Synopsis and Link to Cinematic Trailer

Link to final game trailer showing gameplay, environment and cinematic scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY4cXJEdGaA

Synopsis:

Above is a link to my final piece for this module. This module has challenged me to learn new software in a short space of time which has been extremely beneficial to me. Software such as Unity and Motion Builder are used today in the gaming industry and I have now learnt the basics of both software's and created a level one game. For my game I drew on inspirations of popular 3rd person games released today. Games such as 'Tomb Raider' and 'Far Cry' are very interesting and immersive games with large interactive environments which the character can explore. My game in turn took on a similar adventure island setting as these did. Due to the time restrictions of this module, I had to create a quick but full environment in the space of a few weeks.Some aspects such as the trees and the 'shanty town' buildings were free downloadable objects on the Unity Asset store. The terrain however was sculpted by me and all objects and textures were then applied by myself. I also experimented with creating my own textures in Adobe Photoshop CS6. If I had longer I would have liked to have modeled my own buildings, I intend to do this at a later date as I will continue working on this game after this deadline. As a result of never building my own interactive environment before, this while process has been a huge learning curve and I have benefited greatly from this module.
  As the main feature of a game is to have a playable character, I looked to Motion capture data in order to correctly animate my Model. Motion Builder is another new Software platform in which I have learnt this semester. It has helped me become familiar with motion capture footage and I have learnt how to redirect that movement onto my own character. Problems arose in this process as certain data, when connected to my character, would rotate some joint 180-360 degrees which in turn ruined part of the animation. This often happened when the first frame of the motion capture data was not standing in a T-Pose position. I created a number of run and walk cycles in Motion builder using motion capture but only used two in my project as they looked the most realistic and had the least software related problems.

Unity Animation:
Unity has it's own motion capture animator mecanim system which similar to motion Builder redirects movement data onto your own character. In order to make my game playable I used this system which has very basic movements such as walk,run,jump and crouch cycles. These animations can be replaced by your own animations in the blend tree animator system. I added both my run and walk cycles into the system but came across many problems. One problem was that the cycles would not move forward across the x and z axis. Also the looped cycles did not then transfer to other cycles and would stay on that one particular cycle. For example the walk cycle would not then go on to a run cycle or an idle pose. Another problem faced was that the animation would run but would cover double the distance in one short cycle, making the character accelerate far too quickly around the environment. As a result of this I used Unity's Mecanim Animation data on my own character in the scene and used my motion capture data in my cinematic trailer.
 During gameplay some issues still need addressing such as the when my character crouches, part of her jacket is not influenced and so does not move down with the rest of the body. I intend to correct these issues this summer.
In order to make my game trailer I created and modeled a small scene in Maya in which my character would reside. I modeled crates,barrels, wooden poles and a small gun for this scene and then assigned appropriate materials. This scene was created to add drama and mystery to the game trailer, to entice people and make them want to know more about this project. For this scene I set up and experimented with directional lights and spotlights in order to create a moody and dark atmosphere. Five cameras were then added with animation to render out the footage in a typical game trailer style.
    After my game was completed as best I could with the time given, I was then able to render and video it. I downloaded a software called 'Fraps' which enables you to video live gameplay with good quality and also tell you what the frame rate of the game is as you play it. I imported these videos into Adobe After Effects CS6 and made my game play trailer along with fade in and out effects to add interesting dynamics to the video.I have chosen the song 'Heartbreak Hotel' by 'Viva Elvis' to accompany my game trailer as it is a very powerful song with a strong beat which keeps the viewer interested as they watch the showreel. Also the beginning of the song offers a very eerie and dark feel to the piece which enables my character to have a dramatic entrance.

There are many things I still need to improve on such as being able to edit motion capture data in Motion Builder so that when animation is re directed onto a character, the joints do not change rotation. I also need to build up my modelling skills in Maya so I can create my own buildings and objects. I will continue to learn Unity's animator mecanim system and fix my own animation data so that my character can move around the environment correctly on the x and z axis. 

My main goals for this module were to learn software needed in the industry, create an interactive environment and learn how to use motion capture data in my animations. To complete these goals I have used Motion Builder 2014, Maya 2014, Unity 5.0, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Adobe After effects CS6 and Fraps. My game is now playable with working animation and an interactive environment, as a result of this I am very happy that I have managed to learn all these new software's and create a playable game in five months. The software I have been using is also used heavily in the industry and is asked for on many job and internship applications, therefore this has now enhanced my CV and will help me to secure good job opportunities. However I will continue to improve on aspects of the game to further increase my knowledge and experience. 

