Design Lab

Here is one long post showing you the process I took to create 7 character designs in my Drawing for Game Art class. 

The first part is to create 100 abstract silhouettes. I used the program Alchemy to create the shapes and cleaned them up in photoshop just to keep myself from defaulting to creating human figures. I usually do not like a lack of control, but this process turned out to be fast and fun. I took some time to combine some silhouettes just to challenge myself to look for good composition and not worry if it actually looked like something.   

The next step was to create 50 doodles. I was not so excited for this one. I was trying so hard to keep from making human figures I feel I went to far and that made pulling a character out of these very difficult. 

The third way we created character designs was with texture drawing. I pulled 50 textures from the internet and CG textures. I drew "what I saw" within 20 of them. You can see that some of the figures are incomplete, so I took the liberty to complete the form in the margins of the page.

This is the first pass on 10 roughs. 7 of these are taken from silhouette, and three are form the doodles. As you can see, the silhouettes have a variety of character, and all I could see in the doodles were fairies...don't do that. 

Refining part 2: 7 total roughs. 3 from silhouette, 2 from doodles, and 2 from the texture drawings. Here we had the liberty to start adding in local tone to help describe the breakdown of the forms. 

One parallel part of the assignment we needed to have was something called a force-fit. We were each given an animal, man-made object/machine, and an adjective. Mine was Anteater, Chainsaw, Filthy. Then we had to draw three roughs of a combination of 2 out of the three given themes. 

Here is a refined stage of the force-fit. I fixed some of the forms, refined the way the chainsaw blade looked, and jammed all three themes into the top drawing.

From all of that we were required to have one design from each method (Silhouette, doodle, and texture drawing) We also had to include one of the force-fits, and one of the silhouette designs needed to be from someone else's group of silhouette. 

To top it all off we were required to have clear light direction, and clean line work. The style and rendering was left up to us. I was heavily inspired by Mucha's line work, and the rendering from an art book, "Massive Black" by Ballistic. I added in some texture from GC textures on my filthy anteater chainsaw, the fairy, and used photoshop's cutout filter on the rhino thing. Other than those there is not much texture in the designs. If I was to take these even further I would continue to kit-bash textures and filters on top of the designs. 

Toy 3 - Aztec Slots

In Slots the player is journeying through a Aztec Jungle. They have found a temple and a large wheel impedes their path inside. The player must stop the wheel with the correct matching combination to enter and discover the secrets of the lost civilization.

The setting is in a jungle outside an Aztec temple in the year 2010.

The player is a research student on a school funded expedition. They are trying to discover the secrets of the Aztecs and fall into an unexpected crevasse. Pushing forward they discovered a secret entrance to an Aztec temple, and are compelled to use clues on the walls of the temple to figure out the right code.

An obstacle I would like to create is a changing image in the upper left  of the screen that jumbles symbols. You have to stop the roulette at the right time on the right symbol to complete the code to enter the temple.

  

Now for the Video:

Toy 2 - Reactor

In Reactor the player is trapped in a nuclear reactor that is beginning a melt down sequence. The generator is broken and nuclear waste is building up. The player must use the manual override to pump the nuclear waste out of the building before it explodes.

The setting is the inside of a nuclear reactor in the year 2197.

The back story of the game starts with the player working on the valves of the many pipes pumping nuclear waste. A shady character enters a key code that set off a lock down of the facility, and stops the flow of the main pipe coming from the core of the reactor. 

Possible obstacles so far can be a time limit of when the plant will explode. I also could add more than one blocked pipe and you have to get the flow of nuclear waste through them in a specific order before releasing the main pipe.

  

Now for the Video:

Toy 1 - Toy Quest

In Toy Quest the player has been trapped in a dimensional puzzle created by a nightmare made real. They must escape by jumping to and from platforms, avoid nightmarish obstacles, and rescue their favorite toy to escape the nightmare.  

The setting is the inside of a toy box dimensional-twisted into a nightmarish puzzle. The time period is in the early 2000's.

The back story of the game starts with the player (you) falling asleep and waking up inside your toy box. You quickly realize that your favorite toy is missing and you must retrieve it to wake up from the nightmare.

I began creating this with more of a Bloxorz mechanic in mind where you complete one platform's puzzle at a time, but instead of rotating the cube like Bloxorz I ended up making it jump...and that was too much fun, so I went with it.

