Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Post #11

Post #10

So I'm currently working on the art bible, style guide and the elevation layouts for this estate. I had hoped to have one of the elevations posted yesterday but since Adobe has failed to make their newer programs backwards compatible (in an easier sense then having to remember to export it) I was unable to work on it later in the evening after a change of locations.

Presentations are Thursday. Will probably have a pretty extensive walk through so far. Would love to have 1 elevation done along with the art bible and style guide.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Post #9

After losing some work on my preliminary elevations due to Illustrator crashing on me, I decided to change directions a bit and figure out what the interior space consisted of exactly. This way, I'll know where a good positioning of windows would be from room to room as well as understanding the general function of the interior space that hopefully will be modeled in the future.





I was though through my earlier process of figuring out the elevations of the building able to determine that there are about 5 or 6 stories to this house (only 5 really used). While this is a larger house than I had initially planned on doing I think it fits the general scale of everything else in the setting, It shouldn't leave the character feeling too large and cramped in the space.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Post #8


Proper Door Measurements:


As I start to do my actual elevation maps for this level, I'm currently stuck on the big debate of what a good door size should be. I feel like with a proper door size I'll be able to proportion the rest of the property off of that. I have a couple concerns though on choosing a good proportion. While I could easily replicate the building off of standard door measurements I want to make sure that players (specifically the UT3 Avatars) are able to fit comfortably in and out of the doors during game play. I tend to find the default UT3 avatars to be very wide in their proportions which leads me to wonder whether I should make the doors a bit wider than standard in order to accommodate them.

For reference, I started looking back to Call of Duty 4's Overgrown Map (which is probably my favorite map in the game aesthetically). This map has similar sort of architectural structures as my environment will have. The majority of the buildings are just small farm houses and during game play I think they are pretty easy to slide in and out of.







By reviewing this map, I'm finding that the developers seemed to use real to life proportions for the entry ways. Based on my playing experience this doesn't seem to leave the player feeling cramped going in and out of doors. Since the standard door measurement is about 3 feet by 7, I think I'll stick with this.

Just to be sure though, I took the frame work of an Unreal3 character and decided to measure his proportions.



Based on my rough calculations the character seems to have a 7:3 ratio of size.
I also did the same with a character model from COD4 (since it's from the same game as our actual door measurements). At his widest, he is also 7 by 3 heads.



Since most game characters are never actually standing straight upright when rigged we can assume that the characters will actually be slightly shorter. We also shall assume that a standard game character is 6 feet tall. This leaves the standard height of a door (7 feet) to not be an issue, the only issue here is the width. I don't necessarily imagine this level being used in a shooter game aspect, but I do imagine it in a first person perspective. Since an average game character is 6 feet tall, based on their height width ratios we can assume that one head height is .85 feet. So at their widest a hulking UT3 character would be 2.5 feet wide.

Now I doubt a character from the Unreal universe would be tip toeing around an old English estate, but since I plan on importing this object into Unreal, I'm worried about collision with the character and the doorways. On top of that I don't want to have to increase the size of the building just to be able to allow the character access but then throw off the scale of everything else in the environment. This isn't necessarily a problem that will come up in this class (since no interior space will be finished by finals) but its still a general problem I want to address now as opposed to later.

I think for now based on the measurements I've calculated it shouldn't be a problem. So I'll deal with a typical 7x3 door while I do some actual research into how collision works in the unreal engine. So I can be sure that this won't be an issue later on down the road.

Post #7

Took some profile occlusion maps of my 3D sketch. Going to use this as reference for elevation studies in illustrator where I will finally get to work on proper scaling for this building. I need to make sure its proportions actually fit that of a possible manor.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Post #6

Things to do preferably in time for our presentations in a week.


1. Finished 3D sketch and occlusion map
2. Concept painting based off of one of the occlusions
3. Style Guide Complete
4. Art Bible Complete


Things to be taken care of before building

1. Elevation layout of building
2. Ariel view layout
3. Study of interior/exterior Environment building methods for the Unreal Engine

Post #5

To help clarify what exactly I was designing, I decided to do a quick 3D sketch in Maya. Through this process I was able to figure out some structural problems that had escaped my attention in the 2D version. I also started to block out the area itself that the building lays in. Next, I will continue tweaking this sketch giving it slants and different angles. While its a monumental structure I want it to be appear to be a quirky sort of building with different extensions on the building having just been tacked on in a very unprofessional manner, causing some walls or roofs to sag over the years from the shoddy craftsmanship.


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Post #4

Started to play around with the building's silhouettes by doing some very basic sketches in illustrator. These are just to help me get an idea for the form and direction I'm going with the building itself. In the 4th piece I took it a bit further and played around with a second perspective on it. I like the idea of building the piece up like in the third version, so that its sort of this leaning tower cottage. However, the 4th piece fits better in with the general style of English cottages and estates. I think I may need to explore these in a 3D format before I make a final decision on which silhouette to go with. From there I can plan it out better to where the building actually makes sense from an architectural and functional perspective.



Version 1:Version 2:
Version 3:

version 4:

Post #3

I've started scanning some references out of the following coffee table books I picked up at a half price bookstore this past summer:



Both books are about english cottage village interiors and exteriors and both are filled with excellent reference images on the subject. I've taken the time to start scanning some specific images, the ones that appeal to me the most to be used in my design. At this point I will be focusing on creating the shell of the environment which will be the exterior of the building and the small yard area. Time allowing, I'd like to also maybe get 1 room of the interior done as well though based on the current time frame of the project, this seems unlikely, but still something to shoot for.

Here are the images I've collected in scan form.


Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Post #2

So I officially have my direction for this quarters project. I'll be creating an environment to be imported into the Unreal engine. This means I will be experimenting with the unreal interface while also creating an aesthetic environment in Maya and potentially zBrush. The design will focus around an old and somewhat quirky English cottage home. I hope this environment will be a step away from the typical stuff you see imported into Unreal.


More details to come.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Post #1

Greetings mortals!


This blog shall serve as a place to update my progression in my ITGM 405 class here at Savannah College of Art and Design. This is my Senior Studio 1 class and will encompass one large project for the 10 week period to be used in my portfolio. I plan for my project to be an environment design preferably based off the idea I started fleshing out this summer but we shall see based on class feedback.

More to come soon.