Inside of Mushroom Tree

After testing out the size and textures within Unity, I found that just having the outside of the mushroom tree was not enough so I decided to go back to my original idea and create an inside. As I had already created the outside of my mushroom without planning to create an inside, I had just built a shell however what I should have done (and will know this for future) for everything to line up correctly, is extrude out the outside and inside from the same cylinder. As I didn't do this I had to line up everything by hand and it took a while and a lot of adjusting before I got it the best that I could. By adding an inside it also adds more to the story of my level and there is more to explore within the area that I have created.

I tried to keep the items seem quite organic to blend in with the whole mushroom style by how I would model and texture. The colours themselves I tried to make sure that they complimented each other yet also have a range so that there wasn't the same being shown throughout. Even though my poly count was really low with just the main mushroom, I still tried to keep all the objects low poly and simple meshes so it would be easier to UV map.

Pikmin 2

When coming up with my idea for my game level I immediately thought about the style of Nintendo's 'Pikmin'. Both Pikmin 1 and 2 were brought out originally for Gamecube in 2002 and 2004 and having played them years ago, I decided to try them out again. Even though its been nearly 10 years since the second Pikmin came out, I think the gameplay is still enjoyable and the graphics, even though now-a-days they are much more developed they still fit within its style so it doesn't really look out of place. The game itself revolves around the captain of a ship, Olimar (Olimar and Louie in the second game) who can control a crowd of Pikmin to explore an unknown planet. As both Olimar and the Pikmin are quite simple in design it would only make sense to have the surrounding environment and the props within it to be of similar style. There would be no point putting a highly detailed and hyper-real environment in with cartoon-like / stylized characters in which the game is revolved around.

The idea for Pikmin came about from the idea of microcosm - a world in miniature. Shigeru Miyamoto had this idea whilst gardening, anything can be your inspiration and this is how I came about creating a giant mushroom cluster as an inhabited place - taking the original mushroom form and idea and developing from that.

Sound plays a major part in any game and even though no actual words are spoken, there are sound effects/noises to replicate this and to show that these are an alien race, not accustomed to the English language. In any action the Pikmin do, sound effects accompany them as to make them more believable. If one Pikmin is to try carry something heavy you can hear it struggling as it is too much for the one alone, however when more Pikmin are added to help they manage fine and their sounds die down. They react to things how a human would which can make them seem more life-like and easier to connect with them.

Floorplans / Layouts

I had drawn these basic floorplans for my game level up awhile ago but I just never got round to posting them. Until now I had discarded the idea of creating an inside to my mushrooms, however now that I have changed my mind I have drawn up floorplans for the inside as well. In a previous module I had drawn it out by hand and used a ruler to measure everything exactly, this time to make it easier I got some graph paper and this gave me a guide in which to follow. The first one looks a bit empty, however this space will be filled up by the terrain that I will create within Unity and I may place in other foliage around to give the scene a bit more atmosphere and make it more interesting. There would be no set place for these really so that is why I have not included them in, it would be easier to block them out within Unity first. The second floorplan is of the inside of my mushrooms, detailing different objects on each level and their measurements.

Sky Pirates of Neo Terra

Sky Pirates of Neo Terra was originally a series of comics that I came across the other month and recently it has been developed into a game for Facebook and also IOS. At the moment it is still in its beta test but I have managed to get a trial of the game using Facebook. The game itself actually uses Unity which shows that this game engine is becoming more popular and I can also see what can be achieved using it.

The game itself is based on the main event that takes place within the comics, racing. You are able to pick either quick race or custom race. Within custom race this is where you are able to play with friends or join other races or you have more choice over which terrain you play over with 'create race' and 6 available options. The graphics themselves are to me really visually appealing as they really represent the comics in 3D form, the game doesn't defer away from the original style and look of the artwork. The overall game play is similar to most racing games aged for young people, the idea of speed boots and the use of items, what makes it different is that it is on a platform which is widely used. Most people these days will have a Facebook account and a vast number of games have appeared using it as a platform, it is no longer just social networking but now social gaming. The developers Day 21 Studios have taken advantage of this and the popularity of Facebook could also increase the popularity of the game when it is fully released. When it is brought out it should have 15 different characters and 12 unique tracks.

The textures within the game appear to be quite simple, nothing complicated is really needed as the player will be concentrating more on the race itself than the surrounding appearance. The main aspect that would have had to be taken into great consideration is the layout of each individual race and the obstacles within them. Each race has a difficulty rating so the more stars the race is given the more complex the race would be. The player may not be too interested in the surrounding area, however if they were to bump into an obstacle I'm sure they would notice if the textures were not up to standard or just did not fit in with the style of the game. With Sky Pirates even if you do hit an obstacle, for me the texture doesn't bother me as they have created them in a simple fashion yet up to the standard of the rest of the environment and style of the game. The trees/leaves are made up of many different poly-planes but only if you were to stop and examine this would you notice, and also this is very common in many games as you don't want a heavy poly-model within your game as it will slow down the game play. It's the style of the textures that I want to try and re-create for my game level in my own way, simple yet effective and visually appealing. 

