Side Scroller Game - Post Mortem

So the last six weeks of the course have been taken up by one year wide group project. As a year we were to create a fantasy side scrolling game in Unreal Engine 4.
We were tasked to create four levels with the themes hot, cold, scary and happy, four NPC's and two main playable characters (male and female.)
The year was divided up into different teams based on their chosen skill. I worked on the character team and was given the task of creating the two main playable characters.
As the idea developed the main chracters eveolved in

I feel one of the things that went well for me this time round was my time management. I completed the two characters well within the time frame and keep to the deadlines we were set along the way.
I am happy with my designs and felt that this was a good learning experience for me to work on my anatomy, proportions and cloth sculpting skills.

My main disappointment with my own work is that I feel my material definitions weren't up to scratch. I feel that they need to read better as what they are. I also feel the colours are a bit blocky and need more variation and wear and tear. I will be redoing/improving the textures before putting them up on my portfolio.

The main problems I encountered through out this project were adapting my work pipeline to be suitable for the group project. Working as part of a group requires one to be flexible in your job role and be able to adapt to situations.
The main way I overcame this issue was that I talked to the other teams and worked out what other departments needed first and prioritized certain parts of my pipeline. For example, the engine team needed the rigged character to test in game, so I rigged the character first and textured later.
Another problem I encountered was in deciding the colour palette of my two characters. It was particularly challenging as the character must fit into all the levels, which all have different colour palettes.

To work out what would work best, I placed all the screenshots of the levels together and did paint overs of my characters in each scene, to see what would be consistent across the levels.
If we were given a similar project again I would have done all of my detailing in zbrush first. I ended up hand painting all the albeido and height maps for the belts, shoes and boots. At the time I thought I would save time but it actually took me longer than sculpting and baking.

I was relatively happy with the outcome of the project, it is certainly a nice feeling seeing your characters running around game levels.  It was a great experience to work as part of a larger team and work towards the same goal. I would like to redo some elements of my character for my own sake as I would probably give the characters a different colour palette to suit them better and improve my materials.

Kat

King of the Dead

Yesterday we handed in our first little project, it was a group project titled 'King of the Dead.'
The brief was to produce quality work and original ideas in a short amount of time. We were to make a character on a throne, a wall behind the character and a floor below. This was to be compiled in UE4, be visually striking and encompassed a unique idea based around 'King of the Dead.'

We started our project by establishing what we would like and what we wouldn’t like to have in the project. As we were encouraged to think outside the box and come up with a unique idea we decided it would be best to avoid typical themes like the grim reaper, excessive black, day of the dead etc. So after putting a general pinterest board together we narrowed our ideas down to two main starting points. The first idea was that of somewhat different, a mouse surrounded by cat skins, The roles reversed to create a comical dynamic. The second idea being based on the idea of a lake that is deathly (based on a lake in Tunisia that kills any birds that land on it) and the film Under the Skin where the main character tempt men to their death. Our visual cues for this idea were mainly like a white beacon in a dark environment, main focus on the character, the contrast drawing the eye.
We decided to go with the second idea and focus on it being very ethereal and almost enchanting.

Style Inspiration - Otto Schmidt

Style Inspiration - Otto Schmidt

I started with a few concepts to establish mood and think about composition, after meeting with the rest of the team we decided that one of us should see whether our base idea would work in engine. So while the others finalised concepts I started setting up placeholders in engine and working out how to create a convincing water texture, particle effects, etc.

My mood thumbs

Final Concept by Finn

After setting up a basic place holder level I created a water material, atmospheric particle effect, atmospheric fog, first pass of lighting.
Once we had the concepts finalised I went on to add more accurate placeholders, closer to the concept, so we had the composition we were after. I also added the planes around the placeholders for the fog alphas, and applied Finns textures once he had painted them.

Paint over of Chelsea's throne concept to decide the pose

Progression of the placeholder level to the final level

With the placeholder level set up we could move onto assigning jobs from the asset list. I was assigned the character body. Using Ed, Rachel’s and Chelsea’s concept I did a quick visualisation on the throne to decide the pose. With the pose established I could jump into zbrush, get the sculpt down, retop and get it all baked and textured.
In regards to the texture I kept it pretty simple as I knew I would be using emmisives on the character as it will be the main focus of them image. 

Once I had finished up the character I moved back to the engine, getting the lighting sorted once everyone had dropped their assets in, quickly modelling the boat and polishing the finished look. 

Overall this project went really well, we quickly managed to unify an idea that we were all happy with and we managed to organise our time so that we finished in advance of the deadline, giving us time to meet some stretch goals. 

My only concern about the project is that I ended up doing the majority of the engine work. I tried to encourage others to have a go but I think because we encountered a lot of problems trying to move the project from computer to computer it meant that people didn’t get to use the engine as much as they would liked to have. 

