Backstory.

this is a 7 page backstory this was the one our group chose to make out of all the individual backstories, in a brief summary of this backstory. The story follows a man named Gabriel, as he witnesses a meteor hit the earth, with a material (they call it Deus Lapidem - god stone) that can be changed and moved by human will, and can be used to shape any structure, or implemented in such scientific ways that it can cure diseases. But like most discovories and breakthroughs there are always those who are willing to exploit it. So a scientist uses this material to reshape people and control them, blooding the material across the country, taking away Gabriels love interest and most of England. Gabriel comes back to the UK only to find all this destruction and only has one clue how to stop it all : that Sir Titus Salt experienced this before, knew of this material and had measures in place. Gabriel must travel to Saltaire and find Titus's tomb to awake his guardians and end this crisis.



My backstory
The Awoken: Guardians of Titus
It is 2442 and it began the quest to find the legend of the Sir Titus Salt cure to the zombies, It was never definite but it was his only hope to save his family, the archaeologist John went on the search for this scroll that is hidden in the historical town Saltaire somewhere, the location is not known and it may not even be true but it’s the last chance to save humanity from extinction. The zombies happened before years ago back when Sir Titus Salt was alive and he found the secret to destroying the zombies but somehow it happened again and spread rapidly, it is legend that he hid the scroll somewhere hidden for the future in case it happened again and that wasn’t the end of the zombies for good.
John travelled across the country to get to Saltaire to see if this legend was true, his family were all turned into zombies and he has nothing left to lose, He arrives in Saltaire where it was dead there are paper on the streets cars tipped up and buildings destroyed and windows smashed. He looked in buildings everywhere to try find this hidden tomb, all the buildings that used to be college buildings but that stopped long ago, He found nothing in any of the buildings. He then decided the only place after searching through Saltaire could be somewhere in Roberts park it was his last opportunity to find the secret to destroy the zombies. He looked and found an old building that seemed to look like an old cafe but it had a statue in the middle of it which seemed to look promising so John decided to try the little object and he moved it which made a loud sound like the earth was shifting.
It turned into stairs and it was an entrance to a tomb which john prayed was the secret tomb, He walked inside and there were skeletons on the floor, cobwebs everywhere and traps. He found a coffin which he opened and it was Titus inside with a key in his hand, john picked the key up thinking it might be relevant to this legend that was told, he carried on further into the tomb after finding the key to see if he could find where the key might be used and what for.
He then tripped over a rope and the key fell into a hole so he used his grappling hook to get down and get the key, he bent to pick the key up and slowly stood up because he saw some strange animal feet in front of him and it was the lions from the 4 lions of Saltaire, he said “my name is peace. One of the four lions of Saltaire and I’m here to help you stop the zombies before it’s too late, when you tripped over the rope you triggered the lever which brings us to life”. John said “so what do i have to do to stop this, can i get my family back to normal?” The lion responded “it is possible but you have a long way to go before you reach that step, there are a lot of traps in this tomb and there are trails you must complete in order to prove yourself and get into the chamber that will help you destroy the disease and cure your loved ones”.
John was happy for the first time in a long time because he has now realised he can save his family and get back his loved ones, this gave him motivation and nothing was going to stop him from completing his task, the lion said you will find another lion called vigilance who will tell you what to do for your first task, John walked further down the dark cave with sounds behind him making him on edge thinking there is something following him, he reached a lit up bit in the cave that had no floor and spikes below, the lion was at the other side of the room and it was vigilance he said “ there are bars above that you can grab and climb across to reach me” so john grabbed the bars one by one and as he almost reached the end one hand slipped and he almost fell to his doom but he finds the strength to get back up and

Computer Interface Reflection

Computer Interface Reflection
For the computer interface I took a print screen of part of my 3d environment which I then made my own simple but effective interface for if it was in a game, I could have made the final design a bit better and added more to the interface to make it look more advanced and professional.
We did not have much time to complete this so I managed my time the best I could in the time I had, I think it looks quite good for the time spent but I also could have made it slightly better and more professional looking. I learnt more skills in Photoshop whilst doing this unit.

