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

First programming adventure!

My first go at programming in Kismet was to turn on three colored lights one at a time using one trigger. Below is the set up I created.

This is the actual Kismet layout. We ended up taking it a step further and after you turn on all three lights, the next time you hit the switch they all turn off and the counter resets.

I thought it was pretty fun. I didn't know what to expect from my first day in programming. The concepts are really strait forward...the biggest problem I have is finding the node I need in the menu!