Digital Pathways 3D Animation & Gaming

fill this out online

2009-06-25T09:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=4TMEXmspIjSvrLAgGNrkdQ_3d_3d

Keep working on the games

2009-06-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

REMINDER: class times are now 10:30-1:30

EA trip: June 23rd -we will meet at noon at 2727 Mariposa-have lunch and then get on the road by 12:40.

I need all permission slips by the next two classes and I also need to know who is not going to make it.

cool-get back to work!!!!

Adding a sound track to your game.

2009-06-04T09:48:00.001-07:00

What i would like to do today is spend some time thinking and creating some music for your game. On a Basic level-let's create music using 'Garageband'

#1. Open the application up. (If it's not on your dock, go to 'Finder > Applications > Garageband')

#2. Hit the "eye" on the bottom right

#3. Drag and drop each desired music component to the time line.

Each time you drop and instrument, it will give you another section of your timeline.

The song doesn't have to be full length, as we will loop it in the game.

When you're ready, output the song in mp3 format and load it up on your terrain inside Unity.

let's begin...

VIdeo script for saturdays class

2009-05-30T08:02:00.001-07:00

Welcome!

thanks for braving the cold and showing up on a Saturday.

Our worlds look great and we are almost done! the icing on the cake is about to begin!

What I would like to do is implement all our previously created video's and put them into our game world. These video's should be placed in some unique way,in order to tell the player about yourself before he or she begins the path of the the game.

let's begin:

#1. compress your video at the power of 2 or close to it.-go to "Quicktime" and export .

#2. videos can be almost any format-mpg4, avi,.mov etc.

#3.drop movie into Unity

#4. drop texture onto plane or any object w/ no previously attached texture.

then attach this script below.

function Start () {

renderer.material.mainTexture.Play ();

}

MORE,MORE, MORE Items!

2009-05-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today, I want more Billboards stating Goals you have previously achieved along with Goal Items you will collect.

lets focus and keep the production momentum going. I also want us to continue to create a path in our world and populate all terrain with landscapes and water, tress etc.

let's go!

Catch-up day

2009-05-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Last class we created animations and imported them into Unity.

Today i want to fix some of the problems we had on an individual basis.

Everyone who is done with that: lets work on past goal signs and goal Items; lets see how much we can populate our world with these items.

ALSO: remember -- we have SATURDAY! class 10-4 -- don't forget that it's our last one; no one gets away with not coming.

lets get to work!

Adding Animation to your game!

2009-05-21T11:46:00.001-07:00

This is a fairly easy thing to do; we can think of using this as a possible ambient animation (birds flying, cars driving by, planes flying), or we can use this to animate our goal items to make them more interesting.

To start, I modeled a bird in C4d and made it fly using key frames.

#1. light your model and run it through the pipeline.

#2. save off your file (deleting lights) then export and FBX (this is important as it contains our animation)

#3. Drop the anim/model into your scene

#4. open it up in the project folder and touch the "c4d animation take"

#5. make sure you have "mesh colliders", then apply

#6. Make sure you parent your animation with something in your scene based on where you want the anim. to happen.

And thats it! (you might have to reapply textures if they don't come in automatically.)

Lets start out by making a animated start sign to let people know where your game begins.

Game Testing

2009-05-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

What I would like to do today, is start out by testing our game... Yes, our games are not ready yet - but, this might help us with making our game more enjoyable, and getting feed back always helps.

Lets take ten minutes to hide all our goal items through out our game. Then let's switch seats and start playing each others games.

After that, I would like us all to write a small paragraph about the other student's game, and email it to the student, so he/she has some notes regarding game play.

lets begin.....

Also: we need to fill out our next gen. profiles - please add your resume.

Adding Tags for scripts to work.

2009-05-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Let's start out with a current check list of everything we should have right now in order

to continue with our game---everyone should have...

#1. terrain

#2. outpost

#3. flowers from alpha channels

#4. diploma w/ rotating scripts, particles, mesh w/ colliders and tagged to "gem"

#5. globe w/ rotating scripts, particles, mesh w/ colliders and tagged to gem

#6. FPS with "gem collect" script attached

if you are at this point, then great! Your next assignment is to make more goal objects and begin your game play strategies... yes, we are limited in terms of what kind of game mechanics we can implement, but given these tools, I think it's well with in your capabilities to take this formula and make something intriguing with it.

