Panoramas, Probably One of the Hardest Projects

This time, we were assigned with what could be probably one of the hardest projects to me, just as the title of this post states. We were assigned with taking panoramas, and taking them is no easy feat. For my picture, I wanted to do something different from the rest. I decided to take a full, 360 degree panorama of Bidwell Park, and I turned it into what looks like it's own miniature planet. I wanted to go with something unique and different with this project, which I feel I did very well with. However, like I said before, this was very hard to produce. The original panorama consisted of 20+ images, making the width of the picture absolutely enormous, and then I had to blend every single one of those pictures together to produce a good looking panorama. That was probably the hardest part of the process (along with the heaps of time it took to edit this since it started out at 75000+ pixels wide). I was definitely worried when I was taking the pictures because I was thinking that the sky would get darker or I wouldn't get the right angles, but overall, I felt it came out very well. Along with stitching and blending, I also had to convert the image into a jpeg before adding the "planet" effect since that involved using a filter (polar coordinates). I definitely think this is an eye-catcher, and something you never really see when it comes to panoramic photography.

The 3D Platformer, First Edition

Well, here it is. For the first time in this class, we were tasked with diving into Unity and making one of our very own 3D platformers, using concepts and ideas learned throughout the course. Now, this was no means supposed to be perfect as we had to learn Unity as well made the map, so mine, as well as many others' maps weren't the greatest things in the world.

Now, my map had four major points that most of my playtesters either struggled with or pointed out throughout my level. Overall, they felt it was a good level with a good challenge, and they knew exactly where to go at every point. Starting with point 1, however, they felt it was a bit hard. The original instructions stated that this level had to be more of a tutorial level, so it was supposed to be quite easy. However, this first was very difficult for some people, with some getting stumped almost immediately (I thought it was pretty easy for me since I had been playtesting it nonstop while working on the level). Most of them felt that this was partly due to the lack of control of the camera, and how the only way to turn it was by turning the character, making it very disorienting and hard to jump onto small, more precise platforms. A suggestion that was made was to put some sort of platform below that you could land on if you missed a jump, making it easier to walk back to the start and try again rather than stopping the game and starting it up again, which I felt was a great idea. Also, someone suggested the the long pole type thing after the first four platforms seemed a bit too skinny, making it almost a game of luck when it comes to jumping on it because of the camera angle, so I plan on making it wider.

One of the next main problems of my level was at this middle point in my level (point #2 in the 2nd picture). There were two problems that people had, with the blue arrow being the first problem. Because of how the original standard ramp assets were designed, walking down them is a little weird, and it makes it pretty hard to jump when going down them. I wanted to include a jump over this wall at the bottom of this, but because of this flaw, many people had a hard time at this part, and had trouble getting over the jump, which leads into the red arrow. The red arrow points to where the player is required to go, but as you can see, you aren't able to see where you're going because of the static camera, which made it very confusing for my playtesters. Most of them were able to figure it out, but they honestly didn't really like this aspect. However, I plan on including a big red arrow that points down to lead the players to where they need to go, just so they aren't confused. Also, one of my playtesters thought it was a bit harder to play with the camera angle I have set, so I may tweak that a bit.

Circle #3 is around the stairs, and the main problem there was that the stair standard asset was broken for the third person controller, making it very hard to walk up them, sometimes even throwing the character off of the map. Circle #4 relates to a final set of platforms to reach the ending of the level, and most of my playtesters were able to complete it. However, with the standard assets, slanted platforms make the player character walk to the sides if only holding down the W key, making it harder to walk and jump from, so I have plans to make those easier. Overall, most of my playtesters thought this level was a good start, and with some tweaks, they feel it could be a lot better.

Motion, One of the Harder Projects

For this assignment, we were tasked with depicting motion through our images, whether that be showing motion blur, creating light trails, or freezing things in time, making them abnormal from reality. This assignment was a little tougher for me since there was a lot more technique involved in taking these kind of photos, but I did eventually get the hang of it. For this picture, I wanted to show the truck moving very fast towards the left, and I used the panning technique to do this. I intended on keeping the truck on the right side of the frame to show that it was moving to the left, and I feel like that, along with the blur and the white lines from the road can easily lead the audience to the main focal point. It was pretty difficult to get a good, in-focus picture such as this one since the subject is moving so fast, and once that subject is gone, you can't ever get the same subject again (unless you're very lucky of course). I didn't use very many Photoshop techniques except for some levels and brightness/contrast adjustments, but I did, however, add an unsharp mask, allowing me to paint out the truck and make it much sharper against the blurry background, just so it isn't lost in the blurry background. I think one of the only problems I really ran into was just the panning technique. For some, you can get really good pictures while others could all be trashed, so it was good practice for me and it allowed for more experimentation. Overall, I think I did pretty well, and I definitely plan on keeping this technique memorized for personal use.

