Sp Dev. Diary #6 - Dec. 8-12, 2008

• Did some more concept sketches to work out details about how the wall panels would look and fit together.
• Put some simple colors over some of my sketches, to try and find a color scheme that would work.
  
• Downloaded the greeble plugin Henry showed me. It's great for adding randomn detailing to things like spaceships!
  
• Started modeling and texturing the sections of hallways.
  
• Also tested what the textures would look like with normal and specular maps
  
• E-mailed Hans back.
  
• Am now thinking about cutting out Massive from this project, as to make interesting agents might take up too much time (Maybe my Masters project could revolve around it? I still want to learn how to use it). It might be better to concentrate just on modeling. From what I've seen this week, the modeling and texturing itself is going to be a monstrous task!
  

SP Dev. Diary #5 - Dec. 2-7, 2008

• Did Section 1 of the Massive tutorials that come bundled with the documentation. Learned how to make a primitive body, and basic inputs and outputs. Got a simple character running around in circles.
• Watched some other tutorial videos, but found out a problem. Most of the videos don't work! need to see the tech support
• Got e-mails back from Hans about Massive.
  

SP Dev. Diary #4 - Nov. 23-28, 2008

• Not much progress made this week due to deadlines for other classes.
• Started this blog, which I'm going to use for all my production diary entries.
• Sent Hans Rijpkema an e-mail asking various things about how to work with Massive.
  

SP Dev Diary #2 - Nov. 10-16, 2008

• Drew more concept ideas.
• In class, Ellie suggested a cross section could be cool. Started thinking about perhaps making a cross section
  

SP Dev Diary #3 - Nov. 17-23, 2008

• Drew up a texture sheet for the hallways and rooms. Also started thinking about what props to use in the hallways as rooms. Things like pipiing, signs, control consoles, lighting, vents, etc.
• Planned out a schedule for the next few weeks, to try and organize the project better, and to see if I'll manage to do everything in time.
  

- Texture Sheet -

CPDV: Building Floorplans and Elevations

These are the current WIP designs and floorplans for the buildings that are going to be in the environment. Everything is subject to change as the project goes along, and things might change if the designs don't work well in 3D.

All these drawings were done in pencil on A4 graph paper. Later on in the process, the elevations are probably going to be colored in photoshop, to get an idea for the texturing of the buildings and what the completed building might look like.

- Chapel -

- Theater house/Ballroom -

- Main Building -

- Medical Center and Staff apartments -

SP Dev Diary #1 - Nov. 3-7, 2008

• Wrote up Specification, and handed it in to Oasis
• Drew some hallway concept art
• Drew up an initial floorplan. When I scanned it in, turns out some of the elevator shafts and stairways didn't match up across the floors. I fixed it in photoshop.
  

- Concept Art -

Peru references

A quck post to show the references I've been collecting for Peru and it's architecture.

Lunatic Asylum Reference images

Just some links to some good reference images for the lunatic asylum. None of these are in Peru unfortunately. Still great images though, some lovely abandoned and decaying places. I'll link to more stuff as I find it.

http://www.forbidden-places.net/exploracion-urbana-asilo-mental-de-hellingly#gal
These are particularly excellent!

http://www.disability.wa.gov.au/aboutdisability/disabilityserviceshistory/earlyservices.html
Floorplan, and period photo of old asylum

http://www.camh.net/News_events/Redeveloping_the_Queen_Street_site/History%20of%20the%20Queen%20Street%20Site/history_of_the_queen_street_site.html
a 19th century asylum

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055292694
An abandoned asylum with some interesting open spaces.

Portfolio Dev Learning Agreement Part #2

- Criteria For Success -

The criteria for success are fairly simple then. In order of importance, they are:

1. Fulfill the environment specifications - This is essentially just to do everything listed in the environment specification. Keep the model under 100,000 polygons, make it look Peruvian, make it easy to navigate, etc. If this is achieved, the project would be considered a pass.
2. Surpass the artistic 'quality' of the previous map - One of the more important goals is also to make the environment look better. This includes using polygons intelligently, so more can be given across to detailing, as well as making more detailed and varied textures. The buildings and textures in the original map were pretty bland, and a lot of polygons went towards making the mountainside. The environment hadn't been planned well, and therefore it suffered.
3. Artistic Goal - In the end, I'd like to approach the level of atmosphere and mesh/texture detail of the game screenshots below (Games shown are: Half-Life2, Resident Evil 4, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and The Witcher). NOTE: It will never be possible to reach the same level, due to limitations with the game engine. I want to get as close as possible, but without support for bump and normal mapping, and with only a simple lighting engine the graphical quality of these games are just out of reach.