Story Project One

For this project, I was tasked with going through the standard process of creating a small animated short film, from the initial character design phase all the way up to a full animatic. We were given the rule of having our characters be living inanimate objects. No human characters were allowed. Given this rule, I decided to make my world fully consist of living shapes. My story was called Lost Love. A heart who terrorizes others with his love of pranks finally realizes that his interests can have devastating outcomes. After a small child is hurt from one of his pranks, he has to face a very difficult decision that could change him forever.

Animatic:



Overall, creating the animatic was probably one of the easier things to do for this project. All I had to do was simply throw all of the storyboard shots in Premiere and line them up with their timings, which ended up working out very nicely. The one main issue I had was getting sound effects. I went to one website and set up an account, only for it to have a download limit of 3. I went to a second website which required an account and other licensing things. Then I finally went to a third website that didn't have too many sound effects that I was looking for, so I eventually just had to make do. However, other than that, the animatic wasn't too difficult.

Storyboard:


The storyboard was probably one of the more difficult sections of this project for me, and the one that took the most amount of time. I'm not the best at drawing or perspective, and some of the shots I had in mind really challenged those aspects for me. Also, there are so many things that go into storyboards including camera movements, character movements, character actions, etc. which did tend to overwhelm me while doing this portion, which is why there is a bit of a lack of those different aspects within my storyboard. If I could improve on it I would, but I'm not sure if I'm fully cut out for it.

Beat Board:

Similar to the storyboard, I had a bit of trouble during the beat board process just because I'm not really too great at perspective and other such things. However, I did feel like I did a bit better on this and took less time to complete it simply because it didn't require all of the other technical aspects that storyboards need. It was a bit of a challenge to figure out what to draw for the big plot points based off of the beat sheet, but it ended up not being too bad once I got startedd.

Character Construction and Models:

I think doing the designs and models for the main character was the most enjoyable part of this assignment for me. I originally got the idea for the character from a little drawing game my friends and I played while in art class that had us designing bosses for a video game that had a "cute" look to them. I partly based this design off of that, and I was very happy with it. I like the idea of a living HEART being so evil looking, despite what we normally associate a heart with. It was a little difficult keeping proportions correct, especially when drawing him in different poses, but overall, I was pretty happy with the turnout.

Script:

The script wasn't actually too bad to do honestly. Once I had my beat sheet and beat board done, the story slowly, but surely creeped its way out, and ended up being pretty straightforward. For my story I wanted it to have no dialogue just to add to the whole "show, don't tell" idea and I'm not the best at creating compelling dialogue. This script did also challenge me though because it made me think harder about what the actions and movements of the characters should be and how they are beneficial or useful for the plot.

Loglines, Plot Summary, and Beat Sheet:

Unlike the script, the beat sheet was a little more tricky. It was a bit difficult for me to figure out 5 different key points within a 1 minute short film. However, once I got a logline in, which took some hard thinking, it started to slowly come to me. It was difficult figuring out the 5 key points since I felt they needed to have a big enough impact to be placed within those different areas, which made coming up with what to say a bit of a challenge. Once the 5 beat sheet points and the logline were done, the plot summary was a piece of cake.

Overall:

Despite the many trials and challenges I had to tread through to get through this assignment, I feel it turned out decently well. Things like the storyboard and beat boards were challenging because I'm not very good at perspective and drawing in general, but I managed to push through and deliver a good enough product. It would be interesting to revisit this story again and see how I could improve it in the future because I do like the concept that I went with, but I do feel like it could use a little bit more work before it can really shine.

Game Environment Scene Powerpoint

Game Environment Scene Part 5: The Final Product

Finally, the project is complete. Over a month was spent on this project, and it turned out quite well. We, as a group of 3, were tasked with modeling and texturing one building each from the three video games to choose from, those being Overwatch, The Last of Us, and Zelda BoTW. We chose Ilios from Overwatch at the beginning of this project as we really like the design and look of the map.

The building I chose is one of the main capture points on the map: the lighthouse. This did seem a bit daunting to me at first, especially since I chose the only building out of us three that had an actual interior. I started the first week finding references for this model, as well as taking pictures in-game to get different angles that weren't provided online. The following weeks were dedicated to modeling, UVing, and texturing, with the last week being used for finishing touches.

I did the bottom portion first since it was more complicated and I wanted to just get it out of the way. I originally tried modeling it with the inside, but that ended up being too hard to do, especially to get the UVs all matched up correctly. To remedy this I just put doors on it. I did my own custom edge bricks in Photoshop, as well as some texture for the trims along the tops and bottoms of both parts of the building.

