Hey guys, once you've made your posts for the week 6 task, add a comment to this post with links to those blog posts. Just make one comment each that has several links, one link per post you've made for this week. This coming week is the week your video trailers should be ready. So email me with any design-related concerns you have - the aim is to make a beautiful, intriguing cinematic trailer that grabs the user's attention. Use music, sound effects, and so forth to make the video more than just a simple Fraps recording. Move the camera smoothly, think about how your view is framed at all times, and make it interesting - this usually means building suspense or anticipation, then reaching a crescendo near the end of the video.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
1) Images of 2 marking schedules filled out for your work so far by 2 other students, and uploaded to your blog. (The marking schedule can be found here in PDF format.)
2) Flowgraphs incorporated into your island as an integral and important part of the experience. You should use flowgraphs to mould how the user experiences your island, changing things as they move through it so the experience is more interactive than just moving through a landscape of objects that never move, light that never changes, weather that never varies, etc. Use the flowgraphs to reveal your letter and number combination in interesting, interactive ways! Triggers are your friend.
3) User interface cleaned as per course blog post, found here.
4) Refine your island, making it a realistic, fleshed-out environment with little details that make it look and feel professional.
5) Upload your trailer to Youtube. Important: the length of the trailer is limited to 120 seconds!
6) Upload your zipped FreeSDK folder (the whole installation + your level) and provide a link from your blog.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
General Advice for Level Composition
Hi guys, here's come tips on how to make a good level in Crysis. I've noticed many of you have several problems you can easily fix and improve on. Following is a list of problems I've seen, and suggested ways to fix / improve them.
Problem: Vegetation (trees, shrubs, rocks, etc) placed are all the same angle and size, which can easily look very repetitive and cheap.
When placing vegetation, there are settings to randomly vary its size and rotation. This stops it looking repetitive.
Problem: Vegetation (trees, shrubs, rocks, etc) are being placed where they shouldn't.
You can control the angle the ground needs to be, and the elevation (height above 0.0 metres) the ground needs to have for given vegetation to be placed on it. You can use this to, for example, stop trees being placed on sheer cliff faces, or rocks getting placed along what should be a clear, flat beach.
Problem: The island has large areas without any features (trees, lakes, rocks, shrubs, etc).
Make a huge vegetation brush and just paint like mad across ugly empty areas on your terrain, making sure to vary the size and rotation of the trees. The only people who should have empty areas are people who decided to make a desert, or people with large surfaces of water (eg, for an archipelago or a huge lake). Fixing this takes a few seconds, so there's no excuse for not doing it.
Problem: I have a large area I want to be empty (eg, a desert or huge beach), but the terrain texture looks repetitive and ugly.
You need to add things that break this repetition. The main way is by adding features that aren't repetitive. Some options are:
- Apply many decals all over the place to add features.
- Paint small shrubs as vegetation (making sure to randomly vary size and rotation).
- Tricky but effective option: Make a terrain texture that has larger tile size than the repetitive one, and give it low opacity (eg, something like 0.05). Paint it over the other repetitive texture so they blend together.
Problem: I want to use Windows Movie Maker for my trailer.
Please don't. It doesn't give you much control over what your video looks like, and the default title screens and style options looked ok when Windows Movie Maker came out over 5 years ago, but now they're overused and cheesy.
I'd suggest using Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, or Adobe AfterEffects for your videos. AfterEffects can have some really slick-looking effects you can add to your video to make its style suit the atmosphere and emotions you're trying to convey.
Problem: I put my picturesque sceneries really far from each other. What can I do to make the user travel faster between them?
You could try placing a vehicle. I'd recommend a 4 wheel drive or a speedboat, since helicopters are too free-roaming.
If this doesn't cover the ground fast enough, you can use a flowgraph Jules put together during this week's class, and attach it to an area or proximity trigger. The flowgraph is shown below. The instructions that go with the flowgraph are:
- you can start game mode at any location
- there are 2 triggers
- when you enter trigger.A, it will take you to a location you entered in the flowgraph (not the trigger.B)
- to add more triggers, just copy can paste the graph and change the locations.
The full size version of the image can be found here.
Problem: I don't know how to control where the user goes in the map.
This can be controlled in several artistic ways. There is a kind of formula you can apply to controlling where the player goes, and how they feel a sense of suspense build.
I could write 2000 words, or I could save you the headache and link you to some videos :) They're pretty interesting and get in to some good level design (and architectural design!) ideas that you, frankly, won't hear from many people teaching at the FBE.
Halfelife 2: Episode 2: Lost Coast Developer Commentary:
Portal 2 Developer Commentary:
There are some developer commentaries for Halflife 2: Episode One and Halflife 2: Episode Two, but I didn't have time during the lessons to find decent YouTube versions of them. If you're keen, you can look them up yourself :)
Problem: Vegetation (trees, shrubs, rocks, etc) placed are all the same angle and size, which can easily look very repetitive and cheap.
