WEEK 3 -Comparative Pictures

 

From this weeks lecture I have started to gather ideas about how I would like to represent sizes and scale on my island.  Considering my island is 'Avatar' based, the proportions of the vegetation, rocks, cliffs, fog etc will all have to be properly laid out and combined into a seamless jungle.  More importantly, I have been looking at representing the foreground, middle ground and background in my island scheme.  Due to the dark nature of my island, I have used lighting effects to create a sense of background, fog to highlight the foreground and illuminated trails to represent middle ground.

 

Follow the link to watch video on Youtube: http://youtu.be/eqEJBOflkzo

 



 

 

 

 

WEEK 2 - Island Vantage Points- Scale

An overall view of the island shows how dominating the surrounding cliffs are.

The island is detailed with small, medium and large sized vegetation.  Few patches of grass (seen to the left of character) are longer and almost head height.  I have chosen to make some of the vegetation extra large because of my reference to the avatar landscape.

This view shows the size of plants in the foreground and the massing of mountains in the background.

Whilst reviewing this image I have come to the conclusion that maybe I should down size some of the trees on my terrain because they are so large it is blatantly unrealistic.  The vehicle gives us an idea for how big the tree really is.

This is an image of the trees that are featured in the avatar environment.  As you can see the size of some of the trees are massive.  I am trying to re create the size of these trees in my island.

At a view further away we are able to see that the tree next to the vehicle is small in comparison to the tree featured in avatar but still looks unrealistic in my environment.

WEEK 2 - Geocontrol Map, New Terrain Texture and lecture Overview

This texture will represent the glowing roots that will lead up to the main tree. The roots are a purple grass/dirt texture.


The third lecture presented interesting photos of real and unrealistic artwork.  I didn't take inspiration from the photos introduced in the lecture, I was more concerned about whether or not I would make my island realistic or unrealistic.  I have come to the conclusion that I would like to blend the two ideas and create an island that leads the viewer through known and unknown elements, thus creating a greater sense of discovery whilst retaining a sense of realism.

WEEK 2 - Reference Image Five

 This image is the most critical to reference because of its importance to the over all theme of my island.  Vegetation on the island will start to glow as it reaches the centre.  In the centre will be a 'magnetic tree' that gives off a blue and purple glow ( same as the sky).

WEEK 2 - Reference Image Four

The first image represents the environment that I will try and create on the floor of the island jungle.  I am going to make the fog dense, trees thick in numbers and the mist a bluish tinge to create an eerie atmosphere.  At night time the sky will be streaked with streams of bright light in the colours of blue and purple.  Hopefully the lighting from the nights sky will reflect off the ocean and create unusual screen shots.

WEEK 2 - Reference Picture Three

The island will be semi inspired through the environmental scenes seen in the movie 'Avatar'.  I want to create mountains that are shaped like this but are floating in the air.  The vegetation is so lush you cannot see the ground.  I want to re-create an environment like this where it almost impossible to see in front of you because of the dense flora.

WEEK 2 - Refernce Picture Two

After leaving the beach, I want the user to walk off the beach and through these caves.  The vegetation starts to become luscious and green as we approach the richer part of the island.  The lighting is also important in this image because the insides of the caves are highlighted by the beams of light that stream through the cave openings.

WEEK 2 - Reference Image One

I am using each of the following pictures as inspiration for different sections of my island.  The picture's represent different locations in the world but will represent site locations on the island.

The lighting in this scene highlights the material qualities in the rock and brings out the colours of the ocean.  Even though the terrain is flat and the vegetation is minimal, it works with the visual qualities of the environment.  I will try and re create this scene on the beach of my island.

 

 
 

WEEK 1- Lecture Observation

50 words reflect on this week’s lecture and make a unique observation regarding its content as it relates to your own work.

In regards to the content shown in the week one lecture, I took inspiration from the realistic art that was showcased.  As much as I want to produce an island that is abstract and daring, I want to create an island of absolute perfection; an island that demonstrates how far I can take the program in terms of creating utter realism.

WEEK 1-"User Interface Panels – Overview"

5 shortcuts or buttons, and what each of their functions are.

1.    F3 button - switches the rendered view into a wire frame view.

2.    Ctrl+G - switches to game

3.    Ctrl+F – Lets you enter into vehicles or through doorways.

4.    Shift + Space turns the helper on, which is extremely useful in knowing what entity you have selected.

5.    Ctrl+C – clones or duplicates a desired object.

WEEK 1-"Viewports"

3 different ways of moving around your level.

1. Your WASD keys are your general movement keys (forward, back and side to side), similar to most computer games. 

 

2. Like most 3D gaming software you are able to orbit in editor more by pressing and holding the right mouse button. In gaming mode you simply look around the screen by moving the curser.

 

3. If you hold the middle mouse button or scroll button it enables you to 'pan' around the screen.  The panning function lets you rotate around the screen in a fixed position.

 

WEEK 1- "Customising The Editor"

5 ways you might customize your Sandbox editor setup.

1. To reduce the amount of open windows, attach the database and material editor into one window.

2.  Panels on tool bar can be turned on/off by right clicking on empty space and ticking and un-ticking it.

3. 'Selected geometry' is an efficient and useful way to visualise what you have selected in your view port.

 

4. Enabling auto backup in the preferences bar ensures that if the program freezes or glitches, your work is saved.

5. 'Show shortcut keys' in screen tips is useful tool to enable because it helps you learn the functions of certain hot keys.

WEEK 1- 10 tips and tricks related to the Sandbox User Interface

1.      The roll up bar is a versatile tool bar that allows you to edit objects and terrain.

2.      The console column allows you to input commands into cry engine. The console column also shows warning errors while you are running cry engine

3.      The 'follow terrain' button allows you to move objects only on the surface of the terrain.

4.      By choosing one element in the drop down menu located in the tool bar you have the ability to edit and select the element you choose.

5.      Name selection can give a name to the objects that you selected.  In the pursuit of finding a desired object you can simply type the name of the object in and cry engine will automatically locate it.

6.      Cry engine allows you to export and import files which is useful for editing parts of your design on other programs and easily loading them into your cry engine map.

7.      The perspective button which can be found in the top left hand corner of the page, changes the viewport to different modes.

8.      At the file bar set config spec to low in order to increase the speed of your computer.

9.      You can group objects together in cry engine through the use of layers.  When properly utilising the capabilities of the layer tool, you can interact with the program more efficiently.

10.  The X, Y, Z and XY button, can make you only work on X, Y, Z or XY axis.