GDW Update!

GDW Update

  Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't had the time to blog about our GDW progress, but better late then never.  I rigged our main character a 2 weeks ago, before our rigging tutorial in animation.

  

  I actually rigged the character with a skeleton from scratch, instead of using a pre-made skeleton rig.  I set each joint individually and then made the root node joint right at the hips.  I implemented inverse kinematics (IK) on the legs and arms, and then spent a good chunk of time properly painting the weights for the influences.  I was looking for a robotic motion in animation, so there was a sharp drop off in influences from each joint.  They were very strong right around the joints, but had lost a influence very quickly the farther you moved down the arm.  After that, I animated a basic running animation with our main character.

  I used the basic up and down motion based on where the feet were positioned, and added in head bobbing to further accentuate the movement.  I was quite pleased with how it turned out, however I see myself tweaking the animation during next semester.  We now just need to implement the running animation into our game, which should be done before Friday.  Stay tuned!

GDW Update: Levels!

GDW: Levels

  Well, the levels are finished!  I worked all last weekend and got our five levels done for our game.  What we plan to do is have the layout of the level as one entity, and then load in the different objects in the environment individually, rather than have them all included within the level entity.  Below, you can see the five finished level.

Our first level is the Science Facility:

The second level is the R&D facility:

Third Level is the Bunker:

Fourth Level is the Warehouse:

Finally, our fifth and last level are the Fields:

  We plan to eventually have all sorts of different environmental objects inhabiting our game, but they will be all be implemented in the second semester.  We only have a couple as of now.

 All of the above levels have been exported to .OBJ files, and we have successfully loaded them within our game.  Our modeller also has the majority of the models done, so once I get them exported to .OBJ files, they will be implemented as well.  We are well on our way to getting the prototype ready for the deadline, and hopefully will have some extra things to show off as well.

Computer Animation

 

   Since MIGS just happened this last week, there wasn't a Computer Animation lecture.  However, I did get a homework question done and got myself that much closer to being able to write the final.  That is all there really is to report on this front, so hopefully I'll have something more exciting to talk about next week!

After Midterm and GDW level layout

GDW

  Well, after our last meeting on Friday, we decided we needed to pick up the pace, and get some of the key mechanics done for our game.  We wanted to get the engine done ASAP, and then get a level layout ready, as well as our main character modeled.  I was tasked to get our level layout done and built.  I modeled the R&D facility, and tried to stay focused on our philosophy of our game.  Just to recap, we wanted to emphasize speed and melee fighting with our game.  I tried to make the R&D facility linear in the goal, but have branching rooms to add a little bit of variety.  I really didn't want it to be just a straight hallway from one point to another.  I also added in a large manufacturing room, and a couple of rooms for research.  Below are the pics for the finished level design.

This screenshot shows the entire R&D facility level.

Here is one of the separate rooms, which is intended to be a research lab which will have lab tables and science equipment.

Finally, this is the manufacturing area of the R&D facility, with the goal room at the end.  Here, we will have manufacturing equipment and a boss battle.

  One thing we will be keeping an eye on, is the width of the hallways.  I hope they are wide enough for enemy encounters, but if not, will have to be widened.  This is something we will figure out when we get to the point of play testing our prototype.  

  We plan to get the engine done shortly, and be able to load in the level and our robot for movement/collision detection.  Stay tuned to find out what's next!

Computer Animation

  The last class, we went over forward kinematics, and their relationships with each other through trees.  Professor Hogue then taught us the kinematic algorithm with the superscript, big T, subscript approach and how to do the inverse of it.  I found this incredibly informative, but am still unsure on how to implement this exactly in code.  I suppose you would just implement each individual object (like weapons, torches, HUD information) as nodes and then have the previous node point to whatever object you choose to currently have active (at least, this is what I understand from the theory of it).  Hopefully the coding won't be too hard, but I won't know until I try.  

  Anyways, I'm looking forward to what we are going to learn next class!

GDW Update and Computer Animation

GDW

  Our latest goal for our game was to get some simple object models done.  I was assigned 3 objects: a no trespassing sign, a whiteboard and a stool.  I managed to model all three, and have done some texturing on the stool and the danger sign. 

Here, you can see the stool with a basic metallic texture on it.

Here is the no trespassing sign with the private property texture on it.  As you can see, the texture is larger than the surface, so I still need to resize it which is an easy fix.

And finally, we have the whiteboard.  I will be texturing this with some math equations and other science stuff.

Next on the list is to get some ideas down for the level I will be designing.  I've been put in charge of our second level, which will be an R&D environment similar to what you see in the movie "Andromeda Strain".  More to follow.

Computer Animation

 For the last 2 weeks, most of my energy has been focused on getting all of the homework questions done to reach level 2.  Now that I have my 20 points, the majority of my focus has been shifted to studying for it.  However, I have been thinking about what we learn in class, where I see it in games, and what I believe it could be used for.

  Now for something a little more on the philosophical side; I find it quite amazing how everything we do can be represented by math.  Obviously I knew this before this class, but to actually see the math and understand the theory behind it is quite fascinating. 

I look forward to our future lessons, especially pertaining to kinematics.

Computer Animation & GDW: With some After Effects!

Computer Animation and GDW

GDW:

Since we almost have everything ready for our first GDW milestone, I was tasked with the job of learning a little bit of Adobe After Effects.  The purpose of this is to develop an intro screen for our studio name.  I was shown some video tutorials which I watched, and developed the special effects shown on each video.  These were the resulting videos, which I made:

Shatter

Glow:

I thought they both turned out really well, and I have been enjoying experimenting with After Effects.  I plan to do a little more with it, so stay tuned!

