Becky Green: Team Break Away: http://teambreakawaydmu.wix.com/midsummersdream: Becky Green, Eva Charlotte Watson, Julie Thomas, Hannah Brown, Brandon Lee Welch, And Charlie Wallace: Off the map project:
Description of project
The project we have been assigned to do was called the off the map project. This was tied into a coopetition called off the map, which is ran by Game City in conjunction with the British library to draw attaining to English cultural heratige. We were split into teams of 6 and where told to choose one of three themes: midsummer’s night dream/ forests, Macbeth/ castles or the tempest; once we chose the theme we would make a small level or interactive environment based on it. Our team in particular chose midsummer’s night’s dream. We decided we wanted to create a walking simulator in the vein of games like the path, gone to the rapture; this was because we did not have the skill or the time to create flied and advanced mechanics. The game was first person to stop the character from impairing the view of the level, letting the player really get immersed in the game. We tried to include a day night cycle however we had to scrap it due to the strain on the lighting (making our work look poor quality).We did successfully implement a picking up mechanic, but it was more to draw attention to certain assets then a for gameplay.
Pre-production design
We know we wanted to give our level an almost ethereal feeling mixed with obvious props to show that the level is in fact just a play. At first I wanted to get the colours down, this lead to making these pallets, we chose the cold blues and warm oranges as it gave the juxtaposition that was relevant, the warm and light hearted comedy and the equally warm titanic compared to the colder and more freighting way we could actually interpreted the events (forcing someone to fall in love, morphing someone’s head into an animal head) and the much colder and calculating Oberon. Then we wanted to focus on what acts we wanted to represent. At first we wanted to represent all 4 acts however it was too time consuming so we decided to do the first two parts.
Description of my job role
My job role was as a team leader and as an environment artist. I wanted to help concept and build the environment and look as the environment artist working in tandon with Hannah brown (also a environment artist), I chose this job as it was a job that I was gunning for as an internship next year and so I thought it only god to get some experience in such a job. I also wanted to help manage the team’s time with the skills I learned in the last team project as well as see what it is like to be a team leader, that’s why I volunteered to direct the team. I know that I can also fulfil other jobs if needs be (for instance engine and lighting work) however I would personally prefer to stick to the jobs I have taken as they are the parts that I am strongest in and the parts where I feel I can do the most good for my team.
individual production work descriptions
The concepts
I did crate images for act 1, 4 and 3. I really wanted to emphasize big shapes and colours, as the smaller details could be worked out as we got to them.
In the first act I wanted to emphasise the idea of serenity and mystery, I used a cold main colour of blue (as it is night) and pale orange (as to invoke the feeling of calm). The second act was concepted mostly by Hannah. The 3rd act was meant to take place underground; the idea I had behind it was that it was a underground tavern reminiscent of the bottom of the sea, I wanted to convey this because Oberon was the fae king of the night, he was known to be quiet and calculating and his abode (which was act 3) was meant to reflect that, and nowhere is it darker or quieter then the bottom of the sea.
The last area was going to be a kind of stage or open wedding reception to represent all the characters getting together again. It was supposed to be dramatic lighting, highlighting a book with rings on as the game faded to black.
However the last 2 acts where scrapped due to time constraints, we would rather have a short and beautiful game then a long and mediocre one.
The trees
My first assets I made where the trees, there were mostly used to populate the forest, acting more as wall guards and barriers for the player’s only made 3 different type of tree as I could warp them and change then in engine, and Hannahs fairy building assets (like the doors and windows) would further edit them, making them look unique.
The foliage
The foliage was created using many alphas, while I did have a strong impact on the levels fps, however it game the foliage clean and crisp silhouettes that really helped bring it to life, so it was worth it.) The foliage includes many different kinds of bushes and ferns, I made 4 of each kind; I did this because each bush had a different function, for instance, I made a few ferns and bushes that where flat and close to the earth, this was so I could use then to hide the straight seems between the rocks or grass and the earth, making everything seem more natural. Whereas larger clumpier pieces of foliage where meant to cover greater areas and hide plane places. The red bush was meant to add a bit more colour to the scene, as it looked far too cold. Then there were the vivid green bushes that pretty much did the same thing, adding a bit of well needed warmth to the scene. We got most of the textures first hand going to local parks and nature reserves and then we photo bashed and painted over them to reduce noise but still have colour variation.
