With five weeks of development under our belt, the Butter Cow Games team has made great strides - and I have too. This previous week, I finished almost all of the Easter eggs, became more organized, and began constructing parts of the final game scene. First, let's examine the Easter eggs. I wrapped up most of them using the UVW unwrap modifier and edit polys. Through tools such as extrude and inset, which I have discussed in earlier check-ins, I've been able to make some cool models. Unwrapping objects has let me to give a UVW render to a 2D artist and get a great texture back. UVWs have also been an issue this week, though. When making the dalgona cookie Easter egg 3D model (a reference to the hit TV show Squid Games), I created a cylinder with a slope towards the middle. However, when unwrapping the texture, I only placed the texture of the inner circle separately from the rest of the model - not the outer one! A new texture and some UVW movement afterwards, however, resolved this. I also experienced a problem revisiting the Modular House project, which we did earlier in the year. Importing the .fbx file and the textures proved successful, but there were imperfections in the model when I tried to make a new house with the modular components. By attempting to have an irregular shape, part of the roof would hang down. To fix this, I duplicated the original 3D model and manipulated vertices and faces. Eventually, I got a model that had a more natural-looking overhang. I also spent some time this week organizing my folders and the team Trello. Everything is much easier to find and my team members can more easily navigate our shared planning document. Changing the dalgona cookie UVW map and getting a new texture from a 2D artist Adjusting the model of a roof component of the modular house My progress from this week fits into the overall team progress as we move towards cutscenes. As the 2D artists, the programmer, and the writer are busy with creating, importing, and directing animations, I can make some scenes. I did a little bit of prefab preparation on Wednesday and Thursday, and I will make that my main focus when we return from Spring Break. I aim to decorate some cabin interiors and make an RV park layout for the programmer to put in the final game scene. I can't wait to keep seeing the team's vision continue.
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This past week has been a holiday for me - literally: I've been mostly making Easter eggs for Unreality, modeling and unwrapping assets in 3DS Max. Let's look at what I've done and the challenges I came across. I spent most of the last week in 3DS Max. This work largely revolved around editable polys. By manipulating polygons through tools such as extrude and inset, I was able to create good 3D models. Then, I used UVW unwrap modifiers to make texture mapping possible for the 2D artists. After creating a workable UVW render, I'd send a jpg or png off to a 2D artist to make the texture. Then, I'd ensure the texture looked good and lined up correctly. One issue I had related to UVW mapping and, in particular, to circles. It was difficult to select the correct faces of circular objects. For example, when making a texture map of the top of a jar, I couldn't drag the circular middle of the lid to a separate space without distorting the shape. I fixed this issue by changing the projection to a square map, so that the faces appeared circular in the UVW window. Another difficult aspect of this previous week was Wednesday. Having a virtual learning day without access to ample software posed a challenge to the entire team, disrupting our rhythm and hampering progress. However, that's not to say that nothing of importance was done this week. Through working with texture artists and ensuring the Easter eggs fit the game by working with the writer, I think it's safe to say I've done some solid work this week that also gels with the team's work as a whole. Next week, I look forward to wrapping up the Easter eggs and (perhaps) moving on to making scene areas for the final game. Wish me luck! Face and texture manipúlation of editable poly objects
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Red Dead Redemption 2 is a complicated game. You can brutally kill innocent people, and rob honest travelers, and commit various other terrible crimes. However, you can also explore breathtaking terrain, help your friends survive, and assist townspeople on quests. You can play the hero or the villain - or some combination of both. These nuances and complexities are what makes Red Dead an amazing game. I can understand criticisms of excessive violence and I think that it's important to ensure that no game is too graphic. At times, Red Dead can be very violent - which I don't like - but most of the time, it's alright. What about the gameplay itself? It's great: the controls are novel yet intuitive, the environment design is amazing, and so much more. I love the sound design and visual design as well. They fit into the game world well and don't take away from the game. The attention to detail is very good as well. I appreciate the advanced 3D models and the well done textures that I have learned to pay attention to through working on the team game project on Unreality. Speaking of Unreality, there are some lessons we can learn from Red Dead. In the game scene itself, we can make a very atmospheric environment from taking inspiration from it. We can also make sure there is convexity in the story, allowing players to choose which paths to take. There is some uncertainty in Unreality's progression and linearization (i.e. how much affordance to show the character's path). Hopefully, we can learn from games such as Red Dead to improve Unreality. Summary
As it turns, I hear an unquestionably painful squeak. I can sense the mechanism grinding against its prison. The screams of the screws, locked in a fight to the death with the wooden body, are easily audible. The cold metal glares at my hand as I touch it. I can feel it yelling at me.
