ANIMATION
&
GAME DESIGN
PORTFOLIO
Unit 7
An integrated approach to time-based problem solving in art & design
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When we first started unity 7, our first task was to open Unity and play with the assets to create an island. First I had to create a terrain, then do the hills and mountains. Then I added a skybox, which simulates the sky. After that I've used the paint tool to paint the texture of grass, rocks, dirt, over the terrain. I've added the water which is actually just a simple plane, and then I had to hide the edges of the water for it to look more natural. Then I added trees from within unity's assets as well as grass. Some wind for the trees to bend and move more naturaly. In the end I added my First person controller and I was free to wonder around my own beautiful island.
Visualization of the scene
 Unity Starting Screen.png |  Unity all assets.png |  Unity Trash bag.png |
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 Unity Fly.png |  Unity Coke Caan.png |  Unity all assets1.png |
The purpose of this unit is to create a explorable game within unity. We had to import the New York scene which we've made in Maya for unit 6 - Architectural Visualisation, and make it playable. I found Unity really easy and fun to use. In the first week I already finished adding the lighting, ladder scripts, skybox and mist. The hardest part of this unit was finding the scripts. I used ladder scripts ( script that makes the character able to climb a ladder), sound scripts ( sound that activate a sound when for example I walk, or stop it when I stop walking), a script for the Menu, a death script which sends you do the menu screen. I created some cars that drive on a street for enviroment effect using the animation tab, then I added some smaller details to the scene like, flies above trash bags, rain effects and sound effects. I really enjoyed working on this project and I wanted to do a lot more but sadly, I couldn't find the scripts for what I had in mind.
New York City - Freerunner
Victorian London - Time Leap project
Reference images
 2nd-night-may-20102.jpg |  warsaw-ghetto.jpg |  trainghet0910.jpg |
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 Tom_clancy_division_screen_9.jpg |  Division-4.jpg |  1359086798_Ghetto-Alley-stock3753.jpg |
For my game to look as realistic as possible, I've searched both real photos of New York scenes, and games that take place in New york. One of the games that I looked at was Tom Clacy's The Division (2015). I was looking at the way they "played" with the lights, textures and little details like a newspaper on the ground or steam coming out of a vent.
In this segment of unit 7 - Time Leap, we had the opportunity to choose a period of time, either past, present or future, and create a representation of it in Maya, which will be imported into Unity to make it an explorable level. My first thought was either ancient Egypt, Rome, or ancient Greece, but then I realized that those periods of time are the most obvious ones and I wanted to create something more let's say "unique". So finally I have chosen to represent Victorian London (19th century). In this time period, London was the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire. It was a global political, financial and trading capital. But while the city was growing in wealth as Britain was expanding, it was also a city of poverty. Milions were living in overcrowded, filled with disease slums. This life was also represented in Charles Dickens's novel "Oliver Twist". This is the part of the London that I want to recreate, the overcrowded poor part of it.
Reference images
After deciding the time period I will create, I've starting doing some research and look for some reference images to see exactly how the life in the 19th century was. I've found out that things were even worse than I've imagined. Children were expected to work for the family budget, often working long hours in dangerous jobs and situations, there were poor sanitary conditions, slums housing ( large houses turned into flats and tenements and the landlords who owned them, were not concerned about the condition of these dwellings), lots of crime and the society's attitude towards them. This made me want to create this scene even more, and give the feeling of poverty and darkness of the life of those people, to the viewer. I've looked at photos, movies from that period of time, and games/digital work that take place in 19th century London to see what kind of architecture they used and look for some finer details to add in my scene at the same time. One of the movies that influenced me was the movie "Sweeney Todd" (2005).
