What i have did Yesterday

Sweet so yesterday i was working in unity to get as much put in and working as possible. I ended up getting the 1st level mesh and 1st stage of the character working. The texture of the tree is still under construction, (Beth has done a simple one but after all of the meshes have been placed and are working we will re look at the textures to make sure they al match up.)

Here are a few development images:

Overall Image - Basically the layout of the world. Loosely based at the moment.Tree - Level 1 OverviewTree CloserTuff in water, top of tree.Tuff at the end of the 1st level.

What i am working on now:

• Placing the different meshes from the girls
  
• Making and animation the other 2 characters
• HUD
• Life bar
• Health Pick-ups
• Death Zones
  

Jeff Logging out . . .

I Hate inveted Normals

Yesterday i was finishing off the tree level, by blending all of the different models together. This was fine until i took the model into unity as a test. Heaps of faces were missing and things like that, so i went back into blender a turned on the normals to see what way they were facing. Turnes out that getting 3 different people to model the same thing was a bad idea. Most of the normals were the wrong way. This is super!!!

So what i ended up doing was systematically working thought the model and making the normals face the right way. This took around 2 hours. But prob less. But now we have a normal looking tree with no faces missing. Yay.


I also had a meeting with Beth and Tania to flesh out what they are doing and how the lab is coming along. It is on track and going sweet.

Here are a few development images: This is the basic layout of the game. The cube on the left is a place holder for the tree - 1st Level, then the terrain (That is yet to be edited by kirsty) is the 2nd Level, and the cube on the right is a place holder for the labrotory.

Below are the issues i was having with the egg animation in unity. I was able to find a solution for this. The 1st image is what I wanted and a sample of the textures on and in the egg.

The animation wasn't doing what i wanted it was blockier and weird as the images below show:
Also an update of what i have done recently:

• Fixed the tree
• Got the 3rd person camera working (Still needs tweeking)
• Got 1 character into unity, with animation.
  
• Had a meeting with the girls to discuss what they are doing.
• Received some of the finished meshes from the girls
• Passed the tree level over to beth to texture.

What i would like to have done before Wednesday:

• 2nd Character
• Idle animation for the egg
• tree level in and test-able

Here are a few images of the tree that has been fixed: (Has no texture yet)

Corrected Normals YAY!!!

Jeff logging out . . .

What are the issues with the camera?

The issues are that when the user jumps from the left to right button, while not pushing forward or back the character jumps from side to side. Same with front and back. I think that this is part of the 3rd person camera script.

Also i need to make a standing still animation for the egg so that when you stop moving the character doesn't keep on rolling. This is simple to do but i must remember to do it.

Jeff Logging out . . .

Issues and Progress

I have been working on how the character interacts with the level and other things like that. I have also be trying to get the 3rd person camera to work and be nice. I have had issues with this. Here they are:

When i tried to get the spring follow camera script to work on my level with my camera it had a heart attack. I tried this a few times. Then i thought that i could use the lerps tutorial as a base and then build off it. So what i have been doing is using the tutorial and working through it with the first stage of the character. I hope to get my level design into the stage soon as it would be good so then we could get away from the lerps look.

Also i have modified the character so that the egg stage of the character has no tadpole. As unity was having a cry about it. So now it looks allot more simple. But i think that it looks good. What i would like to get done soon is the refinement of the 3rd person controller and the setup of our level with our meshes and things like that.

Jeff logging out . . .

My Plan for the day.

I have a plan for today:

I want to get two of my characters into unity and moving. I also want to get the first level done so that i can start playing with my character in the level and making sure that all of the gaps are big enough for him to get through and stuff like that.

I also wouldn't mind if i have the time. To make a health bar and get that working and other smaller things like that. I am hoping that some of my group will get here today so that I can get their stuff and start working with it.

Jeff logging out . . .

Issues so far

I have been having a few issues with getting the first level back together. I think it was a bad idea to get three people to work on the same mesh but in different parts. Some people have subdivided the tree and others have done some weird stuff that doesnt make sense to me. And it is my job to put the tree back together. I think next time. One person should model the tree with others input. I think that, that would make a much cleaner mesh and be easyer to texture.

I have also emailed the group to tell them that i will be at school tomorrow so if they have any problems or want to give me some stuff they can. I am also planning on having the 1sy level done by tomorrow with at least one of the four characters in the space.

Jeff logging out . . .

Things that i did today

Ok so what did i get done today? I had a really productive meeting with most of the group and how things were progressing. I got some things off people like the different parts of the first level (the tree). I also made a unity file that had the basics of what in the world and how they would be layed out.

I made a very very simple terrain that Kirsty is going to modify and made water and an under water views. I made simple objects in the world that can be used as references as to where things are located. Also i put in a skybox and a directional light. I have also been tampering with the setting of things like the light to make it more like a sun and smaller things like that.

I have also layed down a few rules that i would like people int the group to stick to. Rules like, no high poly meshs! I it can be done simply do it that way. For example beth asked me if i wanted meshes that could be used as static things. I said no just use textures and bump maps. This way the world wont be too mesh heavy and bog down the processers with things that the user may only glance at for 0.01 seconds.

If it looks just as good as a facade, use a facade rather than a mesh.

So what am i doing now. Animating the different stages of the character and texturing them. Also starting to put together the level. Like bringing the different parts of the tree together and texturing it.

Other Thaughts:
I dont want to do everything! I want to delegate as much work as possible to others so that they are also working on the project and i am just fixing things they are having trouble with and doing the things that they cant. I think that i didnt make myself clear in 285 last year. So i am trying to make things easyer for myself in the long run. I'm abit fed up with greg. Even an email would be nice. But thats not worth complaining about. Im just getting on with it!

Sweet as meat

Jeff logging out . . .

Development of Tuff

I have been working on the rigging of the egg and the textures of it. Im having some trouble with having an alpha channel in blender but im going to try and make it work in unity instead. I am making good progress with the ideas that i want to have in each of the three stages of my character.

Heres a few development images:

Here is the tadpole texture and basic shape. (This tadpole in inside the egg (I have just hidden the layers to see the textures and basic shapes) ).

This is the setup of the egg structure. The two spheres will be see-through. The outer egg will be a pale shade of blue and the inner egg is going to be an see-through black.

I quite like him and playing around with the rigging makes me giggle as he wriggles and moves its pretty cool: Heres a short movie of him wriggling:

So this is what i have been up too. I am planning on modeling up the tadpole stage of the frog tonight with a more complex rig so that it looks more fluid like while swimming.

Jeff logging out. . .

Project 3 Progress

Yesterday i sat down with the team members that were there and modeled up the main tree (The first level). Here is an image of the tree.


The colour is to indicate the part of the tree that each person will model the track to. I also tryed not to do all of the work so that when people come to designing their part of the tree they could do themselves.

The tree is to get people to model on the same object at the same time.

What else have i done:
I have also been working on the egg stage of the character. I have created 3 things that work together as one. The outer, inner and tadpole parts of the egg. I was having trouble with rigging the three parts of the character so that they work together. I have after yesterday and a meeting with group members i have made a must have and a could have list of the things i want the character to do.

So the egg must have:
a foward roll cycle.

Could have:
a left and right lean animation.
front, left, right, top and bottom impact animation.
a jump animation.
and when the egg gains speed the shape of the egg will change.