Reflection of 3d environment

Reflection of 3d Environment
• What did you do and how did you do it? / Does your final product meet your original intentions? If it does not match your planning explain why
• First of all we all planned which part of saltaire we would do individually as we had teams of about 5/6 which all had their own place to model for the trailer. We chose saltaire because it’s a historic place and it’s right on our doorstep so we used it to our advantage, I had to make part of Roberts Park and a tomb that we decided was going to be in the trailer.
• I was also going to make a spectre as a character for the trailer but decided I did not have enough time for that so I just made the environment because the trailer was mainly for environments, I put as much detail into the environment as possible for the time I had and it turned out well but if I had more time I could of made it much better I think.

• Self evaluation – how did you manage your time? How could you manage your time more effectively? I think I managed my time pretty well but I didn’t realise how much time there really was I thought there was more than there actually was and that I could relax because I had plenty of time, if I had the chance to do it again I would of concentrated more and made it much better detailed.
• What did you struggle with?  I struggled with a part in 3d max when i had to create the background sky because it was making the shadow of the objects in my environment show on my dome so i had to create a background that was just blue and put mountains in the background to make it more realistic.
• How does your finished video compare to professional examples? I think the finished trailer was quite good and professional but still not as good as a proper professional trailer.
• What do other people think of your finished video? It was generally positive feedback because we put the video on YouTube and got 150 views so far and quite a few comments which are mainly positive.
• What could you improve upon? I could have improved on the detail of the environment and made it bigger.
• If you were to do it again what would you do differently next time? , It’s not about the finished product, it’s about the journey. What did you learn? I would make sure i concentrated more during the time I had because I didn’t realise how quick it really was to finish the trailer in time, i learnt how to use many different uses for Photoshop and learnt how to use different software’s such as 3dmax.

Reflection Of Sound.

For the sound for our trailer in my part i went into the sound studio recording area and did a voiceover for the radio that was in our trailer, this went very well infact better than i expected because i added effects to the sound using cubase to make it sound better.

I managed my time with the little time we had each week in the sound room really well i thought, i finished the sound weeks before the deadline was for the sound being made, I found the sound unit to make the sound quite easy and got along with the software well and equipment, the sound track put together with all the groups bit for the sound actually sounded really professional and not far off a real trailer in my opinion, also when we put the video on youtube it got quite a lot of positive comments. we could of improved it a bit by making the backing music abit quieter so the sound of the narative could be heard bit better.

If i could improve on the sound i would make it sound a bit better and longer with better quality, i think we should of made the backing beat less repetitive and maybe added more to it to make it not get as boring, but it went well for the time we had.

interfaces

Now the trailer has been completed we are using rendered images from our environments and creating interfaces on photoshop with health bars and maps to use the skills we have learnt over the years in photoshop. The image i have uploaded is my interface i created for my environment on photoshop.
I have made it simple and created just a map with some enemies on it which are the red dots and the white dot is the person you play as. and at the bottom i have created an xp bar. if it was to be a real game i would make the health like call of duty where the screen would go red if you got hurt.

Responsibilites for the trailer

My environment is going to be the first bit of the trailer it will start outside the tomb in a field and will go into the trap ridden tomb where there will be my radio that will play my voice over. the marketting side of things i made the icon for the ipod because that is what we are marketting towards instead of consoles.
I have no one before my bit of the trailer because i am first and after me is adams bit of the trailer which will be another part of the tomb which is connected to mine.
The overall length will be about 3 minutes or more alltogether.

Renders from 3d models

i will display my renders from my environment that i have been producing on 3dmax.

Environment Progress

Over the last few days at college i have been making my environment for the trailer which i have been asked to do and i have progressed quite far but still have a long way to go before completing it, i have tried to be creative with the environment to the best of my ability and added little features that add to the suspense/horror side of the game we are making.

The picture on the left is what i first decided i was going to do texture wise but i decided to change it because we plan to attach my part of the environment to Adam's so the same texture would make more sense and i changed it to the same rocky texture as his.

this is the texture that i changed it to and it shows how much i have changed it with putting the spikes on the roof as part of the suspense side of it because i am going to animate it so the roof starts to come down and he has to get to the button to open the wall which will lead to Adam's part of the environment.

Discussion on the final t shirt design

We had a team meeting and looked at each t shirt desgin from every member of the team and discussed which aspects of our designs we liked then decided through voting about which colour we would want the t shirt and voting for other bits we liked. we are going with Robert Briggs's t shirt design because it was so well designed and we liked every aspect of the design.

below is the front of the t shirt design.

