Friday Tests

Friday, 28 September 2012

Today i did more Houdini stuff. I replaced the fences with my own designs- the plated trenches. I only did a proxy model of course and tried out spawning them.

They were successful to a certain degree. There is still overlapping and some unwanted spacing.
Will need to do further research and ask around.

Also next Thursday, Freek Hoekstra (an intern here) will show us his work.

His previous work is somewhat similar to what we are doing. So he will be able to help us out in our project.

............End.............

Method Studios and The Fence

Thursday, 27 September 2012

Today the whole office went to Method Studios, a visual effects studio, for a tour inside their offices. We got a glimpse into their work style and how the whole studio looks like.

Method Studios: http://www.methodstudios.com/

The studio looked really nice and the work environment is something different from the usual working lifestyle.

At the end they showed us their works. The works were fantastic. A lot of movies are visual effects heavy. 

I did not believe most of the movies i have seen are all almost fake. It is amazing how they are able to make scenes so believable.

Back in the office i created an auto fence spawner. There are some problems so i am still figuring it out. 

The basics are there, i will have to take it to the next level and make it even better.

Also i have to make it work with my designs.

These are some screenshots of the fence.

How it works is that i just have to draw a curve and the fence will spawn even at any angle. The only thing now is that it cannot go up in the Y axis.

That is all.....

Download Woes

Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Today me and Kevin discussed on the level further and settled on one idea.... for now. The map will of course be up for any further revisions when the project goes into full swing.

Yesterday when i was testing out some concepts for Houdini, i got stuck on a problem late on.
I wanted to create a row of metal platings spawn and when i change any direction of the line, the platings will also follow and change direction.

Today i came across a tutorial on how to make a procedural fence. I saw that the theory could be used for my idea too.
So i downloaded the files. It took forever to download and somehow it keeps on stopping halfway as if it is finished downloading.

The only way the downloads could run smoothly was if i did nothing else while the files download. (This happened a few times before so i knew that i had to do nothing for the download to happen.)

Yeah..... so for about an hour and half or so, i waited.
When it was done, i wrote the blogs, organized my stuff and went back to the apartment.

I can definitely check out the tutorial and hopefully it can help solve my problem.

More work!

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Today we continued with the our work.

I stopped on the environment concept of the base for now and started to work on an isometric view of the whole map so that everyone gets a clear idea of what it looks like and all the assets we need.

These are some of the works and its different versions.

I will continue to refine them and also keep creating concepts for the individual buildings/parts of the map.

I also did some work in Houdini. Mainly tests using the copy SOP and also modeling some of the trenches parts. 

I will be able to show them later on in the week when i have something more refined.

That is all....

Support!

Monday, 24 September 2012

Today i needed to get my Houdini Master version (commercial version) running. The sidefx support has responded to my email and i start following the instructions

After hours and hours. All to no avail. I could not solve the problem. So i reverted back to the non commercial version for now . At least i can work on Houdini.

Anyway, after that i continued on some more concepts. We discussed more about the project.

WIP. Base concept.

After that at around 4pm, i started work on Houdini, testing out some ideas and concept. I was mostly playing around with it to get a feel of the program and also to test out some ideas.

Yeah. That is all.

Derp....

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Well on Sunday we had no plans. So we just relaxed and let our mind off things.

I compiled all of the previous post on Sunday as there was no way I could upload the posts on the day itself thanks to the amazing WiFi and Internet connection.

I will only be able to upload the posts at the end of the work day in the office, as the Internet there is better than at the apartment.

Yeahh……………………

The Sun and the Skies

Saturday, 22 September 2012

Our first ever weekend! To Venice Beach!

Kevin and me actually planned to walk along the beach to Venice Beach, not realizing it took forever.

Upon realization of the task at hand, we decided to rent bicycles. It turned out to be the best thing we could have ever done.

Riding along the beach was very fun and relaxing. Not to mention the fact that we reached Venice in only 10 minutes from the Bike Rental Shop (which was halfway from Venice beach).

From afar, we saw a pier at the end. We decided to go there first and check it out. The place was awesome aside from the massive amounts of bird poo lying around on the deck.

Went to Venice next and just walked our bikes along the stretch.  Saw a bit of a street performance. There were a lot of weird people though.  

We walked back towards the end and rode off back to the Bike Rental Shop. Somehow though we missed Muscle Beach totally. 

