After I had sent the second version to my tutor for review and he’d responded with some suggestions, I made some of the minor changes and edited it all together ready for submission.

This project has challenged me in almost all areas of 3d modelling and animation in Unreal. I have learned many new skills in order to create something that I’m proud of, along with developing skills I already possesed. I am very confident that from here on out I will be a better animator and modeller and am ready to attempt even more detailed and complex projects.

When all of the assets have been completed with thier textures made and exported, it is now time to send all of the files including the FBX files of all the models and the texture maps I exported of each one over to the game development team.

Here they can import all of the work I completed into the Unreal Engine enviroment and place them where ever they’re needed within each level. First they will import the FBX files into Unreal and place each one into their own folder where after this is completed, the texture files can all be imported too. The team will then make materials in Unreal, using my texture maps from Substance Painter and attatch them to each of my models where they see fit.

After the team members have placed all the models in the games enviroment and all the other aspects of the game like the level design, VFX, sound design, character design, animations and mechanics to name some of the other roles within the project, the game is packaged and ready to go.

Here are some of my assets in the final game.

In this shot we can see the Gear assets i developed as a collectable in the game for the player to gather as they complete the levels.

In this shot we can see the Hammer assets I developed which are being used as obstacles the player has to avoid, along with the small spike asset that the player also must manuver around to avoid losing a life. In this shot also we can see the crane and buildings assets I made as background assets to build up the scene along with my modular scaffolding asset featured in the foreground.

In this shot we simply see another obstacle asset I created in the Wrecking Ball swinging from side to side that the player must avoid.

Overall I am very happy with the work I completed and love how each of my assets turned out in the final game. Given more time i’m sure as a group we could polish everything off and have a very good project on our hands but in the time we were given we created something each of us can be very proud of.

Here is a link to a video of gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8InOCkDTE&list=LL&index=1

When I had completed the model designs I was assigned for the game project, I now had to give each of the models textures in order to add them to the game.

I was important that I made the models with texturing in mind so that i had an easier time completing that task when I got to it. I made sure that while modelling my assets that I kept the UV maps as simple and tidy as possible as I went to avoid having to unwrap all the complicated meshes at the very end. This also allowed me to duplicated any repeating or copied meshes with completed UV’s instead if having to unfold and pack all of the same meshes UV’s each time. Doing this meant I now had all my assets completed, along with proper UV maps and materials assigned to the required parts of the models, so now it’s time to move over to Adobe Substance Painter.

With substance the process of texturing my models is fairly simple. All i have to do in import the exported FBX files from Maya where I modelled the assets and from here I can start adding textures. I bake the textures on to the model when I import into substance painter so that the pre-existing materials that substance painter provides work perfectly on the model. Because I made sure to allocate a different material in Maya to the materials needed on the FBX files, it became a task of simply dragging and dropping the required materials on the each part of the models and playing with the setting of each layer in order to get the results that I wanted. I had to do this with each model that I created and when I was done I had to export each of the texture maps into folders in order to send them over to the game development team so that they can import each model into the game enviroment.

After enuring that I set Substance painter up to export in a format suitable for Unreal Engine, I exported each of the models texture maps into organised files and places them in a shared folder and sent it to my group so they could easily import my models with all their required textures in to the game.

When it was time to start production on the game, we collectively decided as a group what each member would have to do in order to complete the game in the best quality we could. It was important to us to assign roles to people that they were confident and comfortable with but also have a level of challenge in there so that we learn along the way.

I was assigned the Prop Modelling role and therefore I was part of the art team that had to make the assets for the game project in order to make the game look the way we had designed it to look. Each prop had to be designed and modelled in line with the “art bible” we created as a team so that all of the assets in the final product all looked the same and worked in continuity with each other.

As a team, we made a list of all of the assets that we thought we would need in the game and then together assigned asssets to each of the 3D modelling members of the group. The workload was distubuted fairly, meaning that people who were modelling bigger, or more detailed models, had a less quanitity of models to complete were as those who were designing and modelling smaller assets were given more to complete.

My models I was assigned were; a wrecking ball, 3 buildings, a crane, a gear/cog pick-up item, a hammer obstacle, a lauchpad, a moving/rising platform, a large buzzsaw, industrial scaffolding and a spikes obstacle.

Each asset had to be created in line with the art guide we came up with as a group, here are the assets I created.

When I was designing my assets for the game, it was important to me that I made each one clear to the other group members how they were made and how they can be used within the game. I tried to, on most models, give eac material a base colour to show were I intented the materials to go. Each asset file was organised and labelled so that the other members of the group weren’t confused when accessing any of the files. I also made sure that each model fit the style and comunicated with my team members throughout the design process.

