Week 7: Week before Easter

This week was the final week before the Easter holiday and things were certainly heating up: the pressure started to raise as we attempted to get things completed before the Easter break.

Amber has created a list for the team of work to consider doing during the Easter break. To our fortune, we have been given a 2 week extension for the DMU hand-in. However, we do not want to fall into the trap of ‘Student syndrome’ (leaving things till last minute). Thus, we will endeavour to get as much done as possible.

This week we got a visit from developers at natural motion and fortunately, Dan was able to get some beneficial feedback about his Alice model.As you can see, now she has a better shape and silhouette.

New revised Alice

Braden has taken a small break from working on user interface; he has now completed texturing all of the assets he was tasked to do. He is well ahead of his work and his assets match the concept style very well. He has certainly earned his keep.

Luke has also worked well under pressure. He has continued to perfect the particle effects in unreal engine. They are beginning to standout. Here is a short video of his work:

From last week, Denzil has endeavoured with the Cheshire cat. He has now posed the cat into position. After making a few tweaks and unwrapping the model, he will soon be ready to transfer the cat to Freddy to be textured.

Freddy and Amber have certainly pushed hard this week. Under the pressure, they have been endeavouring to improve the aesthetics of the level. Were once the level textures looked over used, Freddy and Amber have developed a technical way to vary the textures in our level. This method allows our level to avoid obvious texturing patterns. Using a new technique demonstrated to them by 

Braden, Freddy and Amber have created a series of mask textures for the assets.

To create these masks, they used the RGB channels in Adobe Photoshop and sectioning the 3 maps into 1 map. This technique can also be used for roughness, metalness and emissive maps; it is a great way of optimizing our level. Furthermore, it is a very time efficient method of texturing.

3 opacity masks on one texture

Our rock materials (most being instances)

Material set up in UE4

Masked planes shown in level

With the masks, Freddy and Amber were able to create 3 different materials through material instances. By doing this, it meant only one parent material needed to import into unreal engine, the children materials are made through the material instances.

In addition, Amber and Freddy were able do the white rabbit. It is a simple design, but will look cute when animated. Although, our level still needs developing. We are glad with the progress that we have made since last week. Here's he latest video of the level:

Of course this wasn't an easy stage to get to, as the fatigue from working on the project was beginning to settle in. However, we cannot wait for the final outcome for the level.

Week 6: Getting things in order

This week has been incredibly eventful for the team. Of course, you can image, the more eventful, the more stressful it will be and so we can also say that this week has been very hectic as well.

For the benefit of the team, Amber created a timetable to –do list, asset list and a texture budget graph. This was a great idea, which allowed the team to stay on target for the duration of the project. As a result our team, has become more focused and productive. Furthermore, it means that Amber does not have to consistently keep checking up on the team. Thus she can progress with her own work.

Unfortunately, Freddy was ill at the start of the week, however, she recovered and got back on track as quickly as ever. She proved that she was not going to let the team down by completing one week’s worth of texturing in a day. This is outstanding! Keep up the good work. Afterwards, Amber was able to create Roughness and normal maps to complete Freddy’s textures. Here are a few shots of their work:

Screenshots of the level in engine

Dan has continued to endeavour to get Alice looking as perfect as possible. As seen last week, he had worked on her body. This week Dan focused on designing Alice’s dress.

Of course like any progressive practices, Dan had to make a number of iterations until he got it right:

Dan used the software, Marvellous Designer and Z-Brush during this process. After taking on board feedback from the team, he worked hard to create this design for Alice’s dress.

As you can see, her design matches the original concepts, and has the likeness of Alice Liddell. We cannot wait to see her fully rigged!

Alice at the moment

Luke has been working in Engine this week, endeavouring to complete the sun ray and fog effects for the start and caterpillar’s lair. He has been working hard and it is not an easy task. The final iteration will look great.

Luke's particle effects in engine

Braden has also been working very well, with the user interface for our level. Specifically the main menu: it looks Brilliant! And it is even more fantastic when it is fully animated.

Start screen

Braden is a genius and his designs are very impressive. Although, he has to work on texturing his assets for the time being. When he completes the user interface it will look incredible.

This week, Denzil has been attempting to perfect the water material. He has taken on board the feedback given to him by the team and has now created a believable pond looking water that is editable. Here is a video showing his work:

He didn’t stop here, when this was completed he strived hard to also polish the water fall and water splash effects in unreal engine. Great Job!

Denzil is currently working on the Cheshire cat that lies in this section of our level.

Although, Denzil has creative freedom for the shape of the cat, the look will be heavily inspired by the Forest Main Coon cat. Amber says these cats “are the most adorable ever!” so it is no surprise that they have to be implemented in our level.

He has currently modelled the base and should hopefully finish over the Easter break.

Amber worked to get the level as playable as possible. As you can see, we still need to get many more assets in the level and create the lighting effects. However, we have worked hard this week and we are proud of the results:

Week 5: More engine

This has been the most hectic week so far, I assure you this was all of our facial expressions throughout the week.

