Paris
Dawson ANTHONY JACKSON
FEBRUARY 21st, 1998
Unit 8-Final Major Project
Apocalyptic Estate Walkthrough
For my final project I will be creating an apocalyptic copy of the estate where I live live a varied range of programs including maya, photoshop, mudbox, and unity. I have cosen this for my final project because I wanted to do something with unity which included creating the ideal game level with a numerous amount of houses, cars, foliage, and other various objects to create the perferct playable model of where I live. However i will also be adding the essence of devestation and wreckage to really bring my creation to life and make it seem more like an actual game level.
For my FMP I needed a starting point and a good references to work from as I move forward with my project, for this I picked a very well known game called Fallout 3, one of the best post-apocalyptic games to date, this is a great reference for me because the game relates a lot to the idea of what im trying to create with my model and will help a lot with the future ideas I will come up with, I will also be using good film references including The Book Of Eli and I Am Legend, 2 really good examples of a post- apocalyptic experience.
Below is my seccondary reseach with source images and videos from Fallout, The Book Of Eli and I Am Legend and some primary resaerch images of my estate I have taken myself to portray how I want to merge the layout of my estate with the design of the debris and destruction similar to these references.
Here is a link to my statement of intent with all of my ideas and a plan for what im going to be doing over the next few weeks
I have now finished my model for the first house and will now go on to create the additions for it this includes objects like gates, sattelites, the other house models and many more I will also eventually go back to fix any errors or things I want to change. For example there is a problem with the brick texture as there are 2 black lines making it look unprofessional, fortunetly this part of the building willl be covered with another building model so there should be no issues.
Here are a few images and a video of Fallout 3 probably one of the most recognised post apocalyptic video games of our century it won many awards including game of the year and more, I have chosen it for my seccondary research as it relates perfectly to the kind of atmosphere I am trying to create with my project a war torn city with mass destruction dark skies, and crumbling buildings to create the effect of complete anihalation. So by using this reference it can help me in the design of my small map as they have done an amzing job recreating the sreets of America in this apocalyptic version.
My other seccondary research is a movie called The Book Of Eli a post apocalyptic Thriller based on a man atempting to find he one bible left in the world long after global nuclear war the keeper of this book is Denzel Washington and he goes through a lon painstaking journey to keep it out of the hands of criminals, the soryline dosent relate to my project its more about the atmosphere of the film and the way they have portrayed a post apocalyptic warzone.
My last peice of seccondary research is another post apocalyptic film called I Am Legend a very popular film that won many awards it is based on a genetic virus that kills 90% of its victims and the remaining are turned into mutants, the general plot of it is based on Will Smiths attempt to find a cure for the virus, however I am concentrating on the aspects of the empty and torn apart setting for this film as it realtes greatly to the concept I am trying to create with my final major project, and as you can see from some of the screenshots it is a different atmosphere from the other two references as it is still an apocalypse based setting however its more deserted and covered with excess foliage rather than destruction, which can also help me with my modelling as some of these elements can assist me with my project like the floiage roads and lamposts etc.
Now that my resaerch is finished I will start on the project so I will now start the designing of each individual house including all the windows gates and other objects that are shown in my primary resarch. I will also be adding my textures along the way.
This the seccond building that is almost complete to make this I extruded a rectangular cube then textered it all so that I could go on to create the doors which was made using a compilation of a textured box which I then made a transparrent window texture so that you can see through it, as you can also see I changed the brick textures on the house because at certain angles you could easily tell it was'nt a seamless texture. I have also alredy added the small implements for this house model including the keyholes, doorknobs, and lights however further on into the project I will be adding house numbers and mailboxes, but now I am going to go on to create all the various gates I will need for all the house models.
These are all the gate types i will need for my model as you can see instead of doing it one by one over a period of time I decided to make all of them in one scene which I can then import to my scene to edit and duplicate. To make the curves I used the ep curve tool and extruded a cube along it to create the curve and then it was just a simple process of sizing it down so I could add it to the rest of the gate model, and for the other one i created a transparrent grid line texture pasted it onto a thin plane so I could then put it inside the gate to create the visual of it looking like thin lines attatched to it.
After modelling the gates I also made a change to the first buildings door as I thought that the previous texture was too pixilated and didnt look real enough, so I made a new one using various rust and frosted window textures to make it look more realistic. I am now going to import my gate models into the building scene so that I can resize and duplicate them so that I can place them all along the house
Now that all my the objects i've made are in this scene I am going to create the last object for it which is the rubbish bins which create in a seperate scene so that I can model and texture it properly.