Everyone who needs to catch up: DO SO!

I'll be reviewing everyone on an individual basis today. Also -- everyone must send your resume to Felice for your internships A.S.A.P!!!!!!!

Employing Game play funtions

2009-05-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

What i want to do today is start out by going through the pipeline again to refresh our memories.

I want to start out with a globe that signifies travel , move that into Unity, add some effects and some scripts to be able to collect our items. Then i want to create a GUI (Graphical User Interface)

and mess around with adding fonts and text through our game.

lets begin.

Open up Cinema 4D -drop down a sphere and wrap the given world map texture on to it, and then run it through the "pipeline."

#1. Light it so it looks good all the way around.

#2. Select sphere and burn texture, then burn object (setting: Ambient,Illumination,single texture, 512/512 and send it to a known folder)

#3. Open up texture by double clicking it-"clear info in "ambient" and "illuminate" and load up surface color (you just made it-and put in special folder) in to color channel.

#4. delete all light and save the file as a C4D file.

#5. Dump C4d file into Unity project along with it's two textures (illuminate and surface color)

#6.Place object onto scene-place textures onto object -look into the inspector and change your shader to "self illuminating diffuse" and place the two texture in appropriate places

same thing as the diploma-lets add some particle effect and a script to make it rotate.

Adding 3d text to object:

what i want to do with this is help people better understand your goal objects by adding text

to clarify your desires. Lets put in 3d text what highschool you will graduate from and on the globe lets state what places we would like to travel.

This is how we add text:

go to "Game Object" then "Create other" and then to "3d text"

It's going to show in your hierchey with it's attributes in the Inspector to your left.

To change font's go to "dafont.com" and find yourself a good one (some might not work) and dump the download into the Unity folder.

Lets see how far we get-if we have time we will start tagging stuff-and i don't mean Graffiti.

creating the Goal items

2009-05-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Try to have as many goal items as you can...

Today I would like to start out with a simple high school diploma (we can find various images in google).

Create a square (no bigger then 125 on the Y-axis) in C4D and attach the jpeg on to the model and run it through the "Pipeline":

#1. Burn texture map

#2. Burn object (only select-single texture and illumination)

#3. Load up the correct channel

#4. Export FBX

#5. Dump model and textures (illumination and surface color) into Unity project

#6. Place in game-apply texture by dragging and dropping

now go on the server and into the "Scripts" folder. grab all those and dump them into the scripts folder in your Unity project file.

select object in the "hierarchy" and go to component" then "scripts" then "rotate object" also to jazz it up let attach a particle system....

go to "Game object"and then to "create other" then to "particle systems" change "random force".

Making your world.

2009-04-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

I know last class was hard; this is a lot to take in, and remember, so I want to slow down the pace today and solve what didn't work from last class and show you a few things to help you on your terrain.

#1. I want us all to create a goal object inside cinema 4D - this goal object will be textured inside that C4D; the difference is we don't have to worry about normals and we are going to burn not only the light , but the textures as well

#2. Flowers: these will be created from Photoshop and then loaded up in Unity with an alpha channel; you will be able to place them down like trees in Unity.

GAME OBJECTS:

This is important for everyone-even if your still working on your Outpost. Let's first create an object in C4D-texture fully ad a light. Then go to"render" and "bake texture" should take a second, then go to "bake object" setting are as follows:
"ambient inclusion" - check

"illuminate" - check

"single texture" - check

"replace object" - check

open up the texture, delete "ambient" and "global," and load up "color." De lete all lighting and export your FBX.

Load this up in the game and then go to "inspector" then "shader" and load up "self-illuminating diffuse" (This will not look as good as if we loaded the texture up in Unity); for small objects this will work fine , and it's a few steps easier.

FLOWERS:

this will be hard for some of you who don't know Photoshop.

