UDK Environment

I have started building my UDK map for the major project I am working on involving the Mongols and the Ogres. I have built the landscape using the in engine landscape creation tools and have a few static meshes in place inside the map. Most of them are unfinished or have basic textures on them but I want to get as much into the engine as possible so I know its all there and working. Also the lighting not sorted out correctly...hence the weird shadows on the objects and ground...should be fixed soon tho.

I have bots able to run around in it but there are not pathing nodes at the moment so they don't really know what to do other than run towards me or the weapon pickup. I've managed to bake it and turn it into an installable .exe so I can transfer it around which will be useful at the end.

As I'm in charge of the weapon set-up as well I have been looking at getting weapons working in the map too, I have the weapon pickup factory selecting my club, and it hits them when at close range, the problem is I cannot get the coding to recognise the club mesh so it is currently invisible. I'm going to look into this more when I have finished the mesh and rigged it up correctly, hopefully I will be able to get it to work then.

I was going to upload a video running around in the map but blogger doesn't seem to want to upload it, so I'll provide screenshots instead.

I have also been doing work modelling and texturing other objects in the scene but no major changes there, I have been spending most of my time working on my Visual Forms presentation and essay as well as my Critical Studies essay so Major Project has been put to once side somewhat, but I will be working none stop on it soon.

A Small Update

Not a huge amount to report on this time round, work seems to be slowing down and I need to try and get into the swing of things again. The texturing of the Ogre has been something I have been working on for quite a while but I don't seem to be getting very far with it, so I'm going to leave it for a moment and come back to it later with a fresh mind.

Here is the latest update of the Ogre:

I've gotten the basic map blocked out in UDK and managed to set up the texture painting so I can easily replace any textures I need to, such as the grass being clearly tiled.

The only other work I've got done since the last update has been more drawings. I'm going to be updating with drawings every time I post because I'm doing it every day and it should keep me motivated to keep drawing to update here.

But here's the most recent drawings:

Orge Textures and Drawings

I've just been chipping away at the mountain of work over the past few days, I think I'm slightly behind my schedule, but that was to be expected really and I have Easter as a contingency to make sure I can get everything completed.

I have finished the Ogre model, I have unwrapped it and begun texturing it, the skinning has been left to Joe Hornsby and should be done quite soon, meaning he can be animated and put into UDK (fingers crossed)

Here's the most recent turnaround

I've also been doing a lot of drawing recently as it's something I've needed to improve on for a while now but after the mid term tutorials with Gareth I've had more motivation to really get good at it, so I've been doing an average of about 1 hour of drawing a day and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far, here's some more of my drawings...

More Ogres and Crossbows

Just a quick update on where the models are, not a huge difference as I have been working on my critical studies and visual forms but slowly battling through the work

Once the Ogre is done I can hand that over to Joe Hornsby to rig and get it into UDK and then him and Matt Watson can animate it.

Then when I have that and the crossbow done I can start looking at weapon set ups in UDK which look fairly complex so I want to get that done earlier on in the assignment to make sure I can do it.

Finally I have been playing with the UDK and the landscape tool which is a great tool used to easily make outdoor environments that seems quite easy to use.

Here's the most recent Ogre turnaround...

And I finished modelling and have just started texturing the crossbows, although the texturing is still in a very early state...

Drawing Time!

Thought I would do a quick mid week post of some of the drawings I've been doing over the last few days.

I've been trying to get a minimum of an hours drawing done a day, which doesn't always work out but I try...

So here are some of my personal favourites I've done recently, shame the rest are not this good...

I also started reading a bit more of my anatomy book and thought I could draw the muscular structure of the body as well to make sure everything I'm reading is sticking in my head...

Ogres and Crossbows

So I haven't updated in a while so here goes...

I knew I wouldn't get a full weeks worth of work done of reading week with everything going on and well...I want to enjoy myself and see family and friends I haven't seen in a while, but I did get some work done

This is the ogre model so far , I did the majority of this work in the first week of major project...

Then over reading week I have modelled the crossbow which only needs a few final tweaks...

And also started the main tent for the Mongolian camp last night...

I'm going to start texturing some of these models when I get back to uni, I'm not doing it now because...well...I cant be bothered at the moment. But the modelling seems to be going smoothly so I'm getting a fair amount done at home...

That being said I'm beginning to see the mountain of work I have to climb before the end of the project...and the top of it is in the clouds somewhere, so I do hope that things continue to go smoothly for the majority of the project.

Once I've modelled and textured the crossbow I might try getting it in to UDK to try to set up the parameters and settings of it to get it working in game and even begin setting up the environment as these are things I haven't done before and will most likely need some help with it along the way so best to start it early and hit all the stumbling blocks now rather than at the end.

End of Advanced Tech

So on Monday I handed in advanced tech, I've had quite a bit going on since then so I haven't had a chance to upload the final products...

So here they are!

Starting with the wireframe turnaround (Polycount = 7029)...

Textured turnaround...

Textured turnaround of the head...

And morph targets...

I would upload the deformation test but it seems I saved it straight to the university dropbox so I dont have a copy for myself...good work there Dean...I'll have to pull a copy down from there sometime.

Any feedback is welcome and very useful as I still have time to change parts of the character before it goes into UDK.