Synoptic Pre-production

During this week the group started on pre-production. Last week, we started on our team schedule draft which is now complete. This week myself and Ethan distributed assets between ourselves as we are the teams 3D modelers and we worked on our individual schedule drafts. These are now complete with the assets up to our MVP goal and also a few stretch goal models. This is what my schedule draft looks like. I will also include a link to my schedule draft as the picture is relatively small. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VRYbNlF7IFTPQr3QL027PXrUkR59adjA1xYusR_DqnI/edit#gid=1926795510

The red is the MVP assets. This is what I will have done for the minimum viable product project check. The green is post MVP this section contains things such as alternate towers, the scene around the game (tavern) and different traps the player can use. I have listed these to start before the MVP goal just in case I get the MVP assets finished to a high standard. This means that I will be able to work on a few stretch goals to better the project.

The list underneath that is if we finish the red and green assets and we decide to work on a new map. This isn’t coloured as it depends on how on track we are to finish MVP and stretch goals. The google document sheet is sand coloured which is just showing me that it is super stretch goal.

After we had all created the individual schedule drafts, myself and Ethan worked on the burn down chart which is a graph of every single thing each person in the team will work on throughout the weeks of the synoptic project. The burn down chart is completed to the furthest point of which members of the team have stuff to work on. This is how it looks as of week 2.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wpyXt93kW9QNqCvi_VnJcgshVG25ufTJw8VnfK7xM9M

Synoptic Project

The synoptic project which I am actually going to be creating is with Andrew, Josh, Jayden, Ethan and myself. The project is called VR tower defense and by the name it is going to be a VR game. This is a first for myself as I have never used VR to create a project before. This has also allowed me to keep the role which I wanted to do for my own as 3D artist. So far we haven’t had the chance to communicate as a team about our early vision, however we do have a discord server set up to communicate outside of college.

A few of the challenges I see ahead are things such as figuring out the VR as I do feel like the team will come across a few problems.

I also see the work load which myself and Ethan have ahead is pretty big. However I don’t feel like this will be a big problem because we will be able to share models and ideas to complete an asset.

My role as mentioned before is a 3D artist, this means myself and Ethan will be creating every asset such as towers, the world, tanks, plants etc. I’m excited about this project as it is going to be challenging and exciting.

My synoptic project pitch.

Last Wednesday, I pitched my idea to the class. The idea was to create a cave escape room which had lots of different puzzles. The puzzles would lead the player into different rooms to try and escape the cave but there is a catch. It is a co-op game therefore the players have to solve individual puzzles to meet up and escape together.

This project would benefit what I want to do because of the assets required. I wanted to be a 3D modeler on the project and the story of this project would of fit what I wanted to do.

This is the playboard for my pitch. It shows off the games mechanics and a brief explanation of different puzzles. It also shows off the cave design. I had two different designs in mind. The first was a normal cave like the one shown in the playboard, the second was a mine shaft type cave which would of also been cool.

Taking a product to the market

When taking a product to the market you must know your crowd. This means doing research and gathering feedback on your own product to improve and tweak things.

You must also do research on similar products to yours in case of any similarities which can turn into legal issues.

Also look at production. How long will the game take to create and then publish, do you have the time to go ahead with the game.

These are simple steps which I am researching as my synoptic project pitch is coming up soon.

Synoptic Project (PITCH IDEAS)

So far I have thought up two ideas which I think will work out well and are very achievable in the time which I have to create one of these games.

The first idea is a cave escape room. The premise will be to find materials/objects to escape the room. This will be a multiplayer level and will be targeted to PC players and have an age rating of 12+ the idea behind the rating is in case I decide to run with the idea and add in some horror themed figures into the cave or the idea expands over the course of my planning and pre-production stage. This pitch is still very far off being completed as I am still gathering ideas of where I would like this to go if I decide to run with this idea. I will develop this idea further by researching into cave escape rooms. I can take inspiration from real life escape rooms.  If I decide to run with this idea I will do it as soon as I decide.

