As Time Goes By...

Updates

Complete restart for her and its been the best idea Ive had all project!!

Shes back to the original character design and I think its for the best, almost finished with the basic rendering, Then I can go in and put in the fine details and give her that trade mark HUGE tail I've been holding back on modelling.

Restarting

I've decided to take Toulou right back to the begining, I went off model in the first version which i THOUGHT would be a good idea, alter the character a little but it went arse over apex so I took her back to the begining, re draw the image planes and modelled from scratch, looking better already, and I'm taking things slower then before but she still needs to be done soonish.

Loosing your head

I've found out why the head is so messed up, hundreds of vertices without a plane connecting them on a certain side, this caused to much trouble I've decided to cut my losses and scrap the head, start again.

I'm going to rope in the Maya technician tomorrow to help me with it, he is a professional at it so he should be able to help me.

What?!

The hell happened here? This is WITH smooth on!!

Bit of a stump

I've hit abit of a snag, Ive more or less finished the body basics but the head is proving to be really tiresome and the tail isnt started yet but i know its going to be a pain in the arse!

OOOOOOOO shes got arms and legs *of a sort*

Toulou Process

Here it is, so far so good though I've come acropper on a few things, but this is Toulous head so far, finally found an easy (for me) way to model *celebrates*

*Mourns* Unfortunatly I lost the head in a system defunking. so that really pissed me off but I kept going, and started on the body instead, seemed a better idea, less to do.

So far so good :D

Adding the head now *time is 15:51*

Little trouble

I've been Unity all day know and I've not created anything, I tried just doing a simple corridor with a vent and a T junction and it was a bit difficult, I think it will come to me the more i use it, although on the tutorial everything seems to work and when I do the same things it doesn't... like point lights... grrrrr bloody point lights.

Unity!!!! part 2

Well I have Unity up and running, lets see how this does!

Well after playing around in it and watching the tutorial videos, I can safely say that I am VERY impressed, very very impressed... and a little excited. The interface isn't incredibly hard to read, it runs just like Maya and 3DSmax, Physics build in and changeable.

So much I can do!!! It seems easy enough to use to the point of creating quite abit of work quite quick.
Texturing is all done in outsourced programmes like Photoshop and Maya so its just a case of importing and slapping it in, then adding physics or demension to it! EEE so excited! Its really cool! and its FREE!

Some Environments

Character Synopsis Cynda

*Probably the most developed character I have on this project*

Cynda is a Happy energetic Rabbit in her late 20s to early 30s, Though she is happy this doesn’t mean that she isn’t evil, her lust for power and control has driven her to turn her back on the rest of the slaves and down trodden and agreed to work for Unison Foresting Company, with this capacity for evil she fast found her talents for controlling people, manipulating and organising. Using these “talents” she quickly made her way up the hierarchy of UFC until she was in the higher echelons, playing secretary for the higher ups, she had influence and access to all the major campaigns and military movements within the UFC and put more then enough pressure on the slaves to work efficiently.  After a while of this “productive” work she caught the eye of the C.E.O. of UFC who took a liking to her, he saw this young, driven workaholic as the perfect P.R. assistant, a pretty face to grab the attention of the old decrepit shareholders and a fiery attitude that would drive even the hardest of men into submission. This seems to be the perfect position for a lady of her talents, doing whatever she can to secure her position in the UFC, sinking to the lowest depravity of humanity to accomplish she mission of dominance. Though she seems to act as if she has complete devotion to Rathiel and his plans. Does she see visions of grandeur? Mrs. UFC? I can see her being in a board meeting of sorts with the people just bellow the bosses level and she still is dominating, taking no guff and really making sure that what Rathiel wants, he gets, regardless. I can imagine the board members being old rats, weseals, lizardy men. all stuffy and dressed in suits, then when she young femfetal bursts in and tells them how its going to be, it strikes the fear of god into them. Not afraid to make an "example" of one of them if they fail. With ragards to other workers, I think she would hold no favour to them, they would be just another way of getting what needs to be done... done. Though she would hold some form of fearful respect for Rathiel, if something was to go wrong, she would need to tell him, I think she would be scared. Inching closer and closer with hesertence, her ears quite low and hidding behind her clip board, after a furious dissmissel she would more then likely go and harrass lower employees, solidifiing her place. Through all her harshness and strong fersard, she can be a scared little bunny. Though at times when stuff goes right I can see her being quite playful and bouncey, still having no favour for lower level staff but going about her days with a bounce and energy.

