3D monkey

Time is flying by as it usually does when you’re having fun. This week has been spent on modeling and texturing. I have finally completed the model and texture for the last of the four cars and I am quite glad with the result. A screen is posted at the end of this blog.

I have started to model the shotgun and the front mounted spikes. I finished the spikes and I am almost done with the high poly of the shotgun.

Except from that, I and Joakim have started to structure how our poster will look and I will most likely spend quite some time next week finishing it.

I also thought that I would post a short review of my workflow while modeling, baking and texturing the front mounted spikes.

First I create the basic low polygon model. Not much to see at this stage but with some texture maps things will be more interesting.

Sculpting the high polygon model in Mudbox from which I later will bake normal maps and ambient occlusion.

Halfway done with the retopology of the lowpoly. I do this because I want the low and high poly models to have the same silhouette.

Finished lowpoly with Diffuse, Normal and Specular.

Finished lowpoly with Diffuse, Normal, Specular and wireframe. 

How to kill your darling.

2011-04-11 to 2011-04-15

After a few days of risk assessment we came to the conclusion that we can’t continue the production of Carnage as it is with just one programmer. There is just no time for the amount of work that has to be done.

So I’m sad to pronounce the death of Carnage: The video game, but I’m very happy to introduce you to the birth of Carnage: The board game!

In other words, we had to decide whether to make a bad video game, or to pour our game design knowledge together and make an awesome board game.

This means that a lot of time this week has been spent on reorganizing and restructuring our planned work. Our new milestone is 26^th of April and by then all the graphics that has to be sent to the printing company should be finished.

Except from the board game we will also create a trailer. This trailer will serve as both a trailer for the game as well as a “show reel” showing of our artists 3d skills. I just want to point out that we are not taking the lazy man’s road. We will have work to do, believe me.

No rest for the wicked.

2011-04-03 to 2011-04-08

Another week has passed and a lot of work has been done.

The first car is kind of finished. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the result but for the time being, it will do. I have also spent some time at the tiles that I mentioned in the previous post and they are also done.

It actually became four different tiles (instead of two) to compensate for the higher wall on the curved tile.

Yesterday I started modeling the last of the four cars that will be featured in Carnage and I would say that I’m halfway there at this point.

By the 26’th of April we will have a presentation showing of our first playable version of the game and by the time that I am writing this we are about two days ahead of the schedule that I had planned. So, things are looking good from the art perspective.

As promised I will post a few screens of my week this work. Do remember that at this stage more or less everything is a work in progress.

The first car at about 1200 polys, 2k diffuse, normal and specular.

The first car at about 1200 polys, 2k diffuse, normal and specular.

A lone racetrack floating somewhere in the UDK space.

The other car, still in modeling stage.

The other car, still in modeling stage.

And with the wire frame.

The first post.

2011-03-28 to 2011-04-01

Hi there!

My name is Christoffer Akterin and I am currently studying my second year of Game design and graphics at Gotland University. This will be my personal blog during the development of the game Carnage.

This week we started the project for real. The design is now about 99% complete, so we can now concentrate at the actual creation the game. The game, for the ones of you who doesn’t now, is Carnage. Carnage is a turn based strategy game in a car racing setting. Take a look at our Dev-blog for more information (www.carnagethegame.com).

My role during this project will be Lead Artist, thus my main focus will be to plan the groups work, updating our product backlog, making sure that the art is consistent and of course contributing my fair share of art to the stack.

During this week I started modeling one of the cars which I finished in the middle of the week and have now started baking out normal maps and ambient occlusion. There has also been a lot of other stuff to take care of, for instance our booth at the Gotland Game Conference. After a brainstorm we came up with a quite nice mockup for the design.

I have also started designing two of the tiled pieces that the race track will be made from.

Check back next week for an update with art stuff!