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  1. 'Prop'erly Equipped

    Thursday, 18 April 2013

    A couple of weeks ago the streets of our level were empty, making it all seem rather bland. But now the team has produced a variety of assets; some of which have already been imported into CryEngine, making a tremendous change.

    Luc has produced a variety of assets; starting with a couple of trees with varying foliage, a series of lanterns, a rope texture, and best of all: created dynamic cast shadows and flickering light! This is a big boon for us since we have been wanting to create some artificial light to Illuminate our streets since we're going with a dull bleak sky.

     
     
     
     
     
     
    Prior to the holidays I (Dom) had made 32 initial props which were divided amongst myself and the Dans. My chosen props were three market stalls, two four tables, two baskets, one birdcage, one hutch and a kegstand.
     
     


     
    Dan Peacock went for two wheelbarrows, two boxes, one cart, a set of gallows, one crate and a brazier. Furthermore a rat has been modelled as we hope to animate swarms of them to scurry across the level.
     
     
     
     
    Dan Hargeaves chose three sacks, two barrels (with much enthusiasm!) one haybale and a bucket.
     
     

     
     
    Chelsea has produced merchandise for the crates, boxes and stalls; in the form of fruit and fish.
     
     
     
    Furthermore after we received feedback from third years, we have concluded that we not that pleased with the lighting currently in the level, so the global lighting and the time of day settings shall be edited. While this is for the better, personally I think its a shame since that sky we had really set the tone for that period of time.
     
    Now excluding a week for tweaks and bug tests, we have two weeks worth of modelling time remaining. With the streets assembled and the asset production coming to a close, our priorities are now on the docks and the bridge entrance; we have said throughout the project that we want to include them. So we're buckling down and making these last few weeks count.
     
    
    Also on a non-work yet still project related note, last week during a stay up in London I achieved what we as a team were unable to do whilst there due to time limitations: Visit the source of our level for real, Pudding Lane and the Monument.
     
    

    Posted by Dom at 20:56 | 18 comments | |

  2. Week 7- Easter Holidays

    Wednesday, 27 March 2013

      Progress this week has slowed somewhat as it is now the Easter holidays and most of the group have gone home to be with their families. As well as this we have all been spending the week catching up with other Uni work, as for the last couple of months we've put everything else on a back burner to focus on the Crytek project. On top of this, we have stumbled across several issues with importing our new, fully textured buildings into Cry. Issues such as improper smoothing groups, wrongly named proxies, xforms that weren’t reset have inevitably slowed progress and set us back by a couple of days.
      Regardless, there are a few small jobs we have each managed to do for the project, and they are as follows:
    Joe Dempsey has spent the week finishing off the modelling of his buildings, as his job of creating gravestones a few weeks ago set him back from the rest of the group and caused his building models to remain unfinished up to this point.

      
      Dom Bell has also spent the week modelling extra buildings, as well as getting said buildings unwrapped and texture ready.
      
      Dan Hargreaves has spent the week getting his buildings ready for importing into Cry.

      Chelsea Lindsay has been working from home, creating concepts for props (unfortunately she is without a computer at home)




    Luc Fontenoy has spent the week helping us ready our buildings for import, and has also been figuring out how to create additional light sources. On top of this, he has been working on his church models and has been arranging what buildings we have been able to export into Cry.



    I (Dan Peacock) have been working on getting my buildings ready for import, and have also been working on other small jobs such as creating updated terrain textures and small props such as leaf piles etc.







      I can imagine that the next couple of weeks will also be a bit slow progress wise as we all have other work to be focusing on. But once the Easter holidays are over we will be back on form and working at full capacity.

    Posted by Dan Peacock at 07:22 | 38 comments | |


  3. The main bulk of this week’s work was textures. We also made progress with props to fill out the environment. We also solved some technical issues with the engine.
      
    After the last few weeks of collecting first hand references from York and Leicester and a large handful of concepts we decide it was time to start creating the textures for the houses.  3 of us (Dan Hargreaves, Dan Peakcock and Joe Dempsey) divided up all the textures between us.

    I (Dan Hargreaves) as well as Joe Dempsey  took on the tiling textures. I produced the large bricks, small red bricks, rough stone and roof tiles. While Joe produced rough stone, zig zag red bricks, 4 types of wood and the plaster. As me and Joe had the same job, we had to constantly stay in contact with each other to make sure our textures stayed consistent with each other’s. We also helped each other with the tiling texture workflow and tools so we could both quickly produce the textures needed.











    Dan Peacock took on the task to create the non-tiling textures, such as the doors and windows. He produced 8 different doors allowing us to have a large variety to play with. Along with the doors he produced 4 different windows. He made enough room between the windows and doors  so he could create some general textures, such as concrete and metal.


      

    Chelsea has used this week to produce a wide variety of hanging sign concepts, and is making her way through producing the 3D models of them. She made several types of metal frames with several wooden signs. This allowed her to mix and match between all of these assets to create various unique signs . To be as authentic as possible she went through Samuel Pepys diary to get a list of actual business/companys around the time we are basing our level on. She also started work on posters which we can place on the sides of buildings which give a greater sense realism.




    Luc has been finishing off his churches, producing 2 different churches which we can place throughout the area to reflect how important religion was to the people of London at the time. He is doing a great job of learning all the inside and outs of the Cryengine which is allowing us to show our work at its best. He managed to get the Decals working which will let us place patches of dirt to break up the repetitiveness of the tilling textures. He has also made headway the terrain system.





    Dom has used this week to finish up his props. He has create various props which we can use to litter the streets with. Having these props in the environment will  change the city from a ghost town into a city which is being lived in and shows that quality of life of the inhabitants too.



    We are looking to have all our buildings fully textured and in engine next week. Check back for the update.

    Posted by Dan Hargreaves at 12:23 | 130 comments | |

  4. More First Hand Reference - Joe Dempsey

    Thursday, 14 March 2013

    Last week I was able to find some time to spend a few hours in and around Leicester City center with my camera, on the look out for any reference that may be of value for the group, both with modelling and texturing.

    After being set with the task of modelling the modular church ground assets, I was quite keen on visiting various churches dotted around the city center, some actually quite close to the DeMontfort University campus, and not to forget Leicester Cathedral. Another area of particular interest, right around the corner from the Cathedral coincidentally! was the Leicester Guild Hall. The Guild Hall is a wonderfully preserved timber framed building, dating back almost 600 years and a perfect example of the type of building the team are hoping to depict on the 17th Century streets of London.

    After a few hours I had taken almost 300 pictures, some particularly for use as reference for modelling and plenty of images which will be a fantastic source of reference now that the team are beginning the texturing process.

    Below are a selection of images from the day's catch!

    Preliminary texture examples will soon be posted, shortly followed with examples of the textured models in CryENGINE so make sure you keep looking back for updates!

    Leicester Cathedral - Joe Dempsey


    Posted by Joe Dempsey at 03:46 | 13 comments | |