2D: Week 012 Assignment (Concept Round 02 (Value Pass 01))

The team focused on creating stronger thumbnails of the characters and the environments based on the thumbnails that were created last week. We also updated models and integrated VR elements based on critique.

My Work:

Character Team:

Me, Matt, Michael

Environment Team:

Me, Anthony, Michael

Ryan:

Doug:

Doug's Blog: "For this week: I looked into how to simulate wind for the wheat field in UE4. To my surprise there is a built in material node that manipulates the vertices of mesh its applied to. Based on tutorials I referred to develop this material, black and white textures were used as an alpha to control which vertices were effected. No matter what the values of texture, some vertices were to seemingly impossible to control. After speaking to Chris Roda he simplified and improved the control of the effected vertices by using linear gradient node, which creates a black and white gradient based on the U or V direction.The material's node structure and gif of wind simulation in action. Fortunately this simulation does not cause performance issues. The FPS of the game barely drops. While there are a lot of wheat geometry, this may be a benefit of the 3 tiers of LODs."

Doug's Blog: "I also started developing an extension of the motion controller pawn that takes advantage of XYZ values generated when teleporting. Based on the combined level of the 4 environments, the Y axis is the direction where the player progresses across the VR experience. I determined this by printing the XYZ values to the screen after each teleportation. The Y value was the one to increase linearly and positively as progress is made. After this was determined, I developed a branch system to determine if the player is progressing through the world and this would data would control the rotation of the directional light that serves as the sun. This implementation would control the progression of the dusk to night but the directional light would only rotate if the player is moving towards the next environment and not if they decide to go backwards to explore further."

2D: Week 011 Assignment (Thumbnails)

This week my team focused on creating 10 thumbnails of the Scarecrow Character and 10 thumbnails of the Scarecrow Environment. We all split the different thumbnails, while Doug (our Tech Artist) focused on Rigging and Ryan (our Animator) focused on Animation. We also edited our layout pages in accordance with critique and printed them out.

My Work:

Character Thumbnails:
-Done by: Me, Matt, Michael

Environment Thumbnails:
-Done by: Me, Anthony, Michael, Ryan

Tech Art Research - Rigging:
-Done by: Doug 

Animation & Page Layout Updates:
-Done By: Ryan

Ryan did an Idle Animation for the Scarecrow and updates to his Page Layouts

2D: Week 010 Assignment (Concept Discovery With 3D)

For this assignment my team was tasked with experimenting with concept discovery in 3D, fixing proxy objects that were critiqued last week, character designs and researching technical aspects of the project.

I experimented with concept discovery in 3D and assisted my team with the toon shader and outlines, as well as providing feedback to their work. I also updated the layout page, keeping in mind the critiques given last week.

 

With this assignment I played around with the toon shader, and especially the toon outlines, achieving the 2D look I wanted in 3D.

For the layout, I removed the scarecrows from the bottom of the page frame and made the frame a fence. I also added our stylized trees and little fields on the right and left. I made the windmill the centerpiece. I may make the centerpiece a barn instead. I softened the drop shadows on the notes as well, and made the image frames thinner.

Anthony

Anthony experimented with concept discovery in 3D. He also created a Barn proxy, Haystack proxy, a Pitchfork proxy and updated the Trees based on last weeks critique.

Matt

Matt experimented with concept discovery in 3D. He also created various Scarecrow Hats. He also created various Crows, keeping in mind the critiques of last week.

Michael

Michael experimented with concept discovery in 3D. He also turned his old scarecrow design into a dead scarecrow set piece, created various hats and character designs for the scarecrow. 

Ryan

Ryan experimented with concept discovery in 3D. He also updated the Scarecrow Stick proxy and the Fence proxy according to the critiques last week, as well as created a Wagon proxy.

Doug

Doug explored the nav mesh volume and how paths are generated for the player to be able to teleport around the environments. (See Doug's page for his research and details).

2D: Week 009 Assignment (Shape Language)

For this assignment my team was tasked with discovering the shape language of the Scarecrow, as well as the environment that the Scarecrow makes his first appearance.

Through references, we pull basic shapes that make up the core of our character, prop, or effect. After this shape language has been investigated, we made proxy shapes and pushed them into UE4 with a VR template to see how these shapes interacted with each other.

What I Did:
I was able to make some general concept sketches of the character from last week's process



With the references that were gathered and my concept sketches, I was able to draw the basic shapes that formed the core of our silhouettes.
 

I then put these shape languages into the Scarecrow style guide format and added wireframe on some shapes to help the understanding of the form.









I also did the Shape Language Effect Proxy Objects and the Shape Language for the Wheat



What Matt did:



What Michael did:



What Anthony Did:





What Ryan did:







What Doug Did: