Facial Expressions and Blend shapes

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I have done a quick attempt at facial expressions I had some help from matt as he showed me the technique. This seems a very nice and fast method for animating faces and if the blends had some more time spent they could look very nice. This will solve the soft looking alien face I have.

Creating the Head

Again this is the first time really going into the details of creating eye sockets etc. I wanted to create some kind of nose to blow effects from but I just never liked any of the designs I did. The one problem I found with this head is that it looks too “nice” for a gladiator alien, it looks gentle because of the shape of the eyes and face. I need more angles and less round features. I will find a way to solve this hopefully when animating the face.

Testing Textures and Bumps in Mudbox

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In my game module I wasn’t able to use a normal map on my character as it had bad co-ordinates and was not centred. I wanted to try and make the most of a low poly model and I believed the normal map was the only way to make the alien look good while keeping renders low. These are early tests of moulding in mudbox and exporting the normal maps. Also some quick mudbox painting.

Creating the Alien in Maya

I am hoping for a quite model heavy render for this project. I want my alien to be well animated and as lifelike as possible. However I am still going to use a low poly rig around 1500polys and just add a normal map and displacement on the model. This is the majority of the standard maya wireframe model minus the head.

Audio Spectrum and various After effects tools

Using an audio file I created a audio spectrum in after effects, this is basically a shape or line that moves to the frequency of the music. To start we created a blank shape and added a audio spectrum. This creates the purple line below.

You can change various settings to create different bars shapes and colours, just playing with it for 10mins got the below.

Lastly I changed the visualization to plain box at 400×400. By alt clicking the scale you can add the function to make the shape change shape with the frequency.

This could be used well in music videos or anything that has a beat, a recent example is the “Vodka Greyhound” video by Swedish House Mafia. It features the three members dj’ing in an high tech bubble but the effects pulse with the sound. For using in my short I might use an alien scanner or number pulsating with sound.

Alien Orthographic

This is a concept sheet I designed after watching some of Feng zhu’s design tutorials. THis piece was more of a experiment of lighting but I actually really liked the style of this bug like creature. It reminded me very much of the “Area 51” style aliens. I gave some quick armour concept designs to show a bit more of an intelligence as I wanted them to have good technology. Also my Gladiator alien might want armour. In the end I went against the armour as I felt it was too human and I preferred the aliens being very strong in fighting, so much they dont wear armour.

Alien and Weapon Thumbnails

Alien Concept

This is a design for the close that will scene in my short. This also shows a bit more of the alien I am creating, there is no mouth and I will animate the eyes to show anger.

Maya Model

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The model in Maya used for my concepts and also a low detailed beta of my final model.

Arena Concept

Here is a concept of my alien arena, its a combination of a simple maya model and then detailed over with photoshop. Below are some pictures I used a s asource of perspective. The roman sport arena is very much the style I am going for.

Perspective Arena Painting

Just the start, I am trying to build on lighting and perspective, at the moment I am deciding on the light as I want a 360 light from the audience. However I want to show the characters as a main focus.

First concept Idea

This is my first concept of my alien character, I created this in photoshop to get the idea of a skinny character with large eyes and no mouth. I however felt it was a bit flat colour wise. I decided to talk to a fellow student who is very talented in this area and we did an experiment and swapped work to edit each others and design from a different eye. It was quite a nice experience and allows you to see how others would edit your work or change what you have done seeing your errors or where you lacked colour/shadow etc.

This is the painting after Jake had played with it, as you can see he has made it much more darker in areas and given it less reflection. There is a better range of coulour, high to low focusing the viewer to the eyes and ignoring the dull un-detailed feet.

Alien Inspiration, a collection of realistic alien designs.

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A wide range of different aliens (and alien lookalikes) from games and films I have seen or played recently, in Star wars there could be a whole category as there are that many! One thing I tried to do with these pictures is show creatures that could be considered Aliens such as the Left 4 dead infected. Many aliens are taken from bug hybrids and made into a human shape. However I can see my alien as a combination of Avatar and Paul. I want to give the aliens a sense of human survival instinct so give them weapons and armour or gear. I will do some sketches to illustrate my alien and perhaps gladiator alien more.

