My VFX Blog – Page 4

Week 7

This week I worked more towards finsihing the handle of my sword. This part was planned to be very detailed so I took time to make sure the progress is exactly how I envisioned it.

I made a ring which I then pressed 3 to give it a smoother apperance and to create a perfect round circle.

I then created two small poles to attach this to the other part of the handle created.

I then started to create the small dragon wings that would appear below the main wings I will be creating.

I did this by making a plane, and creating the dragon wing shape. I then created another plane at the other end of the ring so it would appear attached to the handle, and combined these. I then duplicated these and resized these, changed topology slighly for variation, and changed these to a smoother apperance again.

I then duplicated these and rotated them, then reversed the faces, so it would appear the same on the other side of the handle.

My next task was to create the orb. This was simple as it would just be a sphere polygon. I transformed this to be the correct size and right in the centre of the handle.

Next, I did my method of checking how these shapes looked extruded, and seeing if there was anything I needed to change. The extrusion worked which means I could move onto my next phase. I did however discover the wings looked better with shaper edges, so I selected 1 for them and decided to keep this.

I then decided to work on the dragon wings. With this part I did run into some topology issues. The shape was really complicated so creating faces with 4 sides, whilst also including all of the details for future indents and extrusion using edge loops, made the topology quite busy and messy. This may be an issue with UVs I am prepared to come back to.

I then duplicated this, rotated it and reversed the face again to create a symetrical handle. There is a final part to finish this model which will be the upper handle, and then I will be able to work on the details and texturing.

Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 7

This week I worked on shaders for my terminal, fixing my models, and adding details to my control desk.

When I re-visited my models I turned my control desk around and it had a destroyed topology, and broken normals. I realised this may have been an issue when I had been extruding faces inwards on the front of the model, and accidentally caught the back faces.

To solve this, I pasted an older version of my control desk when it had a correct back, and re-applied the extrusion dent details to the front of it again.

I then worked on shaders for my terminal, after having feedback on ftrack. I needed to submit a 360 degrees video of my render, with shaders as my submission before looked flat. I added a hdri of a ‘blue studio’ and played around with some of it’s elements on the attribute editor until I got my model to look less flat. I then animated it to turn, and rendered this sequence out.

Shaded render

I then decided to work on my second asset whilst I waited for feedback on my terminal. On my control desk, I have been adding details to the model however I feel as though it isn’t as detailed as it could be. I looked at other control desks for inspiration, and decided to add a lever to pull and more buttons in varied shapes. I started with the lever, and made a basic lever shape and added some details to the pad underneath.

I then added a material of plastic and metal, and decided to make the lever green.

I decided to edit the top of the desk and make more of an asset to the extruded faces. I decided to make more screens to the desk in these places.

First I modelled the base of the screens by combining a rectangle and a border of other rectangles around it to create a border.

I then textured the border a slightly darker metal, and added a technical screen to the centre. I thought this design fitted the lo-fi aesthetic a lot, and also the control desk in general.

I decided to add more buttons for additions to the desk. I made a circular plane and extruded it for the bottom of the button. I then created a sphere, flattened the top and combined this with the plane below it. This was then duplicated and laid out on the desk in the empty spaces.

I then added a blue plastic texture to the buttons and a darker metal for the bottom planes. I decided to make them blue to add colour variation around the desk.

Advanced & Experimental Group

Room Camera Tracking: Part 2

Post author By Jess Howard
Post date 22nd May 2023
No Comments on Room Camera Tracking: Part 2

My final part of this task was to place geometry into my scene to preview the camera tracking nd see if this was sucessful for a scene.

On first attenpt, all of my scene wasn’t exported to Nuke, it was missong the camera node. Going back to my project, and with guidance, I needed to recalculate the parameter adjustments and re export the file. The lens distortion also needed to be re uploaded to Nuke.

After exporting this now sucessfully, I was ready to set up my scene and geometry in Nuke. I had my 3D scene, and inputted the correct lens distorion numbers in the lens distortion node,

I then inputted geometry around the walls and a sphere in the centre using the 3D viewport in Nuke.

Matchmove Version 1

My geometry was quite shakey. After a sit down with my lecturer, I was advised to add the geometry using the locator’s translation values.

I copy and pasted these values when creating geometry and sized these to the places I wanted them to appear, and this seemed to fix the problem.

My scene then seemed to have steadiness with the camera tracking, and was ready to render and upload on ftrack.

Matchmove version 2

Advanced & Experimental Thesis Proposal

Week 6

This week I had a meeting with our thesis proposal supervisor and my feedback was that:

My topic was very specific (which is good)
The answers to my topic may be ‘obvious’ so delving into more areas may be benefical
Work on writing about specific games

From this, I developed a first plan for my thesis proposal using elements from the thesis proposal structure we were provided with:

• Research title or question

“Enhancing the Gameplay Experience in Video Game Combat through the Implementation of Visual Effects”

• Keywords

Combat
Video games
Spells
Weapon design
Melee
Swords
Guns
Creatures
Survival Horror
Fantasy

• Introduction

Introduces your topic – Combat in video games overview. Visual effects overview.

