Monster Character 1 - WIP in Zbrush

Below you can see the work in progress of one of the monster characters that I have started to create in ZBrush. It is taking me longer than I expected to complete. I am having trouble with the hands and feet plus I have to retopologize the whole model later down the line which might take some time as this will be the first time I'll be doing it.

At the moment I have started everything in ZBrush, but I might have to change my workflow to save us some time in producing the characters.

When the character is posed in the same way as the concept art - you will be able to tell the similarities although it will not be exactly the same.

Graybox

Early graybox test from start of the project



Changed the room layout and added placeholder objects, obstacles and lighting

Added in teddy bears as placeholder AI and added waypoints for them to patrol to

 I also changed the ambient light in the render settings to black to allow pitch darkness in the game.

Added a sphere with a point light inside it. Initially we had the issue of the sphere not illuminating despite being transparent and adding the halo effect to the point light though importing the image effects package and applying bloom to the main camera fixed this issue.

 

We had an issue with the bear running very slowly, this appears to be due to scaling issues because everything is scaled up. To fix this we will need to rescale the entire level, because this can't be done in one go this may take a while as objects will need to be reorganised.

Outside Environment Concepts

Just playing around and having fun with concept art.

(Michael) Edit:

So i really liked Yodahie's picture, and my comment related to adding more texture, and shadow, so i did a comparison with what it looks like when you add a simple dirt texture on a multiply Filter. The result gives the picture more detail.

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These are concepts of what the forest might look like. On the next environment concepts I am going to use textures of leaves and forests from photos to help me create that added realism. This idea of adding textures was suggested by my awesome team members when I mentioned I was having trouble creating realistic environment concepts.

Today I am going to continue sculpting the monster base-mesh in ZBrush and in my spare time I will try to create more environment concepts and a concept of the main protagonist.

Today ToComplete (TTC)

30th October:

Michael - Fix Crouch Collision Problem and light crouch problem, implement headbobbing

David - finish Sofa's, vase, plant

Yodahie - continue with planned concept art.

Wardrobe

This is a Wardrobe modeled in 3dsMax. This is perhaps one of the major assets for the reception level because it's function will be used to hide in away from the monsters view in the game. One of my co-lieges were able to code it where the player would run up to the wardrobe, press a key button and the player will be teleported into the wardrobe itself away from the monsters view. I think it will look better once player runs up to the wardrobe and instead of teleporting inside, they will have to pull on the handles to open and close the doors. 

There were no major problems while I was modeling this asset. The most tedious part were modeling the hinges for the door. I would like to see more detail on the wardrobe but for now it serves it's purpose in the game.

Recent designs

This is a simple logo design that I created for my group "Barnpunk". It is going to also be used as a form of watermark for any concept or art work produced on this project and also for the loading screen with the gear moving behind it to give it the form of moving.

This is a front and side view of our alien creature (still haven't got a name for it) I drew this in the style of its most naked form so as to refer to when creating a 3D model. This will be easier to look at as it'll help me design the bone structure and to see what parts will move. We had a discussion about it being the final design but we had agreed that it should have a bit more clothing such as a space suit. Throughout the week I shall design up some ideas for a space suit idea using these images as the base structure of the anatomy.

Main Idea Document

Group Name:Unlimited Games.

Game Name:“Path lighter”

Game idea - Finalized

Story:

Protagonist: Tom Walker

On The planet Terathorn in another solar system of the Milky Way, a race of humanoids known as Terans reside. On a rare occasion, some are born with gifts for unknown reasons. One of those people are Tom Walker of whom is a visual journalist who specializes in witnessing events and then reporting them to the public, he can produce an orb of light with his right hand for a limited amount of time, with a cool down period when it expires. He receives a tip from an anonymous source of suspicious activity in a specific area that could contain a secret worth reporting. So he investigates.

Movement:

Walk, forwards, left, right, backwards.

Jumping

Crouching

Sprinting

Gameplay:

1^st Person Stealth Survival Horror.

