Unit 7: Final Evaluation

• Technical and aesthetic qualities – My design of the skatepark is okay but given more time I would have made a couple more assets as there are only 4-5 things that I made and just duplicated to fill in the area and make it look less empty. The models I did make though I feel turned out pretty well designed and look good in unity. To make the gates all around the perimeter I created on in cinema 4D and pasted one whole side in the copy and pasted the whole side and just copied it to the other sides. The floor is a seemless concrete texture to match a skatepark in Paignton which turned out pretty well and doesn’t show a lot of tiling. 
• Did you use the tools at your disposal effectively?

yes because i used multiple softwares to create this such as photoshop, cinema 4D and unity. I used photoshop to create the textures and wraps for my assets and game.

These are 2 textures i used for my assets, the left is for the ledge and ramps and the right was for the benches. In cinema 4D i made my assets and created a animation of a skateboard riding up and down a half pipe which took a long time to make and it still isn’t perfect. (Dont currently have images or videos of this) In untiy i added to the animation by recording my own sound of me riding my skateboard and doing tricks and then added it to the object so when you walk by you hear the skateboard riding the ramps.

• Challenges and limitations encountered

I came across many problems with this project. I had some issues in cinema 4D creating the assets as i was new to it and struggled learning the basics. My main problems came when i was adding it all into unity. This was my first time using unity properly and i still strugle with it now. Importing my assets and then adding the textures in failed a couple of times whre the texture didnt load and even with the animation of the skateboard there is a texture glitch and the skateboard is missing the nose and tail of the board. Trying to add a skybox into the map didnt work either because the image is all backwords and blurs out through the fence.

• Why did you make certain decisions and what was the impact?

I was running out of time during the making of the park so i had to make quick decisions to create it but still make it look okay. I could only make a couple of assets with the time i had so there is the same object duplicated a couple of times just to fill the area so it doesnt look so empty. I made a bowl in the map using unity by raising the floor so i could dig a hole which didnt work as i expected because its too lumpy and not the right shape so it might have been easier to make that in cinema 4D.

• What was your strongest area during the project?

I think my strongest area during the project was my model making in cinema 4D as i think for my first time using the software properly my assets turned out okay. Unity took me to long to get the hang of and still confuses me as i had so many problems with it.

• What part of your work could you improve on?

I could improve on this project by adding a couple more assets to make it look a bit different and i would fix the texture glitch in the animation. I would also need to learn more about untiy and how to do certain things to get different outcomes in my work. If i had more time on the project i would have added some more small little details to the park like bins and other skateboards on the floor to make it look less empty when you walk around.

• Audience feedback from peers

Rusty bench texture

 I created this metal bench on cinema 4d using a lot of cylinders and cubes. I wanted the bench to look partially rusty but not overdone to the point where it is mostly rust and looks terrible.

To get the texture I downloaded a texture from google ‘https://www.3dxo.com/textures/3061_sheet_metal’. This was the best metal texture I found that had a decent amount of metal to rust ratio that I wanted. I then messed around with the settings and different styles I could use,  such as ‘Bump’, ‘colour’ and ‘Basic’ to change the look of the bench and change up the mood of the bench. It makes it look wasted away and very worn out which I think will look good and fit in well with a ghetto skatepark theme.

 This is the texture i downloaded of off the site.

Making a brush

To make a brush i started with taking an image of google. (which i have lost somehow) I had to change up the image to turn it into a black and white image by going into ‘image’ – ‘adjustments’ – ‘black and white’ there you can edit the tone of the image. you could also play around with the saturation of the image to get the same result.

This is how it turned out after my editing and making it dominantly white. This helps to outline the texture for when i make it into a brush. To finally make it into a brush you have to click ‘edit’ – ‘define brush’ where you have the option to change the name so you can recognise it and select it. Once this is done you are able to use it for drawing.

I took a picture of a class room in the college and masked the layer and just messed around with the image until i got this picture which i think looks pretty cool so i left it like this. It gives it a kind of icy look as if you was playing a game and your character is getting cold and it starts to distort your screen.

Photoshop tiling

This is my first attempt at tiling an image to make it look like a real texture if i put it on a wall or floor in a game.

 I started of with this image where i then had to change up the scale in pixels to make the image a square. I then had to flip the image so each corner was now in the middle and left a strange pattern along the image. Once i had done this i needed to use the clone tool to make the image look believable and not as if i had edited it. To use the clone tool you need to hold ‘alt’ and click on the picture then you are able to draw over a part of the image to paste it and edit out the lines (corners) in the middle of the image. Once i had done this i was able to make it a texture on photoshop and import it into a shape that i randomly made with the line tool and fill it in. This was how it turned out. I dont think it is too bad of a first attempt but after looking closely after a while you can see little repeats of where i used the clone tool to fill the gaps in.

 

Texture wrapping/santa’s little helper

This was my first time using cinema 4D properly to use texture wrapping and UV wrapping. I found it pretty difficult to keep on top of everything i had to do and i often ended up pressing the wrong button and breaking the whole thing.

We started with a chocolate little helper and we had to un wrap him as carefully as we could to keep the wrapper in as good condition as possible.

To start this off we had to import these images into cinema 4d and create the base model for the little helper by using cubes and extruding and intruding to expand and get a similar shape to the little helper. Once i had done that i needed to cut down the model to make the mesh layer (model laid out flat).Then i had go into photoshop and make the UV wrap to go around the model by using the clone tool to fill the entire mesh so no gaps would be left on the model and leave him with grey areas. once i had done this i needed to save it and open it up in cinema 4d and place the mesh layer onto the model which then wrapped around the little helper to make him look exactly as he did in real life in cinema 4d.

Once i had done this i tried making a bart Simpson mesh to be wrapped around the model which did not go well at all. the main issue was that obviously Bart does not suite this model and it just didn’t look right at all.

This is the mesh layer that i draw over on photoshop to be wrapped around the model which doesn’t look to bad at first glance but then when i applied it to the model i got this result.  The main issue like i said is the actual model shape and it is clearly not meant for Bart Simpson but it still looks terrible and its quite a creepy thing to look at, hopefully my game assets go a lot better than this.

Primary Research for my game

These are some photo ideas for my environment and body gestures in some of the clips. These are images that i found of google just to give me an idea of some more skateparks as the parks we have in Devon all look relatively the same.

I like the look of the concrete park because its a nice smooth surface and can look very clean when done right. This would also look pretty good with some graffiti to help the park stand out and differ from standard UK parks.

This is an example of how graffiti can make a skatepark stand out and add some colour to the environment. Im not too much of a fan of this graffiti though as the majority of it is just messy writing and no real art but if i decide to add some graffiti to my skatepark i will try and get some good looking images to help bing the ramps to life and add some colour.

In my skatepark im going to try and add as many obstacles/ramps in ass i an in my time limit to expand and make my skatepark look as good as possible. In the above pictures we saw some stairs, handrails, ledges, big gaps and in this image its more of a transition park (more ramps and bowls then stairs and street obstacles) This is something i wang in my game and should be too difficult as i may be able to get away with not making the bowl in cinema 4D but rather just digging a big hole in the floor of my park in unity and smoothing it out to give the impression of a bowl but still save a lot of time on the modelling side of things.

This is a video from on of my favourite skateboarders, this is a quick video just doing some tricks but gives me an idea on what sounds i need and how i might get them. In this video you can see some metal benches that he grinds and some other objects in the street that he skates on. Even the view in the background is kind of important as it gives some more depth to the park and will enhance the feeling of being in a new world full of skateboarding. (something Skate 3 did very well) Even the big bushes that he rides past could be re-interpreted into my game to have some plant life in the park so it isn’t just concrete and ramps. This will help the park look a lot better as well by adding a few little details like that. A few other ideas i may add as well are bins, benches and hopefully some plantation.

 

This is an image i found from google just to give me an idea of what graffiti i want in my game. I have decided that i want some bright colours to make the ramps stand out but i would also like some cool, detailed looking art that is more pleasing to the viewer than anything.

My game ideas

6 facts on:

• Skateboarders and scooters have had a rivalry ever since both sports started.
• Skateboarding will be in the olympics for the first time in 2020
• skitching = holding onto the back of a moving vehicle
• your stance is important because it is what foot you put at the front and back (regular stance – left foot forward, Goofy stance – right foot forward)
• Timing of tricks is very important. Too early will result in not clearing and bailing and too late will result in falling off the ramp you are launching off.
• Catching your trick is needed other wise you will not land it or land in primo (board is on its side) which is very painful.