This is the short journey I have made while modelling the bin, I started with a small extruded box then went on to use the edge loop tool to crate new edges so that I could bevel it to create curved sides, the rest was a compilation of different functions like extruding, edge loop, boolbeans and subdivisions to create the lid for the bin, which after I textured everything then added the wheels and a transparrent image of the burough I live in to make it look more modern and realistic, I am now going to import it into my main scene so I can duplicate them along the houses.
I have now finished the model for the fisrt of the three sets of buildings so I willl now get to work on the seccond one however specifically for this model I want to give it more of a destroyed look to it so I am going to do a little bit of reserach on some wrecked buildings to get some key factors I can incorpirate into my model, which then after I will go on to attempt various techniques of blowing it up or make it look like it has been destroyed.
I researched the internet and found theese two pictures one is a wireframe of a digitally animated building and the other is an old photo of a destroyed building both showing key elements of how to represent destruction including small multitudes of wood planks and some in the interior of the buildings to show where the damage was caused, broken windows cracked bricks and many more things I can use to help me show this in my model which I will now go on to create.
I have now finished the normal design for the seccond set of my model however I am now gooing to try different ways of blowing up and destructing parts of it so I can create the apocalyptic look I want for my project.
After researching some N-cloth i tried to use it on pasrts of the seccond set however it was using too many polygons crashing and revoming my textures so I had to try other ways of breaking objects and after a few tests on some blocks and using tools like cut faces, N-cloth, passive colliders and detatching I ended up texturing a box with debris then breaking it so that I could then import it into my seccond set.
With that i used the cut faces tool to cut certain parts of the building as if it had been bombed I then got 2 seperate extruded shapes and pplaced them on top of each other, I then textured one with debris broken wires and bricks and textured the other one with parts of a broken house overall to make it look realistic and that it had been destroyed.
I am now basically done with the third set building, as you can see I have added a wall and rows of gravestones on the other side, originally I was not going to include this however I needed the wall so that you cannot see the outside of the map and also there is a graveyard behind the estate so I thought that this would give a better impression of wreckage and death, Also while creating this model I realised that I should attempt to add more elements of tear and destruction to the model so I also changed the window textures so it looks like they are broken .Now that This is complete I will move on to the fourth set of buildings for my scene.
I am now done with the fourth set it didnt take me long because it is really a combination of the third set and a few other models I had to create from scratch I am also making sure that in every different scene im creating the borders for the map so that nothing will be out of place when I import it into unity. So now I will create the model for the park in a new scene after taking a few source images.
I will now begin modelling the outer layer of the park like the walls and gates, and after I will start to make my way into the middle of the park creating every object seperately including the cage, playset, and benches
While making the outer layer of the park I needed to bend certain parts of the gates and walls so I did some research and found a tutorial for it bending objects by using animation and non linear deformers.
I also wanted to destroy certain parts of the walls so I experimented with different forms of ndynamics, animations, and extruding to make the wreckage look realistic.
I have now finished modelling the outer layer of the park as you can see its not even or on a flat surface, this is because the estate im replicating is built on a hill so I will have to do all rotating and landscaping in unity. but now i will begin the model for the football cage keeping in mind elements of destruction.
I have now finished my cage model I tried using a variation of objects and functions to try and make it seem old rusted and destroyed this included using rust and crack textures gravity animations and broken gates. The model was also very high poly so I had to export it into its own scene so that I could finish everything off without the program crashing I will do the same for the rest of my objects and then export it all into unity.
I have now completed all of my models for the park and everything inside it while referencing from my research to use elements of destruction in it that was shown in the way I designed the swings and broken playset, for the swings I made it seem as is something had hit it from above making it break in the middle, and for the playset I made a variation of small blocks using textures similar to the playset then used a gravity animation to simulate it being broken. Now that i have finished my models I am going to tweak a few things then start importing to unity.
I have now finished all my modelling and tweaking for my project firstly I destructed the first set of buildings and added a floor texture for when I put it into unity, and then lastly I made the models for the lamp posts and the bin links from the esatate. So I will now export everything and bring it into unity.
I have now started my imports into unity and have begun to start landscaping I made sure everything is to the correct scale however since the estate is built on a downward hill I had to lift everything off of the ground so that later on I can landscape around the models to make it look realistic. However now I am going to finish landscaping and start painting the terrain, so I can add the rest of my objects in.