Computer Animation:

Computer Animation has been taking up a lot of my time lately.  I figure I would do the 12 principles of animation, ease-in ease-out and the linear interpolation done for my midterm.  I have finished the ease-in eas-out and have done work on both the principles and interpolation.

I am having some trouble trying to iterate through the std::vector array and reading then reading the x and y coordinates of the vector stored in location i.  I hope to get this figured out by the weekend though, and have everything done and ready to be marked by next week.

I also played league of legends, and noticed different kinds of interpolation used for that game, mainly NPC's.  I noticed both Catmull-rom for enemies moving through lanes, as well as spline interpolation, which seems especially useful when there are obstacles in the way.

GDW and Comp Animation Update

GDW & Computer Animation

GDW: 

We got a lot done this week in our GDW.  We managed to get the overview on the plot of our game, each level, enemies for each level, and the bosses at the end of each level figured out.  The notes from our meeting can be seen below:

When you start, people who are currently working on you are coming down the corridor to shut you down. 
You have to figure out how to move and interact with objects and escape, before they get to you. 

-Blades in the arms for melee weapon

-Batman arkham asylum like combat, with fast transitions to the next locked on enemy.

-Guns are situational.  Will pick them up and be able to dispatch of enemies quickly, but will have low ammo, and you will
move really slow while you hold it.

-Energy bar constantly drains.  Killing enemies replenishes your energy bar

-Last level will be player fighting lots of enemies with 2 seperate endings.  1 ending is getting through the horde to the robot
rights group, and the other one is you die fighting, trying to get there

-Mechanic = Overclock:  You get noticeably stronger, but your energy bar drains faster.

-First level - X-men style sterilized lab.  Enemies will be military robots and drones.
-Second level - R&D level, with enemy scientists and military personnel
-Third level - Bunker level, similar to Halo with vehicles moving back and forth
-Fourth level - Top level, similar to a warehouse setting.
-Fifth level - Corn field.

Bosses:

-First level = Robot that produces little robots
-second level = Soldier in an exoskeleton suit
-Third level = APC with guy on turret
-Fourth level = 3-4 super soldiers with unique abilities
-Fifth level = Tank with enemy horde

Enemies:
-First level = combat droid(s)
-Second level = fast combat droid
-Third level = support drone and military personnel
-Fourth level = military personnel and "spectres" (exoskeleton like halo spartans without helmets)
-Fifth level = new military personnel (sniper) 

Next, we have to iron out what we want our combat to be like, and go over details on our enemy.  I suspect we will start doing preliminary design and such shortly.  We also already have somewhat of an engine going, so that will also give us a jump start on our game.

Below are some pictures of ideas on our levels, weapons and enemies which we found online.  Keep in mind that these are just possibilities what we are looking at.  A lot of it might not make it into our final game.

Levels:

Weapons:

 

 Enemies:

Computer Animation:

I got started on my homework questions over the weekend.  I plan to hopefully get to level 2 a week before our midterm, so that I don't have to do all of it at the last minute.  Other than that, there is not much to report on this topic.  I am enjoying the lectures however, and am learning a lot.

GDW and Computer Animation

GDW Update and Thoughts on Comp. Animation

GDW:

  This week, we got quite a lot done, in terms of preliminary design and ideas towards what we really want to achieve this year in GDW.  We decided to do an Isometric Action RPG game, which is gonna be focused on a humanoid combat robot, escaping his creators.  We decided on our studio name, Vibes Studio, and got some ideas on mechanics.

  We intend to make the action as fluid and fast paced as possible.  There are a couple of foreseeable obstacles right now, which we are currently working on pertaining to this style of combat.  One, is we don't want the combat animations to be too clunky, which would slow down the action.  Another issue is, the melee combat.  We don't want to focus too much on ranged combat, but we also don't want the melee combat to become monotonous, or boring.  If we only, say, have right clicking as our main attack, we don't want it to become a button masher that loses appeal after a while.  We are trying to make it as engaging and entertaining as possible, while not straying to far from our original plans.

  Since the story will be focused on our  robot trying to escape this R&D facility, the majority of our levels will be focused in the building.  The first couple levels will probably be more of a clean, sanitized, science lab like environments. The next couple will probably be more gritty and industrial, with the last level probably being outside.

  In terms of enemies, we are looking at military, science personnel, and maybe agency officials.  Weapons will be a mix between modern and futuristic.  The robot will also have 2 arm blades built in, and will be able to pick up additional melee weapons along the way. The weapons you see are similar to what we are looking at.

  

  We are also looking at a sort of system which will encourage the player to move as fast as possible.  Our current plan is to have an energy bar which will deplete over time, causing the player the fighting through enemies and get to the boss as quickly as they can.  The enemies will drop energy, however, which will give the player incentive to stay and fight, rather than ignore them and run.

  The robot will also have a cloak, which will be directly reflective of his shield, and will slowly be destroyed the more damage he takes.

  Over the next week, I will be looking into the sort of enemies, weapons, and levels we will have.  I will also be looking into how the weapons work, how they affect the enemy, and ways to overcome issues affecting our combat system.

 Computer Animation:

  At the end of our last class, we watched a movie on "Uncharted 2" and the sort of animations and techniques they implemented into it.  I particularly found the reference node quite fascinating.  Placing a coordinate on an object, and then referencing everything to it was something I had never heard of before.  I would really like to find out how to implement such a system.  Other things we learned were things like additive animations, taking two different base animations and putting them together to get a unique effect, components and more.  Being able to put 2 animations together, and get a new result will prove to be a valuable asset, especially when trying to be as efficient as possible.