Diorama Unit

 A blog for my specialism unit

Tuesday 27th October 2020

Today I spend most of my day modeling the planks for the wood and then I changed my idea and decided to have a plane instead for now. I made the walls and some windows, now I'm working on the middle window and the central rounded corners. Here are the progress images of today's work.

Wednesday 28th October 2020

I finished the Windows I added them to the scene.

Thursday 29th October 2020

Fixing Geometry and checking scales, I decided to change my idea and do what my teacher suggested and go for a simpler idea and I started the modeling for that after I fixed the windows for my older diorama.

Monday 2nd November 2020

Decided to stick to my original idea, after some peer feedback and evaluation we concluded in a group discussion that it would be best to do my original piece as it shows a more interesting environment alongside interesting features.

I got some feedback on the windows today, I made the walls a bit more cleaner, I got feedback for the size of the small window so I made it smaller. Alongside that, I dragged the wall pieces lower and tried to match the refs better.

In addition to these fixes, I also decided to quickly model some props that go in the scene, such as a book, music sheet, and a vent on the floor. 

Tuesday 3rd November 2020

Set up my unreal project today, did basic Uvs, and added what I had in the scene to be able to identify key mistakes and fix them, I have to redo my meshes and make the wireframes cleaner alongside actually properly UV. Took some images of my Flooring and walls that I will be using as textures with substance alchemist. 

Wed 4th - 8th November 

Spend some time exploring and watching Youtube Videos about Substance Alchemist and how to make my materials from that, so I can focus more of my time on the modeling and other areas to improve my build also got some feedback from my peers.

Monday 9th November 2020

I started modeling my piano, there will be no block out just straight into the modeling, I looked at a few tutorials online to help me get a grasp on what to do and how to start building it and I got started.

I made the round body part first, then I moved onto the side pieces and I made that by pushing the vertices to create the arched shape. To create the top I duplicated the body and cut away useless faces and extruded to make the lid of the piano. I then split it into 2 sections. I made sure to add geometry to make it look nice and smooth rather than blocky, I also smoothed it with 3. 

Tuesday 10th November 2020

Today I was trying really hard to do the next part of my piano, I realised that I needed to bevel things instead of press 3 on it, and I have to go over a lot of the geo for that, so that why I will do later as I wanna get the actual piano base done and continue to work on it. Today I was doing the part where the piano keys were but I kept messing up on the beveling part. I will have to make the top edges round, and I tried many times to make it achievable so I will continue to do that tomorrow and make the keys of the piano and finish up the top half and maybe start on the insides of the legs depends what comes first.

Wednesday 11th November 2020 

I figured out how to make things round with my previous issue and worked around it. I made some progress and fixed the lid of the piano alongside that I made the stand for the music sheets on the piano and added that. I had to fix other Geometry and as I keep making progress I keep fixing my mistakes. Getting feedback from peers too. Some bits are a bit hard to replicate from the actual piano reference but once I have the thing completed I shall make adjustments as needed.

Monday 16th November 2020 

Today I finished the piano, made some adjustments, and improved key areas there are still a few things left to do such as re top it in a few areas, I started on making small props and later I will do the stool and UVs for everything. I added everything in unreal so I can spot any mistakes or what is missing so I added a few things and fixed any gaps and spaces as the piano is split into many different types of pieces. 

Tuesday 17th November 2020

Fixed most of my geometry after getting peer feedback and I made sure they were all properly done. Did some work on the piano and decided to take the wheels out as mine did not have them and it made it look weird. I need to re top it and so far I went from 25k to 17k on the piano I set my limit to 15K so that is very achievable.

Wednesday 18th November

So far I took some photos of my walls and floors as I will be using alchemist for materials to save on time. Worked on Geo. Did basic Uvs, added everything into unreal, Changed piano to the stumps instead of wheels. Made basic lighting. Made wooden planks for the floor instead, Added a stool to the scene and played around with the scale a bit and it needed to be adjusted.