Character Synopsis Lola

*My personal favourite character*

Lola is a tiny little mole with an age relative to a humans late 20's.

Her family was lucky enough to survive the first invasion so she doesn't understand how most of the people of the citadel feel but she had a love for the forest, she dreams about bringing life back to the forest and thus is filled with a sense of duty and devotion to the resistance. Being the resistance resident techi, she is always tinkering around new technologies either stolen from the forestry company or developed her self. Due to her size (around 1.5 foot in height) she can get in areas that most people can't to, so she is a asset in the field when ever a mission involves tampering with computers. All this aside... her eyesight is crap!

Character Synopsis Toulou

Toulou is the main character and is the only character you control, so I feel it is important to develop a strong  relationship with her, understand the game from her point of view.

She is a Squirrel of an age relative to a humans early 20's, focused and intense she doesn't have time to smile, though at times she can joke around with the best of them.
Her family was wiped out during the invasion leaving her on her own until she was taken in by a family who were rescuing orphaned children due to the invasion. Within the years after, while the Citadel got bigger and bigger and the forest got smaller and smaller, Toulou and many others formed an underground resistance who gave hope to the enslaved beings of the forest, always trying to find a way to topple the ever consuming power of the forestry company.

The Story

There is no time zone or era when this is set or any particular part of the world. Just a leafy forest.

right I'll go through this quite fast and give you the need to know points.

• Prelude: initial part of the game were you get to grip with the camera and control systems.
• Within this stage you will go through the control and camera tutorials that are built in the game play its self and not just a random "look up" "run around" sort of this, you'll have stuff to look at like a nut or something and then you will need to chase something, getting to grips with the controls in a fun way
• After this a Cutscene starts, The Forest is invaded by a logging company which start to "clense" the forest and round up the survivors. You (and the characters) don't know who the people are or what they want, and hopefully neither do you. (the player)
• End Cutscene and start a full res FMV which explains what went on in the 15 years after the logging company arrived and who they are.
• FMV ends with the face of the lead character Toulou, zoom out into cutscene.

• Chapter 1: The beginning of this chapter starts with a game graphic res cutscene which I have a storyboard for here: -

After this game play starts and you are chucked right into the middle of the game world. 

• Within this section you introduced to the world of the slums, the people, the things you can do within this area and introduced to your first team mate Lola (Character synopsis in later post)
• Your first missions are taken on at this point and your stealth features are tutorialed along with your gadget menu.

Ill update more and more about the story in later posts, don't want to give everything away at once.

Getting a visual

I guess I should really explain who and what NEMUS RES is.

Well, first, what is it?

Nemus Res (Latin Translation for "Tree Beings")
Its my brain child really, I wanted to push a style that I'm not used to doing, I've always liked the whole Jak and Daxter look of things, colourful and stylish Nice. So I persued that. I also like the idea of a game with a fun colourful style which is aimed at adults, so it may contact strong language, strong violence, drug use of drug references, sexual situations. Mine won't contain most of that, just the strong language and maybe strong violence. A perfect example of this sort of game is an old XBox game called Conker: Bad Fur Day.

Brilliant game full of furry little characters ripping the heads of each other... kinda.

Any game that has a monster made out of poo that you have to squash with a giant ball of poo is brilliant, end of.

This sort of humour, I think, is essential in a childish adult game. 

Full of colour and crazy wackiness! awesome stuff.

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Unity!!!! part 1

Sonia, my lecturer, pointed me towards a great piece of software called unity!

I've been looking up about it and its really cool and its free! Seems like I'd Be able to use it for Nemus Res quite easy! Which is always good.

Unity 


Here are the links the the areas : - 

Editor
Graphics
Asset Importing
Deployment
Wii Publishing
Iphone Publishing
Shaders
Terrains
Networking
Physics
Audio and Visual
Scripting
Unity Asset Servre
Shadows and Lights

It all looks great, So I'll be using this as an engine if I can't find anything else as good. Maybe I'll try and get console style control system on the go :P that would be cooooool!

Beginning of the end!!!!

Well well well, here we are, all nice and friendly and ready to start off!

RIGHT!

Before I get on with the brief stuff, I want to bring to your attention a book that I've recently bought to help me along with this project. Rice's Architecture Primer is a great read, introducing you to the basics to advanced grammar and vocabulary of architecture through the last 3 industrial ages, explain what bits are and what they are called. brilliant. With the 3D Environment elements to be done, this is going to make understanding the fundamentals a whole lots easier.

Get it here!

And on we get with the brief.