Way Out West

For this assignment, we were tasked with making a storyboard for our partner (or art director) for a script that they chose. We had to follow a shot list that our partner created and had to draw the different shots as they were laid out. For this list, I decided to try my hand at drawing the thumbnails on pieces of paper instead of in Photoshop to see how my skills have improved, and so far, they were pretty decent. I do prefer paper over the tablet since I've always been accustomed to drawing on paper throughout my life, so I feel more confident doing it that way. I feel like I was able to tell the story well through these thumbnails, but for any that may have seemed confusing, I also helped explain them. The only problem I ran into was how detailed the shot list was that was given to me. The descriptions on this shot list were a little more vague, so some shots were a little confusing to figure out and I occasionally had to look at the original script to find out some more details. Also, I'm not too great at drawing certain high angles or low angles, so that was a challenge for me most definitely. My partner and I contacted each other just a few times for clarification, but it wasn't needed too much. Overall, I feel this was a decent start.

The Maze Part 2

For this next assignment, we were told to delve back into our original mazes and try to fix any glaring errors or bugs that may be present from the design of the level. It was also to help us practice how to finely tune any errors that we may have overlooked when designing the original map and it's concepts. As stated in my last post about this map, one of the bigger errors was the narrow passages that were present much more in my first iteration, making it very challenging to to get through some areas, with some even considering it unplayable. I ended up widening a majority of the pathways to help aid in movement and to not make the players mad at broken mechanics, which helped them enjoy the game much more. One of the main points that my playtesters made in this version of the map was that it was much more enjoyable just being able to move around much easier, and it felt a lot more open and not so claustrophobic to them.

My next main priority was the coin placement, and originally, my coin was placed in a way where it just felt weird to players (in the blue area), and they felt super confused about the whole thing, leading to some wondering how to even get the coin whereas others would consider it immersion and/or game-breaking. To combat this, I moved the end to the red area in the picture, and took the coin out of the fence. I also decided to make the fence a proper barrier, with the church graveyard now being an aesthetic instead of a playable area. This was a good decision as it helped my playtesters find a more clear path to the end, and having the end in sight of the players towards the beginning can help the players sense of how to get there, allowing the maze to be a bit easier.

The map went well with most of the playtesters, but there was still one flaw with my second map. I had placed a coin behind a small hour in the top left corner of the map in order to be a sort of "hidden coin", but the path to get to it, even though it was very small, was almost impossible to navigate through for most players, with some people getting stuck and not being able to even get out, making them have to either ask me for help or just having to start the map over again. I originally thought that this would be avoided since I was able to figure out how to move through narrow passages with ease, but that then made the level require prior skill and knowledge of how to move through narrow passages, which I didn't think about originally. I plan to fix this in my next iteration.

Overall, I think this is a much better upgrade to my original maze, with this maze being much more enjoyable and easy as opposed to my original version which was hard to move through and was very confusing. I think with a few more minor tweaks and the hidden coin removed, I feel this map could do a lot better.

The Main Portrait

For this assignment, we were tasked with taking a portrait of someone else, either to tell a story or to lead to the person's face. I don't really work too well with asking random people to take their picture, so I decided to take pictures of my friends. We needed to take at least 30 pictures for this assignment and the person HAD to know that their picture was being taken.

For this image, I wanted to tell a small story and inform viewers of the person's personality. I decided to do something where he was somewhat blocking his face with his hands in a "don't look!" sort of way, and I also wanted to include some of his smirk to help the audience relate to my subject and be more intrigued in the photo. What I really wanted to do in this photo was to use his hands as an artificial frame to frame around his single eye, helping the audience lead straight to that single focal point. I kept his eye in focus while his hands were more out of focus to help enforce this composition.

I managed to take this photo in one take, which turned out really well for a slower shutter speed. I made this image black and white and added some more contrast to keep any distracting colors out of the photo and keep the focus on the single eye, which actually follows rule of thirds quite well by being in the direct center of the image.

Overall, I think portraits may be one of my favorite kinds of images since you can do so much with them and make them so unique and different, and they're so much more recognizable when the image includes a person.

The Mafia Boss v1

For this image, I wanted to show a wide perspective of the room, allowing both the main character and the mob boss to be in the frame. I think this could have a profound effect since it shows us the character behind the mob boss, and it could show us how both characters react to each other. Also, I included the big window in the middle with the city in the background, giving us some background into the influence and power that the mob boss may have garnered. We see the mob boss with a hat and a cigarette, with his face being silhouetted from the viewers, making us wonder in this moment who the identity of the mob boss is. I kept this shot to a simple one shot perspective to keep both characters on the same plane to add some suspense and similarity.