So the Off The Map group project is going really well. Everyone
seems to be pulling their weight and we’re
starting to see the level come together from all the hard work we’re putting
in. Seeing the quality of the work we are producing (our group and the other 2)
I have no doubt that as long as we keep it up we can win this competition.
Crytek seem to be taking an interest too, with posting a blog about us here (which
is featured on their main page) :
It’s really nice working within a team too. As I find any
sort of demotivation is thrown out the window, seeing everyone else posting
their work updates spurs me on to work (even if they’re just small updates).
So since my last update I've built all the houses which are going
to be used within the level. I made a floor modular system to work with, which
made the process of creating unique houses pretty efficient. I basically used
all my unique assets (walls, wood beams, windows etc) to make several different
versions of each floor. Then with all the floors I created I could mix and
match between the ground and middle floor, roof and roof objects. Using this
method allowed me to create 9 different houses in a very short amount of time.
Below shows the process.
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| All the unique assets |
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| All the floors which i can mix and match |
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| The final 9 houses |
I was also tasked to create the cobbled streets. This was
something I've never done before - create a highly detailed but tillable texture.
This new workflow taught me a lot of different tools and approaches which I can
apply to other tasks. It was a difficult task to make the texture interesting ,
but not so interesting that the player can see that the texture is tiling. I
think I got a pretty good result, the texture has a lot a small things going
on, such as little puddles caught between the stones, moss growing, and some
dirt/rubble as well. But not so much that the tiling is obvious. Take a look:
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That’s the 3D side of things, now the 2D side. 2 weeks ago I
posted my (long) random short story. Since then I have completed the storyboard
for it. I’m also pretty happy with the result with it too. The piece lacks the
polish of a final piece, as the idea of a storyboard is just to get an idea
down. But I really like some of the compositional approaches I took. I saw
this as an opportunity to push my perspective skills, which I do lack and need
to improve. I wanted scenes to have a range of wide shots, looking up at the
main focal point and down. I think i succeeded I enjoyed this project a lot more than expected, and
love the character ‘Oakbeard’ I got from it. So much so that when I get some
free time I’m going to make a 3d model of him.
That’s me done, ill be back soon with another work update.
