Weekly Workshop

W2 - Monday 5th September, 2022

Experimenting with Unity

At first, i wanted to familiarize myself a bit more with the functions and mouse controls. I used spheres to get used to manipulating shapes and moving them around with ease

Through this exercise, i was able to figure out which perspectives worked best for layout and structuring of the scene. I figured that the aerial view was best for the general spacing and size difference between objects, and that the normal point of view was best for organizing how the scene looked from different angles.

After i got used to the controls, i decided to download a few files from the asset store. at first, i downloaded a hyper-realistic forest demo scene with the goal of adding some animals and wildlife to it, but i didn't end up finding similarly hyper realistic animal assets. So, i settled for the low poly forest file and explored the different models available. using the aerial view, i expanded the demo forest scene by copying and pasting the ground around the edges and rotating it to introduce some variety.

Afterwards, i added some elements from the farm asset file such as the farm land, and grouped them together to form a cohesive area to place the crops. I played around with the y coordinates in order to best level the brown mud land with the existing grass from the forest.

I added fences to the area but kept them to a minimum as to maintain an open-farm aesthetic and give it a less strict feel. i also added the basket and noticed that as i added the tomatoes in, they would automatically recognize the edges and depth of the basket. This made it easier to place them by using the aerial view as i didn't have to worry about them losing dimension or unnaturally blending into each other because they automatically stacked. I also added from trees and bushes around the area to blend it in with the background atmosphere.

When i started adding the tomato plants, i made sure to scale them based on the surrounding elements to make it more realistic and keep the harmonious balance. Since i only had one model of the tomato plant, i rotated it everytime it duplicated it to add some natural variation between the plants. i did the same with blades of grass and bushes.

I used the 'children' function to copy and paste the same 4 farming plots i used for the tomato plants as a base for the cabbage plants. I placed some more fences and a basket to create almost a narrative that the farm is in its harvesting season, and the crops are being collected.

Finally, i used the farm animals asset pack to scatter some animals around the farm to make it look like they are interacting with the different elements. Since I did not place a lot of fences, i thought that it would make sense for the narrative to consist of free-range animals. I only had one of each animal so i used the rotating and size altering tool to allow the animals to face different directions and to create the illusion of ducklings following the other ducks. Overall, i'm happy i got to work with multiple asset packs that blend together seamlessly, and enjoyed the process of creating a cohesive and natural setting that reflects my fascination with nature and its lively elements.

Here are some screenshots from the camera's point of view:

Hi Shaikha,

Yes! You made your own Animal Farm! Have you read this book (Animal Farm George Orwell)? I am sure there are some great comic book about it that worth going through.

Low poly scenes have their own benefits! They are not costly to navigate and also meaningful to different age range. You came up bringing other objects to your scene that to me was so cute! One of the game I always love to play

Week 2

For this week's environment design, i was inspired by the stop-motion movie coraline, and how there are two worlds that simultaneously exist through a mysterious doorway. one is mundane and brown, while the other is colorful and vibrant. i wanted to replicate the garden environment both in the real world and the other world that coraline explores.

I first used a texture pack on a terraine and created 4 of them, setting them to "mirror" so that terraforming would be quicker. i then started manually populating it with trees using 2 other asset packs because their format would not upload onto the pre-existing tree function

I used the children function to quickly group and scatter the different trees, making sure to mostly use dead, brown trees to fit the aesthetic. i settled for a dark, foggy night sky to also go with the mysterious theme

I used a bridge asset pack to create a design that resembles the referenced picture. it was at times difficult to get the exact angles i wanted since 3D modelling considers more dimensions and require all perspectives to be monitored. often times, i would be using the plane view and forgetting to keep the bridge elements grounded with the terrain. similarly, when i was assembling from the side, the overall shape would be hard to maintain. however, i was really pleased with the final result, and was able to use other elements such as bushes, mushrooms, and terraforming to envelope the bridge pathway with elements similar to the movie.

For the final touches, i experimented with perspective from the camera's point of view. This inspired me to change the skyblock as the previous one did not completely cover the 3D space. I like both the 2nd and 3rd photos illustrated above because the 2nd one shows a moonlight peering through the clouds, which is a symbol in the movie, and the forest background in the 3rd image lays behind the arch, which invites adventure and reflects the curiosity of the main protagonist Coraline.