When placing vegetation, there are settings to randomly vary its size and rotation. This stops it looking repetitive.
Problem: Vegetation (trees, shrubs, rocks, etc) are being placed where they shouldn't.
You can control the angle the ground needs to be, and the elevation (height above 0.0 metres) the ground needs to have for given vegetation to be placed on it. You can use this to, for example, stop trees being placed on sheer cliff faces, or rocks getting placed along what should be a clear, flat beach.
Problem: The island has large areas without any features (trees, lakes, rocks, shrubs, etc).
Make a huge vegetation brush and just paint like mad across ugly empty areas on your terrain, making sure to vary the size and rotation of the trees. The only people who should have empty areas are people who decided to make a desert, or people with large surfaces of water (eg, for an archipelago or a huge lake). Fixing this takes a few seconds, so there's no excuse for not doing it.
Problem: I have a large area I want to be empty (eg, a desert or huge beach), but the terrain texture looks repetitive and ugly.
You need to add things that break this repetition. The main way is by adding features that aren't repetitive. Some options are:
- Apply many decals all over the place to add features.
- Paint small shrubs as vegetation (making sure to randomly vary size and rotation).
- Tricky but effective option: Make a terrain texture that has larger tile size than the repetitive one, and give it low opacity (eg, something like 0.05). Paint it over the other repetitive texture so they blend together.
Problem: I want to use Windows Movie Maker for my trailer.
Please don't. It doesn't give you much control over what your video looks like, and the default title screens and style options looked ok when Windows Movie Maker came out over 5 years ago, but now they're overused and cheesy.
I'd suggest using Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, or Adobe AfterEffects for your videos. AfterEffects can have some really slick-looking effects you can add to your video to make its style suit the atmosphere and emotions you're trying to convey.
Problem: I put my picturesque sceneries really far from each other. What can I do to make the user travel faster between them?
You could try placing a vehicle. I'd recommend a 4 wheel drive or a speedboat, since helicopters are too free-roaming.
If this doesn't cover the ground fast enough, you can use a flowgraph Jules put together during this week's class, and attach it to an area or proximity trigger. The flowgraph is shown below. The instructions that go with the flowgraph are:
- you can start game mode at any location
- there are 2 triggers
- when you enter trigger.A, it will take you to a location you entered in the flowgraph (not the trigger.B)
- to add more triggers, just copy can paste the graph and change the locations.
The full size version of the image can be found here.
Problem: I don't know how to control where the user goes in the map.
This can be controlled in several artistic ways. There is a kind of formula you can apply to controlling where the player goes, and how they feel a sense of suspense build.
I could write 2000 words, or I could save you the headache and link you to some videos :) They're pretty interesting and get in to some good level design (and architectural design!) ideas that you, frankly, won't hear from many people teaching at the FBE.
Halfelife 2: Episode 2: Lost Coast Developer Commentary:
Portal 2 Developer Commentary:
There are some developer commentaries for Halflife 2: Episode One and Halflife 2: Episode Two, but I didn't have time during the lessons to find decent YouTube versions of them. If you're keen, you can look them up yourself :)
Monday, August 20, 2012
How to hide the HUD, console output, and player weapons in Sandbox
Hey guys, here's a video quickly showing how to hide the HUD (the energy, health, and ammo in-game overlays).
I've also asked Ben to make a post (which you should soon find at here) with an image that shows you a flowgraph you can use to remove weapons and hide the console output in-game. You need to create a basic entity and attach a flowgraph to it for it to work. Props to him for sharing that! Together, these two things will make your videos seem much more professional. Students with unnecessary HUD elements showing in their videos is a pet peeve of mine!
I've also asked Ben to make a post (which you should soon find at here) with an image that shows you a flowgraph you can use to remove weapons and hide the console output in-game. You need to create a basic entity and attach a flowgraph to it for it to work. Props to him for sharing that! Together, these two things will make your videos seem much more professional. Students with unnecessary HUD elements showing in their videos is a pet peeve of mine!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Week 5
Hey guys, once you've made your posts for the week 5 task, add a comment to this post with links to those blog posts. Just make one comment each that has several links, one link per post you've made for this week. Because so few students posted their links to my blog last week, this week I will only be giving feedback to students who have posted this week's links on this blog post.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
1) Evidence you used decals (screenshots)
2) Evidence you used brushes (screenshots)
3) Evidence you used entities (screenshots)
4) Evidence you used vegetation (screenshots - and I'm meaning covering "blank" areas of your island with this stuff, so I can't go into your island and look on to a huge, empty area with a repeating texture)
5) Letter + number combination on 5 scales, designed such that the island is shaped to control and manipulate viewer's experience to conceal and reveal the letter + number on those 5 different scales (screenshots and text explanations below, explaining your strategy for concealing and revealing the 5 different scales of the letter + number combination... so for each scale, one screenshot + some text explaining how you conceal and reveal your letter + number at that scale)
6) EXP1 draft completed (During class, I'll be getting you guys to look at EXP1 marking schedule and fill it out based on your work so far. This should help you see what you need to work on in preparation for the submission in week 8.)