Alien Interior Drawings

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Here are two drawings on photoshop. I havent really touched the program in quite a while and it tells. While the perspectives are not too bad, the lighting is appalling giving it a flat and unexciting look. One shows the style I would like with squares and cubes but seems more like a corridor. I need to move on and try draw an good looking arena.

Spaceship Interior Inspiration

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All these pictures are largely different styles, from a outside looking arena to a narrow metal corridor. However each shows something I like. I have had the idea of my final scene being an arena that the main character gets teleported into. I would much like t combine a futuristic looking metal arena but with the same style look of the one above with the woman cowering under the beast.

This picture is where I believe my inspiration is coming from at the moment, it is art from Guild wars and the race is supposed to be made up of technological genius’. I like the idea of using shapes like squares and triangles to create the architecture. They also have lots of glowing and floating things which I have adapted onto my ship design.

VFX

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“Last week might well go down as a defining moment for the games industry. The announcement by the Government that the ICT curriculum will be reorientated in favour of computer science and programming is a testament to the excellent work done by Next Gen report authors Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope and the many people and companies who have got behind the Next Gen Skills campaign.

Breaking through the many layers of Government bureaucracy and getting policy-makers to actually listen is a battle in and of itself. As Livingstone himself has already indicated, and will no doubt reiterate in the coming weeks and months, this is a momentous shift in policy but the real work starts now as industry figureheads and policy-makers come together to shape the future of the computer science curriculum in our schools.

Unlike the games industry tax debate, which is a sector specific issue, improving the relevancy of the skills we are teaching younger generations is something that affects the future of the creative industries and a large section of the workforce. Reforming the education and skills sector will not only lead to growth in the already successful UK games industry but it will equip school leavers and graduates of all disciplines with core ICT skills that will serve as a solid foundation for jobs in any sector that relies on computing and technology – be it engineering, the financial services or design. As we transition into the knowledge economy, it’s becoming a needs-must situation.

All the developers I have worked with are self-taught and cannot speak highly enough of the virtues of work placements

Convincing the Government – and in particular the previously sceptical Department of Education – to change its position on computer science education in schools is a great start to this campaign and gives the industry something to work toward. We need an adaptable education system that can provide a programme of computer science that is more capable of keeping up with the rapid pace of change in the hi-tech and gaming industries. But what about the students who are currently languishing in video games education at university?

Just a quick chat with any of the developers and designers at Neon Play confirms what most have known for quite some time; video games courses are not teaching students adequately in the skills required to get a job in the industry. One of our developers’ complaints about his computer games programming course was that they never did enough actual programming – it was only through a work placement year at a games company that he learnt programming languages that are considered games industry standards. Similarly, one of our games artists, who studied for a BA Hons in Design for Interactive Media, talks about lecturers knowing substantially less about the field of study than the students and a 3D modelling teacher, for instance, who was learning the practice himself the day before teaching each class. Hardly an education fitting of expensive tuition fees.

And what happens when students leave university? Many are faced with studios that are reluctant to take on graduates lacking in significant work place experience and, due to the overall lack of skilled graduates, the chance of finding a junior position at a games studio is decreasing. At Neon Play, we’ve had student or graduate developers interviewing for positions with really poor portfolios. Some will show us a prototype game, others have created only a YouTube video concept but if they want to work in the games sector, we would expect them to at least have made a complete game.

I hate to say it but, at this moment in time, I seriously question whether a three year university course is of any real benefit for a career in this industry. Sure, it demonstrates an ability to commit to a course of study but it’s not where most developers and designers are learning their trade. All the developers I have worked with are self-taught and cannot speak highly enough of the virtues of work placements.”

– taken from http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-01-16-higher-learning by Oli Christie

Dissertation Ideas, Video games in education

Thinking further ahead than my short essay I am looking at video gamesa and education. We have a “limited” choice of games for education at the moment, consisting of mostly simple math games or english games that hit straight to the point and are not really fun in the higher years od school. With such platforms such as Xbox, PS3 or PC being so popular nowadays I wonder if there is a way of encorporating the idea of fun gaming with the ability to learn.

Video games are part of everyday life now for most young adults and teenagers around the world, often having a group of friends online. This is because they are so immersive and exciting to play and I believe the ideas behgind them can be spread elsewhere.

