Legal Constraints

Legal Constraints

My character is based on a type of enemy from a video game series, The Elder Scrolls. The reason I chose to use the already existing character as a basis is because they are incredibly annoying to fight in the games they are featured in. They aren't exactly powerful but they're a nuisance as they come out of nowhere and they can be several at a time which makes it more difficult to fight them. The character themselves are called Dwemer (Dwarven) Spiders and are automatons which dwell in ancient ruins which were once inhabited by a powerful race of elves. The spiders were used for various different reasons and the Dwemer, the race who created them, were incredibly advanced and light years ahead of any other race or culture technology wise. Eventually the Dwemer all disappeared apart from one after 'tampering' with the heart of an Aedra (extremely powerful divine-like beings) and it isn't exactly clear what happened to them, and the only reason one survived is because he was on another plane when the mass disappearance took place. The Dwemer became so advanced and powerful that the Gods/Divines felt threatened by them as their magick was becoming more powerful than theirs. T

My character is similar to the ones from TES in the sense that it is a mechanical spider but that is all. I'm not exactly a fan of spiders (having arachnophobia) but I find the TES characters quite interesting in the way they work and would be quite useful and helpful as a sidekick. My own character is different in the way it acts and attacks, and also has a different design to the ones from TES.

I don't believe I could get into any legal trouble as all I'm doing is using a similar character to ones in one of my favourite video game series. I highly doubt Bethesda, the creators and developers of TES, were the first to come up with the idea of 'mechanical spider-like automatons' and would really have no reason to take action against me. I would also like to add that there is a lot more detail to the ones from TES than there is in mine. You can clearly see that the design is quite different and the only real similarities they have is the fact that they're: arachnid-like, are mechanical, and have some sort of 'steam punk' sort of feel.

Below is a side by side comparison of my creation and my inspiration.

Production Log

Production Log

In our first lesson, we designed initial rough sketches of robots we could use for our project. I designed a few different sketches and I tried to make them all very different so I had some sort of 'variety' to choose from. I sort of know which design I was originally going to go for and didn't really have to think twice about my final decision.
In our second lesson, we had to create 3 different view points of our chosen robots, an ariel view, a side view, and a front view. I spent the entire lesson doing these and had to spend about half of the next lesson finishing off my final view point.
Half way through the third lesson, I began to scan in my sketches into the mac and saved them to my documents.
Our fourth lesson took place after half term and my first course of action was to correct the sketches as 'perfectly' as I could. This took me a little while as I had to scan in and correct my drawings several times. After this I had to cut and paste each image to make sure that they were right next to each other and lined up as well as I could. After that, I had to add guide lines to the photoshop to show that they lined up.
In our fifth lesson, I created the image planes to place my sketches on which will work as a guide for my modelling.
The next few lessons were spent creating the model itself, sculpting shapes in order to make them look like my robot.
...
After several, pointless lessons of not really getting anything done, I decided to completely change my idea to one of the other concepts I came up with, something a lot more simple. The reason why I decided to change which concept I was doing is because I just had too much trouble with the original idea. To the point where I felt that it was virtually impossible for me to do. Some of the ideas I had for it were just too advanced for me and it was not worth spending hours trying to do something I couldn't succeed with.
I restarted modelling completely, and went with a simpler design. My newer design is a lot simpler and easy, it occurred to me that an easier design than everybody else's isn't exactly going to show off my 3D modelling skills. However, I would rather do an easier design and get it done on time, than choose a really complicated one and not get it done. One of the reasons I found the original spider-like design to be too complicated is because I just couldn't get certain parts of it right. The body of the spider was just always weird and too big/bulky, the legs also were extremely difficult to get symmetrical.
Starting anew, I made the body of my robot and made the 'legs' for it too. I then created a screen for the robot on it body too. I did this by putting in a small rectangle into the body of the robot and going to mesh > booleans > difference, this process creates a cut out space and i inserted another rectangle into it in order to be able to change the texture of the screen to something more 'screen-like'.
...
It has been a while since I last updated my production log and I'm not entirely sure what the process has been. I have obviously created an entirely new robot and I like it a lot more than the old spider-like design. The new design is actually finished which is more than I could have ever said for the old design. The new design isn't exactly the most amazing - it certainly is not complex in any way and I don't really expect the highest of marks for its brilliant design. I designed in a way I knew I could do and get at least a pass for it.
Essentially would happened was, I worked on the robot lesson after lesson and eventually got to the point that I couldn't think of what else to add to it. I needed a couple more assets and parts to make it pass-worthy. I decided to add something sort of wacky like a satellite dish - although my robot is from the future, the satellite dish is their as a sort of throw back to those retro robot designs from the 80s and 90s. It really doesn't need to be there but I thought the world it was in could be similar to that of Cowboy Bebop's. What I mean by this is that the world in Cowboy Bebop is futuristic but still the culture is still very similar to that of when it was made (late 1990s). The robot also has a massive console on the front which has controls on it.