I did the lighthouse portion last as it was a much easier thing to model. Both of these took most of the weeks allocated for the project, this somewhat due to the fact that I'm not the best at Maya and my time management was pretty bad. Also, because of my other classes, it was hard to balance this project. I did also run into a major crash at one point, causing me to lose a lot of progress towards the last two weeks for the project, which made me have to rush some portions (mostly textures).

I did two texture sets since it allowed me to get more quality out of my model, despite me having to rush them within the last week before the due date. I would've taken a lot more time had that crash not happened to me so far into the project.

Overall, I feel this project (despite having to rush a few things in the last week and a few disagreements/stress) turned out quite well in the end, and maybe in the future I'll revisit this model and give it some fine tuning to make it look great.

Game Environment Scene Part 4: Finished Model and UVs

I got all of my UVs finished for my model, with a few things being added to the model. I decided not to do the extra brick thing for the corners of the building as that would end up taking a lot more geometry and time that I need. I also ran into a huge roadblock during my work, which was Maya finally crashing for the first time ever for me, so I ended up losing a lot of progress and resulting in much not being able to be finished. I plan on using as much time as possible to get back to where I got to over the break. Over the break I was able to completely finish my model, but due to that crash, I don't have too much done since last time.

I got the top railing in, which ended up taking quite awhile to get each one evenly spaced (I ended up having to use a calculator and using a math problem to find the exact halfway point between two different poles, which ended up taking quite awhile due to all the poles needed). Now, in the actual game, there are cross-hatches that fill in each space like this:

Due to my crash with Maya, I ended up not having time to get those in again, which I plan to implement once I have more time. Thankfully I have all of my UVs done, so texturing should be a piece of cake. Despite my model still needing some texture, I plan on putting it into Unity just to see how it compares in size against my other group members' buildings to see if it needs an increase or decrease in size. I also finished the tower, but ended up leaving out some of the circular railings as I could not find an easy way to implement that in a way where it was even all the way around. Also, I didn't want my tri-count to be too high.

Game Environment Scene Part 3: More Modeling

I managed to get most of my models and UVs done since my last post, and now I'm in the process of texturing and painting for my models. Also, I plan on doing a few more small adjustments to my models themselves since I'm not completely satisfied with them right now. I may possibly add some extra "bricks" to get the bricks into my photo that are shown in the image below, but I'm going to test out bump maps first.

My tri count right now is just a little over 2000, which is pretty good, but I'd like to keep it as low as possible. Below are a few textures that I've selected for my building specifically, with some others within our group being shared. I also plan on getting some brushes to add a few extra details to textures that may be a little bland without extra detail.

Over Thanksgiving Break, I'm not going to be doing a whole lot, but I want to utilize any free time that I have to work on this project, and, if I'm lucky, get my model finished and textured, with a little small details thrown in for good measure. Also, I finally adjusted the top of the lighthouse to fit the original model a lot more, which already looks much better.

Game Environment Scene Part 2: Beginning of Models and References

For this part, I was tasked with beginning my modeling process. To really start this process, I had to get reference, and most of the images online didn't have good angles or looks at the building I am modeling, so I had to actually go in-game to gather reference.

I ended up taking a bunch of different screenshots in-game using the spectator mode that Overwatch has to get all angles of the lighthouse that I plan on modeling. Also, the spectator mode within the game allows me to look fully vertical downards, so I utilized this to get the texture of the roof tiling on the building, and I have plans to get the textures for the walls.

I plan on getting a lot more modeling and UVing done after this point, but I felt like I was struggling a bit to really figure out how to model certain things, such as the doorways into the lighthouse as well as the edges and bevels. I will most likely looks up some tutorials and ask for help to help me figure these problems out. Overall, I just hope to get my problems sorted out so I can utilize my time more efficiently.

Game Environment Scene Part 1: The Blocking

For this project, we are tasked with modeling a few buildings from a choice of three different games, those being Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Last of Us, and Overwatch. We are able to be in a group of three for this project. My group and I all agreed on doing a few buildings from the map Ilios from Overwatch since the buildings stand out with lots of bright colors and they seem much easier to model over more complex buildings that would be present in the Last of Us.

I chose to model the lighthouse on Ilios, one of the main capture points on one of the versions of the map. I wanted to model this since it is a main point of interest on the map and doesn't seem to hard to model.

For our scene, we plan on having that building, as well as two buildings chosen by my group members, and if everything works out right, we'll model the giant pit in the center that is one main part of another version of the map.