Game Engine Software Research

1. Digital Tutors
2. Nuke
3. Unreal Engine 4
4. Unity 5.0 -Free download
5. Autodesk Gameware
6. Motion Builder - Only on Pc

Unreal Engine 4:

Tutorials and documentation on how to learn the software:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/  

-Can now get a free student version

Unity:
Video Tutorials and help on Software
https://unity3d.com/learn

Research: What am I doing? Why am I doing it? How can Will I achieve it?

-Unity you can import your own animation cycles

Environments:

Animations:

Models:

Textures:

Bibliography

http://gsfinalmajorproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/maya-to-motionbuilder-importing-c3d-and.html

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-FB494B4E-81CD-4F28-81B4-80E915C6FE66-htm.html

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/435998/exporting-fbx-from-autodesk-maya-2013.html

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/04/14/turn-your-character-into-a-player/

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/animeditor-UsingAnimationEditor.

http://www.turbosquid.com/

http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v04_Rzu-TGY

Unity

Questions that need Answering:

• Can I take Control of my own animated character in Unity ?
• Can I make an animated movie in Unity to render out?
• How do I get my Animation to interact correctly with objects and environment in Unity

 Documentation Unity has a lot of information


Unity - Additional aspects: 

There are a lot of aspects that go into making a game and I have discovered that more and more throughout this module. 
When creating the environment

There is an option of detail distance, which effects how soon the player is able to see objects and textures in the distance during gameplay. The close the distance of detail, the more Frames per second it will use to do a live render which will in turn slow the game down. However because my game is only a level one platform with one small terrain I was able to have a high detail distance. 
Trees and plants can be mass placed onto a scene and scaled and rotated. A colour pallet can also be applied to keep all foliage similar in style. This continuity helps the environment appear more realistic.
When creating my animation for gameplay I used a 3rd person character controller. This enabled me to take charge of my character and move it through my scene. I then added a free look camera to the scene and combined it to the 3rd person controller. I deleted the main camera and this then enabled me to follow my character around the scene similar to other 3rd person games.
I have also learnt a lot about glitches within games and why and how they happen. Some objects in my scene are not completely solid and so the character can walk through them. This is because they have not been assigned a collider in their prefab folders. When checking the 'Generate Collider'  or 'Mesh Collider' option it helps to solidify the objects in the scene. 

Maya Animating, Motion Builder and Character Inspiration

Information on Maya Rig http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/mathilda-rig-free-maya-rig-female-character-rig/

'Mathilda Rig Feature:

* Animschool Picker. Special thanks to Animschool for developing this very useful technology! We also develop some useful function for this rig. Check the help document we created to see more details.
* Advanced facial control: Sticky lip, Eye scale, Bendy head, Fleshy eye, Secondary control, etc
* IK/FK limb control: The key framed position of IK or FK can convert with each other by using picker.
* Stretch Spine, Limbs, bendy Limbs.
* Hand and foot control system: additional attributes allow easier control of the rig.
* Auto interaction: The jacket will automatically interact with gravity when you rotate the body. The eyelash will also bend when you pull the eyebrow down.
* Easy shader loading: All the advanced shaders(Subsurface scattering, procedural) are saved in another file. So rig will not be too slow when you create the rig reference. By using the picker, you can easily assign all the advanced shaders to the model.
* N-hair is available for this rig. Check the help document we created to see how to render and simulate n-hair.
* Global Scale: scale the size of the rig.

The purpose of this project is providing a free high-end character rig for animation students to develop their professional portfolio. Any type of commercial use or crime with this rig is forbidden.'

I was able to download motion capture data files from the Unity Asset store and a number of online blogs and websites.

Motion Builder was very difficult to learn at the start as I had to learn the software from online tutorials and documents. However My lecturer, Omid, gave me links to his tutorials which were extremely helpful and helped me through a lot of problems I had. Also I had a one on one meeting with my lecturer Jacque and she helped explain the software to me and gave me her notes from when she started learning it. 

Projecting the animation onto an actor was an easy process, however some problems arose when the motion capture footage did not start in a T-Pose. This brought up problems when imported back into Maya as some joints had twisted 180 or 360 degree. I had to then go back into motion builder and try to edit the joints in there or re do some animations parts back in Maya.

Inspiration:

Above is a character called Elizabeth from the hugely successful game series 'Bioshock'. Elizabeth makes an appearance in 'Bioshock Inifinite' as one of the main hero's. The character helps your first person player (Booker Dewitt) escape the floating city in the sky and helps in combat by offering you weapons, ammo and powers. This strong female character has a large range of emotions and draws the player in to feel empathy and understanding. 