#1. open up PS and make a 512 by 512 square document, and draw a flower on a tranparent BG

#2. select the outside of the flower-goto "channels" under layers and hit "add spot color"

#3. Save it off-open it up in Unity-go to "terrain"-go to "flowers" in Inspector

#4. Load up "edit details"-then "grass texture" find flower-and apply

LIGHT MAP time.

2009-04-23T10:32:00.001-07:00

Today we will wrap up our maze with a light map in order to apply our textures in Unity and have them look good. Light map directions are in Tuesday's blog, so if you get lost -please refer to the blog.

After we are done applying our light map and exporting our FBX-let's go through the model and apply textures by dumping our selected textures into the materials folder inside our Unity project folder.-drag and drop textures onto floor, etc -then go to the" inspector" to add extra tiles and add your light map.

I want to start creating our terrain in Unity.

terrain size: go to "terrain" then "set resolution"

terrain width: 250

terrain height: 30

terrain length: 250

so that means the center of your world in at 125-

Go ahead and create your world, leaving spaces available for your Outpost.

Also, make sure you make a path from the beginning of your world that leads straight to your outpost.

Continue with Outpost Map

2009-04-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Until Sirron gets here:
-Edit-
*** Ignore this step, as our rendered videos happen to be in a format that the BAVC site doesn't like very much, so until I find a converter, skip to step 2 ***
1) Upload the final renders of your motion-graphics (text) and 10yr rooms to your BAVC profile

2) Waste your remaining time on this game: http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/games/robokill/
-or-
watch some 'educational' game review videos: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation

Now that we have created our first room - what we need to do is:

Select all planes that pertain to "wall" and "Option G" them to a Null and Label "Walls"

Repeat same process for Floor and Ceiling

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK THE NORMALS!

The Ceiling should be the only one you need to worry about. Turn everything off accept the ceiling-make it editable in planes and select everything except the null and see where the normals are at-if they are wrong "right click" and go to "Reverse Normals"

Hallway:

Now lets make a passage to get from one room to another. Simply go to walls and "inner extrude " then "extrude" a hallway. Grab that plan from the "walls" null and relabel it "Hallway"

After all this is done-we need to connect everything to make it simple to export.

go to "functions" and then to "connect". What you should end up with is a triangle.
you can delete everything else

Baking a light map:
this is an essential part of creating good textures in unity. Go to "object" then to "sky"-in Attributes menu: making it 14oo hours go to "render settings" then "global illumination" under "general" "diffuse depth" 3 "primary intensity" 150 "secondary intensity" 225 "gamma" 1.8 close that up and go to "ambient inclusion" in "render settings " don't change anything-just select it.

BAKE TIME!

Go to "render" then "Bake object" deactivate "single texture" "activate" - "ambient inclusion", "illumination", "replace object" hit "BAKE"

the PIPELINE

Delete your "sky"

-Double click on your texture

what you will see is check marks in "ambient inclusion" and "illumination" not in "color channel"-we need to reverse this.-open up "ambient" and "illumination" and go to "clear"

go to your desktop where C4d has placed all your textures for walls etc. They will be labeled and have two textures for each section. Open them up in Photoshop. Cut and paste one on top of another and go to"multiply" then save of the psd as "walls texture" etc.-repeat until all textures are done.

go back to C4d and back to texture attributes and hit "color" and load up those textures for each wall, ceiling etc.

Now we are ready to bring into Unity!

lets stop here and see how far we can get...

Mid-term projects

2009-04-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

the FUTURE game

2009-04-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

We have become competent in making almost anything in 3D, and we have spent some time creating prophetic 3d images that has allow us to contemplate our future. Now that we have entered the word of our game engine "Unity", let's start implementing the same theme into a virtual world created and controlled by us. This game will be act as an allegorical journey that expresses our future position in this world...

THE FUTURE GAME

Game Assets:

Outside world
made with terrain and all the prefabricated standard assets Unity offers.

I want to see water, land ,etc-but, remember this is your perspective so the "outside world" is yours to imagine and create.

Accomplishments
Say it on billboards, sandwich signs, road signs etc.-these should be placed along the path towards your Outpost in your "outside world". I know you guys are not that old, but I do know you have attained something in your life worthy of recognizing on these signs. Its an important metaphor to pass these signs in your game while on your way to the final challenge.