States your problem statement and the questions your research aims to answer – introduce ethical questions, how the implementation of visual effects increases gameplay experience positively or negatively, and examples and types of implementations.

• Literature review

Delve into the research sources I have collected, introduce them, and explain why I am using them.

• Research design, methods, and schedule

Parts in bold highlight what I will be using, and what I would then need to talk about.

The type of research you will do. Are you conducting qualitative or quantitative research? Are you collecting original data or working with data collected by other researchers?

Whether you’re doing experimental, correlational, or descriptive research

The data you’re working with. For example, if you’re conducting research in the social sciences, you’ll need to describe the population you’re studying. You’ll also need to cover how you’ll select your subjects and how you’ll collect data from them.

The tools you’ll use to collect data. Will you be running experiments? Conducting surveys? Observing phenomena? Note all data collection methods here along with why they’re effective methods for your specific research.

Your research timeline (if applicable)

Your research budget (if applicable)

Any potential obstacles you foresee and your plan for handling them

• A brief outline of each chapter

For each outline:

A title and purpose of the chapter?

What are the research questions that drive your enquiry in each chapter?

Who are the key thinkers and idea that you will include in the chapter?

How will the research you are presenting answer your research questions?

• A draft chapter

Develop a chapter I choose

• Bibliography

Other things to add:

Any ways your work can challenge existing theories and assumptions in your field
How your work will create the foundation for future research
The practical value your findings will provide to practitioners, educators, and other academics in your field
The problems your work can potentially help to fix
Policies that could be impacted by your findings
How your findings can be implemented in academia or other settings and how this will improve or otherwise transform these settings

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 6

This week I worked on my base model for my sword.

I used the same technique as before, with using the side view and adjusting the verteces on my plane geometry. I again made sure to make shapes for later extrusion on the blade so that it has depth and details.

I completed the blade of the sword.

I then extruded this and some of the details to see the progress.

I then made sure the UV maps were workable. On first attempt, I noticed I had some non manifold geometry and some more than 4 sided shapes. I used cleanup to solve this, and fixed the shaping after this was done. I was then able to lay out my UV maps for the future when I come to texturing.

I then started on the handle for my sword. I found inspiration for this, as well as using my concept sketches I had made.

Inspiration image – https://www.renderhub.com/nicu-tepes/fantasy-sword-11-3d-model

I free handed the one side of the first circle that would be surrounding the orb. I then used the mirror tool to make sure there was symmetry and consistency.

Next week I will work on the rest of the handle as this may be the most detailed part of the model.

Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 6

This week I worked on improved on my terminal given feedback on ftrack, and worked more on my control desk.

First, I decided to extrude inwards the faces on the outside of my control desk, mainly for shading, and added details.

I then worked on the texturing on substance painter. I worked with metal textures for a while, but after a group meeting and communication with the CGI Lead, it was mentioned to me that a plastic creamish texture would be more fitting for our aesthetic, rather then an all metal sci-fi look.

I brought my model over to substance painter and added a ‘rough plastic’ texture. I played around with the height of the bumps, and colour of the texture until I got a fitting look for the material.

I then added scratches and small details, making the edges look worn.

I then added this texture to the control desk on Maya. I had some trouble attaching the normal map to the texture, but with some guidance realised I had to add this on the hyper shade window, add an ai normal map node and make the material was set to ‘raw’.

The feedback for my terminal was that I needed to add more details on the side on the terminal.

I began by creating a plane with holes in and converting it to a soft shape using 3. I implemented the holes by deleting every other face whilst on this mode. I then extruded it slightly and sized it to be placed on the side of the terminal, this acted like ventilation of some sort, and a mini fan for the terminal.

I then decided to make a bigger ventilation fan that would sit on the extruded face of the terminal. I did this by using the mash tool. I created a cube, sized it down and turned it into a soft shape by switching to 3. I then used mash to replicate this upward and to the side so I had many of the same shape at equal distances. I then used boolean with another bigger cube to take away these shapes from within the bigger cube, to act as holes for the fan.

I inserted this on the terminal.

I then made simple other details such as buttons on the side of the terminal with simple extrusion and sizing inwards.

I then made some extra changes and details on the control desk.

First, I created a button that would go either side of the desk. I made this button red with thin plastic under it. This would also give more colour to the control desk and act as an ’emergency button’.

I then extruded inwards the faces on the inside of the control desk. This dimple detail will just give more shading to the control desk and fit the rest of the desk better.

The added details make my models look a lot better, but I still need to add more next week.

Advanced & Experimental Thesis Proposal

Week 5

Please scroll through this template I have filled in updating my thesis proposal plan.