 The above images are from the game 'Tomb Raider' starring Lara Croft. The whole game has had a large influence on my game, specifically when concerning the character and narrative.
The story tells of a young woman who's ship and crew get washed up on a huge island as the result of a freak storm. Lara's character has to quickly adapt to her surroundings and learn how to use weapons, hunt and mountaineer. She is a very strong female character who discovers ancient secrets of the island and saves her shipwrecked and kidnapped friends. 
The vast environment ranges from rock filled muddy terrains to snowy windy mountain tops. The jungles are full of vibrant plants and colours and physics such as water,wind,sky and fire all look exceptionally realistic. The realism is further emphasised by the changing weather. The game also offers a strong graphics and effects option which only works to its full potential on PC's. 'TressFX' is an option that adds more movement and realism to the character and the surroundings. Using TressFX shows individual strands in Lara's hair moving with the wind rather than moving as one object.




The Animating Process: Motion Builder & Maya

In order to prepare my model for animation I first had to rig it on Maya. I used a Human Ik rig and bound it to all meshes. After it was correctly bound, I used the paint weight tool to add influence to the model and its joints. Problems arose in this area due to the fact that the model had several different meshes. This made the process very long and hard as it different meshes reacted differently to each body part and some overlapped. To make this process easier I deleted unnecessary meshes like pockets on the jacket and string ties on the shorts. This was helpful as these meshes are not an integral part of the character and so the model did not lose anything important. The human IK and meshes were then imported into Motion Builder as an FBX file.
The Motion capture data was projected onto an 'Actor' model in Motion Builder. This was done by 'characterizing' the actor by matching up the data's markers and the actor's joints. When activated the 'Actor' then moved exactly the same as the motion capture footage. Some problems arose with the motion capture footage as some data would not match up to the actor. This was due to the data being old and unable to work properly on Motion Builder 2014. Also some data was already animated wrong and so the markers would sometimes twist 180-360 degrees which would deform my character. This was solved by using other mocap data files or editing the animation back in Maya.
After the FBX maya file of 'Mathilda' was imported into Motion Builder I was then able to re direct the animation onto my own character. When the animation looked accurate, I imported it back into Maya and was then able to edit it and use it in my scenes.

Run- Motion Capture Data:

Unity: Animating

The above clip is a playblast video of my finished run cycle. The clip is then looped on Unity in order to make it playable. The whole process in Unity was very challenging as I had to learn the entire new software in only four months by myself watching tutorials and ready a lot of documentation. Unity has an 'animator mecanim' system which enables you to create blend trees which hold all animation clips and data. With these blend trees it is then possible to transfer from one animation cycle to another.  In the animator tab you can use Unity's motion capture data and project it onto your character. This process is theoretically straight forward but offered up its own problems referring to blend trees and when trying to import your own animation cycles. 

Hand Clenched:

Walk - Motion Capture data:

Motion Capture - Walk Cycle with Gun

Motion Capture - Walk Cycle in Scene

Game Environment

Snow Island:

Concept Art

Tutorials

How?

This environment was made by first creating a plane flat terrain and scaling the length, width and height. I was then able to raise and lower the terrain using a pen tool to create an accurate plane. After this I smoothed the the texture of the terrain so that all bumps made by the tool brush would disappear leaving a smooth base.This was an easy process which was helped by watching numerous tutorials online and ready Unity documentation and forums.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v04_Rzu-TGY < For example was a very helpful tutorial which helped me when dealing with textures and foliage. 

The Unity Asset store is a huge helpful library full of everything you need to make a game. For example it offers Motion Capture data, models, textures, skyboxes, animations and physics which I could easily access by a link on the unity software itself. Most of what I needed such as textures and models/objects were free and came in large asset packages. I also made and experimented with my own textures in Adobe Photoshop CS6 and used them in my Unity Project. 
I downloaded free grass, dirt and sand packages to paint onto my terrain using the paint texture applicator. 

I raised the whole terrain above the base of the map in order to lower the edges of the plane to make the island rise further out of the water surrounding it. I downloaded a water physics pack which enables the water to move realistically when in gameplay.

I was able to create a quick and efficient work flow by not having to model my own buildings and trees as it would have taken up too much time. As a result of this I downloaded my objects and tree packs from the unity online asset store for free in the starter pack sections. Some problems arose with certain objects as they had not been solidified in their prefab folders and so in gameplay the character is able to walk through some objects. Again time has not allowed me to correct this issue, however I intend to expand and develop on this project after the degree show. Some objects came with their Physics already assigned such as the foliage and Palm trees which enables them to move in the wind during gameplay, making it more effective and realistic for the player. When placing the grass and bushes into the scene, the colour of the foliage had to be edited in order for it to keep in with the same tropical pallet as the palm trees.

