GAMES COLLABORATION PROJECT: A group of programmers have been asked to design a game aimed at 14-19 years audience. It should be educational about the laws of physics and use these principles in some way, e.g. gravity, electricity, magnetism etc.
I will create the game art and vehicles.
The next vehicle to be created is the tank, which will be largest vehicle in the game.
I started with a simple model for the tank body and looked at how the tracks could be made and move in the game. The locators could be used the same way as the tread should move around the wheels as the tank moves. The programmers had already decided to animate this in UNITY themselves, but for my own benefit I wanted to try and find a way that I could this myself.
The most popular method I found for this was to use Maya's wire tool. This way I could model the tracks to fit around a circle wire frame and then use the control vertex points to shape the wire frame to fit the tank.
This works well but I still find there are problems with the treads distorting around the wire frame as I try to rotate. Also, this only moves the treads when rotating them, as opposed to them rotating as the tank body moves back and forth. Perhaps the wire frame can then be used with the locators to achieve this effect.
After this I was able to finish the model, which needed some tweaking after building the treads. Again, the body itself was kept fairly simple, so extra details would be in the texture map.
This video demonstrates the Method I used to create a wire frame
for the tank treads so that the object would rotate around the wire.
A simple method I tried to duplicate the tread along the wire, was to use Maya's animation tools, motion path, followed by animation snapshot. This works great as its fast, however The main problem with this was the spacing between the treads, bunching up at the start and end of the wire. This was due to Maya taking into account the animation principle, ease in ease out, when attaching an abject to a motion path. This was solved using the graph editor.
After this I was able to finish the model, which needed some tweaking after building the treads. Again, the body itself was kept fairly simple, so extra details would be in the texture map.
For the textures I used Photoshop to build up a rusty metal feel using these images. The chipped paint and rust to make the metal seem battle worn and used.
I used images like these for reference to colour the tank, which I decided upon a camouflaged metal.
And this is the final UV layout for the body of the tank. The largest of the vehicles, but definitely the simplest to unfold!
One of the most exciting aspects of Digbeth is various sculptures, art work, street art fill all the spaces. No brick should be left unpainted! The colour on the walls of the buildings certainly nurture a creative crowd.
Moodboards highlighting the use of graffiti and colour in the area. With most of the industrial buildings and warehouse being listed, the graffiti and colour on the walls makes it more interesting for passers by. As the area was left derelict it seems natural that graffiti artists moved in to practise. Now graffiti plays a key part of Digbeth with extravagant street art covering entire buildings. Businesses that sell graffiti and street art supplies have sprung up in and around the custard factory!
With the information gathered on Digbeth its clear that all agree the place is filled with opportunity, mixed very nicely with the cities early history!
Perhaps this is what has attracted the artistic influence in the area. The custard factory has set a precedent and will be the heart of Digbeth as the cities creative quarter.
Story Construct Ideas:
Documentary
Conversation
Fable
Narrative/Narrator
Abstract
Silent film
Fable
When this was first suggested it seemed an interesting idea but difficult to approach. Spoke about incorporating 2 characters (i.e. custard factories Green man and the Dragon sculpture). Perhaps involving a conversation or argument that represents the voices of the entertainment sector and residents!
The moral would be how the community can thrive together. This seems simple in theory, however finding a solution to enforce this moral is harder than expected. Perhaps this is why little has been done to the area in terms of building up its residential area in particular.
But to draw people into the area and feel safe there this is essential. Also, any business that develops, especially in entertainment (bars, restaurants etc.) will depend upon the residential plans for the area!
It may be important for people to feel a sense of community. More shops and services would benefit those with plans of developing the residential area (post offices, supermarket, banks).
Silent Film
This idea could be effective and use music to illustrate of narrate Digbeths history, present and future.
Old music and black and white film style to show historic Digbeth in its initial construction.
Through to minimal- isolation and neglect- indicating the years Digbeth has been abandoned as the city has moved westward!
Indie/dance- the music and art scene that started springing through the decay (much like the springs that attracted industrial entrepreneurs in the first place)
Perhaps can use the music in a way that accents the building up of the area. As the scene builds up showing the growth of Digbeth, the music builds up accordingly.
The opening sequence has a similar construct in mind. Disney has always showed great skill in using music with animation so that both take equal part in narrating a scene! Between 1minute - 3 minutes is the sequence I'm most interested in here, in particular the technique of using music to accent and animation to paint the scene, always in unison!
