difrent rolls that are needed to create a game from ruff sketch to 3d modeling.

Details/Content:

the final outcome i will be creating a video to show of the first level of my game from this cut scene i want each frame to be able to move forward into a promotional perspective. I want the area in which my video is set to by beautifully laid out and to be visually impressive.

The game should include the following themes throughout.

A large jungle,beach, waterfalls, villages, long windy rivers and area in which a battle scene can be filmed,detailed human character and a range of weaponry.

I have wanted to create a first person shooter since my first year and i want to try and incorporate all my ideas over the last two years into this game. I want the game to be as stimulating to look as it is to play.

FINAL VIDEO

Finlay i have my Final Video illustrating the first level of my game Jungle kill face 2. i didn't want it to just be a plain walk threw of the landscape or level i wanted it to be entertaining and thrilling. its a showcase of my ability to use a game engine like sandbox and create a playable environment.

To see it in better quality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-441uT9l8E

Molded the landscape first by making a height map then using raise/lower tools to break up the landscape and make it look more realistic. then by adding textures of mud,rock,sand and grass and setting each texture to different high restrictions i was able to break up the landscape with the sand set just beyond the sea level then to grass with rock on the slopes and mud in between the rock and the grass to brake it up.

Added vegetation of different verities ranging from the grass,rocks, small veg and large. Adding them to a brush database i could choose weather to paint large areas with a verity of different entity's or individually place them for the more important bits.

Added more detail to the landscape using voxels to shape the waterfalls then by adding particle water effects to the rivers and waterfalls it all gives the effect of a running river over a cliff edge.

Finlay added the finishing touches such as building props, skybox, clouds, fog, rivers and AI. all of this can be done by using the game database or if you model it on 3D you can save it and import it into sandbox.

In the 3rd and 4th frames you can see here how it has changed from small shanty village to a research lab.

Here is the video cut into a replica of my original storyboard set frame for frame to illustrate how it go's from an idea to a sketch to a fully interactive landscape.

STORYBOARD

STORYBOARD


Again to get these finished storyboard's i had to first draw the frames in pencil i then start adding basic layers of colour and super imposing the colour over my sketches. the next stage is to add shading and then to go in and individually adding small details, i finish it all off by using the clone tool and a low opacity to clone photo sources over my own images.

Finished Colour

Here is the same process again it starts shortly after you have gone over the waterfall in the last frame, following the river round to find a wooden house with a pear then on to find a small village this later got changed to a small research complex to relate to the game more, then it pans out to look over the jungle at dusk the it zooms high over the canape of the jungle out to sea.

after i have drawn it in pencil i scan it onto my computer and colouring it using sketchbook pro using multiple layers for depth and detail then using photshop and merge and overlay photo's of foliage and rocks and sky to add effect.

It starts if in the dense jungle Flor focused on a butterfly on a banana leaf, then zoom out to reveal some mangrove trees with a pool in the background the pool would lead to a stream which winds and leads to a waterfall.

This storyboard will be used to show off the map i have created using sandbox 2 engine for end crysis. The map is set in a set of jungle islands off the coast of Korea. the finished result will be a video covering the path the player will take as they play the first level. While drawing the storyboard i had in mind what i wanted it to look like in 3d.

MISSION BRIEF

MISSION BRIEF

Originally tyred to use google earth and some video capturing program to make a video of the camera panning from England to Korea but that failed seems my laptop wasn't up to the job but i was over complicating it all i needed was a nice high res image of the earth and to map it onto a sphere in 3Ds Max. With the help of my brothers much better computer i we were able to find some super high resolution satellite photos of the earth, then using crazy bump i was able to make additional bumpmaping.

I started of thinking i could just make a spear in 3DSMAX as get any old image of the world and slap it on job done, but this was not the case as you can see with this video it just looks bad.

WEAPONRY

WEAPONRY


Using 3DS MAX i used different shapes and bent and shaped then into the components for this M4 riffle with Grenade launcher and scope, as well as a main weapon your equipped with a side arm the MK23. Using web reference's i drew sketches of the weapons then used them as templates and to map out the individual components of the weapon.




This was as fare as i was able to go with the pistol, if i had the time i would have liked to texture the weapon same go's for the M4.

Here i am starting on modeling the main character sidearm, starting off with the same process as the m4.

eventually all the different shapes come together to make an M4 assault riffle that can then go on to be put into the game as a prop or be given on to be animated firring to be used in game.

By creating a series of different shapes i was able to piece together the majority of the weapon, some of the more fiddly bits required more attention.

Here you can i am using the my image of a M4 as a template to create it in 3D.

I then used a mixture of photshop and sketchbook pro using my graphics tablet to add colour and detail. i relay enjoy this style of graphic design and felt like i learnt a few new tricks in the process.

First i drew the image freehand which later caused proportion issues and in hinzesite i properly would have traced it but to the untrained eye i think it looks plausible. knowing that later i would be modeling it i had a chance to fix the slightly off shaped parts of the M4.

