Assets - phase 1

The first batch of assets made for the mine-orientated level. Still plenty to go, needs more population.

Thrallhalla Progression.

D/N no speculars yet

Sticking to the concept as close as possible, with a few alterations. The shoulder strap has been thickened and the feet are a larger. The fur lining the cape was brought back so it stops once it reaches the bottom. The menacing thought I keep having is that it doesn't look 'right' at the moment, my hunch is that its because of two things, the cel-shading isn't applied and the cape/sash is static, making it feel a little clamped. I therefore need to research how to get the cape to be dynamic. I'm about to rig this guy, and export/test out the mesh/materials in UDK. Fingers crossed this will look alright.

Update:
UDK grab, cel-shaded and all...

Thrallhalla WIP

I began modelling the second character of the level just to give myself a break from UDK and asset making (even though i've made only 5 or so) Its taken roughly two days to get it to this stage, although I'll spend the rest of the week and maybe next just finishing up some of the accessories in z brush and then work on the diffuse. He's 5,313 triangles, which is relatively in the same boundary as Penguin's 4.7k. My main concern is the cape, well cloth physics in general especially when he has the waist wrap sash too.

Things left to do;
-Fur
-Horns sculpt
-shoulder strap
-Sash
-Cape
-Boots
-Shield
-Mace
-Diffuse

UDK update.

So for the past week I've been changing things around in UDK, trying out new things and implementing additional animations etc...Here's a list of updates

Cel-Shading set-up

I've searched around on the UDN forums and someone provided a very simple way to create a cel-shaded look. I've slightly modified it to change the lighting divisions from 3 to 2 (Wind Waker) and removed the strange material-based edge detection it had previously. I plugged in the diffuse multiplied by 0.3 into the emissive to give it a bit of self-illumination thus making it more flat coloured.

New Animations and Animtree set-up

I've added a few extra animations to incorporate in Penguins movement and for use on the ladder. Here's a screen of the animtree as it is, but further modifications may be needed. (you probably wont be able to see any of the node names)

Ive set up four different speed instances for Penguins movement, beginning with a standard walk which is defaulted to directional controls. Holding Shift will give Penguin a small boost of speed to the walk i.e. fast walk. By default 'Left Shift' is assigned to produce the 'Walk' function and normal directional controls will be a 'jog'. But I chose to swap them. The next key function I added was through kismet, which was by key pressing 'Q' - which would cause a jog. The console command I assigned doubled the Setspeed from 0.2 to 0.4. Because the Animtree allows blending between the animations the fact that Penguin moves faster causes the animation to run off the 'Fast' animation - which is completely controlled by a blendbyspeed node. This node allows you to combine two animations, for example we have a walk and a run. The blend by speed gives you the ability to produce the animation depending on a set speed, so if Penguin is running at  a speed of 0.2, then the 'slow' animation will be registered. But if you change penguins speed to 0.4, the 'fast' animation is registered.
Finally, the last motion speed is the sprint, which requires both the jog and fast walk functions to be simultaneously pressed (Left Shift and Q). If you're wondering, I did base it off Assassins Creed.


Climbing Ladders

I added in the ladder animation. I'm trying to weigh up which is more appropriate to have, basic ladders or try out wall climbing. I've done some research into a good climbing system but the scripts are pretty much withheld by everyone who was successful, and it does seem a little complex for me to even attempt. So I kind of have to stick with ladders for now. Until I can get a good wall scaling motion; up down left and right - its boring ladders for penguin.

Basic Snow material set-up

I remember seeing a you tube video of someone who set up a shader for snow to appear on top of an object, no matter of position or rotation. So I thought it would be cool if I could implement this too, and a quick search through epic games forums pointed me towards a simple material set-up that does, on a more basic level, exactly that. And all I have to do is Lerp the diffuse with a constant snow texture and it should work every time. I tested it out on this pillar (udk's). Works on Penguin too, but its not needed on him.

So far it's looking promising, but I feel the need to continue to push and see what I can produce within my technical limitations. Then I remember my true purpose for this project which is game art, not game programming. I've got the basics set up, material functions are solid so I guess all that's left is to begin world creating. But before I begin, I strongly believe more concepting is required, so there's my next step.

Character Unlocked!

an agile, acrobatic staff wielding Rock-hopper. No name still- seriously terrible at naming things.

Into the deep.

I don't know how well this will look on other monitors with the darkness and what not but anyway this is a design for an underwater segment leading up to the previous concept (if you can see it)

Bringing it all together.

First things first, as much fun as it is to concept I can't but help worry on the fact that I'm blindly making stuff up without much point to them - so I though it'd be best to settle on a plot and direction for the level so I can focus on pushing that further. Fortunately the idea can still tie together what I've already done, but its going to be helpful from this point on. I've decided that the objective is to get from A-B, by various exploration methods like climbing, crawling and swimming (simple enough right?). A-B will provide the player with as much eye-candy as possible, which is why concepting is important. And finally - for Point B, Ideally I want a confrontation between Penguin and Thrallhalla...If I could Id set up a boss fight I would be overjoyed- but my struggle here is technical and personal limitations such as time and setting the mechanics up.

The main theme of the journey will be 'Approaching danger' like with most games and films, environments become more reflective of their present evil as you progress. Priorities are visual stimulation rather than game play mechanics, I just don't think I'll have the time to set everything I'd like up.

Anyway, heres a sketch of an approach towards Thrallhalla's domain.
I had two ideas - The water pool at the bottom will be where'd you surface from, and the path leading towards this would be an underwater stage. You would simply climb out the water onto the snowy path and make way for the gate.
The Second idea was the water pool would extend from a narrow waterway valley/cavern which you could use a row boat to travel on. probably would be cooler.