D.R.I.P. Trailer

Here is a link to a trailer of my game. I created it used after effects and Premiere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3KO9uB7xJc

Substance painter

As I mentioned in my previous post I had the challenge of learning another software which is Substance painter. I really enjoyed working with this application. It is similar to Photoshop but you get to paint on 3D object you create. Here are some objects I painted in Substance painter.

Challenges and overcoming them!

One thing you can guarantee when working with a team on a project is a conflict or issue arising.
One important thing is to remain cool and level headed. I am usually quiet in my team because I am an international student who is surrounded by German 7 hours a day. Therefore I cannot engage in conversation so I tune out or observe. I am quite an observant person who analysis people and behaviour. Its interesting how much you can pick up and understand even when its a language you don't understand. It's all about reading body language and tone of voice.

Nobody knows how I am feeling while working in this environment because I keep my emotions to myself. It has been difficult working in a project where you are surrounded by people talking in another language. I spend 7 hours a day here, 5 days a week. I now understand the expression " You can be complete isolated, even in a crowded room". That is me 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. My team only talk in English when we are talking about the project and even then sometimes its in German. It has been an interesting learning environment where I can only observe. Additionally it has improved my patience.

One challenge I have had with a team member is that they liked to pass their work load to me. There was a festival last week so my team was gone from Thursday to Monday. Then this teammate fell ill and was out for the entire week which created a problem with our schedule. Originally we had planned to divide the modelling and adding textures. However that did not happen and it tested my patience. I created more assets and they made a show and dance about not having time because they were sick but in reality they had a tendency to procrastinate when there was a problem. They wasted time with me talking about how long UV wrapping an object would take but when they were out sick another teammate showed me a fast way that took less than 20 seconds and that included exporting the object. The issue was adding texture then. They wanted to UV wrap and give me all the assets to add texture to, which I had never done before. So I had the challenge of learning a new software. I wanted to divide the texture workload in half but they were against it because "they did not have the time" and they also had other project work to do. For some reason they could not do both. In the end I gave up on them and took all the assets to add texture to. We have over 50 assets in total and I had about a week and a bit so learn the software and add texture to.

Once I started experimenting with Substance painter I got fast at creating textures and I had 30 textures done in a week. In conclusion when you work hard you can overcome and obstacles and challenges. I kept my emotions cool when dealing with this issue with my teammate. To be honest I doubt they even realized they were causing an issue because they were so absorbed in their own problems. Best thing to do is move forward and focus on the positivity.

Developing 3D modelling skills and adding texture!

Over the past two weeks I have been working in Maya, experimenting with the tools I can use. Our game environment it is set in an underground cave with metallic rusty pipes and glowing mutated mushrooms. My task was to create assets for the scientists lab and create different mushroom styles. I thoroughly enjoyed created intriguing mushrooms. Here is one of my favourite styles I liked to create.

I used the smooth tool to make it less sharp and I quite like the dripping/hanging vines. So I created multiple mushrooms with this kind of style.















Now that I have created all the assets I needed, it is time to move onto the next stage. Adding texture.

Learning Maya!

Okay we have officially started the production phase! My biggest concern is that the team will be carrying me because of my lack of skills in the software. Since the beginning of this project I said I would do 3D modelling because I have some basic knowledge on how to use 3D Max. I don't know how to 3D animate or use Unity or program so my skills are small. But I am eager to learn. I was introduced to Unreal Engine last semester but my team decided to use Unity. That was alright because my task was creating the assets. My challenge was to learn how to use Maya and fast.

Luckily there was a module called Tech art 2 where they used Maya in class. A very kind tutor in the class helped me after the first class and showed me the layout of Maya and how to model basic shapes. Now the class is called Tech art 2 which indicates that they had Tech art 1 last semester. So I am a semester behind and I skipped the introduction stage and jumped straight into rigging 3D objects. Nonetheless this module helped me a great deal throughout the semester and every week I learn something new.

In our coaching, I informed them that I was new to Maya and still learning how to use it which is code for the assets I create might look terrible but I'm doing my best! Here are a few assets I created this week.

Green light Presentation

Today was our green light presentation which went smoothly. The team presenting before us had technical difficulties and had to stop presenting which gave us a slight advantage. One of my challenges for presentations is that I get nervous and when I get nervous I talk fast. I had to remind myself to talk slow because English isn't the audiences first language and they are hearing this story for the first time.
Our manager had the idea of having t-shirts with our logo to promote the team. It was a success because we were the only team to wear something with our project on it. After the presentations we had a coaching to hear if we get a green light or not. Looking back I can laugh but at the time I was so disappointed. The coaches started off by saying that "at least the t-shirts were cool". My stomach dropped when they said this. I thought the presentation went alright. However we were missing a map or doll house illustration of the game. I had asked one team member to create this number of times but they said they needed to work on the mechanics instead. Without this map the audience couldn't see the big picture, only the details. So after ten minutes of telling us everything wrong they eventually told us that "you're fine, you got a green light"! It was an interesting scare tactic. Now we can move forward and start the production phase which I am a little nervous for

Animatic of D.R.I.P.!

Our Green light presentation is next Wednesday. We have a long list of items we need to have for this presentation. My responsibility is to create the mad scientist animatic and put together Drips underground animatic. I also have a research paper due on Monday for this project. No pressure! Be Grand! We got this.

Here is the mad scientist animatic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qrm03A94QU




Here is the underground animatic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSB7LIAPbg