Gun!

You will have noticed in my previous post the character is holding a gun, so I thought I would share the renders of the gun. Its a fully modelled Scar - H assault rifle.

This actual high res version of the gun will not be used in the final game but the previous unsmoothed version will.

Main Character Rig Built

Over the past couple of weeks I have been modelling and rigging the main character. The character is a toy astronaut built and rigged in Maya. I have also modelled the Scar-H assault rifle that the character will start with. I will do some more high res rendering so I can share the modelling but here is the rig within Maya.

Im just started to complete the animations now - for the game I will need:

Walk
Run
Shoot
Side Step Left
Side Step Right
Reload
Idle

Green Army Man Firing!

I've reused the rig for the previous army man to create the defense tower. Again, I've rendered in Octane render to get an indication of what this will look like when imported into unity.

Video below:

Video of Green Army Man - Ready

Hello!

I have been rigging the green army man over the last couple of days and finally have him complete.

I have done a quick render of the walk cycle that wil be used in the game. I still have some minor tweaks to do but we're almost there. Currently have a problem with the hard edges on the model in the rendering but this isnt the case when importing into unity.

I used this model to do some system testing, Ive imported well over 50 animated models and the system still has plenty of headroom so looking good for far on the polygon count.

Main Character

It's that time in the game development plan to start to begin to build the main charactor. The first stage has invoved doing some Astronaut character research. I've decided to go for quite a standard astranaut character, something that isn't too on the cartoony side, after all, this is suppost to be a toy!

He will be wearing a helmet so the face is hidden, this decision was made to help reduce the amount of polygons and will help to keep the game running smoothly. Hopefully, I can dig into the materials area of Unity and apply a mirrored material to the characters mask.

He will be wearing a backpack with a tube running into his mask, a white baggy suit and large white boots.

Currently drawing up the blue prints so pics will be posted soon! 

Ambient Occlusion Baked

I've been baking a number of Ambient Occlusion maps recently onto my models. I started with the bedrooom at 512 samples and it took roughly 5 hours to complete. I'm having to do this over night!

Its a fairly simply process of using Mental Rays ambient occlusion shader, then turning up the samples to 512 and using the baking feature. Then once complete (ensure to have your project set up correctly) the maps will be avaliable in the renderData folder within your project. Then simply take the map and the texture file into Photoshop and do a multiply blend mode. There you have it baked maps.

Some examples below

Before:

After:

Defense structure modelling / rigging complete

Hello All,

I have been working on the defense structure this morning, putting together a green army man with a gun and a concrete wall protecting him.

I have rendered this out and its ready for import into Unity.

Next stage is to start working on the main character, which I'll being by drawing out the planes.

Bed Render Complete

The bed is now complete for the bedroom. I decided to put a more cartoonistic look and feel to this bed to help bring the room to life. The high res version of the bed weighs in a 10,000 polygons but can be replaced with the low res if required.

The bed will sit next to the door and will act as a strategic point for the defense structures.

Chest of drawes - finished

Here is my latest render of the chest of drawers for the childs bedroom, this has been rendered in Octane renderer so won't look as polished as this when imported into Unity.

I have used an ambient occlusion baked map on this which will help to add to the realism when looking at it in the game engine.

I have also modelled the bed which I will upload later.

New Design with Army Men

Here is the latest logo with the additional army men added. Next stage in the plan is to start modeling the bedroom!

Green Army Man Model

Here is the model for the green army man. This was build in Maya and is roughly 5000 verts. Currently adding this the logo, more pics to follow

Green Army Man - Concept Art

Hello and welcome back to the blog!

I have been starting to put together some concept art for the game and thought I would start with the green army soldier, as he's going to be used in the logo.

Its a very loose sketch at the moment, I hope to tighten up the lines some more and perhaps draw a side profile view. I can then use these as references images in Maya when it comes to modelling.

Again, let me know your thoughts!

Toy Defense Movie Draft

I have been working on creating the movie for the Toy Defense game and have come up with this:

Please let me know what you think!

The logo will be a very similar but without the background shadows / render as the logo wil need to be placed on other items throughout its life.

Toy Defense Logo has been created!

The logo for the game has been created, the idea was to have a cardboard cut out of the words ' Toy Defense'. The style is as if a child has cut out the letters from a cardboard box and hung them from the wall. The logo has been created in Maya, which invovled using a custom cartoon font. The geometry was created using Maya text function, this was then given a cardboard texture. A standard polygonal box was created to house the text. This was then all exported to Octane rendered in which the first logo was created.

An animation has also been created as the intro video, the letters sway in the wind naturally. The next stages are to create a toy helicopter and some toy soldiers in which will be dropping out of thelicopter.

Images / Videos to follow.

Design Documentation - Continued

Im still working on the design documentation of the game. I have now defined all of the game assets that will be created within Maya. This includes specifying the characteristics of the assets, including their size, texture size and any animations that will be required. I have also defined:

• The weapons
• Characters
• Defence Structures
• Enemies
• Special Abilities

All of these have been listed in a table matrix. This will help me to ensure that when modelling I model all assets and their animations.

Over the next week I will be specifiying all of the game functions in more depth and looking at the sound assets that will be required.

Design documentation started!

Im currently working on completing a design document template for the game, this specific template has been used in the development of Tomb Raider and the Half life series. The first section, (which is what im working on at the moment) includes defining the game, what it is, who the main characters are and the general theme of the game. In just a few short paragraphs.

Getting this stage right is really important as it will give the reader a quick understanding on the game within a short couple of paragraphs. I have been advised that when sending this document to game studios its this part that they will read so its vital it is engaging and exciting!

I havent started mocking up any screenshots or concepts yet, this will come later. The plan is to get the document as detailed as possible first and then the concept art will follow. The fun part.

I will keep you posted on progress.

First Blog Entry For Toy Defence (Working Title)

I have been working on the general concept for the game over the last couple of days now. After some hard thinking I have come up with an idea. The idea involves the player defending against a swarm of AI enemies, these will also be toys. Try to imagine Toy Story, mixed with Toy Soldiers, Call of Duty zombies and a tower defence game. I cant give too much away at this stage!

I have met with Steven Birch (Kingston University) and a few key developer contact at Sony Computer Enterainment to discuss this idea further. They have advised that I get a prototype up and running as fast as possible - so this is what im going to do!

As I will be the sole developer of the game there are going to be a number of limitations that Im going to have to deal with;

• Time – clever planning and realistic decision on how to schedule time/learning.

• Programming – What lang use – Unity pass probably

• Physics Algorithms –

• Animation timing

• Swarms of characters

• Diff toys

I have just started on the design documentation that I will use throughout the development of the game. I will hold off drawing up concepts / characters / weapons etc for the time being as I want to nail the mechanics of the game first as this will drive the assets.