I have finished all the neccesary landscaping and painting, I now need to add the rest of my models, but first I am going to start adding various types of foliage around my scene including grass bushes and trees, I also made a change to the skybox I was using as when I went into play mode it was too dark to see anything so I used a lighter skybox and at the end I will add a light to the whole scene.
Im now done adding most of my foliage into the scene I have a few more places to put them but I will do that later for now im going to add in my lamps and poles and maybe try experimenting with light scripts.
I decided that I want too add more of a fearfull element to my scene so I thought a good way to do this would be to add flickering lights rain and fog to my scene for the lights I started by making a spotlight then searched the internet for a light scripts, but I could not find any to download so I had to write the code myself then I just applied the script to the spotlight and changed the intensity. The fog however was a lot easier to create because there is already a preset for it on unity, and lastly for the rain I downloaded a rain prefab and changed the script so it would show splatter.
I have now finished all the necessary landscaping and texture painting for my scene and with all the lighting completed I just need to add my fog and then reccord the walkthrough. After that I will bring everything into I Movie and create my movie, my idea for it is to have scenes from the walkthrough in unity and scenes from a video I took of me going the same way as the unity walkthrough and switching between them so it seems as if your seeing the past and present.
Final Major Project Evaluation
Intentions:
The aim of my final major project was to replicate my estate as best as possible with elements of destruction, chaos, fear, and ruin that can be seen all around the scene. I wanted this model to be like looking into a mirror of order and chaos and this is the chaos version, showing 2 opposite sides of a specific area. However I have portrayed both of these views in my final video. I feel like I have achieved all my aims that I wanted to portray in the project however not all of them were to the best extent for example I feel like I could have added more elements of destruction and ruin into a lot of my models but for some of them I concentrated too much on making it look similar, however I feel I have still portrayed the element of fear and destruction well just not as well as I hoped. Aside from that I think I have done very well to achieve most of the aims I wanted to interpret and I am very happy with it.
Research:
Both my primary and secondary research helped me a lot with the design of my project; with the help of it I was inspired to use different forms of destruction in my scene as well as the colours and textures for my models as all my research reflected post apocalyptic cities.
My subject knowledge was reflected very well in my project as it helped me to create a variety of objects, and functions that are not basic knowledge like writing scripts, animations, n-cloth, bending and many more in the end this had a big impact on how realistic my model was. My research was very successful in developing my project mainly the realism of the buildings, park, and cage etc. and the destruction of them for all of these things my research helped inspire me to make it like that.
Design Development:
My design had developed a lot from when I first started the project and a lot has changed from since then, as my experimenting has helped ne to realise the mistakes I had made and has helped me to visualise my FMP more realistically. While developing my project I also ran into many errors this included a variety of texture loading, high poly counts, computer crashing and exporting materials. Now some of these were easy to fix but others required me to change the layout, the design, or the whole scene for my models, some things I had to completely redo, however I compromised for these errors and made them into something better. Also when these problems occur it’s not always a bad thing as some of the time having to change things would also give me much better ideas and designs on how to portray my models better.
Methods of working:
Nearing the last few weeks of the project I began to start thinking about my final outcomes and how I would fulfil most of the ideas and designs shown in my statement of intent and also how I would build and advance on some of these ideas I did this by following the guidelines of my statement of intent of how and when I would create my models. Working this way was very helpful as I kept to my timescale, created all the necessary models, and kept referring to my research. However there were some weaknesses for using the statement of intent in that way which was that I expected myself to do more work than I actually could so a lot of the time I would end up spending more time than needed on a specific model instead of doing something else or working on my elements of destruction. Yes I would change my methods of construction if I had the opportunity so that I could have more time on both programs to do all the necessary editing the way I lied out my project I ended up spending around 80% of my project on Maya.
Final Outcomes:
The final outcome of my project relates very well to my statement of intent as in it I was clear in the effects, designs, and ideas I wanted to portray to the audience which are things like elements of destruction, fear, ruin, and emptiness and I think I showed that very well in my project.
As a whole I think the project went very successful and it has been completed to a high standard of work, I say this because it all relates very well to my statement of intent all the things I wanted to portray have been created and included in different parts of the project, so for me it turned out very well. My general outcome of the project completely fulfils what I wanted to achieve by the end of it and more because of the different emotions and feelings I have incorporated into it. From what I have heard others think my project looks really good they like the layout and design of it, but think I spent too long on the models and should have used unity more, I agree with these statements. I think my final outcome came out better than I expected to I think it looks really good there are many positive things to say about the modelling and layout of it, however some of the things I would have changed is the scaling for the buildings as some of them are out of place and also the landscaping I did on unity came out a bit bigger than I expected however it still looks good and I am happy with the outcome.