EMP NUKE

EMP NUKE

this is the weapon that the north Corina government are building secretly. its an EMP weapon but of a much larger and more deadly scale. the weapon has the ability to super charge electrical objects to let out deadly Serge's of electricity destroying the item and killing or destroying anything near by. its deployed to an area were their is a lightning storm from full effect.

it can be dropped from the air but its designed to be dropped from space from specially designed satellites, once on the ground its remote activated and its effects can range up to hundreds of miles wiping out major electrical power stations and even cause nuclear power plants to go critical.

the weapon is designed to cripple a country and is built to be as harmless to mass population as possible. it is capable of disabling communication on a mass scale isolating city's and towns and its capable of being amped up to cause power station to go nuclear and dams to overload.

now i have modeled it in 3D starting off with a cube and changed it using the edit poly tool and copying the quarter cube shape so closed its cuboid and when it opens it has a diamond shaped hollow space in the middle. i then animated it opening then using a basic particle system to animate the weapon charging up assigned a shape to the particle emitter and crated different surfaces for them to react and bounce of to get the desired effect.

This is my finished result, i have animated the cube opening and building up a charge using a particle system. after the weapon is fully charged it would go onto the next stage where a masive shock wake exploads outwards in a massive electrical shockwave.

CHARACTER SHEET

CHARACTER SHEET

This is my finished character sheet If you look at the previous sheet you can see how i started. First i used the photos i took of myself as a base image as a way of getting the proportions prefect, then i traced myself and added all of the extra detail, Armour and weaponry ect, i then colored myself and overlayed a photo of myself over the drawn image to get a kind of cell shaded effect.

after drawing my old character profile sheet i struggled with the proportions. i tried a few different ways to get around this problem like transforming the images in photoshop but this didn't quite work. i decided to use my old army uniform and take photos of myself and tracing myself. i will have to decided if i am going to be my own character using photographs of myself at a template to create a character.

OLD CHARACTER SHEET!


This is my first attempt of my main characters spread sheet. i wanted to start with a basic model and have layers of clothing and accessory's ect but i wasn't happy with the proportions of the sketch. to get it right i decided to take pictures of me in the poses i needed in my old army uniform.

the principles behind this first sheet were good i wanted to start from a basic torso and to create every detail from his boots to his weapon and have them each layered up to switch at your own convenience. keeping to my time restrictions i was spending to long and needed a solution that's when i terned to using myself and a template and strike different poses to then sketch the appropriate detail on top.

INVIROMENT

INVIROMENT


I wanted to look at programs for doing tree proceadral genaration, i found one called onyx this one in perticular in one in a sirese of onyx programs that symphosyse the groth of plants and trees to create 3d modles. It can create a range of difrent trees including palm trees which is perfect for the type of invoroment my game will be set in.

It terns out sandbox 2 had its own easy to use procedral genaration of its own but i wanted to no how to make my own. After talking with my teacher about the different methods form making trees this is a sketch later i took this and used it as a template to recreate in 3DS Max. Over the holidays i was set the task of trying different ways to model trees and to try and create some other objects such as plants and rocks.

One way was to create the hole ting using 3d objects, again using sketches i was able to make the palm trunk and leaves. The rock was a just a sphere with noise modifiers added to distort the shape.








another method would be to have pains and a trunk shaped sphere useing an alpha layer so that when i render the finished tree the black area wont be visible leaving me with nice looking palm leaves and bump maping for the detail on the trunk.

ENVIRONMENT

ENVIRONMENT

i have been trying to concentrate on drawing plants and trees to get ready for modeling. over the Christmas holidays i hope to model a rock, tree and a verity of plants and grass's i will also be trying to model a wooden shack and maybe some other building and objects.

my final video will be based along side a river where wooden huts and pries like this one will be.this wooden shack is its first stage, what i have done is first draw the shack neat and together i then i scan it in and add a basic wooden colour.

then i use image sourcing to get more detailed textures on the image distressing the image and giving it more depth. i then finish off the wooden shack with a background image this one i just randomly found useing google images.just some of the more common plant you will find in all types of rain forests and jungles. using these with alpha channels i can use them in game or in photoshop for concept art.

looking at all sorts of different bark, vines for textures for my vegetation.

TEXTURE'S

TEXTURE'S

after a talk with my teacher i got allot more clarity about what i wanted to do. i am creating a game influenced by the crysis jungle theme but i am aiming to create as much textures and models and import them into sandbox. by the end i want a basic level but more importantly i want a decent cut scene featuring my imported textures and models.

the new crysis comes out just before x-mas so im going to focus on the modeling and textures untill the new engine comes and and see how confident i feel moving forward to use that insted. the advantages being the graphics will be laot nicer and new features and the disadvantage would be that i would have to lern the program all over again.

here are some textures i have made thay arnt the best but the more i make the better i will get i also have a program that alows you to create 3D bumpmaping for the texture so expect to see that later on.


after makeing them into a seamless its now time to add the difrent layers of maping to add depth and extra detail to make the 2d image seem 3d.

research

RESEARCH



This is just one of meant pictures that gave me inspiration for the kind of environment my game will be set in, check out my flicker link at the top of the page to see the rest of my research into the jungle. the reason for sticking with this thick jungle environment was mainly personal i enjoy playing in combat games with aspects of stealth and tactical precision.

What i want to achive

What i hope to achive is to lern a bit about all the ins and out of being a games desiner i will try to go threw the stages and finish having a better understanding in how it all happens.

i feel confident that i can create a decent atmospheric video allot like this one i created for my final project in my last year of collage. i had allot of help from my brother and it was a long time ago i want to prove to myself that i am capable of doing it myself and fully understanding how it all works.

Better quality : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSjWfuYY40I