ParkBench 3D Max

For the trailer i will also be making objects for the park like a park bench and bins and other objects. I have started making the park bench and i will use this blog to show my progess through
print screens.

These 4 pictures are proof of the progress of the bench i have made in 3d max.

Production Continued

This week has been the official start of the production of the game trailer for each team which contains a few members in each team, Each member of the team has different duties and jobs to do. we all have to do an environment each and a few objects too, also we all have to do a bit of audio each for the trailer so we have all experimented in all aspects of producing the trailer.
I have started production on an enviroment which will be part of the tomb and i have also worked on the radio which will be in the trailer that is completely my work, i will be making the radio and the audio for the radio which will be at the beggining of the trailer.
Other work i have done today is plan for the audio side of the trailer in chris's lesson, what dialogue will be used, what tombres and other sounds will be used, where and when. Also we have been experimenting with windows movie maker by learning continuinity editing and effects for when we will need to use these skills with the finished trailer in post production.



this is a little screenshot of the radio i have created and finalized for the trailer and created in 3d using the skills i have learnt over the past few months.









this is a screenshot of the inside of the cave like tomb i have created but its still not finished yet i am going to expand it to make it bigger.

Production starts today

Now i have done all the planning for what objects and environment i have to do for the trailer as my part of the team i am going to start production work and produce objects that i will be making on 3dmax which will be a field, radio and an environment. Also on tuesdays i will be working with my team in the sound room on my part of the sound which will be lewis radio on the radio i have created which will be at the start of the trailer where the main character will be listening to the radio in the first 10/20 seconds of the 3 minute trailer.
I will first work on the radio in 3dmax today and try my best to create the best radio possible using the skills i have learnt over the past year.

Ipod and Steam icons Professional Examples and My Designs

To make an iPod and steam icon for the game I will have to examine some professional examples that will inspire me. The Sims 3 logo I have shown below is a professional example of an iPod icon its simple yet effective and shows what the game is. I will do something along the lines of this make it simple but make sure the audience know what the game is and make it look good too.






The image below is my final design for the iPod and steam icon for our team game which is called The Awoken: Guardians of Titus, i have included the game name on the icon like the professional example and made it simple with the lions head because they are the guardians of Titus it all relates to the game.

T Shirt Task

Today i made my own version of a t shirt design for the marketing side of the production of the game trailer, so we used a website called streetshirts which allows you to design your own t shirts and add your own images which i did and i included both my team logo and the game logo on the t shirt.

I made it so the front of the t shirt had the game graphic quite large on the majority of the t shirt but mostly the bottom half, then i added the team logo small on the top left of the t shirt and also to the back of the t shirt.

Red hawk Meetings and Plans

Red Hawk Meeting Minutes

24/1/2102

TIME: 09:00-10:45

WHERE: SF02

Present: Ivo Anusic – Team Leader

Lewis Corcoran – Co-Leader

Joseph Connell

Robert Briggs (Minutes)

Adam Thompson

Alex Forbes-Wake

Next Meeting: 7/2/2012, 10:00-11:00, SF02

1. Announcements

1.1 Name of Product

The name of Red Hawk’s first game production was agreed previously as The Awoken: Guardians of Titus. Originally it was named The Awoken however members felt that the product needed more character and the name was extended to The Awoken: Guardians of Titus.

1.2 Agreed Deadlines

The members discussed deadlines for the final production, it was noted by members that finishing the final production weeks in advance was the key to the completion of our work. Setting these realistic objectives was important; this gives us more time to polishing areas of concern. The deadline has been set for the 28/03/2012 for all production work and a final post production deadline was agreed for the 03/05/2012.

1.3 Agreed Platforms and Promotional Focus

It was agreed that due to the very natural of games development from an independent studio viewpoint that platforms that offer easy access was the focus for our audience. Services like Steam, Android and Apple offer this easy entry. Additionally we looked at promotional content, utilizing social networking sites to spread the message of our project. These tools are free for use and will be used to showcase our work. Furthermore, promotional content will feature on these sites and amongst others with advert promoting our game.

2. Discussion Points

2.1 Agreed Plot

Members presented back story / plot scripts for the final game product. Members read the presented scripts and the team decided which script would drive the direction of the production forward. It was agreed that Joseph Connell’s vision was the best suited story for our game production.

