Hard Lesson in Animation

So I nearly finished up my first animation and decided that it was time to render it.  I had rendered bits and pieces as I went and did not really notice anything since they were single frames.  When you switch from frame to complete animation, you gain an appreciation for just how fast the brain works.  In order to fool the brain, the computer needs to display 24 frames each seconds.My animation is just under 10 seconds, so its length is just over 200 frames.  My first couple of tries went quick since I toned down the render requirements, but I would continually get errors with the particle system render, which made them fairly useless as something to display.  However, knowing the settings were high during the creation and animation layout stages and those images came out nice looking, I was left with only one choice.  Unfortunately, each frame on those setting takes between 12 and 15 minutes to render - as opposed ot the first time which was under one minute and the second which was three to four.

So, I have been rendering this animation since Saturday and it will take a decent bit of Monday to finish it.  Because of this long length of time, I have been afraid to work on the other project, which has a tendency to cause the modeling program to crash.  While I could restart the render from the last finished frame, as I am rendering each frame as an image, I would hate to loose anything I changed after saving last.  I have been fooling around with other items, but I am not sure if I will post any of those, especially since nothing is anywhere near any stage of completion.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Slowly Progressing through the Holidays

So I have been making progress, but it has been extremely slow.  So slow that I really do not have any images to post.  As I have said, currently I am trying to knock off two projects before the new year, or shortly into it, then return the the modeling for the game.  The one project which I am not really disclosing much on until its release is moving along at a decent pace, but nothing Earth shattering.  Since I am trying to keep it a surprise, I am going to leave it at that, it probably needs about four or five hours, before I am happy with it, then it will need to render and hopefully it will be done.

The other big project is the abandoned building I started back in October and which has not had much new on it since mid-November.  I have fixed some of the aspects I did not like so far.  I have a little to add still in terms of what has already been modeled.  After that, I need to get the flood lights up and textured to finish off that part of the project.  At that point I will do a final, before post-processing render.  Then I will move on to post-processing, which will take a little time I am sure, but I hope when compared with the before image, the difference is noticeable.  Estimating what that is going to entail, and assuming a minimum number of crashes and data loss, that is probably about ten hours - mostly because I need to learn about post-processing while I am doing it on this project.

Not really sure how much I am going to get done since I am trying to enjoy some of the gifts I have received over the holidays, but I really do want to finish these projects and get back to the game.  Once back on my project, I will probably start blocking out a level or two, just to get a feel for how large I want the map to be and how much I need to make.  From there I will make a list and start doing one piece at a time, slowly building the level in something playable.  Once the level is done, I will worry about the tanks, weapons, turrets, satellites, and other non-static objects.  Well, hopefully I have something next time, until then,
~gunnah

The Holiday Season

So it is that time of year when everything is down to the wire and nothing gets done, so why should I have expected any of these projects to be any different?  I did work on modeling, but it was mostly just fooling around learning little things.  I worked on making an arch and then modeled a leg, but nothing really with which to do anything constructive.  Hopefully, with my altered shift for the week, I can get to something a little more productive.  I would really like to get those two projects I have been working on finished for the end of the year so I can start the year off fresh.

I think I will keep my ramblings short this time.  So until next time,
~gunnah

Temptation of the Holidays

So I did not get anywhere near as much done as I was hoping.  I am going to blame the lack of progress and missing Fridays post on working overtime, being semi-true.  I have found myself fairly run down and just needed a rest from everything, so over the last week, what little time I was not at work, I was asleep.  Hopefully the coming weeks will be more forgiving and I can begin making progress again.  I really need to finish this couple of side-tracks and get back to the main reason for all of this.

With that little bit out of the way, I can move on to the title.  Over the previous week I found two holiday themed contests, though I have a problem with both.  The one ending first, I simply do not have enough time to complete.  I have a great idea, but working full time and missing the first half of the competition, I feel I could never finish the project in time - just look at the numerous work in progress pages never finished..  The second competition I feel I could have done, but I lack the great idea.  Originally, I was going to but everything else off until I finished these, meaning I would not get back to where I was until the second post of the new year.  However, I think I am going to skip these for the time being and see if anything is run during the spring.

Hopefully, I will have something to show for next post.  At the moment I do not have an extra work slated for the next week, but that can change real quick.  Until next time,
~gunnah

And the Torque Tutorials are Wrapped Up

I have finished the Torque tutorials, which is a nice plus.  I do not feel I learned everything I need, but I do think I got a good start on the basic layout of the development kit.  Of course, there is nothing to show.  As I mentioned before, I was trying to get through the tutorials as fast as possible and this precluded making models and things of that nature.  Hopefully in the near future, I can get something like a mock up level made.  But I would not hold my breath since that may take a while.  On the plus side most of the tutorials worked.  For some reason the weapon models did not load properly, but that was not a big concern of mine.  They behaved as they were intended to, and the models came with the engine.  My only other problem was I could not package the tutorial.  Apparently their old code was written poorly and they have not made the time to correct it, so the button does nothing.  When I went to do it manually, it said my PhysX engine was either not installed or I needed to set a environmental variable.  I did not feel like doing either, so I have not worked through packaging a game yet.  To be honest, I am hoping the graphics version is up and running by the time I am ready to package a game since it looks much easier than the command line version available to me now.  That about wraps up Torque for the moment.  I seem happy with it, though who knows where I will be blown by the time I am ready to release.  Unreal has a new version coming out, I may want to look at that - at least the UDK version of it.

I also want to apologize for missing the Friday post.  Long week and I just forgot.  Actuially I fell asleep which is almost the same as forgetting.  But it was not like I had that much to say.  Next week looks to be filled with overtime, so my post for next Friday may be skipped if I have nothing new to say.  Until next time,

~gunnah

Should Learn to Hold My Tongue

So after a promising Monday, I ended up working overtime most of last week.  That is why there was no post Friday, there was nothing new to post.  I am hoping this week will work out a little differently, but who knows what is in the cards.

As for what I actually did, it was not much.  I started the new weapon tutorial for Torque, but got almost nowhere with it because of the overtime situation.  I still need to wrap up the image I have been working on for a month and a half, which feels so close but so far.  That being said, I did start watching a few new tutorials.  I plan on working both tutorials into a small ten second animation which is going to start the game.  I have most of the animation laid out, but I will go over details when the animation is further underway.

That is it for now, hope everyone has a good week and I can get something done.  Until then,

~gunnah

Continuing with Torque 3D

I have managed to get through a bit more of the tutorial for the Torque 3D engine, though not really much to show as it is mostly their objects with which I am working.  So far I have done object placement, triggers and characters.  The next section is weapons, which for my project may not be the most useful of tutorials, but hopefully I can learn a bit from it to make a few customizations to tanks based on what modules they choose.  I do not want to get beyond myself depending on what the next week brings, but I feel confident I should be able to get through at least that tutorial.

I have also watched a few tutorials and re watched a few with special attention to the compositing aspects.  With any luck I will get back to that scene in the coming week and try to finish it off.  Again, I do not want to get too far ahead of myself, so I am going to leave this topic here.