The second idea is a 2D zombie horror game. This is a multiplayer level also. I have took inspiration from 2D sidescroller games such as zombocalypse. To make this game better instead of making at a sidescroller I would make it a top down with multiple different rooms. This means that the player isn’t confined into 1 space and can move around freely. Again, the pitch is still far off being completed as I don’t know which idea I am going to run with. I can improve the game further by researching free to play games. I will also do this if I run with this idea.

Imagined Worlds

Understand the concept of an imagined world in relation to the games animation and VFX industries.

An imagined world is a world which a person creates using their imagination.

During this post I am going to be investigating artistic movements, specific artists and books which could have been used to create an imagined world.

I am going to use the artist Justin K Thompson because of his work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. His art style is very similar and actually used in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

His work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (left) and his own art on the right as you can see hi artistic abilities have been used to inform an imagined world in this case Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

As you can see from his work on the right you can see how he has transferred his art style into the movie. The colour palette which has been used is relatively similar, using bright neon colours all over. His image in his mind is to have everything brightly coloured. In Spider-Man you can see he has stuck to a similar style highlighting certain parts of the image with neon. On the right he has highlighted the spaceship which otherwise would be pretty dark and dull and on the left (in New York) he has done the same.

A reason for him using these vibrant colours is because of how Miles Morales was feeling in that scene. He is embracing his powers and is accepting his responsibility and the colours reflect that feeling, he said “I don’t approach production design from the standpoint of style; I approach it from the standpoint of character”, to me this shows that he designs the world around how the character is feeling in the moment. He actually designed the house which they live in around Miles’ origin and his ethnicity. This is the scene which I am talking about. The image above is his concept art for the living room of Miles’ house and underneath is the final film scene.

He took into account Miles’ age (13), where he lives (Brooklyn), his father who is African American and his mother who is Puerto Rican.

“Thompson designed the home where we first meet them to reflect the melting pot that is his family. Vibrant and eclectic colors are present on every piece of furniture and the walls. His neighborhood is also energetic, and reinforces the cultural diversity expressed visually at home”.

He created this entire world based on character and his art style can show why he was picked to do this.

This is the best artwork I have seen inspire an imagined world in this case Spider-Man.

Another person who inspired an Imagined World is George R.R Martin. He is the author of the books Game Of Thrones which is created totally from his imagination. From his words in the book came a whole TV Series which is currently in its 7th season (going into its 8th soon). The world of Game Of Thrones doesn’t work like our world does. He made the seasons consist of summer and winter and can last however long they want. A winter could last 100’s of years and so could a summer.

From the books came the creation of the TV show Game Of Thrones and the creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss took heavy, heavy inspiration from the books keeping locations the same and characters the same. The setting is Westeros (7 Kingdoms) and you can really see George R.R Martins creation come to life on screen.

George R.R Martins world which he created on paper was brought to TV and locations such as King’s Landing, Winterfell, The Wall etc are all inspired by the books. “George R. R. Martin has stated that King’s Landing is larger than medieval London or Paris but smaller than medieval Constantinople or ancient Rome”, and this directly translates onto the TV version of Kings Landing.

You can see how George R.R. Martin’s world of Westeros and the world of Game Of Thrones has been brought to life by his own vision in the books. However some things have changed throughout the show which are completely different to the books. However the things which are changed have similarities and nods to his vision.

A reason (and its a big one) for the show changing things up in the current season is because he hasn’t written the next installment of Game Of Thrones just yet.

“Some of the deviation, of course, is because I’ve been so slow with these books. I really should’ve finished this thing four years ago – and if I had, maybe it would be telling a different story here. It’s two variations of the same story, or a similar story, and you get that whenever anything is adapted.”

Overall both examples were used to inform an imagined world but in different ways. George R.R. Martins books inspired the TV show Game Of Thrones using the same locations characters lore etc. and Justin K Thompson inspired Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse through his art style and drawing scenes around how characters are feeling and using their emotions to add different lights to a scene.