The biggest idea is what computer games do to keep the interest of thier user engaged and how to adapt that into a learning enviroment. There has been many times in the poast where I could tell you in detail the lore of a world I had been playing in, but then struggled to resite all the correct dates in my history class. As much as a matter of time spend on each activity, games are just more fun and exciting, 1. allowing us to learn for a longer period without boredom hitting in. 2. Allowing us to be fully engaged and not distracted by such social networks etc.

I will certainly be posting some more aticles from other sources than just my own ideas to bolster my portfolio on this subject.

Media Specificity Lecture

The human body adapts with the problems it faces in life. It either loses and dies or survives and learns from it. This is evolution.

Just like the body evolves, so does the way we think and because of this media needs to evolve with it.

Media Specificity is makiing sure you are using the right tool for the right audience.

“An artwork, in order to be successful, needs to adhere to the specific stylistic properties of its own medium.”
“Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1776

However with the medium being the meida some of this is limited by the acutal reader, it is simply an extension of our own perosnal physical and mental limitations.

“If we are defined by our physical and mental limitations,
by extending these we change the definition of ourselves. ”

An example of evolving can not always be a good thing in media, for example being able to store things on notes means we forget more as our memory has to remember less. In the future we might lose the skill to write from too many keyboards being used.

We extend our limitations through technology through advances. We have extended our sight with 3D, social life with internet and apps such as facebook etc.

Communication Theory Lecture

Laswell’s Maxim,

Powerpoints are seen as more difficult for people to convey their full ideas. -bullet points instead and explainging over the top is a better method.
Transmissional – Technical
Constitutive – Group understanding.

Shannon and weaver 1949 – Cybernetic theory.

3 levels of communication, Technical, semantic, effectiveness.
Learn understanding from direct experiance.
Failure in communication is a result in failure to sustain authentic human relationship.

Messerschmidt

Expressions – Cool Models.

Hermoneutic Circle
“Face” layout

Sound Lecture

Above is my notes from the sound lecture, it is a basic comprehension of how sound is used and where it is most powerful. We talked about propaganda for example China and Russia where sound is strictly used. The introduction of sound into film and how that had an effect in both propaganda and also lesuire. Why sound is important and how it effects us, as another sense it creates more immersion and combined with visual truly grabs our attention.

Comics Lecture Notes

Old Comics – wordless novels, just portrayed with pictures.
Every style of drawing has its own layer of meaning. eg realism.
5 major points of comics- Movemnet, frame, image, word, flow.

An interresting point Garry touched on was how we as artists nowdays tend to try create realistic models etc as we think that is the better side. His argument was that cartoony can be better for imagination which is true.

After invention of TV viewer used to more complex visuals – more detailed comics.
Comics and media based on current affairs. eg Superman popular in WWII.
Patriotism – Captain America.
After war heroes dipped and sci-fi and horror came in.
1960 propaganda chanegd comixs to pro capitalism.
1986- heroes return, Maus, dark knight, watchmen.
Chris Ware comics – different stucture
Art Spiegelman – Maus was based on the Nazis.

French call comixs the “ninth art”. More serious rather than comedy.
1940’s french have big american influence.
Moebius.
Fantomas real first superhero comic.

Spaceship Designs

This is my first design for my space ship, it was designed off a sketch I created on the train home, obviosuly I will go into further shetches to maximsie my model as some areas are rather bland.

Option two changes the back pieces and jets to make more of a standard spacship shape. The reason for changing this was 1. to see how it looked. 2. I thought the first design seemed more like a tank or a walker as the jets were in the place of “legs”.

This is how I imagine the craft to land, the aliens have high tech (or magical) magnets that hold the jets to the main core. When landing these rotate flipping the back pieces 180 degrees to land “feet down”. The front armour plates slide up and a door and walk path is revealed.

Weight Painting

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One important thing I learnt in Maya is Weight Painting, by painting weights it changes the distribution of mesh when a joint in moved. By changing the weights I can create a better skin movement so the skin warps less giving a more creature like movement. Although it took me a while to learn once you understand it, its definitely easier. One thing to note is to flood 0 and use add to create weights, replace and smooth should be avoided.
The weighting was especially important on the arms and jaw on my model as I didn’t want the skull moving when the jaw did. This is a very important skill I have learnt.