The Outpost
This should be the most complex part of our game. The Outpost will be a first person shooter map-filled with small rooms, hallways and secrets places, think of it like a first person maze. Inside this maze we will have icons disguised as personal goal's (degrees accomplished, future jobs, places you desire to travel)which we will go through the maze collecting all of our goals for a final score.

Lets start:

First thing we need to do is create our outpost-first of all we need to understand a few things

before we start.

Measurement:
Unlike in Cinema 4D, where we never really measured our work,

lets start some parameters to make things easier for modeling.

When we start out making our Outpost -remember- Unity will only let us use multiple textures if we are able to select it individually inside Unity-therefore, we must build everything separately. This means each Outpost will have separate walls, floors and ceilings.

Rule inside game engine:
YOU WILL NEVER SEE A BACKSIDE OF A POLYGON!
this is important because sometimes if we don't pay attention to our"normals,"
then some geometry wont show up in Unity. That means we might need to have a face and underside be separate and textured separately.

Normals:
(How we recognize the correct orientation of a 3D object.)
You will see it as an imaginary line coming out from the surface of the polygon and perpendicular to that surface.
perpendicular- basically means 90 degrees, so always remember to work with that number in mind(rotate 90 or 180)
you can check your normals by "selecting all" with points selected and "right click" and go to
"reverse normals" if the imaginary line if facing out-it should always face in.

Outpost:
- 256x256 square
- 256x256 grid
- Make snapping on the grid available.
- Position it at: x=0 y=128 z=128, and get it standing at a 90 deg. angle.

Axis:
- Change the Axis to "selected points" (go to axis center-selects and point "execute")

copy and paste to make walls and form your map; try moving to side and top views to better duplicate and snapping.

let's stop here and see how far we can get today

2009-04-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Game of the Day:
http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/games/robokill/

Questions:
- Describe your experience playing the game. What did you like or dislike?
- What did you think about the production quality of the game? (i.e. graphics/sound/presentation)
- This game, like many others, is based around space and robots; what do you think fascinates us so much about these subjects? Does it reflect anything about how we see our future?

Unity 101 part 2

2009-03-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Let's continue-as always, here is the stuff we learned last week-please keep looking back to the blog for reference.

Sky:
Go to "Render settings" click and let go-look to your right and find "Sky box" in your Inspector window.-click on that and grab a sky.

Water:
Go to "pro-standard assets" in your toy box-make sure you position your water right and make sure you set the scale value to 1000/1000 (depending on your space)

Particle systems:
Go to "Game object"-then "create other" then "Particle systems" look in the Inspector and see all the variables to control your PS-your going to mostly be concerned with upping the numbers on emitter 15/20 and emission 20/30 also try "world velocity" to give it a natural look

Then after we are done, lets bring it in Unity!!!!

UNITY 101

2009-03-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a rundown of everything we learned so far; please refer to this if you get lost.

Unity navigation: Rotate, move and scale - very similar to cinema 4d, except you need to hold down "ALT" simultaneously for zooming in/out, and rotating the camera around the scene.
Layout screen: We have two working areas #1: all gray = working area #2: all blue (below the gray) = game screen
Main Camera: This is what should be in the middle of the sc reen-when you touch it you should have an axis-we call this now the "translate tool"-you may employ all move tools on this.
Inspector window: Very similar to our attributes menu in C4d, touch anything in the translate menu and it's attributes will show up in the inspector to your right.
Terrain: Go up to the top menu and click on terrain-go to "create terrain" then go to "terrain resolution" changes the resolution to 500m/500m square go to height map and change that to 30m. Manipulating your terrain: Go to Inspector window based on terrain and check out your options to move terrain-we have first the "raise height tool" - notice your various options for brush size etc.
Brush tool: This is a way to add textures to your terrain. you also can use this to apply tress etc. touch it and notice "edit texture" in the right corner-click on that then touch the triangle to it's right to get all the textures available to you. all your textures and assets will be in the bottom right next to game window-we call this our "toy box'-please save a version of your project into "Assets" and you will see it show up in you "TB"
Trees: When adding trees, don't forget the bend factor; you can get trees the same way as getting textures.
Lighting: Go to "create other" and get "directional lighting" rotate it around to get your desired look-then go to "terrain" and then "render a light map" to secure your new lighting onto your land (remember-when you use light -make sure you always render a light map)
Sun: "create other " and add "point light" - you are going to need to add a flare on this - try "sun" under flare in the inspector window.
First person: Delete your camera by holding down ctl and hitting delete grab FP from TB and drop it onto your translate area. position it at 250/70/250 so it drops into the center off our game.-Adjust speed and height in inspector. Play game: press play in the game view-walk around (remember, you must stop game before making any changes.)

