Fall Week 1: Conceptualizing and Organizing

I've been working relatively non-stop on my thesis all week. And I've managed to get quite a lot done. I'm going to try and break it down into general sections in terms of what part of the preproduction everything falls under. I'm a big believer in the time saving power of good documentation so I'm doing everything I can to make sure I do a thorough job.

Preproduction To-Do List:

This is my general to-do list in terms of everything I need to get done for my preproduction.

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Design Doc:

                  Abstract

                  Full/Precise Project Description

    Start Bibliography

                  Gather Links for sites already used for research over the summer

     Organize Images into Style Sheet

                  Organize Images into Inspiration Sheet

                  Wants and Needs Lists

                  Production Timeline/Gantt Chart

File Organization

Come up with Naming Convention

Concepts:

Train Station/ Building 2 Concept Art

Building 3 Concept Art

Building 4 Concept Art

Asset List

Texture List

Everything List

To-Scale-Top-Down-Map

To-Scale Asset Break Down Sheets:

                  Train Station

                  Building 2

                  Building 3

                  Building 4

                  Bridge

                  Train Tracks

                  Train Tunnel

                  Elevators

Research:

Research Modular Building

Research Mudbox and Normal Mapping Environment assets                 

Test out Mudbox and Normal Mapping on a small asset

Research Texturing workflows and techniques for Games

Test out Texturing workflows on a small asset

Find notes on UDK

Practice Workflow from Maya to UDK

Research Materials in UDK

Practice making a Material in UDK

Block out Scene in Maya

Design Doc:
Here's what I have so far in terms of the design doc and just general project guidelines. Nothing is written in stone obviously, but it's a start.

Stand-Alone Game Environment

A Stand-Alone Game Environment may not include any playable mechanics and may not require player participation. Stand-alone game environments may created for a portfolio piece, a beauty scene or simply an environment to explore and showcase.

Game Engine

Unreal Engine and Unreal Development Kit

Idea Description

A worn down train station and boarding zone set in the heart of a once buzzing commerce district of a now aging city. The barely functioning train station is surrounded by decaying apartments and barely-in-business shops.  The shops and appartments are separated by the train tracks which lead from a tunnel into the train station itself.  Above the tracks just outside of the train station is a bridge that civialians may use to cross over the tracks safely from one side to another. The lower level by the tracks and the upper level bridge are connected by special stairwell buildings on either side. Building materials should be metals, bricks, and concrete.

Environment Setting

A general location where the environment takes place.

City/Urban

Metropolitan

Location

Subway/Metro/Train boarding point in the heart of the busy city district, a main point for transportation.

Train Tracks

Apartments

Storefronts

Themes

Metropolitan

Traffic

Federal Style turned Technological

Worn-Down

Mobility

Commerce

Project Purpose

What is the Reason I am Creating this Environment?
Develop an industry standard stand-alone game environment using UDK, Maya, Photoshop, and Z-Brush that is set in an Urban and grungy train station with a metropolitan city setting for my senior thesis.

What I want to learn/Improve

Modular Building techniques for creating game environments

Modeling workflow for game asset and environment creation

Texturing and surfacing techniques for games using Photoshop and Z-brush

Development process for game environments and props

Hard surface Modeling

What I want the player to Experience

Custom Game Environment

Unique Urban Setting

Stylized setting

Inspiration:

I spent a lot of time searching through images over the summer looking for something that would inspire me interms of the type of style I wanted to use for my thesis and just in general for creating ideas. The problem is I am so used to conceptualizing on my own that I had already formed an idea of the style I wanted in my head, but I was having difficulty putting it down onto paper. Mostly because I knew how I wanted to stylize it, but I didn't know what I wanted my scene to be. 

After running around in circles for what seemed like weeks, I stumbled apon the work of Oscar Cafaro and in particular his environment work that he posted here (the 6th image down is the one that particularly struck me).  Not only did it have the exact feel I want to go for, but it immediately caused me to visualize a scene for my thesis. This was the first big break through I had in terms of figuring out the visual development for my scene and I consider it the biggest source of inspiration so far.

I also spent quite a bit of time looking up various train stations to fit the concept that was forming in my head. In the end I found Hauptbanhof, which was almost a perfect fit.

Style:

Obviously, I don't want to copy off of Oscar Cafaro, so I began doing some sketches of my own to help me develop my own visual style. I even blocked an entire environment to help me get the feeling of the types of forms I want to include. 

(Note: The bridge in the render on the left is an old version, I decided that visually it was too big and ended up changing it quite a bit)

I eventually determined that my original scene was far too over scoped in terms of the amount of time  have for this project, but I believe that keeping it as a reference is still a good use for it.

I ended up changing the style towards something a little more industrial(in my mind at least), but combined with some of the same futuristic looking features. 

It took me a while to put my finger on a good example exactly what I was looking for, when I realized I was drawng from my favorite video game with out even knowing it. My favorite game is Final Fantasy VII, I've been in love with it ever since my brother's brought it home back in 1997. I did a quick search around the web and found a fantastic site with tons of pictures of the in game environment.

Color Palette: 

This is just my rough color palette. I've been adding to and adjusting the colors when needed.

Concepts:

And now for my favorite part of the preproduction process, concepts!

I've been building ideas for small assets over time.  I went ahead and quickly sketched a few of them out.

 I did a quick concept to put at the top of the blog, but also to help me sketch out some ideas for the buildings.

Then I began working on a more detailed concept drawing of the train station, bridge, and building 2 to help me in terms of figuring out my assets. Here's what I have so far:

Unfortunately I'm hoping to finish blocking out the remaining details tomorrow so that I can start coloring it.

Time Tracking: That's about the majority of the work I've gotten done so far this week. I'm require for class to keep track of the time I am spending on my thesis so I'll end each blog with the hours.

3h 00m:   Image Search

2h 00m:   Concept Art

1h 00m:   Class

0h 30m:   Image Search

1h 00m:   Concept Art

0h 00m:   FFVII Image collection

1h 30m:   Blog Banner/ Concept Art

1h 00m:   Blog Set up

2h 00m:   Documentation and write-up

4h 30m:   Concept Art

0h 16m:   Scanning Sketches

1h 00m:   Small Asset Sketches

1h 00m:   To-do list type up

1h 45m:   Blog write up

Total: 21h 01m