Game Design MA

What will happening  in the sence? In the scene, there will be a lot of moving parts but not just the wheels and the piston which is driving the train down the rails. There will be cogs and other pistons which you will be able to see on the train.  The idea is going to be that the top of the train will be the drive element which the train will get its movment from. This will be the same design as trains are but it will be fliped because its a monorails style. Also the coal carriage will be able to look down in them, will show the scale of the train. The main reason why i wanted too have the cola carriage open because i want you to be able to see whats happening on board of the train. When you look from above you will be coal being transfed by converybelt. Below is the design which I want to achieve in this project. I'll be focusing on the drive movement before tacting the train and the cold bunker... after this ill be to add the pages charger to the envi...

The project… From the last project I wanted to still have the same theme as ‘steampunk’ but look further in the movement and how it can affect a scene. The moment in the scene will be a train which is traveling through a descent, below is a piece of art where I got the idea from. Below is a picture of the  concept art which inspired me. In the project ill be focusing on the movement of the train, from the position to the flywheel to the links which will be turning the wheel and will move the train. Below are some of the inspration which helped me with the design of the project. Smalll moodbaord

The video link is the animation which I've been working on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-grDMrjIBFY In the video, it shows the design on the main drive motion and shows what will be moving.  The project is a steampunk theme which I wanted to keep with accurate throughout the environment but to have an element of fantasy in there too. throughout the progress, I was having a lot of trouble sorting out the animation, creating the animations wasn't the hard part but trying to import it into ue4 wasn't work create! This was a big set back with the project and I have to spend longer than I wanted to make sure it was working how I want to because this was the main point of the project.  rough design of the animation

Ue4 setup For the project, I used UE4 to create my environment scene. The reason why I have used this program is that I find the process easy enough to achieve and present my outcomes. From modelling to texturing, importing into UE4, the process is easy enough. This is because you do not have to spend too much time to set up your props.  I was able in my process, to have a fast turn around from software to software. This saved me a lot of time creating the final scene and achieving the end goal. 

Lighting  I have used lighting within my project to achieve an authentic and realistic setting from the perspective of the player. Looking at the references by artists, I have focused on recreating these ideas. I have done research on how to maximise lighting in UE4 without overcrowding the scene. I felt that this is the best route to follow. The first thing was the lighting points, in this case, they were the fixtures. After this, I placed some subtle lights down the walls and looked at the overall environment to see if I was gaining maximum realism. Making sure that my placement of these lights was as realistic as possible.  I spent time finding a tutorial online, which showed me some new pointers on how to use lighting in various different ways to what I originally intended. This was useful in maximising the realism of the environment scene. 

Rigging Alongside the animations, I have used rigging in Maya. Rather than just using the more simplistic animations, rigging allows me to create more realistic movements. For example, chains and belts. I have gained knowledge of how to use pully belts as a rig effectively, as well as creating smooth transitions for the pully belt moving around the wheels. I felt it best to prioritise this transition as it would effectively create a juddered game experience for the player if it was not smooth.  I found that while doing this process, I found it easy enough to grasp the main concept of it, however further on into the more complex issues, I found it more difficult to grasp.   It has been a slow learning experience as there are so many options for adjustments within the rigging process. 

Animation   In the project, I have aimed to use moving parts as a focal point. I have used Maya to achieve the movement. The reason why I have chosen to incorporate movement is to create a more immersive experience for the player. I am hoping that these animations really bring together the scene which I am working on, however, I have hit a few issues within the process. although the general process of animation was simple enough the grasp, I had hit a few problems when applying it. The importing of a single animation would cause no issues, however, when a second animation was imported from UE4, this would cause one or both to break. This has been difficult to fix but I am hopeful that the outcome is effective from the player perspective.