Motion Capture and 3DII

So last week was the last week of the first two course of my second year here, which means this week two new courses started!
First off, we had Motion Capture, which was really cool! I kind of expected us to only do theoretical stuff and talk about the software we’re going to use, but our teacher Nataska had two students from the class dress up in black velcro suits and act out some fighting scenes! One of us also got […]

Finished character modeling & board game!

This week the first two courses of year two ended! I really feel like I’ve learned a lot, especially when it comes to 3D.
Here’s the final version of Quinn:

And some details:
    
Quite a big step from last week, I think! I have to say, I’m very pleased with the result. It’s a bit strange to think that a couple of months ago I could barely make a box in 3DsMax and now I can create […]

Character modeling & board games pt 3

Boring titles, I know. I’m out of creativity.
Anyway, this week we’ve continued working with out 3D models. We’ve created UVs and started working on textures. So far I pretty much only have flat colors for Quinn, so this is what he’s looking like now:

Not any less creepy than the last time you saw him. I think the lack of eyebrows and eyelashes is making him look freaky. However, I do like his overall color scheme. (He looks […]

Character modeling & board games pt. 2

This week we started making heads for our characters! Unfortunately, I had already spent quite some time on my own trying to make a head and as our 3D class progressed I realized I had made it entirely wrong. The face I had made was very simplified and not at all optimized for animating. I had really only thought about making a face that looked good, not one that you could animate.
I’ve struggled quite a bit with trying to make […]

Character modeling & board games pt 1

So this week we started modeling our characters in 3DI. We had a full day workshop where we modeled everything together at the same time as our teacher. It took a long time, but it was easier than I thought and I’m actually quite pleased with the result.
This is what Quinn is looking like right now:

So far I’ve mostly put work into his torso and upper body, so I’d like to develop his legs and feet a bit more. […]

Finished desk & starting character model

Another week, another blog post!
This week I finished up my desk, finally. This is the finished product:


In the end I’m pretty pleased with it, though it doesn’t look like anything special. But I figure if you’re making game props a lot of it are going to be things that don’t look too interesting. As long as it fits the world it’s fine.
I also made an action pose for Pumpkin Boy that turned out kinda cool.

He’s making mischief as […]

UV mapping nightmare

Guess what we’ve been doing this week?
So we started with learning how you unwrap a 3D model to make it into a 2D image, so that we can actually draw on it. This is easier said that done, especially with round or very complex shapes. This is what my model looked like after a lot of work.

The colored squares and the numbers are part of the UV checker, which is an image you lay on top of your model to […]

Pumpkin Boy

Bet you thought I wouldn’t update this week?
I’ve just been a bit busy and haven’t had time until now!
In our 3D class we’ve continued working with our models and I have to say I’m a lot more pleased with mine now than I was a week ago. This is what it looks like now:

The dimensions are more accurate and there aren’t any topology errors. The final tris count is 2988, and the maximum that we had to work with […]

A trip to the museum & Knytt

This week we did something very exciting in our 3D class; we went to the museum! I love history and museums, so I had a great time. We got a guided tour around the place, which was cool.

Afterwards we got to walk around on our own and pick out an object that we wanted to model in 3D! This was a bit complicated, since it had to be something not too difficult but not too easy either. We also […]

Boxes and barrels (of fun!)

This week we’ve continued with 3D modeling and we have made some more complex objects, mainly barrels and boxes, which are very common things to find in games.


These two objects have a fairly low amount of polygons (sides, essentially) and look a bit simplified, so they would be suited for a relatively cartoony game. We learned how we should always start focusing on the silhouette of the object, because silhouettes are what people see before anything else. This […]

Second year, week one!

*gently dusts off blog*
Hello everyone, I’m back! I have to admit I didn’t do much during the summer, and it feels a bit strange to be back here. It kind of feels like I was never away. But mostly in a good way!
So, this has been my first week of the second year. It’s been a gentle start mostly, which suited me fine. The most interesting part has been finally getting into 3D. We are using 3ds Max as our […]

Snow Day Mayhem – the finishing touches

So last week we had the Beta deadline, which we passed! It was just barely, but we passed. Again, I think the teachers’ judgement was fair, as our game is still a bit buggy and not very polished.
Right now we are mostly working on the finishing touches, playtesting and balancing as well as making the menu and the tutorial.
This is what our game looks like right now:

(Although, as I am writing this we have fixed the ugly black borders […]