Cave and Tree Design

We wanted to put a tree into the cave, to make some form of center point. I thought making it a strangle tree would work as it could actually be a collection of pipes, descided as a tree. However, I found this very hard to do at first, as I wasn't very good at doing trees. I tried using overlays to make it look better but it still didn't work. I then took some time to practice environment art, including stones and trees. I used what I lerned to make the cave environment art and redid the tree to look more like a tree. 

I still wasen't happy with how I was doing the cave, so I desided to take screen shots of the gray box ,and used that to get the shapes and forms right. I then added lighting and shadows, and stone textured overlays. 

I also wanted to put the platforms into the environment to show how it all worked together. I also wanted to make sure they didn't blend into the rest of the cave.

I used wires and mushroom to descises the wires and lights, as this was a good way to add a old, over grown look to the cave, as well as allowing a way for lights to be put wherever they are needed.

Due to time constrates, we desided to change the strangle tree for a stone one, as this would be easire to model. I tied to do different textures on each tree so that there could be more chose. I also  tried to make the leaves stand out ,to show thhis tree is spesule to all the over trees that would be in the jungle environment.

Character Modelling -- Alpha Texturing for Hair and Feathers

The texturing for both the hair and feathers required some progress.

1. I needed to draw 4 different kind of strands for the UVs I had
2. Find an a good image of hair I could use, and adjust the the color if needed after importing it into Photoshop.
3. Make it a clipping mask over the strands and fill the base colour of the background.

I then had to use the alpha channels to create and alpha and save it as a 32bit targa file so there will be some transaprency when opened into Maya.

The above process was repeated for the feathers, which I had to download the brush tool for. When the texture was applied, I then realised that the hair bands holding the character's hair was also transparent, so the only thing that was needed was to move the two unfolded UVs to the main body UVs to avoid this problem.

The one thing I have realised is that with alphas is that theu don't look like many strands on the chacter as suppoed to how many that were drawn on in Z-Brush. From here, I'll learn to use thicker strands for my future models to also avoid all the time it took to fix all the UVs for the character's hair.

At this point onwards, our group hasdecided to shift the game into a walking sim due to the sort amount of time we have left to finish the project. Due to this, the enemy model will not be used.

Craig Lang - Admitting to Limitations

As a group we decided to downscale are game. The original goal of a stealth platformer with enemy AI has been scrapped. This was due to the limited time left to complete the project. Another important factor was my limitations in scripting. Creating scripts for AI and stealth mechanics was out of my skillset and was virtually impossible for me to create. Acknowledging everyone's skillset within the group we are now focusing on creating a walking platformer sim using the models, textures and scripts we have. I will be creating triggers , menus and door scripts like I have done in the past. This was a necessary move for the group and we will hopefully move forward from it.

Character Modelling -- Enemy Modelling.

From the concept art Jemila had drawn, I have managed to model the enemy patrolling within the game. The enemy is a simple sphere with some light source to alert the player whether they've been seen or not with it's colours.
It has been textured and bump-mapped accordingly.

Since I'm not sure how the glowing will work, so I will be sure to figure out something in unity with the lights.

Box Art

For the box art I defanitly wanted it to show the unique aspects of the game. I would have used one with an enamy in it, so show that its a stelf game. But as the stelf parts where scraped, I desided to just focus on the character. I also wanted to make sure her legs where involved as that tell quite a about the kind of world the game is based in. I also wanted to include her necklace as its the thing that starts her journey, and there fore the game.

I had troble getting her pose right, so I used refrances of different girls falling. I wanter to show her falling, as it reflects her journey to the center of her planet, but also symbolizes her not being able to tern back to the surface due to her curiosity.

Texturing and UI

We've had a few progress issues the past few weeks but we're finally getting back on track. I have begun texturing my assets and I've come up with a Logo for our game and should have the main menu done soon.

  

~Matt

Charater Modelling -- Texturing and Normals

Texturing took some time to deal with, especially with figuring out how to warp the seams around the character's skirt of the dress. It was odd -- If I followed the way I warped the image to the UV snapshot in Photoshop, there was still some unnatural stretching of the texture. The only way to solve this was going back in the texture editor and straightening the UVs so that they'll look like it should when on the model.

As for the normal maps, I used a tool in Photoshop to make normals out of images traced over the UVs that needed surface texture (rocky legs, and clothing).

It was very hard drawing on her facial details, such as the tribal markings, and her eyes which I'm really not happy with.
There was also issues with the colours of the texture when I needed to view them in Maya -- the colours would come out a few shades lighter than the same colour I used from the character's concept. This would make me darken the colours in Photoshop to try and match the colours the character's supposed to have, just like her design.

Keys and Lights

As the character's necklace acts as the key to unlock the cave, I wanted it to look unique and impotent. Each level also needed a key so I did them together to make sure they looks similure. I wanted them to be made of metel, so I covered them up with a rust like look to make them seem more natural. I used the crytel again to tie it to the environment, but also as a sign to which key opens witch door. I desided that they keys should have less and less rust as they progress, as it would hint more as the scifi side of the world as the player advances. 

As I had been practicing environment art, I desided to redo the corridor and start to put things together. I also inclused a slot for the key to go in. I thoght this would help the player understand where the key goses, as it has such a unique shape. I also kept this part simple so it wouln't take too long to model, seeing as we are ferly far into the development prosses.

One problem we still had was that there where no lights in the cave, which was needed as it would be dark. At first, I tried using ball of light in vine cages, as the lights would actually be light bulbs and would need to be contected to wires. It was then sajested to use mushrooms, as this would be easire to model and give a more magical/fantasy look to the environment.

Craig Lang: Enemy AI

I started scripting the Enemy AI. I created a Patrolling script, a chase script and an AI controller. The AI controller script would call and control the other scripts.


 I created an animation and attached it to the enemy. I then called the animation in the patrolling script. I added a parameter in the animator and set it to 0. I then called the parameter in the patrolling script and times it by a float. With this script I can call the animation and control the speed of the AI's movements.


I then moved onto the chase script. I used a transform lookat line of code, so it would always face and move towards an object when called. I made sure it will lookat any object tagged "player" in OnTriggerEnter. This allows the AI to look at and follow the player if it enters the AI's trigger.


I then moved onto the AI controller. I originally used if statements which called and enabled each script when called. I called each script in void functions named patrolling and chasing. By doing this I can turn on and off each script allowing me to control whether or not the player has been seen. I used a raycast to help the AI identify the player. If the player interfered with the raycast the patrolling script will be disabled and the chase script would activate. This will cause the AI to stop the animation and follow the player. If the player exited the AI's trigger the chase script will be disabled the patrolling script will activate. This then causes the AI to return to the animation.


Although this method worked it is inefficient. The if statements makes the code messy and by calling the animator means I will have to animate each individual enemy. The solution is using an state machine. By using a state machine I can use less if statements and only need to call each script once. This cleans up the code and makes it more efficient.