Texture Tests

I have tried out various different textures to create my bump map, this will create more of a 3D texture on my mushroom, otherwise if it was just the basic colour it would appear too flat and not have enough dimension to it. To create the bump maps I gathered different textures from http://www.cgtextures.com/ (a site where you can obtain and use textures for free) and then desaturated them on Photoshop for it to be then inputed within Maya. By adjusting the bump depth attribute you can change how much of the texture is shown, in other words this value can change how 'bumpy' the texture is. It is better that the bump mapping is quite subtle as it is very easy to go overboard with this, the slightest change in value can drastically change the look of it. It took me awhile to get the right texture and to figure out how best it was to layout within Photoshop. I realised that you would have to tile the texture quite a few times to achieve the right consistency and also you must use the clone stamp or healing brush tool to cover up any gaps in between.

The next two images are the textures that I preferred the most, they look more natural than the previous two, even though this giant mushroom tree is on an alien planet, it is still an organic form so the texture still needs to be appropriate. These two textures were originally from tropical trees and I think they both fit quite well. I have decided to use the bottom one as the the texture wraps round the stems better and makes it more cylindrical, I think I will have to adjust the bump depth though as at the moment, it is a bit too prominent. 

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.

Goldfish Crackers Ad

I recently came across this advert and realised there was a whole campaign to promote Goldfish Crackers. Blur Studios created season 4 which included 10 different commercials, developing off the story that ended from season 3. It's not only promoting the brand but is also telling a story which can get people interested and to keep up with each episode. Even though each episode is only about 30 seconds long, everything has been executed to such a high standard, composition and layout, textures, animation, lighting, nothing has been missed out.

Leo Santos was the director and supervising animator for season 4, "Each Goldfish character has a distinct personality, from exuberant to adventurous, and the animation really brought them to life. It was important that each could be expressive in close-up shots and they needed to talk and emote with believability. We worked very carefully on the character rigging, color and textures to give them a lifelike feel," (link here). Even though they are crackers, they still hold the properties of an actual fish when it's underwater. One part really demonstrates this well, as the toys come to a sudden stop and pile on top of each other, the goldfish as if they were underwater come to a stop at a lesser degree but then float/swims down off them. When you watch the other episodes you do see that each goldfish has its own personality and this is also portrayed through their actions. The model for the goldfish is pretty simple, yet the animation of them flows really well and makes them seem quite life-like and more believable as a character.

What I find really clever is the fact that, when the camera goes inside the hoover bag, the dust that has built up has been made to resemble coral, the lighting and textures make this area seem more like an underwater place. I didn't notice this at first, but after watching it back it makes sense and works really well. A lot of time and effort went in to making this commercials, 3 months of pre-production and 9 months of animation for the whole season. Just the textures alone are so well done, in episode 3 especially there are real close ups of the carpet and sofa and you can see all the threads and fibres that make up the material. It's astonishing really how something can look so life-like yet fit so well into an animated/cartoon like feature. I'd love to be a part of animating a feature film one day, but even working on commercials like these, I would be really happy with. They are story driven and the attention to detail is spot on.

UV Mapping Tests

In order for me to get a better idea of what textures and colours will best suit the mushroom I will first test out several possibilities and decide from there. Using the colours off my concept art I quickly painted my texture onto the mushroom UV map, from here I then applied the texture within Maya and exported it out into Unity. In Unity I was then able to add in another texture which I then turned into a normal map. This would add a texture onto the mushroom and make it appear more 3D than just using the basic diffuse option. By selecting bumped specular on the mushroom shader that was imported in, you can add bump maps or normal maps. The texture helps it out a lot but obviously, this was just really quick and I will experiment with more textures to see what is better. I will also try doing it within Maya as this would be easier than exporting it each time, however I will only be able to do bump maps as right now I am not fully sure how to create a normal map within photoshop. Normal maps are of a higher level detail than bump maps, I will try using bump maps and exporting into Unity to see which is better.

Top image is the shader within Maya, using a light to highlight certain areas. Middle image, bumped specular shader. The bottom is something I came across, a self illuminating shader. There are many different types of these so to correspond to the previous I chose the bumped specular one under this option. My whole idea is for the mushrooms to glow - there is a script you can import into Unity, however this is only available in the Pro version so to try this out I would have to do it at uni. For now however I tried out this shader and it looks alright, it's not as glowing as I would have hoped for, however it does accentuate the colours, you have to add in another texture for the illuminate so I would assume that if I got this more correct the result should be a lot better. There is a lot to be done and I can see why that this section of the game will take the longest as especially, this is the first time where I have done anything like this. For now though I think I'm heading along the right tracks, I just need to experiment more and adjust the colours from my original concept art in order for them to blend into one another better. 

Final Mushroom

So I have now built my mushroom cluster in Maya for the final version. The shape remains quite similar to my test, however now it is more refined and I have also been able to reduce the poly-count by quite a bit. Previously on my test the whole cluster came to around 2000 polys, yet now even with stairs including it is only 1430. I deleted any unnecessary edges once I had the desired shape and this reduced the polys more. By keeping the geometry neat and tidy it makes UV mapping a lot easier and easier to adjust if needs be.

It took me awhile to get the steps in the right place as I have to go back an forth between Maya and Unity in order to see if it would work when playing or not. I also had to move around the mushrooms from their original place so that the steps would reach them. When it goes into Unity I will put an invisible asset over the stairs so it should enable the player to walk over them without having to jump every step, as this would get tedious and annoying after awhile. I think I may also do the same around the whole mushroom to stop the player from falling down as if you only got halfway it would be also be annoying if you had to go all the way back up again.

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.