Another thing I wanted to incorporate in the designs of my assets was a modular aspect. I wanted to design assets that would be able to be put together in lots of different ways so that thye could be reused naturally in the games enviroment without it looking like an obvious copy and paste of individual assests. The assests i’m refereing to here are the crane, the scaffoling, the buildings and the plaforms. Each of these assets are designed so that you can place pieces of them in different ways to have slightly different assets in the enviroment. For example, the crane is made up of individual blocks of metal frames and these frames can be duplicated as many times as is needed to make the crane as tall or as long as is required for the enviroment. The same with the scaffolding, it is modelled in a way were the frames of each part of the scaffolding can be duplicated and placed in different locations in order to make a new layout of scaffolding for where ever it is required. The platform was designed as an idividual asset or a group of assets and has the fuction of moving up and down with what look like hydraulic arms. This is so they can sit at whatever height or angle of rotation that may be required for the level design without having to create multiple of each asset. And again with the buildings, each of the added sections to the main structures can be rearranged with the other models to have a multitude of different visual outcomes.

Here is an image of the assets I built in order to make the crane modular as an example of how I designed my models.

To begin this module, we were given the choice of job roles that we would prefer to uptake in a group project based around making a game, as I enjoy 3D modelling and texturing I was assigned a prop modelling role within our group. The group came together and we started to discuss ideas.

Once we have been given our roles and put into groups we came together and started brainstorming ideas for our game. The theme of the project is ISLOATED…CONNECTED and so we based our brainstorming off that. When discussing the ideas we made a list of all our ideas and cut them down into our best ideas, to eventually settle on a 2.5 dimension, speed platformer, based in a future world where robots created to serve humans can compete in a game show to escape to their freedom by completing an obstacle course.

A discord was set up and we assigned pre-production work to each member of the grouo to help conceptualise our ideas and hone in on a single plan to start creating the game. Here are some of the refrences I gathered to base our idea from. Here we can see a clear theme, a retro futuristic setting. The enviroment is built up with huge towering structures and curved metalic buildings spanning far off in to the distance. I also like how some of the references here are set in space yet it is still bright and lit adding a nice contrast from the black sky to the stars and bright, bold, warm colours used to paint the landscapes. Another thing to notice is all the futurisitc vehicles littered around the scenes, whether they are parked up beside buildings or in a line of traffic flying through the sky, they feature heavily within the theme of these references.

And here are some of the sketch work I designed as props and enviroments for the project as well as a colour scheme I came up with for the game. I wanted to first capture the colour scheme we would aim for in the development of the game and by looking at the reference images i gathered alog with the others in the group, I was able to come up with and produce this colour pallette for the team to use throughout the design of the game. I then used this to create a sketch of how I imagined the games enviroment and levels to look like. I visioned a built up contrustion site, as we discussed as a group would be the setting for our game, set in a future that was imagined long ago. Set on a planet where the sky is deep space and all the colours are bright and vibrant. In the sketch you can see how I imagined the character to slide through the level and get around obstacles. Another thing you can visualise is the background assets like the cranes towering over the enviroment and reaching the stars in the background. Finally, I made a rough layout of how I imagined the game to actully look while playing, a 2.5D platformer were you jump over gaps and avoid obstacles to get to the end of a level, with the construction site in the background.

When we had all the ideas gathered together we settled on the final idea for the game. It was now time to assign everyone thier production roles for the game.

For this assignment we were tasked with making an 8-11 second animation for our portfolio. It is to be animated along side a sound bite in order to help time the animation just like the 11 second club competitions where animators take sounds and and put them in a seemingly out of context animation with to goal of giving them a different and often funny new context or meaning.

For my sound bite, I took a clip from my favorite podcast “The Basement Yard” and came up with an artistic visualisation of the conversation they are having.

Here is my story board for the ideas I had when brainstorming the shots for the animation.

• The first shot sets the scene for the art style and the location specified in the sound clip, using the Arizona state flag and the shot of the house with an animated “sold” sign to point out the “homeowners” quote.
• The next shot shows a character, meant to be the aforementioned home owner and the black light he has that’s mentioned in the clip. Here he shines the light into his eyes which blinds him for some comedic effect.
• For this shot we have the scorpion character having the black light shown on him and glowing due to the bio-luminescence these creatures possess and that’s mentioned in the clip.
• There’s a static TV shot here to show the second host stopping the first one from finishing what he’s saying in order to get straight what he’s trying to say which leads into the shot after where he confuses bio-luminescence for translucence and thinks that his friend is trying to convince him scorpions are invisible. In the animation, when the invisibility factor is mentioned, the scorpion becomes barely visible instead of glowing to show the confusion.
• The last shots are of a man face palming in disappointment that his friend is being dumb and when the second host laughs at his own mistake the shot changes to the other characters in the animation laughing along with him.