Today we will do an overview and start on "sky" "water" and bringing stuff in from C4d

Game of the Day:
http://www.vectorpark.com/levers/

Our last day of Cinema 4d

2009-03-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Great job on Saturday, you all did an excellent job with your presentations!!!

this is it - let's wrap up our final project. make sure you run your 3D head through hair and body paint before you complete. Lets spend the rest of the day doing this and get ready for Unity on Thursday!!

Game of the Day:
http://www.addictinggames.com/ngame.html

Questions:
- What are some possible influences the makers of this game might have had?
- What did you feel was the most challenging part of this game?
- How would you describe/rate the physics of this game?

2009-03-19T16:50:00.001-07:00

Game of the Day:

http://www.hiddenninjagames.com/flash-arcade-game.php?gameid=250&gamename=Music%20Catch%202

3D self portraits

2009-03-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today will be our final project in Cinema 4D. The most challenging of all 3D creation is the human form. today we will start to build a head using Symmetry . Symmetry is a powerful tool when it comes to building intense human models. lets all find our selves a reference to use(picture of yourself)

what we will learn:

Symmetry:
This tool will allow you to model half the head while the other half models automatically and symmetrically. This is achieved by:

- Dropping a cube-sizing it up to x=150, y=175, z=160

- Make it editable
- Go to "function" then "subdivide"

- Enter 2 and check "Hyper nurbs"

- Take the rectangle selection tool (check "visual elements only" in attributes menu)

- Select half the head and delete it

- Then create three sets of three lines each across the head for eyes nose and mouth w/ knife tool

- Select "Symmetry" in top menu and place cube on to it

- Then get 'hyper nurbs" and place the symmetry object as it's child

you can now switch hyper nurbs on and off and work in a simplified geometry versus the hyper nurbs complexity.

Select polygons to pull out a nose and inner extrude for eyes.

Bodypaint:

After you are done-move your model into BP to add some color etc. Make sure you use the wizard to calibrate your model so you can paint it.

Game of the day:
let's see who can get the best score on "hardest game 2"

Motion graphics end game

2009-03-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

So, obviously this project is taking a bit longer then expected -what I'd like to do

is continue to focus on wrapping this project up and at the same time -t0 make sure that all our stuff for the mid-term is ready to be presented and in your folder. If you need to go back to the previous projects-make that a priority before playing games and working on current project.

reminder: Saturday 21st 10-4 class (no sat. class in April) we will be leaving 410 at 1 and going to BAVC -we will be having pizza and presenting our stuff to our parent's around 2:30-your parents can take you home after the presentation.

GAME OF THE DAY:

www.flashninjaclan.com/zzz3257_Elaztik.php

no critical game thinking today-we have too much to think about-just play it!!!

Wrapping it up today!

2009-03-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of the last days we are going to be working on our Motion Graphics.

Let's continue to move forward -

Those who are done putting together your animations

need to render your movie at 640/480

Game of the day:

www.flashninjaclan.com/zzz3361_simplitica.php

What Type of extra visuals would you add to this game?

What kind of story could be added to compliment game play?

What did you navigate with -mouse or keyboard?

Type special effects

2009-03-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

Effects for your type:

There are a number of things you can do with your type.

Deform Menu:

Explosion, melt and shatter

all these will work simply by adding the effect to the type-not the other way around.

It's important that you parent the deformer effect to the object.

Attributes Menu:
Each deformer effect is different, but they still can be animated and controlled by non other then the attributes menu remember to animate with the red dots in attributes menu, not the timeline.

