All Done and Dusted?

So we handed in the project and I'm sure most the class is now playing Resident Evil 5 (including you Jared - we know what your like deep down :P) anyway I just thought I'd post up a quick comment as to the over outcome of the project for you all to read and really sort of tie off any loose ends.

Sam and I managed:

To create an interactive piece which engages the viewer directly making them choose what they want and when they want to do it.

To add in extra areas such as a 'map' and 'extra's' as our rendering wasn't time consuming at all.

Reference using layers correctly - we managed to get our head around 3 different layers in a blank masterfile (in which everything was a reference) and approximately we worked through around 150 Maya files in total throughout this project - 20 alone on the vehicle, around 40 on the character, and the rest were scenes and different renders - and we didn't lose our way in there.

We (moreso I) managed to get to grips with the 'button-side' of Flash and Dreamweaver.

We (moreso Sam) managed to learn pretty much from scratch texturing and get GOOD at it!! (well played Sam)

We also developed all our skills in general learning a little bit in each area - eg Pre-rendered backgrounds, Lighting, modeling and a whole host of things within maya, Exporting files, Basic Housekeeping of the files to keep it tidy, Scales, Cameras, Priorising and many many more.

We also managed to keep to the Poly Count as well which I'm very happy about.

We didn't however:

Have time to add more additions such as Body Work Options - animate the character as much as we would have liked - blend shapes etc on the mouth and eyebrows.

We didn't argue... a few ups and downs but we managed to overcome them with a simple discussion over the matter and crumpets... well not really crumpets... but a note for the future....mmmm crumpets :)

Need extra time and STUCK to the deadline and actually finished on Friday afternoon - just made a front cover etc on Friday afternoon.

My Evaluation:

I really think the project went well considering Sam and I had very VERY limited experience in Flash and Dreamweaver (coding)  To be honest that was the hard part but as we left a week and a half to do this we managed to pull through.  Mustn't go without saying Max Saunders gave us a quick into into Flash and Dreamweaver (2 hours we owe him) he was our on call help on evening after we'd been doing things one way... we called him and he went - your doing it the REALLY long way.  Even now the entire html coding part is not correct with the Flash files slightly wrong.  There's a few glitches in some transitions due to poor exporting by Sam and I however they are so unnoticeable I'm not going to let them get me down too much.

The Team:

Sam and I really did pull something out of the bag I feel.  We were in when we needed to be to discuss matters and for me to teach him Maya (texturing and basic lighting eg prenumba angles and light fog etc) and for him to teach me more 2D and texturing techniques - being a wizz at photoshop and all.  Sam's 2D concept work really set the standard for the entire piece and we attempted to create the feel to a certain extent within the Maya work during the modeling and texturing stages.  As we were learning off of each other throughout the project I don't really know how it could have gone much more smoothly.  I'd like to think it was because he and I were good mates and got along previously and respected one another, not only as people but also in each others knowledge in different areas.  As we had these different areas of expertise I think we were a strong team from the word go.... At least I like to think so anyway.  I'm not sure if he'd want to work with me again but I'd be happy to have him by my side once more working on a future project.

The Final Outcome:

As I've already mentioned there were a few glitches but a friend - Max Saunders (again) said he may be able to put it up on Rave On Air - if we can get the glitches out.... I'm considering building a website soon to be honest - possibly over the summer holidays and then hopefully have all my work up on there for the world to view (and criticsm and rip apart and ignore and hate and to just genearlly be disgusted at :p) so yeah.... maybe one day soon you'll be logging on to my site! Lets hope (previous attempts of people building me a site have failed however this has boosted my confidence somewhat).  The final Site was fairly good however I'm a bit bummed out that we'd have to re-render for different Internet Browsers... kind of annoying but hey - different formats I suppose need different things involved.  Our final site plays best on *confused face*... I think its the latest version of Internet Explorer - not the older one thats for sure and definately not Safari (Mac).  I'll probably post up a video we made (as we can't upload the entire site up onto the blogger I don't think) sometime soon.

Things I'd Change:

Probably get the character slightly better and attempt to do different pieces of body work on the car WHILST modeling and that way its all easier and adjustable.  I'd probably do a little more research as well.  I dabbled from game to game however I look at SO many different pieces and games each day its hard to keep up with them - Sam and I pretty much everyday looked at a game but didn't blog it up which was a major bummer but.... hey.... we are learning so thats all that counts.  Its what you know - not what you can prove you know by writing on a blog! haha.

And thats about it for this blog (other than the final film).  I'm still slowly updating www.dwshufflebotham.blogspot.com so keep in check with that if your interested.

Things I need to write later for Sam

I'm at work now... So I'll type up these things a little later for the text conversion - remember Sam needs to be in Black and not white like all the other writing. Hope you had a good birthday yesterday :p.

