Off the Map Part 6

The next step in our project was to start planning what Alice was going to say as she moved. Through the world. We wanted to keep it close to the book so most of what she would say when reacting to her journey was pulled directly from the book or paraphrased to suit the way a game would be interpreted. We also wanted Alice to occasionally have conversations with the characters in wonderland as these episodic conversations are what makes the book so great.

This proved to be much more of a challenge then thought at first, because the book would be short on usable quotes to use in some areas and full of them in others. We wanted to ad some interactivity to the caterpillar conversation where Alice could choose multiple choice answers and the player could craft their own conversations with the angry insect. This was very hard because the book wasn't structured in that way so making it always seem like the possible answers are something that Alice would say. Once I put the basic structure of these conversation and most of the quotes and lines I could think of they were sent to other members of the group to expand upon and improve.

I then moved on to the next section of the project which was trees. This was something that I really started obsessing into doing many many iterations as I improved and learnt new software packages and workflows. I knew that it would take a while to get some nice looking trees and I would have to make quite a few because of the amount that would be in the game. Large sections of the game are forests and it is crucial that they look good. This would eventually be tackled in many different ways as I learnt how to improve the quality of my 3D in many different ways.

Off the Map Part 5

I haven't been posting for a while and its time to start catching up on the work I have been doing on the Off the Map project. So one of the things I have been learning to make and producing for our groups Off the Map has been foliage like grasses and flowers. This was an interesting process because it was expanding on things I had learnt about but didn't fully understand and utilize last year for the tree project.

I started by with grass before moving on to the flowers and other foliage but the workflow was simple once learnt and could be used on anything you wanted. I would start by actually modelling the grass blades. Making a cuboid and then modelling into it and extruding the vertical edges so that w=hen the model was turbo smooth there would be a crisp clear edge that could be baked in. I would then place the grass blades together all textured with a simple gradient material in 3DS Max and twist them so they looked like they naturally bent under the blades weight.

The next step was to bake them onto a plane with an AO, Normal and Diffuse map with an alpha channel with a little anti aliasing so there would be no bleed in the channel. This would create a clean clear alpha and little cleaning up would have to be done. To create a more clear crispness to the grass I overlayed a greyscale normal map onto the diffuse to add that crease down the centre of the blades.

This process would be repeated with the flowers where I would model and texture before baking an cleaning up. With the larger leaves of flowers I would make a subtle height map and AO for the veins in the leaves.

Once these textures were made I would place them in engine and use the two sided shading model in UE4.7 to get some clear subsurface scattering where the light shines through the blades.

The final step in the process was to simulate the wind across the grass. Even though the unreal engine has a simple grass wind node in the material editor I wanted something that looked much more natural then the results produced by it. I used a system that pans a normal map across the world space the grass is in creating a more natural wind that doesn't move the bottom of the grass as much or at all and creates occasional mexican waves in the grass like the wind in real life.

Off the Map and how Container City has effected it.

Even though it has been 3 weeks since I finished the last project I think I have also had also had time to reflect more on what I have learnt during that project and how its affecting my Off the Map progress.

During the Container City Project I was part of the lighting, blueprint, particle and population side of things. with a higher focus on engine work then modelling and as such I learnt a thing or two about how blueprints and timelines work. This has effected the position I play in this project as I have been even more involved in the engine side of things. I enjoy the new tools I am learning and think it is interesting but I still also feel that I'm loosing too much of the art in the project. I have decided that this upcoming week as I am making 3D assets that i will try to reconnect with the art side of the project more through environment concepts and the modelling so that when I return to engine I can focus on population.

Off the Map: Part 4

This week we carried on making our level and after the success of last weeks test we have moved to create most of the beginning of the game. Our character artists have been making the numerous encounters the player will find while me and my fellow engine artist have been at it creating the interactivity of the game and creating assets for the environment.

We have had some group troubles with our fifth member but these have been addresses now and as a group we should be able to move on. So far I have mentioned some of the visual progress on the project but this week I spend more time in engine so I thought I would talk more about that side of things.

