In the beginning of this week, I modelled some painting frames:

After discussing with Kaiwen, We decide to do a transformation to the frames. Also for easy drawing and reusable, it’s better to extrude the face of the painting as a separate face when unwrapping the UV.

While Kaiwen finished modeling the character, I start rigging and painting weight for the model.

After clean up the joint orientation a bind the skin to test if it work. But the model for the chin seems has some problem.

So, we replace the model of chin to a new one. And I changed some of the joint orientation for easy animating.

For the skeleton of the dress, I decide to use this kind of skeleton chain to control the movement of the dress.

But the question is there are so many layers of model around waist under the cloth and they all piled on top of each other. And it makes the painting weight process become really tough.

I spend like four days on it but it isn’t as good as it should be. And also I’m not good at rigging the face. So, Kaiwen took over the rest of rigging and weighting work. I keep working on building the models for the scene. I modelled a tea table and a teddy bear.

Also, I finished writing the description of items and soliloquys of the girl. I keep in mind that friended said to shorten the length of the phrase. So, I try my best to mark the words clear and interesting. In addition, I’m trying to show the girl’s personality though the soliloquy. It’s also about creating the atmosphere for the players feeling what the girl is thinking. I also believe player’s impression of the girl will become vivid though these soliloquys.

In class, I talked with some of classmates sharing what we did so far. For our group, we formed by four, two from 2d animation and 2 from 3D animation. We are going to do a 3D horizontal exploration game. Rather than the action game. We aim to deliver the story and the world that we described to our audience. For the game we’ll have a camera locked to the character to show her movement and action. Player can interact with the object in the scene to get clues in order to further discover the story. I take part of rigging character and 3D animation, and some of the modeling. Kaiwen is responsible for game engine and 2D texture and Character design.

All the feedback said we have done a great work. But they also worried about the we may run out of time to finish all the work. That’s also the thing we are worrying. So, we may use some free license models in our scene rather than modeling every pieces of them.

Hancheng Shen from 2D animation join our collaborative unit, responding for 2D drawing and part of the modeling. Also, some of the story was changed base on his idea. For the furniture style we decide to refer to the Victorian period.

Once Kaiwen decided the previsualize layout, we have the clue of what furniture we need to model and texture. And for the reason that we need to import all the models into the game, so we don’t want our models to have too much faces.

While Kaiwen keeps working on the model and texture of our character, I begin modeling the furniture. Basically, I take these furniture as my reference.

I didn’t have the experience of how to model the low poly models which fit in the game engine. So, I begin to try conveying the verbal instruction into work. And after communication, I get the idea of we need less face rather than the smooth one.

Here is the first draft of the sofa:

According to the feedback of Kaiwen, the backrest seems too hard and the model need more faces. So, I adjust the model to this feeling:

Kaiwen think this may looks like wood construction for the cushion. But I think the texture is already leathery. I really want a 2D reference of what kind of sofa he want me to model. But Kaiwen also has a lot of other works to do. So, the solution for me is to make a draft and show it to him.

I made another model for the sofa, here is the development from the draft:

Then I was stuck in unwrapping the UV. The density of edges may be too high in the model. So, I begin deleting the edges. Also, Kaiwen gave me the advice of sculpturing the arm of the sofa into more dramatic shape. And there are too many wires in the cushion.

So, I model the arm to this shape:

For the cushion, Kaiwen wants it to be this feeling:

So, I remodel the cushion to this:

Finally, the model of sofa look like this:

The empty space in the middle of the cushion is for the little girl to sit on. Then I modelled the shelf.

The progress of the project will be updated in the links below：

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVORyiTjw=/?invite_link_id=997711915311

Group member introduce:

Our group will going to do a 3D horizontal exploitation game. The group was formed by three people. Two from 3D computer animation. Kaiwen Xiao and me. The last one is Zhuxuan Zhang from 2d animation.
And here is our project breakdown. Friendred suggested we put deadlines into each part of the work. I thought that be useful.

Story introduce:

The story basically revolves around a little girl. And it took place in her house. Players will watch an animation about the girl waking up one day, calling her parents but no one answers. The player needs to control the character to find out what happened. In the course of exploration, the player will gradually discover the truth and the whole story.
The story is a little bit complicated. I also want to put clues in the game without saying clearly to help the players spontaneously clarify their thoughts about what is going on in this game.
Players will find out the house is in the city of Narokse, an imaginary city. And there is a fight between this city and deity 10 years ago. It seems her parents made a deal with the deity to keep the girl away from danger. But the city was destroyed by that war. So, what did the deity do to the girl? That’s also something player need to find out during the game. And the ending will be different due to different exploration rates.