In addition to this, from my in-class demos, you guys should all now know how to paint terrain textures only on slopes of certain angles, and ground at certain heights. As I said during the tutorial, I want you to use this to vary your terrain textures in a natural way. For example, painting snow caps high up on mountains, making steep cliffs look rocky, or making flat beaches sandy.
Also, don't forget the same controls can be applied to brushes added as vegetation. So you can make trees only grow on ground that's not too steep, thus automatically leaving cliff faces and beaches bare of vegetation.
Keep in mind that through all this, your primary goal is to come up with something that looks awesome. With very little effort, the Sandbox Editor can make beautiful 3D environments. To improve the realism of models you bring in to your environment, try using displacement maps and normal maps. As part of the work towards this submission, you should make models yourself, and texture them yourself, since this is what you'll be doing in the field once you graduate. Feel free to use existing 3D models on the internet, but chances are they're either poorly modelled or poorly texture mapped (meaning they might not look realistic when imported into Crysis). The best option is to make your own.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
1) Evidence you used decals (screenshots)
2) Evidence you used brushes (screenshots)
3) Evidence you used entities (screenshots)
4) Evidence you used vegetation (screenshots - and I'm meaning covering "blank" areas of your island with this stuff, so I can't go into your island and look on to a huge, empty area with a repeating texture)
5) Letter + number combination on 5 scales, designed such that the island is shaped to control and manipulate viewer's experience to conceal and reveal the letter + number on those 5 different scales (screenshots and text explanations below, explaining your strategy for concealing and revealing the 5 different scales of the letter + number combination... so for each scale, one screenshot + some text explaining how you conceal and reveal your letter + number at that scale)
6) EXP1 draft completed (During class, I'll be getting you guys to look at EXP1 marking schedule and fill it out based on your work so far. This should help you see what you need to work on in preparation for the submission in week 8.)
In addition to this, from my in-class demos, you guys should all now know how to paint terrain textures only on slopes of certain angles, and ground at certain heights. As I said during the tutorial, I want you to use this to vary your terrain textures in a natural way. For example, painting snow caps high up on mountains, making steep cliffs look rocky, or making flat beaches sandy.
Also, don't forget the same controls can be applied to brushes added as vegetation. So you can make trees only grow on ground that's not too steep, thus automatically leaving cliff faces and beaches bare of vegetation.
Keep in mind that through all this, your primary goal is to come up with something that looks awesome. With very little effort, the Sandbox Editor can make beautiful 3D environments. To improve the realism of models you bring in to your environment, try using displacement maps and normal maps. As part of the work towards this submission, you should make models yourself, and texture them yourself, since this is what you'll be doing in the field once you graduate. Feel free to use existing 3D models on the internet, but chances are they're either poorly modelled or poorly texture mapped (meaning they might not look realistic when imported into Crysis). The best option is to make your own.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Week 4
Hey guys, once you've made your posts for the week 4 task, add a comment to this post with links to those blog posts. Just make one comment each that has several links, one link per post you've made for this week.
Since the fire alarm went off during the first tutorial, I didn't get to talk to everyone that was there. To make up for this, I'll be posting some feedback on your blogs if you're in the 2-4pm tut.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
1) Choose an image from today's lecture and post it to your blog.
2) Before and After screenshots of your island with the new skybox (FYI, skybox materials are found under Materials\Sky... other materials won't work, since they're not cubemaps). Make sure the two screenshots are taken from roughly the same place so a clear difference can be seen.
3) Screenshot of your time of day settings before modifying them.
4) Screenshot of your time of day settings after modifying them.
5) Screenshot of your island with the new time of day settings (from the same place as the previous screenshots).
6) Do steps 1-5 two more times, with different reference images and different skyboxes and textures both times. Post all images to your blog.
7) Continue working on your sublime scene. Include an example of each of the following environment effects in your island scene: fog, rain / weather, waterfall. For many of you, a good idea would be trying to incorporate them into your picturesque views!
8) Using Fraps, make a 15 second video of the above environment effects and the sublime nature of your custom island. Upload the video to YouTube and embed it on your blog.
Since the fire alarm went off during the first tutorial, I didn't get to talk to everyone that was there. To make up for this, I'll be posting some feedback on your blogs if you're in the 2-4pm tut.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
1) Choose an image from today's lecture and post it to your blog.
