Animating

I did all the animation within Maya and in a previous post I mentioned that it took me a long time and a lot of different iterations before I was happy with a run cycle I had created. Throughout the whole animation process I have constantly been going back through my reference videos we took at the start to work out how our characters were going to move. I also would act it out to myself to understand the weight and movement of the character more.

To begin with I blocked out the animation which gave me a good idea of how long the shots would be and I could work with that when refining the animation. I was then going to change the curves from stepped to linear and then to spline, however I found this really awkward, when changing between them my movements ended up being all over the place and I couldn't edit them too well. I'm not sure if I keyframed everything each time so this could have been the reason why so I may try this technique again at another stage when I have more time. Because of this however I ended up starting from scratch and using the auto tangents. I didn't really edit the curves too much once I keyframed it all, maybe a few tweaks here and there for timing but I didn't really have the time to go in and really analyse each part. I would have liked to as this would have given me more practice within the graph editor. I did keep referring back to the blocking animation though to make sure I was on track with the timings.

The video below shows a playblast of where Gloria falls into the buildings which consequently knocks them all down, because I couldn't get any reference for this I had to guess and luckily it turned out really well on the first attempt. I made sure they fell one after another, but at a quick enough pace to look convincing. I think they all fall over a couple of frames which may seem really quick but it needs to be that fast, needs to be punchy. I love animation and even though I struggled with the run cycle it just takes time and practice to get it looking right, by doing this module it just confirms that I do want to be an animator and more specifically a character animator.

Terrain within Unity

The terrain would play a big part in my game level as it surrounds my whole area and further than the eye can see. I didn't want to use the pre-given terrain textures within Unity so I decided to download a selection from CG Textures and edit them within Photoshop to make them seamless. A seamless texture ensures that you cannot see where the texture joins up to one another and this is especially important when it comes to terrain as one texture will tessellate many times for it to cover the whole area created. Using the clone brush tool and offsetting the image at different pixels each time, you can paint over any noticeable lines where the seam would show up.

I tried to get similar coloured textures in order for them to blend into one another, yet have them different to each other so it can be distinguished that the terrain changes at different heights. It took me awhile to create the actual terrain as I had to experiment with a range of different styles that were available on Unity to see what combination would work best. The terrain itself encloses my area so the mountains would need to look realistic and organic otherwise it would defeat the point of even having a terrain around it. To begin with I was just going to have a platform in which the mushroom tree would be placed upon, however I wanted the whole level to be more organic so I decided to have the mushroom on a raised terrain which would connect with the surrounding area. I found that this blended in more and produced more of a continuity throughout the whole level.

Glow Test

Using Unity Pro there are pre-made scripts that you can add onto the main camera which will add an effect. For mine I wanted my mushrooms to glow, even though there is a shader that can replicate this, it's not what I had in mind so I need to explore different options. There are two different scripts, Glow effect and Glow Threshold, both are very similar so to compare I put the same units for each attribute on both effects.

This first image is just showing my final colour for the mushroom stem alongside the self-illuminating shader. As you can see with the shader, it looses the original colours and does not have the right look I was originally wanting to achieve. When I add the one of the effects to the camera, viewing both mushrooms it does not work at all as the whites are far too much, but this is something to bear in mind for future if I wanted a white glare/glow.

I then went ahead and placed one of the glow scripts onto the main camera of my first person controller. As it is attached to it, everything you view with the camera will in turn have a glow effect. I also tested whether or not the surrounding environment would be affected by this, by dropping a texture onto the terrain it seems that this glow effect doesn't change the appearance of the texture which is really good.

The next two screenshots are of the two different effects and how they differ from one another. The first is Glow Threshold and the second is Glow Effect. Both work really well, keeping the original colours I have painted on, however Glow Effect glows a bit more than Threshold - the whites are more pronounced. There might not be a major difference to other people, but I think that the bottom one might suit more, glows more than the threshold effect.

Joint Chains/ IK Splines / UV Mapping

To develop our skills further, we were taught how to create a basic joint chain and how to use IK splines in order to create a more fluid animation using a rig. IK splines is for more control and you yourself are able to place the points where you want the object to move, otherwise it is normally automatic. To experiment with this further I created a flag using joint chains and IK splines and then exported this out into Unity. Once in Unity you are then able to put the animation on a loop so it is constantly moving.

Another thing we also developed upon was UV mapping. From the animation module I hadn't really explored much with complex UV mapping so to get to grips with this we created a more complex shape and then went on to creating a tree. Once you get to grips with it the process itself seems quite easy, you just need to know where to cut the UVs and which direction to unfold. The main issue that came across  was that some of the texture became stretched, I think I may have unfolded certain branches in the wrong direction so when it comes to UV mapping all the assets in my scene I will have to do a test run as I wouldn't want to rush into it and find that I would have to do it all again. By doing lots of tests I will also be able to see what would be best suited once put into my scene. As nothing in my scene is made up of any one single plane I will not really have to worry about back-face culling (in Unity if you want to see the inside of something you have to create the geometry for that too). You would normally have to create two planes and teh same texture but flipped, however there is a shader in Unity that allows you to see both sides with only a single plane. This is something very useful to bear in mind as it will cut my workflow down in the future.

Mock up of scene / Concept Art

As I had previously built a few test assets for my game level, I decided to do a quick mock-up of how it might look like. This mock-up looks different to my previous designs as I thought I would try out something a little different. Before I found that there was a lot of space to fill up within a 100mx100m playing field, so to break this up I thought I would try out having the main mushroom cluster on a separate island, with mountains surrounding it and your spaceship being across the water.

