week 12
I worked on writing the report and also asked Rob if there were any problems with the files that I had sent him just to make sure that there was nothing left for me to do. I also considered modeling Neptune's rings I discarded that idea because I could not do them as effects I just had to add a transparent flat layer that would have flat texture on it it wouldn't look as good and it would also be distracting since it would be at a weird angle between the player and Neptune and in a first person view it's better to keep things clean.
week 10-11
Worked on the orbiter a bit more I changed its body's texture to a more darker brown since space is really dark and Neptune is so far away from the sun that such a bring color on a non shiny surface looked a bit weird. I also tried to add the rods around it in a circular motion just like the 3D drawing that I had as a reference but the result didn't look good in Maya there was too much bending of the rod and it looked like it was broken so I changed the rods to be straight instead. I also separated the probe from the orbiter since in the 2D video that we made they separate before the game begins so I thought it would be better if the orbiter would be flying around near by when the game starts so I told Rob about it.
After researching some meteors and asteroids I noticed that the ones that were more flat and sharp had darker colors so I found a darker texture for the flat rock. In order to make the flat rock I flattened the original model and then sculpted the edges a bit so they would look a bit sharper, like the rock was broken off of somewhere. The small rock is more smooth but still has the little circles that give it a space look. Texturing these rocks was hard because their surface is so complex and the model itself is heavy with a lot of polygons. I have also tried to add bump maps on them but because of the complexity instead of making them look more realistic it was just more busy and looked weird to the eye.
weeks 8-9
I continued with modeling the orbiter and the probe I followed the drawing that we had and added the little details in the back and also started to add the texture that the probe had, adding metallic texture on the areas that should shine.
I also started working on the other rocks and the way I did that was I took the original one started to manipulated the shape so that in order to create one that is flat and more sharp looking and one that is smaller and could possibly be useful int he balancing mini-game where the probe is hit but a small space rock
week 7
I discussed with Marta about including particles and how to make them look like moving stars for the part where the probe would travel to Neptune. I also looked up some videos with her and wrote down some notes in order to do some more research later on.
We decided to split the simulation into parts. We wanted to make a short animation in 3D using Maya so that we would have a bit more work to do since the assets that we had to create weren't that many. The simulation would be completely realistic which meant that we couldn't include any fancy galaxy 3D effects in there or any particles that moved that would be stars which were some of our ideas since starts don't move that fast and the game would be less than 5 minutes long. Also Neptune is the farthest away from the sun and all the other planets so no other planets or the sun are really visible from there plus the camera wouldn't turn around completely so seeing the sun behind the player would be impossible. The team decided that it would be better to make it 2D using images and moving them around in after effects as it would be much faster and there would be no need to wait for rendering and no need to create all the planets etc.
We decided to split the simulation into parts. We wanted to make a short animation in 3D using Maya so that we would have a bit more work to do since the assets that we had to create weren't that many. The simulation would be completely realistic which meant that we couldn't include any fancy galaxy 3D effects in there or any particles that moved that would be stars which were some of our ideas since starts don't move that fast and the game would be less than 5 minutes long. Also Neptune is the farthest away from the sun and all the other planets so no other planets or the sun are really visible from there plus the camera wouldn't turn around completely so seeing the sun behind the player would be impossible. The team decided that it would be better to make it 2D using images and moving them around in after effects as it would be much faster and there would be no need to wait for rendering and no need to create all the planets etc.
week 6
I finished Neptune and started working on the orbiter and the probe. To make Neptune I used a square and then modified into a sphere. I he duplicated the sphere 3 times so I had 4 in total. The base sphere has the texture of Neptune taken from: http://planetpixelemporium.com/neptune.html and it also has a bump map. To create the bump map I took the image into Photoshop turned it into black and white and smoothed it out a little bit. The second sphere is actually a texture of clouds that has the transparency setting increased so it wouldn't look so bold but instead it would add a nice texture to the planet. The third layer is also a colored layer just to make Neptune's texture a bit more vibrant but it's also more transparent so the other ones would show through. The last sphere is textured transparent with a few white strokes painted in Photoshop in order to create the effects of an atmosphere around the planet. I based the placement of the strokes on where the original texture had white on. Below is an image of all the different spheres.
