Game Jam! Montserrat hosts a game jam where students and anyone else can come participate in group cooperations to make simple games (computer and board) within three days. I visited the final showing and demonstrations of the games. The large variety of concepts and game design was fascinating! One four player board game, two multiplayer 2D games, one first person 3D game, and one third person 3D game. The amount of work put into these pieces within three days was quite a bit; only so much can be done artistically and with programs within those hours. Now I understand why it can take years for games and cgi movies to be fully developed.
4:25pm-5:00pm and 6:15pm-8:00pm
Working on my FlyThru; after experimenting with some topographical stuff (sculpting planes), I decided to change my idea around a tad bit; main concept remains the same, just the look will be more interesting.
The windows are not perfectly lined up, but oh well..... at least the size remains the same among each wall. The camera will carefully go through the triangular spiral up to the pillar, then fly up to view the ground outside of the walls (then maybe go through the windows into the light?).
Back in class and ready for more learning! Went over some basics in Maya with the keys 4, 5 and 6 (wireframe, shaded display and shaded display with texture maps, respectively). Practiced some UV mapping on a cardboard box then went over the understanding of 'normals', camera views and booleans.
Normal is the term used to describe the faces of the object the camera can view (the outside of a 3D figure). Normals can be reversed so the main view is the inside of a 3D figure! That is how world-building can begin; a half sphere with reversed normals can have a sky texture that can be seen from within the world.
A camera can be created and moved around the environment as a 'character'. With the FlyThru project, I will be animating the camera to maneuver through the space to see every angle of it, inside and out.
Booleans are used when cutting objects out of other objects. Instead of deleting faces on an object to make a hole, I can put a polygon within another polygon and erase the space that the one polygon takes up, modeling the leftover shape into a different solid form with a more complicated faces.
I ended up missing Tuesday's class because off a nasty cold... There were some light symptoms the weekend before, but I figured nothing of it- only for it to hit Monday night, then become worse Tuesday morning. I have fallen a tad bit behind in my work since the cold, but I plan on continuing the meds and taking time to catch up!
While I was under the weather, I did entertain myself by looking up LetsPlays of video games on Youtube. There is a really neat underwater environment with fantastic 3D graphics in Subnautica, a survival item crafting game. There is a wonderful sense of light and scenery in A Tale of Two Brothers as well. I have also seen some play throughs of 2D pixel games like Kingdom and Undertale.
A new Five Nights At Freddy's RPG have been released recently (FNAF World) which incorporates both 3D character designs and animation in battle scenes with a 2D pixel overworld. The FNAF RPG had some negative reviews, but I enjoy the concepts; a cutesy game exterior with an underlying dark interior that many players miss (the second plot begins if the player does not hit 'done' and waits about 5 seconds after Fredbear's dialogue). The game was pulled from Steam by the creator, Scott Cawthon, saying that he has always been accused of releasing unfinished games made within a short period of time and that he intends to republish the game once it is fully finished and the way he wants it. In a way, I think many players were quick to judge the games initial release; it did seem a bit unfinished, but can still be enjoyed. So much goes into the making of video and computer games that others may not realize. The rendering, modeling and mathematics that make a game great does take time to do, but interesting plot and concepts also play a role. I have seen many indie games and official licensed games have terrible game play, bad graphics, poorly explained tutorials and glitches, yet they are loved and/or popular by memes and jokes. It will be interesting to see what kinds of updates Cawthon has planned for the popular Five Nights At Freddy's franchise.
Fleshing out more of what I want this environment to look like.
Sketch of Ascension Tower
The floor rise with the walls like a ramp, so the closer one gets to the pillar, the closer they get to the light as well.
Thinking of adding numerous "door frame" type thresholds as wall pillars for decoration.
Maybe the walls will be closer the further one goes into the structure, giving a tight, airless feel. There would be no roof, so when the camera looks up it can determine how far it is from the center light-pillar.
Not sure if walls should create interesting forms at the top, so there is something more to look at when gazing upward.
Windows? Do I even know how to make some of these forms in Maya yet??
Progress so far: modeled and began putting texture on "hologram generator" (blue object) and projected sun and planets accompanied by a moon and a ring (yellow objects). I may have to redo the pillar if I cannot find how to fix it.