Insert about Internet explorer and lag,
Insert explaining what our focuses were for the project (just in case Jared doesn't understand the subtley in which we explained it within the interactive side/the interactive for some reason doesn't work and he has to watch the video)
Insert explaining which area/page to click on within the mass index of links within 'SITE'.

Also write up evaluation of project for Jared and for Sam and obviously myself so that we can all learn on what needs to be improved on next term and next project.

The Time Has Come

Project nearly done now....just been playing the ALMOST final final and it doesn't play smoothly on Safari - a friend of mine - Max Saunders who helped a bit with the dreamweaver side of things in this project - told me that all web browsers may play it differently... this might have something to do with it so Jared I hope you play it in Windows Internet Explorer as it works like a dream in that :)

Finished Map...What you get Zoomed

This is the zoomed in version of the detailed map I made for the project.... accessible from the start up menu... if you want to look at it :)  Getting the sounds now....Sam... Need writing for - Jeep concept if your still up man.

I don't really like the map as it turns out... I find its a bit plain and boring but hey... I added a little more here and there and it'll do.... I think it'll fit in once we've added in a couple of crease marks here and there so that it looks as though its been folded - one of Sams ideas though but I think its a good one.

Eventful

Today has seen a high and a low.... We finished our videos for our project and collected the voices someone kindly recorded for us :) We managed to get all the files we need into Flash now and all the buttons working appropriately however still have a slight problem which I aim to rectorfy tomorrow morning in the early hours... fun oh fun .... while Sam is importing the sounds which I find tonight.

Sounds for tonight -

Gun Shot.

lights flicker on

Cha-Ching? MONEY MONEY MONEY

Suspension / Neon Sound

Think there was text I needed from you Sam... not sure what it was saying though.... hmmm

Oh...and Sam.... I have an idea about tomorrow with the Flash file.... I'll try making EVERYTHING bigger (if thats possible.... but I still don't know if that'll work but HEY I'll give it a go! lol

Mini Map-Map

Forgot the Images I imported.... there they are.... all vector based images meaning they can be scaled as big/small as needs be :)

Its still not finished but hey.... Thought I'd post the progress.  Idea is that you'll be able to pan around the map... but would have to work out the lagistics (not sure about the spelling of that word..) of this process as it would involve a number of extra files.... hmmmmm... perhaps just have the green box highlighted.... thats the initial thought I had anyway.  I still need to add to these images but as you can see I've made the SafeHouse Logo and a few others.  Will probably finish this off tomorrow.

Tonight...

I've been relaxing and kicking back 2night really... Along with doing a lil bit of work on the side.  I know Sam and I previously had discussed a number of different posibilities and therefore I just thought I could probably do one in one night... so thats my aim for now.  Build and Improve on what I already have.  I'm not going to let on what I'm doing just yet but hopefully it'll all be worth it in the final render :) Providing it all goes Smoooooothly.

Jared had a quick look at our project today and he seemed to be happy but also said something very valid...  ' if you find yourselves with spare time think about how you can improve...' we cut corners originally to fit things in - eg we now don't have a body work alternative etc... so maybe we'll have time to add that in tomorrow.  I'm doing the majority of the Flash parts at the moment I suppose as I have my External HD and arranging all the files.  I'm happy with the way its working out but I am going to teach Sam exactly what I'm doing - DETERMINED!!! I'll GET YA SAM!! lol

As the project comes to a close

I look back now and realise I'm very happy the way Sam and I have been getting along through the project.  For the last few days at uni we've really pulled up our socks and achieved more than we ever could have imagined.  Theres still bits and bobs to do but I'm so estatic with it all now.  I drove away from uni smiling away... happy with the result we have achieved and thinking of other details we can add to the car and other areas of the project!!! HOW EXCITING! :)

Team Ramblers are still going STRONG!

Tonight...

I've been collecting sounds tonight from my vast external hard drive... it went ok and got quite a few which I'll present to Sam to listen to tomorrow... Not much to show but it was done. Thats all for now!

Digitized

One of the earlier drawings I did... Turned Digital.  Havn't finished it yet but this could well go into the photo album style of part of the interactive game. Quite happy with the way its going considering I'm not that confident with 2D work.  It still needs tweaking...eg... tyre on the back a bit lower and a few other extras I've added in.  Will also be doing a front profile style - its what I used when building the Vehicle in Maya - but tidyed up for the final piece.

This Morning...

Woke Up at like 8 this morning which is weird considering its a Saturday but hey... I managed to get my head around the whole Flash Dilemma and now have created multiple URLs to load from shot to shot... there's a slight glitch between each one as it has to open a new page (I think this is probably inevitable as I'm using a number of different pages).  Anyway - Progress report.  I managed to program an entire shot - from Opening Scene all the way to the safe - granted only three shots but thats a good start so far :D Shows I understand it a lil bit at least and am not afraid to use it!!...  Looks like the interactivity is going to happen - just a shame about the glitch between frames.

