Alright, upon reading last week’s comments, there seems to be a rather significant amount of confusion regarding the progress and work flow of LexiConquest, so we’d like to take at least a bit of our Group PPJ to eliminate this apprehension and to assure that, despite a bit of chaos, we totally have everything under control.

Probably.

COMMENCE…THE WALL OF TEXT!

Anyway, the work has always been divided into two factions: character development, and everything else.  The character development part is the one character each person is responsible for from top to bottom (with one exception being Tracy, whose “character” is actually the game’s set of 5 proposed spell cards), which includes modeling, texturing, and rigging. So, for example, Hessam’s character has always been Robin Hood, and as such, Robin Hood’s model, texture, and rig were always his responsibility. A few marked exceptions to this rule exist, such as Ben trading Tin Man’s rig for modeling King Arthur’s head.

Though character set-up is admittedly not everyone’s forte, everyone is at least experienced in this field, and as such, this division of labor allows for a greater, more extensive creation of assets that is necessary to fully convey the ambitions of LexiConquest. Did we take off a big bite? Certainly. Is it more than we can chew? Stay tuned, we’re still chewing.

Difficulties have of course arisen, as has been reflected by the generally behind Gantt chart, which we have spent some time updating and smoothing out. Most notably are the challenges regarding rigging our characters, which we allowed 1 week for in the beginning of the term. Clearly this is not any of our specialties, and it took a bit more time than anticipated; somewhat extensive research was unfortunately an unavoidable aspect of this step. As such, we have had to push back on working on Animation (a comparatively simple endeavor, save perhaps the attack animations). However, as a general assessment, these rigs have evolved impressively and should suit us well for what we need to animate for our project, and will undoubtedly be completed this week, with animation to begin shortly after, and hopefully be completed shortly into Term 2.

So far, we’re incredibly pleased with the output.

Of course, that leaves of the other faction of work: individual talents. The second portion of each member’s workload pertains to their specific skills:

• Ben- Basically, double the character work. Ben is the only team member with two complete characters to make. However, his other duties are comparatively light.
• Lauren- Resident artist, Lauren is responsible for the game’s look and feel, which spans across the card fronts and menus.
• Mike- Content developer, Mike is also responsible for creating “The Library”, the game’s setting, as well as the library’s book/quiz content
• Jason-  Tech guru, Jason develops the physical game station, along with its touch screen and glyph tracking properties.
• Tracy- Game code and flash developer responsible for the game’s structure. Also helps to develop the technology.
• Hessam- Web guy. Hessam is responsible for the creation of the LexiConquest website.

If all of this seems to be a bit like Week 1 déjà-vu, we apologize but it seemed necessary to summarize once again and reassert the structure of our project and assure the faculty that yes this process is still working.

Now onto the new stuff:

LexiConquest makes use of a wide variety of characters from different genres and brings them all together into one game. Now you’re conscious of how Lauren and Ben worked with the other modelers to create a somewhat consistent look artistically, but what about scale? Properly working rigs (it’s hard to scale those suckers!)? Consistent perspective for animation?

Introducing, “THE LIBRARY FILE”. The Library is our set-up and organizer file, with locators to represent where each character will be standing within the Library Arena according to our turn-by-turn tutorial and their perspective cameras, through which we will see them use their attacks/ experience other canned animations.

This is going to be our hub, and will be amazingly helpful in creating a believable, coherent project.   By creating this, the character artists will be able to make sure the scale of their character is correct in respect to the environment and other characters, animate based on these placements, and that their placement will be accurate throughout the match.

We are well aware that there is nothing real time about this game, and instead of lamenting it, we’ve embraced it as an opportunity to “cheat.” The original idea was to simply render out of individual cameras from individual character files from an overhead perspective, and to move around and scale the movies in the final flash file so that they’re standing more or less where we want to. The problem with this, then, is that we lose so much of the beautiful detail that we achieved with these characters. By using the Library file, we are going to be able to render out character animations with alphas so that the perspective is more appealing (compare to that of your average RPG, with two rows of combatants facing one another), and the characters seem to be in the same environment. Since we will all be using one camera, consistency is obtained. For more specific animations, like attack use, we will use camera cuts that focus solely on one character as to create more beautiful compositions.