Thursday 25th November 2020

Today I spend the whole day doing Uvs I finished the piano Uvs, I then added it to Substance painter to check if the tiling and everything are fine by applying random patterned material. Tomorrow I will be Uving the Piano Keys and texturing the whole thing. I will be making this piano Black with golden Accents here and there from the reference im following.

25th-4th November 2020

Been working on materials and texturing everything, I made a flooring material in designer, Changes around a few shapes and all of the floor decided to go with the original idea. Messed around with the lighting and was working thru my to-do list. The overall diorama came out so plain and boring but it was too late to change anything. I tried to do the sequence but failed many times and has a lot of issues. Changed my naming conventions and got everything ready for submission. 

  

 

Game DLC Project Blog 

Week 1 ( READING WEEK)

During reading week we all came up with 3 ideas for our game DLC to take place in, I came up with a few but none got chosen, after a call over discord we all discussed our ideas and left it to a vote on the top 3 choices that we will later on refine.

Week 2

This week we all split into groups of 3 for each idea to focus and concentrate on it to refine it more than working on all ideas and getting all mixed up and combining ideas unintentionally because we are thinking of something else. We all created a blockout and an Art bible that was presented by the end of the week. The church idea was the most Favorited idea by fellow teammates and teachers so it was picked. 

Week 3

This week I have started on doing my Art bible and we as a group traveled to our location and took reference photos for our project. Everyone is doing something some are doing a blockout some are doing concept art etc.  + add more stuff on Friday+

Week 4
I started to flesh out the art bible and collect more images, worked with everyone to ensure they know what they are doing, working closely with the concept artist too to add things to the art bile.

Week 5: 03/03/20
Worked on the art bible and started to flesh it out more, started to gather more references, did more feedback giving to others, and continued to work on art bible for next week's first pass submission.

Week 6: 
Doing the same work as before and helping people out, had to sort some drama between certain individuals, some miscommunication happened in terms of they agree then behind our backs disagree until it got blown over the heads so much that we had to come up with a fresh concept and it felt like we lost some work but on the bright side particles and VFX was done.

Week 7:
Made improvements to the art bible, started on planning the modular kit, added a few changes to the story, and the playout of the game.

WEEK 8:
I'm doing modeling, finally... no more art bible...but in a group project, there are many many problems ranging from miss-communication and playing the blame game, as art director people pin their problems on me... I had this situation where an individual was not doing work and not showing me any progress they said they had a few rough weeks and I was very forgiving when they asked if they could get ANOTHER week out of work due to the pandemic to move back in with their parents I was fine with it... next week I asked to see some work as I did not see Trello being updated and I was if everything was ok and then they started to get really defensive and mad at me for even asking where the work is, that week they were meant to be working, their communications awful.. they never tell me at the start of the week if they are sick they always say it when I asked for work... and this happened to a few individuals and its been a very stressful week having to babysit people since I was unaware of when being unwell.

Week 9:
Modular kit, fixing errors, taking feedback.

Week 10;
So this week I did the modular kit, did light density checks, and all that. I had some "drama" to deal with as some people are being difficult and right after the feedback live stream as I should say some people got butthurt and kinda had a tantrum I mean I can see where they are coming from but panicking is not gonna get the work done. Planned the next few weeks or high priority work with jazz had a chat with a couple people. helped James with modular kit stuff.

WEEK 11:
Did foliage placement for the scene, added individual leaves, added bushes at the back to frame the statue, etc. and started on blueprints.

Week 12:
Responding to feedback, set dressing, working on cinematic, fixed stairs plus added more verts for my modular kit for matt to vertex paint it.

Week 13:
Set dressing, fixing issues where needed, placed more decals, and mainly played around with the set dressing of the goo and got feedback based on it and made changes where needed.

Week 14: Finished the cinematic and screenshots, add all my assets, and work into a folder, do the retro, and any other written work I have to finish for submission.