With any luck overtime will be a little more sparse so I can play a little more with my side projects.  Starting probably next week, I am going to be reviewing for my next exam.  This will likely eat a bit of time from what I can do on these projects until I take that exam in early January.  Until next time,
~gunnah

More work with Torque 3D

Most of the time I had to work on this project went into learning the new engine.  It was a real short week to start with so I still have quite a bit left of the tutorial to finish in their series.  So far I have covered basic syntax, which is fairly standard object oriented notation, and how that syntax can be hooked into the world editor.  So far it does not seem very difficult, however, I have only created the most basic of triggers so far.  While there are still several questions about various aspects of the engine which I am thinking will be answered as I go through the tutorials, I seem happy with this engine.  Of course a week ago I was happy with UDK, so the final decision may still be in the future.

There was mot much to show so far since most of the tutorials use either features built into Torque or are just writing to the command line.  My guess is that I may not really be showing any progress off until I finish all of the tutorials ad start a game on my own.  I may be wrong and by the end may start adding my own elements into the tutorials to keep them interesting, but even then 95% of what you would be seeing was someone else's work.  Hopefully more to come in the next post about my progress and hopefully something a little more tangible.  Until next time,

~gunnah

Rough Week

During the previous week I got nothing done just like I was guessing I would.  My day was pretty much get home, go to sleep, get ready for work, leave, and then work all day.  Saturday I had a test in the morning, so any free time I had during the previous week was cramming just that little extra bit.

Now onto what I actually did relating to the project: Not much.  I know my scene is almost finished and I probably should have just worked on that, but I kind of wanted a bit of a break.  Also, I am now up in the air about what kind of floodlight I am adding to the scene as I got a different idea for what I think it should look like.  Once the lights are in the actual modeling and texturing end should be finished, save for any details which I do not like after looking at the scene as a whole - like the post texturing.  Then it is just a matter of post-processing to give it the right feel and I should finally have something done, albeit not actually part of the project proper.

Now, enough about what I did not do.  I have begun looking again at engines.  Do not get me wrong, so far UDK is looking the most likely, but I want to get a feel for some other environments before settling on any one engine.  I was actually hoping to have a review of the engine ready for this post, but it is taking me a while to get it set up.  Right now I am looking at the Torque 3D engine, which is nice because it is an open source engine.  It looks similar to UDK, but does not have the fee UDK does which is a plus for someone who is completely broke.

Working a bit of overtime this week and then there is the holiday at the end of the week, so I may or may not post on Friday.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Abandoned Building Scene (Part V)

Well, debris is done, at least to my current satisfaction.  I beveled some of the edges, though it does not look like much - it meant I redid most of the texturing though.  I have decided that because it is suppose to look overcast, you should not get really strong shadows from the sun, so the item in the foreground would be unnecessary.  It also means I need to fx my current lighting.  Flood lights are still not done and the posts have not been re textured.

In other news, I have a lot of overtime this week, so I may or may not post on Friday depending on what life conspires.  So, until next time
~gunnah

Abandoned Building Scene (Part IV)

Okay, time to start with what was finished.  I fixed the barbed wire, for some reason only half of it was showing, and then added some posts to hold the barbed wire in place.  Some palettes were created and scattered around as well as a few wood posts.  Some progress was made on the floodlight, but it still needs a lot of work before it is done and added to the render.The only other models inside the compound would be whatever debris I can think to add.  I have been giving it serious thought since the wrong debris could ruin all the work I have put into this scene.The only other problem I notices was a yellow stripe going through my posts, which I am going to need to fix in the texturing.I added power lines in the background, to break up the sky a little, though he gray towers almost seem to melt into the gray sky.  This leaves the object in the foreground, which I have not decided what it will be.

Well, that is all for now.  Hopefully this will be coming to a close soon because I really like how it is coming out and can only imagine what a bit after-render effects will do.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Abandoned Building Scene (Part III)

While I probably should have finished the modeling end of this over the previous weekend, I hit a few set backs.  Even though I know I should save more often, normally it does not really matter.  For this project, it has bit me twice, but each time I think I get a better result.  When I initially lost power due ti the hurricane, I lost the very basic texturing job I did no the building.  Yesterday, while trying to add a sky background, it crashed again, again loosing the texturing I did no the building - yes, I saved the image of the texturing but forgot to save the model itself.  This time, I think it came out much more interesting, being more patches of scattered moss than a bad drip pattern.  Also, I did each area of the building with a different material, just to get it to look a little nicer and decrease any more blatant repetition.

Now for what is new besides the re-texturing of the building.  Stairs are slightly reformed, giving a slightly more interesting look than before, and are textured which made the last render look bad.  The sky has been added to this shot, and I think it sets the scene off better, just comparing the brightness of the flooring.  I have scattered a few little extras around in the shape of metal drums, though I have not gotten to making the palettes yet.  I made some barbed wire for the wall, but I think an post or something on the corners is needed to anchor it a little better, it may also need a few posts to give it just a little more realism.  I have started working on the lights - a combination of floodlights and siren - though they are not in a shape which I feel is presentable.  Then the only modeling left is the debris, which I am really giving a decent bit of thought trying to think of plausible bits to be scattered around to really make the scene.  Then the only objects left to model are either casting shadows in the foreground behind the camera or in the distance breaking up the horizon.

While that probably seems like a lot, the overall number of objects is fairly small and now more for detail - except the lights which will add lighting also - which means the modeling and texturing portion of this is actually at a foreseeable end, though not here quite yet.  Again, once the modeling and texturing is done, the final lighting is set up to get all of the shadows and detail out of the scene and then it is on to the rendering.  The final render will have a bit of post-processing involved since I want the distant wall to be almost behind a little mist.  Besides that, I will probably only do a small bit of light enhancing.  I have not done anything with the end of 3D modeling - I have been more focused on the modeling.texturing since those are the important ends to game design - and my projects usually never get that far anyway.

Well that is probably enough to poor anyone, so I will leave whatever else somes into my head for next time,
~gunnah.

Abandoned Building Scene (Part II)

Despite mother nature's best effort to stop me from working on this, I did manage to get a little done.  Granted, I still need to texture the stairs which are a white sore in the middle of a decent job, I think, so far.  I am going to stretch the overgrowth a little so it is not as noticeable, though that is a quick trick.  Bedsides that, I feel fairly happy with what I have to present, so I will move forward.  The next part will be scattered debris, a few palettes, and a fifty-five gallon drum or two.  Then comes with ivy which I want overgrowing the back wall and right wall, as well as maybe one running down the railing.  But that is still pretty far off, so I do not want to get ahead of myself.  Beyond that I want to make a background object or two, perhaps an object behind the camera to cast a shadow and then set an overcast sky.  To wrap up the image, I would like to add a few lights around the scene, just to touch off some of the more intricate work.  And then it is just a matter of post-production to add that little extra to the scene, of course this is way off in the future.

Besides the obvious texturing changes from last time, there were a few scene changes.  I was talking about changing the width of the yard, I think I am going to leave it since I accomplished something similar by changing the cameras height and rotation.  The doors are also a new addition.  Finally, I added a temporary light so that the detail being added to the scene was noticeable   This will be removed once I add the other lights around the scene - perhaps earlier to just get a feel where the others lights will be needed.

For those interested, I think I mentioned I was bracing for the hurricane in the previous post.  Since I am making this post, it is obvious nothing serious happened.  Lost power for a dat and a half, internet for three days and television for four.  Everything now seems to be in working order and hopefully with the little downtime I have I can rush through some of those to-dos I still have with this scene.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Another Disappearing Act

So the last week managed to disappear before I knew I was in it practically.  Long days at work coupled with a few stresses at home left very little time for anything.  And the worse part is I am not done yet.  I need to study for a test in a little under a week, which I do not think I need a ton of review, but do want to anyway.  Also, there is a hurricane pointed in my direction which may strike havoc into any progress I may have made not going to work this week.  Hopefully it blows through, but I do not think this one will be that nice.