Amber, Braden and Denzil spent the majority of their time working in engine. Denzil worked to get the pond water complete. He has currently got a water material working in engine, however it looks too ocean-like. It lacks the pond attributes that we desire. He will have to make a few more tweaks to get it just right.

Furthermore, Denzil was able to visit the British Library to represent the team, and gather more reference images that can be used for textures. This is very helpful to Freddy and Amber, who are texturing some 3D books. Whilst there, Denzil was also able to speak to the competition judges and curators; to get advice and show them our work. He mentioned how they seemed enthusiastic to see our progress. Hopefully the judges will love our final outcome.

New book reference taken by Denzil

Freddy worked well, creating the textures for the books and waterfall in our level. We all love the paper texture design, it looks fantastic!

Moreover, Freddy has worked hard to create a number of textures for our assets, these include: the sunflower, sunflower, sun, clouds, tree s and background planes. She will be moving onto texturing the mine shaft area next week. This should allow us to cover large areas with planes for depth and detail.

Amber has been supporting the team and keeping us all on track. She has created the asset lists and action plan timetable for the team which will surely keep the team organised. She has also created a number of material instances top create variation for the books. Moreover, she has created a number of normal, roughness and emissive maps for the books.

Next week she will be moving on to modelling the rest of the level, Good Job Amber!

Screenshot from the level in engine

Braden has continued to develop the user interface for our level. This week he worked on making the HUD visible to players. We can see that Braden has improved his knowledge of engine blueprints and is working well.

Furthermore, he was able to get the pause and start menu working. Next week he will be polishing his UI.

HUD preview

This week Luke has made a number of assets and has started to move onto creating effects in engine. He is looking to develop God rays and a fog effect for our level. Keep up the good stuff!

Dan has been busy sculpting away, he has now developed an Alice model which is fantastic! She has a likeness of Alice Liddell, but also she has her own unique beauty.

We all are very impressed with Dan’s progress and cannot wait to see it completed. Well done Dan, Great job!

Dan's Alice sculpts

As stated above, this week has been very hectic but that is simply as we are all working hard to get this project looking incredible. We are confident that we can win the competition.

Here is a quick run through of our level:

Great job guys! At this great next week looks promising.

Week 4: Working in engine

Now that the Level design has been established thanks to Freddy, Amber and Braden, we spent this week planning and preparing for the final outcome of our project. Namely, what we want to achieve for our deadlines.

This week, Freddy was able to visit the British Library to meet with Game City representatives and Library Curators. In her trip she was able to take many reference images that we can use in our level. Most importantly she was able to learn a great deal about the original Lewis Carroll narrative, and gain some advice from the curators. Freddy was even able to touch the original copy of Alice’s adventures underground (Wow! So lucky). Great job Freddy!

However, Freddy didn’t stop there; Freddy and Amber were able to get some fantastic book references from De Montfort university library to be used as textures. They took particular interest in the book ‘Mongst mines and miners, underground scenes by flash- light’ by J.C.Burrows. We used this book for inspiration as our; level is based on the underground theme.

Paper texture reference from the library

After modelling these books in 3ds max, they unwrapped the books and applied the textures.

Amber's modelled books

Denzil has taken it upon himself to work on the water effects in our level. He has started by researching into water materials in unreal engine and looking at the water material examples from the ‘Water Planes’ demo by Epic Games. Like all engine work, it will not be an easy task and in working to create the pond material he had to create numerous iterations. However, we are sure he will get it right.

Among other things, Denzil has also worked hard this week to model the tree stump and mine cart for the team.

Denzil's minecart model

He has also created an interesting waterfall prototype effect, using the panner node in unreal engine. He found it an easier process than expected, compared to the respawn mechanics. Now we feel it would look better if we incorporated paper textures into the work.

Dan has been working hard, sculpting our Alice model. At the moment he is sculpting the body, aiming to get Alice’s body right.

By the way things are going, Dan’s Alice will look great when it is finished

Dan's base sculpt

Braden has also been working hard on creating our user interface for the level. He had developed some great designs for the pause and start menu. We are all excited to see how it looks when Braden completes the UI.

Braden's pause screen concept

Of course we are still white boxing at the moment, Amber has done a great job of putting our level together.

As it was decided, the house would be a focal point for our level, Amber helped create a camera zoom system. This should highlight the smaller details such as the ‘drink’ me bottle and door key.

Here is a quick video of our progress:

As you can see, there is still of work needed to be worked on, however we have made good progress this week. Hopefully, next week should be even better.

Week 3: Starting modelling

This week has been productive for the team. We are now beginning to work in 3D for the ‘Off the Map’ project and the level is taking off.

Freddy completed the final concept for our level. This was a terrific milestone for the team and we are all grateful for Freddy’s hard work. Subsequently, the concept would give us a style guide to work off of. Most importantly, the concept would be a sanity check for when we run into errors.

