Deep Space Supply Station

For the final project we were set with the task of joining as a team with selected members of the class to produce a playable cut scene game within Epic’s Unreal Tournament 2004. To begin wit we had a team meeting to discuss what was needed to be in the levels and drew up a hand draw map of what we had all envisioned. With this we set ourselves, the task of finding the right type of static meshes in order to save time when it came to producing the map. The next time we had a team meeting we assigned ourselves with a map for each area that had to be produced. I was given the third part where you must escape from the space station.

Now that I had my map to produce I started to think about how I would create the map. To begin with I started with the corridor which I used a static mesh as the roof as it looked like you would find on a space port. Now that I had the roof covered I began searching thou the Shiptech textures to find a suitable wall and floor texture. I then added the door frame and door meshes and edited the doors to make them move by a trigger. I then added a little more flare to the corridor by adding red flashing lights and chevrons. But not forgetting about suitable lighting.

The next area I worked on was the main escape area where all the escape pods were. I found a texture that I could use to represent a door to the escape pod. I then added sutible textures to the other areas and aligned the accordingly. I the added a block static mesh to the center of the room and added computer consoles to each side and cables attached to the block and the roof. I also added four more computers to the back wall where I change the screen layouts to the windows computer crash screen.

The next part is the escape pod which was done by creating a cylinder and a cone to get the shape that I wanted. I then began to texture the escape pod to what I thought was appropriate to the theme I was going for. Once the escape pod was textured I added the static meshes to add detail to the level with the monitors having their on different screens.

The next part was to begin the matinee sequences that were the door to the escape pod opens so you can enter. This was a simple matinee sequence to produce that didn’t take much effort to produce with only fade and triggers to deal with along with the timing. The next sequence was to produce the exit sequence for which the escape pod exits the space port. This was done by creating a two different rooms one for the space port and one for the blown up space port. I then added suitable lighting and made sure the textures were fake backdrop so that the space skybox would work. I then began to create the matinee sequence starting in the port and the going to the space ship to show the escape pod before the space port finally explodes.

As a group I thought we worked well although there were a few minor glitches. I finished my part and as I know Pete finished his but there was a few problems with Myles as I think he took on more the he could with his sections. I think that if he had mentioned he was having problems earlier I think we could have solved the quicker and spent the rest of the time add better detail to the level.

Unreal Scripted Sequence

The task was to produce an Unreal Tournament 2004 map and create a cinematic sequence that had moving characters that would fight each other in order to win. The theme that the level map had to be was a space cruiser particularly the hanger.

To begin with I had to think about what I wanted to happen in the sequence. When I thought about what I would like to do I drew my ideas down as a storyboard. Using the storyboard I began with the creation of the map. Once the map was created I began to start the animation of the pawns (characters). This is where my problems began.

When I had made a few actions for the pawns to follow I added a trigger and player start to the level in order to test my progress. To my horror it wouldn’t work, which began a minimum of two days to figure out. I managed to solve my problem while I was on the brink of just giving up. To see if I had made any problems with the map creation I made a simple 256 X 256 X 256 map added a light, pawn, player start and began my adding a few actions to the pawn. To my surprise it worked which instantly made me realize what the problem was.

Although delighted with this I was still annoyed by the time lost. I then began creating another level, only this time not adding any static meshes or textures just the room and the lighting. I began then creating the pawn animations and testing it each time to make sure that there was no problems. Once I was happy with half of what animations that I wanted the pawns to do. I began to add details to the map. This helped me in visualizing what and where the pawns can do and go.

While keeping notes of names and tags I started to add the cinematic to the map. Following the storyboard I was able to create this pretty quickly. With the map, pawns and camera work done I began adding little details and perfecting areas of the sequence.

Unreal Matinee Sequence

The task was to produce an Unreal Tournament 2004 map that could incorporate a three minute video to show off what was in the map. To begin with I tried to think about what theme I would use in order to get some consistency. With careful consideration and plenty of research into the available static meshes in Unreal Ed 3.0. I decided to go with a power station theme.

With the theme set I began creating the Unreal map. The map consists of four rooms:

· One room that has a computer console and pipes to represent the some of the inner workings of the power station.

· A larger room that has the electricity nodes and power generators with computer consoles and pipes that help show the workings of the power station.

· A computer room that has computers, cables and power boxes to show the control station of the power station.

· A small but high room filled with gas cylinders, sandbags, and shelves. This room is basically the storage area of the power station.

All rooms had adequate lighting with the main room having emitters to represent smoke and electricity sparks.

When the room was completed I could begin with making the three minute video. To begin with I thought about what would make a good matinee sequence. I thought that plenty of camera stills and a little movement around the map would create a good matinee sequence. Also by using plenty of the features and such as look at target, camera fade and camera shake I think achieved this.

Machinema Presentation

The task of the first week was to produce a group presentation on Machinima. Working as a group we discussed what had to be produced for each part of the presentation.

My part of the presentation was to look into who produced and created the machinema video The Infiltrators. By using the internet as a source I was able to find a name and conduct some background information on the creator.