Week 01 - Basic Shapes

 For this assignment our class was split into groups, with each creating designs based on their respective story. The group I'm apart of chose to do Medusa. We were given a list of styles to then base our designs on, and we chose the style of the show, Arcane. 

Looking into Arcane's character designs, I saw in emphasis of specific shapes representing their traits in the character's shoes, hair, and clothing details. I aimed to emphasize the same parts with my block out.

For the hand models, we chose to do the model off of Perseus. I used square shapes throughout it to emphasize his reputation as being a hero and monster slayer and to contrast Medusa's shapes.

These references helped in understanding Arcane's use of shape language

Here's the screenshot of the submissions posted on Perforce!

:D

Sprite Block Project Submission

 I've finished the project! Using the sequencer was a bit confusing for my first time using it, but I'm glad this project allowed me to start getting to know it so I can utilize it for future projects.

Here's my completed Totodile.

Here's my completed Crossy Road chicken.

And a link to the sequencer video:

3D Sprite Block

To see my progress on this project, go to this post! :D

Houdini Workshop 1

Our first workshop for Houdini was today. We learned a bit about how it functions. It differs from other DCCs in that we don't edit the geometry by hand (idk how exactly to put it) but by nodes. It reminds me of visual scripting, with each node almost representing a function. I can "comment" things out or work on previous nodes, which makes it non-destructive. I can see now how this can be really useful. 

Using Houdini in undergrad was intimidating and confusing, but I really think I can get used to it if I practice enough at it.

We spent the last half of the lecture starting to build an island. We used height fields as the plane of the island, and a curve node to draw out the shape. At any point, you can edit the points on the curve, which is great for prototyping! It was a relief to see. I remembered how often I asked my level designers in undergrad to move parts of the landscape around, and they often commented on how it takes a while to do. This would've save us hours :| 

We also added cylinders as volcanos, and learned how to duplicate nodes. Its the same as Unreal, holding alt and dragging. It took up a chunk of time, bringing us to the end of our lecture.

Sprite Block Progress

 I'm pretty much done with the sprite project! I chose the party sprite of Totodile from Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver for the 2D sprite. That was my first Pokemon game ever, and Totodile is my favorite starter from that gen! Mostly because I think he's cute, in that ugly dog kinda way. 

Then I chose to do the chicken from Crossy Road for the 3D sprite. I was struggling thinking of what to choose for this one, as it took a while to find a balance between not too hard and not too easy. The chicken had an easy shape, but I did need to visualize the proportions on my own. I started originally wanting to just have the log as the prop but I really wanted to integrate it into an environment. 

Here's the reference I used for the river:

If you're unfamiliar with Crossy Road, the foam on the side of the river is a visual boarder. Passing it counts as a game over. Adding the foam in my project was mostly for visual interest, and I added some emission to the white material so they flattened out a bit and the shadows weren't as harsh. I could possibly work on this a bit more, and add in a lily pad. That mostly depends on how my morning goes.

Portfolio Submission Powerpoint

    This was one of the projects I submitted for my FIEA application! It took about a week to get through, and I had some tough issues along the way, but eventually I found something for the look I wanted to achieve! I go more into detail within the power point below.

2D Art First Post

 2D Art First Post