I did make a little progress, but I do not feel it is enough to show off, so I am holding it until I get more done.  Until next time,
~gunnah

A lot of Overtime; Work in Progress: Abandoned Building Scene (Part I)

I missed my post Friday because of a large amount of overtime I have been working.  On top of my normal hour commute each way and eight hours, I picked up overtime each day last week.  This means tat I was too tired to do much of anything last weekend.  In fact, I did not touch my computer for three days last week.  So I did not rush to put up  a post when I awoke Saturday because I really had nothing over the previous week.

Over the weekend, I started work on an interesting scene I stumbled across in my internet browsing.  It still has a lot to be desired, but I think it is coming along nicely.  It needs a decent amount of modeling to be done on the building to the left side.  I would like to made some objects to scatter around the floor, as well as some detail items which are not yet in - mostly barrels and palettes, I think, though I want an ivy growing over the back wall and barbed wire going around the top of the fence.  The lighting still has a bit to be desired, though I can work on that a bit more once everything is in place.  My only other complaint is I do not really like the camera angle, though I have been finding a hard time getting a better one.

Not sure how the next week is going to work, I may be getting more overtime and I have a lot going on personally.  Hopefully I can find time to do this though,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Motor Pool Garage (Part II)

So here is the partial texturing.  This was mostly unwrapping the main structure and applying a concrete texture to it and then the front window which was a little more complex.  The frame was fairly simple, just a basic unwrap and then align the UV coordinates so they look nice on the texture.  Then there was the window, which I tried to make a little more interesting.  I am not sure if you can zoom in on that image and even if you could the render did not make do a very good job - I have it set to quick - on the glass portion.  Given enough time though, a texture that looks like water stains was applied to the pane.  The lights were just added to try to better illuminate the window to see how I like the water stains - one is inside the shop and the other is highlighting the outer shop area.  There is still quite a bit to be desired, but for now I do not think it looks bad.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Just another cog in the machine

I know I already did a cog once before, actually it was just under a year ago, but this one is much different.  The other cog used a generated material and was not very complex at all.  It was mostly an exercise in using metallic generated materials.  This cog, I think, has a bit more character.  Besides the fact the shape is much more complex then last time, which I think was a pair of loop cuts and an extrusion, this one has a smooth applied so the teeth look a little more worn.  Additionally, I UV-unwrapped it, applied an actual texture and used the texture with a color ramp and Black-and-White converter to generate a bump map.

Not much else done, but hopefully that changes in the near future.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Motor Pool Garage (Part I)

I am not sure why, but after my last post, I felt inspired to make the garage for the motor pool.  I may use this as a generic garage and place it in spots around the map, since it would make more sense then some of the other ideas I had about reloading locations.  I apologize for the quality of the render, for some reason it would not render in the image but the object worked fine in the work area, so this is a screenshot of the work area set as close to render settings as possible.  The model itself is near done as after getting the shape I wanted, I cut the number of face on the main structure from over six-hundred to just under two-hundred, reducing the number of triangles by about one-thousand.  Most of the other parts will not reduce as nicely since their model is about as low poly count as possible already.  For the modeling part, I still need to add two more doors, a front door which will be mostly glass and a door between the shop and garage area which will be wooden.  I would also like to add a satellite dish to the roof and a small sign across the top of the shop and between the garage doors to show which team has control over the garage.  Additional items may include things inside the shop and garage - desk, computer, chairs in the shop and tools and a pair of car lifts in the garage - though these are detail and can be added much later, since they are really unnecessary polygons for the overall model itself..  Once those are in, work on the UV layouts can begin, though these show not take that much time as most objects are just cubes and the structure has been dramatically cut down in polygon count.  Then I can begin texturing the model, which will probably be a clean concrete face for the outside structure, though I may do one a little more broken down for an image render, and a little dirtier on the inside.  Window and door frames will be wood, not sure if I want to make it look painted or not though, and the glass will be dirty for both the image render and game model.  Once all the the texturing is done, all I need to do is make a handful of collision boxes and the object will be ready to export.

And I went and got ahead of myself again.  Hopefully, I will have the modeling end finished off by the end of the week and figure out why it did not render nicely.  So, until then,
~gunnah

Rusted I-Beam

I know it does not sound like much but the only thing I finished this week was the I-beam to the left.  I watched several interesting tutorials, particularly the last one on creating a post-apocalyptic effect, may prove fairly useful.As far as where I am headed from here, again, I would like to get some of those scenes finished before I begin the majority of work on this project.  I know that is a bit of a delay, but I feel they would be something useful for me to complete.  Once those are finished, or while I am working on them depending on how time flows, I would like to get several of the main buildings in my military base finished.  I will probably start with the hangar and garage.and then figure out where to focus on the rest of the map.

Now for me to pick apart the i-beam.  The model itself I feel came out very nice and at 78 faces should not break anyone's computer.  While I could construct an even lower polygon count i-beam - this one has some smoothing where the vertical piece meets each of the horizontal pieces - that is not a big worry at the moment, though might become one if my scenes get too detailed.  What real bugs me is the texturing.  Overall it is not awful, though would probably work nicer if the bump map was working as rust does not come off as flat as the model looks.  But what is broken is the UV layout, which I realize means that even the nicest texture will not come out that great.  For some reason the program insists on making each of the non-end-cap faces the same size on the UV map which causes the texture to stretch in tight spots, though it lays about how I want it to in the larger areas.  Once I get the UV map to lay right, I can fit the texture again and see if that also needs work.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Monday Again

Another incredibly short weekend.  Saturday was mostly spent on getting my computer working right.  I have a hard drive that something is wrong with, I am thinking it is the casing, and it is sometimes connected and sometimes disconnected.  When I access it when connected, when it disconnects Windows freaks and I cannot even shut down.  So I spent Saturday figuring out to restore full control to the computer for some reason I need to restart into Safe Mode and then restart again.

Now, ever since I put a router in my room, I have been the Network Administrator for my house.  I was doing things here and there before that, but since it is easier to connect to the router in my room, almost everything uses it.  Since everything uses it, it is now my responsibility when anything goes wrong to fix it - not sure this is completely fair, but life is not, so no use complaining.  For some reason the printer hooked up to the wireless router was not behaving and that is where most of my Sunday went.  Worst part was, by the end of the day it was still only working with a USB cable.

Besides all those distractions, I have been working on a genealogy project making charts.  Well, when my computer freaked Saturday, it corrupted four of my files and I do not back anything up - not really by choice, just no space - so Sunday was spent remaking most of those.  Hopefully this project will die down soon enough and I can go back to playing with 3d modeling and finding an engine to use for this game.  Well, until next time,
~gunnah

Fooling Around

I know that us not the most productive thing to do, but it does help to learn the software.  I had a few ideas I was going to ty to get done for this post, but none of them occurred.  The first was a sci-fi robot, which might still happen to get some experience making sci-fi models.  The next was a garage scene.  I do not have it entirely mapped out in my head, unlike most projects, but it seemed like it might be a cool backdrop for future works.The former is barely started as I could not find a decent image of the robot I was looking for, but the latter is in a bit better shape.  I have the floors and walls looking how I want them and I am now working on the first piece to sell that is is really a garage and not just a back alley.  In addition to making some of my future images look more interesting, I am also playing with the texturing.  I am using free, pre-made textures instead of trying to reinvent the wheel like I was the last time I was trying to texture items.  These already made textures also help since they are of a very high quality.