And then it's gone. The portal has been opened. There has been a ceasefire established. The violence which plagued the last paragraph - which conceived such drama and emotion - has been defeated. Who is the savior of this battlefield? Who is this traveler, who dares to end the combat? It is I - the same who dared to start it. I turn to leave this dimension which I have just entered, preparing to manufacture another assault. I grip the brass like a knife, pulling it clockwise by its neck. Sympathy is not an option. I must force the metal to continue its jihad, pushing against the wood. Suddenly, in a matter of seconds, there is total defeat. The portal has been opened once more. The cool brass, my puppet, is victorious. I glance at my hand. The perpetrator. The commander-in-chief. I have done this. I have been the true aggressor. Bounding down the hallway, I am quick to forget the crimes I have committed. I feel the soft beige carpet fall to my toes like a fortress besieged by the best veteran troops the world could muster. Every step is an attack; every movement of my foot an act of violence. The fluffy carpet resents me, despises me, and wishes my fate would come and carry me away. It begs me for release from its reality, pleading and crying. Yet there is no remorse. I march on, a beacon of imperialism, indiscriminately encroaching on the ground beneath me. I peer around the hallway. There is another portal ahead. I prepare for war once again. I reach out for the brass, which curses me and hisses at me. It does not want to be manipulated - an infuriated child that never desired war. Then, my arm swiftly retracts - by my own free will! I have given up my violence. The incursions are over! I forgive the carpet and the door and its knob and I realize that it's this excruciating pain that we give the world. As our doorknobs bend to our every whim, so does our globe. We are the rulers of this realm. The entire planet is powerless against us. We are free to continue our conquests of this world. What are the consequences? Which sanctions will a lake throw at us for polluting it? How many protests will be angrily and passionately targeted towards us by the forests for murdering their brethren? We are the only ones who can stop ourselves. Will I be alone in my venture to prevent ultimate destruction? Will you join me? Do you want to prevent the world from burning? Summary
When working to develop Unreality last week, I faced a new barrage of various challenges and triumphs. It has been exciting to see our progress continue and to witness my work having an impact on the success of the Butter Cow Games team. As the main 3D modeler, I focused on - you guessed it - 3D models last week. More specifically, I worked almost exclusively in 3DS Max to create item models that will trigger cutscenes in Unreality. I used a variety of techniques to perfect a teddy bear, make a pill jar, and create a bear-proof trash bin. I did some UVW unwrapping, used editable polys, and worked with extended primitives. Additionally, I saved each item as an fbx file, which I then imported into Unity Game Engine to test out the viability of the items in game. First, I found success with the book model I made last week, applying a texture made by a 2D artist, which fit perfectly. Next, I encountered trouble with my teddy bear model: the nose and eye components removed their turbosmooth modifier when placed in Unity. I had a clever idea to fix this, though. When I had initially put on the nose and eye objects, I used the select and place tool and merely grouped them with the teddy bear model. I decided to remake the three face models, place them manually, and use the Boolean compound object to attach them with the teddy bear itself. Before and after teddy bear turbosmooth fix Trash bin model in edged faces view mode With some great progress under my belt, I'm looking forward to next week, where I'll focus on putting items into Unity. I'll prepare different areas to import into the main programmer's game scene which will house the finished product of Unreality. For now, though, my reality is real - and it carries excitement for continued progress.
Another week, another check-in! This week, I've mainly worked in 3DS Max to create item assets for Unreality. I also did some work within the Unity Game Engine to modify imported assets and prefabs. I'm not done with either item creation or scene design, but I've made progress with both this week. Within 3DS Max, I used various topology methods as well as editable polys, the turbosmooth modifier, and the symmetry modifier to create assets. Most recently, I made a teddy bear model. I also created an untextured book item to trigger a flashback, which I gave to a 2D artist to make a texture for. I did this in order to ensure a cohesive transition between game and cutscene environments. By communicating with animators and giving them some creative control over the items, Unreality can be a better game. Additionally, I communicated with team members in the Unity Game Engine when continuing to design a scene. The main writer and main programmer helped me to develop a scene that reflects both narrative and programming based plans. Next week, I will continue to cooperate with my group on making more progress. Next week, I'll do something similar to what I did this previous week. I will continue making models for the flashback cutscenes and adjusting the Unity scene to better fit the Unreality vision. I plan to complete all of the flashback trigger items next week so that I can get to work on really getting the map together. 3DS Max may be one of my favorite modeling softwares, but it still delivered some issues to me. Something I found very difficult to deal with was polygons moving in unpredictable manners. Extruding faces would cause strange movements in nearby faces, resulting in weird caved-in sections of my model. This was an issue particularly with the teddy bear model. To overcome this hurdle, I made the editable poly I was working in that was under a symmetry modifier into another editable poly. This let me more carefully manipulate individual polygons and limit unexpected errors. Through both the progress and the setbacks of this week, the team behind Unreality has made the accomplishment of solid progress all the way around. Everyone has done their part to do something that's going to be in the final game - 2D artists doing textures and starting on animations, the main writer fully fleshing out the narrative behind the flashback cutscenes, and the main programmer making headway on the game terrain. We are ready for what lies ahead and I can't wait to see our vision continue. Teddy bear model in edged faces view mode
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AuthorHI! I'm a 12th grader and on this page, I will blog about me and what I'm going through, both in Game Design class and in life. There are a mix of required blog posts and personal reflections, which you can sort, among other things, below the disclaimer and archives. DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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