Mech #4

Today I managed to do a few weapon models for the mechs. The player is supposed to be able to completely customize their mech and this includes the weapons. Once again Kai did up some awesome concepts for us to model from. The concepts for these weapons were great and made it easy to model.

Concept Art:

Fig 1.1) Side View

Fig 1.2) Front View

Modelling these weapons did not take too long. Luckily most of the weapons were kept as a combination of basic shapes which made it easier to model them. This weapons will attach to various weapon points on each mech. 

3D Models:

Fig 2.1) Missile Launchers (4 and 6 pack)

Fig 2.2) Rocket Launcher

Fig 2.3) Rail guns

These models still have to be checked by Gordon, but I am happy with the way they turned out. My modelling skills have definitely improved since the beginning of the year and I think the quality of my work shows this. That is all I have to show for today. As always feel free to comment, constructive criticism is how we learn after all. Thanks for reading.

Mech #3

This week I carried on with modelling, rigging and animating another mech. Kai had already done up a few concepts and we all chose which one we wanted to try complete. I chose a rather strangely structure mech, the legs remind me of a pair of bird legs. Once again I modelled, rigged and animated this mech.

The concept art for this mech was once again great, it is really great having a concept artist like Kai.

Concept Art:

Fig 1.1) Front and Side View

I had to change up a thing here and there to get the model in 3d to look and 'feel' right. I had to make changes for some of the joints to get them to look functional. After discussing it with Gordon, I also decided I would leave the legs straight instead of bringing the feet closer together like in the concept.

3D Models:

Fig 2.1) Front View

Fig 2.2) Side View

Fig 2.3) Perspective View

I have started to get use to rigging now, especially for legs. I managed to rig this mech very quickly and easily compared to the rest. I did a pretty basic leg setup, a joint for each rotational point and an IKhandle from the hip to ankle. Again, I did not have to rig the upper body of this mech as it will rotate according to the player. The only down side to this rig setup is that I don't have as much control over the rotational amounts of the bones in-between the hip and ankle.

Rigging:

Fig 3.1) Rig Setup

With this rig setup it was easier to animate than I thought it would be. I still have to check with Gordan if he is pleased with the movement this rig setup allows. I am pleased with the result I have achieved although I think there is room for improvement.

Animation:

That is it the last mech I will be doing for now. I will be moving on to do a few weapon models and hopefully get them ready for this next week.

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to comment (or criticize if you really must). Thanks.

Mech #1

So over the past couple weeks I have been working on a top secret Mech game. I cant really say much about the game itself, but this is what I can tell you. The player can join one of two teams of mechs. The mechs are fully customizable from body parts to weapons. And the last thing I can say is that you get to blow things up. To sum it up, it's going to be one awesome mech game!

I have been given the tasks of modeling, rigging and animating the mechs. I have been modeling the mechs according to Kai Hulme's concept art which has been great and makes life a lot easier. I had to tweak a couple things from the concepts to get the model to look right and functional in 3D.

Concept Art:

Fig 1.1) Front and Side View

Fig 1.2) Perspective View

3D Models:

Fig 2.1) Front View

Fig 2.2) Side View

Fig 2.3) Perspective View

This project has also given me a chance to learn how to rig models and set up controllers. The rigging is very basic so it makes is less intimidating and gives me a great learning curve and foundation to get to know the process and steps involved. Since the only part of the mech that has to be animated for now is the legs, it makes things a lot easier to deal with. Basically I have got a joint for every pivot where the mech's legs can rotate. The mech I have been working on has human like legs so rigging it was simple, a joint for the waist, hips/thighs, knees, ankles and foot with and IKhandle attached from the hip to ankle. This is like most biped rigs are set up.

Rigging:

Fig 3.1) Rig Setup

Using this rig, I have animated a walk cycle for this mech. This is the first bit of animation I've gotten the chance to do for the year. I had to be careful with how much I moved the legs because I didn't want and clipping to happen. I had a problem where the knees of the mech would snap just after the foot hit the ground and managed to solve this by shortening the stride of the walk. I think I managed to get a pleasing result for this walk cycle.

Animation:

Animation 1.1) Walk Cycle

And that's it for now. I believe I have achieved the desired result and I am pleased with my effort. Feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism, thanks.

Run 'n Gun #1

For now I have been assigned a role in asset development for our run 'n gun side-scroller. I have modeled a few buildings that will be used to create the world of this game. I have modeled these buildings in a modular way so they can be re-used to create bigger/longer buildings. They can also be textured in many different ways to create even more variety.

We are going to be trying a new method of level design that we haven't done before. I am sure it is a common practice in a lot of games so we are going to experiment with it as well and see how it turns out. We are going to be modeling everything separate from each other, windows, doors and buildings will be separate items and 'stitched' together to create even more variety to the environment. Hopefully this way we can make the game look and feel great.

Here are a couple screenshots of some of the work I have done for now.

Suspended Platforms:

Doors of Different Sizes:

Building Modules:

So what do you think of the work so far? I know it doesn't look like much right now, but we have high hopes for this game and really want to make it great. So your opinions and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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