Hopefully I can get something to picture by the next post.  Until then,
~gunnah

A very long week at work

I hate to use work as an excuse for anything but the company I work for is running us shorthanded which really took a toll on me.  I got almost nothing done last week since I was too tired to do anything after work and slept so well, that I had almost no time in the morning to do anything.  This tiredness continued into the weekend where I slept a good deal of Saturday.  While I did not actually get to make any progress on any of mu projects, I did watch quite a few tutorials over the weekend.  Unfortunately, these tutorials were all that I had the strength and time to do.  Also, I may be coming down with a cold which would mean even less productivity, unless I took a day which I would probably use to only work on my modeling - though this is highly unlikely.  Well, until next time,
~gunnah

A very long week and a very short weekend

Sorry for not posting anything on Friday, I just was too tired and really had nothing to say.  Though it is not like I have that much more to say at the moment.  Trying to get back into the swing of things at work and it is very tiring at the moment.  Hopefully I will get into a routine or switch occupations (which is what I would really like) leaving me a little more time to fool around with modeling.

Now, I did do some things towards learning to model better.  Primarily, I watched how a handful of cubes and cylinders with few extrusions can becoming something very sci-fi like.  I am probably going to try a sci-fi spaceship scene before returning back to work on the project - in addition to the well and subway scene.  Everything else will be on the back burner until those three scenes are done.  Then hopefully I can start getting a few tank prototypes started and the project will really be moving.

After watching the sci-fi scene tutorial, I have come to the realization I need to watch more sci-fi in space shows.  While what I am doing does not really need to be in space, much of the artistic details can be seen in outer space science fiction with exposed wires, fused and vents.  So I am hoping to get a little time to watch some programs along those lines before starting to work on the tanks - just in case anone was wondering why I was pushing them off so far.  Until next time,
~gunnah

A little distracted

At the moment, I have quite a few things going on so progress will be a little slow for a little while.  Hopefully in a week or two my life will settle into a regular flow.  Then I will know when I can work on my project, as well as the other scenes I was doing.  Between changing shifts, a new phone and my new video game that I am examining to see how a professional makes a 3D model, my life will be fairly full without everything else.  At the moment that is my excuse and I am going to stick to it until life settles into a rhythm.  I did begin work on a hangar for the game, though it is still only in the blocking out stage so it is not much to look at.  Hope everyone has a good week,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Subway Scene (Part I)

Not much done this week, mostly because my work switched shifts and I am trying to find time to do things again.  That being said, I found time to try a new tutorial, with the modeling result to the left.  The goal of his exercise was to show how a complex scene could be created using just a few models, which are repeated along a curve.  While the modeling is not completely done, most of the detail is, leaving only a few minor details to be taken care of.  Once those details are added, I will probably post one more black and white image with proper lighting - at least how it will be lit for the final render. Once that is done, I will start adding materials to each of the objects.  Hopefully this will be a very quick scene to put together but come out very nice looking.  Hope everyone has a good weekend,
~gunnah

Nothing to Show

I know I could have went back and started working on one of the previously posted projects, but I really wanted to test out the glass material.  Unfortunately, in the scene I was trying to render, a red, lit candle inside a dark blue glass holder, the holder would not render and I cannot figure out why.  That was what I spent most of Friday and Saturday playing with, and while not extremely productive, it would have been neat.  My main purpose for this was eventually adding the candles to the well scene, adding just that little extra bit of detail.  Until I figure out why the holder did not render though, the only two candles will be inside the lanterns - something I have not gotten to yet.

The other thing I made was something a little more game inspired.  I made a large open-metal tower.  It is kind of hard to describe as I do not know the technical name, but it is a four-sided tower with thick metal poles at the vertical corners, horizontal braces at regular intervals and thinner braces connecting the two.  I do not think I can use it in game since it has way too may faces - almost 4300 for just the tower, not even anything connected or on top - but it was fun to see how something could be made using just a small fraction then mirroring and repeating.  Until next time,
~gunnah

One very fast week

I do not know if work was exceedingly tiring or what, but the previous week does not seem like I even had free time to do anything.  Today I managed to play a bit with the glass rendering in the new rendering engine, but that is really all I got around to doing.  Hopefully I have more to show for the next post.

One thing I have been considering is what scale to work in, since for some reason it seems all 3D modeling programs are much smaller than game engines.  Most likely it is going to be one of the following one-eighth, one-sixteenth, or one-thirty-second.  Mu fear with one-thirty-second is that it is going to be too hard o detail anything one something that small.  On the other hand, some larger buildings may pose a problem when trying to measure that in only one-eighth scale.  My guess is that will be decided when I complete the first model or two   Well, that is about all for now,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Well Scene Take 2 (Part II)

Well, I did do a little bit on the well scene.  The wall is not not completely right, though the curves in it are a little better than they were.  What really needs work is the top of the center piece, which would add a great deal since it is the focal item.  Besides that, some beveling could help the overall look of the wall, but that is more of a detail thing while I am still more blocking the scene out.  I also need to work on my rock texture which is going to replace they gray on the wall, but that again can wait.  While I could go over what is still missing, I am just going to go over what was just added, the stepping stones.  I tried to amake them look like a path which has fallen into disrepair by making a series of stones about the same width that look like they could interlock.  I am not sure what I am going to use for these stones as a texture, but for now they hold my green marble.

Most of the weekend was spent playing my newly released game.  While that does not sound like progress, I have been using it to see what kind of detail is used in textures and what is used in models.  I have also been taking a ton of screenshots so I can look at their work later.  That about sums up my weekend, until next time,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Well Scene Take 2 (Part I)

Since I have decided to see how quickly I can learn a new 3D modeling program a few months ago, I decided to pick up a recent project I was working on with the last program and see how easy I can port it into the new 3D modeler.  Right now I just have the basic wall added, there are still a few details needed to recreate it like I had it, but for a night I feel it is good progress.  The wall had a top area with varying extrusions, as well as curved areas going into the lower walls if I remember correctly.  If I can get myself together this weekend, I will try to get those added, as well as trying to increase the curve in the wall itself, looking at it now, it seems a little tight.  I apologize if it is a little hard to see some of the details, but I was playing with the procedural materials and trying to make a green marble.  I think it came out decent, not for a focal item, but more something to give the impression of marble.  It is hard to see the swirls without looking closely at the image, but with a little work on the coloration, I think I can get it a little better.  The colors and the scaling of the texture itself, but that is a worry for another time as I am likely to change it to more of a stone base soon.

Unfortunately the game I was beta testing a month or so ago is being released this weekend.  That means I am unlikely to spend much time on anything besides that if I do not need to, though I may take a break once I feel I made it far enough into the game.  I will again be looking to take an extreme number of screenshots so I can dissect how a professional game assets are created.

