Diner Update // The Canyonrush Crew Update - Pic Dump

I've been super busy with University work lately, check out where I'm up to:

Diner in the Desert

It's been two weeks since my last update on my game's design honours project. I've been working hard on this project and it's steadily getting there.

Since my last update, I've modelled a lot more stuff including bar stools, plates and bowls, cutlery and light fittings. I've also worked on the car some more, updating the model and texture. I've worked on many of the other assets textures (such as the walls, floor and bar) too. Finally, I've also created a basic desert landscape.

The scene is starting to come together now and I'm beginning to get excited for how it will look when it's done.

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And now for an update on a project that I feel like I've slightly neglected on my blog...

"The Canyonrush Crew" is the game concept that I've come up with for my other Uni module. It's a 3rd person action adventure game set in the Wild West, featuring 5 different playable characters. The last post that I made about this project was in January, so naturally, I've done a lot of new work for it.

For this project, I'm creating a 2D concept art piece for each of the 5 characters. I'm also creating a 3D model that "belongs" to each character. I'm also creating an interactive presentation explaining the user interface and menu system of the game. Here's some pictures of the work I've been doing for this project.

More updates to come soon!

"The Canyonrush Crew" Concept Art - Games Design Work!

Welcome to my first post of 2015! It's already a busy year with a couple of big Uni submissions already done and dusted. One of these submissions was for my "Games Proposal" module. This module involves coming up with an entire game concept. I had to create a pitch document for the game idea for our January milestone submission.

My game is called "The Canyonrush Crew" - its an action adventure/treasure hunting game set in the Wild West. The player can choose from 5 very different characters including a Native American and a Retired Pirate to name just two.

For the background images of my pitch document, I used Photoshop to create 8 different versions of the same desert landscape at different stages of the day, so that as you scroll through the pitch document, a day passes before your eyes on the page! 

Obviously the actual pitch document itself is full of words, but its quite long winded so I've decided to just post the background images, I hope you enjoy!

Garage Scene (Work in Progress)

So I finished my 2nd year as a Games Design student at UCLan a few weeks ago now, and even though I only just passed, I'm happy with how this year has gone. I go into my final year in September and it's gonna be a difficult year, so I decided that instead of just go straight home for the Summer, I would stick around at Uni for a bit and do some independent work in preparation for 3rd year.

I chose to do an environment because I plan to specialise in environment art and 3D modelling in my 3rd year. My plan was to make a small, simple environment, that I would try and fill with as much atmosphere and interesting stuff as possible. I decided on a mechanics garage.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish the full scene before going home for Summer, but I did get a fair bit done and I've gained a hell of a lot of knowledge in the process. Staying these few extra weeks has definitely been worth it and I'm excited to come back for my final year.

Anyway, here's a few screenshots of my garage scene as it stands now!

and finally, a high quality render of the desktop props...

This environment is now on hold and I'll continue working on it when I come back to Uni in September

This Week at Uni - Character Designs!

Super busy week this week, the submission of our character design module, which at first seemed miles off, suddenly snuck up, so everyone was freaking out and smashing out character designs, including myself.

I've posted some pictures of one of my character designs in previous posts, this one is now done:

 

We also had two other projects. One of them was to create two characters, a tank and a soldier, who belonged to a "visual family", meaning that they look like they could belong in the same "universe"/game. This one took a hell of a lot of time and late nights and is probably my favourite piece that I produced for this project. It was partially inspired by the Pacific and Band of Brothers series with a pinch of post-apocalypse included.

Finally, I have a picture that is currently unfinished but I'm going to return to it and try and boost my mark at a later date. This one is of a "cannon fodder" character - generally the most common type of enemy, that you see (and kill) a lot of in a game. I went for a more comedic approach to this one, playing on the cannon fodder idea. It's a zombie being tricked into stepping on a land mine. It's far from finished but I thought I'd post it anyway.

 

This Week at Uni - Vampire Hunter development and Tile Texture

Not an awful lot to post this week as I've just been powering on through the projects that I mentioned in last week's post.

Firstly here's the latest version of my Vampire Hunter concept art for my character design module. I've cleaned up the character and reigned in the lines a bit to make it a bit neater. I've also started to further develop smaller areas, like weapons, accessories etc and started to develop lighting effects. A few more hours work and it should be done!

I've also finished the second of my high quality textures, which was pretty rushed but I'm fairly happy with how it's turned out.

That's all for this week!

"Crazy Jungle Swing" - User Interface Project

So my current project for Uni is to design a working user interface project for a game using Powerpoint, to demonstrate a main menu, in-game user interface, pause menu etc. We had to come up with a vague idea of what sort of game our UI was for, so I came up with a simple sidescroller for a tablet, involving monkeys. I also decided to do some (kinda rough) artwork for this to make it a bit exciting than clicking around some menus.

