This week was pretty boring honestly, because our project has suddenly become a waiting game. I did get the plants that go in the atrium from last week imported, but that was Monday. Since then, we have been in the process of moving all project assets to a new project file because an update caused all of our scripts to be outdated. This has halted pretty much all production for now, but also, I'm pretty much done with modeling anyway, and it's just time to get the scripting together (which has to be now completely redone). However, I did try to work on designing the invitations/posters for our showcase at the end of the year. I need to ask Mr. B for more specifics, but I started playing around with layout towards the end of the week. We had a portfolio review earlier in the week which also took up some of my time. Overall though, I would like this upcoming week to be more productive, so I think I'm going to follow some basic VRTK tutorials so that maybe I can help get this scripting done. It might not work at all, but hey, it's not terrible knowledge to have regardless, and it gives me something to do in an effort to help the project. Goals For Next Week:
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I simplified and textured these models that Julia created to go into the atrium. They're still about 4,000 polys each, which is NOT ideal but I do not feel like I am able to simplify them any further without seriously sacrificing the quality of the models, so I'm going to put them in the game as they are. I also finished some other simple models (just some display cases containing random objects to go in the atrium) which pretty much finishes my work for the year (once I import them of course). Once Julia gets done modeling the downstairs, I'll obviously have to help import and texture all of that as well, but we are really getting very close, which is good because we only have 35 days (including non school days) to get this project done. I hope we make it.
Mr. B also just told me that we need invitations for our showcase, so I'll likely be designing those since I don't have much else work that I can do. Goals for This Week:
This week was one that I thought would be pretty quick and easy, but of course, I was wrong. We only have a few more assets needed (maybe 6?) so I modeled and textured two of them very simply at the beginning of this week: the bookshelf and teacher desk. They're both low poly and I used a free to use texture that doesn't require attribution, so it was a very quick process. However, one of the other objects needed was a potted tree for the atrium. Julia modeled this and it looks fantastic! BUT it is 20,000 polys... so I'm back to simplifying, baby! I've been taken advantage of the feature that allows me to merge overlapping vertices. However, the trees still have quite a few polys, so I could see this taking me up to two weeks depending on how willing I am to sacrifice the quality of the tree. Once I get that done though, Julia should be done with the downstairs of the building and all of the 3D Modeling should be (for the most part) done. We're getting so close, and I'm really excited to have a finished game. I feel like we're going to succeed (don't worry I knocked on wood...), which is always a good feeling. Goals For Next Week:
This week, I got the chairs simplified and textured, made some weird fish art, and then spent some time making textures for posters that would go around the school. I personally think that the chairs look pretty good, even if they aren't so real to life. I decided low poly count was more important than realism in this particular case, so that's what I did. I still need to send them over to Ryan via flash drive though, but since I'm writing this in class, I may still get that done today. The fish art is a model made to resemble an art project that is done at our school a lot. I also made these goofy posters to go around the school, with messages that fall under the category of "ominous positivity." I may remake the dog and chicken one, because both of those images do require attribution and it may be better to use images that do not. However, at the same time, this game is never leaving this room, so if they aren't attributed in a game that was made strictly for our own education, well, I don't think it's as unethical. I will definitely attribute them here though.
This week was pretty relaxed, I spent all of it relearning how to UVW Unwrap, and making textbook textures. So far I've only finished a chemistry and biology textbook, but now that I have the base figured out, I could easily make other books if we want more. However, I think instead I'm going to try to work on making some bookshelves or other furniture for the new building. I need to discuss with my team what objects we really need right now, because we're getting close to the end. Goals For Next Week:
Although this week was cut short by illness and playtesting (which I will make a seperate post about) I did manage to get the pig textured! Well... sort of... There are some surface issues, BUT! It isn't entirely my fault this time! I went back to the old, fully polyed models, and they still had some weird spots when textures were applied (though far fewer...). Anyways, I don't think it's something worth fixing at this point in production unless I can find an easy fix, or if it really bothers one of my team members. I made all of the textures metallic because I thought it made the pig look sharp and scary, but this may change depending on computer capabilities (lag) and my teammates' preferences. Goals For Next Week:
For the past half year, I have not really touched any bit of scripting in game design. As someone who has been primarily pursuing art both in and out of class, it makes sense that I wouldn't do much coding, but as someone whose second choice of career would be programming, it does not make sense at all.
And I can genuinely say I miss it. My current work in CTE advanced studies is - while pretty fun to me - pretty time consuming but simple work. I mostly simplify polys of models Julia has made. There's no art in that. But I do enough art outside of class to still be creatively fulfilled. However, though poly simplification often is like a puzzle, it's an easy one. I am not fulfilled with challenges involving logic. Obviously I can not expect this fulfillment to come from class at this point though. That would mean asking people who are currently way less rusty than me to sacrifice the quality - or at least speed at which said quality is made - of the game for me to just have fun. Then, though I would have enough logic-based work to be happy, the lack of progress/working game would make me unhappy. So, this means it's time for independent, outside of school coding time. I haven't decided what I want to do for sure yet, but I think I'm down to three options
Basically, I'm hoping to get back into coding, and though I don't have an exact plan for how to do that just yet, I want to get there by Christmas so that I can start working on a project to sharpen my skills again.
This week was literally just the chicken simplification. Need I say more? But seriously, I did make the file size much more manageable and found the smoothing tool to be very helpful, and the chicken is now as done as it's going to be (unless there are major problems). My other teammates also moved to getting scripting done! Moving forward is kind of scary because I have to texture a complex object. Either it will be UVW unwrapped in Photoshop (hopefully) or each part will be individually textured with Unity and exported as a Unity asset package (back up plan). Either way, it will be a challenge but it will get done. Goals for Next Week:
My progress meeting with Mr. B was really quick. He seems to be happy with the progress that we're all making. I took a break from working on the upstairs new building too much this week because I wanted to get the chicken simplified so that Sam can start working on the animation and so that Ryan has a model to use when he is trying out pursuit scripts. So far it has gone pretty well, but I realized that even though they were the first things I simplified, the feet still have 2,000 vertices! That's a lot, especially considering that the entire object now has 9,000 vertices. Originally it had around 12,000 polys, so I'm happy with my progress, but I need to get it to even fewer if we want the game to not be a laggy mess. Goals for Next Week:
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AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
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