Well that about wraps up post number 100.  I know I did a big thing for 50, but I do not feel I have done much with the game at the moment, but hopefully by 150 I will b back on track.  Hope everyone has a good weekend,
~gunnah

Doughnuts

So I figured out the new 3D modeling program I have been playing with has a secondary and much better rendering system than the default one I had been using.  Just fooling around with it I decided to make some doughnuts.  Now I have a few complaints about the scene, but overall I am fairly happy with the way it turned out.  The biggest thing for me is I forgot to make a plate, though this was a little intentional since I wanted to see how the glass would reflect.  Other than that, the scene needs a little better lighting, this is purely with the environmental color; the glaze needs its reflectivity turned down, I did not notice it actually reflected the table - I thought it was a shadow before realizing with environmental lighting on a glass table would make no shadows; and the table glass needs a bit of work, as I was hoping to add a slight tint and instead got a color much deeper than I had selected.  But these are all more refinements I will pick up on as I play more with the rendering system.  What I do feel was highly successful was the use of fluids - being the first time I had a fluid system work successfully for me - to make the glaze itself.  Initially, I had the glaze a lot further down, but I felt the cake part of the doughnut was too lost adn it really did look better covered only half to three-quarters with icing.  Though sprinkles would have been nice, I felt learning the particle system on top of the fluid system would have been too much, though if I revisit the doughnuts, I may try to add sprinkles.

Now, I did do a bit of work on the sword I was working on, but I felt it was not coming out the way I wanted it to.  The big problem is in modeling the grip, which involves a series of twists in the model.  I have a feeling that while the model itself goes together fairly easily, the calculated normals are unsure which direction to ppoint leading to black patches.  Additionally, I was trying to figure out how to make use of the new rendering system I was trying to procedurally texture the model.  I think I solved the texture problem, but the model itself requires a bit more work to get right.  Note that the older render system is more like what I would use in a game engine while the newer render system is more focused on high quality rendering like in animation.  Hope everyone has a good week,
~gunnah

Scimitar: Day 1 (Metal Piece)

To the left is what I did over the week.  The overall model is not even 90 polygons, though I have not figured out how to make the grip which is much more intricate than the metal piece.  I will probably not texture it (though I may use a procedural texture it f I get bored) until I straighten out my computer issues.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend everything will be running smoothly and I will have more to show.  This just happened to be a fairly easy model to work on to get some of the techniques I have seen in tutorials into practice.  Who knows, may Sunday I will have something game related finished.  Until then,
~gunnah

I really need to find where my weekends go

So another weekend passed and I am left trying t figure out what I did during it.  I suppose I should be use to very short weekends by now, but it never ceases to amaze me just how fast they fly by when the week seems to drag on forever.  But I always have been bad at judging time and that is not what this post is about despite the title.

I have begun work on a little distraction, nothing big just something to have a bit of fun with, though I am leaving it at that until I have something to show in case that project goes nowhere.  I have also began a game-relevant tutorial which I am hoping will make one or more of my meshes when all is said and done.  Again, I will have more when the project is further along, but that should be within the next week.

And finally, I am looking at engines again.  I found one that has a royalty-free license until distribution, so I will write more about that once I get it installed and running.  Hope every had a good weekend,
~gunnah

Learning more

While I am hoping to make a piece or two for the base level, I am not sure ho well that is going to work.  Not for lack of will, but my weekends seem to pass real quick.  Another aspect which may hold up making these little models is the need to do tutorials.  While I do not mean tutorials are a requirement for everything, Completing a handful would make me more comfortable with the overall layout. Additionally, do a few tutorials may point out ways which I did not even think of to do these models.

Have a good weekend,
~gunnah

Hidden Progress

Just as the post name states, I have nothing to actually show for this post.  Perhaps later in the week I will have more pretty pictures of tutorials I completed.  Well, I suppose the place to start is where I left off last post: the high-detail, low-poly plane.  One of the biggest problems I am having with the second part, I finished the first already, is I want to use a completely different set of software than the tutorial.  Though I have tried the image editing software the tutorial uses, the price tag is very high, so I found a free alternative.  However, not everything lines up perfectly, and I can say you do get what you pay for in this circumstance.  That being said, I am going to continue with the free image editing software for the time being until I can actually afford the pricey alternative   Another problem I found was the tutorial does not use UDK like I though but rather Unity, something I hope never to have to touch.  So when I get to it, I will try to export it to UDK.

Now that looks like I did not do much, and that would be fairly truthful, at least for that tutorial.  What I did do was get familiar with the new 3D modeling software, which is much like the debate I am having over which image editing software to use.  Though in this debate the new, free software actually has a few advantages over the old software.  One of the big ones is that the software will generate a UV map and while this does not sound like much, that is actually quite nice compared to making one in the old software.  Note that while I have not actually unwrapped a UV on one of my models, I watched two tutorials on how to do so and practiced on a cube.  One little annoyance I have is that scaled geometry keeps the UV points relative to their position before scaling.  That may sound weird but here is what I mean: Say you have a cube and unwrap it, you would get the normal t shape.  But let us say you did not unwrap it and instead scaled the Y and Z dimensions by one quarter and the X by three, leading to something that would be like a 6" by 6" by 6' piece of lumber (I was trying to make a pallet and that was to be the middle beams).  I was expecting the unwrap to produce four rectangles and two square, but what ended up happening is the UV map for the cube was generated.  With a bit of work, I manage to determine it was the scaling that did that, since moving the vertices to the same locations unwrapped in the proper form.

One of the bug advantages, since the new 3D modeling software is open source, the interface to export to other software is very open.  So exporting to UDK only required a small python script.  I watched several tutorials on how to move models from the 3D modeler to UDK so they would have the proper material, collision boxes and light maps.  This just means that if I do decide on UDK, moving the models to it would be very easy, at least that is what it looked like.  I will probably make my final decision about what software I am using at the same time, buying whatever licenses at that time.  Currently I am looking into several engines, though I only have two installed at the moment, a few image editing software since I am not sure I completely like the free one I just started using, and a few 3D modeling programs, but mostly the two I have been suing, trying to decide if it is worth putting that much into the project or to just use the free alternative.  Well, probably nothing definitive on those choices any time soon, so until the end of the week,
~gunnah

Some Good and Some Bad

And t start off, lets go with bad.  Last weekend powerful thunderstorms rolled through my area and caused a few power outages.  One of these outages caused my computer to forget where it put its boot manager.  After two days of looking online for how to fix it and trying all kinds of ideas from system restore to rewriting the boot manager through command line, nothing worked.  As a last ditch effort to save some of what I was loosing, I used the command line and tried to move my well project amongst other files to the secondary partition of my main hard dive.  Unfortunately, Windows relabeled all of my drive letters and command line never told me that it copied them nowhere, in fact it told me the process succeeded.  So while I may have a copy floating in some ethereal space, I am considering that the only backups I have are from the previous reformat about a month or so ago.  Luckily all I have really worked on was the hand in the well project.  Unfortunately, I do not feel like doing that a third time at the moment.

In fact I have decided the focus on the new 3D modeling program, trying to learn that.  I decided that have both 3D modeling programs on my computer, I was using the first one I learned as a crutch so I did not need to focus on the second program.  With only one program, if I want to play, I need to learn the new program. This mean I will probably do a few tutorials then get back to asset design for the main project again.

Now the first tutorial I found happens to be a very good one for game design.  The object manipulation is limited, as only extrude, scale and translate are really used; but for me this was enough to get the basic hot-keys down as well as a couple of tricks.  Where this tutorial is handy is it teaches how to bake high poly looks into a low poly mesh.  Additionally, the next section of the two sections of the tutorial is going over how to create a color and specular map.  Now, the tutorial would have been very good if it stopped there, but it goes on to show how to import the mesh and maps into UDK and link everything to display properly.