The chaiselong
The chaiselong was created to first make interest in the first area. Becoming an area where puck could sit and talk to the player, it was also thought to be the place where the character could wakeup from, however we found the opening eyes and getting up part too hard to implement. I must admit I do like it, it was the only model where I used material painter, and it was interesting to learn the software. The look I was going for was a stone sofa that was slowly becoming one with nature to fit the wild and natural place the fairy’s inhabit, to farther push home the dreamlike and magical qualities of the environment. However next time I would add far more greenery and maybe even some emissive? As it blends too much into the environment and in comparison with the bright lights and flowers it looks washed out and dull, maybe even some smaller props, like pillows or covers (that can be created in marvels designer) just to make it look like it’s been used, as it looks uncomfortable.
The shafts of light
I also worked on creating shafts of light. I made these to add more of a calm feeling to our first area, the look I was going for was the gentle rays of light one would see in the morning while in bed, pale and with a few bits of dust/ noise to stop it looking static. I did this by creating a cone as a base mesh then creating a material that not only makes the edges of the model look blurred but also has 2 sky alphas that pan across each other to give the illusion of slowly drifting smoke/dust.
The grass
Lastly I worked on the grass. The grass is a quite a basic thing to do, it took me a few tries to get correct; I started with criss cross grass however it looked very fake, so I took to layering the grass planes around another much like the petals of a rose so you could not see major changes in shadow, I then made initial planes of grass to put on the edges of the bigger grass planes, this was once again to just break up the unnatural straight line. I also added a small bit of wind to the grass, although at the start I did it all by hand using a very long winded method until one of my teammates pointed out that there was a premade node to do it (which saved me quite a bit of time)
(Extra information)
As a note I did learn about the importance of using .tga’s and channel packing my textures, the first because I saved a few of my albedos as .pngs by mistake, this caused the grass and foliage to look a unusual colour until it was turned into a .tga. Then by channel packing instead of using multiple texture sheets we managed to improve the fps by 10.
Organisation skills in conjunction with the team plan
I believe my own personal organisation skills could have used some work as my filing system could use some work (I lost quite a few files and misnamed others) however I did fix this by the end of the project.
I believe that at the beginning the group plan that myself and Eva worked on worked very well, everyone was up to date and on target with their work. But midway through the project (when the holidays started) we started to lose track, deadlines were going unfulfilled, we didn’t keep the asset sheet up to date and our time table when untouched. This was mostly because I didn’t keep up with people and neglected my administration work. this had a bad effect over all as in the last few weeks of this project I realise there are things I have forgotten to do, or things that needed to be done earlier and so I am in a bit of a rush to fix everything to an acceptable level. Next time I would much myself to keep to my own schedules more, instead of getting comfortable mid-way.
The success of my role
Looking back I think I fulfilled my role of environment artist very Weill. The assets I have created are of good quality and really add to the narrative of the environment. I do think I could have done more assets; I got too obsessed with details that I spent too much time fiddling with things that didn’t really matter instead of adding more assets for the game.
As a leader I am also quite critical of my performance, I don’t think I had the courage or confidence to really direct the team. It’s regrettable as I felt I had a knack for planning out timetables, but at the end of the day I let people walk over me, I wasn’t attentive enough and I didn’t keep my eye on how the work was going, if I did I would have noticed when we were losing momentum and would have acted accordingly.
In conclusion
I made a lot of mistakes this project; I overestimated my skills to lead, I feel I could have contributed a few more assets and I really must keep my eye on my naming conventions.
However I am pleased at what I did create and I learned a lot of handy lessons about what it takes to be a good environment artist, and I know that will come in handy in the future.