Week Summary

On Monday, I started the final inventory menu screen for the art test. The game menu is designed for PC. I kept the theme of pirate. I decided to go with this theme because I like the style and I had in mind the new game coming out in March for Xbox one called ‘Sea of thieves’. I knew for the background of this piece I wanted to go with a map. I did find one of google images that fit the style I wanted to go for. 

When I thought of a pirate themed I thought of wood, like decking on a ship or wooden shelfs. I decided to create a border with an image of a plank of wood. From that I edited the wood using layer styles such as different blending options and shadows. To do this piece I got icons and images online and modified them to suit my theme, in a way it became a photo bash piece. I did make my own buttons for the piece and gave them a wooden like effect, they also look like that water is reflecting off them which does connect with the theme. To do the buttons I created a solid brown coloured rectangle. Used the layer styles to edit, I used the different glow and shadow properties to gain the 3D look. From there I added a worn effect using a textured brush and edited with the overlay effects and layer styles. I then downloaded a suitable font that matched, it was called ‘Trade Winds’.

Downloaded here: http://www.1001fonts.com/trade-winds-font.html

On Tuesday, I continued with the piece and added some other elements. I added a character, if this was in a real game the character can have clothing and weapons added to them in real time. The character can also be rotated by clicking with the mouse on the rotate logo at the bottom of the character. Also, the character would be animated slightly as well in game, such as when a piece of clothing is selected for the character they would react to it. The 3D model of the character was found online. I think it fits the style I wanted perfectly. The game is aimed at teens onwards and is a cartoon implemented. I also added a logo of a flag behind the character this shows what team the player is on, it’s the logo for the team. I added Chains to the piece which hangs the inventory title. When the player is navigating this area when they click on the chains a different tab title will slide into view. 

By the end of Wednesday, I would have liked to of finished this task but due to being home this week for independent study week and having doctor’s appointments all my time could not be set on the task, I could only get parts done here and there, which was a shame as I would of liked to of continued with my Zbrush Character also this week, but still I wanted to do the best I could for this task and I am happy with the results so far.

On Wednesday, I added a shelf piece this holds all of the inventory items and information needed about the item and the item level. The shelf was made by using the same wooden plank image, the same as the border of this piece. I added different lighting and shadow effects by using the layer styles. When the player selects the item, they want it will appear with an outline highlighting the icon, this gives the player knowledge that it has been selected. I also added by the character a compass that illustrates the characters current level. 

On Thursday by the evening the menu was completed. I added a scroll to show the characters stats. I added an easy to use upgrading system. To upgrade, the player has the option to click on the left or right arrows on the sides of the anchor to add points if the player has enough to do so. When adding points, the numbed text on the left-hand side will change. I added a few other touches for details and to fill out the menu. Overall, I am happy with the result, I like the style and I believe it’s easy enough to pilot and understand without having to use much text. For a first attempt at UI design I am happy, this art test has also given me some practice for my final UI menu I will be producing for my current project that will represent my robot character model. 

Below I will show the PDF I had to put together to present this art test.

Week Summary

On Monday I started to do some more detailed drawings of my robot character. The drawings are only quick sketches to get a rough idea. I did play around with colour, I added colour to a few of the drawings. Since doing the drawings I am heading into creating a robot that is more humanoid than first thought. I would still like the robot to be rough in its appearance and fairly dated for its era. Also I bought the Art of Chappie book online last week it arrived today. The book is very good but it is lacking in areas. I thought there would be more to the design aspect of Chappie himself but there is not really any sketches of his first early concept design, which is slightly disappointing, still the book will be of help.

The first drawing on the left seems to be where I would like to go for my final model design.

With the colour side to my model I think my aim is to keep it simple, using more tones such as greys (metal like). I would like to add some color to it. I would like to give the robot a replacement arm due to the original being damaged. The arm most likely will be of a different colour that will not match the rest of the character.

Also on Monday I did start to get familiar again with Zbrush. I have not covered high surface modelling in Zbrush much at all so I thought it would be good to gain some knowledge and find a technique that would work best for me. 

This image shows that I was using different brushes to gain a hard surface edge. I used the trim dynamic brush and the high polish brush. I think this will be a good method to touch up the model when needed. 

Here I used the trim brush to cut the model. It can leave the edges uneven at times I found. I did have to touch up the edges by smoothing. 

This was using the same method as before but I did add subdivisions to this piece. It does give the model a cleaner appearance. 

This is using the same method as before also with added subdivisions, I also used Zremesher to give the model less polys and clean topology. I will continue to gain knowledge of topology throughout the modeling stage.

This method is using the slice brush to create a polygroups. From there the panel loop method can give results such as this. This technique will work well with my robot as it will have many hard surface panels.

On Tuesday, I decided to produce one more quick sketch with colour of another robot design. I can see the design of the robot in my head but I have been having some trouble putting it down. Because of this I began to get on and start the modelling stage.  I believe once I start working in Zbrush it will a lot easier for me to get my character design across, it will come together the more I work on it. This happened in my last project, I found as soon as I started my confident with Zbrush improved and the model and its design grew and a flowed nicely. I decided to start and create the robot head with the panel loop technique learnt from watching videos and doing research on hard surface methods. 

This quick sketch is the robot design I aim to create.  I know when it comes to modeling it will change but I aim to base the final design along this.

I started to mold the head shape using the move brush with a large brush size. After I got the shape I wanted I used the slice brush to create polygroups that can be singled out and edited.

Using the panel loop method I managed to produce the head for the robot rather quickly after I got the hang of it.

I did notice that in between each panel the mesh looked untidy and added unwanted meshes. When the panels are first added they do not connect to each other and this leaves holes in between each panel. By appending the mesh and using the panel loop tab again it closes the holes which is good but I found it left me with more to work with and added to my poly count.

On Wednesday,  I did not continue with my original robot head, I decided to start again. I found a useful video on the panel loop method but using it to gain different results. 

https://youtu.be/fQolKk-FIao - This is the video I used to learn how to create panel loops. 

Using the same method as last time using the slice brushes to produced poly groups I began to develop a different structure. Instead of clicking the panel loop tab like before I clicked the group loop tab. This way you can drag the poly group out using the transform tools such as move.

I started to edit the head and also bought in some eyes for the character to give it more personality.

On Thursday, I continued with the robot head. As I am still getting a feel for my design I started to insert some details adding bolts and such.

 I still want to add to the head and may add something similar to what Chappie has on his head, the ear like structures.

Earlier in the week I emailed my tutor and told them I was interested in doing the UX/UI art test put together by Guest speaker Aiden. On Friday, the art test came through in which I had a week to complete it. The aim of the project is to create a inventory/equipment screen by creating your own idea or revamping an existing one from a chosen game of choice. It can be any theme and we can also use other peoples assets if wanted such as icons or character models. If this is the case you can not put this piece in your portfolio. I decided to create my whole idea and not use an existing game inventory screen but to use assets from others as I think I will be pushing for time if I did everything myself. Also this is my first time creating a UI piece I look forward to the final result. I decided to do some quick pen and paper sketches and downloaded a 30 day trial that was recommend by Aiden called Balsamiq Mockups. This is used to get some quick wire frame idea down. I will continue to use this next week.

 Fantasy theme, PC

 Sci-Fi themed, PC/Console.

 Action/Adventure theme, Console

 Fantasy theme/ Medieval, Mobile game.