Got really tired of the buildings. So, Monster concept #1

I have a lot of sketches that I need to post. I have been developing this monster for a while. This version looks kinda boring to me for some reason. The final one I am planning on really focusing on making it look more skeletal and less fleshy. I also don't know about the glowing tongue lure thing. just kinda threw it in there at the last sec. Anyway, I love painting monsters and characters. I have been forcing my self to get all this other stuff worked out before I reward my self with one of the monsters and the main character of the game. So, enjoy. Please comment.

Bottom of the tower Concept

I scribbled out this image of the base of the tower. I have all the parts I need to get this in game but the huge tanks behind the pipes that go to the top of the tower.

So, last post of the night.

Thought I would post the high poly model of this variation of the tank. I really like the way it looks. The image is a little rasterized because every time i try to do a BPR with zBrush at a resolution high enough to get an image at 1440x900 like I like, zBrush crashes. I think I should put some text on the side of the tank now that I look at it....

Platforms and Physics Objects

So, for the past 2 days I have been working out the platforms that make up a large portion of the man made structures in the game based on the concept art below. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted them to look like so I jumped right in. I took a break right here at the end and decided to take the water tanks from the top of the tower and re texture them and let them stand alone as physics objects in the game. They are a lot of fun to push around. gives me something to do when I am testing for collision issues around the map. And seeing as the game has no objective in this early stage it is now an amazing sci-fi kick the can simulator. Enjoy the screen shots. :)

Yeah, it looks better :)

After looking at it for a little bit longer and adjusting the spec map for the platform the stuff sits on I feel it looks a lot more like the concept and has a better look to it. I may adjust the barrels some as far a texture goes. but I am happy with it other wise. The metal of the platform looks a lot more like dirty metal and less like some strange shiny thing.

playing with color.

Are they too bright? Does this look better? I dont know anymore :(

Sort of final tower platform.

So, based on the concept in the previous post, I built all the stuff in that image and put it in game. I like the way it looks. Not going back to change it now. I always think stuff could look better. At the last second I kinda changed the shape of the water barrels and I don't know if I like it as much as a concept. The barrels look more rigid and skinny in the concept and more round and fat in the 3d model. Do tell which one you like better. I also Have to place a pipe going from the compressor to the water tanks.... but that will only take a second. Hope you like it. Please comment.

Concepts :)

      So painting in some objects that will sit on top of the tower. trying to get a better feel for how I want the final product to look. I am playing here with hue and value. thinking about going in with post processing to get the clouds to pop a little more red like the concepts below. I don't know if I like it better though. maybe its just different and I am drawn to that because I have been looking at the other for so long. Anyway, I think this is how the water tanks, generator, and air compressor will look on top of the tower. 

Progress!

I have been working on the programming of the game a lot for the past few days. I have managed to hammer out a 3rd person camera that will avoid clipping though walls and gives the game a really fun adventure feel. I am by no means a programmer. With little knowledge or previous experiences I have pushed my self to understand Unrealscript. By extending from existing unreal classes, I got the camera working, and have the ability to hop from my third person camera to a cinematic camera. With this ability in place I have started scripting out some cinematic scenes and have already animated a short potion of the start of the game. I have also found its  alot of fun to pull out the cinematic camera in real time and have the player interact with it. The section of the game I have started working on is the top of the platform the player is dropped off at. The player is viewed through a stationary 3rd person cinematic camera and has the ability to run from one side of the platform and have the camera pan around the platform to the opposite side when they move to that side of the platform. This is activated by some triggers. I have also animated the lift so when the player jumps on the platform it will drop to the surface of the planet and the cinematic camera will follow the player on the lift and pan around the tower making a really cool epic introduction to the characters new home. when the player gets to the bottom of the tower the Player camera takes over the cenematic camera and the game falls into the basic 3rd person view. I feel like I am going to have a lot of fun with directing more shots of the planet and activating events through out the story of the game. (Not yet posted) In addition to all this have gained the exceptional talent of my good friend Adam Bennett. He has signed on to develop the music and SFX for the game. He showed me some of what he is working on  and I think we are all in for a treat. Below is a concept peice. I am going to be placing some steps and platforms in the game and I was painting them in to see how they would look. Much more to come. Thanks for reading!   

Back on Track!

