Lately we've been working on making the city feel like a city. Lights, telephone poles, sewers, alleyways, they all make the feel of the game come to life. That's where the quality comes from and being that we only have one person, ME, doing the modeling for the game, it's hard to get all the quality I want into the world without worrying about or fixing something else that needs my immediate attention.
I say all of that to say, I recently re-worked a final version of a shop I had done back in 2013 called "Garden of Weeden." It's one of the many shops in the game and will probably be one of the more comical pieces. Here's a side by side comparison of of the version of the shop, not much longer than 2 years ago, and the one today:
I hope at the end of the project, when all is said and done, that it really feels like a game made by a big studio. The style, quality and details, even though they won't be AAA in scope, will at least give off the feeling that this could've been made by one.
I'm doing my best to make sure everyone gets to play this game as soon as possible.
Well hello again. Sorry for the long wait, it's been a crazy month (as always). You're probably itching to know what's been new, so here's what I got for ya: (keep in mind all of the photo's have not been altered. It's all in game screen caps, the only thing I added was the Skyride logo.)
So I wanted to start from the beginning and get the feel of the game set up the best I could. I drew inspiration from games like the new Tomb Raider game which has GREAT production design. All these really pretty sections of the game you see as you go through the level. So I did my best to try to capture that kind of feel: (really, if you haven't played the game, go rent it. It's masterful.)
Tomb Raider:
City of Rain:
In the story, someone dies (I don't want to give away who) and the main character takes their body up on a hill that overlooks Rain. This is the spot where he buries that body:
Notice how I'm not trying to give away where the location is. :-p
Also somewhere on the hill is a cemetery I've been working on. It's still a work in progress but I'll show you a sneak peak of what it looks like at night:
I've just started today on it, so give it another week and I should be done. I'm slowly working my way back to the city.
1. Because these small area's are super important and need to get done
and
2. Because I have SO many more buildings to texture and I don't want to do them. (^_^)
If pictures aren't your thing, you can always watch this gameplay video of the intro and park area I had made a few days ago. Bonus is the music track will be in the game and has been composed by my talented composer L.A.Z.
The park you will see is actually inside of the city and is about 75% done. I have to add a few more special spots here and there but you'll get the idea. It's suppose to look abandoned and forgotten with overgrowing trees. Watch it in HD for great detail.
Enjoy:
Well, that's all I got for now. If you like what you see, I'd love to hear about it. Or even if you don't. Also, I'm currently looking for someone who'd be interested in character design/animation/implementation. If you or someone you know would like to work on this video game with me, shoot me a email at: will@skyridestudios.com and we'll talk. Thanks a lot. Later, Screen Slavers.
What's that you ask? Where I have I been for almost a month? Only modeling this crazy mansion. This will be the mansion where the owner of the city lives. Just a little shack. Allow me to walk you through.
Here's the front of the mansion (see that tiny doorway in the front, that's about the size your character will be):
Once you walk in, you get this view (interior isn't complete):
From upstairs it looks like this:
In the middle of the building is a outside courtyard (this is looking down from the roof:
And finally in the back of the mansion where there will be a lush garden:
So as you can tell, I've spent a fair amount of time on the details, adapting about 12-15 pictures of actual mansions with features I liked. The inside shouldn't take me too much longer, and then I will add chandeliers, huge fireplaces, etc. Really "Citizen Kane" the hell out of the building.
If you don't know what Citizen Kane is, it's a movie. Go watch it.
Good day to the lot of you. As the title tells, I've been modeling lately, as you can see here:
However, in all seriousness, I've been doing a lot of modeling lately and as much as I enjoy it, it's also making me get super excited about the game. So, even though these aren't textured yet, here are some of the new buildings that I am making for the "run down" side of town:
Even though they don't look it let, I will be modifying these buildings to have more cracks/holes/broken windows/etc and once I add the texturing I plan on doing, there will be stains, discolored walls, etc added on top of them along with weeds and dying plants.
So stay tuned for more as I get these streets filled, I will then go back, texture and add proxies to hopefully the remaining builds left in the level so that I can then start playing around with the world.
Hello again. How have you been? Me, myself? I've been a bit out of sorts. Good news, My first fully modeled and textured building is done and has been created it in 3DS Max. Here is a pic:
Not bad for my first custom model. Each wall is has custom textures on it even though you can't see them too good in this picture and over 36 different textures on this building. Brick, cement, wood, metal, blah blah blah you get the picture... pun intended.
This was meant to be a rough starting ground which would be heavily tweaked once brought into the game engine, however when I exported it, the exporter said it can only allow 30 textures on one material. I tried playing around to be "cheat" the exporter into letting me have all my 36 textures but for some reason, I can't get it to work. Maybe cause I spent all day doing textures and it's now 1:30am and my brain stopped working about 2 hours ago.
In other news we officially have a hard deadline for this cinematic project. We must be completed before early july because we plan on presenting it (for it's premeire) at the 2013 Anime Expo in Los Angeles. The day we present it, we will also have a link on this website to the youtube video so all you people in the UK, Russia, Germany and everywhere else that reads this blog can take a look at it. The video should have a custom theme song made my our very own talented composer Luis Zavala, along with awesome animation, mo-cap and camera angles. We are hoping for the outcome to come close to something like this:
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