A side note as to scale: we’ve decided to take the “Smash Brothers” approach to scale. For the uninitiated, Smash Bros. is that stellar Nintendo fighting game where Nintendo characters duke it out. Here we see the likes of Pikachu and Link duke it out. Now, in their respective game worlds, Pikachu is a mere 3 feet compared to Link’s 6 or so. In Smash Brothers, however, the difference is far more negligible to create a more fluid game world (why is that grown man fighting that overgrown rat?). We’ll probably do something similar. That is to say, in the “real world” a Tripod would probably look like a skyscraper next to Tiny Tim, but for the sake of our game, the scale will be much closer (probably something like 1:4).

While, we’re on the topic of Smash Brothers, we have a narrator-like voice that we will be implementing into our game, so when you play Tin Woodsman, you can expect to hear an enthusiastic “TIN WOODSMAN!” announced. We’re all sorts of nerdy excited.

Other than that, work continues. We knew term 1 would be the term of asset completion, and so far we’re doing well with that. Rigs near completion, and animation begins shortly (if not immediately). As rendering begins, we frantically go to work on creating the game’s shell and producing the physical cards. The individual break down:

Ben- Tweaked and completed textures, completed Tralfalmadoran Rig, and made big progress in Billy’s rig.

Hessam- Finished up the rigging for Robin Hood, and refined its functionality, and work on the functionality of the website as well as building the architecture mentioned on week 2 in the CMS.

Mike- Finished rigging/weighting Tin Woodsman. Finished the layout of the “Library” and created all the locators and cameras to be used for animation. Began working on bringing quiz questions together.

Lauren- Unwrapped and exported Robin Hood’s sculpted assets, adjusted weights for Tim, and added leg braces to the model. Also spent a good deal of time learning ‘Shave and a Haircut’ and finishing hair for Tim.

Jason- Model/texture front desk and desk lamp for library. Rig and texturing of tripod. Electrical ’sim’ for tripod probes.

Tracy-Continued work with Deus Ex Machina, Graveyard Daemon, and Frankenstein’s lightning. Began research of gaming code from past projects and Rosenzweig’s “Game Programming University” text.

Time Breakdown:

Total hours worked by the Biblionauts this week: 143

Ben: 30 Hours, 21%

Jason: 27 Hours, 19%

Mike: 25 Hours, 17%

Lauren: 23 Hours, 16%

Tracy: 20 Hours, 14%

Hessam: 18 Hours, 13%

This week I updated my gantt chart to reflect how the rest of this semester will play out in terms of the special effects cards.

I believe the Deus Ex Machina effect is now complete, the only finishing touch I’m doing is potentially adding some atmosphere within Nuke. For another class’ project I filmed fog/smoke in front of a black drape and may find a way to incorporate this into the Deus Ex Machina effect. If not this one, then I’m sure one of the others will find it useful, so I’ve spent some time processing this footage.

I got the point with the Graveyard Daemon card where I think it’s finished. It’s the type of thing I could continue to work on week after week, but other than some minor adjustments I think it should be good. I was able to get the fluid flames to collide with the card and it looks semi realistic. I just need to plug this (and the other effects) into the library and get them all set up there.

For Frankenstein’s lightning I toned down the glow on the main parts of the lightning so it looks a bit more jagged, but still ethereal. I also worked with one of Jason’s previous projects that he updated for this use – using a curve with a trig expression to make lightning. This helps give a tesla coil effect to the card. This also needs to be plugged into the library.

Overall I spent about 15 hours on card effects. In addition I spent another 5 hours going through old AS3 gaming code and through Rosenzweig’s Game Programming University book to refresh for our eventual coding. I’m very excited about getting more into the technical aspects of the project!

Week eight has been one of many battles. Well really only one major battle. The Tin Woodsman gave me a good fight this week. After redoing the rig from the bottom up once I finally got it to the point I wanted. Interesting features of the rig include the coattails and the tie. Both had to have a set of joints to make them work the way we wanted. The Tin Woodsman has now been passed back to Ben for animation. You can see a quick playblast of the Tin Woodsman here to showcase the rig. You will notice that we have individual control over each finger to make the animation loops more interesting. This control is very important based on the new views planned for in game. For more info on the in game views see the group post.

This week I have also been working hard on the Library. In the group post you will read about the new “Library” file which will be used as a background for all character animations. The set is complete except for textures and possibly some details here and there. All the locators and cameras are in place as well as all the furniture. I have included a quick video here that will give you some insight into the Library’s construction. First you will see the location of the locators, characters and cameras. Then you will watch as all the  furniture is build into the room in turn. Finally you will experience a quick spin around the room and end looking into the space from the top down view the player will see when they are viewing the whole field.

