Calendar January 2, 2013 20:00

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Hay Stack & Collectable

Today we had a meeting to discuss the state of the project and it was mentioned that I should take out the windows on the barn and just have it so that you can look into the barn. This will take a day or two, since I will have to modify the mesh of the model to cut out the holes for the windows. but I think I will keep the frames that I have right now.

While I was at the meeting, it was discussed that we need some kind of collectible that will be put around the map and have the patients find them. It will give them an incentive to walk around the map and explore parts of the map that they would otherwise probably ignore. So I made a coin while I was at the meeting, here is a render:


While I was at the meeting, I also made another model that we can place around the farm, a hay bale. I arranged them to look better. Here is a render of the final prop:


I will make more models for the environment and post renders as I go along. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 27, 2012 04:00

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Barn Finished

After I finished the model a few days ago, I've been working on the texture and because of the holidays I feel a few days behind. But here is a render of the model as it stand right now:


All the textures in the model are tiled. I just emailed the model to my team, and I'm waiting to hear back from them on what they think. Right now, Im thinking that I might go back and update the texture on the window glass, but that will have to wait for a little.

Thanks for reading, thats all for now.

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Calendar December 22, 2012 21:30

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Barn Redone

So I finished a barn model not too long ago for my internship project, but the thing is that we actually need to have the inside available from the outside since at first I thought that the inside of the barn was going to be loaded separately if the patient wants to go in and do the 10 meter test. But I was wrong, they want everything to be in one map without it having to load separate screens or rooms.

So here is a screen shoot of the model:


At first, I didn't really know how I was going to make the inside of the barn, but after playing a  few hours of Assassins Creed 3, and seeing how they build their barn house models I had an idea of how I wanted it to look. I looked up so reference images like the ones below and started to experiment.

Overall, I like the way my model turned out. Now all I have to do is texture it, which I hope won't take me too long but since Christmas is Tuesday I may fall behind a bit. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 14, 2012 01:19

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End of the Semester

So today was my final presentation in my level design class, and I'm now officially done with class. With the exception of making sure this blog is up-to-date on everything I did in my class, there really isn't much more for me to do. So starting on Saturday, I will focus entirely on my Internship that I've sort of neglected for the last week since I was really busy trying to get my Art final to a stage that I would be proud to show my work to everyone else.

For our thesis project, we have it a level where its playable but there is still much work to be done. Which is why I'm grateful that we still have a whole semester for polish before we have to publish the game. I think we will have to do some changes to the way the game works because right now its not very interesting to play, but thats a topic better left for another day.

I have been thinking about it for the last few days, and I'm sure that I can pump out at least 5 models a week. The models wouldn't be textured, but they would be good enough that the engineers will be able to use them in Unity. I will work really hard to get everything done before our deadline on January 15th.

Other than that, I'm going to rewrite my resume since I've showed it to a few people and they have given me a lot of advice on how to make shorter (it was 2 pages before) and more interesting. I'm trying to find an internship at a studio where I would be able to do some 3d environmental art.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 12, 2012 00:00

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Game Arts Final

Screenshot from Unity.
I'm happy to say that I'm done with my final project for my Game Arts class, and it turned out a lot better than what I hoped.

At first, I was trying to shoot for something realistic but then I realized that it wouldn't look as interesting. I decided to go for something like Okami with a toon shader, but a bit more realistic. To achieve the look I wanted, I decided to hand paint as many of the textures that I was going to use as possible.

I had some help with the lighting, shadows, and a particle effect that's inside of the tea house. But other than that, I the whole thing together myself. I did use a few of the assets that come with unity, but I will try to replace them in the next few weeks so that it has a consistent look all across.

If anyone is interested in playing my level, I have made Unity builds for Windows and Mac that can be downloaded here. If anyone has any autosuggestion on what I should change to improve the quality of this environment, please contact me and I'll be happy to take any and all critique.

Thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 9, 2012 16:01

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Hand Painted Textures

   
So since realistic textures aren't going to fit with the new art style that I want, I've been trying to hand paint as many of my textures as I can. I probably won't be able to hand paint all my textures, but here are four textures that I will be using throughout my scene. The textures at the top from left to right are: dark wood/bark, tatami mat, light wood, and rice paper.

I'm really new at digital painting, but I'm proud of the way they turned out. I have much more work to do, because the textures don't tile very well. Hopefully I'll be able to use them without the seams being too noticeable. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 6, 2012 15:38

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Progress on my Japanese Garden

So there is a week left until my art project for Game Art 3 is due, and I've been trying to work on it as much as possible over the last few days. During that time, I've also made a few changes to the project. So I don't know if I mentioned before that I was going for a realistic look, but after some consideration, I've come to realize that if I try to make it realistic, I may fail in the process. So I've decided to go for a look similar to that of Okami and I'm trying to hand paint as many of my textures as I can. I'm also going to use the toon shader in Unity and try to make it look almost like calligraphy.

So to populate the scene, I'm going to build a sakura tree since its very iconic of the culture. So here are a couple of pictures on my progress on the tree.

The tree branch at the top I'm going to apply to a plain and make a low poly tree. Since working on the painting of the geisha, I've come to love hand painting, but I haven't had much time to keep practicing. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the tree today and post a render. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 4, 2012 19:13

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Low Poly Car

I've been working on a low-poly car for a few days now, since the ones that are in the game at the moment have a really high tri-count. Here is a render from Maya of the new low poly car.


I made a total of 4 textures for the cars to make it look like there is more variety of cars on the streets. Since its almost the end of the semester, I don't really know what else I'll be able to get into the game before the open house on Thursday. Anyways, thanks for reading!

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Calendar December 3, 2012 18:28

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Water Tower Model Done

816 Triangles
This is the latest model that I finished today. This is going to be another one of the landmarks that I will use for the internship project. I might go back and make a few changes to the geometry, but for now the model is good enough that it can used in the game.

Next, I will be working on the inside of the barn next since we want to make sure that by the middle of January, we want to make sure that at the very least the 10 meter test, 6 minute test, and endurance test will be implemented in the game. The inside of the barn will be used for the 10 meter test and since its the smallest of the 3 tests, we want to finish it first.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 30, 2012 00:51

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Cell Tower Model


So I created this model for a small project for my level design class. This model is going to be a target in the game my group is creating. This model is only a place holder for the white box prototype we are creating, so it probably will be scrapped after the semester is over. :( But I thought that I did a good job on the model considering that I made it in about 2 hours while I was in class. Not bad for a speed model. 

Thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 26, 2012 21:40

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Windmill Model Done

Total of 1644 triangles.
So this is the 3D model for the farm environment that I'm in the process of creating for my internship. I started yesterday and finished it today. Some parts were a little challenging, but overall I think it gets the idea across.

Like I mentioned before, I would like to place this at the center of the map right next to where the patient will spawn. For now I'm trying to crank out all the main models so that the engineers in the team have something to work with.

I'm not sure what I'm going to work on next, and I don't know if I'm going to stick with all the landmarks I listed last time. Thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 25, 2012 19:13

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3D Model For Barn Done

Barn 3d model total of 1566 triangles.

So like I mentioned before, I'm in an internship where I have to do all the 3D art for a game we are making for the School of Computing. This last week has been a little weird because of Thanksgiving and all that. So But I've managed to finish one of the main landmarks that will be in the map. Its really simple, but I think once its textured and put into the map, it will communicate to the player what its suppose to be.