Fantasia is a good example as the aim of the film was to use music as the 'narrator' of a story and the artists interpreted this into the animated scene. I like this technique of using music as a 'script'.
Our first week back to school! And the year kick starts with a collaboration between animation and architecture!
The brief has us focusing on Digbeth, an area of Birmingham. It is a popular place for many and has much history to its development. The client is a development consortium and has asked us to provide a short animation that captures Digbeth s sense of place and community.
AIM: Communicate the information you have gathered visually using animation. The end result should show a level of sophistication as the client is well versed in contemporary imagery and time based media.
The Client
The final outcome of the animation and how we decide to communicate the information, will heavily depend upon the client and what we know about them. I have had a look at some contemporary styles and also what 'time based media' is.
Link below explains time based media for an exhibition
We started by going to Digbeth and gathering what information we could by looking around and developing a feel for the place.
First stop! The custard factory is vibrant and colourful and water and nature seem to be a strong theme within its complex. This is perhaps what attracts the creative scene. The custard factory showcases art and music, adding to its vibrance!
In its first use, the factory was built by Sir Alfred F. Bird, son of Alfred Bird creator of Birds Custard 1902. During WW1 British armed forces were supplied with Birds Custard. No doubt this would have affected the success the companys success somewhat. But by the late 1980's, the factory had been left derelict. 1990 the factory was sold and restored as an arts centre.
Since then a fairly new scene with a strong artistic influence has emerged. Most of the buildings are listed, so offices, studios and businesses are hidden away in old brick factory buildings. This part of town was once the heart of industrial Birmingham. Millenium point is situated at the top of Digbeth and the development of this area will surley have its effect on Digbeth, perhaps making it the place for art, music and creative business!
Digbeth seems quite cut off from the rest of town and many people prefer not to venture there after dark. The plans for this area include making the most of the river Rea turning Birmingham into a water city(?). Making this into a more residential area seems to be the key developers feel will make Digbeth more of an exciting and welcoming place to be.
Suggestions of making the river Rea's public footpath more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists could improve this.
The plans show areas along the River Rea open for development, with a conversion project of the buildings and plots along its length. The plan seems to develop this area as Birmingham s 'creative quarter'.
This is an interesting article which raises some interesting points when comparing Digbths strengths and weaknesses.
Notes from 2009 Digbeth residents meeting. Discusses issues of noise from entertainment sector i.e. the custard factory. But agrees the area needs development to better the area for business as well as for residents. The development of the area could improve issues with crime and safety.
I have a basic understanding now of Maya 2011 interface after the previous project. Although I would rather have a deeper understanding of how this works. Maya uses the computer language C++ and its own language MEL.
You can create your own applications in Maya when using scripts, as well as execute complicated commands.
Reading:
"Complete Maya Programming - An extensive guide to MEL and C++ API" - David A. D. Gould - ISBN 1-55860-835-4
This guide is good once you have seen and used Maya. It goes into depth in the first chapter how the nodes and attributes connect and how they function. The next chapters provide tasks to learn how to utilize MEL and C++ commands.
Also I felt this would be a good oppurtunity to take advantage of the VTC (Virtual Training Company). I looked at C++ straight away, but was advised from the start to learn the fundamentals of C programming first.
Over the summer I want to start working on some concept art for games and learning a bit more about this. I'l be using what I've learnt in Maya to start creating scenes and also learning a bit more about Photoshop and its uses for creating textures for game environments.
This video shows how one person creates concept art using shapes and contrasting light and shadow to design characters and poses.
I found this video really useful in understanding how to use photography and pretty much any textures you've gathered to create a fantasy scene! Some clever tricks in this
OK. So after seeing this video I wanted to have a go myself, to see how I can use Photoshop to manipulate photos and images to put together something that could be used for concept work!
This photo was chosen for its subject of tall buildings and many windows. I felt this was a good starting point to edit the image and learning more about the tools Photoshop has to offer!
The clone tools blend away the sign at the bottom of the image. It is a bit irregular in places but has generally worked in for now. Even an extra window was added in this way!
Image rotated and cropped. Also used the clone tool to widen the area of sky at the top of the building.
I used images of clouds and red skies to create a dark sinister sky, as well as other lighting and effects on Photoshop, such as darkening the image or changing the gradient.
Overall so far is looking OK. There is certainly more creative things I could do in Photoshop. But for now this shows how easy it can be to manipulate photos and other images into colourful concept art!
AIM: Collect photo references for textures and general scenes, including buildings (new, old and derelict), water (lakes,rivers), animals, trees, people and machinery.