Tools:
Learning how to use layers in Maya
Mesh Display softens edges
Scene Hierarchy (parent objects, child objects, how they interact: inheritance and relationships)
Using the Outlier to adjust Scene Hierarchy
Hypershade (applying/rendering color and texture)
I find it fascinating when general terms for abstract human relations are used for referring to programs and their options (parent, child, inheritance, etc)
When applying the rock texture to the pillar and changing the rendering mode in order to actually see it, the entire pillar on my project became colored in the texture while the instructor/walkthrough guy's pillar was only colored on the bottom... Did I miss a step?
Here is my Hypershade screen:
I can't find what's different between his and mine. Not sure what I did wrong. Maybe the Maya preferences were changed by someone else on this computer previously? That's what the issue was last time.
For awhile I have been trying to put in some thought for this next project... A fly through of an environment I create in Maya. Several factors must be taken into consideration: how will screen "narrator" travel through this world? Literally flying through it like a superhero? Maybe observing from the ground like an ant? How will the world look from the front, the side, and the top? The insides must be interesting.
Began a walkthrough of forming and rendering an environment, which is helping me gather ideas and visualize my space more effectively.
My idea so far is to create a maze-like hallway that travels upwards towards the center of the space; a spiral ascending into a pillar. What will be in the hallway? Windows will be a thing...Maybe a nighttime sky with a bright light shining from the pillar. The hallway can be littered with various objects to add a narrative to the place. The camera may travel as if it were a person suddenly placed in this mysterious maze, filled with determination to get to the center pillar.
I have a very loose sketch of the outside that needs work before posting it.
This project surprisingly did not take as long to finish as I thought it would. Though I should add that as soon as the computer/preference issue from last time was cleared up, the process was easier to pick up.
Moving the ball across the X and Z axises was easier to manage on the graph; this way the ball could move diagonally across the plane. Once I began adjusting the height of the bounce and the stretch/squish of the ball, the graph became a little more complicated, so I focused on the image and frames. (I just remembered that I can single out the visibility of x/y/z axis points on the graph so it's not so busy).
It may not be the best quality animation, but this is my first animated sequence ever! I feel quite accomplished!
I tried posting a video of the ball bouncing, but when I attempted to upload a QuickTime video, it does not show up on the actual post.
Harris is the maker of numerous board games, including Broadsides, Conquest of the Empire, and his most known one, Axis & Allies. He has designed games for larger companies such as Hasbro, Parker Brothers, and Milton Bradley. He seems to be greatly inspired by his interest in history and fun. He is a very energetic man, who lit up when telling the story of his ideas and licensing adventures throughout his involvement in game design. Though he has a great deal of experience in board games, he has had a hand in computer gaming as well. He is educated in design and has a good graphic sense.
Things to think about in game designing:
Be able to clarify the object of the game in 1-3 sentences. (That is a helpful marketing technique as to get to the point of your investment instead of confusing or boring your potential employers)
What's your audience? What kind of people would enjoy your game? Age range? Gender? Interests? Genre?
What is your "wow moment"? You are going to have competitors- What makes your thing stand out from the rest?
Whether it's board games or computer/video games, they both have a lot in common. It's interesting to learn what goes on in the gaming industry and what goes into the making of entertainment.
The availability of CGI effects in film and game design has increased and improved significantly over just five decades. In a quick review of the history of computer generated images I read that the first use of CGI dates back to 1968. Russian mathematics and physicists created a mathematical model that moved the image of a cat across a screen. The code was used in the BESM-4 computer to print frames for use in film material.
The variety and use of CGI was expanded upon for entertainment purposes in the 1970s. Since then, it has grown to become a popular form of film and game graphics, which competes with the general use of 2D animation as well as using real actors on screen (motion capture could lead the way out of traditional live-action filming). Though, the more realistic CGI becomes, it begins to cross over into an uncomfortable level of reality; the Uncanny Valley.