I experimented with skybox's to pick the right one for the tropical island scene. The physics of this skybox were not advanced as the clouds do not move, however whilst in gameplay it isn't noticeable. Also as the environment is small the player would realistically not see a vast change in the environment anyway. As a result of this game being a one level free roam game, the time of day does not change. 

 

The whole process of creating this environment was extremely enjoyable and I intend to improve and experiment in this area as it may be another root for me to go down.


Inspiration for my gaming environment:

Above is a mood board of the First Person Shooter and adventure game 'Far Cry 3'. This game has had a huge inspiration on my own environment as I wanted my piece to have the same abandoned shanty town aesthetic. The game is based on a heroine trying to save his friends from gangs of murderous modern style pirates. The game enabled you to drive vehicles such as planes, trucks and speed boats. The player can also  ride elephants and has a vast inventory of weaponry. This game's realism in it's large environment has inspired mine own. For example I have tried to add in accurate textures to portray worn grass and dirt patches where wet sand would appear on the beach area. I have also used tropical trees and a variation of grass, bush and weed plants in order to make the island look wild and abandoned. I was also inspired by the industrial living quarters of the enemy gangs who all live in man made steel, wood and brick huts. In my environment I placed empty boxes, wooden panels and toxic waste barrels around my island in order to give the suggestion of an industrial trading town.

The above mood board is from the game 'Battlefield -Bad Company' . This is also a first person shooter game which is mostly played in Multi-player mode to play online with anyone from around the world. It is a hugely successful series of games and has a large fan base. This environment is very interactive and similarly to far cry one of the maps is set on a jungle based island which is populated by steel houses.

I edited these textures in Adobe Photoshop CS6. I added blood and dirt by using brush effects on different layers. This made my character look like she had been in combat.

Negotiated Plan

Negotiated In Animation	Module Title:	45 Credit Negotiated	Module Code:	ANIM 3000
	Student Name:	Grace Beverley
	Area of Study:	Computer 3D Animation

Title of Project:	Negotiated Animation
Synopsis:	Create a generic game animation and place into a 3D environment.

Treatment:

For this module I will produce an animation cycle and export it into an environment/scene to create a short clip which i can then use in my showreel. The cycles will reflect traditional reoccurring movements a gaming character would have to perform. For example I will create looped actions of run, walk and crouch cycles. To fully make the character immersed into the scene it will climb on and over objects and possibly move objects too.          When creating my animation I will use Motion capture footage which has been downloaded from ‘TurboSquid’ a free motion capture data website. The animation will be created on Maya using an already existing model with a Human IK Rig. The animation when completed will then be exported into the game engine ‘Unity’ and placed into the scene. Animations will need to be saved as .mb or fbx files in order to export them into the game engine.      ‘Unity’ is a free game engine which has many rendering, animation and environment tools and features. It also has a large help group with vast amounts of information and tutorials about the software and so it will be easy to find solutions to any problems I face throughout this project.      In ‘Unity’ I will be able to create a simply environment terrain and fill it with free downloadable items from the Unity online library. When the animation and environment is complete I will then take ‘camera snapshots’ of the animation and then import the JPEG files into After effects where I can export it as a .mov file. This work relates back to last semester as my dissertation was on the gaming industry and the research collected in that module has already benefitted me greatly for negotiated planning. As the industry is currently focused on realism, the motion capture element in this module will save me time and help me improve and learn what is used in the gaming world.     My game will be a 3rd person game in order to see the full body of the character performing animations and interacting with its surroundings. This will therefore benefit me when putting it into my showreel as it will show off many cycles and movements.

Aims: ·         To learn new software used in the gaming industry. E.g. Maya and Unity ·         To learn how to use Motion capture for animation ·         To learn how to make environments and a simple terrain which an animated character can interact with

Week	Date	Activity Plan	Tutorials­
1	12th	Introduction – Plan the subject of the upcoming project. – Research game engines and software.
2	19th	Presentation on Project
3	26th Feb	Submit Proposal Form – Choose model – Use human IK rig  - From creative crash
4	5TH March	Find motion capture footage for animation cycle and import into Maya
5	12TH March	Animate character
6	19th March	Animate character
7	26th March	Create sketches and ideas for environment to be created into Unity – Plans - Layouts
8	2nd April	Start creating Environment in Unity
9	16th April
10	23rd April	Export animations and cycles into environment – Make character correctly interact with surroundings
11	30th April
12	7th May
13	14th May	Checking final piece- Render out JPEGs to export as a movie file
14	22nd May	Deadline - Hand in