Project Management:
I planned to use my time at home and at college wisely for the first few weeks i needed to start on Maya so every day after college I would either carry on with my modelling for an hour or 2 if not I would be researching new techniques to use in unity and Maya and at the end of the week I would update my website, and for the last 2 weeks I spent on unity doing about 3 hours of work every day after college because unity kept crashing. I managed my time well when it came to using Maya however i spent about an extra 2 weeks on my modelling as I needed to finish it which left me with a short 2 weeks to finish my unity scene. At the beginning of the project I used my dairy to plan out how I would use my time but after a few weeks I had to change it, as I did not have enough time.
Staff:
We got feedback from our tutor roughly every 2 to 3 weeks and he gave me some good advice on how to model certain aspects of my project, how I should be managing my time, and also how to cut down my work load a lot of this helped with how quickly it took me to complete the project and without the advice he gave me it would have taken me a lot longer to finish.
Additional Development/Improvements:
Unit 9
The pathway I am focusing on for next year will be mainly animation and game design this will include things like modelling, texturing and animations as I feel like this is my strongest use as an artist however we still have another year of learning new programs and functions so this can always change.
My weakness as an artist in game design is certain functions of Maya and unity that I am not yet comfortable with, this includes thing like uv texturing, using curves, bevelling, scripts, particle systems and physics these are some of the more complicated functions however I really want to learn more about how to use them so that I can improve my knowledge of game design and using Maya and Unity in a wider variety of ways.
My future goals are to improve my knowledge of game design and functions so that within the next 2 years I can hopefully be doing an apprenticeship or internship for an animation company learning more about the business and improving my knowledge on game design, so that in the next 5 years I can hope to be a runner for an animation company or even doing small bits of work for them and putting all my learning and knowledge to use. Then confidently in around 10 years time I can hope to be working full time as a game designer/ modeller for a respectable animation company earning a good wage.
To meet these goals I will need to start improving my knowledge in my area of expertise this means doing more independent work at home researching various techniques for Maya and Unity and make sure I’m concentrating as best I can in class so I can take in all of the information that I need, I will also be researching the internet and using help from college to find animation studios that I can start a small time internship with. And also maybe start to work on my own independent projects to help further my knowledge. Ways that I can improve on these goals is by spending a more dedicated amount of time on my work and making sure I am completing everything to a high standard.
I have done some research on three university courses for animation that would be a dream come true if I was to get into it. University of Hertfordshire entry requirements include 280 UCAS points and maths and English GCSE grade C or higher they require a digital portfolio and that is all for the application process. The next is University of Ravensbourne entry requirements include 2 A levels grade C or above, 4 AS levels grade C or above, 2 vocational A levels grade C or above, level 3 foundation diploma or national diploma, advanced diploma grade C or above, and international baccalaureate 28 points or above they also require a digital portfolio and that is all for the application process. And lastly is Bournemouth university entry requirements include 5 GCSE’s grade C or above and a relevant level 3 qualification like GCSE A levels Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, International Baccalaureate, BTEC Awards, Certificates, and Diplomas at level 3, BTEC Nationals at level 3, BTEC Extended Diploma, OCR National, NVQ at level 3, Level 3 of the ‘Creative and Media’ 14 – 19 Diploma they also require a digital portfolio and that is all for the application process.
I plan to take a gap year then attempt to get into the creative sector of work hopefully doing modelling and animations, I have done some research into my dream job to achieve this I need all my GCSE qualifications including maths and English, 5-10 years of game development experience, well spoken, experience with online architectures, understanding of graphics pipeline and various api’s, experience with certain game engines and programs e.g. unreal engine, and Maya, and also deep understanding of modern games console development. The road to getting a job like this is a long one that will require lots of time hard work and effort however I am prepared to do whatever it takes to better myself in the game industry.
Setting up as a freelance artist is a lot tougher to do by yourself you would start by doing small independent jobs for various employers, and over time you will get more recognised when you reach this point you can actually start your business, where people will come to you or your website and ask you to do work for them, and you will keep expanding this business until you are telling people how much they will have ton pay you and you have hundreds of customers coming to you on a regular basis. Tax will be a small problem for any freelance artist depending on the kind of salary you are bringing in every year.
This is my Showreel with all of my best work as a reference for everything I have done this year