Once I had decided on the shots I wanted for the animation I started to design and make my assets. For this I needed to come up with an art style for my animation. After looking up some references and ideas for simplistic and aesthetic styles, iIdecided I wanted my animation to be in a pixel art style, so I used a website called “Pixilart” (https://www.pixilart.com/draw) to design the assets.

Here are some of the references of the art style I found while researching how I’m aiming for in my animation to look. I’m looking for a consistent style that looks like an old two dimensional video game such as Super Nintendo Mario Bros. or Gameboy Pokemon games.

When I had all the assets designed and made in a way to make animating the short clip a more efficient process, e.g. separating moving parts like limbs or facial features in the asset, I imported all of the assets I needed for each animated shot into After Effects in order to make transparent animated clips to then use in Premier Pro.

Before I did the main animation work, I took the assets I had designed and blocked out the order of the shots in After Effects. This was to help me visualise where each shot in the animation would come in the timeline according to the sound clip I had chosen and how long each animated clip would have to be.

Here is a screenshot of the After Effects file where I animated the movements of the scorpion asset and some references I used in order to get the key frames correct on the animation. I used a kids TV that showed a stylised vision of a scorpion and I looked at a video for animating spider legs to gauge on to animate the legs of my scorpion.

When I had all the still assets made, such as the background images for each scene, and animated all the moving clips, like the torch shining on the scorpion and it turning invisible etc, it was time to edit them all together in Premier Pro. It was here I included the sound bite clip and edited the clips to match up with the context which was made easier as I had already animated the clips to length I needed them thanks to blocking out the whole animation in after effects.

Here are my animated clips I made for the project.

Here is my Premier Pro timeline. The pink and purple blocks represent the visual clips and the blue and green show the sound clips used in the animation.

After I had all the assets in the right place, I used effects in Premier Pro and key framed different digital effects to the clips I animated in After Effects in order to add more depth to the animation, such as Glow to the scorpion or a transparent look. Here are some examples.

To finish off the project I downloaded little sound effects to place into the project to enhance to visuals I implemented into he context of the clip. And that was me ready to export, render and upload.

To animate a jump, there are 7 poses you must make your character hit for a natural movement.

The first pose is a NEUTRAL pose which allows the viewer to see where the character is starting the jump from. It sets up the structure of the jumo and the characteristics that the animated character has that will define how they will complete the movement.

The second pose shows the character getting ready to push the force through it’s body in order to get the height it requires to push itself off of the ground. The character will usually get lower and bend it’s legs in ANTICIPACTION of the jump before it exerts the force to move.

The next pose will show that force that was built up in the previous frame being exerted in order to lift the character off the ground to fulfil the movement we are trying to create. The character will extend the legs in order to JUMP off the ground but in this frame is still in CONTACT with the surface it is jumping from.

In the middle of this cycle is the character shown suspended in MID-AIR at the peak of it’s jump. This usually has the character tucked in to give more height but can very due to the characteristics or personality you want to give your character in the animation.

After this we will see the character decreasing in height from the peak of it’s jump in order to come back to the ground. The character will FALL from the height it reached in it’s jump and regain CONTACT with the surface it originally had before the jump.

Now the character has hit the surface again it must show the force from the jump effecting the character and the RECOVERY pose it takes doing so. This pose will show the character bending it’s kneeds on landing back on the surface giving weight to the jump.

Finally the character must return to the initial pose in order for the loop to be fluid and natural.

Due to my character jumping on the Moon, the low gravity means it will stay longer in the air and the movements will be slower. Here is some reference ideas I had and how I Used them to create my Jump animation.

A run cycle can be broken up into 5 main poses:

CONTACT – DOWN – PUSH – UP – CONTACT BACK

Just like a walk cycle, the first pose in a run cycle will be the CONTACT pose. This pose sets the character up to start the movement sequence from firm on the surface they will be running on.

Next in the run cycle sequence of poses comes the character getting ready to begin running. This is where the character gets lower to the surface they are standing on in order to generate force to push off of in order to begin the stride. The character gets DOWN lower in stance ready to push off with the contact foot to give the illusion of momentum. This step is more important here than with a walk cycle as it shows the character putting more effort into their movement to allow them to travel faster.

The third main pose shows the character using their contact leg to lift them from the surface slightly and PUSH their body forward and slightly up to start the run. The contact leg will be further behind the characters body than the last pose to show the momentum of where the character starts to run and the added height shows the extra effort it would take to move faster.

After the character you are trying to make run pushes off the ground to begin their stride, the next step is to show the character mid-air. During a run, for a small fraction of time you are suspended in the air due to the force of your leg pushing against the ground. The more force you put into your run, the faster you will go and the longer you will be in the air mid stride. To show this in a run cycle, we must lift the character UP into the air for a small period of time to show the force they are exerting from their leg in order to make them move faster.