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For the probe we were given a 3D drawing done by the students who had written the report for Neptune but I didn't know how to access it so I started modeling using a picture tat we used in our presentation as reference. I managed to model almost everything from the front view except a few metallic rods and the connection between the body of the orbiter and the disk. I posted everything that I had done to our blog and also asked how to open the file of the drawing so that I could continue working on it, The feedback from the blog was positive so I continued without changing anything. I also saved the file as an .obj file and gave it to Rob so that he could import Neptune in Unity.
After the presentation me and Begoña discussed about who will do what and how we could organize things. We were thinking about creating a big sphere with the texture of stars on the inside and place the objects in there but after asking Rob about it we decided to let him do the background in unity because he said it will be easier and faster. We decided that Begoña would do the moons of Neptune because she has more experience in organic modeling and scuplting programms like Mudbox and Zbrush and I would do the orbiter, the probe and Neptune and alter the shape and texture of the rock that I already modeled in order to create more space debris.
week 5
My proposal ideas:
- Have a video introduction to the game: Start in a control room - first person view as one of the employees there that is about to launch the probe - watch the launch form a screen in front of you (this is to make the player more immersed in the game, feeling like he/she is in control and also inform them about how probes are launched and hopefully they will be interested to learn what happens next). The intro can be about 5-10 seconds long but also be skip-able as our intention is to include a score in the game so that players might want to play multiple times so this was the intro will be informative but they will not be forced to watch it more than once.
- Events: The could be some random factors while the probe in flying to Neptune. For example a small meteor might come towards it and the player will have to move the probe in order to avoid collision . Also the player might move too close to another planet and a warning message could show up saying that if you move any closer the gravity will be too strong and the probe will not be able to reach Neptune.
- Quests: gather gas from Neptune? (since he is a gas planet and the probe will not be able to land there the only physical data left to collect would be gas. The probe could also take pictures. We could be specific about this and say take a picture of the top left part or just say 0/3 pictured taken for more freedom. Maybe add narration to explain the logic behind the quests and why the data is needed. We could also include side quests that do not need to be completed lie going to Neptune's moons for example or gathering rare minerals from the moons.
- The ending can be in the same room as the intro and this time the player will be standing up and there could be a congratulations screen afterwards.
-Game over: In my opinion this should be more of a learning experience rather than a competitive thing so including a "game over" could be a wrong move. Some players might not have time to play more than once or a game over while still not reaching Neptune might upset them and since the game will not be perfect since we don;t have the time to develop a really amazing simulation we might want to be inviting rather than including something that might cause people to leave. So with having only one main quest and a few side quests the game will be easy to complete but will have more into it if the playes wants and has the time to explore and learn more.
Presentation work:
For the presentation i did some more research into how to make the simulation stand out more and i found this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkxnO-B1428 which explains to to make effects that look like galaxies.
I also made a meteor model using Mudbox which was a bit confusing at the start and I wouldn't say that i completely know how to use the basic tools yet but I got there and I am happy with it. I then transferred it in Maya to prepare it for texturing. Here is the final outcome and some work in progress images:
- Have a video introduction to the game: Start in a control room - first person view as one of the employees there that is about to launch the probe - watch the launch form a screen in front of you (this is to make the player more immersed in the game, feeling like he/she is in control and also inform them about how probes are launched and hopefully they will be interested to learn what happens next). The intro can be about 5-10 seconds long but also be skip-able as our intention is to include a score in the game so that players might want to play multiple times so this was the intro will be informative but they will not be forced to watch it more than once.
- Events: The could be some random factors while the probe in flying to Neptune. For example a small meteor might come towards it and the player will have to move the probe in order to avoid collision . Also the player might move too close to another planet and a warning message could show up saying that if you move any closer the gravity will be too strong and the probe will not be able to reach Neptune.
- Quests: gather gas from Neptune? (since he is a gas planet and the probe will not be able to land there the only physical data left to collect would be gas. The probe could also take pictures. We could be specific about this and say take a picture of the top left part or just say 0/3 pictured taken for more freedom. Maybe add narration to explain the logic behind the quests and why the data is needed. We could also include side quests that do not need to be completed lie going to Neptune's moons for example or gathering rare minerals from the moons.
