Meeting Five - Monday 24th November 2008

Everybody turned up to this meeting! This week we had
the meeting at 12.30pm due to me and Hel needing to sort out filming
unit out.
Hel had made her banner/start screen, after some confusion on the
title of our project and game performance. This is now uploaded onto
the files section
Jack had uploaded more of the character body to the files section as
well. Was looking good so far and our character was taking shape
nicely.
Alex said he was working on the Torso of the body, and would upload it
soon.
Fran had uploaded the story to the Pages section, meaning now I could
start on an animation for the intro. She had also uploaded images of
each of the characters she has drawn in Flash. These were good because
she used the grid section in Flash to create the pixellated graphics.
This meant that Jack and Alex could now create the 3D character in 3D
Studio Max based on the character design that Fran did.
Simon said the only program he can create the environments for the
levels in, is Vue Extreme. He has made an example cave design, but
this has text all over it, advertising the product, because it is a
free version. He would have to purchase the software, which comes to
£125. When he receives it, he cannot use his previously built models,
and must start again, but this will be easier for him.
I have been continuing the project process and documentation.

Our roles for this week were:

Hel - Not so much she can do at the minute, since content is little.
She can work on the banner, which will just be a cut version of the
start screen. She will think of pages for the website.

Jack and Alex - continue working on the 3D model of the character, and
upload the images as they finish them. Jack will send Alex his models,
and they will try piece them together to fit.

Fran - will work on the storyboarding of the intro screen.

Simon - Order package, and work on sketches of levels

Me - Write down specifications of idea, and continue working on
project process. Get Fran to send me the Flash files of the characters
so I can animate them.

We will arrange a meeting with Alex Counsell soon (it must be done before christmas).

Meeting Four - Monday 17th November 2008

Regular 1pm meeting in Eldon basement. Everyone
apart from Alex turned up, so we have decided Alex will have to go in
the MOCAP suit for our performance, cos he has failed to appear twice
to meetings.
Jack has done models uploaded to this group, and are taking shape.
Fran has now created the 3 characters involved in the story, and
created them in flash. Her idea for the animation/background story
will be scripted and storyboarded and uploaded soon. We decided that I
can help fran in animating the story at the start.
We also discussed making our game into more of a performance, by maybe
getting someone from the audience to get up and play our game, trying
it out for themselves. Altho, is this really a performance, or an
interaction? If it is a performance, I guess it must be controlled by
us, and although getting audience participation might seem a good
idea, it not really a performance. We also decided that maybe the
audience should decide what final door to open. Altho all 3 doors lead
to exactly the same ending of THE WRONG DOOR idea meaning that we
don't have to do a fancy ending story, and the player is just killed
or whatever. Who thinks we should do any of this?
Our roles were this week were:

Hel - Create a logo for the website, and maybe create a banner also

Jack + Alex - Create the 3D character based on Fran's drawings

Fran - Upload the story, and characters for Jack and Alex to model.
Continue the storyboarding, and once done, upload to this group

Simon - Create some drawings ON PAPER of the level designs you had.
Making sure its a simple design. Simon has put up image of cave
environment on the group, and i dunno what others think, but I'm
liking it! We able to get the text and all that outta the way?

Me - Help Fran with animation of background story, and continue
documentation and production process, AND PROPOSAL.

We decided that next monday we would meet up with all our work, so we
can check it before giving it all to our client, Alex Counsell. The week
after that, we will arrange a meeting, and get our idea signed off.

Inital Client Meeting - Thursday 13th November 2008

There are motion capture drop in sessions where we will be able to view the equipment and props in action with the use of motion builder.

The university usually keeps the MOCAP room open on Mondays and Fridays for RTGROP students.

Discussion with Alex Counsell

Our project idea was proposed to Alex, he liked the concept but pointed out similarities with our idea and the previous year’s attempts. He agreed that it would be an interesting and viable project to undertake as long as we understand that he expects us to improve upon last year’s attempts and make use of the new features within the MOCAP lap.

Alex proposed that we should have our thoughts for the project gathered and submitted to him before Christmas. The basic idea has already been agreed upon through brief discussion, but it’s required that we give him the details of the project, such as the story, environmental designs, character concepts, 3d concept renders etc, possibly in the form of an extended pitch document.