I think this design works much better, makes it more interesting than just having the one cluster being the main focus. Because I now have decided on this kind of layout I also think I will just stick to doing the outside of my environment. I know before I said I was going to do both, showing part of the inside where my alien race would live, however I think I would much rather concentrate on the outside more and get that looking really good rather than try and do both. Also I think it might be too much - too overwhelming if I did both. At the end of the day it's about quality not quantity so I would feel much better about spending more time on the outside than trying to split my time between both the exterior and interior.

Below is the mock up actually within Unity. I placed a skybox in of an moonlight sky and created a blue fog just to highlight that the mushroom will glow this sort of colour in the final thing. I also added in a fire particle which I created myself, adjusting specific values to get it how I wanted it to look and using two different particles to create the fire and smoke. When it comes to the final thing I will tighten it up and probably experiment with it a bit more for it to look more realistic, but for now it will do just to show whats going on around the ship.

Unity Web Player | test_2

« created with Unity »

Testing Ideas

I wasn't sure whether to have stairs or some sort of ramp leading up to the mushrooms so I decided to test it out using Maya and then placing it into Unity to test it properly. I built a really rough shape for a mushroom and exported it out into Unity, here I then scaled it to how tall I wanted it and first started placing steps. With the steps, they look really nice however it may be a bit tedious jumping up each one as they are spaced apart, I could try placing them closer together so this would reduce that factor, however the more steps I have, the more polys I will gather. This also goes for the ramp I created, as there are going to be a quite a few mushrooms within the playing area, and you are able to walk between each one, I'm worried that with the ramp it may use up too many of my polys. To try and get around this I also tried using the terrain tool within Unity. This doesn't use up any polys, so that's a good thing. However the problem I found with this was that it's not very attractive and it takes away the shape of the mushroom, as it acts like a hill/mountain the mushroom becomes hidden. I could possibly try texturing it to make it look better, however if each mushroom is linked together, the terrain tool may be too overwhelming and you might feel too cluttered.

I think I will have to model the main sections first - mushrooms, spaceship, the inside of the mushrooms before I can really decide on what I am going to have. After modelling I will be able to see how many polys I will have left and can then go from here to try and create a low poly version of either the steps or the ramp.

The first image shows it in first person, and this is the scale in which I would like everything to be, big enough to make the person feel like they are in another world yet not too big where it feels too overwhelming and you are not even able to see the tops of the mushrooms.

Unity: Box Modelling / Terrain

Box modelling is a quick and easy way to get an idea of the space within the game level you are trying to create. By using the pre-set shapes you can place them where you might want them to be, add in a first person controller and get a feel for the space as you would if you were playing the final game. By doing this it will also help when creating elevation plans as you will have specific dimensions for your objects within Unity.

We were all directed to create a shipyard and add in any extra components we wanted. From here we learnt how to add in shadows, fog - to add more atmosphere to the level and also a skybox. A skybox is wraps around the entire scene in Unity and as the name suggests, it replicates the sky. At the moment we have just used the pre-made textures, however you are able to create your own if you want to.

The next thing we learnt was using the terrain tool. This allows you to build up areas of terrain, in a way you're really painting areas. The longer you hold down on an area, the higher the peak will be. Along with the terrain tool, you are also able to paint either pre-set textures or your own textures onto them. You must take into consideration that whatever texture you choose it will have to tessellate/repeat so you will have to find the right balance between this and the size of the texture.

The good thing about Unity is that you can download pre-made assets for free. For this we downloaded terrain assets which included different types of trees and plants. When it comes to adding trees into the environment, you can either add them in by hand or paint them on within the terrain tool. If you add them in by hand they become geometry, this is good for realism, however it is not necessary to place them everywhere. It will end up slowing down the game. For trees that are further away it is better to paint them. Another way to make sure the game does not lag too much is to apply billboard. Billboard will calculate distances and after a certain point it will make objects 2D, yet when you walk close enough to them they will appear 3D again. The only problem with this however is that it can be quite noticeable so you need to find a medium ground where you think it look okay.

To make the scene more realistic you can add in a wind zone, this will create wind in your environment which in turn will make the trees sway. To make trees sway you need to increase the bend factor. I found it quite hard to make it look natural, however if I created trees in Maya I would be able to move the pivot point to the base of the tree, this would then make sure the trunk of the tree would be be more stable and therefore look more natural. Another issue I found was that if you have billboard on, it will also affect the trees being able to sway in the wind, only when you get close enough to the tree will it start to sway. This is far more noticeable than just a tree going from 2D to 3D, so I will have to take this into consideration within my environment and try and work around it.

Unity

Unity Web Player | Textures

« created with Unity »

We got introduced to a new piece of software, Unity - a game development tool which can then be distributed out to multiple platforms. The interface itself is similar to Maya in some ways which makes it easier to become accustomed to it. It's quite simple to add basic textures onto pre-made objects in Unity, however if you are wanting more detailed textures onto more complex geometry, it is better to create a UV map in Maya and take it into Photoshop to create.

Above is one of the things we created within the first lesson, different ways of texturing within Unity using bump maps, the standard diffuse setting and also applying specularity to the texture. Specularity allows you to add a tint colour onto the texture, this can then replicate metals for example. The second box from the left was an edited version we created on Photoshop. For this one we created a black and white copy with an alpha channel. This version is another way of creating a bump map. For each bump map in Unity you have to remember to change it to a normal map or else the texture won't appear correctly.

This way of texturing is quite simple to use, however when it comes to creating my game level, my textures will need to be far more detailed. We've been advised that the textures themselves will take the longest to do, this is where most of our time will be spent. With this in mind I am going to try and get all the research and development done as soon as possible in order to allow myself enough time to work with. In a game, textures are everything. They are what makes the environment more believable.