Particle Effects:

Emitters: the last icon on the top menu next to deformer is emitters. (along w/ various emitter manipulators)

Here, all you have to do is dump what ever you want on to the emitter and watch how it works by pressing "play" on the timeline. Remember: if you are placing lights on the emitter , make sure they have a lens attached or they wont show.

the video below contains one light w/ lens (star 2) on top of an Emitter:

Game Of The Day:
http://www.khemer.com/play-138-neon_layer_flash_game.html

Questions:
-Describe your experience playing the game; what was the hardest part about it?
-How does this game challenge the traditional 'ball-in-a-maze' game format?
-Do you think a game like this could work in 3D? why/why not?

Motion Graphics

2009-03-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

What is "Motion Graphics"?

This is the art of taking type/logo's and animating them in a way to express an idea-commonly for TV and films-it's also very prominent in the title sequences of video games. All this is mostly done in 3d applications and After Effects.

What I'd like to do is create a motion graphics animation based on our ten year room concept.

everyone should wright down a sentence; stating what you want to be in ten years.

First, let's learn how to make 3D type:

Grab your text spline maker in the spline menu. Type what you want in the attributes menu (change font type too)
Go to "Extrude Nurbs' under Nurbs menu and dump your text on top.

Wonder-con this Saturday!!

2009-02-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

YES, it's true ladies and gentlemen. Our Saturday April class will be swapped with this Saturday, as we go to the Wonder-con and get inspired. Be at 410 by 10 am-we will walk over together. I will have a list of questions you will need to research out, and to answerer at the convention-so it's not all fun and games. Bring paper and pen with you on that day!!!

For today's class, we will start the motion graphics part of our 3D training.

We will learn:

Basic text splines
Extruding text
Text using sweep nurbs
Metaball text

this should be enough for today

let's go!!!!

Game for today:

check out: www.ludomancy.com
just play all games and read the blog.

Final movie rendering

2009-02-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

So, No games today!!!!-It's important that we all get on the same page before we move on.

For any of you who didn't learn the camera trick for filming your room, then I will have a lecture on that today.

For all of you who have created your animation-then lets start our final render:

FINAL RENDER:

go to "render" then "render settings"-create a "full render" at 640/480-this will take a bit to render out, so your next responsibility is to write down a summery in two sentences saying : your name and what you will be in ten years.-this will start off our new motion graphics project.

Running the camera through our room.

2009-02-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

This should be the final action to complete our ten year room. We will run a camera on a spline we will create. The camera should cover everything in the room in about 10 seconds. Ten seconds of animation will be approximately 300 frames of animation. be detail oriented when moving your camera.

Today we will learn:

	Placing a camera in your scene: Go to the edit in scene window, and go to "camera" then to "camera", so that C4d knows what you want to view the scene out of.
	Then move your desired position and stamp a key frame down; repeat until you have everything in your room covered.

How to view inside and out of the camera?:
Press the button next to camera in "Object menu" to swap in and out of first person camera to third person camera.

Render settings:
To render a movie, go to "render" and then "make a preview" in top menu

when your done with your camera, render a quick movie and let's check it together before we render our 640x480 Quicktime.

Game for the 17th

2009-02-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

Game Of The Day:
1) http://lastguy.jp/game.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdpp3dgaming.blogspot.com%2F

Questions:
- Describe your experience playing the game.
- What do you think of the game's unique use of the web?
- What could be a social metaphor for the game, and/or its use of the web?

Creating our room today!

2009-02-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Let's develop our space to put our assets in.

create a room that's 700/300/700 and Boole out a window. Delete one wall so we have a better set for animation.

#1.Lets start out by adding our assets.-please reduce them massively before adding them to your scene. Make sure they are Null objects before dropping them in!

#2.Create light in our lamps and lighting in our rooms.

#3. Lets create a background and ground for the outside of our house.

we will see how far we get today!

Games Of The Day: 1) http://www.bored.com/boomshine/ 2) http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/squares2 Questions:
-Describe the design of these games.
-What are some of the Pros and Cons of minimalistic/'simple' games like these in comparison to more complex/'realistic' games?
-How would it be possible to use such a minimalistic style to make a believable representation of your environment?