Week 15: Got feedback from the industry and made some changes, placed some new floor decals to break it up a bit.

Art Direction unit.

Art Direction Unit 

For the first week I was gathering references for my art bible alongside writing the story so I would know what to add afterward. I collected references and many pictures to help me draw my exterior design. The rest of the week was spent coming up with 3 different police station concepts and getting feedback on which one to go for and what to change to make it more London like.  Second-week approaches and I was working on my other slides such as plants, props and all of that, I did everything on paper first then transferred it to digital to-do cleaner lines and line art. During this time I also spend looking at other games and what things they have in common is a sense of picturing London to the players and i tried to implement that into my work. Week three happened and I was meant to get a lot of concepts done mainly interior as I had many rooms to do as the whole thing is heavily based around being inside BUT I had really bad fever and could not work I was going to go out and take photos to help me with work but I could not, Week 4 last week was here and I wrapped up my work and did as much as I could I did want to get more environment concepts done but I was out of time. I wanted to make more slides discussing the interactions of the game alongside features of how to go about it in more detail but Time was short and I decided to wrap up with what I have.

If I was not sick I would have done more in-depth concepts of rooms and modular kits for them too. 

Art Bible research and link document :

Art Direction:

https://www.artstation.com/jobs/D48Y

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/baJ3nk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWb_4lYLlds

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/arestinav/resident-evil-project/

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nAYke

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3tgw6f/revision/1 (plants)

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQ8Bo

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/e0xZob  Bram Sels

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B3vD

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bYlXd

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/e0Q5wb

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r8DGE

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JVv4m

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lPn5G

https://www.google.com/search?q=ash+tree+disease&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB867GB867&sxsrf=ACYBGNS7J8PGawJsGpcDz2wt30QBU-NNYQ:1579187831047&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiu3M-NtYjnAhXIQUEAHcywAPEQ_AUoAXoECA8QAw&biw=2560&bih=1329#imgrc=MRImHRtuxvbLlM:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/tree-pests-and-diseases/key-tree-pests-and-diseases/ash-dieback/

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB867GB867&sxsrf=ACYBGNQnkq6mREsr-fTV_LAj9UcSHrJwww%3A1579187949576&ei=7X4gXoLlIpaW8gLo_YSwDw&q=plant+based+virus+that+can+affect+humans&oq=plant+based+virus+that+can+affect+humans&gs_l=psy-ab.3...6070.15843..16116...3.2..0.90.1824.26......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71j0i22i30j33i22i29i30j33i21j33i160.C5BSim2Vrtw&ved=0ahUKEwjCj5LGtYjnAhUWi1wKHeg-AfYQ4dUDCAs&uact=5

https://www.google.com/search?q=Francis+Bacon,+%22Three+studies+for+a+Self-Portrait,%22+1944&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB867GB867&sxsrf=ACYBGNSL2muudawXEvGzdvyEl2Q_c8THCg:1579257438426&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj094C1uIrnAhVIa8AKHcL1BsEQ_AUoAXoECA4QAw&biw=2560&bih=1329

https://londontopia.net/site-news/featured/end-london-film-fiver-five-london-apocalypse-films/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_set_in_London

Diorama Blog

                   

Before work:

I have went out and gathered around 50 pictures for my project and will continue to take more pictures of my project once it gets decided on.

week 1:This entire week was spend putting everything in place from my chosen project and it was a Gothic mausoleum. I started to make my art bible and immediately made my block out based on the sketched that I did of the composition. 

(add images)

week 2:

I started to place my blockout into unreal engine and play around with my lighting from reference and see if i liked what i was seeing. I also used this time to add hidden geometry and cast shadows to liven the place up. 

Further on I started to refine my art bible and started to model in more detail in maya of my modular assets. 

Week 3:

started to work on my hero asset that i want to make really detailed to create a standard for my work.. I made a lamppost and i wanted to work more upon it. I took it into Zbrush and substance painted to make it really nice. I also made a candle in substance too. 

