New Website in the Works

So, for my next order of business, I decided to start revamping my website. Right now, it's about to have it's second birthday. Two years. Crazy to think that it's been almost two years since I graduated. So anyway, it's been collecting cobwebs and definitely needs some sweeping, so here's some pics of the re-design:

It's surprising how creepy it feels to see my face in the first pic. Haha. So, as you can see, simplicity is the word of the day. Not simple as in crappy-looking simple, but simple as in not having all kinds of fancy motion with five million colors all over the place. I hate going to websites and having them take twenty seconds to load some ridiculous flash animation, just to get to the next page. Since this is meant mainly for future employers to look at, I want it to be extremely easy for them to navigate and find what they want. Also, I think that having your contact info at the top of each page makes their job easier as well. They don't have to hunt down the right page just to contact you if they like what they see. This is by no means done, as I still need some backing from friends that it's looking good, which is partially why I posted this in the first place.

In other news, Jake and I had our conceptual talk over the desert environment. We now know the basic layout and premise of the project, and over the next few weeks, a 3D sketch and some 2D sketches will be posted periodically. Jake will do the 3D sketch in Hammer (Valve's level editor), and then we'll pass it off to Joe to sketch from. Once again, it all depends on how everyone's schedules go over the next few weeks.

Finally, the Global Game Jam is coming up next week. I'm taking a week off to visit Joe in Rochester, and then we're going to Chicago. I'm participating in the Jam of course, and he's gonna work on a tasty script. I'll definitely have some pics to post on my facebook. Stay tuned for that.

Another milestone done, another day.

There's not really a lot visually to show this update, but it IS a big step in the right direction. As I said in earlier posts, I've had some time to kill while waiting for the desert project to get rolling, so I finished the Chernobyl and laser rifle projects. Now, I've finished making decisions on how to present each project in the demo reel, as well as determining camera movement and capturing video. So in a nutshell, I have all my raw footage and stills, and I'm ready to import them into a nonlinear editing package to finish for good. I'm still a little on the fence about this, but I think I want to wait until the desert is done to actually start editing. Reworking the website is also something that I've been thinking about getting back into. I think that both things go hand in hand though, as I want them to have a similar look and feel. In any case, here's a breakdown of the shots for the reel thus far:

Chernobyl
1) Fade in as camera pans out to show a full view of the scene.
2) Still image of wireframe view
3) Still image of color map view
4) Still image of color/normal map view.
5) Still image of final view, which now includes specular map.
6) Camera pans from left of scene to right and fades out.

Laser Rifle
1) Shot of Jake's concept drawing fades in and out.

*The camera stays still in each following shot as rifle does a 360 rotation. Each shot has it rotate around once.*

2) Fade in to view final shot
3) Wireframe view
4) Color map view
5) Normal map view
6) Specular view, which is once again the final shot at this point.

What I DO have to show is the wireframe shot of Chernobyl. Since unreal editor does a crappy job of capturing stills in the viewport, I had to do some cleanup of the black lines in Photoshop.

And that's all for now. In a week or two, expect to see something on the desert. I am out.

laser rifle final-ish final

Yeah, I know. That was quick. But nevertheless, the laser rifle is 100% complete! There wasn't near as much stuff wrong with it as Chernobyl, so it took only some minor tweaking to get it to the level I wanted. Here it be:

List of changes:

1)- The wood stock grip was far too damaged looking. I tried to justify in my mind why it would look that way before, but this time around I decided that it needed to be revamped. The specularity plays better off of the bumps and I've also added a silver rim around it that helps it pop out a bit more.

2)- The glass encasing the blue batteries looks more glass-like now. How nice!

3)- Some subtle paint marks have been added to the wood stock. I thought it might have been lying around a woodshop and someone might have gotten some paint on it accidentally. It adds a little, visually to the wood.

4)- I made all of the lights on the trigger dimmed out completely, except for the one that the switch is on, which I made more chromatic to differ from the others. You can see it in the second pic. It's the green light.

5)- I altered the specular maps in general, as adding the new lightmass system made the lighting different. Some things are more or less specular.

6)- The most apparent of all the changes is adding the new lightmass system. It's what's responsible for probably more the 50% of the overall improvement. Bump and specularity show up better, and light reaches all around the object in a more realistic manner.

So that's another one down. The plan remains the same for now with all the other projects. I have yet to touch base with Jake on the desert project, and I plan on doing that ASAP. While I'm waiting for sketches, I'm gonna start on production for the demo reel. I must say that I'm getting excited as the global game jam gets closer, and I'll also be helping Joe with his new film. Expect something on the desert or demo reel towards the middle of the month or so. YES.

Chernobyl circa 2010.

Happy new years and all that stuff. I'm starting my new year off right by saying that Chernobyl is complete! No reworks. Case closed. It's always hard for me to walk away from projects due to the fact that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to just about everything. But, there comes a time when you have to lock the gate and move on to newer things. So here it be laddies and lads:

As you can tell, there have been even more changes. A list:

1) Four new props: paper towel dispenser, hand soap dispenser, ivy vines, and trash can. Though they're all mundane objects on their own, they help to make the level more believable. A sink without at least something to go with it just looks odd in my opinion. Not too much wear and tear on any of them. They all have normal maps but the only one done in Zbrush was the trash can. It was mainly just to keep Zbrush fresh in my mind for when I use it in the desert project later. Plus the trash bag detail and the grooves on the metal lent themselves to 3d sculpting extremely well. The vines especially make the room look older and overgrown as nature tends to retake things that haven't been kept up in awhile.

2) I desaturated some objects to give the level a more dead, abandoned feel. Some of the objects had too much chromatic pop to them, so I lowered it so they wouldn't stick out so much. The chair and wall tile are the most noticeable by far.

3) I added what is called a post process effect. It is basically a box that makes you able to make changes to stuff like color contrast, which is what I used it for. You might not be able to notice it that well, but it allows things to have more of a contrast that just looks more pleasing to the eye.

4) I darkened and desaturated the poster so that it would blend into the wall better. Stuck out like a sore thumb before.

5) Not big, but I moved the papers around on the floor to better compose the scene based on the new objects I added.

That's it! I will probably never be fully satisfied with it, but compared to how it looked before, I must say It looks pretty good for my first time using Unreal.

So, new things in the mix! I'm still waiting it out for Jake to get me some sketches of the desert, so I'm going to make one more run at the laser rifle and correct some minor issues. I hope to get the ball rolling on more detailed sketches by mid January, but I have a huge amount of things that I can do while I wait, like post production for the demo reel and reworking the website. The gun shouldn't take long to finish, so look for that soon.

Ryan out.