Posts

Showing posts from 2011

More game stuff

Image
So here's a video of what I've done so far on my little puzzle / adventure game. There's are a few game play bugs that need working out, especially the checkpoint system. I also need to get some characters in there but as I suck at character modelling. The environment needs fleshing out as well, more models, textures, better lighting, particle affects and interactive items. wow just realised that's a lot to do! Anyway aiming to get this section of the game playable so people can have a go at it and maybe even enjoy it! also start working on DoubleX again on Monday! wwooop!

All hands on deck!

Image
A shot from the deck of the ship. Started to add weather effects, the rain is a bit big, but it works, want to play around with it a bit but not a priority. Also not quite nailed the particle effects yet, want to have rain hammering down on the deck, I may do this through a post process volume that makes the camera look wet instead. Hopefully get a video of this up soon. Also need to do the textures. So UV unwrapping, which is the bane of my existence.

A flying ship in UDK

Image
So doing some tests with a ship model I made. When I'm done modelling it I'm going to smash it up :) at the moment though it's in UDK, you can walk around it, it has 5 floors and 2 crows nests, still needs a lot of modelling work. It also rocks about in the wind. Been trying to put rain battering the ship in but hasn't been very successful. It also needs textures doing. Just added this texture for now to stop the normal's going invisible on me. If you want a clue to where the smahed up version will end up look at the right hand side of the picture in my last post ;)  Update! added this lil pic, you can see an earlier version of the ship on the right.

some more trees.

Image
I should be doing my Dissertation, but this is more interesting. Trees are interesting, right?

trees & slime

Image
Another one!

trees & lava

Image
A screenshot from a little side project I'm messing aound with at the moment. Models & textures are placeholders. But I do like the super simple style.

My day at Blitz games

Image
First post in a while! Been crazy busy recently, but with loads of interesting stuff!! So on March 10th 2011 I got the opportunity to visit blitz games in Leamington spa!! I thought I would do a write up of what it was like to give anyone else thinking of applying an idea of what to expect. (If you're thinking of going already, do it! it's well worth it!) I arrived in Leamington spa on the 9th and stayed overnight in Buckland Lodge , the hotel it self was a bit dated but overall it was ok. Run by a guy called John who seemed nice and it was cheaper than the travel lodge! Also got breakfast in the morning, always good :) Next day I was up at 7:30 got breakfast had a bath (no shower in my room! gutted!) and got up to Blitz just before 9. At which point I waited for Rhys (One of the programmers we worked with in the 2nd year, also from Newport uni). But Rhys managed to get himself lost so I just went inside and I was cold. Once I was inside we got directed through to a

Minecraft documentary

Minecraft Video Game, Documentary | Video Clip | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com definatley worth a watch! Very interesting!

Double Cross, modelling and level design - balancing the 2

Image
After the presentation last week (that I think went quite well!) it's back into production. Over the next few weeks I feel we need to really focus on a couple of things. #1 - Getting a working prototype out the door. This is so, so important and thus far we haven't managed to do it. I wouldn't say it's any of our fault that this has happened. But we have such a nice mechanic and at the moment we don't have the technical abilities to pull it off. In short we need someone familiar with programming and is possible scripting for UDK. Now we have two options, hunt for someone who can do this or one of us learn to do it ourselves, possibly sacrificing other areas of the project. So I'm stumped. We have a meeting tomorrow so hopefully we can discuss a solution then. #2 - Having a defined art style in engine. By this I mean something within UDK that shows how are game is going to look. At everything apart from the actual static meshes is out of the box UDK (textur

Blitz games open day!

Image
So last Month I submitted my application to Blitz games to visit their studio as a 3D artist and I'm happy to say my application was accepted :D Blitz was founded in 1981 by the Oliver Twins (Creators of the Dizzy Egg series!!) and has been responsible for several games including the recent dead to rights. So I'm mega excited, this will be the first time I've had a chance to look around a commercial game development studio and get to meet the people who work there. Hopefully it will be a great chance to get a feel for what it's like to work in the games industry and make some useful contacts. ssooo I'll be off to Leamington Spa on March the 10th! wwwooo!

Bioshock 2 lead env talks Ryan Amusements

Image
Bioshock 2 lead environment artist Hogarth de la Plante talks through the world of Ryan Amusements.

Worshippping at the temple of Notch...