We might go again someday just so we could ride bicycles and just relax.

The Ice Box Conundrum

Friday, 21 September 2012

Today it was setting up day. The area where we were initially designated to work in was the Training room.

Recently though they had a change in rules. The training room was not to be used when there are no training sessions, to avoid having to reconfigure the settings of the computers.

So we ended up fixing some Ikea tables and set up our desks and computers in the Recording room A.K.A the Ice box.

The place after set up looked really good. After a while though, we felt the effects of the Ice Box. 

It was freezing in there.

I had my jacket all the way up and with the hoodie too. Everyone felt cold except for Kevin apparently. He must have thermo skin or something.

Anyways, we all got our new Master licenses for our Houdini. Somehow though my one could not work. 

I could not get help from the staff because they were all gone for the weekend.

Only the Interns were there. They themselves could not solve my problem. So I turned to Side effects support. I emailed them and got a response stating they can only help on Monday as they also have all went off for the weekend.

Now I cannot use Houdini.  I will have to wait it out. 

For now I will continue with the concepts and try to plan out how I could create the models I need procedurally.

Feeling very uncertain now. 

Hopefully it will all be good next week.

Focused

Thursday, 20 September 2012

We came in the office and there were no seats for us to work in. The staff were preparing for a presentation by Derivative, creators of TouchDesigner at night. www.derivative.ca/

So we moved to the conference room and continued doing work. I was focused on designing trenches/cooling down areas for the main structure in the center of the map.

Also I was doing some concepts of the entire map and trying to get a feel of how the level would like even further.

Line art of the structure surrounded by the rocky elements.

Crystals are growing out from the rocks. The crystal designs were inspired and modeled after Pyrite. Kevin came up with the idea and did research on it.

Kevin was working in Houdini and was trying to create a crystal generator that would spawn on rocks. He will have more on that in his blog I think.

He had an idea of this squarish crystals growing out of rocks to give the place an alien feel, as if the planet is not earth.

So i just drew out his idea.

Lex was figuring out how to create caves with ease. He is on the right track, now it just needs to go on even further.

I plan to after creating more concept art for our level, show the team and the staff the ideas and get feedback.

Also I want to clear things up and really set down a plan for our project. I want everyone to be on the same level of understanding so that we can move on more smoothly.

Then I can try out some concepts in Houdini. I want to at first figure how to create the unique plates for the trenches/cooling areas procedurally and make them into a digital Asset.

After that, if things go well, I can try to figure how to make the plate spawn around the walls of the trenches/cooling area.

After work, a presentation was held at around 7 by Derivative. They showed off their works and the power of TouchDesigner.

Met a few people and had a decent time. To be honest it was awkward trying to mingle.

Furthermore, it feels as though we are speaking different languages because most of the people there were into programming and the very technical side of things, whereas I come from the more Visual side of things.

It was experience anyway, good or bad.

The Tour of Santa Monica

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

Today Me, Kevin, Lex, Stephanie and her daughter, Julie Ann (hope I did not misspell any names there.) went out for a self-guided tour of Santa Monica, the area where we are working in.

For Information on Santa Monica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monica,_California

We went around Santa Monica and took a look at various buildings. Each building had history and a story behind them.

It gave me food for thought when designing worlds or concepts for a game. History and stories can help drive a design and make it more believable. It is something I took more note of ever since this tour.

The buildings themselves had interesting architecture. With varying brick sizes, different patterns and unique designs making each building look different in some way.

Details in the arrangement of the stone.

Combination of horizontal bricks and vertical bricks make for an interesting look.

Julie Ann also had one helpful and cool observation. She pointed out how the streets were very uniform in their shape, flow and arrangement.
The buildings were very angular and sharp. The arrangement is very constant- Buildings, pavement, road, pavement then buildings again. It creates this very uniform and organized feel.

Then juxtapose that with the Santa Monica Place (the Main Mall at the end of the promenade) where it is this out of place and unique building.

It has circular shapes and has a certain fluid flow to it. This draws people in as it stands out from the uniformity.

Again this is something to look out for when designing levels or concepts for games. It can help create a subtle yet effective way of drawing players in to a certain area without the player even noticing it.

Below are more pictures from the walk.

Brick texture. Useful for 3D texturing or Digital Painting.

Brick and graffiti texture. Useful for 3D texturing or Digital Painting.

That is all.