DESN385 3D Gaming

Position of Scenery in different level

2008-06-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

Final stage of the game...Almost done!

I am now looking for some music for the game, subtle change between the swtich of black and white space...It sounds trickey...However, finally got some sample music for the game...

And then they are not going to be used due to to their short duration and we all can't figure it out.T_T

Scenery

2008-06-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

The main purpose of scenery is to privide a signal for game players to realise the orientation of the game levels. And also it is aimed to enhance aethestic style of the game and evoke the artificial atomosphere of the white space.

The images showed above are not the final position of the scenery. Tim has positioned them as a way that suits for the levels.

Pattern wall+window at the entry

2008-06-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Actually, I don't know how to name these meshes...Our team guys named it as a wall + window... It looks well when you first entry the game level. The design also follows the way of the whole game and the pattern was designed as the same as scenery staff. It is considered as a reflection of the entire game that various steps and challenges.

Sign post

2008-05-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

The initial mesh bulit as a sign post in the entry of different level. It plays an significant role in the game that signal the level to game player which level they are achieving. There are three levels in our game and each one in a different direction but the same game entry but different level design. In that case, the sign post will be a particular sculpture in the game that points in 3 kinds of direction but in a same way. It sounds complicated...This mesh just a mock up. Got a idea of 1,2,3 pole...but still need to figure out how they point out a geometric direction as a sign post. Jason made awesome one later....really nice.

Square wall

2008-05-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

The multi direction scenery I have made is a extension of the first scenery. It can be a skybox for the game or a underneath scenery. Much more complicated than the earlier ones.

Scenery design

2008-05-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Based on the game concept and general geometric style though the game, we just decided to set some scenery for the different levels. Inspired by the electric circuit board, I have built up the first scenery which goes the straight way and points to a single direction. Although we satisfied with this simple scenery, we still need another multi direction scenery but the same style for the game.

The first entry

2008-05-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

The first health pick up mesh I built for our team. It seems like a mock up model at this stage. After having several meeting with our group, the game concept has been switched from colourful world to 2 colour world which sounds cool. I started to mock up the start level in both in Blender and Unity.

Game Link

2008-04-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

Let's go with Jelly... PLAY

Final Concept-Finding star

2008-04-29T04:41:00.001-07:00

Finally, I make a mesh looks like starfish but exactly it is not. It just something floating and rotating in the water. I changed my idea that using seaweed as road sign for character to follow into but using the pink rotated starfishes. The reason is both the sea plants and seaweeds for my character are too huge to see them…sometimes when play the game it is hardly to find the green staffs to go out even by myself. To make the way easier and interesting, I added the starfishes into my environment. Well, much easier to find the way out.
Also, I found underwater skybox textures in Unity forum and they makes my cartoon underwater world becomes real.

Final game Concept: After changing my idea of road signs, my game concept changed as well. Start from the center of the maze, Jelly will begin its journey in the maze. All it needs to do is looking for the pink starfish which are continuously floating and rotating on the way and it is easy to find actually. Following with the starfish on the way, it will find the biggest one at the end of the first journey and then access the second level.

The first level has almost been done, the coral level still has problem… It is an unreal world that Jelly can pass the body of corals… I have to give up the original idea about the second level that character goes through the hole of the corals and find something to eat …

Anyway, the camera comes better finally after adjustment of its max speed and other staff… Although it still moves slowly in Unity, it goes well as a unity player fortunately.

Things need to learn soon:
1. My initial idea of food has to be given up due to Health pickup script can not work on my food properly.
2. Mesh collider doesn’t work on my corals.
3. Position and speed of camera.
4. Input manager: set navigation keys both by mouse and keyboard.
5. ….lots staff

My character & environment

2008-04-28T03:25:00.001-07:00

View of the first level

Character in the first level

Hmmm...I think the added animated seaweed make the first level look better... It is an animated underwaterworld but not still any more...

Character in the second level

At this stage, the main objects in the 2 levels have almost been done. However, I still need sea grass and stones to be placed somewhere in the underwater world.

Problems: Got a basket of problems with Unity need to figure out:

when I brush the detail grass right into the terrain, Unity suddenly shut down;
Adding sphere collider to food and coral, it doesn’t work properly. I have tried to add collider directly onto the mesh. My character still is able to go across them.
Camera still works in a wrong way after my adjustment on its distance.

Hope everything will be figured out tonight...

Images of Progress

2008-04-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

My environment consists of 2 levels that are in different height of the terrain. From the top of view, the first level are covered with green sea plants as road signs for character to find its way to next level; the second level is a low lying land covered with orange coral that grow across to each other, also it is a particular place for character to interact with it. From the view of character, the environment is so big that everything in its eyes is huge. It only can see a small part of everything at most time.