So, sorry this was late, though I did not really have much choice as I needed to decide what to do before moving ahead,
~gunnah

Learning Curve

So, like I posted earlier, I am trying to learn a second 3D modeling program.  Not really because I am unhappy with what I am using or anything like that, I have found the results produce by the program to be superb so far.  I want to make myself more versatile.  The more programs I can use, the easier it would be to convince someone I know what I am doing.  Unfortunately for me, when they build 3D modeling programs, they build from the ground up.  Now this is great since it produces a wide array of programs but it means that each has a bit of a learning curve for the UI.  With that said, I am probably going to go back to focusing on the well animation for the time being.  Now, that being said, I am going to continue working on the new modeling software, just no like I did over the previous week.  Unfortunately after a week, I have nothing to show, but I will do a tutorial or two in a few weeks to show off how well I have learned the new program.
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Well Scene Animation (Part IV)

The hand before bending

So I managed to catch the animation project back up to where it was before I needed to reformat my computer.  So that only puts me about three weeks behind schedule from where I was.  The pictures attached in this post are the progression of making the hand to putting it into the project.  Most of the hand was already saved luckily, so I just needed to make the two long bones which are actually in the arm.  Once that was done, I set each bone in a child-parent relationship to the others so when certain bones are moved, other dependent bones follow.  Once the bone hierarchy was in place, any moving bones pivot point needed to be altered (that is three points in each finger as well as one point for the wrist with that bone being the parent of all the other bones in the hand).  Then I just had to bend the fingers into place and move it so the lantern looks to be held up by the hand.  Then the lantern needed to be scaled down so that it looked the proper size in the screen.  Finally, the hand and lantern were grouped and mirrored on the other side of the well, keeping the thumbs pointing the right direction.

The hand with the lantern not scaled down

So this leaves only a few things left to model in the foreground for this animation project.  I would like three or four stepping stones, a figurehead perched on something coming out of the wall behind the well (the perch would serve as a fountain), a few more of the tangled weeds with one growing up the wall and then some last minute detail work (chips and the like out of the stone so it does not look so perfect).  Once that is done, the easy part is going to be background work, I hope.  As I mentioned, one dead tree and one willow should be enough to keep the mood going and make he background interesting looking without drawing too much attention or taking too much time.  Once all of the modeling is done, texturing should not be that bad on most objects, since most are small or in the background where less detail is required.  Then all moving parts need to be rigged so that the animation can show the movements of the various objects.  If I get real inspired, I will probably look for sound and some HDRI of a forest under a moonlit night.

Hand with scaled lantern

Now, as for the tank game project itself, I have not stopped thinking about it, life has just gotten busy.  I still am thinking of ways to add detail to the base models.  I am thinking about learning another modeling program and doing some of the tanks inside that program.  Not because I do not like what I am using, just so I am more versatile.  This means I will probably do several small tutorials so I get used to the UI.  I do not really need to learn to model again, unless I move into some kind of sculpting programs since those behave differently from what I have experienced, though trying to stay low polygon count would really rule those out.  My goal is still to get the main underground roadways done, a set of tracks for my motor-pool showpiece and then work on some of the more individual roadway pieces.  I believe I already stated I wanted to make a few pipe sets to add some quick detail.  Once those are set up, I can worry about some of the other details scattered around the map as well as what various projectiles and mines are going to look like.

The hands holding the lanterns in the well scene

Now, as for my research this weekend.  I think I did a fairly decent job of getting a large sample size of images from an up-coming online game with expected to support a large number of players at once.  What I have found, and this is by no means a final survey since I only glanced at a sixth if that of the screen-shots, is many of the low polygon tricks I have read actually can work.  Most of the detail comes from the textures with, in some cases a very rough, shape being defined by the model itself.  This makes me feel decent about my work because my modeling skills are about there, but now I need to work on my image editing skills.  My problem is I really never advanced beyond paint with that whole line of programs, so many of the techniques to make various effects are going to take me a while to make since I will need to look each one up as I need it.  Another concept I have seen is making a high polygon model with a low detail texture and with the renderings make a highly detailed texture which can ne applied to a low polygon model.  Well, I think that is more than enough for now, have a good week,
~gunnah

Another hot week

So, I did a little of what I had lost when I rebooted my computer but it is still not quite finished.  I think the problem stems from how hot it has been outside most of the week.  Where I work has various levels of air conditioning from none to almost blowing, so I do get quite hot during the day.  Being so hot, I get tired out by the time I get home, leaving me little energy to do anything but lay somewhere until my eyes close so I can do it again the next day.  Though it is kind of interesting that it took me over a month to figure out why I have been so lazy lately.

Unfortunately, I am unlikely to get much else done this weekend. Not for lack of wanting, but I am getting some research in; I got a beta key for a game and it is only doing weekends at the moment.  So Sunday night I should report what I have learned.
~gunnah

Unsure where the weekend went

I know I was going o work on my 3D well animation project, though I am not sure where the weekend went.  I know I posted late on the last post, but that should have given me two decent days to work on this project.  Somehow it seems like I just posted, I guess the weekend was just that cramped with things to do. Well, hopefully I can get back to where I was before my restart by the end of the week.  Until then,

~gunnah

Lost a bit of information

While I was going to share a few images that I had recently done, but before my reformat, I found that I am missing a bit of information.  Most of the hard work is still there, which is nice, but a bit of the detailing and a little modeling was lost.  Hopefully I will be back on track by the end of the weekend, though I am still trying to figure out what I am missing from what I used to have installed.

~gunnah

A Little Set Back

So as it happens about twice a year I run into a computer virus.  It hit Saturday morning about a half hour before I was going to post my updates for last week and has taken me most of the weekend to straighten out to a point close to where I was.  I am hoping over the course of the week to get everything back to where it was and hopefully make a small it of progress.  So next Friday I am going to post what I was going to last Friday and delay each additional post by one until I would have had a filler post.

Again, sorry for musing the last post,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Well Scene Animation (Part III)

So I redid the lantern, not that my computer gave me a say in the matter.  The image to the left shows how the lantern now looks and I am fairly happy with how the object turned out as a whole.  I am still deciding how to go about the latch and hinges, if I even get into that much detail.  The candle inside is fairly easy to make, though the fluid effects above the candle are a little harder to control, though with enough work, they can make a really cool effect.  I may choose to just add a light inside the lantern since it is only a minor detail and the fluid, being fully contained by the lantern, would be almost unnoticeable.  One thing I would like to do the the actual model though is add a few chain links to the top so the lantern is not directly on the hook.Once I get everything where I want it, I can scale the model so it fits nicely into the scene.  I may map and color the lantern before returning to the rest of the scene since it is its own object in its own right - unlike some of the others which form part of the "main scene" object.  But this planning is for a while out still, at the moment I would just like to get the lantern situated in the scene and catch the scene up with this level of detail.  Have a good week,
~gunnah

A little more learning

Over the week I had been playing around with the lantern, adding the holes to let light out, making a pattern over that to make it more interesting looking, adding a small candle and creating a flame.  Of course I was not real pleased with the final result and was contemplating starting over since it was not close enough to the original image I had found.  Unfortunately my computer made the decision, deciding to restart without any reason, losing all unsaved work in the process.  So left with no other choice, I will probably spend the weekend redoing the lantern, though I am not sure how far back I want to go.  The way the model is currently set up, I made need to start over nearly from scratch.

