Evaluation of Digital Showcase

The Digital Showcase was last week, where all the teams trailers were shown off, and everyone's printed artwork, drawings and what not; were all hanging up on big poster boards, and on tables for everyone to look at.

I personally think that the showcase did what it was intended to do, i.e. showing off everyones completed trailer and work, including printed work and drawings and what not. Also, I got to see everyone elses trailers, and I hadn't seen before. I was really impressed with some of the 3D work in some of the trailers; really professionally made.

A lot of visitors turned up at the showcase, including a few professionals, and student's parents. They all went around looking at all our trailers and artwork.

There was a football match on a TV in one of the rooms that a few people were watching. I personally don't think this was a very fitting thing for the showcase, as it distracted quite a few people.

Overall, I think the showcase went well; it did exactly what it was intended to do; show off everyones completed trailers and artwork/concept art.

Evaluation of the 4 game trailers

I really liked the first trailer by Team 42, for Zero G. It had a really sci-fi feel to it, and the whole racing part with those vechicles that reminded me a bit of Pod Racers from Star Wars Episode 1 are a really great feature. Also the point when the track went wire frame was very nice as well.

Our team is Team Paradox, and our game is Dark Shock. I like our trailer as it is the only one to include voice acting (by me) and lipscynching (by Andrew). However, I could have improved the dialogue between MBM and Officer Jones; and just have his head bob up and down once rather than continuously, as this didn't seem realistic.

The third team was Negative 1 with Desolate. The trailer was good also, albeit a bit long. Also they're could have been a bigger variety of music; all it was was just this monotinous loop of rather dull music it has to be said. However the 3D models, and environments were excellent.

The fourth and final team is Team Lazerbaby with Tempus: Limit Before Which. The trailer had a very eerie and mysterious feel to it, which is great. The old projector type affects and the calm music all the more made for a quite chilling experience, in a eerie type of way. Excellent stuff.

My favourite trailer in my opinion is Tempus: Limit Before Which. I just really loved the eerie and strange atmosphere it gave; really got me.

How to set up an Atari 2600 part 2

Now turn your TV on. Insert a Game Program cartridge into the consoles cartridge slot on the front of the unit. Flick the power switch on. If the unit is already tuned in, the game will be displayed right away and you can start playing. If not, the TV will just display white noise and static. Take your TV remote and tune it to Channel 36, as this is what the unit is designed to tune into.

If you have followed all these steps correctly, you will now have your game on the screen ready to play. Have fun!

Safety notices:
Never carry the unit by its RF lead. This is very likely to cause damage to the unit.
Never store the unit, power supply, or game cartridges in damp places.
Do not play when tired or drowsy.
Do not play if you are susceptible to seizures.
Store the unit in its original box when not in use. This will also protect it from dust.
Do not attempt to dissasemble the unit. There are no user serviceable parts inside, and doing so will void the guarantee warranty.

How to set up an Atari 2600 part 1

Hello, and thankyou for purchasing the Atari 2600 video game system. We hope it will give you many hours of entertainment.

First of all, you must set the system up on your TV before you can use it. Look at the back of the system; you will see an input for the controllers, power lead, and a cable coming out the back. This is the RF lead; it carries the video and audio from the system to your TV. Plug this lead into the aerial jack on your TV. Take the power brick, and plug it into the mains. Then take the other end of the lead and plug it into the power input on the back of the unit. Make sure the unit is on a flat surface when in use. Plug your controllers into the controller ports on the back of the unit.

Summary of Final Major Project

In the very beginning, we were asked to create a game trailer.
The brief is the project, the client is Shipley College, and the end product is the actual trailer. Production deadline for 3D work is 18th June. Our main objective is to show our trailers at the Digital Showcase on the 23rd of June.

First of all, we organized ourselves into teams. We then had to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each team member, and choose a logo for our team. For example, my strengths are I have good knowledge of video games or all eras, and I'm good at researching. My weaknesses are I'm not very good at listening, and I need a bit of help with 3DS Max.
We eventually decided on "Team Paradox" as our team name; first of all by us all thinking of our own team names, then voting on the one the majority of us liked. Then, we all designed a logo; again, with all of us voting on the one we liked the most. We chose Charlotte's logo in the end.

We then all went and started developing our own stories for the game trailer. My story involved the King of Hyrule meeting up with various characters from other games series, and going on an adventure through time and space, fighting Radioactive Mutant Killer Ponies.
I think my story is quite good; it has the basic plots and characters for a nice little compeling story. However, if it had been chosen, it would've taken far too long to model, animate, etc.
The team chose Andrew's story in the end, as it was a much simpler story that proved to be a lot simpler to animate and model; plus the story seemed a bit more interesting too, and more fitting for the idea we initially thought of in the first place; a story set in a post-apocalyptic environment.