The sea plant I created in blender is the main road signs in this level and it grows at the particular position on the way to next level. Also, I create water bubble using the particle system in Unity and place them together with the plants. Then I create seaweed for the first level which is an animated plant in the water.

For the second level, I placed the coral in different ways and water bubble as well. Also, I added the direction lights to the whole environment and adjusted the color of them to make appropriate lights for the underwater world.

Another problem is the angle and position of camera. Although it follows with the character, it stays in its body...need to figure it out.

Building Environment in Unity

2008-04-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Start building the environment in Unity...

Now I am going to build the environment which will be a underwater world for my character to swim in… the images shows below is the first level of the game and it is going to be a surrounded maze… It starts with a terrain and no texture for it yet… It looks like an icy world, isn’t it? Maybe it is a good idea to change my concept to make an icy world for my character to skate and play inside… Till now, I can not play the game to see how my environment looks like. How the water and skybox I have added look like…because my character doesn’t like to come in Unity…T_T

Help!!!Got problem with importing my character into Unity...I can not see it even set its scale to 1000...I don't know what the problem it is and what I can do for it next...To me, it is a big trouble...T_T

Anyway, keep on working my environment... Also, I need to figure out how to build a underwater world (at least looks like - -") in Unity for my character...

The particular coral created for the environment... The coral will be main objects in the second level of the my environment for my character to swim across...

After 2 days... With the help of Kah, my character finds its way to Unity finally!!! Kah finds out the problem happens due to modifier of my mesh, then I was introduced another way to smooth my model by subdivided once and smooth it plenty times.

The mesh I created in blender for my first level... It is seaplant...

Brief of my environment

2008-04-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

The environment I would like to create is an underwater world for my character to interact with it. It is a small part of deep sea actually but for my tiny character it seems like a huge world. For it, everything in this world is tremendous.

Player is able to experience the world with my character by navigating it. The first level will be a gully which seems like a maze, it is a challenge for my character to find its way to go out and get into next level. The second one is a low-lying land covered with coral; here, my character is going to pass through the slot of the corals and looking for the food displayed somewhere inside this land with the help of player. Each food will be attached a point for player. Also, there is another challenge for it to find the way to go out of this coral area but not stay with coral all the time. The last export of the depression is a way to go to the third and last level of this game. Still thinking about content of the last level...

Research on Coral

2008-04-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Coral reef

Coral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms, found in shallow, tropical marine waters with little to no nutrients in the water. High nutrient levels such as those found in runoff from agricultural areas can harm the reef by encouraging the growth of algae.[1] In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate. The accumulation of skeletal material, broken and piled up by wave action and bioeroders, produces a massive calcareous formation that supports the living corals and a great variety of other animal and plant life. Although corals are found both in temperate and tropical waters, reefs are formed only in a zone extending at most from 30°N to 30°S of the equator.

Research on jellyfish's food

2008-04-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

What do Jellyfish Eat?

Jellyfish feed on fish and other small sea animals.

Can we see what jellyfish eat?

Since jellyfish eat very small sea animals, some of the sea animals that jellyfish eat are microscopic and so small that we cannot see with our eyes. We need a microscope to see the microscopic sea animals that are jellyfish's food. Scientists call this collection of small sea animals zooplankton.

What are zooplankton?

Zooplankton are tiny sea animals known to be jellyfish food. Zooplankton include:

tiny shrimp
eggs of sea animals
baby sea animals
other small stingers

Where are zooplankton?

Zooplankton are found in each drop of sea water. They can only be seen under a microscope. Although, zooplankton are small, thousands and thousands of them add up to become a meal for jellyfish.

How do jellyfish find food?

Jellyfish find food by using their oral arms to sweep zooplankton into thier mouths as they swim through the water. Jellyfish do not hunt. Jellyfish use thier tentacles to capture large prey by stinking them and kill them. The dead prey is then brought to the jellyfish 's mouth by the tentacles.

--->source

Zooplankton, the animal form of plankton, includes protozoa, small crustaceans, jellyfish and worms. Protozoa are single celled organisms that can colonize; they can live in oceans, salt lakes, freshwater lakes, rivers and ponds and vary in size for two to seventy micrometers and even larger. Crustaceans are invertebrates that live in water as well as on land and can vary from microscopic to sixty centimeters. Zooplanktons main sustenance are bacteria and phytoplankton, making them the second link in the food chain (Vegas).