Loading Bar

An example of the bars that can be used. Wipped this one up together.  Rendered on Alpha channel so we can use them right away and just literally slip them into position or can alter them even more in AE :D  I have made about 10 other ones of theses but to be honest I don't need to show all of them.  This is just development ... like all the work that comes up here.

Rob Ray Tester

Just a quick play blast before I left Uni this evening. Sam - thinking I'm going to render this tomorrow morning on a PC before people arrive - let me know what you think. Remember its the area inside the dotted line that'll be seen. Changes can be made - as for making him move over towards the chalkboard.... think that'll be more difficult as the rig isn't so generous. I have an alternative though - a side bar or even just the rob ray option (as you mentioned) and not the other options.

If needs be alterations can be made Sam... please remember that. :D

Also it's not playing all of it... gotta love blasts - I've done to the safe hold on the safe opening and then Close the safe as well. Figured could play it backwards if its possible to do so to return to the other menu!

Today

Today basically consisted of me experimenting with Flash and Dreamweaver for about an hour or two attempting to get the correct method that'll allow Sam and I to drop our film over the top.  I think it'll work best as Tgas as Flash can sort these out one per frame.  The reason we'll have to use Dreamweaver will be so that the music is continuous behind and always playing and doesn't skip between renders.  If we were to cut the radio out and have sounds just playing over the Mov file this could work but then it may well feel very seperated from one another.  To make you feel at home - Dreamweaver is the best way using HTML coding.  I wipped together a mock up today however its not possibly to post it up on the blog as it is the incorrect format.  All it is is coloured buttons linking page to page.  Its not quite finished yet as Sam has given the idea of having a 'photo album' style for the concepts which'll be really nice to have them in there as well to show his work off.

Sam and I also discussed the renders for the LOD medium and Far... need to speak to Jared about this as  we are hoping to put the images in with LOD in the photo album area of the project.  Still interactive and able to choose which to view at your digression.  LOVELY.  Think its beginning to get a bit too complex now... but damn it if we can do it it'll be really good.

Heres a few notes from my day (I need them and thats why I'm posting them up - I lose paper.... not Blog sites)

Dreamweaver. Html

Media

Audio.swf - size 1x1

File Export movie/desktop/master

Import master into it.

Render from Ae - 25fps

Flast - Hit - Hit Area

All others can be blank Key frames for an invisible button.

As I have never created anything on Flash and Dreamweaver I think that I'm doing quite well at developing my skills and coding knowledge.  It takes time but why not learn things like this now and make it worth while.

Lighting Tests

Different colours of renders altered in After Effects. I think we like the original which was the cooler colours but not too cool as it looks flat.

Happy Hundredth Post :D

Just a quick post to celebrate this blogs Birthday...ahhhh isn't that sweet :D 

Second Light test

All lights flickering but the light obviously doesn't look like it's coming from the light bulbs and therefore kinda rubbish. This'll be sorted soon don't worry :D

Sam Buddy, We got a New Toy!!

Made this fully ready to Crack open with moveable handles.  You turn the handle and it ACTUALLY moves like a safe! :) quite happy with this even though it's mainly primitives it'll do the job in the background of the interior I think.  Poly Count isn't too high either considering we still have plenty to play with!  The texture I have applied probably won't stick as I don't like it too much but then again I'm not too worried about it considering that it's only a backdrop so won't lose any sleep over it.  Happy with 2 hours of work I think.

Textures were acutally just put on in 5mins.... so meh.

Its 20 past one so meh...

I haven't finished it so meh...

I'll see everyone whos in at 9.30 2mr ....mehhh

Referencing

So as you can probably see Sam and I have made some leeway on the old workload front.  Combining our efforts we managed to figure out how to reference it all correctly and now we have one master file that'll always be updated.

We also began to tweak the lighting in the different files as so when they are referenced they will be updated and the master file will still look good.  This is really quite easy as using Maya on a PC at Rave allows us to open up two different Maya files at once and simply keep hitting reload the reference file - just reloading one file (as its the character we were working on at this moment in time).  I believe we prefered the third shot down of Ray and the car in the end.  The first one was too orange and it looked a bit ...sun-bed tanned haha. Second one was the original (sorry about the confusion its this blog uploading in a crazy order).

Importing Not Fun

Just a quick note, Sam and I attempted to import something into our scene.... not looking pretty. Something to do with the textures. I don't know. If we can't get this to work we will probably either render seperately (this was one of the ideas we were going to go with anyway.) To get the correct angles we can use referencing I hope.

Ps...I know I didn't delete the lights in the top image and its not to do with overlaying mesh!

Make HIM MOVE IT

This is Ray...he moves now... IN COLOUR!!!