- The ending can be in the same room as the intro and this time the player will be standing up and there could be a congratulations screen afterwards.
-Game over: In my opinion this should be more of a learning experience rather than a competitive thing so including a "game over" could be a wrong move. Some players might not have time to play more than once or a game over while still not reaching Neptune might upset them and since the game will not be perfect since we don;t have the time to develop a really amazing simulation we might want to be inviting rather than including something that might cause people to leave. So with having only one main quest and a few side quests the game will be easy to complete but will have more into it if the playes wants and has the time to explore and learn more.
Presentation work:
For the presentation i did some more research into how to make the simulation stand out more and i found this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkxnO-B1428 which explains to to make effects that look like galaxies.
I also made a meteor model using Mudbox which was a bit confusing at the start and I wouldn't say that i completely know how to use the basic tools yet but I got there and I am happy with it. I then transferred it in Maya to prepare it for texturing. Here is the final outcome and some work in progress images:
I also had to prepare my presentation slides which included some images from my research and the meteor. We decided that the Ux, the designers and the programmers would to the talking because we are too many and so 3 out of 8 would be better, Also there was not much to say as asset creators yet as the idea has just started to get finalized and there weren't many things to talk about except the creation and the technical stuff that were not important for the presentation.
We've also had a Skype meeting in order to organize our presentation better and talk about what needed to be done in the following week.
We've also had a Skype meeting in order to organize our presentation better and talk about what needed to be done in the following week.
week 4
This week was a bit slow for us, everyone read the report for Neptune and we mostly talked about our ideas and how the whole simulations would look like and how things were going to work. We also started to ask for permission to use the Oculus rift for our presentation. We also started thinking what kinds of assets we would require so that we would start to prepare in order to make the creation faster and easier since we felt like we were a bit behind schedule.
We also agreed to prepare one idea proposal each so that next week we will be able to decide our final idea and be able to move forward.
We also agreed to prepare one idea proposal each so that next week we will be able to decide our final idea and be able to move forward.
week 3
On Tuesday morning we shared our research and ideas so that we would be prepared to talk to Dr.Claus in the afternoon. The meeting was at 3.00 pm and we were hoping for a lot of explaining and guidance but the meeting ended up being really short. We thought that we were supposed to work on a preexisting simulation and me it more artistic or combine simulation that the department already had. It turned out that there were no simulations in the department so instead we were given an almost 300 page report about the journey of a probe from earth to Neptune. Dr.Claus agreed that the simulations should be realistic and informative so we were happy to hear that we had a good understanding of that.
WEEK 2
Karen was sick so we had no one to tell us exactly what our project is about. We talked about scheduling a meeting with our mentor Dr. Claus so that we can have some guidance and learn what is it that we should do exactly in order to move on. The team agreed that it would be nice for the simulation to be informative and realistic but that we should also find a way to make it fun and interactive. Our idea so far is to have a space ship and to make a simulation of our solar system and explore each planet. My suggestion was to include a gravity bar on the top right of the screen and every time the player lands on a planet and walks he/she would walk faster or slower depending on the gravity so that would make it informative as to how people would actually move on other planets but also interesting because they would "feel" it. We also discussed about including narrated information for each planet. I was also suggested that using the Oculus Rift would be great for this project and it would help the simulation to feel more real and in effect be more immersing.
I have also set up a weebly page for us to post our research on.
I have also set up a weebly page for us to post our research on.
WEek 1
Our brief states that we will be doing a simulation about space which is really exciting and interesting we talked about some idea and we will be doing some research on the solar system so that we will all be prepared for next week. So far we are discussing how to make it fun and interesting but also informative. Next week we will know more about what we are supposed to do after we talk to our tutor.
My idea was to make it realistic and informative since we were supposed to do this for actual students at the university so I thought that since they are science students they would appreciate realism more than a fantasy game. I found this game that is very impressive and has every little detail about space. Doing something like this is a bit too much for us given the time that we have but it is a really good reference. |
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I also found a few tutorials for space ships and rock models as we talked about including them. The tutorials for space ships were for fighting sci-fi use but they are still useful as reference of structure.
http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-102.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRfsnrzdAOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u29TeN0JcKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAmvts0FDqE
http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-102.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRfsnrzdAOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u29TeN0JcKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAmvts0FDqE