2.2 Ideas

Once the plot was agreed members presented individual ideas that would benefit the overall product in the final production. Members suggested using text narrative or vocal dialogue in between 3D content as informative transitions. This would add more story aspects to the trailer. It was discussed that the importance of environments and enemies within the trailer would add additional depth. Specific locations were highlighted as musts to convey the story, for example the tomb and memorial environments.

2.3 Trailer Plan

Members discussed a basic plan regarding how the trailer would play out for our product. A plan was crafted but not finalized and this will be agreed by the members at a later date.

2.4 Actions

Members discussed actions regarding the project. This included members being allocated with job roles for the production.

Production Job Roles;

Ivo Anusic (Team Leader)

• Environment – Park


• 3D Characters / Objects - Lions & Main Protagonist


• Photoshop – Texturing


• Sound - Dub step Track

Lewis Corcoran (Co-Leader)

• Environment – Park


• 3D Character / Objects - Female Spectre, Radio Prop & Park Props


• Photoshop – Texturing


• Sound - Radio Narrative

Joseph Connell

• Environment – University


• 3D Character - Stone Zombie


• Photoshop - Concept Art, Transitions & Texturing


• Sound - Dialogue and Story Narration

Robert Briggs

• Environment – Village


• 3D Character / Objects - Titus Statue, Red Hawk, University & Park Props


• Photoshop - Texturing


• Sound - Foley Artistry


• Trailer Introduction

Adam Thompson

• Environment - Tomb / Crypt


• 3D Objects - Tomb / Crypt Props


• Photoshop – Texturing


• Sound - Dub step Track

Alex Forbes-Wake

• Environment – Memorial


• 3D Objects - Memorial Props


• Photoshop - Texturing & Splash Screens


• Sound - Foley Artistry

Promotional Job Roles;

Ivo Anusic (Team Leader)

• Promotional Adverts

Lewis Corcoran (Co-Leader)

• Game Icons (Steam, App Store and Android Market)

Joseph Connell

• Promotional Posters

Robert Briggs

• Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Promotions

Adam Thompson

• A6 Flyers

Alex Forbes-Wake

• Web Advertisement

3. Final Outcomes – agreed actions with deadlines

Product Name - The Awoken: Guardians of Titus

Agreed Deadlines - The production work deadline was agreed for the 28/03/2012 with a final post production deadline agreed for the 03/05/2012.

Agreed Platforms and Promotional Focus - It was agreed by members using easy platforms for our product was the correct direction. This includes Steam, Android and Apple. Promotional Focus was web based social networking sites and web advertisement using these tools effectively.

Agreed Plot - The back story written by Joseph Connell was chosen by Red Hawk members for the final product.

Ideas - Members added additional ideas to develop further the chosen plot, Ideas were introduced that would improve the final product such as dialogue in between 3D content.

Trailer Plan - The trailer plan wasn’t finalized and will be discussed at a later date.

Actions - See Item 2.4 for further details regarding actions. This includes production and promotional actions.

Plot plan second by second

Plot Plan – The Awoken: Guardians of Titus
Soundtrack
• A slow fluid soundtrack will start proceedings which will lead to a dub step mix starting at 72 seconds mark by Ivo and Adam.
Timeline;
(0 - 5 seconds) Game rating splash screen. (AFW)
(5 - 15 seconds) Team name introduction, Red Hawk Studio. (RB)
(10 - 20 seconds) Game lore introduction either through text or vocal dialogue? Section ends with fade to black screen leading to 3D work. (JC)
Extensive environment sections with panning cameras angles showcasing game levels. Some sections will contain game story content.
(20 - 45 seconds) Radio broadcast in Tomb environment (showcased). (AT & LC)
(45 - 47 seconds) Fade to black.
(47 - 72 seconds) Game characters in Memorial environment (showcased). Additional game narration could be introduced at this point. (IA, AFW & JC)
(72 - 75 seconds) This leads to a fade to black screen; at this point game content will be shown only until the very end.
(75 - 90 seconds) University environment showcased. (JC)
(90 - 92 seconds) Fade to black.
(92 - 117 seconds) Park environment showcased, large panning angles covering park and University sections. (IA & LC)
(117 - 120 seconds) Fade to black.
(120 - 140 seconds) Village environment showcased. Red Hawk visible in the environment. (RB)
(140 - 150 seconds) Game lore transition that ends with fade to black screen. (JC)
(150 - 165 seconds) Trailer ends with key locations shown in quick succession and the Lions coming to life in the Memorial environment. (ALL)
(165 - 180 seconds) Final splash screens and credits of team. (AFW)
Keys; IA – Ivo Anusic LC – Lewis Corcoran AT – Adam Thompson JC – Joseph Connell AFW – Alex Forbes-Wake RB – Robert Briggs