Adding Trigger Boxes and playerclips

This is what I used as a player clip to stop the player being able to walk outside my boundaries, it consists of a large cube with its texture map removed and just the mesh collider remaining.

This is the sound trigger box I incorporated in the game, when you step into the box the sound players when you exit it stops.

This uses the simple script;

function OnTriggerEnter() {

ParticleAnimator.Play();

}

function OnTriggerExit() {

ParticleAnimator.Stop();

}

This image just shows a bit of how I edited the image to create a little more light in the rooms by adding point lights. slight shine to indicate the reflecting moonlight is coming through the door.

Level Walkaround and crit reviews

This is a walkabout of the finalized world. The change from the alpha is that I have fully added all the textures which was a lot simler than I believed it would be. How it works is that the scene keeps empty textures in Unity and remembers which texture goes on what objects, all you have to do is import the texture into Unity and attach it to the blank texture and it automatically assigns to the correct models. This is why naming is VERY important, without naming I would have spent hours playing around with the textures. I also added mesh colliders for all the objects. Complicated models made up of multiple shapes such as the house and stables required unity to “generate colliders”. This means that players can not walk through you models and gives you game the polished feel it needs.

The feedback given by classmates were that it was great atmosphere and sound however felt the level was too dark and required some sort of “guided lighting” to lure the player along the right course. I would add some lamps or small moonlight patches if I have more time. Unfortunately my character does not work in unity either, this is due to a export problem that removes a lot of the join hierarchy. Again I believe this is doen to my old not freezing transformation problem.

More UV maps

These are the UV maps I created to attach to the books in the room, although there are 5 different variations. I created the book textures by using some textures from fuzzimo.com.

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Audio

A vital aspect of a game is audio, without it the game can seem very dull, therefore for the purpose of immersion I added a background track and and demon scream both of which were taken from the website http://www.incompetech.com. The track was called Dark Times by Kevin MacLeod.

If I had more time I would have created my own track as one of my housemates is doing music composition at University and would have helped me, however we both had deadlines to meet and so it took one off the internet. The scream I used in my game level on a trigger at the start of the level to let you know something is out there, it then triggers upon coming up to the demon, unfortunately the animations do not work.

Demon Animations render in Maya

As I had the disappointment of my model not animating in my environment I created a render of the animations in Maya, ehre is the following at full detail.

Maya to Unity Model Difference

This is an example of how game engines effect the overall look of your model. On the left is the Unity model, which is considerably less visually good looking as the Maya counterpart on the right. This is one of two factors. In Unity my character doesn’t have a bump map. I added it later on but it still has no comparison. The second is Maya and especially MentalRay is an extremely powerful renderer and creates beautiful displacements and renders.

Playblast of Character Animation

This is a short playblast of the final animations added to my character, I have a walk animation, a jump, an idle which is essentially breathing as well as a scream and an attack. I will then be able to add this into Unity and input what time each animation starts/ends and which to loop. This means my character can play animations at different times or points and doesn’t have to stick to the 300 frame loop it currently has.

Unity: Alpha Model

Below are screenshots of the world being placed n what I believe the final the will look kind of like. Everything was just white models to again test how it all looks in a game engine such as Unity. There were a few areas I had to change because some surfaces were see through, this was mainly in areas when I had used extrude and deleted faces.

Making The Props

These are all the props for the room your character starts in, generally it is books and scrolls with a table fireplace and a cupboard. I tried to recreate the books picture as much as I could. Each prop was created in a different Maya scene and then textured and added into Unity.

These were created pretty fast using simple shapes, a few edgeloops and more importantly this is a case where extruding can be used well. its fast and since the objects wont have complicated textures its ok.

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Normal Mapping

I’ve played a lot with using displacement maps and normal maps. Using the Mastering Maya 2009 book I created a normal map entirely in Maya. However I was unable to do this with my character in Maya as I forgot to freeze the main transformations and therefore the envelope was all over the place. I attempted this in mudbox but came across crashes and faulty UV maps. In the end I used a wood image as a 3D displacement map and MentalRay did the rest.

I have however learnt a lot about the maps and how they can be used to crate complicated and well modelled characters or creatures using minimal memory in game. This is definitely one of the big factors in games nowadays.

