GAME PROJECT - personal projects

I learnt alot from creating the vehicles for this game, however, I felt I could do more to learn about using Maya or 3D in a way that's suitable for games. I had kept the models simple before to ensure the resolution would not be to high to fit in the game. However with these exercises shown here I learnt new techniques to create low resolution props and models that can be animated within a game and its game play.

One of the first exercises I tried was to create some foliage for a game. The best method to create  and irregular shape, like this ivy leaf, was maya's create polygon tool. I added the details to create a high resolution leaf. But for just one leaf, this created alot of polygons to the model.

Used normal maps to create the leafs texture from the high res model. Add 32 bit in photoshop to use alpha channel. Only use alpha channels when using opacity maps as the empty alpha channel takes a lot of space within a game. Also, only alpha opacity maps use 32 bits to compensate for the alpha channel.

This creates a leaf texture that can be added onto a plane. Duplicate leaves along a curve (curve represents vine)

Underneath view

top view

 

High resolution model

 

Low resolution model

GAME PROJECT - BIKE

The smallest of the vehicles to be built next is the bicycle! This I thought would be the simplest but when I attempted it I was very wrong.

I started by gathering images and plans for bikes. The most complex part would be to create the gears so images that included the gears was important. Its important that the wheels of the bike can be animated but not necessary to animate the gears.

Bike plan

reference image BIKE HANDLES

reference image GEARS

One method I tried to build the frame of the bike, was to use extrusions along a curve. However I found the simplest method was to just use the extrusion method I had used before with the car and the tank, starting with a block and extruding the shape until it resembles the bike frame. This was effective but creates a blocky, square frame. Extruding along a curve, using NURBS circles, may have produce a smoother, rounder frame.

The handles and seat were created separately, as were the wheels. This was also to make the texture map editing simpler, when it came down to arranging the UV layout.

Bike frame UV

Handlebars UV layout

Gears UV layout

Wheels UV layout

Once again, the bike needs to be able to move along for the purpose of the game. In Maya I've been using locators and expressions for this, in expressions editor.

Gear UV texture

Once I lay out the UV's for each section of the bike I used Photoshop to create the textures that would then be placed over the UV layout. I was able to do this using the layers to see the UV outline and another layer for colour. Of course when placing the texture on the model in Maya, the outline of the UV texture shouldn't be included. Otherwise black outlines would show across the models texture. This is quite an interesting effect but not one I'm after with these models.
The bike had the most UV layouts and separate textures as this made it simpler when unfolding the UV layouts in the UV editor. Unlike say the tank or car which, though larger models were much simpler to unfold.

Games design - Building a car - MAYA

For this games design module we've teamed up with programmers who are designing a game that teaches concepts of physics to students between the ages of 14-19. The game engine they will be using is the free software, UNITY!

My team have designed their game that demonstrates the laws of physics by using different size vehicles to roll down a hill and land on a target. The idea is simple which makes it suitable for students in the age range    to learn these concepts.

My task is to create these vehicles. Using Maya, I will be creating a bicycle, car and a tank. The wheels should be able to move independently as the vehicle moves forward and back so to roll down the hill and gain momentum from its own weight (its weight would be programmed in UNITY).

To start with I began by building the simplest of these vehicles, the car. For this I chose a simple car design (fiat PANDA). I used simple extruding methods to create the shape and details for the car in Maya.

http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Rotating-Wheels-on-a-Car-Maya-Tutorial/24527

The next step was to work out how I could rotate the wheels of the car.

I used the tutorial above and advice from tutors, who suggested using locators in Maya to create the movement of the wheels. This works nicely in Maya, but found when importing the object into UNITY, the locators were there but had no effect. This wasn't a problem however, for the programmers, as they said the texture itself could be animated to spin as the car moved, as opposed to the wheels themselves. This I was told would be a more efficient method and could be done in UNITY.

The next step then for me was to texture the car. The model is fairly simple so the texture would be responsible for extra details. I had quite a few problems at first when trying to apply my textures. I found this was due to trying to add too many textures to one model e.g. the car body was one colour, but the windows were to be more clear and transparent. But the problems started when I tried to directly apply this using Maya's own textures. I discovered this cant be done in Maya, which is why texture mapping is vital for this.

With the texture maps, I would be able to create a texture map, which I can apply all the textures to. I used help from tutorials online and games design books to help work out how to move and sew textures together to create a flat, opened out layout of the car.

I could then import the map into Photoshop CS5 and build them there.

Business for animation - introducing new project

Back off our christmas break and set our new project for business in animation. The brief asks us to create a 5 - 15 second advert for the 'food network', from chello zones CBS promotions.

The choices are:

• Street food month: A celebration of the worlds most irresistible street food. Taco's, grilled cheese, Indian takeaway, pretzels etc.

• Sugar rush Sundays: Best sweet tooth recipes ever. From s'mores to hand made chocolate crunch bars covered in bacon, promoting sugar foods (cakes/ chocolate etc.) related programming.

•  Italien Month: The best italien cooking, celebrating all that is italien. Promotes a whole month of italien food related programmes with a chance to win a vespa!

I have chosen to have a look at the street food category first. For some ideas I had a look at the food networks street food gallery.
http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/article/street-food-gallery.html

Also a look at what else could be classed as street food with info on the british street food awards for 2012
http://britishstreetfood.co.uk/street-food-heroes/

Its important for the food network logo to be present in the advert at some point.

Planning on using After effects to create a few simple tests using shapes. The audio for this advert is 4 seconds long.

started coming up with ideas, trying to keep with the street food theme.