2) Before and After screenshots of your island with the new skybox (FYI, skybox materials are found under Materials\Sky... other materials won't work, since they're not cubemaps). Make sure the two screenshots are taken from roughly the same place so a clear difference can be seen.
3) Screenshot of your time of day settings before modifying them.
4) Screenshot of your time of day settings after modifying them.
5) Screenshot of your island with the new time of day settings (from the same place as the previous screenshots).
6) Do steps 1-5 two more times, with different reference images and different skyboxes and textures both times. Post all images to your blog.
7) Continue working on your sublime scene. Include an example of each of the following environment effects in your island scene: fog, rain / weather, waterfall. For many of you, a good idea would be trying to incorporate them into your picturesque views!
8) Using Fraps, make a 15 second video of the above environment effects and the sublime nature of your custom island. Upload the video to YouTube and embed it on your blog.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Week 3
Hey guys, sorry this post's up a bit late, I forgot to put it up earlier in the week! Hopefully you've all remembered to finish the weekly in-class and individual tasks by checking the week 3 page on Ros' website. Once you've made your posts for the week 3 task, add a comment to this post with links to those blog posts. Just make one comment each that has several links, one link per post you've made for this week.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
If you haven't finished the tasks from the previous weeks, please make sure you complete them so I can check you off for them in my spreadsheet :)
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
- Download the sample assets package and put them in the appropriate folders within your CryEngineFreeSDK package. (more info in the weekly task link)
- Find an image of work for these landscape painters / landscape architects / architects / gardens (ONE PER PAINTER / ARCHITECT / GARDEN).
Claude Lorrain
William Gilpin
Capability Brown
Humphrey Repton
JMW Turner, and
One of the following examples of Chinese gardens shown in today's lecture - Liu Garden; Suzhou, Lion Forest; Suzhou, Zhuozheng Garden; Suzhou, West Lake; Hangzhou.
- Choose 4 of these reference images and recreate similar scenes located at various 'stations' or 'spots' within your island.
- Bring in objects you think are appropriate for creating a Picturesque landscape within your island, and that are also appropriate for your custom island. - Make sure the landscape you design can be explained in terms of these picturesque techniques:
dividing the image into foreground, middle ground, background
vegetation; trees, shrubs etc.
navigation, pathways, [roads]
framing the view
ruins
follies
bridges, animals, water, pathways, vegetation
ha-has / manipulating, shaping the land.
- Use Fraps to take high resolution screenshots and post them to your blog side-by-side with your reference images. (at least one screenshot per reference image)
- Choose a 5th reference image to represent within your custom island. Continue detailing your island, using vegetation, decals, roads, water volumes, terrain layer painting to enrich your island.
- Upload a short clip demonstrating the results of today's tasks, navigating through your custom island to the places you set your scene. Upload to Youtube and link it to your blog. You can also embed the video in your blog if you wish, but be mindful of how wide the video is so it fits properly on the page.
In case anyone's unsure, this week's task requirements can be found here.
If you haven't finished the tasks from the previous weeks, please make sure you complete them so I can check you off for them in my spreadsheet :)
For a checklist of what to have up on your blogs:
- Download the sample assets package and put them in the appropriate folders within your CryEngineFreeSDK package. (more info in the weekly task link)
- Find an image of work for these landscape painters / landscape architects / architects / gardens (ONE PER PAINTER / ARCHITECT / GARDEN).
Claude Lorrain
William Gilpin
Capability Brown
Humphrey Repton
JMW Turner, and
One of the following examples of Chinese gardens shown in today's lecture - Liu Garden; Suzhou, Lion Forest; Suzhou, Zhuozheng Garden; Suzhou, West Lake; Hangzhou.
- Choose 4 of these reference images and recreate similar scenes located at various 'stations' or 'spots' within your island.
- Bring in objects you think are appropriate for creating a Picturesque landscape within your island, and that are also appropriate for your custom island. - Make sure the landscape you design can be explained in terms of these picturesque techniques:
dividing the image into foreground, middle ground, background
vegetation; trees, shrubs etc.
navigation, pathways, [roads]
framing the view
ruins
follies
bridges, animals, water, pathways, vegetation
ha-has / manipulating, shaping the land.
- Use Fraps to take high resolution screenshots and post them to your blog side-by-side with your reference images. (at least one screenshot per reference image)
- Choose a 5th reference image to represent within your custom island. Continue detailing your island, using vegetation, decals, roads, water volumes, terrain layer painting to enrich your island.
- Upload a short clip demonstrating the results of today's tasks, navigating through your custom island to the places you set your scene. Upload to Youtube and link it to your blog. You can also embed the video in your blog if you wish, but be mindful of how wide the video is so it fits properly on the page.
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