The player will run and hide from enemies by crouching or using cupboards to hide within whilst finding documents and keycards to get access to restricted areas as well as dragging and dropping items to gain access to areas as well. The player can also project an orb of light to light up his surroundings for a limited amount of time with a cool down period.

The player will be able to take 3 hits with a cooldown that resets his healthpoints to normal.

Enemies:

3 different enemies that patrol around 3 different areas.

Each enemy will patrol around the area.

If they see you, they will chase you and kill you.

To get away and be safe, you must run and hide. They will return to their patrol.

Areas:

Outside (introduction)

An alien like forest island

Reception (beginning, enemy 1)

A small area consisting of a

(staff room - toilets - main reception area)

The labs (middle, enemy 2)

The maze of corridors that lead to 5 different rooms

(storage – toilets – chemical research – patient upgrade room – staff room)

The offices (end – Stretch goal, enemy 3)

(toilets - main offices – Staff room – exit)  

Reception Chair

This is a chair used for the reception area behind the desk and was made using 3dsMax. This was an inspired piece and is similar to one of the chairs on one of the mood board posted previously. Again this has no major functionality and is only used to fill out space for the level. What I have seen in the level so far is that one of my work co-lieges put some sort of code on the object where if the player moves into it, the player will end up pushing it out of the way instead of it just being a solid unmovable object.

While making this model I ran into no major problems. The only problem was that it took a while to model. I would like to see if I could add some detail such as leather using sculpting softwaer such as Mudbox but for now this will have to do on the grey box level.

Tree Concepts

Hello,

So we have being doing a lot of pre-production in the past couple of weeks. Michael has being working in unity, experimenting with programming and animation implementation to get the core game play working. David has being creating assets in 3ds max. I have being working on some pre-visualisations of the environment concepts and starting a base-mesh of one of the monsters in Zbrush. Very exciting staff, I cant wait to see what we come up with in the end. :)

These are some of the tree concepts that I have created. They will be pretty low priority at this time but they show what we are thinking about. We are trying to go for a peacefully vibrant forest to contrast with the inside environment. I will upload more environmental concepts to the Blog soon. The trees show the an idea to the scale of the environment, but they also show how David might approach modelling them.

Mini Table

This model is a Mini Table used for the waiting area by reception and was made by using 3dsMax. We thought it would make sense to have some sort of waiting area as most reception areas do in real life today. This model is similar to another table in one of the mood boards posted previously.

There were some problems while making this model such as trying to get the curve right. I think this model looks OK for the grey box for now but when we start to finalize things I would like to try and make the table less chunky if given enough time at the end.

This week (till monday 28th morning)

Toop: Continue concepting till end of October unless all is done. (complete 2-4)

Joe: Enemy development for presentation and test arm in graybox

Alice: Player coding (player health and player movement)


Once all concepts are done these can be made into assets starting 5th November at the latest.

For now we will use a small test environment and placeholder objects for assets in Unity

Front View and Side View of the alien

 

 

This is a front and side view of our alien concept; the top image shows more of the fleshy/muscular parts to the alien. The bottom image shows more to do with the skeleton structureand how it may stand in idle position. Note how the alien and chicken simularities include the big thighs, skull shape, and the posture of the ribcage.

Computer Monitor

This is a model of a Computer Monitor made by using 3dsMax. This asset will be mainly used for the reception desk and perhaps for the offices once they are added in. At this time there is no proper function accept for filling out space.

Again there were no problems while making this. The only thing that I need to add are some wires to show that it is a working piece of equipment.

Hands

Here are some hand drawings I did, so that we can choose how our character will hold the light orb. I took photos of my own hands to create these drawings and to get the lighting effect just right. I wanted to use dark pinks and grey's because the environment she will be in will be dimly lit. I'm hoping to do a couple more drawings with an 'orb' in her hand, so that I can play around with what the lighting and how it could possibly look. 

