Post-Presentation

Had a presentation today so the lectureres knew where we were at, I think mine went alright and I didn't receive any negative comments so I think im on the right track with my FMP. I think now that i know what im doing its just crunch time to get things done.

I think my plan now is to figure out how to do water in udk for my river, then afterwards ill try modelling some rocks in zbrush - a program I have never used before.
I think in this project ill make more of an effort using normal mapping which from other projects and in other games are the things that make all the difference in quality. Since mine is quite terrain based I think that it'll be important to get that right.
I only know how to do basic normal mapping - nothing advanced at all so this is something ill have to look into also.

I need to get a proper list down for what im to model and then just do it (while unwrapping along the way), that is my next step and I think I am pretty close to starting on the main production now. Obviously I want this to be the best thing i get out of the course for portfolio and I want more quality to my work than in previous projects.

Whitebox

Ok, not done a post for a little while as I was working on my newer whitebox and I managed to get past the point I was at on my original udk whitebox and also added more. I think this is more or less what im wanting to do, If it was a lot smaller I don't think it would be worth doing frankly. I like the different areas I have created which should keep the player/explorer interested to continue to look around it.
These are a series of screenshots for the walkthrough


^to explain the red arrow in screenshot

Corrupted whitebox..

I want a bit of a break from birds and try and get my 'half finished' udk whitebox done, opening it up.. it seems that It had corrupted so it looks like ill have to do it again.. Oh well I do know what I had and to be honest I didn't have any intention to use that whitebox for my final thing anyway.
As I now understand how the terrain generator works im confident enough to get it back to where it was and more.

Quickly managed to get the start of the level done.



What im thinking is a little hard to explain in my head and with a lack of assets but what you see here. The player starts up the hill (from a road)and slopes down into this bit. The terrain will be quite rockey and from the players perspective the section on the right is part of a cliff face. Very close to the house there will be quite a sheer drop (player protected by fencing) where a river will be seen quite low surrounded by trees.
The player is directed to the left by this natural obstacle leading directly into the village.



More progress going down into the town, I want the town to be quite compact in shape sort of enclosing the player a little while retaining the open area.





This is pretty close to what I had before it corrupted now, I am pleased with redoing it and I am happier with what im going for. The terrain will be quite rigid in places made out of rock and grass sloping down into the final boat section.

what the.. DUCK?!

Well this is my duck ready for testing in udk, its going to be more of a background animal so the worries about the texture not quite matching probably dont matter.

I have a little loop animation for the duck swimming.

After some searching and experimenting i got the animation to work

my tut for getting animations to work in udk (for future reference)
'ok so for an animation to work in udk

sO basically model your character in max and then export as a fbx, tick 'animation' 'Bake Animation' and deformations

Open udk and import the mesh as usual in the content browser, it should also make an anim set of the same name.
Double click the anim set and pres the play button to make sure it animates.

Drag the asset into the udk scene then open kistmet.

rightclick, new event, level loaded
right click, new matinee

Link loaded and visible from 'level loaded' to Play in the 'matinee'

click level loaded
Max triggercount1 (for it to loop)
click matinee tick looping

Open the matinee, right click in the black and choose add new skeletalmesh group.
Select the name of that skeletal mesh group and in group anim sets, 'add new item' select the anim set in the content browser.
There you go.
'

CHICKEN

Right I now have a textured chicken for use as a test for this animation.
This is it below (I think ill make a couple of variations of chickens to walk around just by adjusting the texture)



447 triangles mind you..I didnt think it would be that much but I think that is the lowest I can go for them to look any good.

Right erm after it was textured I rigged with bones but rigging in 2012 is a bit retarded in comparison to 2011 I though.
None the less it managed to get rigged and I was trying to get it to animate - its pretty hard to get it to look realistic. I was trying to emphasize the quick head movements chickens have but everything was looking so fake when I was trying. I appreciate that im not an animation student but I think i need more practice before I work on the chicken. In my level the chicken is going to be the main thing that will animate , Herrons don't need rigged and ducks the only thing which moves really is the head.

For my UDK test it may be better to try simpler animations to import than big complex chickens (which may not work!)

For the ducks I will only model the body and the head - no legs are unnecessary. These will be more in the distance compared to the chicken

Progress

Right well this is progress on the models
Iv started with the smaller assets and also made an effort to unwrap as I was doing them. While trying to make as low poly as I could Iv noticed that more triangles are going into things which I think is due to the fact that there are a few cylinders used for many of the objects, these models presented here in total have come to over 1000 tris which normally I wouldn't think was a good number. If I reduced the quality even more it simply wouldn't look that great.

Ok so my progress:
Iv got about half of my whitebox done, modeled a couple of plant tests which ill use and modeled a few of the smaller assets. These past 2 weeks Iv had trouble getting into the project and although iv been working I don't feel like im deep in the project.
Im not entirely sure what to do next, im trying to lay off the bigger assets until later but im starting to run out of the smaller assets!
I still need to look at how to make water in udk and how to get imported models from max to animate (The chickens and wildlife). I have never modeled any birds before so I could try on that, for the chickens what I was planning was for them to just walk around pecking, no wing motions. This is quite crucial really So I think that will be my next step.

Model the chicken
Animate the chicken
Import and make work in UDK.

Would probably be wise to look at a tutorial before I go ahead of modelling.
The chicken may not be the final one I will use as this would be for testing purposes.


So far iv modelled the head, Using alphas for the "comb" on the head and also leaving it open at the bottom which can be alphad AND to make it easier to rig.





So the majority modelled, ill use alphas for the chickens feet. One thing im thinking about - should I have the Head more or less separate to the body and rig it that way ORR have it all connected. If its all 1 thing It would look more realistic but it greatly depends on how well it deforms.
I will have the head moving, the feet moving and the tail - it may be alright.



Right ill leave it there for now, my next step is to finish the texturing, rig it and then try to get it into UDK. Im hoping its straightforward - I have seen 1 tutorial but its for humanoid characters - its probably going to be a matter of trial and error.



(things I can look at)
Reference

Beowolf
Legion
game of thrones
skyrim
centurian
king arthur - clive owen
Pathfinder - viking camps
Asterix
braveheart
Kingdom of heaven

Plants Continueeeee + other assets

Ok so I have a few plants, some of the texturing will need work but none the less I was able to model a couple. Now as I said before I only wanted a few actual modeled plants as the rest will be alphas, perhaps some flowerheads poking out. Strictly speaking these sorts of things shouldn't be modeled as its an inefficient use of triangles and I do appreciate that. I will be wanting a few plants near the fence areas which the player will see while walking around (more than others) and also I will be placing a few in places that need a bit of colour.

Im leaving plants just for now and ill model some other smaller assets from my reference. I will unwrap as I go along also so its not a bit stress at the end.