I have looked into some popular use of CGI in more recent developments that I grow fond of. In August of last year (2015), SupermassiveGames developed the interactive survival/horror game, Until Dawn, for PS4. Upon watching a LetsPlay of the game, I was immediately drawn in to the variety of choices leading to a "Butterfly Effect" style gameplay that results in numerous endings, a realistic environment and uncanny characters.
Though, in my opinion, the plot and script could have been more creative and less chock full of cliches, but the homage to well known horror elements almost makes up for it. I find the animation within the gameplay to be the most interesting. Motion Capture aids in creating more naturalistic movement in the characters, both in expression, joint rotation, and clothing interaction with light and action. The environment is intriguing and real, with excellent use of light and volumetric effect in the dust and snow as it interacts with itself, light, and movement of characters.
I agree with Ravi Sinha's analysis on the visual effects of Until Dawn, discussed on the site GamingBolt. I hope to someday understand the majority of his CGI, gaming, developer vocabulary, but what I do understand is that the game Until Dawn has a lot to offer in the gaming industry. http://gamingbolt.com/does-until-dawn-push-ps4-technology-to-the-next-level
Also, Until Dawn visual effects:
and Motion Capture:
This topic fascinates me. I will probably look into CGI in other films/games I like.
Learned that my previous problem with the Ball Bounce was because the computer I was using was adamant on keeping the wrong settings/preferences active. I logged on to a different computer and everything worked the way it was supposed to. I am glad that the issue was fixed; now I can focus on enjoying the process and seeing the fruits of my labor come to life!
Learned how to .zip a file to Google Drive so I can save my progress without downloading/corrupting flash drives with the massive amounts of data that I will need to store.
Observed a Kleenex box to see if I could decipher its structure before taking it apart to see how it was actually put together. I wasn't too far off, but there were many more flaps used to glue the sides together than I imagined. The skills in understanding space and the construction of space using shapes (2D shapes into 3D shapes) will be very helpful in the upcoming project; create an interesting environment for a FlyThru.
Watched JJ Abrams on Ted Talks. He talked about his early interest in taking things apart to see how they work as well as the importance of having a Mystery Box. An element of mystery and surprise is something to consider in all creative projects; movies, books, games, etc. Something to aspire to do.
I watched the one minute tutorials on Maya to refresh my memory on the controls and commands. I feel like this will be a frequent occurrence until I fully understand and get the hang of it. Right now my memory seems short when attempting to remember all of the graphs, frames, axises, and such all at once.
When watching the Ball Bouncing animation tutorial, I attempted to follow along on Maya at the same time. A few problems came up, requiring me to re watch much of the content of the video numerous times. When I Shift+W to set the translated axis and location, the frames do not turn red like in the video. I have no indication of where I set frames. I believe this is another reason why I could not copy and paste frames (even in the graph), making me have to keep making new frames, guesstimating where I had the previous ones.
By the time I had done all of this, I realized my sets have too few frames between them, making the ball bounce extremely quick and almost impossible to see in real time. I feel like I need to restart. I've already undid my progress several times over to fix other mistakes, such as when I would hit Shift+W and the frames wouldn't set.
I save every few minutes, which helps when I set a frame wrong and can't figure out how to fix it- so then I exit out, which deletes my unsaved mistakes, and I can start over where the decent progress left off. I've already done this once.
Looking back on my notes I found that I should use "Merge" when copying and pasting.
I tried to look for it, but must have hit something else on accident, because now my ball won't move when I hit play. Undo-ing did not fix it...
This process takes me much longer than anticipated. I will have to set aside more time to complete outside-of-class work.
(Also, these posts are set to PST for some reason. So when I post this at 11:30pm, the computer thinks it's 8:30 pm... I don't know how to permanently change it to EST)
January 12, 2016 8:30-11:00 Tutorials in Maya. Manipulated a sphere vertices, faces, and location. Created a simple animation of the object moving through space and turning. The process was simple, though there seems to be many options and controls to remember. The video tutorials are also helpful.
Saving files (scenes) is a tad more complicated than Adobe programs. I do not know how to save a .zip to an archive for Google Drive; this is for storage and easy access, which will be necessary in the future. Made my first blogspot for documenting my process and learning in this class. Format may change over time. Excited to learn some new programming and skills! ~Jennah A