Template Download

Advanced & Experimental Group

Weeks 4 & 5

Throughout these weeks I have developed my models for my terminal and started on the control desk. First, I worked on my origonal terminal to optimise the topology and visually improve it. I changed the screen shape and made the border of the creen bigger and more shaped to the terminal itself.

I then started working on the control desk. I wanted to make the topology simple to ensure no problems with UVs and to decrease the heaviness of my overall model. I started with a cube and with mukti cut, edge loops and extrusion, created the base simple shape for my control desk.

I then added a brushed metal standard surface to my desk work with termporarily.

I then added more small details to my terminal consisting of buttons to fill in empty space before I moved onto adding details to my control desk and panels.

To start with the details, I created simple buttons and lights to various places on the desk. I also used extrusion to create panels on the back of the desk.

I then added mini screens to the control desk. I wanted to make this model to be the centre of the ‘technology’ aspect for the room, so details like this are exactly what me and the group had in mind for this model.

I implemented these by duplicating the screen oof my termonal and sizing it down for aesthetic consistency.

I then began to change the texturing of the screen. I wanted a different visual media for these screens so I used an oscillator screen. This fits into a lo-fi aesthetic and gives variety to the technology within my model.

This model will definately need more details and proper texturing before submission. Our next group meeting is next weeek where I will predent my model to the CGI lead and progress with any feedback.

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Weeks 4 & 5

Throughout these weeks I have started researching tutorials on modelling fantasy swords to find the best way to go about this project in terms of technique and skill.

I found the video below extremely useful, and from this will be using the technique of modelling from a 2D perspective and extruding the model out afterwards to ensure symmetry and accuracy.

https://youtu.be/nCi-hcT0-L8

I then started to work on modeling the blade of my sword. I went ahead with this reference image that I used for my concept sketch of what rough shape I would like the blade to be.

I started by switching to the side-facing view in Maya, and created a plane. I then turned on X ray view so I could see the grid as reference lines for the geometry.

I made sure the verteces were the same either side and that the faces were four sided (thinking of the UVs for the future). I then began extending the blade, and adding details, such as extra faces and edges that I knew would be extruded in to create indented details on the sword.

I then checked how this looked so far, by extruding the object out and extruding inwards the details I had made.

This was exactly the look I was hoping for, confirming this technique of modeling would be appropriate for my sword design.

Side note: During these two weeks I had to take time off to be with family due to loss of a family member so wasn’t able to complete as much progress as usual. This will be accounted and made up for in the following weeks.

Advanced & Experimental Thesis Proposal

Weeks 3 & 4

Throughout these weeks I have really been thinking about what I can write about that will both be something I am passionate about, and something that links to my future career aspirations.

I have always been interested in combat within games as it is such a vital element of video games and the experience. Visual effects is a huge part of this and so the opportunity to explore it’s impact will be a perfect thesis topic for me.

I am also working on weapon design for my personal project, and my FMP will hopefully be along the same lines as this path.

The working title at the moment is: “Enhancing the Gameplay Experience in Video Game Combat through the Implementation of Visual Effects”.

I am currently using Google scholar to research this topic and will list some sources found below.

With this topic, I can explore:

Game mechanics
weapon design
types of combat
final boss battles
combat with creatures
ethics of combat experience
inspirations from film combat
magical combat effects

Some keywords are:

Weapon design
combat
technique
weapon choices
opponent design
ethics

Sources

“Creating illumination, either by post-processing effects such as bloom or adding a glow to your texture, can add to the magical feel of your effect. This can make your effects feelmore alive and give the illusion that they are light or power sources”

“Attacks and spells that don’t affect the player or game in a dramatic or significant way should visually indicate they are less important than the mechanics that have a significant effect on the gameplay.”

“Level of importance can be controlled and adjusted by modifying the size, shape, saturation and opacity of the effect.”

Mattila, M. 2018. “Visual Effects for a 3D Action Game”. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/151308/Mattila_Meri.pdf?s

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“In Resident Evil (2015), when the player’s health is low or critical, the “Danger” condition state activates. Although the player is not in any immediate danger, this low-health state is visually exacerbated.”

“The main factor that creates an engaging chase sequence is the assertion that the player must feel that they cannot directly defeat their assailant. The player must feel powerless in the face of an insurmountable challenge, prompting theplayer to conclude that escape is the only means of survival.”

“In the reimagined Resident Evil 2 (2019), the player is periodically chased by a seven-foot creature called Tyrant, colloquially known as Mr. X, who happens to be impervious to most weapons and artillery”

Smith, L. 2023. “Creating Tension through Game-Centric Design in Survival Horror Video Games”. Bachelor’s Thesis. Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

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Through this research I have discovered game mechanics such as spell casting effects, chase sequences and effects when a player is low on health, even though these are small elements, will be so interesting to talk about within my thesis.