Weekly overview – week 6

This week I worked on getting the stables / pigsty done. I want to texture this model next week, but time is running out. I found out that we don’t actually have to finish the level, because we are being marked on the teamwork, paperwork, and general involvement in the project, as opposed to the actual quality of the work that we are producing. I have to spend the next week getting the paperwork done, then hopefully I will still have time to get the stables finished. I need to have this diary, and a 2000 work evaluation done by Tuesday the 4^th may, and I have to have a 15 min presentation ready to present on mon 10^th may. This week will not be fun, but I can’t wait to finish it and texture the stables.

Mini post 20 – continued working on the stables

I have finished modelling the stables / pigsty now and they are now unwrapped. I now need to create the uvw templates and texture it.

Mini post 19 – started to model the stables

I started work on the stables today. I had a chat to Adam about what the stables should look like, and we looked at the layout of the level. We saw that it would work bests if we had the pigsty attached to the stables so that is what I did. I looked at the reference images that I have and decided to merge some of them together.

Here is what I have so far.

Weekly overview – week 5

I think that this week was rather productive. I managed to learn how to use the pelt unwrapping tool to unwrap my pickup truck nicely, which was a nice morale booster at this stage of the project. I then created my texture in photoshop, only to re-do it when I didn’t like the original. Once I had finished the textures I started work on the research for the stables / pigsty that I need to make. I am looking forward to this because I want to make a nice big asset in the level.

Mini post 18 – started research on the stables

Ok, so now that I have finished the cellar doors, the cow and pickup truck, I am moving on to create a larger asset, the stables/pigsty.

I’ve been looking forward to doing something like this, because I wanted to create larger assets. I gathered some research into what the barn/stables should look like, and here is a sample of the results.

Mini post 17 – altered the pickup texture

I didn’t like how my texture turned out so I decided to change it. Here are the results.

I also textured the wheels, and added licence plates to the model.

Mini post 16 – Started pickup texturing

I started on the texture for the pickup truck today. I wanted to give the truck an old dilapidated feel with rust and scratched metal, so I made this texture to put on it.

Mini post 15 – Started pickup unwrap

I unwrapped the pickup truck today. I decided to try an unwrapping technique I have never used before called pelt. This technique worked really well and was easy to use.

Weekly overview – week 4

This week was spent working on the pickup truck and getting it ready for texturing. I included features like windscreen wipers, side mirrors, windows and door handles. I also added the wheels.

Mini post 14 – Finished pickup truck

I finished modelling my pickup truck today. I have added wheels and windows. I had originally intended to model the interior of the car, but Adam suggested that I just put windows in and have them shaded.

Mini post 13 – continued on pickup truck

I have continued work on the pickup truck. I have worked into the body, adding more details to the body, adding side mirrors, and bull bars. I have also added some cylinders to show where the wheels will be. This model is almost complete.

Weekly overview – week 3

As I mentioned previously, this week was mostly spent getting my portfolio together for my meeting with Tim Browne, so I haven’t got too much done for dead farm this week. I expected this to happen and so I had already spoken to Adam about it, and he was fine. I am looking forward to getting my pickup truck finished because it will be the second car I have made, and it was fun last time. I also hope to improve my texturing skills for the truck.

Mini post 12 – not an april fools

Today I went to codemasters studios near lemmington spa and had a chat with a man called Tim Browne. He is senior game designer of operation flashpoint, and he talked to me about how to break into the industry. It was a very useful talk and I had great fun, but unfortunately he didn’t need to see my portfolio so I didn’t need to spend this week working on it. Oh well, it was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to start in the industry!

Thank you to Ian Bailey and Simon Miles for setting this meeting up for me.

Mini post 11 – oops

Adam kindly e-mailed me last night to remind me that I hadn’t made collisions for my cow or my cellar doors, so I have done that now and it has been sent to him.

Mini post 10 – pickup truck and codemasters

I have started work on my pickup truck.

This week I will be focusing on getting my portfolio ready for a meeting I have with codemasters. It’s not a job interview or anything, simply a guiding meeting to help me in the directions of what to do to get into the industry and what I need to focus on.

I’ll update on how it went.

Weekly overview – week 2

This week I finished my cow model and started to look into making my pickup truck.

I had a chat to Adam, and he thinks that I won’t need to model the horses, chickens or pigs. He thinks that cows will be fine for the space that we have to work with and I agree. I think I have worked well this week. Although it may not look like it, I worked very hard on the cow texture, but I have difficulty using Photoshop when it comes to making nice textures. This is something that I plan on working on in my spare time.

Mini post 9 – Started research for pickup

I started to look for reference images of the pickup truck that I want to model for the farm. Here are some of the images that I gathered.

Mini post 8 – double sided cow

After chatting to Adam and showing him my cow, he requested that I also create a cow that was upright and slumped, rather then being decomposed into the floor like the one I had already made. This wasn’t too much of a problem as I could simply use symmetry on the side I had and figure out a way to create the middle pieces. This caused problems with my texture, so I re-did it so that the middle part wasn’t too stretched.

Mini post 7 – continuing the cow

I continued work on the dead cow today. I created the back end and started my texture.

Here is how it looked after I had textured it.

Here is the texture that I created.

We discovered today that Kev has also gone to TT fusion with the other so we now have Adam as the team leader. Good luck to both with the new positions.

Weekly overview – week 1

This week was spent starting the actual design and development of dead far 2010. I think we have a fairly strong team working on this project. The team includes myself, Kev (leader), Adam (unreal implementer), Ste, Bob, Ash, Lottie (character artist) and Mike (environment concept artist).

Mike Boden, Jake Gainey and Jake ashby have all gone on placement at TT Fusion, so I wish them luck.

We came up with a rough asset list of everything that needs to be modelled for the level and decided who will be modelling what. We first discussed the idea of assigning certain areas of the map to certain people to concentrate on, but we decided against that, as we wanted people to make a different range of assets each.

I was assigned to create a group of dead animals, consisting of cows, pigs, horses and chickens. I was also asked to create the entrance to the underground lair and a Toyota pickup truck.

By the end of the week I had modelled the cellar doors and started the model on the dead cow. Once I had modelled the cellar door for the underground entrance I realised that using stairs wouldn’t work because the head space to walk down them wasn’t enough for the unreal character sizes, so I decided to use a ladder instead.

I think I have had a nice productive week this week, and plan on doing the same next week. I am planning on unwrapping and texturing my cellar doors, and my cow.