Final Major Project [Post 4] ~ Building, Building and more Building

Recently I have been like an asset making machine, I have really been enjoying sitting in front of 3D Studio Max and churning out various assets for my level. I feel like I am definitely getting a lot faster with building in 3D and I am pleased with most of the things that I have made. My level was looking very sparse but hopefully once I have put all of these assets into my level, then it will look more like a manor house. I am not really looking forward to unwrapping or texturing some of these assets though as some have very rounded parts that will be difficult to unwrap neatly. I am going to pay more attention to making my unwraps a lot neater in this project though, as I feel that has let me down in past projects, although looking at my assets now, most of them will share the same tileable textures of wood or gold.

I made a paint-over of my library, as I couldn't get the ceiling to look right, by doing my paint-over, I realised that the ceiling wasn't high enough. Library's need to be very big, grand and impressive, with a ridiculous amount of books lining all of the walls, I think that I have almost achieved this with my level now that I have fixed the ceiling, but it still needs a few more assets. I decided to put a wooden room divider over the end of the room to separate the study from the library, I feel that this adds more depth and interest to the room, rather than it just being a plain room with some books and chairs in for example.

Final Major Project [Post 3] ~ White Boxing

An important part to any level is getting the white box done correctly, so that you can plan where all of the entrances and exits are and how you would lead the player around the level. Being a manor house, the design of the level isn't too difficult, most manor houses are all about symmetry with the doors and windows, even if they don't lead anywhere and are only for decoration. I used my floor plan to help me create my white box and I will use my white box to create my walls, floors and ceilings from, I may also do paint-overs on my white box to figure out colour schemes etc, but the overall shape and layout of the rooms won't change very much from this plan.

I have recorded me building a few of my assets and put them on to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/maffkins 

Final Major Project [Post 2] ~ Planning and Concepts

I made a lot of concept sketches using primary reference photos that I have taken in various manor houses, books that I own on manor houses, and even when watching period dramas such as; Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge, Pride and Prejudice etc.

These sketches will help me understand which assets I need to build and what sort of look and feel I want from each room. I will be using these sketches and concepts to directly build from.

Final Major Project [Post 1] ~ Ideas

It’s time for me to start my final major project, I have been thinking about what I would like to do for a while now but have never settled on a complete idea. I always wanted to build a large ornate manor house, because I love going to National Trust properties and other manor houses and I already have a lot of reference pictures. I presented my idea in front of my university class and about 5 tutors and the feedback that I got on my idea was mainly positive, (which in a way I was surprised about and glad) the only thing that they weren’t happy about is that I wanted to create the interior AND exterior of the house, they said it would be too much work and probably wouldn’t look right as different game engines are better for different things like this. They gave me a choice which was:

• I could do the exterior of an existing building, it would be an exact copy of the building but in 3D and would be more of a presentation piece that they would possibly show in a museum.
• I could just make the interior but it would be more like a game, so I could still have all of the nice architecture and ornate objects and decoration but I would have to build a story around it.

I chose the second idea, and decided that the player has broken into the house to steal some of the items. This then gave me the idea of which rooms I would like to create and where the end point/goal of the game would be.

I decided to set my level in the first world war sort of time, this would affect what technology would be in the house, and give an explanation as to why no one was around when the player broke in. I have chosen a specific year because it adds more of a constraint to my assets, manor houses don’t change dramatically over the years, but new wings and rooms might be added at certain points in time and it explains why the player would have broken in. I wrote a short paragraph story to introduce my level:

“Early 1914 England. Global war is on the horizon and many people have fled their homes to be with loved ones, whilst others have joined the army to defend their country. You, on the other hand are a common thief and will use unoccupied houses to your advantage. You have made your way through the countryside to a large manor house, the Lord and Lady are away but the servants still remain, to keep everything in order for their return. It is the middle of the night and everyone is in bed, you take this opportunity to break into the house through the front window.”

This is going to be a first-person adventure game for the Xbox 360/Playstation 3, in which the player has broken into a manor house in the countryside, in order to steal some of the valuables inside. I will be using 3D Studio Max 2014/15 and possibly Z-Brush for modelling, Photoshop CS2(or more recent) for texturing, and the Unreal Development Kit to put my level together.

I will be using a variety of books that I have collected over the years and a lot of personal photographic reference of visits to existing manor houses for inspiration. Ultimately the manor house will be my own design and not a copy of an existing house.

Here is a basic floor plan of the playable areas of my manor house, the inaccessible areas will not be modelled or created in any way, I have just put them on this floor plan to show how the ground floor of the house would be in its entirety: