Ideal Animation

Once Jerome had finished his ideal animation it was then my job to export the file as an FBX but ensuring that both the bake animation and EmbeddMedia checkboxes were ticked otherwise the animation won't play and the textures won't appear with the mesh in Unity.

So once imported to Unity the first course of action was to apply a scale of 1 to the mesh, this converts the mesh to the correct scale you were modelling to in Maya. Once dragged and dropped into the scene all thats left is to go to the 'Idle animation' import settings, click on 'Animation' and change 'Wrap Mode' to 'Loop'. Finally, still in the 'Idle animation' import settings, click on 'Rig' and change 'Animation Type' to 'Legacy'. Now the animation will play and loop while the character controller is venturing through the level.

Unity/Maya self feedback

I found using maya relatively easy. However, I haven’t really conducted a lot of research into making the textures as impressive as possible. In regards to modelling the assets this was simple, due to the use of my concept art I was able to replicate the drawing to near perfect accuracy with my 3D model. In regards to unity, once I had gone through the necessary tutorials I found unity very much ‘user friendly’. The interface was clear to understand and I found unity enjoyable. Using my own creativity to develop terrains.

Particles

Focusing on tutorials that provide the fundamentals to developing an efficient level. I wanted to insure I implemented aspects such as, sound and particles to generate a much more believable level design.

I found this fairly easy to apply to are level design and would highly recommend it as sound is one of the fundamental elements of any game.

Good Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq8sJqfnoWU 

The result?

After a stressful ordeal trying to get my work back I got a working game app with my animations. Unfortunately many of the cycles where not included and problems identified over a month before hand where not corrected. T.J’s targets where also not included although we have all seen a working game application with them in and exploding. A very disappointing end to the project but I can not complain as people within the group, mainly the coders had very different priorities with other projects as there main focus. For 5% of marks given to a working game app I am amazed I heard any thing at all from the coders when there marks where given six weeks before our Team Outlaws submission.
All in all a lot of work was put into this piece to get very little out.

Screencaps

Figure1: Screenshot of the 'perspective view', this shot presents an overview of all the assets within the level. I wanted to create a fairly open space for the character to pass through while firing at target boards.

Figure 2: I used the tank to block the path as I wanted the player to feel as though they weren't stuck in the condiments of a game however, still aware that there was no accessing the area past this point. The rocks were used to block the players view of the empty space beyond the level. 

Figure 3: The architecture was heavily influenced by turkish ruins. I like the sandy, granite textures and feel its blends well with the terrain and overall theme of the level.

Figure 4: Rock assets were placed across the level to compliment the theme and feel of the level. I personally feel as though I need to throw several more in.

Figure 5: Many of the ruin walls were designed like this, gaps and erosion. This was use to create openings for the player to travel through and for targets to appear out of.

Figure 6: I felt this shot showed where the shadows are coming from however, I feel I may have to tweak the light intensity and create a rim light to compliment the existing sunlight.

Figure 7: 'Top down view' once again provides a nice perspective of the level and shows the scale of the terrain. Some individuals felt as if the terrain was perhaps to large however, the location of this target range was once an ancient city and i wanted to emphasise that.

Camera trouble.

After some time working along side our coder/scripter Danius we got the animations running smoothly and effectively. Danius did have some trouble with how the camera would work but managed to create a great camera that would move a little as the ogre ran. Further through the project we found a fault that would obscure the positioning of the camera when certain movements took place.
Danius tried to resolve these issues but could not be successful. After some experimentation in exporting FBX files in different ways and changing the pivot point on each of my animation cycles we found that the camera in unity would rotate on the zeroed co-ordinates of Maya.
In Maya I often move objects that are completed off of the zero co-ordinate in order to work on something new. The animation was than animated in which ever position I had placed my model.
As we had found the solution to our problem, although it may not have been the only way to remedy it I went ahead and created a null for each of my animation scenes then moved them all to the centre of Maya’s work space.
As of yet I have not seen the results but I have been assured they all work correctly.

Animation

I then went on to animate key cycles and the transition between and from those cycles.
This included :
Run, idle to run, stop left foot, stop right foot, strafe left, idle to strafe left, strafe right, idle to strafe right, rotate left, rotate right.

I soon found out that my blend shapes will not work as an FBX file and as you may see from the rig, there is no jaw bone. This meant that the mouth and facial expression would stay the same thought the game. This was not to much of a problem however as you’ll be controlling the character from the back.

Finalising rig

After some discussion we agreed that instead of my character being the NPC he should become the playable third person controller. This was largely due to the majority of the riging being done as well as the  weight painting. The idle could still also be used.

Blend shapes

At first my roll was to make an interactable NPC. You would have to speak to him in order to start the training exercise that is are game level.
I started off by making some blend shapes to imply speech coming from the NPC. This would not have been lip synced and the speach would have been simple text. The blend shapes where created to show movement of both the mouth and tongue.

I then went about creating an idle pose that would of been cycled when the NPC is not being spoken too.