Over the weeks, we've sometimes had team meetings when we have come to decisions, like when we were choosing our team logo, showing each other our stories, choosing each others roles, etc. When we decided on Andrew's story, it was then my task to design a 3D environment, and Officer Jones, who is a character in Andrews story.

My 3D environment consists of several buildings I designed from simple primitives; cubes, pyramids, etc. and a road with lots of street lamps. This environment represents part of the "Self Contained Super City" which is the main city-like environment the story takes place in. Officer Jones's body consists of a cyliner I shaped into his body, a sphere for his head, cylinders for his arms and legs, cuboid I shaped alot for his feet, and cubes with a lot of small cuboids for his fingers.

We also had to design merchandise for our project. I did a simple T-shirt design, and a mug.

Officer Jones in Obama Street render

A simple render of Officer Jones after he was merged with the Obama Street environment.
To do this I went to File>Merge>Find Officer Jones file>Okay.
I scaled him down to the size of a door on one of the buildings. I then saved it as a different file name, incase it went wrong so I didn't lose the original files.
As it was taking a long time to render, I switched the lighting off. I will reinstate this later on.

Putting Officer Jones in my/an environment

I've been thinking about how I'm going to put Officer Jones in my environment. In the actual story, he is going to be standing outside the Police Station where he works, and talking to MBM when he runs into him. He then goes and walks over to some chairs with MBM and stands against a wall while he tells him about his wife. This is the last you see of him, because shortly after this, MBM then blows up the city with a nuclear bomb.

My environment will be used where the main story takes place; it is a little part of the city. Andrew's environment is the whole city, and is seen when the nuclear bomb is used.

Lighting the environment

This is a render of my environment, where I have lit the environment using a skylight. To create a skylight, I went to Create>Light>Skylight, and put the skylight in the environment. I then went to Rendering>Advanced Lighting>Light Tracer, set the Rays/Samples to 500, and Bounces to 2, then rendered the image out. It took a lot longer to render than usual, about 10 minutes.

The rendering made the environment more realistic, adding shadows and texture. One person said that it looked like a plastic city.

Officer Jones in 3DS Max

This is my complete 3D model of Officer Jones made in 3DS Max.

I started making him by importing the two pictures I made of him in Photoshop, and started making a model based around those images. I started with the body first, with a cylinder. I did this by simply selecting a cylinder in the Create menu, then drawing one, then modelling it to size. I then modelled it to make it into the shape it became, by extruding the lower half out, and the upper half in. Then, I made his head with a sphere. His legs were made with two cylinders and a sphere, and so were his arms. His feet are cubes that had to be extruded and shaped a lot. His hands are a sphere for a wrist, a cube for the main part of the hand, and fingers are very small and long cuboids.

The only real difficulties I encountered during this project was sometimes not knowing what I was doing. For example, I didn't know how to extrude the body at first. So I just asked the tutor or a fellow classmate when I had a problem. I also needed a bit of help with modelling the feet because I didn't know how to model them into real feet.

Overall, I am very pleased with this project. It was a lot of fun modelling the character, and I learned quite a few new things while making it.

3DS Max Environment

When I first started making this in 3DS Max, I found it a bit daunting at first, as I wasn't that skilled in 3DS Max. But once I got into it, the rest was a bit easier to do.

All the buildings are made up of standard primitives; i.e. boxes, cylinders, pyramids, etc. so they were easy to make. I decided to make all the buildings in different colours to make them stand out more. I initially planned to have a train track line running along infront of the buildings, but I scrapped this idea for a road instead, as it was alot easier to make.
Overall, I think this project was quite fun. I had quite a good time making the buildings in 3D Max. I also learned quite a lot more about 3D Max, so that helped alot.

Storyboard for Team Paradox

We chose this after a team meeting where we were going to choose a frame from everyone's storyboards, but in the end, we chose Andrews because we all agreed that it had the best story, and the fact that doing a frame from each persons storys would have taken far too long to make.

I think that the story is good because it is a simple and effective story. Also one that is easy to model and animate. Also, there are only two main characters and one supporting character.

Scene heading: Muscle bound Milkman finds out the truth!

Setting: Inside the Super City

Action description: MBM is running around the streets and through the buildings of the self contained super city, calling out for his wife, and waving his trusty 12-gauge around. Random characters walking around.

MBM: Wife! Wife! Where are you?

Random character: Wife? Which wife?

MBM: My wife! Have you seen her?

Random character: No. What does she looks like?

MBM: She is very thin, doesn’t have much personality, doesn’t smile much, and doesn’t move around much. But I love her!

Random character: Never seen someone like that. I tell you what, though, go and find Officer Jones. He might know where she is. I last saw him on the corner of Obama street.