 st.jpg |  a4f04f0e-2c5d-47d2-b4f1-55e9f7a502ab_0aa55f05_image.jpg |  5x3victorianLondon.png |
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 roof_edit.jpg |  order_london.jpg |  jtr-jane-romance-mod-london-001-fleet.jpg |
 hand-and-racquet-pub-02.jpg |  DONOTUSE-MakeLife-_3050107k-810x529.jpg |  a4f04f0e-2c5d-47d2-b4f1-55e9f7a502ab_0aa55f05_image.jpg |
 9557414385_117be2fa35_c_thumb.jpg |  61672_1159519021_large.jpg |
Modelling and Texturing process
The first thing I did was think about how the scene will look like. I did that by creating several boxes in Maya, placing them around the scene, imagining how it will look like at the end. After I've decided that, I've started to model each individual building and texture them as I finish them. One building at a time, the scene starts to send the "feeling" I was looking for. While modeling, I remembered what our teacher said, and that thing was that a good, proffesional scene/model, needs to have as few poligons as possible, for the game to work as smoothly as possible. I did my best to do that in this scene and after I've finished with the modelling process, I've realized that compared to my previous project, this one is significantly smaller in number of polygons. My previous one (just the buildings) had around 60.000 polygons, which is a lot, while this one (just the buildings) had only around 5.000 . I was really glad when I saw that because it seems that I've evolved more then I believe to. After creating all the small assets (paintings, a table with benches, a stove, buckets , etc.), my scene has 8.400 polygons, which is still way less then my previous one. I've encountered some difficulties while looking for the right textures to use for the buildings. Everything was looking to new or they didn't fit with my time perios, so I've decided to create my own textures in photoshop, using decals and different adjustments to give them a nice old-worn feeling.
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After I finished modelling the buildings and assests, I imported them into Unity, and arranged them. The first thing I did after setting everything in place, was generating colliders for them and scale them to be proportional to each other. After that I've added the skybox which will be the same one I've used for the Freerunner project. I've used the same one because I find this one to be the best for the scene I had in mind. For the directional light, I've used a greyish color because I didn't wanted the scene to be colorful, I wanted it to be a grumpy. I did the same with the ambient color and the fog. Then I've added lights for the lamps around the corner pub, and for the candles inside the room. For the candle's fire, I've used the fire asset from within unity, and changed the elipsoid's size, the volume, speed and direction of the fire/smoke. I've also imported some of the assets from my Free runner project, assets like trash bags and buckets. I created the terrain withing unity, and combined 3 textures to give it a wet look because it is raining in this scene. After doing this .. the floor was too clean, so I've decided to create some newspaper/gravel decals to add over it. I've also added some posters on the walls that fit with the time period. Posters that are related to a circus from that time, festivals, perfumes shop and hair saloons. The buildings were still looking a bit too clean so I've added some decals over them aswell. As final touches I've added some interactive cloth that simulate clothes left to dry on a string, smoke coming out of the chimneys, moving clouds, rain and broken cart wheels. I had fun during this project, my favorite part being the Unity part.
Importing into Unity
Visualization of the scene
Inspiration:
My main source of inspiration for this project was the Sweeney Todd movie (2007). I like how they present the, let's say "dark" part of Victorian London, and how they created the grumpy atmosphere and theme by using a desaturated colours, which I've tried to replicate in my representation of that period if time. The other sources of inspiration were photos or digital representation of Victorian London.
Research:
The first thing I've researched was how the architecture was back then, and in what condition people were living. To my surprise, the architecture didn't changed that much and that was really helpful because everytime I was walking down a street, I could faintly imagine the life back then. Other things that I've researched were the objects they used in day to day life, so I could implement them into my scene.
Production:
I started off with imagining how the scene will look like, by playing with some boxes/cubes in Maya. After I've decided how it will look like and what colour scheme I will use, I began modeling the buildings first and texture them as I move along. After I finished to model the buildings, I've started to create the assets I've researched and added them into the scene. Then I imported everything into Unity and added the lightning, decals, particle systems, interactive cloth, the skybox and moving clouds.\
What went well?
Everything went really well beginning from modelling, to adding texture and adding lightning. I think everything went so smoothly because I've already learned and have some experience with these programs. The only problem I've encountered was finding the right textures, but I've learned how to make and edit my own textures because of that so everything went better then expected.
What could I improve?
I could've make the scene a bit bigger and add more assets and details into it, and I will most definatly do that but sadly I didnt had more time to do it now.
External Feedback
"The room is to simple, and Victorian houses ussualy have a border where the ceiling meets the wall"
Hearing this, I believe I could've indeed make the room a bit more detailed and add more details in it, and I also made some researched about the border, and it was accurate, I will definitely try to improve this later on.
"I like how the buildings are dirty and how the windows appeared to be very dusty"
This shows that the decals I've used to make the buildings a little "worn" worked really well.
"I like the way the drying clothes were moving and also how the corner pub looks"
I was really glad when I heard this because it was the first time I used interactive cloth and it indeed give a little life to the scene.
Reference list:
"Tom Clancy's The Division" Video-Game, 2015, published by Ubisoft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy's_The_Division
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", Film, 2005, Directed by Tim Burton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweeney_Todd:_The_Demon_Barber_of_Fleet_Street_%282007_film%29
"The Order: 1886", Video-Game,2015, Sony Computer Entertainment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order:_1886