Heroes and Villains Revisit

I redrew the Hero and Villain from assignment 6. I decided that I should redraw them for this portfolio in higher quality. They might be better or worse, who knows:

I added a background to this one. It has a sunrise, it kind of makes the character seem more like a character than just an empty shell.

Here is the villain. I've messed up the hands. I wabted to make it look like he was holding them in a similar fashion to Mr Burns from the Simpsons.

My post for assignment says what I though of this assignemnt.

Adding Chance to Chess

This assignment was based off the idea that chance can be added to even the most skilled based games. Chess being about complete skill of the player.

I came up with most of my chance mechanics using dice, spinners or coin flips. Generally, these are the most popular forms of chance that can be added to a game. Where a player would make a choice, such as which piece to move, chance can be added instead, such as using a dice to choose.

Although, in the first draft of this assignment there wasn't enough analysis, too many rules and mechanics, a few of which may have actually broke the game. In the redraft I removed some of the new mechanics and analysed the ones left further.

Creating a casual board game using pattern

Casual games based on pattern are very popular today. This is because they can be mobile and can be accessed quickly for short bursts of play, anywhere, anytime the player is bored. I had to come up with a game based on pattern to appeal to a casual audience.

I came up with a card game which uses colours and chance cards. Players must guess sequences of cards the other player creates. Points are gained based on if a player gueses the right cards and gain bonus points for guessing in the right order.

The chance cards add more chance to the game, where each player has a possbility of adding some kind of effect to the game. One example is the reverse engineering card which makes all players lose points for that round of play instead of gaining any.

This was a good assignment as casual games are very appealing. They can be played quickly and don't require much space to play. I think I might try to refine this game more in future.

Finished Assignments

As I've completed the assignments for this year, I might as well the turnarounds for them here. The images will be in order of when the assignment was set.

This was the first assignment, after learning the basics of 3DS MAX we were tasked with modelling a simple object. Some examples were a treasure chest, a old western wagon and a throne. I picked the throne as I felt it gave the best options for creativity. A chest usually keeps flat or rounded, nothing special and a wagon must look like it will function. the above throne looks like it would be very heavy and somehow strikes fear as it looks like a bird spreading it's wings, as to make it look huge and dangerous.

the first attempt at this model was a little broken, so I remodelled it. Many areas had multiple vertices in the same place. The UV Map was messy too. Now the model is much cleaner and so is the UV Map.

This was the part of the second assignment. I didn't model this demon, I'm not really good enough to yet. Hopefully soon I will be. Anyway, I created the texture for the model. I'll admit, It's not too great. That's likely due to my paining skills being quite bad. Overall though it looks okay, could be better though. I tried to highlight muscles to add a little bit of shading.

This is the last assignment for this year. Everyone had to model a current generation FPS weapon. Many people picked assault rifles or old style pistols. There were a lot of interesting designs. I picked to create what can be simply described as a ShotgunHammerSaw. It literately is a combination of a Shotgun, Hammer and Saw. The gun is a shotgun, the central black area is shaped like a hammer and the magazine doubles as a crude saw. I'm not really sure what inspired this design. Maybe it was the opportunity to create a modern FPS weapon with no real limits. 

I also created the UV map and texture for the model and I went for a metal for most of the gun, but also wood for the stock, handle and pump. The normal maps and specular maps took a long time to create. I kept getting a text based error when trying to create a projection. Eventually it worked and then I had both. Look at the last post under Introduction to 3D modelling to see both maps.

I used Xoulil Shader 2 as a realtime shader for the weapon. The lighting is a little funny, but I hope to work on lighting and stuff. I had a problem where one side of the weapon would be completely white. After messing around alot this problem was reduced. 

Overall, I'm pleased with progress made this year, but I know that I can improve and will try to improve my skills with my free time.