Development work for 2D Game Project

For my art I will be using low resolution pixel art as in low res the pixels will become more visible therefore which will make the game more 8-bit which is the style I was kind of going for with my sprite.
I have explained how I create sprites here I used this method to also create a moving animation for my sprite I used the same sprite but I slightly tilted the head forward and tilted the cloak backward so it looks like the sprite is moving forward and then I animated the cloak to make it seem like it is flowing in the wind. This will most likely be around 8-10 frames each frame will have a different cloak movement and all together I hope they will all come out as a movement motion. To add more detail I tried to add the highlight on top of the cloaks head to move a tiny bit to make it look like the hood is moving while the spirit is floating in the air.

After I had created the moving animation I went on to creating the jumping animation. To make it look like it is jumping I made the cloaking thinner as if the head was rising and the drapes were following it. The ends of the drapes will flap in the wind but no flow so it looks like a high jump. During the making of this I didn't like how the lines were smooth I wanted them to be pixel like so I tried to use the pencil tool instead of the brush and it had satisfying results as the lines were cleaner and also more pixel looking with the minimum pencil size of 1. I also added a crease at the bottom of the hood and made him face up to add more detail to the jump. I was thinking this should be 5 frames long as the jump is pretty fast in-game.

This frame it starts the jump. The body of the cloak is thinner than the idle animation as the cloak is getting dragged through the air the higher it goes the thinner it will get to a certain extent while it is getting thinner the cloak will also flow at the edge of it.

After I had completed the sprite gifs I then went on to do the background for the levels that were being made by my fellow group member. he requested that he would need outdoor scenery as well as indoor objects as well. Since this game was about avoiding light I would make no sense having it day light outside so I had this in mind while making the outdoor objects so I created silhouettes of objects instead like this fence. For the fence I tried to have the image tessellate so it could be repeated for the whole outdoor room. To do this I had to make sure the end of each image that touched the sides would fit with the other side. I didn't really pay much attention to detail as it was just a silhouette some lines were a bit to thick however I didn't really mind as this image would be in the back and in the dark so it would be hard to noticed and also players would be to concentrated on trying to get past the level to noticed as the sprite moves quite fast. If I had to go do this again I would create more time for myself to make things perfect however time was not on my side as most things had to be done by a deadline and I was kind of behind as planning took longer than usual.

 Here in a silhouette of a lamp post one with the lights on and the other with the lights off, the reason for this was because I wanted the have our designer to switch the lights on and off as one of the points of our game was to avoid light so I was thinking this was a nice addition to the start of our game. However we seemed to have had problems with putting this image on construct as the png file would create this distorted black color around it which messed up the image; we decided to not put this in because of this and we had no way to fix it.

The design of the lamp post of based on the lamp posts used in Victorian times as the design of it gave a strong image of it being a lamp post which produced light. Giving the player the impression that you were to be wary being around it. Pretty disappointing it could not be placed in to our game because of some faults.

 This cobble stone wall is meant to represent the inside of the walls and floor while on the surface it was meant to be a clean marble finish. The tarmac was a darker colour than the stones itself as well. I tried to avoid touching the edges with my drawing as these were meant to be placed next to each other so if i had them touching the sides I would have to make them go on to the opposite side as well just so it would look right.

 I placed holes in these decaying wooden walls to show that the house was breaking. I also tried to add cracks in the wood planks as well to try suggest that the planks itself were not going to hold and were being crushed.

 These 3 brick walls are for the bottom level of the basement where you are to find your coffin and complete the game. The two holes in this wall are meant to be together so is they were to be on top of one another they would form a massive hole however if they were put on the side of each other they would not and the other images of the walls were put on the top of it then it would look like just one small hole.

 One of the reasons why I created three images for this wall background was so that the wall would become my interesting as the wooden decaying was just a single image and looked really plain and boring so by adding three images the wall has more interesting features.







These two gifs are made in the same way I created the sprite. I wanted this haunted house to have a story of the sort to why it was abandoned and I feel like this gif of the wall shows why. Their is a creature living in the basement. The spirit could of be possibly killed by this creature which is why the coffin with it's body is inside and he could be going back in to retrieve it back.

The coffin is animated to show that it is being opened. The idea was for the coffin to be opened and then the player was meant to jump into the coffin to go rest or go back into its body; whichever the player wishes to perceive it.

My Sprite

My task for this project is to create a sprite from scratch so first of all I had to do some research into sprites and how they are made and how I can try to get that look, for the look I was going for which is pixel art I used a program called Graphics Gale which is a pixel art program where you can create clean pixel lines. Later I switched to Photoshop as it was easier to use.
















This is the character I created, it is a little spirit. I created some concepts for my spirit however I have chosen this one as it seems it will be most fun to make and I like the feel just the floating cloak with eyes it gives a mysterious look. To create this sprite I went on to Graphics Gale to create the initial design but then when I had to animate it I had to export the file and imported it in Photoshop.

 After I had imported it to Photo I had to create different frames for each layer I was planning on using, I was planning on using 4-6 frames as this was just a simple sprite with a flowing cloak. I saved the file as a .tga as as .tga files can be opened up in most image editing software so I can easily access this file from most software.

I removed the second patch near the bottom of the cloak as it got in the way of my animation and I thought it looked a bit to busy as well with the creases down there so I thought it will be easier to removed the patch instead of having it in the way and trying to animate that as well flowing with the cape, it saved a lot of time.
When creating the sprite I had to consider the cloak and its creases when it would flow in the wind, I also added a patch near the top instead just to add a bit of character to it as just a plain cloak would seem boring to the player to look at. I also moved my sprite slightly up and down each frame just to give the impression that it is floating, I will try to consider the cloak going up and down as well as the cloak will widen as it is going down slightly and vise versa.

Once I had completed the first 5 frames I then duplicated them, at the 10th frame I removed the eye so then every 10th frame it looks like it is blinking as the frames would repeat, just to add a bit more detail to my sprite. On the 10th frame I had to duplicate the 5th layer so in total I will have 6 layers for 10 frames.

I had several different looks for my sprite, I first wanted to have my sprite be a cartoon like ghost like the one you see in Dragon Ball Z, Gotenk's Ghost. It was a simple design and will be do able in the 1 week I had to create a sprite. However I did not chose to make this as I would then have to animate the hair flowing and also facial expressions which I did not have the time to animate.

Another idea was a child who was out looking for ghosts but at the same time was really scared so to show this I put several scribble lines around the character to show that he is shivering in fear. I had a cartoon style in mind when thinking of these characters as for a sprite a details realistic one would not suit and will look out of place. This concept will later on become one of the enemies of the game as he carries a light source and in our game our character will die if it touches any light source

Sculpture of zombie me!

 Firstly, we had to use our knowledge of the shape of the human skull that we should of researched as reference to make our tin foil skulls. To make the skulls we first had to compact the tin foil extremely tight but while doing so we had to try get the shape of the skull as well, for example I was trying to get the eye sockets in my skull and well as some cheek bone however the cheek bone proved to be quite difficult so i decided to add the cheek bone later with the sculpture.

 After I have molded the tin foil skull I added a mixture of grey stuff which was a mixture of Apoxy which when combined together will have a 2 hour window of where I can manipulate it to my will and mold it around the tin foil pinch by pinch, layer over layer to add the cheek bones try to add more shape to the head and trying to create the correct anatomy just so it looks like it has flesh, it is also helpful since it is a zombie and I can add layers to certain bits then sand it down with some chisels so it looks like it has decayed away or been bitten off when the person was still alive was being eaten. However in this image on the left I tried to make the basic round shape of a head in which I would mold into the shape of a head later on right now I was just planning on getting enough apoxy around the tin foil that I could sculpt in to a head form easily. There were several scultping tools that I used which was used to create forms in my sculpt without having to use my fingers so there would be no finger prints. I used the tools mainly for forming shapes which were quite hard to form with fingers for example the nose would of not been possible to create without these tools as if I had used my fingers the nose would be a smaller size and the end of the nose would be slightly more smaller then I wanted.

Here I have started to add more shape to my zombie by pinching the edges so that it would come out more and give the head more shape. I added more tissue around the eye socket however in this picture the tissue is a bit off and is wonky! I pinched the edges to raise it and then I tried to smooth the edges to make it look natural I also added the tongue which would be hanging out and I did not include the bottom jaw so the tongue would hang out as shown in my design. I also added a nose to the face by rolling a piece of the apoxy into a sausage like shape and then placing it where the nose would be. I would then use my finger to smooth out the edges of the nose so that it would blend in with the face so it looked like it was part of it and not just attached on.

