Summer Sprint #1

 Return from Summer Break!

This week, we've returned from Summer Break and have gone into a bit of a planning phase. We're really trying to button up any loose ends and begin tracking high priority tasks more closely. For the first two classes, Anthony and I were collaborating on what simulations and VFX need to be completed by the end of the project. We decided that we're going to do pre-baked destruction simulations in Houdini for the different endings. We've already begun looking up how we can achieve this and have begun development within Houdini. Lighting will need to continue to be worked on as we continue to filter more assets into the scene. Looking forward to what we will be able to accomplish by the end of the semester! 

Maya Artist Tool - Game Ready Assets

 

Stylized Heart Trail Niagara VFX

 

Post Processing Material - Toon Shader

 

Cyberstein - Build & 'C' Level Delivery

 Cyberstein Sprint #7

This sprint, I focused on redoing the lighting for our scene! For this project, we're taking a lot of inspiration from Blade Runner, so I decided to use one of the Syd Mead's Sci-Fi apartment concepts for reference. I also created my own cube map with a Blade Runner-esque cityscape. 

I'll continue to do more lighting passes as we begin to populate the scene with our final meshes and materials. 

I also worked on setting up certain events inside of our Level Blueprint. The police lights now only trigger when the endings are played, rather than flashing the entire time. Ryan and I also did a lot of troubleshooting some last minute blue prints (like the thunder BP which triggers the bolt of lightning VFX and flash of light, and the material switch for our meshes). We also play tested quite a bit to make sure things worked before and after building our project for tomorrow's C-Level presentation.

 

Cyberstein - Polish & Level BP

 Cyberstein Sprint #6

This week we focused a lot on trying to figure out what things we really wanted to nail down and polish within our VR experiment. Since I've been having a few issues with the spline for the last Sprint or so, I decided to modify it a bit. I've done quite a bit of research and reference gathering, but I think I know what I'm going to do now. I've decided to take the saw away completely and replace it with a really small emissive sphere with the sparks VFX attached to it. I'm also going to attach a beam emitter to the BP so that the laser cutting through the garage door leaves a "heat trail" behind. It's also extremely dark in our scene right now, so I went in and made some slight light changes so that it wasn't as hard to see in some areas. Along with the "garage door being cut down effect", Ryan and I worked together to implement the timing into the scene itself, so now it only plays when the endings are triggered. We also worked together in creating an environment animation and attaching it to a BP, so that the garage door falls when the ending is played. We've yet to implement that specific BP into the level BP, but it's on it's way!

Cyberstein (New Teammates!)

 Cyberstein Sprint #5

This week we welcomed to new team members to our team. We spent a decent amount of time catching everyone up and figuring out how the tasks should be divided amongst our new team size. I'm still having a lot of issues with the spline blueprint inside of Unreal. This week Anthony and I tried to troubleshoot it, with no luck. However, we were able to adjust the movement of the saw so it looked a bit more realistic when sawing into and out of the wall. The sprint has not been as productive as I think we're going into a "Spring Break" mode! Lol. We're really lucky and glad to have Anthony and Marshall on the team! Ryan needed some help with the animations, for sure. This week was a lot of organizational stuff onboarding the new team members and creating our post on the Unreal Forums. Now that we're a little more settled in, going into next sprint should be easier when divvying up the tasks. Lighting will need to be re-worked again, so that's on our radar for the upcoming sprints as well as fixing the clipping issue with the conveyor belt. Now it's just polishing what we already have and adding more "liveliness" to the environment itself!