Once all of these poses have been mapped out and completed in the cycle, it is time to bring the character back down and make CONTACT BACK with the surface. This is the same as the first pose just with the limbs swapped in position in order to have a natural movement pattern and should also show the character landing with more force than a walk as there is more effort being put into it differently than the walk cycle.

Now that you have one stride done you now have to reverse the process of these poses back to the starting pose in order to be able to make the characters movements loop naturally so that you can add it into any scene to give the illusion that the animated character is running.

For my character reference, I used real footage of astronauts on the Moon to collect references of each of the main poses I needed for my run cycle. Due to the low gravity on the Moon, instead of a run so to speak, my character will almost bob up and down along the terrain. After some research into walking and running on the surface of the Moon, it became clear that if you were to walk naturally, you would go a whole lot slower than if you used this small jumping movement which I interpreted as a run on the Moon.

Here are the poses from my animation:

A walk cycle is broken down into four main poses.

CONTACT – PASSING – CONTACT BACK – PASSING BACK

The initial CONTACT pose is the frame in which your cycle begins. This starts off the cycle with the character firm on the surface they are walking on and about to push off into their first step. This pose dictates the form of the walk and the characteristics you want the character to portray.

The second pose is a middle frame to blend the walk together and it’s there to show the characters limbs PASSING the body in order to take the step and land into the next pose. These frames can often be in awkward angles as it is just meant to show the movement of the characters from one pose to the next the give the illusion of walking.

The third pose is basically the opposite of the first pose as it’s another CONTACT pose however this time the limbs switch sides and the ones that were at the front the first time have now gone to the BACK and vice versa. This pose is like a middle point in your walk cycle as from this frame the character is now aiming to go back to it’s original contact pose in order to let the cycle run smoothly. Sometime, to show that this is the opposite to the initial pose, the back arm and leg for example on a human would be a darker colour to show the movement easier that the limbs are actually passing behind the body.

Finally the last important pose for the walk cycle shows the character moving from the second contact pose to show the limbs PASSING BACK across the body in order to get back to the initial contact pose. This again is just the opposite of the first passing pose just with the limbs flipped in order to retain that illusion that the animated character is walking throughout the cycle.

After you plan out these main poses for your character, you will have the basics for a walk cycle. Remember the character needs to return to the initial contact pose in order for the cycle to run properly but once you have that the character will repeatedly walk naturally.

Along with the main four poses in your walk cycle, you also have to add frames inbetween these main poses to give the character a more natural walk. Normal people dont only have four poses throughout their walking movement, there are hundreds of unique poses in between that make up a real life persons walk. To capture this in aniamtion and your characters walk cycle, it is necessary to put frames with slight movements to body parts to make the entire sequence more natural.

For my walk cycle I will be using a Spaceman walking on the moon. From general knowledge and looking at reference images and videos, the walk will me floatier and slower that a character that would be walking on earth to give the illusion that he is in fact on the moon.

Here are the reference images I got from video clips online with sketched skeletons to plan out my walk cycle.

And here is how the reference helped me create the main poses for my Spaceman animation.

A showreel is a short video that showcases your best work in small clips so that anyone interested in your work has easy access to your best material.

A good showreel must be:

• Make it noticable – The companies and the employers that are hiring are very busy people. They see plenty of showreels and see a lot of talented people. It is important to make sure that your showreel stands out and captures the eye of the employer or hiring manager so they remember you.
• Only use your best work – You could throw every single piece of work you’ve ever done into a video and call that your showreel but this will not do any you favours. The goal is impress. If you add dozens of clips and make it cluttered and too long, no one is going to watch it, but if you only include your best work and edit it into a short 30-60 sec clip of amazing footage you created, that’s more likely to draw attention to yourself.
• Be subtle – Too much information can be off putting to anyone who just wants to watch your content. Be confident with the pieces of work that you choose to show and let it do the talking for you.
• Add personality – Do not be basic. This is to show who you are and the work that you can do. Add little bits into your showreel design to make it unique to you.
• Tailor to the specific industry – If you are applying to a VFX role, showcase your VFX work prominently. If its a modelling role that you want then show off your best 3D modelling works.
• Simple title cards – Get them out of the way and let the footage roll. It’s all about the creative content, make sure they know your name and your role and let your work impress teh viewers without cluttering the video with title cards.
• Keep it professional – As mush as you want to show personality in your showreel you are also trying to promote yourself as a good employee. That not only means someone who can do the job but also a decent, respectible and professional individual as well. If you add content that is rude, offence, unprofessional and/or immature, a comapny could see this immediately and never want to hire you.