Image
So the reason I've taken days to write this post..... So it all started with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UdEFmxRmNE Done by the Yogcast guys, it was posted on a forum I visit pretty regularly and I spent a whole night watching the series all the way through. The next day I bought Minecraft... And so far I realy like it. Probably a bit too much! It's VERY addictive. Two of the guys I live with have been keeping up with the yogast videos and both of them have done the same as me and gone and got the game. So I'm building a castle. woop! I was at a lecture Dan Pincbeck (Dear Esther) gave the other day and he described Minecraft as "I am legend" meets Lego, which is pretty much spot on. It's a winning combination that works really well. You get dumped out in the wilderness on your own without much of an idea of what to do. (unless, like I did you watched some videos before buying it). Then it gets dark... Bad stuff happens when it get

January

Image
First off I would like to introduce my new website! http://www.peterharries.co.uk/ It's still under construction but there are a few interesting bits on there to have a look at. Including a development diary and post mortem of the pre production stage of Double cross. Here's a direct link to the preproduction development diary and post mortem. So please have a look and let me know what you think :) Since my last post I've mainly been working on those documents but I have done a bit of modelling, you can check out below: I'm realy tired so I'm going to go and play minecraft some more, then maybe sleep.

Blitz submission

Image
I've got the 2 JPEG's for the Blitz open day done. Will probably send them tomorow at some point just incase I make any tweaks between now and then.

day 7 and where I'm at!

Image
So this is what it's looking like! I want to use this in a submission for the Blitz open day and the deadline is the 10th. My disertation is needing a bit of work too :( So may leave it as it is for now. I will however keep working on this after the Blitz submission. The things I want to change are: - re-do the main body and tower textures, change them to 1024 maps. - add more geometrical detail to the edge of the roof of the main body, tower, porch and both extensions - tweak the geom on the edges of the pine end of the roof and the tower to get a better silhouette - create emissive textures for lamps and windows - create a smoke particle affect for the chimneys - work further into the roof textures, especially the edges. Get all the walls and roof. - add some weathering to the roof tiles.

todays work, sick of texturing

Image
So I've been trying to get textures down just to cover stuff. It's messy and not finished and still needs tweaking but at least I can get an overall picture of where it's going. Getting a bit sick of texturing now, have 2 days to go before I want it done so just trying to get stuff done.

textures!

Image
So I'm going to do it a bit different today and instead of making multiple posts just update this one with my texture progress! Here's the first shot, pine end of the house, Haven't done the stones at the bottom of the wall yet.   update #1: got bored made this out of parts of the main building!    Update #2: Just got a comment on Polycount about how the wall texture is grainy, I do agree so I may bump the texture up to 1024 for the bigger parts. Here's a texture shot of what it's like now. (actual size). update #3: Door done! update #4:WHat I've done today, may revisit the wall texture but I want to get it finished in the next few days so I'll use it for now and hopefully have time to go back to it later. The roof texture needs working on as well.

...to the walls!

Image
Yes this and my previous post are a reference to lil jon & the eastside boys musical masterpiece that is "get low". :D So I've unwrapped and done a first pass on the textures, so most of them are big ugly block colours. Still pretty happy with progress and confident I'll get it done in the time I've set myself. There are a few dodgy shadows, I'll try and figure out how their sneaking in soon. Could just be the Ambient Occulsion being weird. anyway here are some pictures of what I've been doing.

From the windows...

Image
So texturing isn't my strongest point and I find it really tricky and difficult. Especially when working with anything under 512's. I'm quite happy with them but will probably re-visit them later. Having to do the artwork with a mouse at the moment because I don't have access to a tablet, so that's a bit of a pain. May go hunting for a cheap one tomorrow. Overall happy with progress, was hoping to get more items unwrapped today but don't know how many I'll get done. anyway here are some screenies. And a shot of the texture.

blown apart

Image
Broken the house down into seperate assets. Hopefully this will let me re-use them if i decide to create a full scene with this, will also let me tinker with the model as I go along. Edit: Here's the re-assembled version!

adding details.

Image
This morning I've been adding some details. Plan for the rest of the day is to finish that up, then start breaking it down into sections for unwrapping and texturing.

3D modelz yo

Image
So I managed to do some work today, I'm happy with the outcome. First time I've done something like this. I say outcome even though it's miles from finished! As it stands the mesh is Bad... Very Bad. Loads of un-needed topology and lacking llooaaddsss of details that I want to add. I want to go for a pretty low poly style and hopefully hand paint the textures so the end result will be Warcraft/torchlight-ish. Today my plan was to nail a base concept and I feel I've got that. Next I'll be playing with details and seeing if i can make it more interesting. Then I'll figure out a colour pallet and start texture work. I've given myself until the 10th! wish me luck!!

2011 and back to work!

So I've been pretty quiet on here recently! Mostly due to the fact that a lot of the work I've been doing has been paper based design and dissertation work. Some of which is quite interesting and hopefully I'll get a chance to post about it on here. But I much prefer to post visual stuff when I can, gotta love pictures!! I'm back in Newport Gwent now after spending Christmas and New Year back in Pembrokeshire with the family which was great! Now I have to face the looming deadlines and get the work done for them! Which does include some modelling work so hopefully I'll be posting regularly throughout the process. The last of those deadlines is on the 13th after which we'll be jumping straight into Double Cross production! Which I'm really excited about! So January looks like it will be busy! Happy 2011 everyone!