Finally this week I spent some time working on a sample quiz for the game. The questions are from Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. Feel free to try your luck, the answers are at the bottom of the post.

1. Who is the ruler of all Britain before King Arthur
   1. Merlin
   2. Uther Pendragon
   3. Lady Igraine
   4. Sir Ulfius
2. Who cares for Arthur when he is born?
   1. Merlin
   2. King Uther Pendragon
   3. Sir Ector
   4. Druids
3. The inscription “Whoso Pulleth oute  this swerd of this stone and anvyld is rightwys Kynge borne of all Brytaygne” is found where?
   1. On the sword in the stone
   2. On the stone the sword is stuck in
   3. At the entrance to the yard at St. Paul’s Church in London
   4. On the Anvil in stone
4. Why did Arthur first remove the sword from the stone?
   1. To give to Sir Ector’s son Sir Kay
   2. To become King of all Britain
   3. To steal it
   4. To use it as a weapon
5. How many times did Arthur remove the sword from the stone?
   1. 1 time
   2. 3 times
   3. 6 times
   4. 8 times
6. Arthur’s first battle at Caerleon was against who?
   1. The Duke of Tinagil
   2. Merlin
   3. Sir Badouin
   4. The Six Kings
7. After their defeat at Caerleon the six Kings allied with four more Kings and a Duke, How does Arthur respond?
   1. He allies with King Bors of Gaul
   2. He allies with King Ban of Benwick
   3. He allies with King Claudas
   4. Both A & B
   5. Both B & C
   6. Both A & C
8. After the battle with the 11 Kings Arthur has a son, what is his name?
   1. Borre
   2. Uther
   3. Lancelot
   4. Lucas
9. When does Arthur meet Gwynevere?
   1. After the Battle of Gaul
   2. After the Siege of Wandesborow
   3. After the Battle of Bedgrayne
   4. After the Battle of Camylarde
10. Why does Arthur visit the Lady in the Lake?
    1. To make her his Queen
    2. To take possession of Excalibur
    3. To seek wise council
    4. To seek help in battle

Answers:

Question 1: 2. Uther Pendragon

Question 2: 3. Sir Ector

Question 3: 4. On the Anvil in stone

Question 4: 1. To give to Sir Ector’s son Sir Kay

Question 5: 3. 6 times

Question 6: 4. The Six Kings

Question 7: 4. Both A & B

Question 8: 1. Borre

Question 9: 4. After the Battle of Camylarde

Question 10: 2. To take possession of Excalibur

This week was spent rigging the Tripod and texturing him with MIA and DGS materials in Maya. Below you will find a render of the tripod as well as a video of the legs and body working with the rig.

rig_test

Time Spent on rigging and texturing: 8 hours

I also added electrical probes to the front bottom of the tripod to show emotion when he is defeated. Below you can see a render of what the electrical glow will look like and a playblast of how the geometry moves with the ’simulation’ I made.

electricalTest

Time spent on electrical simulation and texturing: 5 hours

I also spent a good amount of time this week modeling and texturing the front desk for the library as well as a small desk lamp for the library. I have two textures for the front of the desk that you can see below.

Time Spent modeling/texturing desk & lamp: 15 hours

Another busy week, week 8! I really had a rough time last week with flue, but the project has to move on, so I tried my best. I spent my time on both rigging the character and developing the website. Below are the breakdowns for each task:

Rigging:

I had to rig my character again for two reasons. First, I wasn’t really pleased with my first attempt, and second, we had to change the scale of our characters so they all match together, and to the library. It was a great practice though, and I believe my second rig is a lot better, and more flexible. I just need to attach the new costume that Lauren worked on  last week. I feel that I can spend few more hours on weighting the paint on the geometry to make it even better. Here is a quick playblast of Robin Hood:

Robin Hood Playblast

Hours: 8 Percentage: 95% of rigging

Website:

Since last week I spent my time only on the rigging, this week I tried to spend more time on the site, and it’s going along pretty well. First I had to address the issue with the header (the gap between the header and the main content) that you can see below:

After that I spend few hours to improve the design of the main and secondary navigation (those bold orange bottons are gone!) I also added the search field, and a shadow effect to the header so it pops out a bit more. Below is the screenshot of the changes:

Ben and I will sit down this week, and add final touches to the design.