After I created these extra parts, I began the stage of texturing. Texturing my robot wasn't extremely difficult as my robot is very rectangular and didn't really require much 'mapping'. I still had to do some but it wasn't much.

I eventually just had some touch ups to do and I'm done. My robot is now finished

Task 6 - Constraints

Constraints are more or less the restrictions for polygons or faces which are used to construct shapes. Polygons need to be rendered to make look good at all and rendering can take up a lot of space and a lot of time. The more polygons that must be rendered, the longer the game will take to load. Because of this, many developers tend to try and balance the polygons with the time it takes to load and how good they actually are. A game with a lot of polygons which are rendered to the best they can would require a very good, expensive platform. PCs are usually the platform with the best graphics as they are upgradable and have very good hardware available to make games have better graphics and improve them. The more polygons there are, the bigger the file would be, which isn't exactly great if someone doesn't have a lot of space on their platform. The Xbox One and the PS4 have 500GB each whereas a PC could have any amount of space a user could stick on using external hard drives and stuff like that. The higher amount of polygons something has, the more time it will take to render and when something takes too long to render, people usually split the project up and get multiple people to render parts so the process is quicker. A polygon count is the number of polygons which are being rendered each frame.

Some games today are made to resemble those of yesteryear and have similar graphics to the popular games of the N64 or the NES. These games used 8 bit graphics and were usually 2D scrollers. The reason why some games use similar graphics and art styles in the modern day are probably for a variety of reasons. One of the prime reasons could be for nostalgia, many gamers today grew up with these low quality, 8 bit games and have a soft spot in their heart for them. A game like Gunpoint (2013) is quite similar to a game like Nightshade (1992) in terms of art style and story. Sometimes games are made with graphics like these as it will be less demanding for a PC to run and the company that is developing it may not be very big and would have trouble with making a full scale game which keeps up with other modern games in terms of graphics. Also the genre that this game is in isn't particularly popular and thus may not have a very large audience. Ergo, I doubt that a indie developer such as Tom Francis (Gunpoint) would want to spend too much money on making a game he doesn't know is going to sell much.

Another game which has a very limited graphics style and isn't particularly amazing in regards to how it looks is Hotline Miami which came out in 2012 and is based on the movie 'Drive' (2011). The game is similar to Gunpoint in the sense that it is a fairly modern game which uses older, outdated graphics. Like Gunpoint, Hotline Miami was developed by very few people which is why it could have such 'low-end' graphics or art style. Again, like Gunpoint, the graphics could have been minimal as the developers didn't know whether it would be a success and whether or not they could make any money from it, or it could have just been the art style which suited the game. Hotline Miami is very popular and has even spawned a sequel, and although it doesn't have the same love as the original game, it is still very popular. Hotline Miami is very gory and violent game which centres around the activity of an unnamed man who fans refer to as 'jacket'. Jacket receives various voicemails on his answering machine which tell him to go to certain places and massacre whoever is there, all targets being either mobsters or cops. The game is a 2D top-down action game which again, reminds people of a  number of similar games from 20+ years ago. An example being the original Grand Theft Autos.

                                 
                               

Task 2: Game Environment Planning

https://newevolutiondesigns.com/images/freebies/futuristic-city-wallpaper-20.jpg
https://newevolutiondesigns.com/images/freebies/futuristic-city-wallpaper-6.jpg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AHAVptS87rs/maxresdefault.jpg
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140716020839/cyberpunk2044/images/4/43/21258_1_miscellaneous_digital_art_futuristic_futuristic_city.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vxm08-jxEnc/maxresdefault.jpg
http://img07.deviantart.net/9096/i/2013/032/c/0/future_city_by_dongkyuni-d5tidbu.jpg
http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2015/04/11/659181/big_thumb_a41238327e5414066ab015d13ead936c.jpg