We managed to stick very closely to our key concept and create our own unique stylisation inspired by the source artwork by Otto Schmidt. As much as we would have liked to get it closer to the art style, I think in the time we had it was not completely realistic. Being able to create material shaders and other technical things to get it to fit the style exactly would take longer as we would have to work out how to do it, which would be quite complex. I feel we created a great interpretation on the style which is still ethereal but stylised. In the future I would like to spend more time working on the technical side of creating a stylised look in engine. 

Angry Birds Transformers!

Guys! The Game I got to work on over summer was released today! Get downloading!

It's called Angry Birds Transformers and I had the chance to work on concepts, models and other art jobs for this project.

You can get it on iOS now and on Android at the end of the month!

It's super fun retro 80's style transformers for the new and old school transformers fans!

Check it out!

Downlaod for iOS here!

Gameplay Trailer

VHS Rip Trailer

Music by Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth

Back to uni from a valuable summer.

I'm back in Leicester, commencing my final year of uni... oh dear, final year eekkk.

So, it's coming to the close of the second week back and it already feels like we have been here for ages. Been great catching up with everybody and with a fair few of us off working in industry over summer there has been lots to talk about.

Speaking of working over the summer I had an amazing chance to go work at Exient in Leamington Spa for 3 months.
Exient are a mobile games developer, past titles being Angry Birds Go, Angry Birds Star Wars and Diggs Nightcrawler (full list on the website.) I had the opportunity to work on the latest mobile title and given the opportunity to work on concepts, models and other art jobs.
My time was really great there as I learnt so much about the working environment and the games pipeline. My design and concepting skills improved thanks to my time there, but I think the most valuable thing for me was actually learning how to function as part of a games development team, learning to adapt.

My style of working changed so much from the way I work in uni, any sense of preciousness over work goes out the window and a sense of the end product as the ultimate goal becomes prominent. It's about working efficiently and to a good quality in a decent amount of time.
Within my two weeks back I can already tell that my work ethic has been changed for the better, albeit I don't always like working after 6pm anymore, but I now can properly focus 9-6 and feel a lot more productive.
It really has been an invaluable experience and the team there are a genuinely amazing bunch of people, I found it easy just to fit into the team and get on with work, it was sad to leave so soon.

I'm fully back into the swing of things with uni work, first weeks task to create materials in Unreal Engine 4 (which is super awesome by the way!) so playing in engine has been a nice warm up. And straight onto a small group project and getting to do some character work.

Kat

Year 2 Review - Self doubt and Crazy talk

So, we have just come to a close on our 2nd year at De Montfort University.
This sure has been a big year, I feel I have developed so much. Just putting our final submission disk together was making me really see how far I have come. Looking back at our very first projects, I am crying to myself, thinking ' what the hell was I doing??'
My artistic judgement has come on in leaps and bounds, and with Mitch joining the teaching staff, we have been learning techniques I never thought even existed.

This year has been so exciting, yet at the same time very sobering. It seems that everybody has had their little epiphanies, realising that actually, what we are doing is freaking hard.
We called it the 'mid game art crisis' after the first term, a lot of us became very existential and were strongly questioning whether this is what we should be doing.
Am I good enough? Is this what I really want? How much work can I put in without killing myself?
After watching John Cleese's talk on creativity I have realised we were all very stuck in the closed mind mode, especially as we were all in the same place, it was hard to get out of.
The way I looked at it was; what else am I passionate about?
Turns out, this is the only subject that I truly care about. I question myself daily on whether or not I am crazy for wanting to pursue Character Art; Watching Rich (last years graduate) struggling for some time, and seeing the standard I am expecting to get up to is absolutely terrifying.
But Rich made it, he worked his ass off and he is now in a position he wanted to be. It give me hope, after speaking to some character artist's and receiving some feedback and helpful tips, it started bringing me out of my closed state of mind.
Gradually we all relaxed a bit and managed to get back to our open minded state.
Once we got there, the rate of our development rocketed, we were all at full steam, pushing each other to achieve more than we ever thought we could. I am so thankful for what we have here at uni.

Yet, with people I am close to getting jobs, and the potential of me doing some internships (possibly a year long) I am starting to feel myself slip back into that closed minded state. I don't feel am I ready to go out into the big bad world yet. I mean, I am still in my safe game art bubble, the majority of it got popped compared to my euphoric mind set in first year, but I still have the stability of the people I trust and the creative environment we thrive in.
Luckily I am looking to do internships with my close friend Ben, so I am not completely alone, but I am still so afraid that my skills still aren't good enough. One of Emma's feedback for us when we presented our work, was that our confidence doesn't show. I agree, I say I have started to relax to feedback, which I certainly have, but I still find myself making excuses all over the place. I talk my work down, it is silly really as when you are in the presence of somebody working in industry you sort of automatically put yourself lower than them. Which isn't completely bad, but it is hard to over come that lack of confidence in your own work. It is something I need to work on.

