[29/10/2010] Blockout process over - Now on to the good stuff!

This week has been rather slow with progress for some reason. However I can safely say that the blockout is now complete and ready to be fleshed out with the good looking sugar coated goodness that is art!

Over the past week I've been trying to figure out what to do with the area where the link room leads out to the labratory area where 'Jake Sully' does all his video blogs in the early stages of the film (seen in my previous blog posts). The issue being the Link room has a window and a door looking in to a lab room. I don't really want to create this area unless time makes it possible later. It is inevitable however that you will need to see through this window and door.

I tried to flesh out that room very quickly which only took an hour or two to get its proportions and feel 'in-game' and after some criticism, it would be silly to go and include the lab in the final product at this stage. Its just far too much work to do at the current stage so playing it safe with sticking with the Link Room and Clean room.

[Blockout including the possible Labratory room. A corridor is also featured next to the room which might expand the workload even more.]


[Research Lab from a third person perspective, rather large........]

A solution to the door and windows now looking to knowhere will be to close the door and maybe a either create a very basic unlit room through the windows OR to create a bump offset map of the environment that is suppose to exist. This will be a new little challenge for me as it could be a little tough to pull off as I don't really know how to do it just yet and its rather a large room.

The clean room is now properly blocked out to scale from what I can best judge from the film. This area won't be accessed by the player sp most of the assets far away will not be that detailed. However, it looks like its going to be a nice contrast of colour between the Link room and this...

[Clean room block out in UDK]


[Film version of Clean room - near enough same scale though a few things need to be tweaked such as the windows and rear window with circular doors.]

Now the blocking out phase is complete I will seperate each blockout geometry part and place it in UDK so I can interchange finished pieces of art with blockout geometry. Gradually the blockout parts will dispearse and finished assets will fill up the scene. I will also try and blockout some lighting for the scene to get a feel of the atmosphere.

I admit pace has been slow this week and it will be turned around this week with lots of work done by the next post!

Ideally by next week I want to be:

• Blockout seperated and asset list created
• Basic lighting set up
• Get building assets to put in the scene

Thanks for reading again, leave some feedback if needs be.

Laters,

Noel

[22/10/2010] Continue of Blockout for UDK

Over the last week, a lot of progress on the blockout has been made. The 'clean room' blockout has been started to try and get a good idea of scale for that room. After gathering feedback from a few people in the Labs at University, it appeared that the first blockout in UDK felt too small. To fix this I pushed out the walls of the link room and also the Link Units. The result was good, it made the environment feel a lot bigger but did not take away the compactness and technical feel either. The roof was also lowered as in a third person perspective the ceiling felt too far away from the player and not in view.

Here are a few screen shots from the blockout so far in UDK:

[Link Room UDK - Lit only]

[Better Scale?]

[Initial Blockout though too narrow]


[ Central Control Area - 'Trench Widened and canopy taken up a little]


[ Clean room blockout -Not complete. Floor needs to be dropped a little I think. Doors need to be added on the far right plus ceiling more detailed]


[Inside the Clean room from the film camera perspective]


[Live Action shot - Though a little closer up]

Going off feedback from peers, it seems that everything feels just right now. The link room blockout is now complete and should not change before asset creastion starts.

The next task is complete blocking out the Clean Room. This shouldnt take too long as you are
only supposed to view it through a window. The research lab should be started soon too but I will see how that goes as I don't want to give myself too much to do.

There is an idea once the blockout is complete to UV quickly and colour code everything to what material it is going to be. For example, metal could be coloured silver, computer screen blue, glass white and so on. Setting up lighting might be wise to get a feel for the environment and an atmosphere before any assets are created, helping in the long term.

Tasks aiming to be completed by next week-ish (In brackets are maybes):

• Block out of all areas complete
• Beauty shot locations finalised
• (Asset List)
• (Colour Coding Materials)
• (Setting up basic lighting)

Thanks for reading and please leave any feedback you may have, it would be much appreciated!

Noel

[15/10/2010] Blockout Phase for Avatar Link Room (Room 1 out of 2)

I've been using this week mostly to get everything that needs to be done blocked out and scaled as best I can to fit UDK. At this stage I'm making sure everything is the right size and shape, saving a lot of time later, that is my aim anyway. This means every crucial asset needs to be blocked out and placed exactly where it needs to go, so by the time I've finished the blockout I know how much to build, to what size and can generate a more precise timeline.

Currently I'm just blocking out the Avatar Link room due to the rather odd shapes and proportions making it a lengthy process. Its been a minor challenge to make everything look the same scale as in the movie but after a few days of studying reference and tests in UDK, it works out ok.

The Avatar Link Units proved a little difficult to get them looking right in UDK (scale), making them not look too tall nor too small considering they need to fit a 6ft human inside. The diameter of the room also had to be increased as the original floor plan made the room feel tiny when converted in to 3D / UDK. The diameter was increased by about 20%.

I've had a few ideas of a perspective shot that would be great as a final shot, which is used in the movie too but also shows off most of the room. Here is a rendered shot from Maya as an example:

Here are a few more screens of the geometry blockout just to give a bit more of an idea for scale and position of everything:

I've also done a 'childs sketch' of a general idea of how the research room will be connected to the Link Room. The blockout for this WILL be done by the end of Sunday as its a lot more simplistic compared to the Link room. Luckily there is a very convenient shot at 9:24 in the movie when you can see a lot of the research room, see the images below:

Blockout should be complete by Sunday evening (according to shedule) so that work can start on creating artwork ready for an alpha version on the 29th October.

Thanks for reading,

Noel Mahoney

References:

James Cameron's 'AVATAR' DVD © 2009 20th Century Fox, Chapter 4

Reference Gathering for Blockout Phase

Image above: Main Avatar Link Room

First off the scene that I've choosen to create is the Avatar Link Room (AVATAR) which is scene frequently in the movie, mostly in the first act. Its a circular Labratory-like room, not that large and its main purpose is too link Avatar bodies mentally to their Human hosts through a machine that takes the appearence of an EKG machine. An adjacent clean room will also feature in the environment which can be scene from the main area through a window. If there is time, I hope to add in a research labratory. See the mood boards to get a better understanding of the scene.

The main aim at the start of the project was to get very clear understanding for a realistic project outcome. The goal was to focus on quality over quantity as I hope to use this process to build up my core skills of being an artist, so spending more time getting something almost perfect would lead to better art.

My goals of the project are:

• Create a highly realistic scene using highpoly / high detailed models.
• Recreate the superb lighting, taking note of important contrasting colours
• Make the environment feel as if it real and everything is placed logically and works how it looks
• Set goals early, achieve goals early
• Create dynamic effects in UDK to make certain assets stand out (Computer Monitors ect.)

I've spent the last week or so researching the area of my choosen scene and collecting as much reference material to help plan and block out the environment. Stills from the film were collected to try and get a few different perspectives of the scene for the blocking out process and asset creation ect.

The next stage of the project is to create a blockout of the environment which will contain everything that I desire to make. It will help gain an idea of what the scene will look like after completion at this early stage, giving me the chance to play around with different compositions without having to wait for the final artwork. I've found creating workable blockouts at the beginning of a blockout is crucial, saving time and giving you a solid idea of what you need to create and a realistic time frame at which to do it in.

Problems I face are:

• Little understanding of the UDK package
• Strictly keeping to a time shedule and not straying
• Unintenionally spending too long on one task (seeking perfection)

I hope to overcome these issues quickly through this project.