Aftershock: Response Manager

PLAY AFTERSHOCK: RESPONSE MANAGER

https://metx.yourweb.csuchico.edu/USGS/index.html

SPRINT BLOG 6

For this sprint, I modeled a skyscraper, a car and a police car. I also begun texturing the the Bay Bridge as well.

The skyscraper is based off on actual building. So to get the full look of the building, I used Google Maps to find the correct building. 

Using Google Maps as reference, I began by building the ground level of the building. I started by multi-cutting to create the windows and extrude to make them stand out more. I cut out the faces on the corners and replace them with pillars. Because players won't be able to see what's underneath the roof and floor, I deleted them to decrease the tri count.

After modeling the ground level of the building, I worked on the middle part of the building. I started by extruding the top of the bottom level and raised it. I then separate the part from the bottom to create the windows more easier. I began to multi-cut and bevel the piece to create multiple windows. Then I extrude it to make the windows look believable. Originally, I had the building scaled higher to match with the height of a skyscraper. However, due to the height limit of the game, I decreased it down. 

Creating the roof of the building is really simple. All I had to do is do the same thing I did to the middle level of the building by extruding. Then I extrude the roof even more to create the look of a roof.

Because the skyscraper is made up of windows, I was able to UV'd the skyscraper by simply separating the windows from the building. For the rest of the pieces, I cut the pillars and the edge of the roofs so it can be easily textured. 

The next model was the police car. Using the same lessons I learned from the van, I was able to model the police car without any trouble. The only issue I ran into is forgetting to model the car mirrors and quickly added them in.

Because police cars are similar to cars, I duplicated the original police car model and warp the model to make it look like a different car. The difference between the two are the different windows, headlights, and mirrors. 

Once I was done with the police car, I began to UV'd it. Because police cars have color patterns on their body, I separated the front half of the car and the back half and organized them together so that the same color can be applied to them. I also cut out the windows, the headlights, and the car mirrors so they won't be so similar to each other. Since the car was already UV'd due to being originally a police car, I simply need to unfold them again to improve the UV map. I also brought the three pieces of the car back together.

The first texturing task I had to do is the Bay Bridge. This one was simple to do as the Bay Bridge originally is mostly white. I added in a concrete material on the main bridge and change it to white, staying accurate while also making it more detailed. For the cords, I added a metal material on it and also changed it white. Since the cords don't have a shine on the original bridge, I raised the roughness so it won't look that way.

This was the last time I model for the rest of the sprint now that all models were made. My next task from now on was texturing the remaining models.

SPRINT BLOG 5

For this sprint, I had to model the Bay Bridge, two rooftop vents, a newspaper stand, and the San Francisco bus. 

For Sprint 5, I had to model the Bay Bridge that would lead from Oakland to San Francisco. This was difficult to model as there weren't no blueprints to find. Instead, I had to use references that were displaying different angles of the bridge itself. 

Once I got my references, I began to design it. I started with the base of the bridge by extruding a cube. I then added the cables by using planes. At first, I thought this would a hassle to do, but instead it was easier than expected. As soon as I added the cables, I added in the bridge itself using planes once more. Since the player won't be seeing what's underneath the bridge, I left it blank. And since a road is already modeled by someone else, I don't need to add the road for the bridge. 

Moving on, I began to UV the bridge. Because the bridge is symmetrical, the parts that were similar were able to be stacked easily. The one's that aren't were stacked next to each other. The problem that I ran into was when I clicked a button to make similar shapes stacked automatically, it included the shapes that are mirrored. Especially the cable planes. To resolve this, I had to manually separate the mirrored pieces from each other.

Now that I was done with the bridge, I moved on to working two rooftop vents. Each of them are unique in their own way. One is circular and another was spherical. 

The circular rooftop vent was not so difficult to pull off. I simply create a model out of a cylinder and then add another cylinder piece to create the cap of the vent. Following from the reference my producer gave me, I added the disc around the vent as well.

The same result goes for the spherical rooftop vent as well. I added in a cylinder extrude it to create a sphere-like shape and then closed the gap with a small cap on top.

After modeling the two vents, I UV'd them as usual. Since these models are simple, I didn't ran into any problems at all. 

After modeling the rooftop vents, I continued working on the newspaper stand. Since the newspaper stands are squared, it was simple enough to model it in low poly.

I started off with a cube then have it extruded into six faces. I then extruded their faces and offset them to make it look like windows where you can see the newspapers inside. Once that was done, I added supports and covers using cylinder models. 