Task 2 - Displaying 3D Polygon Animations

Graphics Pipeline:
Lighting in 3d modelling is the finished rendered version of the 3D object(s). Lighting is important as it can change the way a game is played and what sort of mood a game developer wants the players to be in. Horror games would have much darker and 'eerie' settings whereas an adventure game aimed at younger audiences would have a lot of bright light and colours but it really depends on the mood and setting of a game and its world.
Viewing is when you look at the 3D shape you have made or are currently making. This would be done to check if it looks right and making sure it is going in the right direction so you don't really waste your time.
Projection
Clipping is when enable or disable rendering for a certain shape or shapes. This would mainly be done to stop lag and improve performance. Not everything has to be rendered at once as it is a tough job for a computer depending on how much needs to be rendered and to what extent. It is visible in games when you walk over a hill and it takes a few seconds for the textures and quality of certain objects to become normal. It really depends on how good your platform is (XBOX, Playstation, PC, etc.) and there are usually some sort of settings you can change to how far you want your render distance or something.
Viewport transformation is
Scan conversion is 

 

Task 3: Geometric Theory

A 3D model is a mathematical representation of a shape in 3D space. Spheres, cubes, and cylinders are the examples of basic 3D models but can used to create even more complex ones.

There are two main types of 3D models used in the medias, them being NURBS surfaces and polygonal models. NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) surfaces are created using bezier
curves. They are also very mathematically accurate which is why they are commonly used in modelling for the engineering and automotive industries. Polygonal models are made up of vertices, edges, and faces. Polygonal models are commonly used in modelling and are used to create more complex and complicated shapes/objects. Polygonal models aren't too difficult to manipulate or morph which is why they are commonly used. When morphing a polygonal model, you must do it bit by bit which can take a lot of time and work. 

The 3 dimensional space in which games and software like Maya is based on the Cartesian coordinate system. This is essentially a map for the positions of the points of the 3D objects. This system was developed by the French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, Rene Descartes. The system space uses 3 different axes: width (x), height (y), and depth (z).

Task 5 - 3D Development Software

Blender is used mainly for animation, photorealistic rendering, and fast modelling. It is non profit and free to use. It is used in game creation mostly. Blender has many features to help with modelling and animations such as: UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, and particle simulation. 

Lightwave is used mostly for rendering static images and short clips. It has been recently ised in the most recent James Bond film, Skyfall. Lightwave has been used in over 60 films, over 50 television shows, and over 50 video games. Lightwave also has dynamic physics systems for supporting hard and soft body motion, deformation, constraints, and motorisations, along with numerous other features. It also has hypervoxels, material shaders, nodes, and scripting. 

SketchUp is used mainly for 3D modelling in industries such as architecture and engineering along with use in films and games. SketchUp has been used in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. SketchUp is now owned by Trimble Navigation which is a mapping, surveying, and navigation equipment company. There is also an open online source of models for users to use for their own creations. 

3D Studio Max is used to help create 3D images, games, and movies. It has been used in films such as: Alice in Wonderland and games such as: Assassins Creed. It is also used a lot in the architecture industry as there is a plugin for it. 3D Studio Max now has many new features such as: shaders (ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering), dynamic simulation, particle systems, and radiosity. It includes a lot more as well. 

Cinema 4D is used for animating, modelling, and rendering. It has been used in films like: Ironman, and Prometheus. It was first created in the early 90s and the first three versions were solely for use on Amiga computers. However, after Commodore went into bankruptcy, Cinema 4D began being compatible with normal computers. 

Maya is used to create animations and models. It uses the natural laws of physics to create real, life-like animations. It has been used in things like: simulations, films, and rendered animations. Maya is very good at using natural elements such as: smoke or water and can create very realistic expressions and gestures for the models.

Task 1 - Applications of 3D

3D in media

When making a media 3D, you're essentially changing the way people are perceiving it. 3D is used to make thing s pop out and appear more realistically. There are different ways of doing this and there are different reasons why it is done. 3D is created by changing the way we perceive the image, rather than creating a film in an entirely different way with different technology, although newer technology is involved, they aren't done completely different to other 2D films,  

3D in films

In the film industry, 3D is usually used to make a film seem more impressive. Many films today use it but few manage to do it well. The most famous and successful movie created with 3D would be Avatar and not many can live up to the standard that James Cameron set the bar at. 3D was originally used to change how the viewer felt during the movie and to create more of an effect, but nowadays it’s used more in a way to make the movie impressive and a lot of audiences seem to think that the movie is far better if it’s in 3D. I believe the film industry still has the chance to make 3D something great and there are still plenty of concepts to make it better, however at the moment Hollywood is overusing it and sticking it on to any crappy idea they can get their hands on. There are several different methods to creating a 3D movie, the older popular method was by combining the movie with a red filtered verison and a blue filtered version, the audience would then were glasses with a red left lense and a blue right lense. Each eye sees from a different direction/angle, and when the glasses are on, the left eye would only see the red filtered version and the right eye would only see the blue filtered version, your sight would not fuse and you would watch the film from two different angles at the same time, thus making appear to pop out.