Desk Lamp

This is a Desk Lamp for the desk at reception and I used 3dsMax to make this. The main function of this is to light up a small portion of the reception desk and to fill out some space.

 

There wasn't any real problems while making this asset accept for deciding what the light bulb would like.

Research

Found this link:

http://www.animalvisuals.org/projects/empathy/virtualbatterycage/#reference

Interactive 3d scene to show what its like for a battery chicken, you can drag around to see other chickens in the cage, gives a good sense of how cramped it is. We could use a similar scale maybe?


Also a factory farm moodboard

Microscope

This is a microscope that I made using 3dsMax. It is an asset for the laborartory level and has no proper real function except for filling out some space. The idea is that the large moniter on top is like a touch pad that shows images of whatever the scope see's such as bacteria like a real life microscope. The little round object in the middle at the bottom is what is holding up the glass object in middare with some sort of anti gravity particle system.

 

There were no problems while I was modeling the microscope but the more I look at it the more I feel that it should change such as using the round object at the bottom as the microscopes light sorce and make some sort of arm to hold the glass piece in the middle rather than a anti gravity particles.

Laboratory Knife

This is the first asset that I have done for the game. I made this model using 3dsMax and the knife will be added to the laboratory which is one of the levels in the game. It will only be used to fill out some space within game like many of the other assets that are to come in the nearby future. I will now give a brief explanation on to how I created this model knife. 

I first started by adding a simple cylinder shape from the standard objects bar.

After the cylinder was in place I then turned it into a editable poly which allows me to shape it into any form I want by selecting vertexes, polygons and so on. In this case I want to shape it into some sort of handle and then add the blade so the model will then look like a knife.  

Once the I was happy with the handle I added a cube from the standard objects bar. I turned this cube into an editable poly so I can shape it into a blade.

 

After I finished modeling the cube into a blade the knife was now finished. I added an auto-smooth tool because some of the polys could be seen. Before rendering the model into a picture I wanted some sort of lighting around the model so that it would stick out more and because of this I decided to make a three point light around the model. The final product is what you see in front of you now and all that needs to be done is the texturing but because the group and myself are only doing a grey box version of the game, there is no need for the texturing at this time.

Knife Sketches

These are just some knife sketches that I done using Photoshop to help me decide what type of knife should be used for the game in the laboratory level. At the end everyone seemed to have liked knife number 6 compared to all the others. It could be that some time in the future we might decide to add more knives to have some sort of veriety.

I have no problem with any of these sketches whatsoever but if anyone has any sugestion please do not hesitate to leave a comment below.

Environment Maps

These Three maps in order show:
The Outside Islands
The Reception
The labs
The offices map is yet to be completed.

The Outside Islands will concept of the similar structure of a typical island on earth however the flora and nature will be different, it will be similar to avatars forest environment, this is because the contrast between the outside environment and the inside environment will make a bigger impact on the player in regards to atmosphere and tension.

The reception will consist of neutral colours with a flowing structure. The structure has been built this way to impact the workers in a way that leaves them calm and assertive, the same with the colours.

The labs area will consist of multiple corridors that simulate similarities of a maze thus allowing the player to get lost. When a player is lost, they become fearful as they are unfamiliar with their surroundings, therefore creating suspense in a creepy dark atmosphere. The labs will also feature seperate rooms such as a chemical research room and experimental room. These rooms are subject to change depending on time.

Reception - Base Mesh Paint-Overs

I am not a very big fan of paint-overs but below you can see the paint-overs created after Michael provided me with a Base mesh of the reception he created. He provided me with different views of the reception and my task was to do the paint-over and try to create a mood in the environment. I was going for the abandoned and mysterious look as discussed with the team so the colour pallet I used was limited.  I am going to do one more paint-over where the main character is depicted using his special power.

I plan to experiment on how Tom's hands and arms are going to look e.g. tattoos no tattoos? how far the trench coat will reach hands, what the trench coat will look like etc.