Making The Villa: Final Product

Making the Villa: UV maps

Below are the majority of the UV maps I made to add to the upper floor of the building and doors. These were stuck on the original UV map created by Maya, simple shapes only require a simple map.

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Making the Villa: Textures

Below are all the textures I used in making the Villa model. Essentially I would have love to go use my Nex-5 and take some photos of bricks and rubble myself but I have been short on time. Therefore I used internet images and edited them myself, nearly all of them have been made seamless or been combined with other images. It was rare for me to use the image straight from the web. In the case of the Medieval textures these are very useful and I would have had to edit a brick texture a lot to get this effect and so I thank the posted greatly.

When you are making a game that is less stylised and more realistic you need to take lots of real life textures or be very good in photoshop. Textures need to be consistant otherwise it can make your game environment seem out of place.

A few of the textures such as the doors were stuck on a cube UV map.

(Images taken from Google Images, edited by me)

(Taken From graphicriver.net, edited by me)

(Taken from pixeldustphotoart.com, edited by me)

(Taken from http://www.virtualworld.sl/forum/showthread.php?t=131)

Creating the Villa: UV Mapping

To test my UV maps I created a black and white box texture and edited the UV maps until the pattern was mostly the same size and equal on most of the building, this way I knew when I put a solid texture on it would not be overly stretched on any part.

One problem I encountered earlier on is that my upper half was all one object so needed one UV map, this meant including the pillars and background on one UV map as well as the windows. This meant I had to be precise on my textures which was near impossible with the poor UV maps using extrude had created. So rather than waste time on this I decided to go for simple is better.

i created just a standard cud and added a tip on it using an edgeloop. A texture with the window on (flatimage) was placed on. Obviously it stretched as I had pulled the shape up to create the roof shape. This was corrected with a added edgeloop.

Here is a screenshot of my final design for the simplified upper building. The wooden Pillars were just cubes stretched and slanted on the ends. This allowed me to easily add textures to the model and in my opinion being a simpler design it did look better. Less polygons to render and the textures do the job just as good as the actual model would. I compared the two just to show how simple models are better when creating a game because textures are so effective. A good example of this at the moment is the new Halo release which is essentially the first Halo with better textures.

Creating The Villa: Modelling

While making my Villa I researched some images of Medieval houses and came up with the design similar to my early concepts, a brick and wooden structure that has collapsed. I started with simple shapes such as cubes and created the outline of the building. THis was duplicated as the building was near symmetrical.

I added details in such as doors and a slightly reduced roof to fit with the idea that the slave quater was not as luxurious. I also created this with the detail and style of the two doors, the front being more extravagant.

This is the build after the duplication, the upper floor was created using cubes and edge loops pulling out each frame using extrude. Looking back on this using extrude is a bad idea because t essentially creates UV maps on UV maps which makes it a nightmare to UV map, especially when you need a precise ne so the beams are wood and the back a wall texture.

The building was supposed to be derelict on one side so the plan was to build the building whole then use the parts to create a destroyed or collapsed look.

Animating the Model: Keyframes

Much like with using image referencing when animating movement there are distinct points where we consider the movement to have a keyframe. A standard walk such as above has around 8 keyframe points. Preston Blairs image above demonstrates this, the first frame needs to be the same as the last to create a loop. Essentially although my demon walks differently the basics are the same in the way of contact, weight distribution and movement.

UV Mapping: More Pictures

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These images are a few more screenshots of changing the UV’s in the head and unwrapping the claws. To UV my model I had to separate all the claws, stumps, teeth, feet etc and make them separate objects. I used the UV’s from there and reattached them all. I am positive there is an easier way to UV, from a few hours trying the Mastering Maya 2009 tutorial it tend sto work better with a shape with no UV, then by selecting faces and reas create UV’s bit by bit and sew them all together.

To make my head better UV’ed I separated the inside of the mouth and all the teeth. Its time consuming and hard work but in the end the textures looked a lot better.

Animating The Model: Reference

As we started to animate our models the easiest way to animate is by following our real life movements. Most often than not our human bodies can walk like the character we make if it is bipedal. I recored two videos of myself doing a slight crab walk, this is how I imagine my character to move, slightly hunched back on bent knees and in a kind of alert stance.