So far the only obstacles I have in my my level depend on the collision of the platforms depending on color. Orange platforms have no collision and the player can fall through them. Purple platforms act a lot like the platforms in Smash Bros where you can go up through the platform from below, but you cannot fall through the top. From this basic rule I have created platforms that change color and collision to increase the difficulty of the character's movement through the level. See Example Below:

  

I would like to create more platform challenges such as moving platforms you have to time correctly, and add in more colors like red where if you land on it the players health is reduced and the level starts over. Other possible objects I would like to implement would be to move blocks out of the way, avoid little nightmare monsters that damage the player, and the collection of other smaller toys that increase the health.

The last thing I would add is to rotate the world much like in Fez to complete puzzles.

Now for the Video:

20 Mechanic Sketches

Below are 20 Ideas/components of possible mechanics I would like to create. It ranges from something as simple as seeing what I can do with dynamite, to making a slot game in UDK. 

AlienAmi Zbrush

This is the final Zbrush I used to generate my normal map for Ami. 

Attract Video - Assassin's Creed 4

Particle_AlienEnergyThrust

This is my first particle for my Area 51 map. It is an energy thrust that will go on my Mother Ship. 

Here is a little insight into what I put into it just in case anyone wants to know. The middle is a combination of two particle sub UV's in a linear blend to give it a hot core. There are two types of rings, one is just a texture, and the other is a static mesh. Lastly I encased it all in a static mesh with distortion and a panning green swirl on the outside to add a little more interest and make it look like it's distorting both itself and the air around it.  

This is the close up. 

Particles

For my racing level I will need at least two particles. The first will be an alien energy thrust that I can put on my mothership. The second will be an electrical arch that will be stemming from the objects I place in the mothership. 

Here are some you tube videos I found on plasma. I want the energy thrust to look plasma-like, and these videos come the closest to what I am looking for that actually exists!

Plasma1

Plasma2

Plasma3 

As for other reference, I will be using a particle system that comes with UDK3 as a guide to create my particle. Theirs does not have the look I want but the behavior is simular.  

As for the electric arc, These are the videos I found to use for reference. 

Electric Arc

Tesla1

Tesla2

I also found 2 particle systems in UDK3 that I believe can help me achieve the look I am going for. their behavior is not quite what I want, but I plan to achieve that by using sprite animation.

Crates

This is my design ideas for my human and Alien Crates. The Alien crate will be able to explode, and leave a glowing alien symbol as a collectible. The symbol will be the same as the writing on the alien crate, and the holograms from the Alien Barrels. 

Barrels!

For my programming class we are now required to have barrels in our level. Since I have an Area 51 theme I have decided to create one "normal" barrel, and one alien barrel to go in the mother ship. 

These are the concept designs I cam up with for the two. I roughly blocked out their shaped in Maya, and added some textures in Photoshop to convey the feel I'm going for. I'm going for a stereotypical alien feel. I threw in some green lights to block out my grey box, and the whole cheesy alien look stuck with me. I have a flying saucer, and a tractor beam too! 

Racing Intros

This is from my favorite racing game splashdown. It was hard to find an intro where it would show you the before track but the video right before game play shows you a preview before the track. That was one of my favorite things, that they would show you a preview of the stunts and I plan to do that with  y own level. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OGrtJmNy0Y 

Alien Ami low Polly

This is my low poly Character before I take it into z-Brush. I could not make her an "Alien" because the project calls for us to create humans, but I will be adding in trinkets of alien looking technology on her face and right arm. As well as some cool glowing alien tattoos. 

Now on to Z-Brush!

Area 51 Grey Box Completed!

The Grey Box is finished!

So far you start inside of a plateau, go down a ramp and over a small jump. Next you spiral up another plateau, and go down another ramp to gain some speed for the loop-de-loop. I used both physics and speed and force actors to keep you on it. Next you go up a ramp and fly into the alien mother ship! After you escape the ship you ride some elevators up to the starting plateau. 

The second lap takes you through the research facilities (above ground) and then underground to the alien holding tanks and a spiral down to and s curve. (the picture below is the wire frame of this part of the track). Next, you escape the alien holding area by being lifted by a ship's tractor beam back onto the track above ground. You then drive back to the elevators and complete lap one a second time. 

