Rosanna's Advanced Computer Game Design Blog

Jun 19

Final image to show off my game character designed for Project X.

Important: I’ve applied a basic texture to the model, but this will not be used in the final game as I am not doing the texturing for the game.

Final Feedback on group work and contribution from my behalf:

Role: Modelling/Rigging/Animating the game characters.

I’ve decided to do all my modelling in Maya, and the animating in Blender. This includes creating the basic meshes in Maya, and rigging the the characters in Blender, then finally animating them in Blender.

Started off with designing fun characters like a cowboy or a mafia boss. However, this idea was rejected and the idea of creating mannequins was favoured.
Created initial male and female models for the developers to work with. However, these models looked too humanoid, and feedback was to make them more mechanical like crash-test-dummies.
Created at least 3 versions each for the male and female models before the group and I were satisfied.
Rigged and animated the male and female models, and got feedback from the group.
Fixed models and animations as required from feedback.
Had to ditch the female model because the texturing took longer than expected, which was sad.
Created a help/instruction screen for the game. It outlines the game objective, and player controls.

**Here’s a link to some slides I’ve created for the final presentation. Unfortunately, this was never used, due to last minute group decisions. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10624074/Project%20X%20-%20Final%20Presentation.pdf

Overall, I thought that the process of creating a model took longer than rigging and animating.

I feel that I’ve come a long way in this project. Learning new skills along the way, and refining some skills that I already have.

Group evaluation/review:

Game: In the end, the game came together very well. The textures and lighting were well done. The designers and programmers also did a very good job in incorporating the assets together, networking, and bringing the game together as a whole.

Final armature and model. The model starts off my ripping his arms off, and runs around with only one arm for the rest of the game.

Jun 18

Help screen design for Project X.

Jun 17

The left arm of the character is the weapon for the game.

Project 3: Things to do for the final implementation.

After the most recent play-test, here are some feedback for the models and animations:

Unfortunately, as a group, we have to ditch the female character, as the texturing took longer than expected, and we are fast approaching the final presentation. This is quite sad on my behalf as a lot of time and effort has been put into developing this character. However, it was fun and I learnt a lot from creating the female character.
The jump animation needed fixing, and the head needs to move less as it makes it disorientating for the player during game-play. (This now has been fixed).
An animation is needed to show the character ripping one of his arm off to use as a weapon.
Revise all the previous actions to show that the character only have one arm.
Fix the pick up weapon action for the character.
Fix the jump action, so that the character does not clip through the camera in the game.
Make the character drop the weapon when he dies.
Create a help screen for the game.

A fair bit to do, but it seems manageable.

Jun 06

[video]

Animating the woman dummy. She should be able to do something while she’s idle, walk, run, jump, pickup objects, kill, die, and crouch - Same actions as the man dummy. However, I made her slightly more feminine in the way she moves. For example, swaying her hips more when she walks, and putting her hands on her hips when she’s idle.

Jun 02

[video]

May 30

Thinking out loud: Hairstyles for the woman dummy.

Some inspiration for my woman dummy.

Image sources:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/0870270202006.png

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cScjZKJ3u3g/S4gTEUkV_tI/AAAAAAAAA5Q/9_4i9KNau0s/s400/Lincoln1992_CrashTestGirl-01b.jpg