Obviously the animation is REALLY REALLY basic at the moment... as I just wanted to test that the body doesn't deform in any major way with a little tester of the arms moving as this is the main thing he will need to move in the scene.

Rays Guna Cap Ya

Just a few screen shots on whats going down with team Ramblers. Almost there now!

The 7th Guest

Ok so this really is old school and I really DO remember it! Pretty scary thought but hey. So anyway after watching

this shot through once I took a note of the most relevant times ... as half the time in the game you are just walking up

to doors and not getting anywhere as you get a waggly skeleton finger saying NO! I don't actually know if I ever

completed it, I can't really remember. Below are the interesting times :D

1 Min in you can just see him walk around a lot if you like... does it for a long time!

2mins 50 secs the camera DIVES into the pool table where the balls start looking at you as you go and then

obviously you end up in the kitchen (I THINK the layout explained this as the kitchen was below that room)

4mins 15seconds theres a scene full of people really summing up the game. Your a guest and there is someone

TOYING with all the previous guests and now YOU yourself. WHAT a predicament!!

6 Mins in you have a secret passage THROUGH the fireplace.... obviously leading to a door.

at 6mins 35 seconds we have the CREM a la Crem of interactiveeenessss's. Its a game which you have to play.

This is what the 7th Guest game is all about, tricks and puzzles you have solve so that you can progress and

move on and STAY ALIVE!

I recall enjoying playing this game a long time ago however I vaguely remember it. It's only til I was researching

Pre-rendered Backgrounds that it popped back into my head :D

Pre_rendered Info!

WHAT IS IT!? Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different layer and equiptment (typically one that is more powerful than the hardware used for playback).

The term pre-rendered describes anything that is not rendered in real-time. This includes content that could have been run in real-time with more effort on the part of the developer (e.g. video that covers a large number of a game's environments without pausing to load, or video of a game in an early state of development that is rendered in slow-motion and then played back at regular speed).

Advantages and Disadvantages: The advantage of pre-rendering is the ability to use graphic models that are more complex and computationally intensive than what can be rendered in real-time, due to the possibility of using multiple computers over extended periods of time to render the end results.  The disadvantage of pre-rendering, in the case of video game graphics, is a generally lower level of interactivity, if any, with the player. Another negative side of pre-rendered assets is that changes cannot be made during gameplay. A game with pre-rendered backgrounds is forced to use fixed camera angles, and a game with pre-rendered video generally cannot reflect any changes the game's characters might have undergone during gameplay (such as wounds or customized clothing) without having an alternate version of the video stored. This is generally not feasible due to the large amount of space required to store pre-rendered assets of high quality. However, in some advanced implementations, such as in Final Fantasy VIII, real-time assets were composited with pre-rendered video, allowing dynamic backgrounds and changing camera angles.

Another problem is that a game with pre-rendered lighting cannot easily change the state of the lighting in a convincing manner.

Usage Of the PreRendered Backgrounds: One of the first games to extensively use pre-rendered graphics and full motion video was The Seventh Guest (which I actually remember - scary thought - hopefully going to get some images of this).  Released in 1992 as the first personal computer game exclusively on CD-ROM, the game was hugely popular, although reviews from critics were mixed. The game featured pre-rendered video sequences that were at a Resolution of 640x320 at 15 fps a feat previously thought impossible on personal computers. Shortly after the release of Myst made the use of pre-rendered and CD-ROMs even more popular.  The use of pre-rendered backgrounds and movies also was made popular by the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy franchises on the original Playstation, both of which use prerendered backgrounds and movies extensively to provide a visual presentation that is far greater than the console can provide with real-time 3D. These games include real-time elements (characters, items, etc.) in addition to pre-rendered backgrounds to provide Interactivity. Often a game using pre-rendered backgrounds can devote additional processing power to the remaining interactive elements resulting in a level of detail greater than the norm for the host platform. In some cases the visual quality of the interactive elements is still far behind the prerendered backgrounds.  Some games also use 16-bit prerendered skybox, like Half-Life (Only Gold Src version), Re-Volt, Quake II, and others.

Recently Prerendered graphics are becoming rare in games with stronger real time rendering ability, making prerendered graphics unneeded.

CG movies: Such as Toy Story, Shrek and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within are entirely pre-rendered. Pre-rendered graphics are used primarily as cut scenes in modern video games, where they are also known as full motion video.

Other methods of Rendering?  Another increasingly common pre-rendering method is the generation of texture sets for 3D games, which are often used with complex real-time algorithms to simulate extraordinarily high levels of detail. While making Doom 3 id Software used pre-rendered models as the basis for generating normal, specular and diffuse lighting maps that simulate the detail of the original model in real-time.

Pre-rendered lighting is a technique that is losing popularity. Processor-intensive ray tracing algorithms can be used during a game's production to generate light textures, which are simply applied on top of the usual hand drawn textures.