UDK Update - Crystal Clear

Hi there! So I thought I 'd do a quick update of what I've been doing in UDK over the last few weeks. I've been having some troubles with the collisions in this game engine and I've tried several ways of making them work but all seem to have one problem or another. I decided to start decorating my scene because I was getting quite far behind with the layout because of the collision problems. I have 2 weeks left before the deadline so I think I have to move quite sharpish to get this finished on time as well as get my character Seba finished as well. here are a few images of what I've got so far, some bits are still a little blocky however.

So basically I just laid out the floating islands and began playing with the foliage brush. So far I think it works quite well but I'm looking forward to getting all the other meshes that people have made for me in just to add some difference to the environment. I also need to add more of the trees when one of the artists is done with it. I get the feeling that texturing is going to be difficult as guiding people towards a certain style is much harder than I first anticipated and it's quite strenuous on me as I've agreed to make far more textures than I initially decided to do, just to be sure that people know what kind of style they're going for. But oh well, I suppose every director gets that at some point in their projects!

Thanks for reading :)

Website

Hi there! I've created a website a couple of months ago that has all of my work on it and I though I'd make a post about it to up the viewings ;). I came up with the name Greenworks as a play on my surname and thought I'd also put it on my blog (as you can see above!). I've had this website for quite a while now but I've not got to the level that I feel I'm happy with (even if it does need a few more changes!). I might still change it a bit to make it look a bit nicer than it currently does. I might change the top bar to look more like the bar on this blog and change the current logo so it looks different. 

So if you're interested in looking at a few more of my completed works, please feel free to have a quick look and leave me some tips if you think I can be corrected :):

www.angharadgreen55.wix.com/gameart

Thanks :)

Sprite Update - 3D

Hi there! So while I was waiting for 3DS Max to download I began making my 3D version of my sprite character. I haven't done that much so far but I've pretty much completed the body and started on the head. I'm not really sure whether or not to model a mouth in or have it as a texture so I'll see after I've modelled the head whether or not it would look better with or without. I also want to make the texture a little see through so you can see an acorn inside the character but so far I haven't done anything for an acorn yet.

The ball to the side is the kind of shape face I'm going for. I haven't finished on the body yet but this is a vague idea of what I've been doing with it. I think maybe I need to change the legs a bit but I'm pretty happy with it so far and I feel I'm getting to grips with making body shapes in Maya now. I'm not so happy with the face however but I'll edit that as I go along and try to improve it for next time. Just a quick update at the moment :)

Thanks for reading :)

UDK Update

So I started putting things into UDK (still trying to figure it out a bit!). I can't seem to get a collision mesh working with the Maya FBX format in UDK so I've been having to import into 3DS Max and exporting it as an ASE format, which is the most annoying thing in the word. I'm not really sure what's wrong with it. I get the feeling it has something to do with the way I'm doing my collision mesh but I've been told to do it one way so I'm going to stick with it. I have a collision working on one of my floating islands but not on anything else yet. My internet is being terrible and I have to download 3DS Max again so I'm being delayed currently so I though I'd make another update. I started with one size:

I though this was a suitable size but then I realised the player was taller than the door to the temple so I decided to make it bigger.

I then edited the size so it was big enough for the player and it came out like this which looks a lot better in my opinion. I like the fact that the temple is towering over the player and the statue is now almost fading into the distance in mist. I going to try and get a lot more into UDK over this week (If it will allow me to that is!) I need to edit the rest of the islands that another from my team has given me so they are walk able and try to get it all working so I can open the damned file without a problem. Hopefully I'll figure it out!!

Thanks for reading :)

Crystal Clear Update

Hi there! So over this last week I've been on holidays but I managed to get some work done. I changed my last grass texture to something else as I was told by a lecturer that the grass was a little too long. I made a new texture (which took forever!) and a new mud texture to add to the underneath.