Your room in ten years:

2009-02-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

Let's still keep focused on making assets for our rooms

Modeling tools we will learn today:

Alpha Channels - Dropping logos on objects with out backgrounds:

We all will need to learn this to add detail. Grab a jpeg and open it up in Photoshop. Make sure you select the background and hit Alpha channel in layers of photoshop. Save it, then open up the materials editor in Cinema4D and hit alpha channel; load your saved off PS image here and under "Color," in the materials editor.

I feel everyone is doing a great job and i hope you all were inspired by the previous classes efforts.

REMEMBER: SATURDAY CLASS February 7Th -- 10am-4pm

I will screen a movie called "Frag" and we will complete our room assets.

Games Of The Day:
1) www.playauditorium.com
2) http://www.teagames.com/games/blueprint/play.php

Questions:
-How are the interfaces of these games similar? How are they different?
-What are some social metaphors that could be associated with these games?
-Was there a level on either one of these games where you got completely stuck on? If so, describe the level, and why it was that you were stuck.

Moving forward on our first project!!

2009-01-27T13:02:00.000-08:00

Everyone should be focused on creating assets for their room.

What I want us to do today before we start creating:

- Write a short paragraph explaining where you see your self in ten years

- Drop it in your folder and move into creating your stuff.

I'm going to read these paragraphs and make sure everyone's assets reflect their statement.

QUICK 3D lessons for the day:

I know some of us had problems making wheels-lets work on that.

we will employ a new selection tool that will come in super handy!

What we can do is drop a "disc" down and "select all' then extrude for desired wheel thickness.

You can then inner extrude or go to "circle" selection tool to select inside any radius geometry

Also, we'll learn about the knife tool today - a lot of fun with this simple to use tool.

What ever you want to cut must be editable; make sure you are set to edit points.

When you're ready, cut the desired location by scrubbing over lines until your points connect, then delete the cut out area.

REMEMBER: next class is at BAVC in the Mission (2727 miriposa) - we start at 6pm - don't be late!!!

First class Assignment

2009-01-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Great job last class, we are still moving forward towards

making some dynamic 3D images.

I want to spend the day today getting everyone caught up and on the same page before we move too much forward.

Our first assignment will be: -Due Feb. 5th- end of class

Make the room of your future-this room should contain everything you think will

be in your possession in ten years-will you be a doctor and have a stethoscope?

will you be and artist and have an easel and a painting?

what ever it is -we will spend time refining assets we created from last class, plus making new assets to place in our future space.

I will teach two things today to insure you wont have any issues making items to place in your room.

today we will learn:

#1. adding light to your lamp and making the lamp shade semi-transparent

first we must draw a lamp shade in half with splines. then we need to drop it onto lathe nurbs and watch it complete the shape. Repeat the same process for the lamp stand.

Then we need to create a simple light bulb by half drawing it with splines and then attaching the lathe nurbs.

Bring in light and add it to the bulb-make sure you attache a lens on your light and make sure that what ever material you attach to your lamp shade has a decent transparency in it's attributes menu.

#2. "sweep" nurbs - this will come in very handy!

Use this for long tubes , chair legs, hoses etc.

first create a spline, then create a desired radius under splines (circle).
Then, go to sweep nurbs (right under lathe nurbs) and dump them onto the sweep nurbs to get your results.

We will keep making assets until we make our roomnext class.
So just keep making assets. When you finish one - make another!
The more stuff in your room the better it will look!!

GAME OF THE DAY:
http://cdx-thegame.com/
(Make sure to use your headphones, as the game has some important audio elements)

Questions:
-Describe your experience playing the game; what did you like best, or find most unique about it?
-What skills used in this game would be useful in a real-life situation?

2009-01-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

TUESDAYS CLASS-Jan. 20Th

Wow, I'm super impressed with how much 3D you all picked up last class.

For the students that missed the last class-Ill work with you all individually to get you caught up.

