Category: CAD Development Week 10

Posted on

Scale: Unity/Stop Motion

Scale 

Does scale in Unity matter? 

In everyday life, a person can detect whether an object is full size or miniature. How do we know if we are looking at a miniature compared to a full size object (even if the modelling itself is exceptional). 

This question can be examined by comparing the stopmotion animation process with games and video produced in the unity game engine. In stop motion scale varies, but producing stop motion puppets at ‘full scale’ would mean that a real life 6 foot person will produce a character that is 12 inches high. This can be referred to as full scale is equal to a scale of  1 unit = 2 inches. When converted to metric this would be 1 unit = 5 centimetres. This makes 100:5 centimetres or 20:1 scale. 

Unity Scales automatically to1 unit = 1 metre. If one was to apply stop motion scale to unity as an experiment, it would be reasonable to say that a unity object of 1 unit (100cm) should be reduced 20:1 (divided by 5) if made equivalent to a stop motion puppet. 

I am not so interested in photorealistic environments in my current project, as I am striving for a papery like world but I think it would be an interesting experiment to apply stopmotion scale to unity. This might help me to understand how physical measurement and effects are taken from the real world and applied in a game world. It could potentially help me to reproduce my physical paper models more accurately in Unity (or not). I am not sure whether it will help the processing load problem I have at the moment or whether this is purely down to my heavy use of transparency mapping (most likely) 

Research: Scale Experiments 
Posted on

Scale: Unity/Stop Motion

Scale 

Does scale in Unity matter? 

In everyday life, a person can detect whether an object is full size or miniature. How do we know if we are looking at a miniature compared to a full size object (even if the modelling itself is exceptional). 

This question can be examined by comparing the stopmotion animation process with games and video produced in the unity game engine. In stop motion scale varies, but producing stop motion puppets at ‘full scale’ would mean that a real life 6 foot person will produce a character that is 12 inches high. This can be referred to as full scale is equal to a scale of  1 unit = 2 inches. When converted to metric this would be 1 unit = 5 centimetres. This makes 100:5 centimetres or 20:1 scale. 

Unity Scales automatically to1 unit = 1 metre. If one was to apply stop motion scale to unity as an experiment, it would be reasonable to say that a unity object of 1 unit (100cm) should be reduced 20:1 (divided by 5) if made equivalent to a stop motion puppet. 

I am not so interested in photorealistic environments in my current project, as I am striving for a papery like world but I think it would be an interesting experiment to apply stopmotion scale to unity. This might help me to understand how physical measurement and effects are taken from the real world and applied in a game world. It could potentially help me to reproduce my physical paper models more accurately in Unity (or not). I am not sure whether it will help the processing load problem I have at the moment or whether this is purely down to my heavy use of transparency mapping (most likely) 

Research: Scale Experiments 
Posted on

Smart Goal update

Top 5

  • Unity Cinematography for Animated Films and Games. 
  • Immersive Environment Design Practice 
  • Immersive Environment Design Research
  • Immersive Design Network 
  • Character Design 


Unity Immersive Cinematography for Animated Film and Games. 

To transfer skills from Animation to Games and expand my portfolio and skillset,  I need to explore how Unity can be used to create animated film and games. To do this, I will follow LinkedIn tutorials on Timeline and Cinemachine so that I can create cutscenes. I will do this by December 2019. 


Immersive Environment Design (Practice) 

To become a specialist in immersive environment design for Animated Film and Games, I need to apply research from GDC to my environment design process. I will produce 10 examples of environment design for my portfolio. I will do this by March 2020.


Immersive Environment Design (Theory) 

To become a specialist in immersive environment design for Animated Film and Games, I need to apply research from Academia to my environment design process. To do this I need to locate one paper each week that focuses on Environment design and reconfigure my own personal ‘nature’ environment research. I will then be able to write a new research proposal if I wish to apply to complete my PhD. I will do this by March 2020.


Immersive Environment Design (Network) 

To become a specialist in immersive environment design for Animated Film and Games, I need to identify professionals working in immersive design and animation studios to develop my professional network. To do this I will begin to publish details of my projects on linked In and twitter to encourage conversations.  I will do this by March 2020.


Character Design 

To improve my digital character development, I need to design, model, rig and skin a character using Maya or Blender. To do this I need to watch 15 hours of character development tutorials and produce one character to include in my current project, Wheels. I will do this by December 2019.



Posted on

Smart Goal update

Top 5

  • Unity Cinematography for Animated Films and Games. 
  • Immersive Environment Design Practice 
  • Immersive Environment Design Research
  • Immersive Design Network 
  • Character Design 


Unity Immersive Cinematography for Animated Film and Games. 

To transfer skills from Animation to Games and expand my portfolio and skillset,  I need to explore how Unity can be used to create animated film and games. To do this, I will follow LinkedIn tutorials on Timeline and Cinemachine so that I can create cutscenes. I will do this by December 2019. 