As part of the two man engine team I have been focused more on making camera volumes and trigger volumes that work with matinees and triggering particle effects. For example I have made a blueprint that allows the camera to be locked to one point and rotate to follow the player whilst in the volume. This means we can make the scene have a more cinematic approach. I also made some trigger volumes that spawn particles when the player walks through them. this is used so that when Alice walks through and lands on piles of sticks at the bottom of the well some leaves pop up.

I have also made the camera sway and lag behind the player so there is always a constant flow to the movement of the game. I have also made the Cheshire cat puzzle section where a bridge is missing from a ravine and you have to ask help from the cat. He then moves himself to become the bridge.

I have now past on the engine files back to my teammate and began production on the many 3D assets for the level, starting off with trees.

Off the Map: Part 3

Okay so the second week of the Off the Map competition project had us making more concepts with me doing a number of different jobs for the group. Because of my experience with engine on previous projects and my art knowledge I have been involved in both technical and visual aspects of the project also allowing me to link the two sections together. I spend the week mainly drawing up assets for the project. Becasue its a large project there has to be as much production straight away.

As a group we decided that some sections of the game would be 2D ink sections to replicate the feel of the john tenniel illustrations. This would be at the beginning and the very end. The transition will be that wonderland is so vivid and the assets in it will be 3D and colorful while the real world is boring and flat.

As a test of this idea I decided to make the short end section of the game which would be made in this 2D planar fashion.

Off the Map: Part 2

For the off the map competition we have been put into groups so we can make a larger scale project together. This meant that this project could be much bigger with a high quality of work as well. I have been fortunate enough to have been placed in a group with strong artists, each with their own specialty meaning that we can work well together to create each part of the game.

We started the project looking with basic brain storming of where we could take the game and what art style we could take. As a group we discussed and mind mapped where we could take the project. While the actual brief set by the British Library is very open the course put on some restrictions for its students so it was more focused to what we study.


Part of this brief was to make the entry a side scroller game and while this got changed to be any sort of 3D game our group decided to keep with the side scroller element taking inspiration from such side scrollers as Trine, Rayman Legends, Limbo and Ori. In terms of art style we wanted to reflect the fantastical and otherworldly wonderland with a painterly style that is slightly stylized. Similar to Bioshock infinite but also have references to the John Tenniel illustrations which have defined the books for generations. If the amazing prints that he made were replicated in game we feel like we would have payed tribute in part to what made the books great.

We started by making moodboards and reading the books. I decided a good way of linking the two so as a group we could visualize the story was to make qa moodboard with all the original illustrations in chronological order and the moodboard pictures beneth.

We also did some other concepts while two of the teammates made 3D blockouts. While me and 2 other teammates painted some concepts for the project.

Off the Map: Part 1

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a fantastical and entertaining story written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll (really Charles Dodgeson) and received worldwide success and has been a major landmark in the literature world ever since.

It is now the 150th anniversary of the year when Lewis Carroll wrote that famous book and as such the British Library has decided to make an exhibition about the novel and the man behind it. Because of this occasion the British Library has decided to make Alice's Adventures in Wonderland it's theme for the annual Off the Map competition. This event involves teams creating a small game based on assets given to us by the British Library taking inspirations from the book, the original manuscript and the diary of charles dodgeson. There are also three minor themes that the game/level has to be linked to but there can be elements from all three. These brackets are Oxford, Underground and Gardens.

John Tenniel's original illustrations have defined the look of Alice through her adventures for generations.

 This is an exciting project to be given because it has a lot of scope for where you can take it. This wide scope is not only limited to the art part of the project but also in terms of the game play and interactivity side of the project there are lots of options in not only how a game can be made but also what platform and technology it can utilize.

Oxford is one of the possible themes

This project will continue until the end of the academic year so is important not only because its an external competition but also because it will have a massive effect on my progress through university. As such the blog next several post will be about my progress through this exciting project.