Applied Game Art Production blog- John Woodward


for this module we were tasked as a group to create game assets for Andy Grams game invasion

the first week was sent on coming up with ideas on what our level would be and were it would take place. our first idea was to have a underwater level were the player enters Atlantis were the aliens have left there technology, with a big robotic kracken at the end off it for a boss. feedback for this was that the vehicle they player is using is a helicopter so it wouldn't work and it would be difficult to do water effects in the level such is going under. my own idea was to take the atlantis idea and make it so atlantis is floating in the air and you would have to fly through different parts of the city, which had been separated into parts but my group did not like the idea. another idea was to have it so you go to space and go into the mother ship of the invading aliens but some of my group wanted to keep it on earth and we agreed it would looked better.
The idea we went with was a snowy Siberian level  were you had to escort a bomb to a alien base which was mining minerals such as diamonds out of the earth. it would be surrounded by mountains and would lead to a quarry were you would have a mini boss fight and then enter the alien base. you then had to go in and fight a big diamond boss which shoots lasers, avoid them and hit its power cores. after the boss was destroyed the escorted bomb would be dropped and you would have a time limit to get through the hanger and escape before it blows up. my group consisted of 5 people, Paul evens who doing the boss room, tom mckeller who is doing the quarry and the mountains surrounding it, kyle Harris who is doing the mountains and part of the town and syham whydhir whos doing the town.

I have now started looking at concepts of alien bases and films such as alien to delve into different ideas of what a alien hanger would look like and the interior of a alien base.

http://www.dealspwn.com/writer/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Carrier-Hangar.jpg

http://cghub.com/images/view/607023/

http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/screenshots/alien_3.png

http://gunsbins.deviantart.com/art/underground-tunnel-209954024

from these concepts I've got the idea of the alien parts of the level to be quite bulky and sharp, with a sharp dome shape look and pillars going around the walls. for the entrance I want to put blue glowing lights going through on the pillars of the tunnel and have that as a theme through into the boss room which mine connects to. for  the hanger I was thinking that the door frames will glow blue to fit with the theme and the landing lights do the same. there would also be turrets in the hanger which will try and shoot the player down as he tries to escape the base.from this research  I've come up with some concepts and made them look very sifi and alien. I also made them bulky like I wanted and showed were the blue glowing lights would be and how they will glow. I've put torrents into the hanger but might move them around due to alterations.

the tunnel concept would have red glowing lights the break it up a little and turrets guarding the door, I have the idea that also the door would be a mini boss were it would shoot lasers from the big red square in the middle which the player would have to avoid.

after a group discussion about my concepts, everyone especially are group leader liked the concepts and said they would fit the level very well, I also had to show Paul who is doing the boss room so it would match his and they look like they fit well. I then started the block-out stage, with the tunnel  I've kept it looking blocky and game it a roundish shape that makes it look like a sifi tunnel when the player is going through it. I've also left space to fit torrents towards the end and add lights the player can see. when this was done I added just basic pipes to see how it would look with some in as we will have them going from the boss room to the quarry.

With the hanger I also wanted to stick very closely to the concept. the pillars in the scene are the same shape as the tunnel to give it a flow and keep the overall look the same. on the lading bays I've added smaller bays and will place some of Andy alien ships on them to make it feel less empty. the bridges that I have put in will have torrents on them which you will have to shoot when escaping, I had to change them around from the concept otherwise they would be on the side walls and unable to be destroyed so putting them in the middle would be better and more of a challenge.

after feedback for my block outs from my group they felt that the tunnel should be changed. I have gone back and made the whole shape bigger and gave it more of a a dome look. the pillars are now blockier and lowed a little to give the player more room to go through and see more of it.

after I had done this and was happy I felt like overall it was lacking in detail so I started making lights on the side of the pillars instead of just having a glow coming from nowhere and on the floor I've added some bumps for more detail and could have lights there. the pipes have also been improved to the standard of the tunnel and better show what they will look like. I then had to create a separate part out the from of the tunnel as a entrance part to the mountains and make it look like it was built into a mountain and not just a hole there. after feed back and being overall happy with it I started texturing.

with the textures I have tried to stick with the concepts, I have overall made the base texture of the tunnel metal seeing as that looks the most sifi looking. with the lights I've made a overlay layer in Photoshop and added blue to were I wanted the lights to be. I then gave them a blue glowing effect to show how the lights would look. in the corners of the tunnel i added air ducks just to break the tunnel up and make it look less plain

Today I've started on the hanger texture, I've used the same base metal texture ans the tunnel so they flow together and done the same blue glow with the lights. I quickly went back to modelling and changed the shape of the pillars holing up the landing bay to make it look less plain and more alien.

to finish of the hanger ive added the doors in with the blue glow and made the back panel a little lighter to break it up

after I was happy with the textures Paul who was working on the boos room made a normal map to make the metal look like it had panelling. from his normal map I started messing around with it and put it on the floor or my tunnel. it turned out to look really well and made the texture look metal and more detailed. the challenge with this was to make them fit and look like they carry onto the boss room and fit but seeing as when I built my new shape for the hallway way it matched the boss room so they fitted perfectly

Then after they fitted I cut out part of the normals and made them bigger too look like panelling going round the tunnel so when the player flys through there's more detail . using a spotlight I rendered a shot to see how the normals would look. overall I was happy with it.

today I got feedback for my work and was told that the metal looks more concrete than metal, looking closely I cane to agree with this so what I've done is looked around for a metal texture and  put it on the base texture. what I also did was re unwrapped all the entrance to make parts such as the pillars bigger to give it more detail seeing as that's the main part you will see. I found one with a bit of a tint on it and moved that around so it looked a little brighter in places, it also broke up the texture. I then gave Paul this texture so mine and his boss room would still match. I also added a bit more of the normal map to places like around the light which gave it a more metal looking feel. another thing I had to change was the lights. Instead of them being on the texture I went back into Maya and modelled some. the reason for this was that in unity the spotlights would have to go into the wall and wouldn't show the light properly.

seeing as I had to change the hallway texture, first I went and re unwrapped the whole model such as the roof and floor being unwrapped so the side walls would texture with them. this would save space and more room for the uv's. after I was happy with that  I went and worked on the hanger texture. I took the base metal texture from the hallway and put it onto the hanger. it turned out to look much better and still matched.I then had to do the same thing with the lights in the scene, I  then modelled everywhere that would glow such as the door frame and the landing pad lights. I have also added  a light going round the rim of the landing dock and on the bride to make it feel less empty. I then went in and tried to see what I could do to the model with the normal map I used for the entrance. I removed the bolts from the normal map and just left the lines. with this I put them on the landing dock to make it look like the got a little pad were the alien ships land. I also added around the door frame to give it some depth.

after that I was finished with the modelling and texturing. overall I like the look of my models such as finally getting it to look metal. from the concepts I found on line I feel I have got close to that look, made it look alien instead of something you would find on earth. I'm glad I got the feedback for the texture or it would of ended up looking like concrete. the normal maps also helped out with brining out the texture and showing panelling instead of being plain. the floor normals as well looked good and made my tunnel look like it was connected to the boss room. If I had more time I would of liked to put lights in were there should of been in unity, I would of added spot lights into the scene with a blue glow. I would of them see a timer for them to flash on and off while the player is going through the entrance to the boss room. and with the hanger I would of liked to see lights on the landing pads flashing and just left the edge of the landing pad glowing to give it a sifi look. I wanted to put some of Andy's alien ships on my hanger as well to make it feel less empty and to emphasises that it is a hanger but unfortunately I have run out of time to put them in and maybe some taking off from the hanger to show them trying to escape when you are.