 3D in gaming 
 
The gaming industry began using 3D back in the early 90s. This wasn’t the 3D used to pop characters out of the screen, it was more in the depth of field sense. Video games have only fairly recently transitioned into the more modern sense, however no games to my knowledge have managed to do it well. A lot of games have the option of 3D already built in and all that is required is a 3D monitor and 3D glasses. There are quite a few reasons as to why 3D hasn’t been successful in gaming and they are because: not everybody have the items required to run a game in 3D, games have to be downgraded a bit to be able to run the 3D aspect smoothly, and because the experience is very uncomfortable. 3D is not only uncomfortable in gaming but it is film watching as well, it leaves the player/viewer feeling nauseated and if they’re not used to wearing glasses, they will feel uncomfortable after using them for extended periods of time. Originally, virtually every game was in 2D; there was no depth of field and you could only see a flat character from above or from the side on your screen. It wasn't until the early 90's when the character in a game would look anything like a normal human at all. It isn't hard to notice the evolution of some characters from decades old series, such as Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda. The dictionary definition of 'three-dimensional- is: "having or appearing to have length, breadth, and depth". This type of 3D doesn't require glasses or special monitors, only the right kind of software and technology to create a three-dimensional model. One game which uses 3D is Hitman: Absolution. Instead of 3D, many 3D video games are referred to as 'stereoscopic' as they use two images next to each other  to create an image which 'pops' out. below is an example of how Hitman: Absolution looks when viewed in stereoscopic mode without the 3D glasses required. As you can see, there are two images right next to each other, you can tell by the increased amount of red and blue around certain objects. 

3D in television

3D is used very little in television because it’s just not worth it. A 3D TV costs several hundred pounds and is only really used for watching stuff in 3D, everything else they can do can be done on a cheaper, normal TV. Even if you can afford a 3D TV, there are very few shows and channels which show stuff in 3D anyway. Sky has recently abolished the 3D segment of their company after 5 years of air time. Sky was one of the few media companies who attempted to improve the 3D format and improve it for normal television but deemed unsuccessful in the end. Along with the film industry, I believe there is still room for success in the 3D side of television/film but it just shouldn’t be overused and should be left to the few ideas it could actually work in. There aren't many TV shows in 3D, a lot of those that are, are documentaries. An example is Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough. Derren Brown, the psychological illusionist also aired a one-off special episode in 3D. 


3D in medicine

3D printing is used quite often in today's medical world. 3D printers allow medical experts to print a variety of useful equipment, tools, prosthetics, and many other useful things. the advantage of using 3D printing other the traditional means of creation is mainly the cost. 3D printing is a lot cheaper and makes medical equipment more accessible in poverty stricken countries. 3D can also be used for creating functional organs for patients, instead of a donated one which may be given to someone else. These are usually done for temporary jobs, and the patients are given actual organs at a later date. An example is a 3D printed heart. 

Task 4 - Mesh Construction

 Mesh Construction

A primitive is a pre-built shape which can be used for modelling. Primitives are made to save time and they can all be edited and changed from their original form by adding sub-divisions and changing each individual section. Sub-divisions can be used to make a model more detailed and complex as you can change sole sections of a specific model/object, this can be used to create facial features such as: ears, noses, eyes, mouths, etc. as you can change the depth and the how much the sections extrude.


In my example in the images to the right, I started by creating a simple cube and then extruding random sections/sub-divisions of it, by doing this, I created an unspeakable atrocity of which I cannot even describe. Because I wasn't very experienced with sub-divisions and this was my first time experimenting with them, all I did was mess around with each one and extruding them to random heights in order to make the weirdest looking object I could. I didn't really add any other objects, the main reason being because I didn't really get around to doing it. After extruding every section of my cube, I began to extrude separate sections of those extrusions.

Box modelling is using a primitive to create the basic shape of your final model. The shape would then be sculpted to create what you want the model to be.