Pitch'n in the Mornin

Ok well this week I have had a lot of work to do and finished 99% of it. In my previous post I showed you a menu that I had made but i have fixed a lot of things on it like: I made the scene lighter, added glow behind the title text and other text to make them pop more, changed some textures to make a more dramatic menu. I changed all of these purely from recommendations from other artists. Also this week I drew up several designs to help with the presentation - they aren't works of art but they will help up explain the game a lot better. I also added a few pieces for consideration on the one page design. We also had some issues with our FBX files so I spent a lot of time trouble shooting those and getting everything to a good place for the programmers so they didn't have to struggle with things they shouldn't. I'll add some of the art and I'll let you see the menu design in class.

Still working towards a prototype

Well this week I got a lot done. So far I have adjusted all the textures of the fbx models so they look really good for the protoype. I have come up with a pretty cool menu that I posted below(sorry if the quality comes up short). I have also produced some side art for a better presentation, and I produced a gameplay animation with the video filters that look really great. As far as bumps in the road. I have had issues with my Visual Studio but I believe that has been worked out as of last night. I also have several other things to handle before I can code a particle system for the demo which isn't necessary just a good feature. I have put in a lot of work but it feels like I'm not doing enough because I'm not coding with the programmers as well and I'm not use to not doing everything myself yet. I am excited to keep moving and show a really good game next tuesday.

Working on the Prototype

This week has been a lot of work for us. For me my list of things to do were:

 - Handle the transfer of 3D texturing from Maya to XNA.

 - Make an animation of gameplay for the pre-pitch.

 - Make an introduction screen for the game.

 - Code a particle system.

 - Continue figuring out how to add an image filter.

It's a lot but it is being handled. I have most of the animation done but I need to make the level move now and not just the character. I'm having a hard time think of what the main screen should look like but I'll try to come up with some option for the group so it can be a team decision. I'm waiting to finish the particle system till after we figure out the texturing problems - for now I just changed the textures to standard lambert texture so the group can still see and work with the objects. I think to fix it I need to customize the texture more. As of now I have a image that is not particular size with the UV's of the 3D objects adjusted to make it look right. I think I need to export UV maps and change the jpg images to fit standard maps cause XNA keeps giving me image sizing errors. Adding the filter can also wait till we at least have the basic objects. I would love to divulge more but I have a lot to do so till the next time.

Work'n on the prototype

 Ok so far the prototype is going well. I'm very fast with 3D art so I was able to produce the level pretty quick. Now what I'm running into is difficulty with and emitter and speed filters. I have been trying to do a lot of tutorials to catch up on emitters to make it look how I want, and I'm almost there but not yet. Next the speed filters. We came up with a few options for the change in speed one is that the obstacle course pieces themselves would change colors for the change in speed blue for slowing down time and red for speeding it up. It is simple but not as appealing as the other idea. The other option is making the whole scene change. For slowing down time we wanted everything to become a very ghostly and colorless - much like on the lord of the rings when he goes invisible or like the eagle eye vision in Assassin's Creed. For speeding up time the idea was to make the scene very vivid or something. Both looks would be great and a visually appealing piece to the game. The problem though is that it is becoming very difficult to make two filters that aren't too rough of a transition. In the game you will maybe have to change speed several times in one move. With such different transition it will make an audience sick to switch back and forth between them so I'm trying to come up with a maybe a mix of the two ideas but so far it hasn't produced much success. I'm still working no worries.