Final level design

The level design concept shows a fascinating transition from sepia tones to stylized models which would be exciting to explore in 3D.

Braden was able to benefit from Freddy’s concept, this week devoting his time to modelling assets in the style and completing the basic User interface blueprint for the main menu. It still needs work until it is complete, nonetheless it is a terrific start.

House model by Braden

Similarly, Braden finished this Leaf pile concept. it is cute and quirky and fitting to the style. As you may see, Braden wanted to incorporate cats into the final design of the leaf pile. It is purr-fect!

Cat pile concepts

Afterwards, Braden modelled all of the assets that were tasked of him by the team. Of these assets, this included the houses in our level. Among taking influence from the level style, Braden also took significant inspiration from the ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic’ art style. Our lecturer Jack influenced Braden to use this style and Braden did a great job of exploring it through his 3D models.

Now that Braden has completed his assets, next week he will unwrap them for texturing.

Luke also spent this week unwrapping. Although he felt ill last week, he was determined to work hard in order to support them team. He did an excellent job this week by modelling a number of assets for our level. This included; the chandelier, picture frames, lily pad, Victorian globe and the fireplace. He used a number of references to model these assets, nevertheless, the assets’ style adheres to the level style. Thus proving Luke’s hard work has certainly paid off.

Denzil had a slight muddle up with the level style. He had assumed that the team was using one source of inspiration for the level. As it turned out. Freddy and Amber were using multiple sources of inspiration as they were creating their own style. Understanding that this process required time and concentration, Denzil refrained from staying idle and made himself useful by creating this paper town project, as a backup idea for the team. Denzil took considerable amount of inspiration from Lionshead studios’ Ink-Quest’ and the results are brilliant- Keep up the good work.

Denzil's paper town

Dan also got to work on the designs for Alice this week. After finding out that the character would be based on the original Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell- Dan used this week to continue to concept. He generated quick line drawn concepts to identify form and shape without getting bogged down by detail.

Following this, he photo-bashed a number of designs which eventually led to the clothing concepts. In his designs, Dan explored the different styles that Alice could have. Among showing Dan’s though process, the concepts also demonstrate how much the dress has an influence on the overall design of Alice.

Dan's Alice concepts

He has done a great job and after it was completed, Dan created this refined concept to nail the design of Alice.

Number 4 is the strongest design, however Dan will try to incorporate aspects from all concepts. Of course, he can always come back to these concepts later, but for now, he has a strong basis to start modelling from. Fantastic job Dan!

To conclude the team’s work, Amber created a spreadsheet to-do list for the team to work off of. Additionally, Amber began to rework the block out the basic forms of our level and then export them into Unreal Engine 4.

Of course, Amber needs to make a few tweaks to the assets in engine, in order to fit the concept. Similarly, everything will need to be scaled to Alice and her mechanics. Nonetheless, we are grateful 

 for Amber’s hard work as it means we can start to see our level being put together, which is nothing but exciting.

So there you have it, this week has been fascinating and productive. Hopefully, next week should be promising.

Week 2: Choosing a style

We've made quite a deal of progress, since starting the project last week.

Here are most of the concepts that we came up with:

We liked the style of Braden’s concepts, especially his ‘eat me’ room, for its unique style and quirky design.

Braden's Concept

Braden’s concepts showed a great sense of depth in tandem with the paper texture theme that we wanted to capture in our level.

Following Braden’s progress, Amber and Freddy were able to work off of Braden’s concepts, endeavouring to create a level that the team will be able to create and at the same time , develop a unique style, that will hopefully be engaging to players. They came up with this design:

Shorter level design

After we decided on a level design Amber went onto create a level block out, Braden then drew over all of them and Freddy and Amber added colour to these. This is where our level took a turn and we decided to use bright vibrant colours for the end and sepia tones for the beginning. Here are the paint overs so far:

Good Job guys!

In the meantime, as seen in the concepts, there are death pits in our level where Alice could fall and die. We wanted to implement a re-spawn mechanism in our level, that would allow players to come back to life and try again; thus adding to the sense of gameplay that the judges at Game City asked us to create.

Denzil worked on creating this re-spawn mechanic during the week. It was not an easy task, by the slightest. However, he was able to get it working in the end. Nice work!

Dan, our character artist, has been working hard on the concepts for our Alice character. He created this concept board for us to provide him feedback for.

Some of Dan's concepts

We all loved the look of number 11. I think Dan did a great job of creating g a believable character, with the same realistic look of the original Alice in wonderland, Alice Liddell.

Denzil also had a chance to concept as well. Once the respawn mechanics were completed, he created a few concepts for the card soldier. He did this for the garden level idea that we had originally thought of.

Denzil's card soldiers concepts

Similarly, Braden has been working to create a basic UI system in our level. He said at the beginning that he wanted to work on user interface and we are grateful that he is working on his passions, and it starting to look good.

So this is our week went well, the team are working hard, and next week should look promising.