MBM: Okay, thanks!

Transition: Pan following MBM down the street

Action description: MBM runs to Obama street, and sees Officer Jones standing outside the police station.

MBM: Hey! Officer Jones! Boy, am I glad to see you. Have you seen my wife? She went missing and someone said that you might know where she is?

Officer Jones: Okay, stop waving that gun around! Jesus! You’re gonna get someone killed!

MBM: Okay, sorry. I’m just in a bit of a panic at the moment.

Officer Jones: Okay, sit down here.

MBM: Okay.

Transition: Pan to seating

Action Script: MBM and Officer Jones go and sit down on some chairs.

Officer Jones. Son, I’ve got something to tell you; and I don’t know how; (pause) but someone has to tell you. Your wife… was a cardboard cut-out the entire time. I’m so truly sorry.

Transition: Fade out to next scene

This is my script of the chosen story for our game trailer. It was written by me and Chris Dewey. We looked at the storyboard that Andrew had done, and planned how it would all work. We made it so that the MBM (Muscle-Bound Milkman) would be searching around the SCSC (Self-Contained Super City) looking for his wife. He would then run into a random character who tells him to look for Officer Jones. OJ would then tell him the truth about his wife when MBM finds him.

I enjoyed making this; it was fun doing the voice acting. I did the voice of MBM and the Random Character. Chris did OJ. Overall, I think it was a good project.

Officer Jones production: Photoshop and 3DS Max

Here is Officer Jones in Photoshop (left), and what I've done on him so far in 3DS Max (right). I originally started by drawing him on paper. I thought it was quite difficult, but I got ideas from a cartoon police officer and some sort of cyborg police officer from a Star Trek film.
I didn't know how to begin drawing him, as I didn't feel very confident, but the tutor explained that it was just basic shapes.

Dark Shock Scene 4 Script

We had a team meeting where we discused who was doing which scripts for the different scenes. As I am working on Officer Jones, I chose to do the script for scene 4. I went to the "Fake Trailer Script" website and printed the script format. This helped me to structure the script. I got Chris and Matthew to act out the scripts to see if it was alright.

My Dark Shock logo

My influence for creating this logo were some pictures of fork lighting I found on the internet. Particually the night time ones.

I then chose one of the lightning pictures, and copied it into Photoshop. Using the Marquee oval tool, I selected the area I wanted for my logo. I then copied and pasted it into a new Photoshop document.

I then went to the image menu, adjustments, variations, and played about with the image until I was happy with the colour style. I then adjusted the saturation.

I then made two more layers, and typed in the words Dark Shock. I put them on seperate layers so I could move them around more easily. I selected the layer "Shock", then went to "Layer style". I experimented with Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, and Emboss.

Once I was happy with this layer, I copied the layer style to the word "Dark". I then rotated and moved the words to where I wanted them.

Artwork for 3D Environment

This is the artwork I have drawn for my 3D environment for my story "Radioactive Mutant Killer Ponies from Outer Space!"

I created my environment from a moodboard of three pictures. One had a road, one had a cave, and one hand a factory. The initial drawing for the picture was done by Mel, then I put in all the details, and did all the colouring in. The colours I used were red, yellow, and orange for the sky, black for the road, brown for the rocks, grey for the factory, black for the cave, and green and yellow for the grass. The sky, rocks, hill, and factory were done in felt tip pen, and the cave area was done in pastel. I had to put hairspray on the area done with pastel to stop it from smudging.

Team meeting evidence

3rd March 2010
I shared my ideas with the group, and they shared their ideas with me. We all had the idea of a post apocalyptic environment. We all decided on one idea from each team member. My idea was a chainsaw-wielding mutant pony, Andrew's idea was a milkman, Miles's was an inside environnment and the steel works.

Members present:

Tom

Charlotte

Andy

Miles

Game trailer storyboard

Character is still undetermined until we can have a team meeting with all members.

Sounds still need to be decided.

1. Trailer Starts from the main character’s point of view, and explores the environment showing different parts of the world.
2. Showing the inside of a building (underground bunker, steelworks?) the camera slowly leaves and outside onto the world.
3. The major part of the world is a wasteland with a very dessert like feel along with signs of a post apocalyptic world E.G biohazard signs and acid pools, ect.
4. Character looks up at a bright intact city in the middle of the wasteland keeping with the sustainability themes and a small camera view of the intact city.
5. Trailer ends with the character being ambushed, camera zooms out to show the character but not the character’s attacker, sound of a chainsaw (or other weapon) can be heard before the trailer fades out with the title sequence.

