The first few weeks have been somewhat hectic. While everything is on track, now, there were some new technical difficulties with CryEngine to sort out that prohibited much design work.
First, crydev.net experienced some sort of potential security threat, causing them to shut down, evaluate the issue and then have everybody update their accounts with new login info. Secondly, there is a new version of the engine that I had to install, which is good, but this combined with the fact that the exporter I use to move from Maya to CryEngine is no longer supported, meaning that I had to revert back to the standard exporter. Getting that to work properly took some time and was necessary given that the objective this semester is to create content from scratch.
All said, everything is OK! In spite of these obstacles, I have still managed to create the basic landmass as well as some buildings. This is going to take a bit more work than anticipated, as this time around I have to design the content and layout of the environment, create the models, texture them and then actually build the world. It’s a large task and one of the reasons I want to switch, as mentioned in the intro, to a single world with three areas. This is more consistent and saves time, allowing me to create a more fully realized environment, as opposed to starting from scratch three times over the semester.
Narrative: Given the limited time and the fact that I am just a single individual doing the work, the narrative structure needs to be based strictly on environment rather than on interactions with other figures. Divided into three sections, as mentioned, the narrative is as follows:
1. Introduction to the landscape and environment, including the first structures.
2. Exploration beyond the first structures, revealing new structures in an evolving landscape, continuing the theme of structures integrated into the environment.
3. Final area that reveals the most secret location of the research facility, which is a climactic discovery.
This environment is part of a larger story that I, frankly, do not want to publish here and will discuss in private with Professor Castillo.
The following three screen captures show the rough form of the landscape. The idea is that research centers are positioned in remote locations and integrated with the environment.
The dominant feature of this landscape will be cliffs, into which are built the various nodes of the research facility.
Below are some of the structures to be integrated into the cliffs:
These structures are several stories and comprised of glass and concrete (?), which will be reflected once they are textured.
Art Direction: One of my overarching goals in this project as well as with the larger framework and story that I have been working on is to create images that are different than what we have already seen. For example, I want to use the tools of contemporary film and game design combined with perhaps the older aesthetic of black and white. We have all this great CG and VFX, but it is usually overly kinetic, saturated and in-your-face as opposed to subtly contributing to a more refined experience. What would a living postcard be like? What would Avatar be like in contrasting black and white? What decisions would be made differently in compositing visual effects? I have such questions in my mind as I move forward and design this world.
Wrapping up this first entry, I am reminded that I have already finished most of the papers for my film theory class (!) which means that I will have another day each week to provide a larger chunk of uninterrupted time to work on this, which is really what is required for CG work. Everything is in order and now that I have the three parts of this world in my mind I am excited to get it produced. Finally, given the challenges of sharing this work on a team level, I will also provide video files of each completed section of the environment.
Eric Chamberlain 