Expectations

Alex’s biggest complaint of the previous year groups was that their performances appeared clunky and that he would like it to appear more seamless. This mainly refers to when transitioning from real-time motion capture to pre-rendered videos and other media. The performances can seem more realistic with the use of the new in-built physics engine (including collision detection) which is available this year with the introduction of Motionbuilder 2009 into the MOCAP room. However, MB2009 has not been tested with real-time data as of yet, so until Alex tests this, we will not know if we are able to make use of all these new features or if we will have to resort back to MB7.5 (shit).

Due to the vague nature of the marking scheme and the fact that what we are doing is a performance, we are able to use whatever is at hand to make it work. For example, one group performed a magic show and the hat appeared to be floating, when in fact it was just a piece of wood with two reflective balls being moved about in the air by another student. Another example is of a group placing a sticker of the university logo physically onto the screen to earn the mark of keeping the university logo present at all times of the performance.

The final important point that was mentioned was that he wants to know of any changes that are made to the original pitch as we go through the project process, since we are pretending that he is our industry client, he must be kept up to date.

Technical Information

• Motionbuilder 2009 Learning Edition is available free to download now (confirm?)
• Polygon limit will most likely be able to be increased due to the introduction of new software and hardware; i.e to 9,000 triangles (not confirmed but highly likely).
• ‘Relational Constraints’ are apparently very important for some reason, but not much was mentioned because it’s fun to be ignorant.
• FBX exporter is not available on some of the university machines, which according to Alex, is needed for the use of 3dsmax with Motionbuilder.
• No additional physics plug-ins such as Endorphin are required if MB2009 can be used.

Meeting Three - 3rd November 2008

In this meeting, everyone managed to turn up! I think we have
decided to have the meeting next week after CTPRO, so that would be
11pm.
Anyway, in the meeting we discussed that we cannot really go much
further with any work until the mocap guy has signed us off, and
agreed of our idea. I managed to email the guy, and got a response
back saying he was free tuesday and wednesday this week, but this is
short notice. I am sending out an email for everyone to let me know
when they're free, so we can arrange something, although, do all of us
need to be there?? The main focus this week was a background story,
and Frances had been thinking just that. She had taken all of our
ideas down, and combined them into 1 story. If Frances could post her
story on this, or a new post, that'd be fantastic. We have decided to
stick with the three level ideas, level 1 as a cave, level 2 as a
straight forward rope bridge, and level 3 as a volcano. In this way,
the spikes, and the flame pits that I added in the level designs can
be used.
We decided:

Hel = CONTINUE WEBSITE DESIGN

Frances = DRAWINGS OF BACKGROUND STORY AND CONCEPT ART. E.G.
STORYBOARD OF EVENTS OF BACKGROUND STORY

Jack = CONTINUE MODELLING THE OTHER BODY PARTS- DOESN'T HAVE TO BE
COMPLETLY PERFECT, JUST AN IDEA SO WE CAN SHOW TO MOCAP GUY. ALSO
RESEARCH THE ENVIRONMENTS IN MOTIONBUILDER AS WE ARE NOT SURE THEY CAN BE DONE IN MAX.

Alex = CONTINUE MODELLING THE LEGS, FEET AND TORSO OF BODY, AND SEND
TO JACK THE MODELS.

Simon = TRY SOME LEVEL DESIGNS IN MAX, AS HE SAID HE IS GOOD AT
DRAWING? IF NOT...PROFESSIONALLY DRAW OUT THE LEVEL DESIGNS ON PAPER,
OF CAVE, ROPE BRIDGE AND VOLCANO, INCLUDING THE SPIKES, FLAME BITS,
AND MAYBE BIRDS IN THE ROPE BRIDGE

Me = CONTINUE WITH PRODUCTION PROCESS

We found out we can get training with the mocap guy on how to use
Motionbuilder, so when we have a meeting, we can discuss what will
happen then.
We discussed maybe using midi music, as the character on background
story will be pixellated. We liked Miyamoto in pixel form. Check out
pixel games such as alex the kidd, frogger, megaman and mario bros
classic.
We also confirmed that there would be fixed lighting along the walls,
as carrying a torch would be too hard and complex.