So these are what my current textures look like, I'm still not sure which mud texture to go for yet however. I think I prefer the top mud texture but I think maybe it's a little to crowed. Still unsure about it so far. I'm am however really happy with my grass texture so far (all those hours were worth it!). I think I might try and add something else to it to add a bit of difference to the grass. At the moment I need to start working on some of the other sample textures and adding everything to UDK for the final thing. I'm panicking about it a little but hopefully UDK will be kind to me and not be too difficult to use! I'll keep this blog updated :)

Thanks for reading :)

Crystal Clear Progress

Hey there! So over this Easter holidays I've started texturing some of the assets for my 3rd year game 'Crystal Clear'. It's pretty basic at the moment as I only have bark and I'm working on grass at the moment but I'm struggling a bit with it. I used a model that Rhys Wyn Jones (http://plugingagaulla.blogspot.co.uk/) made for the project and I applied the bark texture to it. I'm currently a little confused about where to go with the textures as I want my environment to be stylised but I'm not sure how stylised to make it or what really ties in with each other. I'll put them up here and any criticism is welcomed as I'd really like to get these textures going well. I'm using World of Warcraft as an example at the moment, I really like how the textures have been made in the most recent expansion 'Mists of Pandaria'. Here are a few examples I really liked:

I really like the tree, grass, mud and wooden textures in this game and I love how vivid the colours are, so I'm trying to go for this kind of texturing. So far I have these textures:

I'm not happy with the grass currently so I think I'm going to change it and make the grass blades smaller but I think I'm quite happy with the outcome of the bark and the flower (even though I think the flower need some tweaking). I also started adding my objects to UDK:

We're able to run around in this environment and look at the surroundings. I plan to make most of the objects in before the end of the Easter holidays but there is rather a lot to put in so we'll see how that goes. I'm on holiday next week so I might not be achievable really. I suppose we'll see. 

If you have anything to say about my textures please do so, I'd like to know if they can be improved :) Thanks for reading :)

Business module

Hey there! I recently handed in the first part of my business module so I thought I'd make a post of it. I made a visual CV, cover letter, business card and an ultimate image. I'll post my business card and ultimate image here as my CV and cover letter are rather boring :P. I also created a pixel version of myself. I also now have a website: www.angharadgreen55.wix.com/gameart

Business card:

(Sorry I don't think giving my number out is such a good idea :P)

I went with the same design as my website and blog and put 'Greenworks' as I thought it would be good to tie everything in together. I also used a sketch I made recently for another character I'm working on. I made her black and white because I though it would work better for the design as the green in the 'Greenworks' would then draw the eye much more. I'd like to get them printed onto a nice grainy paper with rounded edges but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get that done so I'll have to look into it. I am however quite happy with the outcome of this business card.

Ultimate Image:

The image on the left is the one I ended up using but the one on the right is the image I was initially going to   use. I chose to re-do this because I felt it didn't show off all of my abilities enough. I wanted to show off more of my designs, so I came up with that. I didn't really draw myself very well but it's always difficult to draw yourself really. Anyway, I'm thinking of using both to my advantage anyway as I'm going to use both on my website. 

Pixel me:

This is the pixel drawing of myself that I'm going to try and use as much as possible as I really like it. I feel as though it makes me look like a retro gamer as I do like those games, they were a big part of my childhood. I've always wanted to do pixel art just never really had the reason or time to do so, this it seems was the perfect excuse ;) 

Thanks for reading :)

Crystal Clear World

So to begin with for the game world I was creating for an idea called 'Crystal Clear', I wanted a waterfall scene with floating islands that hung above the water basin with swirling mists below. I also wanted a statue of a goddess with several arms under the waterfall with a temple above on the main floating island. I also wanted all of the islands to interlink once an amulet had been assembled on an alter at the side of the cliff, this allows the player to walk up to the temple. I built the rest of the world based around this scene, it being the pinnacle of the games beauty. I have rather a few rough sketches of the area but not any one really worth showing so I'll show you the end results of my concept designs for the game world :).

This was the first digital design I came up with for the waterfall scene, with help from Sean Nash (wwwseannash.blogspot.co.uk)! As a quick concept of the kind of idea I was looking for in this scene.

This one is another quick concept of a tree bridge over a crevice I wanted within the game. I really wanted to capture the light of this scene with an almost luminescent colour green and a pure blue sky. For this game I really want lush, bright colours, I want this game to be visual more than anything. 

This was another quick concept for a pathway amongst the trees. Again I wanted to have light colours that were lush and very vibrant, but I also wanted to give an idea of what it was like under the canopy in the jungle areas.