After dealing with Zbrush and getting back in the swing of things. I finished and animated the lift I also made the pipes that run up and down the tower. After that I went on to make some rubble to flesh out the word even more. After that I worked up the first image of the concept for the buildings. Last but not least I finished up the fog volumes that makeup the clouds. I also made a new particle effect that blends with them to make them look like they move across the sky instead of just undulate. I built a material for the clouds that forces them make a breathing motion. I then added another few more nodes to make each vertices move around based on their world placement. They all work together to make a really nice dynamic sky and the world come to life just a little more with every step.  Below is a screenshot of the platform with lift and pipes. The fog volumes use a per pixel shader so the tower looks very rasterized around its base in the image. This all looks fine in-game. And, the screenshot not too shabby. Below that is the concept details for the buildings. They will be modeled next!

Glitchoriffic Zbrush and other fun things!

So, for the past week and a half I have been battling with programs on my computer crashing. The problem seemed to stem from a zbrush and its great hatred for Photoshop. I could not figure out what was going on. At first I thought it was something to do with not having enough ram. But, task manager seemed to only ever used 4-6 at the most of my 8 gb of ram. So, scanned for viruses and malware. Still nothing. Then I uninstalled Zbrush and re installed Zbrush. Like magic everything works again. I don't know what was up but it rendered me unable to work on my project in any kind of timely manner. If nothing else it once again instilled a great need and fear to save my work every two seconds. Anyway, I am back on track and got the bare bones of the tower done today. I just need the lift, air compressor, generator, canisters and the pipes to make it complete. Then I move on to building the monster and, main character. I plan on finishing the tower and the Building in the next two days. Here's a screen shot of the tower!

  

Screenshot Extravaganza!

These are all in game screens. Still a lot of work to do. More detail. I have however figured out how to make volumetric clouds. I don't know if its as heavy a load to do the real fog volumes vs. the particle effects I have already built. But they look amazing together. At the start of the game the player will stand on the Harvester Platform and be able to look out into an endless sea of clouds. Then get onto the platform and ride down through the clouds. I think its going to be pretty darn epic with the music I am thinking of making/ or calling in some help to make.

Harvester Tower Concept

This is the Harvester tower. Its really just a simple tower with a lift. It was built so that ships could land and a generator could be set to run. The Air/Gas on the planet in the game is flammable, and will ignite if exposed to Combustion based equipment and electronic devices. The Adanis Corp. Makes these quickly and very Cheaply. They are not built to last. This one has been up for 5 years.

Sketchbook

   

I scribbled this out in my sketchbook a while back. thought it was worth a paint and a post. I have a few more that may show up.

Lumin Harvester Concept

This is Base Camp at the beginning of the game. More concepts to come!

More in game screens.

So.... I finished up the L pipe so I can have pipes running up and down the canon walls. I also tweaked the depth of field in my post processing. looks a little better I think. Enjoy!

Fancy new screenshot

So I finished 2 of the pipes and one of the luminescent lights for the level. I placed them and they are giving such a great atmosphere to the place.. I think. what do you guys think?

So here are some ingame screens

Finished up one of the pipes and the pipestand. placed them ingame and took these :)

Pipe system Concept.

The Idea of this pipe system is that it lights the way for the character to go.  As the player moves farther and farther under ground the pipes will not be their, And said player will have to use glow sticks. The world of the game is set up as a no tech environment. I want to take away electronics. and see what kind of sci-fi world i can make. The reason there is no tech is due to the planet the play is on. The thick fog that makes a lot of the atmosphere of the game (no pun intended) is a highly explosive chemical that does not allow for the use of generators or electronics. everyone must rely on the luminescent light of a chemical compound shipped in from off world. The player ( a scientist) is their to study this chemical and find its origin. His mission funded by the Anchor corporation, and they very much want to find a way to synthesize the production of the gas. They have not been able to as of yet and its the players job to find the origin and if not the origin of the gas than a way to synthesize it in the lab.  Adventure ensues and things are not what they seem ect, ect. Once again the pipes are there to harvest the gas of the planet. the player follows them at the beginning of the game to get to way points before it gets all sandboxarific.

Playing with udk cascade editor

So, working with particle effects is a lot of fun! Here are some screens of some green dust that I have been placing in beams of sunlight and some blueish looking fog that blows across sections of the level some times. It really adds some life to the place. Its kinda hard to really get a good feel for these but they are fancy. they fade in based on alpha and then back out and they hover around and look really pretty. (Alex Giggles and runs off to play with them more like a little school girl.)