Production

At the start of production, Luke showed us an environment-generating plugin within Blender. This was ground-breaking as it meant we could quickly generate a realistic environment and alter its appearance to suit our needs. After landing one I was happy with, I quickly began filling it out with different models, taking inspiration from the assets I sketched during the pre-production stage.

Creating the video game world

First, I created some cactuses. Those were very straightforward and took no time at all but were very effective at the one job they had – filling out space.

However, a desert isn’t made up of just sand and cactuses. Well, it is mostly. But not completely… So, I added a tree. At first, I wasn’t happy with how it turned out but decided to leave it and focus on other aspects of production. Later, I returned to it and fixed the parts I was unhappy with. You can see how it changed in these screenshots.

The desert was coming along well at this stage, but I felt that something was still missing. Here I decided to create a bovine skeleton to further enhance the western aesthetic, as well as a vulture flying circles around the tree. The skeleton was fairly simple, and I was quite happy with it. I could have spent more time on it and reconsidered its placement in the scene, but seeing as it was meant to be a feature of the background, I thought it best to continue forward.

The bird used two mechanics we learned from Mike last semester – The flapping wings from the time we made Zubat, as well as the animated pathing introduced with the Tie Interceptor. I was proud of myself for remembering and implementing those features, though the model itself could have used a bit more detail.

Next up, the scorpion, which was a lot of fun to make. I tried my best to keep it low poly and I think that’s what actually helped me to make it better, as I wasn’t worried about finer detail and simply focused on getting the basic idea of a scorpion across. I believe it worked really well. When I made it in the previs, I accidentally animated it with a walk cycle. Although no one seemed to notice, I later remembered that we were meant to not have characters with legs/walking characters… So, I fixed that in the main animation, where the scorpion is seen resting on a rock.

Tumbleweed – With some quick research I found out you can upload PNGs as a Plane in Blender, without a square black backdrop. I wasted no time and went onto Krita, drew up a cartoony-looking tumbleweed and uploaded it.

Finally, we have the snake. I created the body of the snake out of a Bezier curve, which I learned how to use during the first semester. In contrast, the boot is a lot simpler in design, which makes the model look less appealing when looking at it as a whole. This was somewhat intentional, as I want to focus the viewer’s attention on the most interesting features of the model – the snake and the spur.

When the time came to add colour, I used the palette within Blender. This was a group decision as we believed there should be a clear contrast between the Gamer’s Room and the video games. There was an additional benefit to this, as it meant we would not have to re-apply textures any time we transferred those models between devices.

Creating objects for the main room

There are three things I created for the room in total – a poster, a katana set and a few shurikens.

We had more ideas for items to include in the main room, but at a certain point we had to cut some of those back. As time went on and Luke began animation, he reported on how it’s becoming more challenging to work on the file with all of the models. We thought it best to only include the models that would have the best impact on the room’s appearance.

First, I made a few different shurikens. The inspiration for these was the anime Naruto.  The idea was to have those spread out around the room and have most be stuck in the back of the door/laid out on the floor. I struggled finding the correct texture for these and eventually settled on a basic polished steel texture. I thought it would be a good idea to include one on the Gamer’s desk, except with a paper texture, the implication being that it’s an origami. Luke seemed to like that idea too.

(Inspiration – Naruto)

 

Next, I made a katana, together with a sheath and a stand. Further inspired by shows, this one is a direct nod to the Demon Slayer anime. This was a very fun process and reminded me of the time we made swords in Semester 1. The final product is a little blocky, which becomes clearer when viewing the model close-up. As well as that, the texture for the guard is a bit too bright and contrasting with the rest of the blade. However, everything else about this model came out very well in my opinion. I am especially proud of the sheath, as the texture matches it perfectly.

(Inspiration – Demon Slayer)

 

Finally, I took a few hours and drew a poster for the wall. Here I was once again inspired by Shonen Anime, the likes of Dragon Ball or the previously mentioned Demon Slayer. I thought it would be a fun little side project that could enhance the room’s ‘mancave’ aesthetic. This was received very well by the group, and I was quite proud of it myself. If I have more time, I would like to try blending the character with the background and adding shadows.

(Inspiration – Dragon Ball)

(Inspiration – Demon Slayer)

Animation

The animation stage was very satisfying, as we could finally see our hard work taking shape.

There were a few hiccups along the way – as Alec pointed out to me in a feedback session, the snake’s head turns at an unnatural and violent angle, causing it to look a little weird. I fixed this by using more of the snake’s body for the movement, thus dampening that unnatural appearance.

As well as that, both the tumbleweed and the snake lacked realistic shadows. I tackled that by adding a UV Sphere behind the tumbleweed. To my surprise the sphere perfectly copied the movement of the tumbleweed in front of it, without having to animate it separately, meaning I was finished with that step in less than 10 minutes. As for the snake, I simply moved its original position in the animation (while it’s suspended in mid-air) so that it would be casting a shadow over the scorpion.

The animation makes use of an external addon which alters the appearance of models by turning them into a lower resolution, reminiscent of PS1 games. Although there was a learning curve to the addon and it’s clear that in some places it’s slightly less effective, I am quite happy with the result. The part which gained the least from it is definitely the boot, which is much lower poly than the snake residing inside it, but also doesn’t move, which creates a strange disconnect between the two. To clarify, the filter looks best on models that are moving. Parts of the model that do not move simply don’t change much in appearance. The easiest way to show this is on video, so here is my animation:

Perhaps the biggest hiccup is the length of my animation. It comes in at 20 seconds, which is far too long for what was meant to be a short video game that appeared on one of the monitors for a few seconds.

Finally, there is a filter applied to all of the video game animations, making them appear pixelized. This was something we all agreed on during production, though I wasn’t aware of how strong it would be. Although it helps to make some of the less detailed parts of my animation blend in, it also makes some parts less visible. Although it bears no catastrophic consequences, I wish I remembered to test it earlier in production so that I could adjust certain aspects of my animation, for example by making the snake’s movements more noticeable.

Post-production

The post-production aspect of our project is handled by Jonathan. He created all of the voice lines for the characters and was incredibly successful at editing the footage together. I believe his efforts helped to elevate our project to new heights.

 

This concludes the production and post-production stages of our assignment. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!