Pagani Huayra

Here is the shots of my car model. I have a couple of tweaks left but this it!

The car was a blast to model. For this project we learned how to bake normals from a high poly version onto the low poly that we use in the game. I thought that was cool, and it helped me save some time making special bump maps by hand.

Destroying Things!

For Programming we are destroying things using Phys X lab. This is a simple plank of wood I made for a larger construct that will eventually be an old-fashioned wooden traffic barricade.

This is my specs for the first depth:

And this is the second depth:

  I set the four corner pieces as supports so you can shoot through it without everything falling down.

There are only two depths, the first time I tried loading it into UDK the FPS lagged because I had 3 depths, and splits in every axis within those depths. Due to that I paid more attention to the amount of noise I have within each split. Honestly the first depth is good enough, so if I need a lot of wooden planks to break at the same time I can a have two versions of the plank depending on the amount of particles I will have at different points in the game. That is yet to be determined.

Car and UV's: Pagani Huayra

Here is the final model of my car with the UV layout. I just read the specs of the real car, and they designed it to utilize wind when turning and breaking by four adjustable flaps (2 in front and 2 in the back). It's pretty much a jet without wings...

Next step texture!

Concept Painting: Area 51

Here's a little dive into how I created my concept Painting for My Area 51 Race Level. 

I started by loading my car model, and a quickly made spaceship model into UDK. I built the ramp, the two plateaus, and the ramp supports out of BSP, and played around until I had a compelling composition.

Then I painted over it in photoshop. I changed the position of the car and the left Plateau to help out compositionally. I spent about 2 hrs making the BSP map (with a pre-made car mesh I made in Maya) and I spent about 10 hrs painting it in photoshop CS5.

Race Level: Pass 1

This is the first pass design of my Area 51 level. I have provided the three main "encounters" for my design that help change the track depending on which lap you are on!

Car and Character

I quickly threw together a contact sheet of my progress of the car so far.

I have to say that the Pagani has been my favorite thing to model so far. I'm obsessed with cars, and through this process I have found this new super car I didn't even know about! 

And now for the driver:

I had originally designed the model to be a traditional race-car driver, but that was before deciding on the theme for the track. Now that I am narrowing in on the Area 51 theme, I will be re-designing her to be an alien test-driver for experimental vehicles. I have to find a way to portray her as an alien without changing her human features...the next challenge awaits.

Racing Level Details

Theme: Area 51!

Location: Nevada Desert 

Time of Day: 4PM ish (mid afternoon)

Terrain: Desert, Airport Base

Color Scheme:

Concept Statement:

"Seeing is Believing"

Stunt Design/Paper Map:

Features:

Landmarks/Directional cues:   

Race Level Ideas

These are some ideas I have for my level and both represent a more borad idea I would like to incorporate. The Sketch on the left is a bridge that would fall down, and you would drive through an underground tunnel. I do not know how I would like to trigger this event, but I do know that I would like to create this as a huge surprise to the player, maybe even as a shortcut.

The sketch on the right represents having a suspended road/road in the sky. I would like to take my level to the two extreems. You would either be underground or in the air most of the time. Hopefully this can help me get the track to feel like a roller coaster, rather than just a race.

Car Stunts and Tracks: Real world, toys, and games

When sifting through youtube for some cool car stunts, this two videos stood out to me. This video shows RC cars doing stunts we don't see every day. The way they land some of these is crazy to do in real life...but could definitely replicated in a video game. 

RC Car Stunts

These next two are by Ken Block. They show him preforming several crazy stunts on a custom track. 

Ken Block Stunts1

Ken Block Stunts2

These two videos are 1: A crazy real-life Hot Wheels jump, and 2: An awe-inspiring homemade traditional hot-wheels track with 5 different levels.

Hot Wheel Stunt1

Hot Wheel Stunt2 

     These next videos are from Jet Car stunts, and two "homemade" Halo Reach tracks. I have learned from these two that you do not necessarily need the most extravagant stunts in the world as long as there is a great risk. These videos prove that something as simple as having a track in the air raises the stakes enough to still give you a knot in your throat over just a couple of turns in the road. 

This is something I will concentrate on in my levels as well. 

Jet Car 

Halo Reach1

Halo Reach2