 

Creative and Technical Submission.

For my creative and technical model I chose to do a Ferris Wheel. I chose this because for my imagined worlds project my team and I are creating a theme park and I wanted to stick with the theme of theme parks.

For the first lesson I gathered research images of lots of different Ferris wheels to gather a better understanding of what I want to lean towards. This was my pre production stage of the whole C&T project. I gathered all of the images together and explained why I chose each image. Here is the mood board of the images that I gathered together.

After this I started on the Ferris Wheel low poly version which originally looked like this. As you can see it is a very basic Ferris wheel as a this is very hard to change.

Because of the limited ideas for a Ferris wheel I reverted back to the mood boards to see what I can come up with for cart design as I was not happy with the current design.

After I had finished with updating the cart, I decided the remove the platform from underneath because it was taking up too much space. Now the Ferris Wheel is just a standalone object with nothing underneath. Once I was happy with how the low poly model came out it was time to start work on the high. This also went through some changes.

At first I decided that I wanted bulbs on the model so it could light up. However after being told that they would not bake well and I started to thing they looked fairly bad I decided to go with a better look of one which has bolts instead so it looks like it holds the Ferris wheel together I also added them in the feet of the Ferris wheel to make it look more realistic. This is a comparison of the two.

After removing the bulbs I got a high poly and low poly mesh. The high poly consisted of little bolts and things that will bake onto the Ferris wheel to make it look more realistic. After this I took it into substance and baked the high poly onto the low poly.

These images were took in the modelling software. The bottom 3 Are the final model and I think look the best. Another thing which I changed with the model was the center piece. Instead of it just being flat, I decided to give it a point which adds depth and character to the model. For the high poly to get rid of the such sharp edges I beveled certain edges which I think would look good on the model. This is the finished model. I am going to be using the creative and technical model which is why their is only one cart.

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Here is the link to my pre production blog post + Sketch fab link.

Ferris Wheel Renders by DylanNextGen on Sketchfab

https://wordpress.com/post/dylannextgen.wordpress.com/966

Story Telling Concepts!

Setting – Earth, Vormir, Titan

Characters – Thanos, Captain American, Iron Man, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Hulk, Red Skull, Dr.Strange, Gamora, Groot, Rocket, Starlord, Nebula and more.

Plot – Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.

Conflict – Earth and Titan. To stop the mad titan (Thanos) on Titan, Iron Man, Spiderman, Dr. Strange and some of the guardians of the galaxy try to take the infinity gauntlet. However Thanos gets the time stone from doctor strange as he knows they are no match for Thanos, resulting in them being defeated. Now with 5 infinity stones, Thanos travels to Earth where Captain America, Black Panther, Vision etc. are they also fight, then Thor and rocket arrive then Thor fights Thanos and with Stormbreaker, hits thanos in the chest however Thanos snaps and half of earths population (including some of the avengers, guardians and others not going to say who for spoilers) are turned to dust.

Resolution – For now there isn’t one until the next movie.

 

Creative & Technical Review

Assessor name: Jack Bilton

Feedback: I like the bevels on the high poly model, and the topology seems pretty well done. You could smooth the cylinders more for the bake to create a bigger difference between your high and low poly model along with also adding more objects on to bake to create a more distinct difference between your high and low poly model. The model is quite simple, maybe you could add some more general detail to make it look more complex. For example the cylinder in the middle of your model which connects the wheels together could have some extra detail or bevels to make it look better. For your UV’s there okay, although could maybe be worked on and rearranged so that its easier to texture once put into substance painter. I don’t see any actual errors in your model and once put into substance painter and you start to texture it should look pretty good.

Reflection:

Since the review I have took into account what Jack has said and I have decided to bevel the center of the Ferris wheel and it has actually made it look better. I have also given the center more depth by stretching out vertices Overall it is now looking a lot more complete.

Storyboards.

Overall a storyboard is a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.

Live action:

Higher degree of realism.

This is a storyboard which I drew. It depicts a level from mario.

Storyboard Scan