I noticed something was off about my skull. It was that it didn't have a forehead! So I added layers on top of the head with the apoxy by getting extra bits of apoxy and flattening it and layer by layer added more and more until i got the right shape and size for my forehead to create the forehead but now it looks square headed.... I decided that I would make this rounded when I got to the chiseling of the sculptures as it would be much more easier then. I also added some shape to the top lip to make it more like a lip than just a flat surface. I pinched the flat area of the lip so that it would compact together and form a shape which looked like a rounded surface on the lip, I also added tiny bits of apoxy where needed to give the lip some volume. I used the flat ended shaping tool to create the forhead layer. I would later use my fingers to smooth out the edges which would then end up with me using a chisel to make the edges even smoother and blend in with the rest of the head.

 Here I added some teeth to make it look like a bit of the lip was torn off as well I feel like it could use more attention and more detail like some teeth some be longer or shorter then others or that some should just be missing. To create this however I rolled some of the material in to a sausage shape then I used the flat part of the chisel to create a block like shape then I used the edge of the chisel to create some lines in the block so it would look like teeth if I could I would try to create each tooth individually just so each tooth has a different shape.

 I chose to add a bit more skin to the front part of the mouth like a torn lip just to add some interest into the sculpt I also added some skin on to the back as well which is hanging off. To do this I had to flatten some of the material so then I could make it more skin like and thin, because of this it was quite difficult to handle as it would tear so I had to reduce the thinness of the skin and made it a tiny bit thicker but reduced the length. I also added an eye ball without the eyelid so it feels like the eye is bulging out of the eye socket and the muscle around the eye has gone so there is no cheek muscle, just the bone.

Here is when we got to chiseling and I added some marks on my sculpture. I tried to add some wrinkles by using some of the chisels which were available to me and by using the edges of the chisel I could create thin marks however as I was unskilled I failed to do some and it looks horrible and is hard to see the marks, also I noticed that the top jaw was way to low and I would of liked to make the jaw line much higher if I did so I feel like that this sculpture would overall be much better however this was my first try and I had much fun with this! If I was to do this again I would do a much better job at this and I feel would produce a much better product!!!

The material called "Grey Stuff" was easier to use then "Green Stuff" as it was more easier to handle and it took longer to harden so we had more time to fiddle with it. Also unlike green stuff it was not sticky as sticky as green stuff so it did not stick to our fingers as easily so it was more easier to handle. One of the properties of grey stuff is that once it hardens unlike green stuff it will turn as solid as rock so it is great for chisel work so it is more suitable for making bigger sculptures like this and not small tiny figures unless you had the tools small enough to sand down the details later on once it hardens. Another property is that it becomes quite hard unlike green stuff where you can still move it slightly after it hardens so it is good for bigger sculpts like busts

Zombie me! (Photoshop work)

First I started with my orthographic of me, Just the normal side to side none edited picture. With this i changed the color of the picture on Photoshop then i changed to saturation and the hue. I played around with this until I got a sickly color which i was happy with.

This is what I ended up with after I played around with the saturation and hue and also the color balance of the original image 

After playing with the saturation and color balance I then went onto liquefying the image to make myself more skinnier. I went for a more Micheal Jackson Thriller look with the pale then dark burns and lighter places which need highlights.   

After I have done that, using my images I posted in my previous post I masked the image into my face and blended the edges softly and also added after color to try and make it more realistic.

And here it is! The zombie me we were all looking forward to, now to sculpture this!

Zombie reference

When looking for reference I will be looking mostly at the anatomy of the skull and also do some research on body decay and how the muscles on the face will decay slowly if i were to die and become a zombie, I am hoping that my zombie will have a story for example if my zombie were to have a nail in its head then the story could be that while running from the zombies I could of fell and hit my head on a upside facing nail and killed myself or something like that.

For my zombie self I would like to have lost my jaw and have a missing eye that could of been torn out while I was being eaten alive by zombies and for the lack of my bottom jaw (mandible) I could of been hit by one of the survivors when I was trying to eat one of them in my zombified state however they did not go for my brain.

I would like something like this where some of the flesh of my cheek and lower part would be hanging out with my tongue as well to add to the gruesome look of my zombie.
I like the look of the flesh hanging out and would like to implement this in to my sculpture. This would mean I would need to do some research into the mouth and palate (roof of mouth)



Here is a diagram of the mouth, I plan to add as much detail to the mouth as possible from the soft palate to the Uvula however if my zombie self bottom jaw has received major damage the Uvula and the Tonsils may not even be visible.

 This picture I liked the general look of the face and how the wrinkles were so my zombie will be wrinkly I also liked the depth of the eye socket and how the skin is around the skull and you can see the skull as well. This suggests that the zombie has no flesh and that it is literally just skin and bones.