I also worked on cycle image gallery using a function in JavaScript that works based on the jQuery JS library. What the code does is basically it takes the images from a list element in the mark up, and pile them up on top of each other, and show them continuously by changing the z-index for each picture with a fading effect. It also generates small thumbnails for each image so the users will be able to navigate through the pictures with these thumbnails. It’s fairly customizable and we can use different transitions that are available in jQuery, and also we can change the time of transitions, and the overall timing of slide show. Here is a link to the working sample of the template, feel free to navigate through(all pictures for cycle image gallery are place holders for now, we will replace them with proper graphics):

http://www.lexiconquest.com/template

The next step is to add numbers to the thumbnails. I need to add a counter to the function. I will also add a command so that when  the users hover over the image gallery, the current picture pauses.

Hours: 8 Percentage (%95 of developing the template)

Lastly I worked on the drupal site, and added few more modules in order to add customizable blocks to the site. I also found a very useful module called Admin Menu, and it allows us to hide the administration menu when the admin or any other editor user is logged in in order to create  more user friendly interface. This module will create a drop down menu for the administration tools … super useful! And finally, I added the architecture of the website to the drupal database. All the pages are in the database right now. It took me 1 hour to set node and path for each page. All our characters’ profile page are parented to “Characters” page. Here is the link to the drupal site with a basic Zen theme for now:

http://www.lexiconquest.com

The next step is to convert the HTML template to PHP and from there to a Drupal template.

Hours: 2 Percentage 5% (of content population)

This week was one of the most frustrating for me so far. I finished the weights for Tim in 4 hours- minor tweaks, but I’m satisfied with the rig at this point.

I spent a good deal of my time trying to figure out how to keep Shave and a Haircut from crashing Maya (which it did about 85% of the time) I experimented with using Maya fur and hair systems for a half hour, but for some reason, that in combination with Tim’s geometry wouldn’t even render. The images below are the styles I could see without crashing the system- keep in mind that the hair is not casting shadows yet.

Overall, the hair  took about 10 hours to get right(by right, I mean for it to actually render), but I found a style that I was satisfied with (#10).

Learning shave

The hair looked kind of strange by itself so I took about 30 minutes to model a little newsboy hat (it will be resting slightly off of Tim’s  scalp  and the hair will be composited under it. They’re shown separately here- Maya just  wasn’t going to have them both in the scene together without protest)

Another final touch for Tim were his leg braces. Those took around 1 hour with modeling and texturing. I fitted them to the legs with a wrap deformer- that way they were automatically weighted and would move with the model.

Tim's hat

Leg braces

Finally, I was able to export Tim’s normal maps from Zbrush (in the process I figured I’d give him a more human nose!) I had some issues with making the maps in that the first time I did it, Tiny Tim rendered nothing but black. I spent 2 hours tweaking the settings and searching CGSociety and Creative Crash forums only to realize I had to change one setting in ZBrush. Crisis averted….

Normal map applied

Overall, I spent roughly 17.5 hours on Tiny Tim this week and he’s 100% complete.

Speaking of the normal maps, getting Robin Hood’s this week was more difficult than it should have been. After spending 30 minutes working on the dagger holder’s texture, and 30 minutes tweaking and exporting the sculpted ZBrush models to discover that the models needed to be unwrapped.

I spent 3 hours mapping out the models so that the textures and sculpted elements wouldn’t sit strangely when the model was rendered. Upon re-importing the newly unwrapped models to map, I discovered that there was no sculpt history on them at all.

The normal maps literally take seconds to export, so my main concern is to figure out what wrong with the imports so I can get Hessam his maps before Wednesday.

Sunday’s work was just spending an extra hour researching and sketching up some ideas for the health bar design, but that’s going to be tackled more thoroughly in the coming weeks.

Sketches

Overall, I spent roughly 23 hours this week, Tiny Tim’s 100% and Robin Hood still rests at 95% due to the import/export setback.

Ben’s Hours: Around 30 Percentage of work: Roughly 21%

Talk about lighting a fire under our asses.

I admit I was a bit nervous after some of the feedback from last week. Admittedly, progress had slowed a bit in comparison to previous weeks, but for me that was simply because, well, I worked hard, and not particularly smart. Of course I could argue that I didn’t know that the hurdles I’m dealing with even existed, but I still could have been a bit more organized in completing these characters.