My character-Jelly

2008-04-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a screenshot of what I have done for my character till now. The character I have created in blender is a basic and cartoon jellyfish, now I have an idea that it will be a floating object in the water and controlled by the navigation of player to experience and explore the underwater world. I still need spend some time to work on my character design. By the way, I hate the squared head of my jellyfish, gonna change it into a smooth and evasive head that should be much better.

The main character I have created has 4 smooth legs so that it has capacity of running in the water; it will not be a floating object as my initial thinking any more. Although it still seems like a jellyfish, it has a big improvement and difference with its initial appearance as a jellyfish. It has big eyes, nose to breath and flexible legs; also it becomes an active animal but not a decoration in the water any more. In that case, it is able to escape from its enemy-I haven’t sure what is its enemy, now I plan it to be a big fish who wants to catch my character and eat it.

The final outcome is a tiny cartoon character with light blue pattern skin and shiny blue eyes. I textured it with bright color because it is an obvious object in the game and also its color tells its enemies that it is dangerous to get close to it. Its legs move smooth just like swimming in the water, what its difference from a jellyfish is it has ability to control the movement by itself (the navigation of player) but not floating by the direction of water. Still thinking about its name... like Jelly...

Unity tutorial

2008-04-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

After a short break, now I need to keep on working and catch up with my project cause there are a lot stuff to learn both Blender and Unity especially which is a program completely new to me...

Proposal for Project 3

2008-04-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Getting Treasure

Basic settings:
3 level of environment: plain that is the beginning of the game, forest and mountain where the treasure stored.

Objects in the game:
woodhouse where sells weapon;
map- indicate the way to next place;
towns – different places that for characters to experience and beat the demons appear there.

General game idea:
At the beginning of this game, character will be given 1 basic weapon, 3 bloods – for renewing lives. When character goes through levels of the game, they will meet different demons and experience different environment. Character will be given 1 blood after killing one demon and one map if character kills all the demons in one place. Then character is able to find next place by using the map. Following this way, the more maps character gathered, the closer he getting to the mountain. Also, there are several wood houses hides in the places. It is a challenge for character to find it and buy the advancer weapons to deal with the demons.

Sound: natural and eerie sound at different time.

Environment of "Finding Nemo"

2008-04-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

To me, video game is an unfamiliar object that I need to explore something interesting and to understand the design theory behind them. The reason is I haven’t played a video game properly at all but just played simple and easy ones for fun at most times. In that case, it is a challenge for me to find an environment that designed well in a video game.

However, base on my jellyfish created in project1, I am interested in creating the underwater environment for my little character. Therefore, Finding Nemo game which has a beautiful underwater environment becomes my research object. The game is designed as an interactive interface for players to interact with the characters in the movie. Meanwhile, as players navigate in the game, they also experience the different levels which are the scenes of the movie as well.

Give a example, this screenshot comes from the little game demo I played is one of the levels. Nice environment and activate musical sound. As the game description, players navigate the game by their mouse and they need to help Nemo with its swim skill that hit the green ball constantly to prevent it dropping down but keep it floating and hitting everywhere includes the jellyfish inside this room to earn points. It is interesting that when the ball hits the floating jellyfishes, they will change their color and make activated sound immediately.

Game research-Nemo's underwater world of fun

2008-04-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Finding Nemo-Nemo's underwater World of fun

Finding Nemo features an adventure story that borrows plot points and characters from the film. Nemo is a clownfish who, like many kids, doesn’t always listen to his parents. When he strays too far from his father, Marlin, he finds himself scooped into a net, placed in a cooler full of seawater and taken away.

The diver who grabbed him accidentally loses his mask, however, and Marlin realizes he can use it to help him find his son. With the help of a not-so-bright fish named Dory, he sets off on his journey.

Meanwhile, Nemo winds up in a dentist’s aquarium, where he learns that he will soon be a birthday present for a little girl named Darla. He needs to find a way out of his predicament or his father will never find him. Luckily, there are other fish in the tank who are willing to lend a fin.

You switch back and forth between the two storylines as you guide Marlin and Nemo through 10 adventure-filled levels. Each level features a variety of mini-games and puzzles that test reflexes and analytical skills. such as Marlin and Dory’s escape from a sunken submarine where a shark named Bruce — who’s trying to swear off eating other fish — is in a feeding frenzy.

After you successfully complete a level, you’re rewarded with a scene from the movie.

Beyond the Film

In Nemo’s Underwater World of Fun, Nemo and his father are together again, but Marlin wants his son to become a better swimmer. You must help Nemo navigate the games in the Super Swim Challenge and earn the title of Super Swimmer.

As in Finding Nemo, you get to interact with characters from the movie, and when you earn five prizes in each segment of the challenge, you get to watch a brief film clip that relates to the game. In the final test, Nemo must avoid a series of obstacles and collect all of the singing scallops before time runs out.