As John Cleese said, confidence is one of the keys to getting to that open minded state. Not ego stroking, but just believing in yourself a bit. I guess it stems from education on the whole. My entire educational career (up to uni) has been people telling me that I should be doing something sensible like maths or science, that I will never make a living out of Art, what I love. It is not that I want to prove them wrong, I am purely following this path as it is what I care about, it is my passion, but the implications of that are that sense of self doubt. With opportunities presented to me like this, it seems that maybe I may be able to make it, that I do have potential.

Either way, I still feel I have matured in my outlook on things, as Anna often says what seems to keep getting us down is that fact that we can now see the bigger picture. That hill called university we have to climb seems minuscule compared to the mountain that is the games industry. I do have more confidence in my abilities, but I also doubt myself regularly. While this can be bad, I do not see it is a completely awful thing. For every time I doubt myself I remind myself why I am doing this and I tell myself that I am doing the right thing. That keeps me going, along with all the amazing people that I surround myself with.

On the whole, this year has been very 'eye opening' I feel I am developing my work ethic as well as my artistic judgement. I am happy with my progress, but I know I still have a long way to go. Pray it never ends as I don't know what I would do if I was not constantly trying to better myself.

Life Changing or Career Building?

As the games industry is constantly changing and developing, it is often hard to know what to teach students on specialist courses to go into the games industry. It is hard to keep up with what the industry is doing, but there surely are skills that are always going to be necessary.

As most students join these courses with little or no 3D modelling experience, so it is something that undoubtedly needs to be taught. It takes time to learn new software and get used to the pipelines and processes of 3D art. Unlike traditional artistic skill, learning 3D is more of a mechanical process. 

You can learn pretty much learn anything if you invest enough time and effort into it however. With a structured learning course and being surrounded by similar minds looking to learn similar thinks, the rate or learning can be accelerated. For example, sat on your own trying to learn 3D studio max can be a daunting task, but when in an environment surrounded by people working towards the same goal, you all learn it easier and collectively.

But what is necessary to succeed in the games industry? Often learning the technical side (once you have a basic grasp of 3D modelling) is a case of doing a little research and practising. Learning core traditional skills takes a lot longer, and will serve you much better in the long run. Technology is constantly changing, but with great traditional skills, they can be transferred no matter what the situation. 

Game developers will look for employees who have strong 2D skills as well as technical skills. Flexibility of style is also important, as in smaller companies you may be expected to work on various different projects in various different styles. 

I think that a strong foundation in traditional skills is very important but having the technical skills is necessary to take on a job in industry. It varies on your role, some jobs need more traditional skill than technical. For example if you are working on developing a game environment, you are all well and good having some well made sound assets, but if you have no understanding of composition or other traditional skills, you will find the overall environment will look disjointed and wrong. 

I think one of the strongest things about my course is that we are very much based in 2D, our fundamental skills are in observation, composition, perspective, etc. But then we also get to learn a lot about 3D modelling, game engines, sculpting, etc. We treat 3D as an extension of our core 2D skills.

Interactivity design

Companies are always trying to find ways to innovate and involve the player more with the game. They want them to interact more and create a bigger sense of immersion.

Motion control has been on the rise over the last few years with the PS2 introducing the ‘Eye toy’, Nintendo creating a whole console around the use of the Wii Motion controller, and moving on to the Wii U. Microsoft and Sony have been playing around with the Kinect and Move.

The Wii U features a touchscreen pad which can supplement or replicate the television.  For example, when playing Mario the pad gets the maps as well as having the playable area on the television screen. For first person shooters you can buy plastic replica guns that the Wii Motion controllers slot into, which requires you to use it to aim and shoot the targets.  Using it like an actual gun.
This is all very interesting, but since its release it shows that people are less into the physical exhaustion to play a game and opt for the sofa and a bowl of crisps.

Playing an aircraft simulator, you a buy a joystick, because pilots use those right?  You buy s racing wheel to play a racing game (or truck driving simulator in my boyfriends case) and pedals and a gear stick. Devices like these were popular because they were accurate to the game and helped immersion.  Things like rumble controllers have a similar appeal, they just add that bit more depth to the playing experience.

This kind of interactivity is quickly getting out dated, with technology moving at record paces there are new exciting things coming out all the time. The most exciting and relevant at this moment in time is most certainly the Oculus Rift.

‘The Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display, being developed by Oculus VR. During its period as an independent company, Oculus VR had raised US$91 million for the development of the Rift.’ - Wikipedia

So with so much money being pumped into this project it hold a lot of potential. It allows the player to actually be within the game, there have been many interesting and exciting examples of its use over the internet, my personal favourite being;

The Oculus in addition with omni treadmill seems to be the most exciting and most immersive gaming platform to date. The potential for them both will give a really immersive experience (even if you might look a little bit silly!