Models Update

So this week I have been building up my models to try and catch up. One thing I've had to take under advisement is that I'm not going to try and make lots of very detailed models, with a my lack of time it is important that I concentrate on the important aspects of the design, that is the level design itself.

Therefore all models are going to be lower poly than I had originally planned, this will help me catch up and, hopefully with some decent texturing I'll not loose much in the look of the level. Therefore I can concentrate on making the models that are important to related events and actions within the game first, and ensure my level works properly. Any extra models can be added afterwards.

The three pictures of the Industrial sized bins are just as I refined the bin, I guess I realized that the bin wasn't right and needed adjusting. It looks a better shape now and it deeper than it is wide, which is what was bothering me, as these bins are deeper than wider normally.

The File Cabinet, Office Chair, Office table and Garbage Chute Exit are my first set of models. I may go back and edit textures afterwards, but in the dark lighting I think these will look alright for now.

Making the actual textures has probably taken the most time (Along with unwrapping) but they are important and I make my textures from scratch mostly with help from photo's and previous textures I've kept a hold of that I can use again.

This is an edited model from a previous project, I realized I already had the basic shape and I could just refine the model and its texture. I'm still in the process of doing this but it's looking good to use a old left to rot computer.

I have also been working on making textures still, here is the updated door to the toilets. While all the door will be slightly different, I will be ensuring a general theme for the doors so they fit visually within the level, I also believe this will help me catch up a bit quicker.

Overall it's helping that I am sticking the mot important assets/textures to get this work completed, I hope that I can catch up quickly and ensure this level looks and plays good.

Updated work

It has certainly been a busy time of late, and since I had dropped behind on my work due to a few things, I have been concentrating on catching back up again. I realized I was a good month behind on my project plan, which isn't good. So I've put in some more effort into my work and tried catching up as much as possible.

I have caught up quiet a lot, and feel like I'm only a week or two behind now.

Things I've been working on as of late are:

1. I updated my Level Design document again, I felt like bits needed refining and I changed some things round to make it neater.
2. I have finished building the base of the level, so I have a complete HULL of which to walk around on.
3. I am currently working on putting together all the textures and models for the level.While the main base textures are on the level, along with Normal maps and Specular maps, I am also working into the models and there textures which is where I am up to at the moment.

I have started this modeling stage late which is why I'm still about 2 weeks behind but, I'm catching up a bit more every week and am feeling that bit closer after updating this blog as I've been working on some models just earlier.

When building the actual level, I came across some sort of bug in the system, even now I'm not completely sure what has been happening but upon building the level it began crashing randomly when  was simply using the builder brushes. This caused me lots of problems and even after re-starting the level twice, once from scratch after I finished it, it continued to crash.

I did discuss with other members of the class who were adept at using UDK as well to see if there was anything wrong, but I still could not find anything wrong. After a while I found ways of building around the problem, but I have to be careful as I don't know why it's been doing it, but thankfully I'm able to run the program well from my own laptop.

While the base map will begin to fill in with my models very quickly over this next couple of weeks, I must ensure that I do not rush them, everything still needs to look good while I attempt to catch up. Below is a model of one of the Industrial sized bins in the back alleyway.

Next weeks blog will be an update of a variety of models and textures, as well as the Normal and Specular maps I've been using Crazy Bump to create.