Week 11 - Render of My Suitcase, Finally.

I think it's Week 11 anyway...

I've been working on a piece for my portfolio now we have the extension time, so I've polished the suitcase in my scene and created a quick turntable for you all to see.

Renders on the way.

- Hannah

Week 10 - Extension Time

We've been given an extension, which is fantastic. That means that stuff will actually get polished.

So a quick update on where I am, and what I'll be doing next week, so I don't have to do a blog post on Monday, and can just throw myself into work.

• I have removed the bathroom, for times sake. I will be keeping the basin, which will be in the room. This means that the final area will be far more polished. 
• The room is being extended slightly on the right side. This means that you won't trip over the guy on the bed, and there will be a second reveal of the detective's wall. 
• The base meshes are done and ready for scuplting. The characters are going to be great. I'm going to do some design work on the hair of the female, maybe some quick paintovers to iterate.
• I will be playing around with sounds in the level, to add more atmosphere, which is the most important thing. 
• I will hopefully be getting my friend to write and record a noir themed voiceover that will play throughout the level. 
• I've been playing around with the lighting. It looks cool.

Next week, I will be continuing on texturing, I just need to get everything textures quickly.

If I continue on with my project as it is, I'm looking at a 2.1, but if I can get the character sorted and everything finished, I'll be hitting a First, which is awesome.

- Hannah

Week 10 - Busy Old Me

I'm crazy busy at the moment. Lots of work to do, and lots being done. Not much to say other than the base meshes for the characters are done, and paint overs have begun.

Texturing is happening, slowly but surely.

Everything is on track.

Thought I'd post up the paint overs I'm currently working on.

 I am in love with her.

- Hannah

Week 9 – Schedule Evaluation: I Prepared For This…

I’m sure it’s not a surprise to hear I’m behind schedule. In fact, I actually planned for this. I gave myself 4/5 weeks of polish time. This means that I know I’ve got some spill over time, but I still need to get working faster. I should have the character done by now, and as you can see, that’s not happened. Not being able to work at home is not helping, so I’m looking forwards to that new computer I’m going to be buying soon.

I’m going to be setting up a new schedule here, to help me get everything in order over the next few weeks, which will be hectic.

Week 9 –

• ·         Base textures created (wood, metal etc.) and the base room textured.
• ·         Texture the larger assets (bed etc.)
• ·         Lighting pass

Week 10 –

• ·         Character base complete
• ·         Body complete
• ·         Texture smaller assets

Week 11 –

• ·         Character textures at least begun
• ·         Continue on with texturing smaller assets
• ·         Lighting pass again
• ·         Quick paintovers

Week 12 –

• ·         Character polish
• ·         Environment tweaking
• ·         Particle effects begun
• ·         More texturing

Week 13 –

• ·         Polish environment
• ·         Further character polish
• ·         Particle effect polish
• ·         Looking at final screenshot composition and flythrough ideas
• ·         Lighting pass

Week 14 –

• ·         Final polish
• ·         Flythrough put together
• ·         Lighting pass
• ·         Post processing
• ·         Presentation

Week 15 –

• ·         Post mortem before final presentation
• ·         Post mortem after presentation

Sounds manageable, right? 

I also did a quick paintover of the desk area, just getting and idea of what will be going on the wall. 

"Who is she?" is the cheesiest shit ever and definitely will not be going on the wall, but you get the idea. 

Anyway, onwards and upwards...

- Hannah

Week 9 - Assets... Assets Everywhere.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been making a lot of assets. I bought a journal at the beginning of this project and it's honestly been my lifeline during the past few weeks. Keeping track of everything has been so much simpler, so I wrote up my asset list of priority 1 and 2 assets.

As you can see, exciting stuff. So, I popped everything in engine and got a couple of screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

Lots to work on, various paintovers to do and I definitely need to play around with the lighting, making it more dynamic, making sure everything is casting shadows etc. I’ll be doing some visual analysis based around Jack Vettriano and his paintings as a source of influence for my colour schemes and such. 

Isn't it beautiful?

- Hannah

Week 9 - This Is Going To Be a Big One...

I’ve got the Dragon Age: Inquisition soundtrack blasting and I’m feeling pumped. Let’s write this blog post.

So the past few weeks I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front, with promises of updates, but the truth of the matter is, not a lot was happening. It’s all been pretty dull. I’ve been grinding away making assets and unwrapping, not the most exciting thing to talk about.

But I have now, finally, imported everything into the Unreal Engine and I have a basic scene to work with, which is fantastic. I’ve begun populating a little, playing around with layouts and various shots for the final renders. I’ve also begun working on the lighting setup, which is fairly simple at the moment.

One unfortunate thing I’ve discovered is that my love for Environment Art has grown exponentially and my love for Character Art has diminished somewhat. This is a bit of a problem, as I’ve written a character into my brief… But at the beginning of this project I still wasn't sure which path I wanted to go down. Now I know for sure.

This won’t stop me however, I’ll get the character done. She will be more of a prop (possibly the most misogynistic thing I’ve ever written) much like the body, which is currently in the works. Everything is coming along slowly.

So, over the course of today, I’ll be doing two different blog posts.

• ·         Assets and the scene
• ·         Schedule evaluation and where I’m going from here

I feel like that’s probably easier and more digestible to put it in multiple chunks rather than overloading in one post.

So here we go. It's going to be great...

- Hannah

Week 8 - I'm Sorry For Neglecting You.

It's been a long time since I've written a post guys. I said I was going to and I didn't. There are a lot of excuses I could give, but the honest answer is that I was busy. I've blazed through 50+ assets this last two weeks and the scene is finally coming together.

I'm currently working on some paintovers of the scene. I'll do a big post summing up the last two weeks at the end of this week.

I stumbled upon this wonderful fountain of reference though, so I thought I'd make a post documenting it. The LAPD released some photographs that were taken at various crime scenes dating back to the early 1900's. Such beautiful reference.

Here you go if you'd like to look at all the images. Graphic images abound.

- Hannah