Friday, 6 May 2011

New to modelling

Wow, I came across this old post of mine on the 3dbuzz forums from years ago. It's funny being reminded of the time when I couldn't do any of the things I can now.

Hi there people,
I've been messing with Max on and off for a while now and I've decided to get serious with it.
At the moment Im trying to model using splines and a surface/meshsmooth modifier.
I've achieved some simple constructs but I have a few problems which I can not find the answer to

Ok here goes :S

First of all how do you get that ultra smooth surface, for instance Im trying to model the side panel of a futuristic motorbike, then general shape is right but I just cant get those little bumps and ditches out of whats supposed to be a flat surface. Im pulling verices here there and everywhere but just cant get it smooooooth.

my other main problem is detail. Here are a few examples of what Im trying to achieve.....

Screws/rivets on panels
(dont know how to explain this one) grooves (like the line you have down the side of most cars or on the hood).
And basically general detail (raised and lowered bits of various shapes)
The best I can do so far is extruding normal polygons which dont exactly give the desired effect :P (at all)

Any help would be VERY appreciated, I've looked all over for hints/guides/tuts dedicated to this kind of thing but to no avail.

Thanks Alot in Advance

PS if anyone could point me to absolute beginner zbrush tutorials (I've watched the 3D buzz VTM's) because I just cant get my head around that :P

Carboard Cutouts

We hope to get carboard cutouts of our characters for "The Glammies" this year. There's limitations as to what we can do due to size restrictions.

I put this together quickly to get an idea. The final pose, whatever it may be, needs to be similair to this one for the proportions of the cutout.

I'm fairly happy with it but it doesn't feel quite right yet. I don't really feel the weight of her stance...any models out there? ;)

C&C welcome


Thirtyseven Cutout by ~AcidTsunami on deviantART

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Ultimate Image Composition Two

Here's another render of my character. I liked the first one but I wanted the image to appear more dynamic and for her face to be more of a focal point. I used common composition techniques (golden mean etc.) to improve the overall image.

I hope to improve the specular on her eyes if time permits. I'll also be posting one with notes about the composition and more.


Thirtyseven 02 by ~AcidTsunami on deviantART

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Ffresh Awards 2011

I was extremely lucky to be nominated in the Ffresh 2011 festival. It was for my second year game cinematic, in the "Games and Interactive Media" category. I was shocked and honoured when I was announced the winner. I came across this photo from the night.



And here's the award winning cinematic. Seems so long ago now. I'm a bit embarrased by it to be honest, the animation is mostly terrible, just didn't have the time!

Monday, 2 May 2011

Thirtyseven Updated

I updated Thirtyseven, she now has a gask mask as I felt her chest area was too plain. There's also other bits like straps on her back which you don't see in the render. I rendered at double the resolution this time so you can really see the detail in the textures. So glad I made 4096 textures! See the post below for the updated image.

Thursday, 28 April 2011

Thirtyseven Production Render

For our business module we have to create an 'Ultimate Image'. So I thought I'd try rendering my game character and vehicle. Even though they aren't intended for that purpose as all materials are the same and only vary depending on specular alone, it's impossible to get "realistic" results. I do feel however that the outcome was pretty succesful considering.



Thirtyseven by ~AcidTsunami on deviantART

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Menu Character and Vehicle Selection

The pressure is mounting for sure! A week until first hand in and still plenty to do. It's hard to judge really because production will continue after the project is handed in. I'm obviously aiming for a first (who isn't?) but given the size of the project it's hard to know what's "enough" to get a good grade.

I have had great success with the character/vehicle selection however. Liam got his head around scaleform and produced a menu screen, with which I created the character and vehicle selection. It wasn't only a case of the interface but saving those selections and applying them in-game.

Here's a video :)

Saturday, 16 April 2011

New Character - WIP

Wasn't really happy with my other character so made another. Looking for feedback. Thanks!


Character - "Thirtyseven" by ~AcidTsunami on deviantART

Sunday, 10 April 2011

Track Preview with Music

Busy busy as usual! Here's a a preview video of Coldario Forge race track. The awesome music was provided by 2nd year music student Paul Cole and his band "Parameters". Enjoy!

Friday, 25 March 2011

Huge Update

I've been so busy I've not had time to post stuff! I am literally working non-stop. Creating a character, vehicle and huge environment as well as programming is a huge workload. It's going well so far though!