Team meeting notes of members roles below as well:

Team meeting

Time: 15:30 – 15:48

Members present:

Lee

Tom

Andy

Miles

Enviroments: Miles

Characters: Tom, Charlotte

Textures: Miles, Lee (help)

Animation: Andrew

Storyboards: Lee (+all)

Auido: Lee (others if needed)

Models: Andrew, Miles

The Plot

I have developed some ideas for the Game Trailer. I got most of these ideas from when I was doing my Robinson Group Bursary Bid work. I used lots of characters from lots of my favourite games, cartoons, anime, etc. My favourite of all these characters is King Harkinian from the Zelda CD-i games. He is my favourite character because of his personality, and I think he would be good for my game trailer because of his funny quotes "Mah Boi!" and "I wonder whats for dinner!" I would also have Dr. Robotnik in my trailer as well. He will be in my trailer because I like his evil personality and his quote "SnooPING AS usual, I see?"

Team Paradox Logo

When we designed our team logo, we first had to think of a name. We had a team meeting , where we thought of all sorts of names for our team logo. Examples include: Waffles Galaxy, One Piece, Broken Steel, Pineapple Industries, Paradox, and Xion.

In our next meeting, we organised which members we had in which team. Our team consists of Lee York, Miles Mullarky, Me, Andrew Wilson, andw Charlotte Ellam. We then voted for which team name we liked the best, with the final 3 choices being Paradox, Pineapple Industries, and Xion. We eventually decided on Paradox. I wish we had chosen Pineapple Industries, because it was one that I made and I thought it would have suited it perfectly in my opinion.

We then made our own versions of the Paradox logo, in Photoshop. In our next meeting, we all voted on which logos were the best, and which one we would use. We eventually decided on a hybrid of Charlotte's and Mile's logo. My logo didnt get any votes, but I'm not too bothered about that, even though my logo was good. I think the one that was chosen was a good compromise.

Constraints

Some problems of working in a team include:

Punctuality at meetings. If everyone is not present at the meeting on time, it can delay the whole project, making it more difficult to meet deadlines, and possibly miss them.

Time management. If the team doesn't manage their time effectively, quality can be affected due to not being able to spend sufficient time on areas of the game that need to be perfected.

Arguments. This could be a problem because it would hold things up. By making sure that any new idea is one everyone agrees with, this would avoid this problem.

Financial. The average cost for a game trailer is anything from £1500 to £15,000. One thing the team would have to do would be to manage their finances effectively. If the team runs out of money, they would not be able to create the gametrailer. They might lose members of the team, or perhaps even the whole team.

Patents, etc. Patents are insurance/protections for ideas and creations that prevent other people from just taking that idea and passing it off as their own. Our team would have to make sure they patented their gametrailer and made sure that royalties would be paid to them if anyone wanted to use the content they had created.

Identify the Roles of your Team

Charlotte: Game Designer. Her job would involve devising the game world, setting, story, characters, items, and all other elements of the games structure and such like. It would be her responsibility to ensure that the whole team understands and shares the original concept and vision of the game.

Andrew: Animator. His job would be animating characters, vehicles, scenery, etc. One main job he would do would be making "cutscenes", which are the games pre-rendered, non-linear sequences.

Miles: External Producer. He would work away from the main team, usually working for a game producer, and ensure everything ran smoothly regarding the delivery of a game. He will often be making trips between the game publisher and developer, to ensure eveything runs smoothly between development and publishing processes.

Lee: Artist. His job would involve drawing all the visual elements of the game, from characters, to objects, textures, and so on. He would also create stroyboards and concept art.

Me: Game Programmer. My job would involve the programming of games, including scripting, physics programming, AI, interface and control systems.

Game Tralier Teamwork

Interpersonal skills - Its important to get on with your team members, so you can get things done quicker. We've had 3 entire team meetings, the first of which was team selection, the second of which was voting for a name for the team, and the third of which was voting for a logo for the team. We decided to call the team "Paradox", and the team consists of me, Andrew, Miles, Charlotte, and Lee.

Charlotte's most useful strength is knowledge of current games. Her ideal role would be a Game Designer.
Andrew's main strengths are good knowledge of 3DS MAX, MS Paint, and Photoshop. His ideal role would be an Animator.
Miles's most useful strength is presentations. His ideal role would be an External Producer.
Lee's most useful strength is drawing. His ideal role would be an Artist.
My most useful strength is my knowledge of games from all eras. My ideal role would be a Game Programmer.

The good things about working in a team are because there are ideas from all the team members rather than just one person otherwise. You generate more ideas as well.

The bad things about working in a team are there can be arguments. Also, as people all work at different speeds, they may not keep up with each other. Some people might also leave work for other people to do rather than doing it themselves. Some people are more reliable about turning up to meetings than others, therefore people who are not reliable may not turn up.

Overall, I'm glad that we are in teams, because overall, it makes work just slightly easier.