Which is a nice segue into one aspect of what was accomplished this week:

The Library File

As a group we developed “the” file for the project, which is mentioned above. I was part of the think tank to organize how this whole thing would be set up (where the cameras should go, how the characters should be placed, that sort of thing), and I sort of wish we would have done it much sooner (it would have saved me a lot of heartache, but more on that later). I have my own version of this file now, and it’s all for Billy. I’ll make another version for Tin Woodsman shortly. I know this wasn’t in the Gantt Chart, but it damn well should have been from the outright and I’m glad its finally in our plans, especially when it comes to animating and rendering time.

Hours: 1 Hour, Percentage: 100%

Texturing

As I said, I encountered my fair share of issues this week. Due to convoluted workflow that consisted of a lot of trial and error, my hierarchies of my characters were, well, nasty. This meant that when it came time to clean them up for rigging (deleting various histories and what not), the UV layouts were suddenly not the same as the ones I developed my textures with. So, what that means is that I had to redo Billy’s face and the Tralfalmadoran’s textures. It was unfortunate that I had to take so many steps back, but I’m incredibly pleased with the result, as I feel they have only benefited from the redos. Also note the new pass of Shave, which I think is really starting to look great. But, here, judge for yourself:

I’m going for “happy, carefree hippy who is, nevertheless, a little bit tired and under the weather from being yanked through time by green aliens.

And the new Tralfalmadoran, complete with Incandescence maps and displacement! More Avatar! Less Lizzard! I’m starting to love this guy.

And finally, the texturing that was supposed to actually occur this week:

Gruff and gritty! Deft and dirty! To be honest, I did this one first and liked it so much I decided Billy needed a new pass for quality. All of these were done with UV Layout and then painted with either Photoshop (Billy and Arthur’s faces) or in Mudbox (Tralfalmadoran).

Hours: 10+ Percentage: 100% (I mean it this time!)

Rigging

Rigging has taken up the largest chunk of my time, as it is supposed to. I am responsible, of course, for rigging Billy which in itself is rather like rigging two characters in one. First up, the Tralfalmadoran.

Tralfalmadoran Rig

I actually had fun with this guy. I built on the basic rig I showed you last week (with the basic IK and wrist rotate) and both neatened it up and enhanced it. The painted weights are much cleaner, and we know have individual attributes for pretty much any way I need the fingers to move. I introduced three levels of bend for each finger (Base, Middle and Tip), as well as a Spread attribute which should be very useful for animating attacks. But the crown jewel of this baby is the stretchy limb, which allows for some pretty cartoony (alien-y?) movement and will make animating him a lot more visually interesting. Check out the video (which I made with Camtasia! Woo!) below:

Tralfalmadoran Rig Test

Hours: 5  Perecentage Done: 100%

Billy Pilgrim

Oh, boy. I can’t even hope to explain how much of a pain this guy was for me this week. Everything I had done so far, the facial rig, the beginning of the body rig, was pretty much no good. Why? Well, because of, like I mentioned earlier, how convoluted the hierarchy had gotten in Maya from my, well, inexperience with characters beyond modeling and texturing. The main issue, of course, is that I couldn’t get Billy to scale effectively because of the various parts under their own scales.

So, what I did was “start over”- that is, detached everything, froze geometry, deleted histories, and started fresh. Was it a big step back? Oh, yeah, definitely and it was very frustrating for me. But the result, when I began Billy again (this time, correctly scaled in the library scene), I reapplied all the blend shapes and built the skeleton again from the ground up.

Here’s a sample of what his face can do (once again, for Character Animation II but still useful here)

billyFaceExample

But of course what matters more is the skeletal rig. I readily admit this is NOT my thing but I’m pleased with the basic foundation I’ve laid down. He’s got some nice rig effects on him, such as Peel Heel and Forearm wrist rotation (and, of course, the nice finger set up seen in Tral). I know there’s more to do in terms of trunk control, and I need FK for the arms, I think. They’ll be implemented this week, after a bit more research into the manner.

Painting weights, of course, is an entirely different matter. They’re ok for a first pass, but they’re not there yet. The pain is augmented by the fact that I need the Trench Coat to act as a “skin” too, so that it moves correctly.  It’s coming along but needs a bit more time. Here’s a sample video.

Billy Body Rig Test

I plan on putting a few more hours into it over the course of the next two days, and I’d like to post an update so stay tuned.

Hours: 10+ Percentage: 75%

Thanks!

Ben