We also will have a guest visiting our class today- so-please don't be distracted and keep focus.

last class we learned:

Parametric primitives and how to parent them to other primitives

We learned about the interface (icon pallets. - basic move and modeling tools)

Copying

Shaders

and unexpectedly ,but really excited about being able to teach on the first day "ANIMATION"!!

we learned a 360 degree turn along with variations on the x,y, and z all with "KEYFRAMES"

TODAY we are going to dig a bit deeper into manipulating primitive's

#1. Extrude : make editable and(right click) to get menu-then go to "extrude" you will use this to push things back or pull forward

#2. Inner Extrude: make editable and (right click) then go to "inner extrude" use this for making windows and doors smaller or adding detail like ridges and edges

#3. Boole (top Array menu) this is an important feature for getting windows and doors.

make a primitive you think would make a good cut out of your larger shape. place it where you want it and make sure it's placed so you can see it from the outside and inside.-grab your Boole and then first drag small cube or window on to the Boole then add your larger cube or house on to Boole.

#4. "Change current state" very important move!! (under function) after your done with boole-ing you must select all and go to "cstc" this will complete the process and make it one piece of geometry-delete old geometry/ keep booled geometry.

#5. "group" (option+G) makes stuff into a Null object-easier to manage complex geometry

FIRST ASSIGNMENT:

take two primitives attach a parent object to each-then animate each one on a different axis

simultaneously-then render a preview...if your computer doesn't render yet-save it in your file labeled -assignment#1-

GAMES OF THE DAY:
1) http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/cube/
2) http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/wake.htm

Questions:
- What messages do these games convey about the environment?
- Describe your thoughts on the gameplay.
- Keeping the concepts of the games in mind, how could the gameplay / interface / presentation of these games be improved?

2009-01-15T14:57:00.000-08:00

GAME OF THE DAY:
Download and play:
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravitation/

Go to "applications" then open up "neooffice" and type in questions; try and keep your Game Journal Questions and answers on one page with name of the game you played and date.

QUESTIONS:
- What in the Social Metaphor of the game.

- Describe your experience.

- What would you change or add to this game

Now first off lets recognize the basics of 3D and that's X,Y and Z

X- is always on a horizontal plane

Y- is always on a vertical plane

Z- always represents the space

Cinema 4D interface:

Primitives: Basic Geometry to get your started in building assets

-Located in the: "command palette"

Basic modeling tools are:

Vertices's/Points: where two points meet at an angle or the corner of a polygon-in C4d you can push and pull these to manipulate your primitives.

Edge/lines: the line between two vertices's

Face/ Polygons: What is created when you connect lines and edges and vertices's.

Basic Move tools:

Move: moving around your geometry on an X,y,z plane

scale: scale any geometry

rotate: Rotate geometry

Material Managers:

used for dumping textures on to models.

you can go to "Shadder" and get a full menu of proprietary textures from the hard drive.

or go to "new material" to bring in new stuff from outside the application -i.e web jpg's etc.

After we get up to speed on all this lets try a quick 360 animation

.check out the Animation pallet-currently we are set up for 90 frames of animation.

drop a ball primitive down-place a keyframe down on frame 0 by hitting the "key"icon

then scrub to frame 90 and then go to the attributes manager and then to r.b.change that 0 to 360 and stamp a keyframe down by hitting the red outlined circle.

Welcome to Digital Pathways 3D Animation and Gaming class

2009-01-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our first day of class together!

Every day you will need to check out this blog for current

lectures and assignments.

Class Objectives:

Our goal is to learn how to create basic 3-D assets in

Cinema 4D and implement them into our 3D gaming engine Unity.

Class rules:

1.I need everyone to focus on assignments and other required work.

2. No one will be allowed to use Facebook, Myspace,text or personal email etc. during class time.

3.You all must maintain mature behavior at all times-this is a shared space with other students in other programs along with employees outside our class room that work in the building.

4. No bad language or verbal threats to other students

5. Everyone must respect the equipment, no drink or food allowed near the computers and please clean up after your self.

6. No drug use and no smoking inside the class or outside the building

7. Last but not least-you must be on time for class-your attendance will be monitored and will have an effect on your final stipend at the end of the program.

We will be learning two very complicated programs with very similar interfaces-we will be learning them simultaneously so be prepared to come to class with major focus and a creative mind. You all have the potential to carve out your niche in the future of games-so let's go!