Work in Progress: Well Scene Animation (Part II)

As is fairly visible from the image to the left, I got a bit of work done on the animation scene I laid out last weekend.  I know it is hard to see, but in the bottom left, just under the wall is one of the vine-like bushes I was making last week.  That was the only one saved before my computer decided it wanted to restart.  As for this weekend, I did a bit to get it closer to my final ideal.  Firstly, I worked on the wall behind the well.  This is not done, I am thinking of adding something to the middle of the square, possibly a gargoyle or something along those lines.  That is still left to do, but besides that I am pleased with how the back turned out.  Most vegetation still needs to be done: the bushes and both trees.  I am thinking of only doing about two more bushes.  Stepping stones are still missing, though those should be fairly easy, once everything else is in place.  The lanterns are discussed below, and then I need to map and paint the entire scene and finish up with animating everything like I previously described.

Another detail of this project I am working on is the lanterns on each side of the well.  They are still lacking some detail, my goal was to get the blocking out virtually finished and then work on detailing the actual piece at another point.  The image I am using as a reference has holes cut in the flared part on the bottom, not sure if I will add those.  What I do need to add are the cut out to allow light to leave the lantern.  My thinking is I will make a square cut out, add a half thickness pane of glass and then add the detail with new objects.  Once everything is finished with the lantern, it will be fun to see how the lighting looks in the scene.  Currently my only problem with the lantern is that it is too large, a simple scaling issue which can be solved once the model is ready.  Hopefully I can get some more of the lantern finished over the week, and if I am really inspired finished the vine-like bushes and stepping stones.  Though that may be pushing my luck, have a good week,
~gunnah

Another Saturday Post

Not only am I late but have little to show.  First off, why I am late.  Fairly simple, fell asleep and did not wake up for quite some time.  My job starts early and leaves me very tires, Friday night happened to be the first time I could just crash.  As for lack of progress, in a phrase: Automatic Updates.  I could swear I turned them off, but they still occur.  Well, the one night I worked on the fountain animation scene, I was getting things done and then fell asleep.  When my alarm went off in the morning, everything I had open was closed and all of my unsaved progress lost.  While not difficult the little bushes in the front of the scene are time consuming since it involves setting each point for each vine.  Hopefully I can have something cool done by the end of the weekend though,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Well Scene Animation (Part I)

My goal is to create a small, maybe 16 to 30 second, animation.  The scene to the left is the basic wall structure blocked out, though it still has a bit of work needed.  I am planning on increasing the size of the central stone slightly, and add a detailed piece the the spot sitting just above the well.  Unfortunately I am not sure what I want there yet.  The other piece on the wall missing is a pair of lanterns, one on each side of the well.  Besides making the top of the central stone a little more ornate possibly, that would handle the stone and metal portion of the scene.  In the foreground I would like to add a few vines and possibly a stepping stone or two.  The background will be a little more complex.  Over the left side I am looking to add a dead tree, possibly with a vine or two growing up it.  On the right I am looking to add a willow tree since it is something which will really move but keep the same kind of atmosphere.

As far as animation goes, I am looking to start everything off at rest.  The wind will blow and move everything yo three-quarters maximum or so before dying down slightly to about half.  Once at half it will pick back up again and go to maximum before completely dying.  The trees should sway while the smaller plants in the foreground will only move when the wind reaches about two-third strength and then only will be a small deflection from rest.  The lanterns should flicker and dim slightly when the wind is howling but return to rest once the wind stops.  As the wind is dying I am hoping to illuminate the water in the well, slowly increasing intensity to maximum once the wind stops.  The main effect once the wind stops is for smoke to billow out of the illuminated well out onto the foreground.

I know this has nothing to do with my game but I am hoping to learn some basics of animation and rigging which really have not been present so far in my work.  While I do hope to continue on the Armored Tank Car texture, I have wanted to do something a little more high polygon for a while, another thing unavailable while making my game.  So, until Friday
~gunnah

Okay, not much done

Work is trying to change my schedule around so I have not had much time to work on this trying to get my sleeping habits or lack thereof correct.  On the plus side once next week starts I should be on a standard schedule until September when my schedule switches again, unless I find another job.  With that out of the way, I found the picture posted previously of the armored train car to be a little lacking in what it showed of the details I added.  That is why I added this new image which is still not perfect but will work nicely.  Unfortunately the model looks a little boxy, so I may try to add so beveling into the texture, though I am not sure how much that is going to help.  Also the detail on the metal pieces is hard to see from this view also.  Right now I am not sure if I want to sink more time into this texture or come back to it at a later point just to take a break from something else, though I really should start the mesh I am using for my game.  O yeah, sorry this is late, most likely last time in a while this will happen.
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Armored Train Car (Part II)

So here we are at the end of another weekend.  To the right is the first skin for the armored tank car.  I finished the UV layout and even managed to get the first of the two paint jobs I wanted to do done.  This one is not for the game but based off of the following three view drawing: German Army Heavy Armored Train Nr.51 (Plastic model) Color2.  While not an exact match, that was never my goal.  I could have tried for it, bu the number of polygons being used on smaller and smaller things was a limiting factor to keep it as a piece for the game.  Another thing I could have done was added the small detail to the texture, but I always feel that looks a little cheap.  Hopefully over the course of the week I can get the actual game skin finished.  With this project nearing completion, I am hoping to get a little more work done on the road models so at least the basic roadways are finished.  I am thinking I want to build a parking lot roadway skin also, based on the fifty foot straight piece.  I also want to build a track to put this car on, though that is not a real immediate priority.  Until the weekend,
~gunnah

I am calling it research

So this weekend is a beta event for a long awaited MMO.  I doubt I will get much done otherwise, but I may run out of things to do, though very unlikely.  I am hoping to finish the UV mapping for the armored tank car, only need to finish the turrets and that will be done.  O yeah, and sorry this is late.
~gunnah

Slow and Steady

Well, slow at least, not sure about how steady progress will be.  I am hoping by the end of the week to have the UV-map for the armored tank car finished, though who knows how life will work out.  I am down to my last handful of parts that need to be laid out, but these tend to be the more complicated pieces.  Trying not to get too far ahead of myself going then I want to get this skin done and that skin and then this object and this level, once this part of the project is finished, I would like to get back to finishing up the road pieces.  With the road pieces and car done, I will probably create a small set of tracks to put the car on, after all what good is a train without tracks?

Well, that seems like a reasonably sized post for the amount of work I can show.  So post again at the end of the week, probably late one more time.
~gunnah

One Problem after Another

While I could start with what I did for the project, that would be near nothing and nothing demonstrable, so I am going to leave that there for the moment and go into why I missed last weeks two posts.  The following is more of a rant and can safely be ignored from the prospective of the game, but it will be useful to me remembering why I missed a whole week.

Over the weekend when I made the last set of posts, I was starting to notice little red lines on my screen and did not know what it was.  As the weekend grew into early that week, the amount of lines grew and horizontal green lines started forming before my screen just went black.  So I had to order a new video card, killing whatever progress I was going to make that week, so I did not feel bad missing that Friday post.  I spent much of that Friday night into Saturday morning putting the new card in the computer.  Since I figured I had Sunday, I was not in a real hurry to get much done Saturday.  Then Sunday came and I was needed to go plant shopping and till some of the gardens.  So I had nothing done Sunday, hoping to do something for a surprise Monday night post.  Well Monday did not progress as I hoped, leaving me little to post for the whole three-day weekend.  I had a state exam in the middle of last week and since then I have been a little relaxed, enjoying not having anything looming over me for the time being.  Thus I have little to show but a mile of excuses, but when does life really work out how one plans it?