I made a quick few drawings to give myself an idea of what I was heading for design wise as I had a description of each area but not a visual. I liked the glowing effect that I got with a few of them especially the top middle.

These 3 are a few designs for the environment so the types of trees, flowers and crystals available in the game world. I wanted these examples to be tropical, colourful and interesting so I came up with these designs. My favourites are probably the crystal designs, but the middle row as they work really well for the environment I'm trying to achieve.

I then designed an inside for my temple which would be where a ritual would take place to be encased in crystal. I wanted there to be a sky roof  so the sunlight could come through and hit the crystal which would make for a good visual scene. I like how this drawing turned out as I like the light effects of the dust particles.

My last design was a rework of the waterfall statue where I decided to give the statue just the 2 arms as another artist that's working on this design felt that it went better this way than with several arms.

I have several more sketches but I feel they're not really good enough to show on this so I stuck with the best ones. I also had a few other artist designing some things but I haven't included them in this as it's not my work, this environment isn't as vague as it seems! I also have a design document to go along with this game but I doubt I'll put that up here. I'd love to do some more drawings for this world do I might just do that at some point. I do however have a map of the environment which I will sneak in:

This is the map in it's original size but I've narrowed the current project down to just the waterfall and temple area ;)

Thanks for reading :)

Main character of third year - Seba

Hey there, this is the blog post I've been dreading the most as I'm sure it's going to be the longest post. I wont bother putting up the research along with it as there's quite a lot of it :P. The idea I came up with was a story about a guy who was part of a tribe in a lost jungle, he is then chosen as a sacrifice to their god but the god decides to be merciful and keeps the male character. As the way he gets captured is within a crystal he is in stasis. He is then awoken by the heroine 80 years afterwards when a great plague has taken the land and killed most of the people within. The idea was going to be made into a game for my 3rd year project and it's going to be called 'Crystal Clear'. The idea was to create a beautifully made word and this was what the game would be concentrating on, visuals. I designed both characters but one more that the other since the game was going to be in first person so the 2nd character would be seen more. Here the first design I made for the female character. She's meant to be a witchdoctor like character.

This was the first design that I then worked on:

I made a few designs and then choose 3 of the middle top row ones. I then started to create a few hair designs and an initial face design:

I began with that hair style because I liked it the most and I attempted to stick to a style that the artist Mike Henry (his deviantart page is here! www.zatransis.deviantart.com/) draws in as I truly love his art style. I then decided to change my character due to my friends artwork who is also on this project, Sean Nash (http://wwwseannash.blogspot.co.uk/), and then I veered away from this kind of style and went for a slightly more realistic style.

 I began with this and then attempted to draw over it digitally. 

 I went with this kind of style in the end but felt the bottom left was my favourite so I elaborated on it. 

 I went with a nicer colour to the skin and more feathers with a younger and cuter looking face. I felt this design worked a lot better because it worked a lot better than the above designs. I liked the idea of feathers behind her ears and the ear plug. I then attempted to make designs for the rest of her.

I designed a few tattoo layouts for my character also, which came out as a mixture of Celtic, Maori, Native American, Aztec and a futuristic kind of style. I decided to go for an aztec/maori kind of style for her so I went with the far left design as I felt it most suited her body and wasn't too bulchy. 

I also decided to design a few of the favourite designs I had from the designs earlier in the post. I decided out of all of them that the left was my favourite as it was the best colour and design for the character.

 then deciding the top half was a little more difficult as I was drawn between the first and the middle drawing so as I pitched it to the group they all agreed I should combine both of these designs as this would work very well. And it turns out it did.

This was then the final design, I also designed a mask and spear for her also to go with the style of tribal. I felt that this design has worked out rather well and in making the 3D model at the moment it also works very well in 3D. It's been quite an adventure with this character and I believe she's helped me in becoming a better digital artist as I forced myself to draw digitally and it's help me get better. This is the first project that I've drawn digitally from scratch as I've always struggled in that before. I had to scan a hand drawn image in first then draw over it but this time I drew the full body character from scratch. hopefully this will be the first of many digital project I have! There are many other pages of design for this character but I chose the best and most essential pages :)

Thanks for reading :)