Game trailer graphic and ipod logo

the last couple of weeks each member of each group have been working on their own game trailer graphic so that we could all see each others final game graphic and decide which is best and maybe even combine a couple of them together to make the winning graphic even better.

This image on the left was my graphic that i created. since its the guardians of titus which we decided were the lions so i decided to include that in my game graphic by using an image of a sketched lion which goes well with it, i used a font from 1001 free fonts for the name of the game which is slightly horror because the game has zombies in it.

I think its simple but good at the same time.

We made a final individual image with all the logos created from each team member which is shown below.

in the end as a group we decided to go with alex forbs-wake's graphic which is the one in the top right but we used the idea of mine and ivo's lions and rob's red colour in the background of his graphic and decided to combine them to make a final design which would more or less be alex's idea with added bits from all the other group members graphics.

The final design was made and is below., this is what we decided to do for the final design game graphic you can see there is titus on the right and a lion on the left which shows both of the main characters what the story is about. we used bits of each of the team members work.

Also i have finished the ipon icon design for the game, each member were asked to do different marketting bits and mine was the ipod icon below.

3d Max enviroments with objects and atmosphere

I first made a plane then changed the length and height segments to 20, i then added a displace and added a map noise and changed the blur and noise to make the plane look like an enviroment. I then went onto the AEC extended which has walls, foilage and railings. i used foilage and used a few trees on the enviroment to make it more realistic, i then went onto the helpers tab and clicked atmospheric apparatus and chose a box gizmo, i added volume fog to make the enviroment more atmospheric and added a forest texture to the plane to make it look like a foggy forest scene.

Project Plan

This is the plan our group has come up with after a long discussion and comparing each others ideas and backstorys we made and making one final idea:







production plan, who is making what
Ivo - lion, hands, male zombie(stone)
Lewis - radio, radio dialogue and spectre
Adam - memorial, tomb, inside items
Joe - concepts, voice overs, splash screens textures, creative art, textures
Alex - sky dome destructive environments
Rob - village architecture




marketing whos doing what
Ivo - promotional screen
Lewis - steam/iPhone icon
Adam - flyers
Joe - posters
Alex - web banner
Rob - facebook/twitter







I will be creating objects like crates, the dead grass and the spectres as part of the building items, i wil also be building the radio for my radio channel that i will be recording in cubase, i am going ot be doing the voice for the radio which will be at the start of the trailer.
For the marketting i will be creating the stream and iphone icon for the trailer so i will probably do something along the lines of a lions head on the icon with the name of the game in the icon too.

making a house from saltaire in 3dmax

today in 3d max we got taught how to make the windows and door from the classic look that saltaires houses have, we also learned how to make better textures and learnt even more skills in 3d max. i have started to make the house so far i have made the windows and the frame of the house and the door, i am going to get pictures of the sand bricks so i can use the texture in 3d max in a later date for the trailer.

The picture on the left is a quick render of the frame of the windows and doors.

3dmax enviroment

I have learnt how to make better enviroments that are more realisitc in 3dmax by using photoshop, it has helped me a lot in my progress of learning more skills in 3d max.

This picture is a render of the enviroment i have made in 3dmax today from the new skills i learnt, I made it look more like an horrific enviroment.

Planning for my enviroment

this is my original drawing of my enviroment for planning for the trailer, i did this in pencil at first then went over with fine liner on bits, i have done a sort of scary look to it to make it represent the trailer i will be doing which is going to involve zombies.

This drawing is my colour drawing of the same enviroment that i have done above, i have split it in to 4 different sections, one of them is pastel, one is crayons, one is black and white and the last one is felt pen. I have not put a lot of detail in the drawing because it was practicing drawing techniques like cross hatching and other methods.