Maffy Lees ~ Third Year

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 enou...

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 

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.

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 museu...