Later on, I will also have to build an inside for the farm since this is where one of the activities will take place. For now, I will just try to get all the outside models done before trying to move to the inside of the buildings. Next I will work on a windmill which I will place in the center of the map where the patient will spawn. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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Calendar November 19, 2012 23:16

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Progress on Thesis Before Thanksgiving


So we have decided that we are going to try and get the game published before the start of the next semester, but we still have a ton of stuff to do. Here is our task list for the rest of the semester for art:


Art - ranked as level of priority

1 - Outer level poly reset - We need to optimize the poly counts for objects in the outer playing area. 
1 - Smoke trail particles - Put particle systems on the feet and hands that enhance the feeling of the character falling.
1 - Flower model popup- Flowers will popup on the ground around the radius of the splash. We need a flower mesh, and texture that will just translate and scale up through the ground.
1 - Fix Legs on character mesh - Character needs to not crumble. One attempt is to upres the mesh. 

2 - More Hoizontal objects - This may not mean more new objects, but just populating the Horizontal plane (bottom) of the game. 
2 - Fire escape and clothes line effects - The objects need to be added and ready to work with the correlating code. 
2 - Intro animations - Adam and his motion capture stuff. We need to integrate his animations with the in game scene or a separate scene he creates the animation in. 

3 - Buildings update - All buildings need another pass on them to improve mesh on some and texture on others. Pay close attention to our color pallette. 
3 - Textures related to saturation - This is dependant on the code george is trying to get a texture to desaturate.

4 - Ripple Splat - Have the particle effect of the splash have more of a ripple effect over the landscape

5 - Achievement system - This would require a lot of art, UI etc. 
5 - Themed cities - China town, San Fran, with bridge etc could be considered.

6 - Zelda Ripple effect - This is super low priority and more a pipe dream. Akin to this Zelda video.



So we are slowly working through this list. I've made the flower and I'm trying to lower the poly count on some of the objects. After that, I'm going to try build more objects that we can use to populate our scene. That's all for now, thanks for reading.

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Calendar November 19, 2012 01:26

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Working on Geisha Painting

Old version (left) & new version (right).
So since last week when I posted the original entry on my digital painting assignment, I've kept working on it since I've found that I really enjoy doing it even if it takes me a while.

The biggest thing about this version is that I added a pattern to the dress. A few people in my cohort said that they liked the improvements, but that the dress needed a pattern. I found a pattern that I really like and overlaid it over the dress and umbrella. Someone else had also mentioned that the shadow in the middle was kind of weird and suggested to make it smaller. The same person helped me get a quick and simple shadow, which I think adds a lot to the painting.

Now my concern is that the highlights aren't as visible anymore. I made some shadows darker, and fixed the geisha's right foot since it was just a bit off balance. Last, I managed to put some pupils in her eyes, many people said that she looked like a zombie without them. I will continue to work on it when I get a chance, hopefully this will even become a nice portfolio piece.

Thanks for reading.

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Calendar November 15, 2012 20:49

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Let The Internship Begin!

So, I was fortunate enough to have been picked for an internal internship here at the University of Utah doing 3D environmental art for a project with the School of Computing. First let me start by giving a quick overview of what the project is.

The School of Computing has been working on a project for people that have suffered spinal cord injuries, and while I don't know all the specifics for it, we the team that I joined was hired to make a new environment for the device known as the Treadport. If you want to know more about the project, you can read an article and watch a video of how the device works.

I'm the only artist in the team, so I will be in charge of making all the art assets for the game. There will be different modes or challenges to the game to try and measure peoples performance. The game has to include these modes: 10 meter test, 6 minute test, a snipe hunt mini-game, directed collection, and a destination quest. There is no HUD or input to this game, so we've had to come up with a different way to get all these modes into the game by creating one map where patient spawns. Then the patient will have to walk to the activity that he or she would like to do and then we will load the next "room" where the activity will take place.

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but the setting has to be a farm, so with that in mind I've started to work on some of the land marks that will be placed around the main map. They will be: a barn house. a wind mill, water silo, grain silo, and a house. They all need to be big enough that the patient will be able to see them from anywhere in the level. Here is the basic level layout that we've talked about in the past and its what I'm working off for the moment:


I will post a render of the barn house as soon as I'm done with the model. I want to finish this post by saying that I'm really excited about getting this internship, it will give me much needed experience not only working on more art, but also working with a new team and being able to get all this done.

Thanks for reading!

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