Name: Amber Jamieson P Number: P13194518 Email: amber.jamieson@sky.com Project Title: FMP- Guiding Sprites
Project overview:
This project was a group effort to create a fully working pc game with 3 characters, an interior and exterior. You follow the journey of a girl called Olive as you play as Fire and Water sprites (Burnard and Walter) which use their abilities to get though puzzles along the way. The section of the game we have made would be the first area; a tutorial area if you wish. I was made to be a vertical slice; a taster of what the full game would be like.
List of everything I did:
Concepting (colour keys/swatches, character sketches
Character models
Character rigging
Apex cloth
Zbrush sculpt of Olive
Character animations
Interior
Lighthouse
Decals
2D work (Storybook, UI and gameplay/level design)
Video sequences of the storybook
Marketing/admin (Logo, email, twitter, facebook, blog, buissiness cards, timetable, materials list, extra asset list and emailing industry)
Population
Helped with lighting and overall level atmosphere
Gave crit to all work and how the level looked
Characters overview:
I designed, modelled, unwrapped, textured (Olive; James did Burnard and Walter), Rigged and animated all 3 characters.
Olive:
-2048 texture sheet with a sculpted normal map, Roughness and Hand painted Diffuse -49 bones including separate hair bones -An apex cloth scarf -5 animations including; -Walk/Run -Idle -Jump start -Jump loop -Jump stop
Research/Design:
Viewer:
Unwraps:
Textures:
Additional relevant imagery:
Turning a realistic face into a stylised face
Testing out different techniques for making hair braids
Different stages of Olive's development due to feedback
Olive's sculpt (before I redid the scarf)
Zbrush scarf brush I made after trying and failing to make it look right
Apex cloth collisions and rig in 3DS Max
Apex cloth deforming in UE4
Burnard and Walter:
Walter: -8 bones including separate eye bones -A vertex painted body -6 animations including; -Walk/Run -Idle -Squish -Drain -Jump loop -Jump stop
Burnard: -8 bones including separate eye bones -5 animations including; -Walk/Run -Idle -Jump start -Jump loop -Jump stop
Research/Design:
Viewer:
Unwraps:
Burnard's unwrap uses 4 material Id's and is suited for what James needed in terms of the flip-book material.
Walter's material is done in engine and is mostly a flat colour so stretching isn't a worry, he also has a separate material ID for the eyes.
Textures:
Textures were done by James using a flip-book for Burnard and only using UE4 for Walter.
Eye texture
Additional relevant imagery:
Iterations of characters shown in UE4
Walter vertex paint
"Wobble" vertex paint material
Wobble shown on character
Bone set up
Original Burnard
Original Burnard vertex paint
Original Burnard wobble in UE4
Redesigned Burnard
Redesigned Burnard wireframe
Beauty shots:
Q&A:
Q. Did you stick to the brief and your overall style?
A. As a group we strayed a little bit from our original style and brief but it was for the better, we decided to go for something more PC based rather than phone which meant that the tri budgets and texture budgets got higher. In terms of style we went for a more painterly feel with a strict colour palette and a subtle use of orange and blue rather than the originally intended strong orange and blue atmosphere.
Q. What was the most stressful thing during the project?
A. I would say the biggest struggle I had was trying to do an entire interior by myself, this was not planned and it put on a lot more work load than I had anticipated as I was only meant to be doing the bedroom. As a group I would say the most stressful thing was receiving unpolished models, this set us back with time and meant that some of the models didn't get put in because they weren't finished or up to scratch.
Q. What strengths have you found; what skills have you learnt?
A. I have learnt how to make human characters and how to balance stylised proportions. I have used apex cloth for the first time and have gotten better at hand painting textures. Overall I would say that my colour theory and overall art direction has gotten better during this project; as I have completely designed the interior, exterior colour scheme and helped make sure that assets and lighting matched.
Q. What weaknesses have you found; how could you improve?
A. I have found it hard to stay calm during stressful situations as people work differently and at different paces. I would say that I could get better at my environment modelling as everything seems a little hard edged, I would have liked to sculpt a lot more assets but due to time constraints I could not.
Q. What went well?
A. I believe the whole atmosphere and colour palette of the game works well and how the characters fit into the environment; even though they are textured and modelled differently. My whole asset creation and pipe line went well as I got my things straight into engine with out having to re-import anything.
Q. What didn't go well?
A. For me I feel that Burnard didn't go well but we soon fixed him by redoing the model and changing his material to a flip-book. As a group I feel like communication could have been better as people got the wrong idea or advice or didn't listen to feedback correctly. The overall polish on meshes and textures could have been a lot better also.
Q. What would you do differently?
A. For myself I would have spoken up to being the art director at the beginning of the project as I feel like by the end of the project I had done that, but by doing this at the begining it would have meant we had no concerns with what our style guide is and I would have created a benchmark for everyone to use. If I was to do this again I would make sure everyone including myself would stick to a list of what you should do when creating an asset; as in make sure you check smoothing groups and name things appropriately according to the naming convention etc. Also make sure everyone is keeping up to date with their admin work as well as the practical work. I would have also made sure everyone planned everything; for example my material list shows how I have planned out texture sheets and sizes across assets.
Q: What can you take from this project and apply to others?
A. I feel that I have learnt how other people work during this project and see our flaws as a team and will be able to manage people and myself better in another project. My planning skills in this project as well as seeking feedback and the other skills I have learnt along the way can also be applied to the next project I do.
Q: Was this project successful?
A. The project is a success as it looks good and its a playable level with cool mechanics and fun puzzles.
Conclusion:
Overall I have loved and hated this project but I am very happy with what we have achieved as a group and we can only get better from now on. Everyone has pushed themselves and learnt a lot during the time we have spent doing FMP; The only thing to do now is continue striving to get better.