Pretty much the same as image planes in Maya I just created video planes and move my character in time with the video of myself, this helps to get the timing right and also get the parts of the body in the right place at the right time.

This method is used pretty much in all professional animation companies, we saw an example of this at BAF 2010 with the game Enslaved produced by NinjaTheory, they used Andy Serkis using a motion capture suit. Essentially its the same as taking video of actions and animating from them.

Importing Into Unity, Plus tree tool

We had a quick play at importing assets from Maya into Unity. For this instance I added in my character(Unanimated) to show how the model looked in unity as sometimes the polygon faces can be inverted which in a game engine means they are not visible. We also looked at a tool in Unity called the “tree tool”. This tool allows you to manufacture your own tree model using Unity assets. An example is you can add a hierarchy of trunks and then decide how many branches come of that trunk, and how many branches come of the branches etc. For an environment that is set in a forest I can see this tool being useful. Especially as you can then mass plant the trees you make.

Rigging The Character

Following Matt’s tutorials I created a rig for my character. This was interesting for me as have previously watched and rigged characters in the past. Last time I used IK handles on most of the joints and then parented IK’s together. Matts method involves just IKing the legs and SKing the feet for the reverse heel joint. Matts reverse heel joint is also interesting as it uses less joints than the conventional one on the internet. It creates a nice walk movement on the foot however I believe the other version is easier to manipulate.

To rig my character I IK’ed one leg ad parented all the joints to each other in the order of anatomy. Eg. Wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder… This is a much nicer method of rigging compared to my past attempts. Control points are added by creating nurb circles and centering them to each joint and constraining them. The contraints we mainly used was orient and point, this gives the user the ability to easily move the joints and control them using the controllers rather than the actual joint. We had too controllers of the hip joint, one to rotate one to move. One thing I learnt is that while rigging you MUST freeze transformations on everything! I had countless problems later on due to this problem. To test this, select your whole model and 0 everything, if it does not return to its default position its not all frozen. On my model I added every controls such as neck and jaw. I also added some in the claws, these extras just add more controls and help with such animations as screaming, they also add more details in the walk if you can see the model breathing or clenching its claws.

Making the Model: How I originally started modelling

With modelling any model is maya the easiest and fastest way to create its base is to have to measurement front, side and even maybe above concept art planes for you to trace. When adding these in Maya as image planes you can simply swap to your side or front view and trace round the outlines of the model creating edge loops as you go. However one problem I encountered was my concept art was slightly off scale and thus did not fit together properly when connected. Therefore I used the art to create the main blocks of shape like body, leg and arm and then modelled by eye and using the art.

An example of how I started id in the picture above, I create a simple shape for the body in which I can connect the leg and arm.

Mental Ray: Lighting a Scene

Below is my old model of a Frireblade 1000RR I modeled during summer. I went through a Maya book I got from the library and got the following. Inside there includes Final gathering, Caustic lights, image based lighting and some more stuff.

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Making The UV’s: Bad UVing!

This is the first UV map I created for my character, yes I was lazy with the spikes and horns but as they are going to be just a near enough solid colour I thought a Planar map of them would be enough. However the major problem is the head, as you can see I was lazy with this as i was having problems. I Planar mapped it and split it into two UV’s to paint each side of the face. This is bad, mainly because as the texture reaches the top of the head it gets stretched because of the poor UV map.

Now to make sure my UV’s were ok before creating all my textures I tested my model with a few wood pictures off google. Here you can see the problems and thats why it is good to consistantly test your model, if its wrong go back. Especially with the rigging and UV’s its harder to go back once you have done it all. In the case of weights you have to redo them all!

Here is my pictures showing you the bad UV’s;

So to improve this I went back (yes it meant I had to undo my weights and hard work, I learned the hard way) and created this UV map.

As you can see the Head has a changed UV, I created this by splitting the UV and unfolding. The model now textures a lot better despite the UV map still not being the cleanest.

Making The UV’s: Model UV’s

This is probably one of the hardest parts I have found so far in making the model as I have never changed the UV’s on my models before and especially on some of my other fun self directed projects I found a problem with UV’s. Well after completeing it all (some of it could be better) I have found some do’s and don’ts of creating the UV’s.

1. When creating the UV’s make sure you have cut the UV’s in the best location (this also should be thought about when making your model as the edges play an important part in this).