Immersive Environment Design (Practice) 

To become a specialist in immersive environment design for Animated Film and Games, I need to apply research from GDC to my environment design process. I will produce 10 examples of environment design for my portfolio. I will do this by March 2020.


Immersive Environment Design (Theory) 

To become a specialist in immersive environment design for Animated Film and Games, I need to apply research from Academia to my environment design process. To do this I need to locate one paper each week that focuses on Environment design and reconfigure my own personal ‘nature’ environment research. I will then be able to write a new research proposal if I wish to apply to complete my PhD. I will do this by March 2020.


Immersive Environment Design (Network) 

To become a specialist in immersive environment design for Animated Film and Games, I need to identify professionals working in immersive design and animation studios to develop my professional network. To do this I will begin to publish details of my projects on linked In and twitter to encourage conversations.  I will do this by March 2020.


Character Design 

To improve my digital character development, I need to design, model, rig and skin a character using Maya or Blender. To do this I need to watch 15 hours of character development tutorials and produce one character to include in my current project, Wheels. I will do this by December 2019.



Posted on

Modify Upper Level Labyrinth in response to User Testing 03

I have modified the upper Level Labyrinth to account for feedback from users in User Testing 03.

The maze is now small, has areas of restriction and will have a couple of interactive rooms. I have also increased the speed of the Player.

I can now use this as the basis to continue to apply the principles of environment design as raised in the GDC paper on Environment design as Cinematic .

I have already applied some insights and the most recent one was to raise the starting position so that the player has a primary viewpoint from with to survey the maze and see the landmark for which they are aiming (to increase motivation).

UI 
(In Development) 
Start 
Secondary Prospect and Refuge 
(Further Prospect and refuge visible from this vantage point)
Upper Labyrinth
(Enclosed Space) 
Upper Labyrinth Room
(For Interactive Game) 
Fairground Entrance 
(Animated Cards & Character InteractionIn Production) 
Fairground 
(Game Stall Interaction In Production) 
Fairground Paper Grass Asset 
(Transition between regions) 
Top Tent Entrance 
(Conditional upon collecting set number of silver coins) 
 
Hole Appears after Cut Scene. 
 Hole Interior  
(Gravity needs editing) 
Spiral Maze 
(Tunnels and Barriers In Production) 
Mystic Tent 
(pay the mystic to get home) 
  
Next Steps: 
  • Export API for wider user testing. 
  • Complete basic environment. 
  • Character Design, Model, Rig and Animate 
  • Cut Scene Training and Development 

Posted on

Modify Upper Level Labyrinth in response to User Testing 03

I have modified the upper Level Labyrinth to account for feedback from users in User Testing 03.

The maze is now small, has areas of restriction and will have a couple of interactive rooms. I have also increased the speed of the Player.

I can now use this as the basis to continue to apply the principles of environment design as raised in the GDC paper on Environment design as Cinematic .

I have already applied some insights and the most recent one was to raise the starting position so that the player has a primary viewpoint from with to survey the maze and see the landmark for which they are aiming (to increase motivation).

UI 
(In Development) 
Start 
Secondary Prospect and Refuge 
(Further Prospect and refuge visible from this vantage point)
Upper Labyrinth
(Enclosed Space) 
Upper Labyrinth Room
(For Interactive Game) 
Fairground Entrance 
(Animated Cards & Character InteractionIn Production) 
Fairground 
(Game Stall Interaction In Production) 
Fairground Paper Grass Asset 
(Transition between regions) 
Top Tent Entrance 
(Conditional upon collecting set number of silver coins) 
 
Hole Appears after Cut Scene. 
 Hole Interior  
(Gravity needs editing) 
Spiral Maze 
(Tunnels and Barriers In Production) 
Mystic Tent 
(pay the mystic to get home) 
  
Next Steps: 
  • Export API for wider user testing. 
  • Complete basic environment. 
  • Character Design, Model, Rig and Animate 
  • Cut Scene Training and Development 

Posted on

Paper cut material maps

Although much more work needs to be done, the cards are looking more paper like. Time spent adding drop shadows and textured grain effects in photoshop will reduce the chance of having to add high cost visual effects in Unity.

Posted on

Paper cut material maps

Although much more work needs to be done, the cards are looking more paper like. Time spent adding drop shadows and textured grain effects in photoshop will reduce the chance of having to add high cost visual effects in Unity.

Posted on

Hole

New material maps have been designed for the hole drop. I am also altering the player gravity to slow the drop so that the player can look around (similar to Alice).

It would nice to have more animation in the cards passing the player. This may come later, following further character development.

Posted on

Hole

New material maps have been designed for the hole drop. I am also altering the player gravity to slow the drop so that the player can look around (similar to Alice).

It would nice to have more animation in the cards passing the player. This may come later, following further character development.