At this point I have finished my art bible and blockout is complete. So I can focus completely on my modeling ect.

Week 4:
Finishing modeling and adding certain details, really focusing on making materials this week is dedicated to responding to feedback and improving my work. Working on substance painter and designer to make my work more stylized. I also was working on lighting and adding more to the environment on top of that i was working on concepts and ideas for my downstairs area for the crypt and i will start modeling that as soon as i have a concept down.

Week 5:
Stated to get a hang off zbrush and i started to get substance painter a bit more too, finished doing UV`s on all my assets and started to take them into substance painter, on top of that made a few more materials and will apply them to certain things on my meshes which are most likely the floors and walls.

I started to do plane transparent images for my ornaments since im crunching for time and im not making progress fast enough on designer. I was also adding my meshes to zbrush and adding damage and other stuff. I stated to work on lighting and effects inside unreal and adding any other things i need.I also did some vertex painting. added puddles some rain very slight rain and a few other things such as a shadow of a tree to give the environment more life.

Week 6:
For the final week i spend texturing and adding particles, everything in unreal and making sure to have what i wanted in there. I finished the puddles and vertex painting in unreal for some moss i made in designer. made some water material too. Then i focused on my cinematic and other stuff and finishing things off checking things are in place and not missing, packaging ect.
In summary just putting all my work together and putting it all together and just testing.

Mobile Game Project

:By Arestina Volungeviciute

For the first week we were assigned to make 3 moldboards with different concepts for our game idea and later that week we would have a discussion on which to go with. I decided to go with a Snow themed gamed for my first idea., my second idea was underground and lastly my final idea was a tree top fantasy idea, which ended up being chosen.

To be honest i do prefer the final idea better as fantasy is more in my element and i can see myself enjoying modelling different environment pieces for it such as trees and plants which have a lot of re-usability. I choose to go with a complementary colour scheme for this project as the colours work together to portray this nature fantasy feeling as green being the main colour to show the nature side the purple really captivates it all and gives it this fantasy feel as purple trees and leaves are not part of the real world.

This week we are assigned to make our Art bible for our chosen theme and develop our idea even further and to go further in detail with our visuals. Furthermore we are required to make a simple plan sketch and block out of our map on unreal. My Fantasy Forest idea was chosen and i started to develop my art bible more with that concept.



During week 3 i started to branch out more into the modelling side and looking different builds of fantasy like things and working on my art bible more and updating it as i go. I have to build a lot of vegetation for my concept so i was focused on building leafs, rocks, trees, bushes ect. I also have completed my block out:

for my block out I envisioned there to be a lot of grass and trees, many different odd things you would find in a magical forest.


 I was going to run out of time and cutting it really close as I was struggling  to model the assets I wanted and the environment things for my game, nothing turned out the way I wanted I kept looking for tutorials but the turned out bad, my weak points are 3D after all so I continued to struggle but i did end up making a decent modular map with basic assets to dress my scene;




 I started to dress my scene and node a few things and even make some UI,I even made a logo for my game and decided on the name too and added that to unreal. The rest of the week was trying to get the basic shapes and lay out for my work and how to display all the assets I wanted to show. I also added certain particle nodes and I followed these tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFMQf-STGaU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJe1ysBGbXs&t=2s




 I started to finish my scene dressing, I started to fix my lights and add particles when i had time. I also hand drew all my textures using references. I started to also UV all my things and re-import it all again from Maya into Unreal and try to make my work look the way i wanted which did not happen as my time management was poor during this assignment because of the 3D modeling, i feel like if i gave myself an easier task such as buildings it would of been easier to build and texture. I also wanted to add music to my work. But I was cutting it really close for the time in getting all done and i wish i chose something simple so I had time to improve upon it as at this point it was too late.

