BEAT-EM-UP! | AtlusZMH
So this'll be the first challenge I've ever entered. For now this'll just be a placeholder. When i get some content/ideas i'll update 
The challenges I'll be facing are pretty much everything. I'm a novice when it comes to game art, so i'll be learning a LOT from this hopefully
-I have done very little with UDK, so that'll be a big hurdle to overcome.
-I am thinking a high fantasy side-scroller with stylized and vibrant colors, but still using normal maps and next gen techniques to add detail and visual interest
-I want to -Attempt- to paint a matte painting type background, but that's lower on my list because my 2d skills are kinda lacking and not necessarily my main focus anyway
-Making a coherent and exciting scene thats interesting to look at everywhere!
-Refining my workflow to be more efficient and productive :P
Thats pretty much all i have so far.
Rawr
-Zach
The challenges I'll be facing are pretty much everything. I'm a novice when it comes to game art, so i'll be learning a LOT from this hopefully
-I have done very little with UDK, so that'll be a big hurdle to overcome.
-I am thinking a high fantasy side-scroller with stylized and vibrant colors, but still using normal maps and next gen techniques to add detail and visual interest
-I want to -Attempt- to paint a matte painting type background, but that's lower on my list because my 2d skills are kinda lacking and not necessarily my main focus anyway
-Making a coherent and exciting scene thats interesting to look at everywhere!
-Refining my workflow to be more efficient and productive :P
Thats pretty much all i have so far.
Rawr
-Zach
Replies
But fantasy feel to it..sounds interesting.
I think I should make one too...I thought only those who know that they are going to finish it..are to enter this challenge. <.<
But anyways.
Good luck
Keep it short then, and don't be too over-ambitious!
Next i'll be blocking the scene out.
I Figure if i bust out the pieces im comfortable with first, i can spend more time on the iffy parts and have some breathing room to learn properly
Let me know what you think!
Keep going!
DIGGIN THIS FOREST YO!
If you aren't that acquainted with UDK why not look into cryengine, I think it would lend itself well to your idea.
The forest moodboard looks interesting. I look forward to seeing what you do with your level.
The thread Ben linked looks pretty concise.
I think i'm going to bite the bullet and sculpt like 4 or 5 bricks, piece together the cottage with said bricks, and retopo them for the low poly. I think that'll help me practice the workflow as well as give me a lot more control over how my house ends up looking compared to just using a photoref brick texture with crazybump or similar
Now, if anyone knows how to model trees or knows of a tutorial, i would be eternally appreciative as i have never touched foliage beyond some simple grass..
The best idea i've come up with is to make a basemesh in maya, bring it into zbrush, and retopo afterwards.
I'll post up some brick sculpts soon!
Rawr
I set a schedule and deadlines to make sure I finish it. They have always helped me in the past.
I had to wrestle to the ground and beat into submission the high poly for that damn cottage.. I made a mistake of having WAAAAYYYYY too many polys.. never gonna do that again.
The smaller props are mostly going to be pick-ups like a weapon and food for health and such.
Next on the agenda is to model out the window shutters, door, and straw roof for the cottage as well as some trees... After that i'll try my hand at terrain editing in UDK(Not looking forward to learning that x.x) and then make another list of props to mash out..
By that time, i'll be ready to texture everything and start setting everything up in UDK, which will most definitely take the most of my time as i'll have to learn my way through it!
As always, please let me know what you think!
Rawr
Anybody use id tech4? I'm studying udk too...
What exactly is causing this? How do you get your alpha to only do black or white without the grey gradient along the edges?
Also, after looking through some of the Wiki about the foliage I am prolly gonna run through some of the Tuts, but i noticed there are some automatic tree generators. Does anyone have any experience with these? How do you allocate textures from them onto your already existing maps? I feel like using those may also be a sort of crutch as i may not have 100% control over the outcome.
Any words of wisdom? Any help or opinions of advice would be greatly appreciate. Even just a thumbs up or down towards a particular tutorial or generator to get me walking in the right direction
If you haven't already seen it the Tree making fast technique? thread has a lot of great info.
It looks like you are using Maya, you can make some great branch and possibly leaf textures with PaintFX, see this post for details.
I prefer to model my own foliage rather than tweaking various sliders and numbers... However if you are in a pinch for lot's of foliage then generators can definitely help get the job done within time constraints. Programs like Tree[d] can make pretty decent geometry if the values are tweaked just right.
As for assigning your own textures it's just like assigning them to any other model you bring into an engine. Speed Tree for UDK might be a different story I haven't really used it at all.
EDIT:
Here's another good one: Hedges and Topiary a quick tutorial by Vig
So i have been working on a few trees and bushes and now i have compiled them all together, imported em to UDK and set them all up and made a nice UDK package for them all so i dont have to re-link them over and over. But now i have ran into a problem. I am a bit of a UDK noob, so it may be an easy fix, but whenever i try to run the level with one of my trees in it, it says something like.. "Was unable to save package, linked to an external reference, blah blah blah"
Any advice? If needed i can reload the scene and post up the entire message.
Thanks in advance!
As soon as i figure out these shenanigans I am gonna be moving on to terrain and actually piecing together all my stuff so i can work on lighting and layout!
And in either case, how many triangles was the final house HP?
Was just curious seeing the unique unwrap for your house.
So far i have gotten everything into UDK and finally made my terrain.. gonna see if i can export it as a ref mesh to model some rock faces into it to hide/break up some of the boring-ness of the terrain. I feel pretty confident with getting meshes and such into UDK, minus collision... which i'll have to look into anyway..
Lighting is temporary, placement is temporary, just getting a feel for UDK placement, ect. Probably going to make a few more plant/tree variations and get some modular clutter like fences and stone piles in there before really hashing out the scene set-up. Finally i'll move onto cascade and kismet to get some nice floaty leaves and some fog.. still needa look into fading out the background into black so the forest looks deep and thick.
~Still Alive
- more ambient lighting and colour in ambient...do this now...lighting effects your whole scene and authoring textures with unatural lighting can cause issues later...
- get more appropriate BG in evenm if its just a quick gradient with correct ish colours... balancing these big elements early is the key to getting a good looking scene
Any pointers on how to do a proper background? Should i just make a giant sphere and map it to that like the skydomes are?
Also I'm having a problem with the dynamic lighting with the trees on the terrain. I have everything set to display and accept dynamic lights, but they still seem to show up as blobs on the ground with no movement >.<
Thanks again!
-Rawr