3D Castle - Box Modelling



In lesson we began to learn about box modelling and the advantages that it produces. Box modelling is useful for a variety of tasks and we learnt how it is vital in everyday model and how most models begin as boxes and modelled up and further. We also learnt how to work with bevel and extrude and I used this to get some more detailed aspects of the castle I created, such as the windows and wall beams. I would have liked to have made more effort and tried to add more to the door and some steps leading to it which I began but never finished. Next time I will aim to take more time and add more detail to my designs.

If I compare this to anothers work, such as the work provided here:

http://portfolio.chrishanrath.com/projects/xl_castle.jpg

I can see how alot more time was put into this particular model. I would have liked to have created by something similar to this and I believe I could create something like this with my attained skills. I particular like the gate and the portcullis that is used in this model, and the roofing is pretty neat aswell.

Mr.Heartless - 3D Character

This is my 3D character design that I first drew up on paper and then built into 3DS Max. The intial design was simple as I was only able to use Standard Primitive shapes. I am though, unhappy with the general outcome of the model, as I tried to make it look more realistic and fluid instead of rather blocky and simple looking.

Next time will add a more fluid effect to the model and morph the shapes so I can make them look more like the actuall parts of the body, such as shoes and hands. Event the Torso.

3D Robot

This is the 3D robot I created during our second 3D Lesson. I used 3DS Max to create this robot, and used a variety of Standard Primitive Shapes aswell as some extend Primitives, such as the arms and legs where made by the hose shape.

On my robot I went and customised it a little further by adding in a material to the chest plate and adding a single cone onto the top of it's head. I am happy with the overall outcome and would like to progress further and create something less blocky and use alot more customisation with shaping and smoothing.

Above is the screenshot of the four panel view window is 3DS Max. It shows the wireframe in three frames so you gain a much better idea on how it is put together with a variety of shapes. The lesson overall was productive and useful and helped me gain a better understanding of the 3D world, and also much more confidence.

Neon City Project

Neon City is a project that I have been building, knocking down, making better and crying about for the last 7 months. It is a huge text-based mafia based city game where the player takes the role of a single individual within a vast city. They most work there way to the top by building up there stats, gaining money, buying into businesses, properties even marrying. Joining up with player crews and factions and even becoming the mayor of the city as voted by the people.

Neon City is also a constantly expanding realm that is aimed to provide a community based enviroment for players to gather and talk to each other about there interests and such at the same time as playing the game. The game will hold a variety of tools, such as;

- Casino (And the ability to own casinos and rename/change prices/ban players/employ Wokers) <- Owners.
- Attacking/Killing (Rather Shooting, Beating any player that dare get in your way).
- Level up and apply stats to help increase your character.
- Earn Money.
- Buy Player Houses and the Like.
- Buy into businesses and employ other players.
- Run gangs and factions fit with there own custom ranking system designed by you the player.
- So So So Much more...

Expanding on such I have decided to upload a few screenies of the development progress of this project. Below you can see the main interface of the game. Some may not believe that such interfaces take quite some time to build. The general look and feel is all done in CSS minus the general HTML side of things. What I had to take into account while I am building the interface is user capability, how easy it is to navigate, and how much resource it will be gathering as a heavy load often leads to players leaving.

 

Below is the interface without the CSS stylesheet applied. As you can see the styling makes a huge difference to the overall design and usuability of the general interface.

  

While this is knuckling into the designing of web based systems, it still provides an inkling into general understanding of designs and gets you into thinking about users, especially those wtih difficulties in sight who might not be able to see links aswell, so you have to balance design and usuability. Which is something I personally find difficult and time consuming.

I do like to compare my web design and sites to other sites. A -rival- game you could say which I based my design quite heavily upon would be Mafia Death. 

  

This is a rather complex design but I personally believe it works well. It isn't too bright and easy on the eyes. Although some aspects are rather narrow and small the general overlook is a good one and it is why I based my website design on this one.  Another rival game site would be torn city and you will see a huge influx in there design, and once I would refer to as a bad design. (While simplistic it is rather small and hard to navigate, yet how the site gains around 50k + players a day beats me.)

  

As you can see a rather simplistic and rather robust design. It isn't fancy, which in some cases is good, but neither is it attractive either. I have found in the market of the current web design industry that design has a huge impact on first impression of what a visitor would think, and such is that if they think your design looks shabby they tend to leave, especially if this is a web game as players tend to both believe you to be a malicious user after vital details or just believe you to be a shabby coder and not capable of protecting your user data. First impression are vital. 

NEW UPDATE OR RATHER REBUILD WILL BE UP ON THE WEBSITE.
Link to Website HERE!

Unit 19 - Desktop Project Collage

 

Above is my collage compilation for the Desktop Project. This collage represents the four main genres within the gaming industry. Horror, Sci-Fi, War and Fantasy. I collected these images from magazines and pasted them down onto paper which I believe represented these genres well.

We have discussed and covered the four genres in detail and even realised how alot of games multi-cross genres such as War and Sci-Fi. Also we realised how games cross into sub-genres aswell such as FPS, RTS and RPG.

Horror: Thrills and Jumps is what horror is all about. Freakish beasts and gored bodies. Not for the faint hearted.