During the final hours of the deadline i spend the whole day trying to package my project which took a long time but my apple kept disappearing. At first it all worked fine but the apple did not move as it was meant to, I then deleted and re-added it back and textures it, turned the physics on and that is where the problems seems to occur as when i would package my product and play it everything was fine and worked but the apple would not be there. I checked the collisions and meshes all seems fine, I even changed the texture as it was initially too big but i scaled it down and tried one more time but it kept happening. After a few attempts I decided to not kept the texture as I thought that was causing the problem so I then packaged again and checked and to my surprise the error was not fixed so the apple did not make it in the final project sadly.

I also noticed many mistakes with my ground build as some were sticking out and looked very untidy but I did not have time to fix it so i ended up leaving it there but overall Im proud of what i was able to put together.

task 1

There are many different ways to create animation, there are many softwares such as Flash Player and adobe after effects. Animation thats seen online is mostly posted on youtube where everyone can view it, the animation comes in many formats such as 2D animations, and some even do voice dubs of drawn comics and post them online, there are also web comics, gifs, motion comics and many other things. an example of an online animated series is "cyanide and happiness" on youtube that do little animated sketches that are 2D. The technologies used such as Flash Player and Adobe can make work look different and also ones especially made for 2D animation, the difference between Adobe and Flash Player is that ones made for more advanced animations such as anime or cartoons that are 3D and flash player is focused more on 2D. There are gifs and web comics that people can make using these softwares, also they can be used to make 2D online games. Animated banners are used in ways such as advertising companies or even games and are posted on online websites for people to see. Animated banners are mostly very simple and cartoony nothing over complicated.

Issues that people can encounter while uploading things online like animation could be that it could crash or if you are making a motion comic on a website the site could crash and all work could be lost along with the process. File formats could also cause an issue to uploading it as it could appear awfully on a phone if its not done in he right format, some issues with compression could also occur. When you save an image for example using a format like JPG because its really common, some data is lost because the file is compressed. the JPG files can be saved at various quality settings. the lower the quality % the higher the compression rate. Gifs ( Graphics Interchange Format) its like a JPG the GIF file is format is commonly used on the internet for entertainment, it is an ideal for images that have large blocks of a single color and it can support about 250 colors unlike a JPG and its most likely that the background of a GIF is transparent, which makes it more easier to place over it with other images or place it on a webpage. 

Most common softwares for animating series for youtube or to be posted online as videos is Flash Player mainly aimed at 2D and for 3D it could be specific softwares for anime than regular cartoons such as "adventure time" which could be done over Adobe Photoshop and After effects and then they save it as a different format so that people can view these,most files for animation should be saved as HTM5. Types of formats can very from JPG to GIF, MNG, SWF etc

This is a gif and an animated video, the gifs were probably made on Photoshop or any Adobe software. the video of a short animated series episode can have problems such as low resolution and it would take a while to load making the viewer click away and watch something else, gifs on the other hand are quick and memorable and its easy to make them and they load faster than a video. The video of the animation was most likely made over Flash player as its 2D an din color. The pros and cons of a short 5min animated 2D video is that its bright and colorful which is appealing to the eye, its simple to make, can appeal to many audiences as it can contain adult comedy but keep the simple style, the bad things about it is that it could take a while to upload as theres a lot of content that goes into the short video and some editing and frames which can sometimes turn bad or buffer online. The gif is easy to see and can be viewed on any platform and mostly its clear and simple. It doesn't have issues loading as much as videos as it doesn't contain anything and its a loop of the same frames.

This is an example of an animated banner this is usually on corners of websites and easily noticeable and also they do animated advertisement such as children's movies etc.

my sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/dida/graphics/selectingrev6.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oLCE4I5IVU

http://iruntheinternet.com/05796

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bus+advertising&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju4s_FqtjSAhWEJMAKHVhZBsgQ_AUIBigB&biw=2560&bih=1301#safe=strict&tbm=isch&q=animated+banners+&*