Off The Map- (Part 3)

Week 21

Off The Map- (Part 3)

This week my focus was level design, I used tools available in Unreal Engine 4 to sculpt the terrain of my landscape, making hills and valleys that added a natural feel to the surroundings. This task proved difficult because it was my first time using these tools so I had to use videos and other resources available online to teach me how to construct a landscape. Another issue I ran into was the scaling of the environment, I got round this problem by modelling a fountain to place in the map that helped me scale the environment, by eye, to a suitable level that fit the size of the playable character.

Off The Map( Part 2)

Week 20

Off The Map( Part 2)

I have had the time to study the book and other resources including meetings with tutors to discuss what my project will be.

I have to produce a scene where I include the tea party and the rabbit house. Because the individual scenes in the book I thought it would be a good idea to link these to parts of the book, that are pretty far apart, by using a forest environment and a path between them.

I decided to start off creating mood board around the rabbit house, this mood board contained anything remotely that looked like it belonged in wonderland and would be useful assets when constructing the rabbit house.

When I had enough information and imagery, I created quick concepts with photobashing techniques. It soon dawned on me that my approach had been very random, so I targeted my concepting towards creating houses that animals could live in.

With house concepts out of the way, I moved on to designing the landscape.

Off The Map- ( Part 1)

Week 19

Off The Map- ( Part 1)

This project was based around Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and was a competition sponsored by the British Library and GameCity. With materials such as maps, text and illustrations provided by the British Library, in a group of 6, we had to chose a theme to base our level around, these themes were Oxford, The Underground and The Gardens.

When I first heard that this was the basis of the task I was genuinely excited as I love the idea of a fairy tale world with a lot of seemingly random pieces, this project was going to push the creative part of my mind and I didn't need stay inside the realm of reality.

My excitement quickly turned into shock as I was informed that I wouldn't be working in a group of 6 like everyone else, but I would be on my own. This would have been okay if my brief was drastically smaller scale and was given clearly with proper guidelines and instructions. Instead I was given a scale around half of what the groups had to do, even half would be a monumental task for a single person.

To get myself going I constructed mood boards in order to give myself a creative direction and guide in the way I wanted to take this project. I also read the book to make sure that whatever I constructed remained true to the original tales.

Container City- Evaluation

Week 18

Container City- Evaluation

Q. How did my abilities improved during the project life cycle?

I have picked up new skills as well as improving current ones along the way. I have learned to make and implement blueprints from scratch to perform basic tasks as i have shown by making a extractor fan spin. Along with creating blueprints my general comfort in building levels in Unreal Engine 4 has improved drastically.
During this project I had to make more than enough mood boards and concepted multiple photo bashed shops and bars, this gave me plenty of practice at designing level components and room layouts. this project also helped me to organise my texture sheets as well as improving my ability to make textures that look old and worn

Q. Any difficulties during the project?
The only problem I felt occurred was the synergy between team members, communication was an issue, but in the end problems were resolved and a good level was created.

Q. Was this project successful?
The task was completed to a good standard and most objectives were met however there were a lot of unpolished aspects that needed improvements and some stretch goals that could have been implemented.

Q. How would I approach the project next time?
If i was to approach this project again, I would go for a different environment as in my opinion as dusty barren landscapes are overused in dystopian settings. I would have picked a busier, more organic environment where rain or other weather effects even as basic as wind could be added and particle effects such as pollen or dust could be implemented to provide a much more immersive level.

Q. What needs more improvement?
There were a few improvements that could be made to the level, small things that stopped the level from reaching its potential as a concept. The sound feels like a last minute addition that could have done with a little more variety. Some of the textures needed a higher resolution and detail and the floor could have done with more variation as it repeated a little too obviously throughout the level. A few of the surfaces were quite flat as normal maps needed more depth and detail. The grass at the end of the level needed scaling down a little as it was too low density and resolution too low to be the height it was.