Well, hopefully this weekend and next week will be better.  O, and sorry for the late post,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Armored Train Car (Part I)

First off, I complete missed Fridays post since I was out late Friday night and was too tired when I got in to make the post.  With that said, I would have little to post today if I had made that post since I did not get much done with the game.  To the left is the current state of my armored train model, a total of 3345 faces.  Creating the UV layouts is about half done, though the turrets may require quite a bit of work compared to the rest of the model and they are not done yet.  Once the UV layout is complete, I can start texturing which will make the image look a lot more interesting.  Not sure how much work I am going to be able to get done on this over the week, but I am hoping to get most of the UV layout finished.  Accompanying this model I am probably going to need three pieces of track, but those should go together quickly once this model is pretty much done - only one piece per section.  I have been contemplating the best way to get the gravel effect and I am hoping that a bump map will work since I do not want to budget that many faces for a detail likely overlooked.

On another note, I have a dozen or so 3D tutorials that I am looking to do in varying degrees of completion - some are just modeling while others go all the way to texturing.  Most are high-polygon count, which will be a nice change from what I have been doing.  When I get around to these projects, I will be sure to post images.  Also slightly unrelated, I am working on getting a Gallery section to show how far varying pieces of 3D art have come.  While that is not a priority, I would like to get that working in the near future.  Until next Friday, hopefully,

~gunnah

A bit of decoration

Okay, I could have dove right back into the project trying to remember how I did everything and where I left off but I decided to do something different.I have begun work on a larger piece of decoration for the motor pool I hope to eventually fill, an armored train car.  The car itself is historic, but I did not really choose it for any of its historical meaning and I will likely re-decal the car (probably making two skins, the historic and in-game, using the historic mostly to show off in a post), trying to make it my first big piece for this new map.  Right now I only have the body blocked out, Mother's Day took more out of me than I thought it would, totaling only about 200 triangles (or 100 faces).  As I add detail the number of faces will sky-rocket probably around 2000 to 2500 faces when all is said and done.  This is not that bad as the car is about half the size of a small house, approximately 50 feet in length, though only 12 feet wide, which I was giving three to four thousand faces.

Do not really have much  more to talk about and no pictures yet so I will end this post a little early.  Hope everyone has a good week,
~gunnah

And now back to our regularly scheduled program ...

Okay, not really, but life has simmered down quite a bit.  Sorry about missing posting last week, but you would have gotten something along the lines of: nothing done, wait for life to cool down.  Still nothing done, but I might get a few minutes to work on this project over the weekend.  Again, there will be no real pictures for this section of work until I am pretty much done and can show them together.  Hopefully I can finish the repeating set of roadways within a week or two and start the unique roadways b the end of the month.

Coming in on the end of the semester

So there is only about two weeks remaining in the semester so I am busy with school work.  I wish I could say I found a little time to work on this project, but it was just not in the cards.  This week will probably be similar to last week if not more difficult so the next update on the game will probably be middle of next month, though I hope to be wrong.
~gunnah

Small downtime

So I just realized where we were in the semester and how much I need to do.  I really wish I had kept better track of where we were, but Life really has not liked me of late.  I doubt I will get much of anything done in the next three weeks, as such I am switching to a Sunday night only schedule until the semester is over (after first full week in May).  I am hoping I am wrong, but it seems that only happens when I think I am going to get something done.  Have a good week and sorry about missing Friday's post,
~gunnah

No pictures but progress

As I think I have already mentioned, I am making the walls in a single mesh despite being two or more objects.  This is mostly to make my job simple when I go to tile them, I just need to match the.edges or the road to the wall and roof and the section is done.  I think it may work if I had done the what I had initially planned, but this seems to be moving along so I am no messing with it.  Unfortunately the lighting I have been using does not work well with this method of modeling.  When I move it into an engine it will work fine, but inside the modeling program there is a problem.  The automatic lighting make a spherical lit surface and this creates several very odd shadows where there should be none.  Once in the engine a more appropriate lighting will be made so this problem will not be as bad, but it is a bit of a waste of time to do lighting for some so small.

Hopefully that was clear.  Now what I did do, again no pictures because of lighting problem, is the wall and roof for the straight piece and the wall for the ninety degree turn.  While that may not seen like a lot, that is both mesh and texture.  That leaves five more tiling models and then I can move onto the custom pieces.  With any luck I can continue making progress during the week.
~gunnah

Changing shifts did not work as well as I hoped

So my dry run changing shifts worked rather poorly.  I got very little done, mostly because I was tired the entire week and did not feel like doing much.  On the up side, I am going back to my old shift next week, so I should start getting a few things done as I go along.  Also, I am not sure if I wrote this or not, but I am making the walls as one model per road type.  So instead of having two or three walls per road, there will only be one.  This is mostly so the walls will snap to the grid in the same manner as the roadways.  Hopefully I wioll have some of those to show off tomorrow.
~gunnah

Another quick weekend

Okay, so I had a hard time getting things done with one of the days being a holiday.  I am hoping that the next week will be favorable with the earlier shift I am going to be on, though no guarantees.  In  a perfect world, I would hope to have the walls finished by the end of the week.  That may be hopeful thinking, but that is my goal.  Until then,
~gunnah

Small steps forward

Sorry this is very late.  I have continued my work on getting the repeatable pieces done for my map.  To the right is the T-intersection and below is the 90-degree turn.  The 45-degree turn is modeled, I just have not textured it yet.  Once the is finished I will move onto the walls, which will be a little more numerous, as most pieces will need multiple walls around it.  Once those are made I can move onto the ceiling which will finish most tile-able parts.  After that I will probably make a light - more as a placeholder than a finished product, letting me get back to it later when I can make a few different ones so it will not be as monotonous looking.  Once the halls are in place, I will build the custom rooms in the same manner - floors, walls, ceiling - and then the basement of the level will be almost done.  What will be needed is a ramp or two, I am thinking two different widths, and then just small materials to make the level more interesting, but those can wait.

As far as the engine discussion goes, I have decided on a test for UDK.  If I can build the demo, than it is my choice of engine and I will get the license.  But this is still a little while away.  What I did do over the last week was check how I could import the objects and materials, and after a bit of work I have found it is not that bad.  Once I am happy with how the level is built, I will move onto making the moving models - tanks, missiles, mines, satellites, et c. - and then making four textures, one for each team, for each.  Once all of those are finished, it will just be a matter of programming the demo.  Now of course, I made that sound as easy as possible and the demo is probably a decent way off still.  I am unsure if I will add small details to the map or just leave it as empty hallways, I am tempted to do the latter to keep construction time down and save something for the actual release.

So again, sorry for the late post, I hope this makes the direction I am moving in clear.  A lot of modeling and texturing in the coming posts, though I am hoping they level pieces at least go together fast.  The other pieces, the non-permanent tanks and missiles, will probably have more detail and take a bit longer to finish.  My post tomorrow will probably be early since my shift at work changed for next week.  Until then,
~gunnah