More details can be found in my previous blog.

Week 2: Collaborative unit – Detail description

How to play the game?

The game is based on a horizontal view but the player is actually in a 3D scene with a camera focus on the character. The player can interact with the objects in the scene by using key items. The story will be driven through a combination of game interaction and interlude animations. Finally, by gathering all the clues together, player will uncover the truth.
the view may be the same as This War Of Mine. But we will focus on one single room in our game.

We get a suggestion of don’t put too much content in the game. Otherwise, the play may don’t have the interest to look at. That’s also an important part for me to consider of how do I create the clues and the way to present the content to the audience.

Charcter Design

Diary or work:

We collaborate with Zhuxuan Zhang this week. So, the number of our group add to three. We are still looking for someone from sound art as our composer. Also, I do the presentation of our project on Wednesday. We got some advice and feedback. Because all the modeling, characters and materials had to be done from scratch, Friendred was a little worried about whether we could get it done on time.

Also, I got a feedback of don’t put too much text for the players to read otherwise they won’t read. I really agree with that idea. This is also something important that producers need to consider about in the an era of shallow reading.

What’s more, Kaiwen finished the character design as well as the model of character’s head. We mapped out the work to be done. And I pushed the story further.

Work to be done

Character – Character setting, modeling, texturing, rigging, weight painting.

Animation – 1. In game a) standing b) Move to right/ left c) Investigation action d) Emotional action (look around).

2. Interlude animation a) Introduce b) In-between c) Ending

Game function – set up scene, game interface, UI – item, the insertion of cutscenes, hold item and interact with a particular object. Dialog box – State the main character’s thoughts.

Model – due to the storyboard and the requirement of game scene.

Style — It can be different from room to room, or even crayon doodles, as the protagonist thinks it should be. And that can awaken players’ curiosity.

Model’s style time period – Victorian era

The confusion of time and space – Somethings that the protagonist does not understand appear in the scene, such as refrigerators in order to increase the confusion.

During the game we need to show that father loved the little girl even as he became increasingly paranoid about the pollution of deity.

Also I designed some of the game interactive options for better telling the story. And all of this is to emphasis that something goes wrong to the players.

• Peeling wallpaper from the walls of the living room.
• Dust on the table  
•  Newspaper on the living room/dining room table. The girl says “It’s raining hard these days. Father leaves home very early these days. There should be a rainstorm, but why is it so quiet?”
• Just walls on the position of window should be. The girl says “In my memory there should be a window.” 
• Letter to [Father’s Name] Girl says “Eh?  This is a letter to daddy. ” [Darling, the deity answered my request, he will protect our daughter in war, different as what you think, the gods are selfless.] “Well, this is from mommy to Daddy, she always believed in that deity.”
• The deity statue on the desk. Girl says “My father brought back the statue some time ago, and since then he never said good morning to me before going to work.”

Ending:

1. If player chooses to smash the deity statue in the end, under a good exploration rate, true end will be discover. The girl will wake up in the ruins, and find out the city was destroyed long time ago.
2. If player choose not to smash the deity statue in the end, bad end will be discover. The girl woke up in bed again, just the same as everyday. Still trapped in the phantom.

Here is the camera sequencer and ubercam practice I did. I feel it’s useful because it can give the group member a quick view of the cuts the editor want to present. And in which way the story will be told. But this is not the final presentation to me. I prefer to use Adobe Premiere or other professional software for editing.

• Continuity editing – Continuous shots to maintain consistency, so that the audience does not feel the editing.
• Move with the motion of the characters to create the sense of motion to the audience.
• Use camera tilt, pan, track to control the camera movement.

I will definitely use the camera and editing skill in my project. Specifically, I’m willing to use continuity editing and match cut. I feel match cut is really cool and can form the sense of aesthetic. Also, I’ll use tilt, pan, and track to focus on the character to give the audience the feeling of realistic. Even the slightest bit of camera shake means a lot to me.

Link the link you want to use in the project :

• How to Speak Movie Part 1: The Camera
• How to Speak Movie Part 3: Editing

Here is the blog I post in term 1 about camera

Week 1: Diary of work & Note.