In this final photo, i added an additional, larger archway in the distance to add more depth and reflect the large backyard of Coraline's new home. I also added more details in the environment to get better shots from the camera's point of view. i really like how the bridge elements bend and turn, and it reminds me a lot of the magnificence from the movie itself.

To explore the other world and its more whimsical feel, i added bright and colorful flowers to add life to the garden, and changed the background to be more unreal. In the future, i would love to have the mushrooms and bushes glow against a contrasting dark environment, and have some animated insects flying around.

Week 3

The 3D models i chose to use were miniature characters i got from travelling abroad this summer. It was my first time travelling since covid so they remind me of fond memories and so i wanted to create a relaxing, explorative scene where the user could interact with them. The story board i came up with would use what i've learned so far about creating nature-filled environments and using different free assets to create a harmonious scene. It would essentially follow a path that would lead towards a table where each of the characters would be sat down. since on of them is holding a teapot and pouring tea, i thought it would be fitting to create a food themed setup with different scattered miscellaneous things such as books. i put a chair at the end of the path as to lead the user to sit down at the table and enjoy a break in the middle of a meadow.

camera 1 timeline view

camera 2 timeline view

start of first person perspective

first person perspective at the end of the path, sitting on top of the chair.

i placed the two cameras at the beginning of the timeline low to the ground as to create an unintimidating, grounding feel to the atmosphere. I created a arch in the path to convey a sense of journey and to add dimension. This was also my first time using the tree painting function for the terrain as i figured out how to use it to place blades of grass on the entire terrain along with mushrooms and flowers. this definitely conveys more realism than my previous projects and match the theme of the meadow experience well. I had troubles with the skybox because it was cube shaped and upside down even when i followed multiple tutorials. i ended up using a skybox from the asset store.

In this project, i really liked having a large amount of control over what the first person controller sees. i enjoyed adjusting the lighting to accentuate the texture, and cast shadows of the trees on the pathway. I loved positioning the characters (3D models) in different ways and trying to figure out what would be the most eye-catching from the users point of view. However, i wouldve loved to be able to import my own skybox, and work more on the terrain surrounding the scene. I also would really be interested in creating my own 3D model designs for the environment.

Week 3

I tried replicating the cartoonish world through mapping out my own version of the city depicted here through using building assets, pavement, roads, and trees.

Plot Actions Project 2 Warm Up

this week i was inspired by an old flash game i used to play when i was younger. It was based on an interaction between a character and the user, where the character would call out an order, and then the user would have to cook the meal and serve it to them and see how they react.

I used a panoramic photo of my room, specifically my mac so that i can set it as the skybox, i wanted to make it look like the video game world was coming to life from the screen of the computer.

I started off by planning the the 3 points of interaction; at first, the character would go into the restaurant, interact with the other character to make an order, then sit down. The server character would then prepare the food and call on the costumer when its done. The costumer would then walk back up to the counter, inspect the food, and approve.

For this project, i tried to use character models from maximo but they would not work with the animations, so i opted for the characters from the low poly asset package. I downloaded and used 13 animation sequences from maximo and the results of the timeline sequence is shown below. I wasn't able to record a cinematic video from unity itself as my perspective became faulty over time and i could not zoom in without it getting construed. But overall, i was really happy with the smooth animation and how it reflected a very nostalgic game to me.

animating the movements of the characters was hard at first because with each added animation, they would go back to the default 0,0,0 x y and z positions on the plane. but when i got into the habit of duplicating the previous animation, changing the action of the animation, and setting it to the offset of the previous one, the animation became swifter and easier to build up. in future works, i hope to learn how to use other 3d models of characters instead of the default ones seen here.

character_animation_ar.mov

In case the video above doesn't play, click here for the link to the google drive version.

Week 11 - 22/11/22

When exploring the different options and models on styly, i came across a circular model that reminded me of the architecture behind the louvre roof. i decided to use it in order to encapsulate the user in an experience. i set the interactivity to the circular model so that it would rotate and follow the user, casting shadows in different places. i used style modifiers on mushrooms to explore different variations of color and animation. i also animated flowers so that they would look more lively. i didn't want to overwhelm the project data because at this point it started to quit the browser unexpectedly, so i kept the area simple. i really wanted to add humanoid animations but i had a lot of trouble with using the unity styly package to import assets because of my computer storage and unity version. however, im still really pleased with the results.

Page updated

Report abuse