Two of my friends and I are in our final year studying game art at University. For our final project we decided to make an action racing game concept. We are all creating vehicles, characters and environment assets and I am also doing the coding. It's not a game that will be finished anytime soon, it's simply a concept for our project which ends in a couple of months. After that, who knows! Here's some info, I hope like it.

Back Story
A famous Human author once wrote, “To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself”. This is true now, more than ever before. Not just for the humans but for all life in the galaxy they share.

This home, this small part of space has many names throughout the hundreds of races that inhabit it. “The road to nowhere”, “Heaven's Embrace”, “The Fort of Gwydion” and of course “The Milky Way”. Some see it for what it is, a small insignificant part of the Universe. Others look upon it as heaven itself created by an almighty god. However it is regarded, one simple fact applies to all life within. It is home, and one which no living thing can do without.

For millions of years it has been taken for granted. Very few worried for life outside of their planets and colonies. But now the end has arrived. The fate of all life in the galaxy is doomed. The black hole in its centre has been growing since the dawn of time, churning with infinite chaos and always starving of time and space. And now it seems, life itself is on the menu. For so long it seemed like a distant beast of no threat to anyone, but the beast grows, wandering in all directions with no bias or blind spot. It hunts everything, everywhere, for eternity and there's no escaping it.

The only solace intelligent life has is that, with enough currency, you can get far enough away to live out the rest of your life. And hope, that future generations can keep escaping this terrible fate. Some of the richest and most important figures from across the galaxy left long ago bearing only a few close possessions and a guilty conscience for the ones left behind.

It is perhaps not surprising, that in these dire times, a new form of entertainment arose. If death is inevitable why not enjoy the time you have. Calling it entertainment however, is debatable at best. But no matter how one sees it, it's certainly popular.

One of the most common features of evolution, throughout the galaxy, is the need or desire to be faster than another living thing. Perhaps just as common, is the general idea of competition. Where individuals or groups of at least similar ability compete with one and other in order to become a champion in their field. This idea however, does not always apply with this new found “sport”. Desperate men with no chance of survival, never mind winning, take part without a hope of getting the spoils. If there was ever good reason to empathise with someone for at least trying, now is more appropriate than ever. Even the contenders who find success have little chance of winning enough credits to secure their passage into galaxies beyond.

Ruthless and unforgiving, the contenders race, in most cases, to their deaths, with only three simple goals in mind. Keep their vehicle working, keep winning and ironically no more important than the others, stay alive. The races take place throughout the galaxy in treacherous lands and unimaginable danger. The rules are vague and profoundly pointless. The organisers, unknown to everyone, are the only live spectators. And the entrance fee...free...of course!

This is “DFK Racing”

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Brief Description of Gameplay



DFK Racing is an action racing game. It can be compared to games such as Mario Kart, Blur & Carmageddon.

In DFK, Racers compete in an endurance style race where being first over the line isn't doesn't guarantee success. Racers must also collect "Scrap" as they race around the track. On each track exists a "Scrap Processing Area" where players leave their vehicles and compete to control the area, King of the Hill style, so they can process their scrap.

Racers can choose between 3 classes of vehicle. Light, Medium and Heavy. Light vehicles are the fastest but have the least armor and scrap capacity, while heavy vehicles are slower but are able to carry more scrap and take more damage. Heavy vehicles are also easier to drive. Medium class vehicles are somewhere inbetween these two.

Finishing the race gives each player a bonus to the scrap they processed, while all players lose a percentage depending on how far behind first place they finished. This system allows for Heavier vehicles to win a race even if they don't come first. Think the tortoise and the hare.

Players also get scrap bonuses for other actions, such as destroying other player vehicles and killing them when skirmishing for the scrap processor.

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Current Features in Progress

(Many features are still work in progress)

Players spawn on a start grid in a vehicle
Checkpoints and Lap system
Track respawn system (when vehicle is destroyed)
Scrap pickup system
Scrap Processing system
Hud system

3x Custom vehicles
2x Custom characters
Many custom environment assets
1x Race track
Simple racing AI

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I'll be uploading images and videos as soon as I get some off the other guys. For now I'll link a couple of images of my work.


Coldario Forge Race Track


Quadbike Vehicle



Gwen Character


Scrap Pickup/Processing
http://www.youtube.com/dannrees#p/a/u/1/QJlgNldVxDE