Sci-Fi: Space, Adventure, Quest. The Sci-Fi genre is generally futuristic and involves large ships, plasma weapons of varied amount and lots of space like aliens and soldiers. Famous Sci-Fi games would be Halo, Mass Effect and Crisis. 

War: War games generally involve alot of shooting and taking over command points. It involves majority of the time the army and war time, although some war games can involve a stratgey type view and branch off into many different sub catogories like RTS, FPS and even Mutiplayer. 

Fantasy: Fantasy involves a medieval timeline most of the time although it doesn't nessarily have to follow those guidelines. The general meaning of fantasy is in it's word meaning it can be anything abnormal and unique. Most Fantasy games follow a story and a somewhat sort of RPG element. I like to think of Fantasy Games as a Opposite type over Sci-Fi.

Compared to a variety of Collages that where created, I would like to compare mine with Joe Connells. (http://wolfsaiyan.blogspot.com/). Joe has incorporated a orgranised design to his collage, while I on the other hand did a more free scape collage. With this though, his collage is easily distinguishable as which area is which as mine is more of a artwork piece. But the parts are generally both easily understandable by the quality of the images that where used in both blogs.

3D Models and Plans from Mass Effect

Mass Effect created by BioWare is a massive 3D RPG. It incorporates alot of visulization into it's games aswell as VFX and the like, the most interesting and by far breath taking thing about Mass Effect is the 3D models. I have chosen one in particular I found to be simplistic but at the same time, interesting.

The Normandy is the ship the player spends quite some time aboard. I found this intial sketch from google that shows in quite details the level and different segments that is involved with the ship. I would see this though as a general design and something a developer may pass onto the modeller for them to try and create. I found this render to be rather simplistic but effect. It had a nice streamline look and really gave me as a viewer a more interesting feed into the world I was entering.

http://3d.dtuts.com/3d-tutorials/creating-normandy-sr1-in-3ds-max/

 

I found this untextured model aswell from google. This shows the rendered model after it was created. So far no textures have been created onto the model, but can get the general idea. If you look at the above sketch and then to this you can see how the author has used the different segments involved in the sketch and used this to create the model. Also on how close it is to the sketch which means that the model was based on the above sketch.

The above link also had an awesome set of images and explanation reguarding the creation of the normandy based upon that image. I will place a few of the images below as reference. All this images stem from the same link above the sketch design.

 

I found this image interesting as it shows the basic creation of the Normandy. Using the sketch images as a blueprint for the design.  This shows the basic building of the skeletal structure of the model.

Above is the first finished segement of the model. Before of course any texture is added to it. You can see from the image above it that is has been extruded out and made into more of a smoother shape rather than keeping the static polygon shape it had before. 

 

I like the above image as it shows how it is building off of the general design behind it. Rather like builders build off the blueprints of a house. This is interesting to look at and gives me a more in depth look at the way models for games are created.

Finally the finished product will look something like this.I found the end result to be breath taking and really enjoyed reading through the little tutorial on how this is built.

First 3D Modelling Session

In todays lesson was an interesting one, as we delved into the software of 3DS Max. We was taught how to do some very basic functions within the program such as create basic shapes and rotating and moving objects around the screen. It was very interesting being able to create objects and the like.

Out next task was to create an absract 3D design, by using different shapes and rotating them around the screen and moving them to create a rather abstract design. I wanted to delve alittle deeper so I added a few materials to my plane and attempted to add a sky material by incorporating a sphere over the whole plane and trying to add an image to such. Unfortunatly I could not find a way to invert the sphere, or figure out how to use the Mirror Modifier to turn around the selection. My next goal would be to create a interesting material sky to add a more realistic feel to the whole scene.

My Favourite Game - Neverwinter Nights

 

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/reviews/pc/neverwinter-nights-2/

Neverwinter Nights

Neverwinter Nights is one of my all time favourite RPG's period. The base game itself is not what interests in either the first or the second one, but rather the multiplayer and the development toolkit that is provided with both games that allow the creation of modules and custom content that can then be placed online on NWN specific servers run by gamespy. 

The game was created off the aurora engine, a engine /toolset created by Bioware and used only for the NWN 1 game creation. NWN 2 created by obsidian uses the Electron Engine used only for NWN 2.

The reason I like this game is due to the great community involved with the games, also the fact that it allows me to delve deep into the engine used to create it and forge my own creations, and even delve into the scripting language used by the them allowing me to create fully custom and interesting creations that I can share with an online community of around 500 players daily. 

Above this the other module creations are of very interesting developments and can allow for hours of honest fun, and role-play that allows you also to really get into creating your character and history which is just fun if you have the hours to spare on such games. 

Aurora Toolset Video

Introduction

Welcome to my Games Development Blog. This is a compilation of my work over the next two years on the BND Games Development course. This blog will hold all my concept art, designs, videos and any upcoming work that I may produce in the next two years.

Over the next two years I hope to achieve alot in terms of my skills, and goals within a gane industry standard work load. I would like to be able to comfortably be able to build and render a quality standard 3D model and then be able to from there animate and use it to create a trailer or in the end use it as a part of a larger project based around the actual creation of a game.

I also in time would like to increase my knowledge in the game industry so in the future I can use this to help be gain a foothold when the time comes to creating or running my own projects. I wish to increase my knowledge in my key area of programming as well so by the end of the two years I can confortably program objects and functions that will help with the game creation.