Educational Value

This game is designed mainly for fun, although players do need to draw on memory and prediction skills in order to master the games.

Entertainment Value

This program is rich with humor and character. Children will enjoy "interacting" with Nemo and his friends as they participate in fun, goal-oriented challenges. Rewards are plenty and satisfying, and the concept of earning video clips from the movie is appealing.

[[[ Jelliefishie ]]]

2008-03-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Animation of Jelliefishie

2008-03-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Animation

2008-03-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

This image shows the view from camera.

Finally, got all the stuff done on my character and now begin to make the animation of it. The movement of jellifishie is quite simple but flexible. It only cost a few frames to complete its animation. Its movement follows with the direction of water.

Texture

2008-03-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Applying texture to my character. Due to the complex and multi-vertices on my character, finally I just simple cut my jelliefishie into 2 parts and then do the the UV mapping, applied the texture onto it. I found that at this stage what I desired at the first are hardly to come true. For example, transparent skin and constantly changing of its color. Hope I will figure out through the next projects.

Weight painting

2008-03-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

After rigging my model, actually not really finish rigging. When I start to weight painting on my character, problems come out! Each vertex I paint on will be extended a lot… The problem is I haven’t named all the bones. They are single and no parent at all!
Return to rigging and IK solve… done!
Then start to weight painting, much better!

Rig the character

2008-03-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Have my model done, and then go through the tutorials for rigging character. Start rigging from the top to each legs of my model, first I tried to fix bone with each segment of my model. In that case, I found that there are over 100 bones in all when I finish rigging. Getting trouble for myself actually… I still can not understand what bones mean to the body, how it effects the movement of the body. Maybe it is due to my character which has no bone at all. However, it still needs “bone” to make it move.

Finally, each legs only has 4 legs at most and it make things easier.

Create 3D model

2008-03-07T05:41:00.000-08:00

First entry to Blender which is programmed for create 3D model, everything starts with a cube and then Extrude… At first, I didin't start with a cube and then model comes funny and hard to control by its vertices. Getting struggle to make a hollow cube and jelliefishie’s long legs.

Tutor Kah found my problem and I need to start again. Start with a cube and extrude everything I want from a cube. And then a cube with hollow inside comes out~!
Following with the tutorial both in class and open source online, hollow cube was created by just repeat extruding face of the starting cube.
It is a simple and basic way to create 3D models.Finally, jelliefishie come out.
It has a head with no obvious eyes and 9 legs come from its little body inside its big head.
Looks better...

And some images of my model at point of view:

view from side & bottom of model

view from side & top of model

Sketches

2008-03-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

The first two sketches showed above are both based on the research of jellyfish.

Quite like the color and their smooth body, their shape which like a plant.

These two are sketches of cartoon jellyfish. Quite cute actually…

Well, these two are the final design for my character.

It names jelliefishie. Due to it is the same type with jellywish.

They seem like UFO with long and multi-legs...

Hope it go well when I turn the design into Blender.

Description of my character

2008-03-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

Base on my research on jellyfish,
finally I decided to create my character as a creature from deep sea.
The feature of my character is its body which is transparent, fluid, smooth and shaped.
It has a soft body as mollusk; also 98% of its body is water content.
It looks like a bell or a mushroom with multi-stemmed.
It grows in the deep sea and always floating in the water;
move away with the direction of the movement of water.
Its appearance of color highlights its body to make itself beautiful.
It appears different color at different time.
It has various colors such as

light blue,

brightness blue,

dark blue,

red,

orange,

yellow,

radish

and

light green.

Research

2008-03-05T04:31:00.000-08:00

Some research on Jellyfish

Jellyfish - Curious creatures of the sea
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/jellyfish-curious-creatures-sea.html sea.html

Bioluminescent Organisms
http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/hughes2001/acct/lzace/

jellyfish.html

Jellyfish pictures!!!
http://www.funny-potato.com/jellyfish.html

Initial concept of my character.

2008-03-04T03:00:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of Project 1, I started to design my creature by researching on some kinds of organism I interested in. When I was thinking the place where my creature will come from, the word appears in my mind immediately is the “sea”.

Apart from the land, over 60% of the earth is covered by water. In other words, the sea is a huge place of creating organisms and it also has large even tiny unknown place where some organism live. Then I decided that my creature character will come from the sea and it will survive with water.

By researching on the organisms of the sea, a lot of stuff come out as rich as their habitat. Jellyfish is one of them and it is my interesting organism. I think it is one of the curious creatures of the sea. It looks like a transparent floating mushroom or flower so that it seems like an embellishment of the deep sea.