 I liked how this person was trying to create the look of having just one eye and the other eye is scabbed out and is covered in scabs. Looks disgusting, but that's what zombies are! so this is a definite in my zombie look so i will have just one eye.












Using these pictures and many more as reference i will try to re-create me as a zombie!

Zombies! Arrgghh!

We have completed our induction project of our board game and now we shall start our first project. In this project we will be learning how to sculpture and have a more in depth explanation and shown better techniques on how to create sculptures in real life and on Z brush. Our current project involves us zombifying ourselves using the correct anatomy of the human face.




My idea of a zombified self would be of me not having a lower jaw or lips and just showing my teeth. This inspiration comes from the zombies in the recently popular series "Walking dead" the zombies i find in this series make me feel they are truly zombies and their skin is pale and scaly which gives off the look of them decaying as they are already dead.

Right now we are simply creating orthographic of our faces on Photoshop. I have gotten an orthographic of my face with and without glasses as I may later on decide if I want my zombified self to have glasses on or not. If I do decide to have glasses on I will try be creative with it and maybe have the frame broken or possibly the glass itself have a crack, i could also have the frame stuck inside my head as well or inside my eye. I could do a lot of stuff if i have the glasses but it would mean more work but higher reward in the end! As it would look really interesting. I may also remove my jaw line and make my tongue hang out like the picture above to add some interest into my sculpt.

These two are orthographics of me with and without glasses i will edit them on photoshop to zombify myself

 I hope at the end of this project it will be a great success and I will see my zombified self!

Board game feedback and summary.

Today my group and I finished making our board game and we let our class mates test it and we asked them for feedback. Overall we had an overall rating of 9 out of 1-10 which is a great start! However they did give us some good feed back on which we can improve on for example: The board itself was not flat and also the surface was rough, although the rough look was meant to be for our visual look I think we should of tried another way as the models that were on the rough parts of our board kept calling. Also the size of our models were a bit to big and so it would sometimes be one side heavy and it would drop. Apart from that the rest they enjoyed. They enjoyed the combat system as I have explained in my randomiser idea as the group seemed to agree with my idea so there was no change to that. Overall I think this project was a success however I could improve alot of stuff on this to make it a much better game.

Sculptures

I did several sculptures on a extremely basic level as I found that "Green Stuff" is extremely hard to work with, or so I find. I wish to improve of working with "Green Stuff" so I may become better at using it. Other members of my group have created better sculptures then I have and so we will mainly be using them. I had to create some basic sculpture for the other team to use so they had to be rushed. To create these sculptures we had to create a wire frame inside by getting a stripe of wire and then twisting it in on it self to create the basic body and hands then after that we had to envelope the wire with the "Green Stuff" which had to be soften with water.

Randomiser Idea

My Randomiser idea will consist of three die each will be of different color representing each of the skills of each character and another die representing the weapon cards. For example in my board game each character has three attributes and they are: Strength, Agility and Thievery. Strength will determine how hard you will hit, while Agility will determine your hit rate and your chances of actually hitting your target. Each character card will have varying numbers of skills. Thievery will determine your chances of stealing your opponent's weapon this will only be on certain character cards.

The three die will have a number of 6 each on them and you will have to roll the Strength and Agility die at the same time if you wish to attack your opponent. If your character card was a bruiser it would have a high amount of Strength but a low amount of agility lets say the card has 5 Strength but has 3 Agility this would mean the player has to roll the Strength die and the Agility die 1-3 if the agility die rolls on a 1, 2 or 3 he will hit. For the Strength die I will use it as a multiplier for example the bruiser card has 5 Strength, if the player rolls a 5 on the die it would be 5x5 which equals 25 damage all the character cards will have 100-200 hp in total. The max Strength I intend to use is 5 so the max damage anyone could deal without any weapons is 25 just to keep the game a tiny bit balanced, i will also keep the Agility level to 6 so someone could have a 100% hit rate but do little to no damage and could be used for light harassment. For the Thievery die which is exclusive to certain character cards lets them steal weapon cards from characters and use them against their enemies, it is quite simple, the higher the Thievery the card has, the higher chance when you roll the die and you will get the steal. However the higher the Thievery level the lower their other stats are.(Strength, Agility)

Weapon cards will have multipliers as well. Each weapon will have a individual number to them, for example an axe could have a multiplier of 2 but to get that multiplier you will have to roll the weapon die and roll the number one to the number shown on the card so in this case you will have to roll either numbers 1-2.