The UI itself is pretty much finished but I'm working on a video playthrough of it that I'll post sometime soon, for now, here's some of the art work that I did for it. They're not too fancy but I think they're a fair standard for the length of the project :)

Gas Pump Model Finished

Today I finished the Gas Pump model that I began work on a couple of weeks ago for a University brief. It's probably one of the highest quality game objects that I've made so far. I've learned a lot of new skills that I'm looking forward to putting to use in my independant projects. As usual it was modelled using Maya, textured in Photoshop and presented in UDK. I also tried to go the extra mile with the presentational sheet this time, hopefully this will pay off when it's marked.

Here's the presentation picture that I produced

Then the boring bit: the texture map and wireframes

Underwater Environment Art Finished

Today I finished my Underwater environment concept art piece that I mentioned in my last post. It's a lot more detailed than the work-in-progress version and has taken me roughly 8-10 hours to finish. It's my first ever finished Photoshop concept art (which is shameful seeing as I'm in my 2nd year as a Games student) so I'm pretty happy with it and I think now that I've done one, the idea doesn't seem quite as intimidating. I'll definitely be doing more in the future.

Here's the previous version that I posted recently, for reference.

A lot of changes have been made in the final version, here's a quick list:

• Added plantlife and fish/animals (including sharks!)
• Added highlights in areas where the light is hitting the landscape
• Increased the intensity of the blue overlay to give more of an underwater effect
• Tilted the ship very slightly

Here's the final version:

Stuff I Made this week - (DnB Track / Concept Art Piece)

It may only be Tuesday but I can already safely say it's been a busy week so far. There's a couple of things I'm gonna include in this post. The first is a musical project that I finished today, and the 2nd is a quick work-in-progress concept art picture that I've been working on for a Uni project.

So today I made my 2nd Soundcloud upload. This time it's a drum and bass track, titled "Messages", that I started work on a couple of weeks ago. It's inspired by various different DnB artists and tracks, but I also tried to give it a bit of a Deep House vibe. The track was made in Reason 5 using only Midi instruments. 

Check it out on my Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/denimkid/messages

Now for a work in progress. This is a piece of concept art that I've been working on this week for a Uni games design project. The project is to create a game concept and accompanying pitch document, complete with art work, so I'm creating this piece of concept art in Photoshop to be used as a background to each of the pages in the pitch document.

 

Stay tuned for the finished product.

3D Modelling a Character - Uni Brief

Another week, another University assignment finished. In my last post, I wrote about a character design project in which I had to model and texture a character in the style of DOTA2. Today was deadline day and I managed to get the work done and handed in on time.

The project was to model a low poly character, some props, and a base for the character to stand on, all with low-res textures, that could be (hypothetically) used in a handheld version of DOTA2 (a game that I've never played and had barely heard of pre-brief). This of course involved some research into the art style and a load of work that I won't bore anyone with the details of this time around.

The final submission included an image of the concept pictures and character silhouettes, a presentation image, and an image with the model's technical details. Here they are in order.

Some work from my first month back at Uni

So, regular visitors to my blog (if such a thing exists?) may have noticed a lack of activity for the past few weeks. This is because I'm back at Uni now for my 2nd year as a Games Design student and the work has been coming in thick and fast. I've already noticed an increase in the work load from last year, which isn't all bad, it's good to have a steady flow of work and stuff that I can show off on this blog (when I get chance).

So far we've had 3 assignments, two of which are still under way. Here's a few pictures of stuff that I've produced so far this year.

Project 1 was about character texturing. We were given a choice of 3 pre-made, but untextured, 3D models to choose from and texture ourselves. There was an imp, a Sci-fi/cyborg girl and a guy who instantly reminded me of the heavy from Team Fortress 2, which gave me an idea. I chose to design a new character for TF2. I'd never textured a character before so it wasn't exactly to the standard that I'd hoped by the time deadline day came around, but I think the TF2 theme is still pretty clear. Either way, here's the outcome.

The second project, which is still in progress, is a group project consisting of the design of a complete board game. This has been a very demanding project so far. We've had to come up with the idea, produce a prototype, and rigorously play-test it. Our game is a turn based strategy game with a pirate theme. One of the many jobs I took on for this project was the design (using Photoshop) and production of some "bonus cards" for the game. I'm quite happy with how these designs turned out!

The 3rd project, which is also still in progress, is similar to the first, but this time we have to create the whole character from scratch, which includes the 3D model as well as the texture. The first step, however, was creating some concept art for the character using Photoshop. Here's the finished concept art that I produced for this project.

That's all for now!

Dumpster - 3D Model

Today I've finished one more 3D model for my upcoming alleyway scene. This is probably the most complex 3D model I've made so far because it involved several separate objects. The wheels, lids and bits on the side (I'm not sure what they are to be honest) are all their own separate objects. I also put a lot of effort into the texture and tried to make it as detailed as possible with graffiti, dirt and so on. The amount of stuff that I had to fit onto the texture meant that some of it looked a bit stretched but either way I'm quite happy with it.

My goal of getting this project finished before I restart Uni on the 24th is looking quite realistic. I'll probably do one or two more 3D models and the textures for the walls and floor of the scene then it'll be done!

I've also made a Pinterest board of research pictures that can be seen here: Alleys and Backstreets.