2. Cut a seam as well as possible down one half of the model, imagine unpeeling a banana after you have cut down the skin on one side, this is the same for UVing.

3. At first I selected the edges fro the top of the cut seam, down the non cut side. (basically the non cut side) I then clicked unfold and while this works you end up with a more mirrored UV, this is best used ONLY for fingers and spikes etc. For UVing the body head and other such items I found just selecting a SINGLE vertice and clicking unfold it unfounds the modles UV around a point giving a much nice UV to work with in my opinion.

Making the Model : Intial Model

This is the first part of making my demon model. After importing my concept art (which were near enough to scale) I designed a rough basic mesh to shape it up in front and side view. The second part was adding more edge loops and creating more detail without adding to much to complicate the model as I will be able to add detail using more “visual” methods which use less computing power to render. The body, leg, arm and head were each seperately created and then merged and joined by the vertices.

The model was then duplicated (Apple+D) and again merged and joined by the vertices. Tris creates a completely mirrored model. This is a good way to model because it saves time with animating and rigging especially when its all the same on both sides.

Origin and Digital Distribution

“EA adding third party games to Origin

Electronic Arts has revealed the first third-party publishers which will feature games on its Origin download service, naming THQ, Warner Bros. and Capcom for the service.

As of November, the service will feature Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row: The Third and further, undisclosed titles. Third-party games will continue to be added to the service.

“Since launch, we’ve had overwhelming support from both publishers and developers across the gaming industry, recognizing Origin as an opportunity to deliver more of their great content straight to consumers across the globe,” said senior VP of Origin, David DeMartini.

“We’re excited to welcome Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, THQ and Capcom as the first publishers to offer their games via Origin.”

EA had already announced that it would be releasing some of its own games exclusively on the service, as well as extra exclusive content. David DeMartini first publicly floated the idea of third-party support in July.

At the EB Games Expo in Australia recently, EA boss Peter Moore responded to a heckler by revealing that over 5 million players were already using Origin.” – Taken from http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-10-28-ea-adding-third-party-games-to-origin

Recently I have bought EA’s new battlefield and one thing you notice before you even get playing is that it requires a program called Origin brought out by EA to jump on the market of online distribution (for the second time) to hopefully rival Steam’s current monopoly.

Now I remember buying Warhammer a while back and having windows online which I was sceptical about, it seemed poorly done and annoying as it had no offline mode, I only bought it as I believed they would link it to console games. Windows online was essentially a big flop due to a service different to Steam, which people had just gotten used to after years of pain, and the fact it offered in my opinion nothing really appealing game wise.

Now Origin in my opinion is a revamp of EA’s attempts of digital distribution, I like the feel and this time they are opening it with great games, the main two for me being BF3 and the new star wars MMO. But as a plan I feel like people don’t really WANT Origin, but more they HAVE to have have it. This causes some angry customers and right now I dont see Origin becomeing a big thing right away, for one I won’t look at its offers as much as I do for Steam. I also noticed Origin has very high prices, both games I noted I bought off Amazon and just downloaded EA’s Origin ontop. So will Origin do well and will more digital distribution become avaliable?

EA recently released some figures of their sales and this quote shows why I think digital distribution will be a big thing in the future.

“Whilst boxed product sales remained relatively stable, up from $441 million in the same quarter last year to $450 million in this, digital sales rocketed 45 per cent from $161 million to $234 million.”

Now one reason why digital sales is so big right now is that it is being implemnted in games (mainly f2p) to buy items and unlocks. Its also a big seller beacuase you dont need a disc, you can go on any computer and install your game providing you have internet. Using a internet webpage or third party program to sell games also means the companies can shove adverts in our faces which isn’t so easy in shops, and if digital distribution keeps growing I believe places such as Game and Gamestaion will be turned into trade in stores for second hand games.

I am finally going to finish with a quick talk about the new way Battlefield 3 works as I have never seen this method before. To start the game you log into a webbrowser and launch the game from there, essentially there isnt a in game menu or interface and i for one don’t like this new approach. I like to be in the game and flick through menus and feel like I’m not closing the game and restarting it every time I want to play single player or even change server. It will definately be interesting to see how games are designed on the PC/Mac from now on.