After modeling, I began to UV which is simple as well. I cut off what needs to be significantly textured, especially for the windows.

The last model I worked on for this sprint is the San Francisco Bus. Unlike the work van I modeled before, it was difficult to try to recreate the bus.

Like the bay bridge, there weren't any blueprints to work on the bus. So instead I had to use different pictures from different angles. Instead of using planes to create the whole model, I used cubes to do so. Despite not looking for the right bus, I had to use another bus blueprint for it and edit out the things that aren't similar to the model I was going for. Once I modeled the body, I began to start extruding the faces that are meant to be windows. That way, the texture painter can know what to texture. I then added a curve on the roof to replicate the reference.

Because the bus is a cube, it was simple to UV. I cut out the pieces to make it easier for the texture painter. Unlike the model, I had no issue working on the UV.

SPRINT BLOG 4

In the current sprint, I had to work on a house, a bush, and the bench. Following the methods from the last sprint, I continued making the models low-poly as before.

The first model I worked on for this sprint is the house. Using the concept art for reference, I was able to model it. The house was simple to work on at first. Instead of having the house to be all as one block, I have the house made up of more than one model. I created stairs, the overhead, and the chimney.

Once that is done, I UV'd the house. Due to being low poly, it was simple to cut. I split the middle of the house into fours and have two walls to be layered on top of each other since they will be looking the same. As for the bottom of the house, I also cut it up into fours. The roof is simply cut in half to straighten the UV better. I did have a little problem trying to figure out how to unfold the chimney as it appeared as red. To fix this, I scale the chimney just a bit to be more white like the rest of the UV's. 

While the producer approved of this model, it is a problem for the person that was going to texture it as it would make it more harder to know what to add. To compromise this, I made a high poly version of the house to help out see the texture more better. I only added doors, windows, and the planks that stood out from the top.

                    

The next model I worked on is the bush. Like the trees, I simply added two planes and have them intersect with each other.

Next, I worked on the bench. I started off making the skeleton of the bench by first modeling the support of the bench then make my way up to the top. From there, instead of adding blocks one by one to make wooden planks, I created one plane and shape it for it to be textured as multiple planks. I also added a plane as a handle of the bench.

Once I'm done with the bench, I continue to UV the bench with ease. I was able to unfold both the handle and the plane as they are simple to do. I then have to cut and unfold the support of the bench to straighten out the texture. 

This sprint had been easy going now that I know what to do. Learning from my mistakes and what my producers wanted me to do, I was able to create these low poly models without being too extra detailed. 

SPRINT BLOG 3

In this Sprint, I began to work on a traffic light, a small bridge, a work van, and two different trees. This experience is now much different than before as I have to make the models even more low poly than before. 

For the traffic lights, I begun working with the lights first by adding edge loops on the cube and extruding them, in order to model with the lights themselves. I also used references to help me get props more accurate. 

Upon making the model, I realized that it is a lot of tri-gons than it needs to be and had to double it down to not only reduce the poly count but also making it look like a traffic light. 

I also model the different modular pieces of poles for the traffic lights. One is for the pedestrians and the other for the vehicles as well. For the pedestrian pole, I model a cap to close off the end of the pole. As for the much longer pole, I not only extrude the pole and made it bigger but also extract a piece to be separate. I then extrude the side and create a horizontal pole.

After finishing the traffic lights, I began working on the bridge, which was simple to do. I started off with one cube and made it more longer. I then multi-cut it and extrude the extra faces to create a pole-like structure. Once I done so, I duplicated it and put the duplicated piece parallel to the original. I then extruded them both and have the vertexes connected to one another.

I moved on to the next mode, the work van. I had trouble working on cars in the past, so I was glad that I was able to model this with less poly. Using a reference sheet, I was able to shape a car to be more accurate. The issue I kept running into are the n-gons that appeared on the model, so I had to figure out what to get rid of or add vertex to fix the problem. 

The final models for this sprint are the trees. These trees were simple to do as they simply require a low poly cylinder and a couple of planes.

I start off with a low poly cylinder and begin to form it to make it look like a tree trunk. Once I was able to make it work, I then added planes for it to be textured with leaves and branches. The only issue I had is trying to figure out how to have both sides of the plane to be textured when I realized I can just duplicate the planes and rotate them around.

To make the palm tree, I duplicated the original tree and change it to be more similar to a palm tree. Same as the other tree, I use planes for this tree as well. 

It was a bit challenging to not add any more detail to these models since I felt the need to do so to make it perfect. Because the game is similar to City Skylines, I understand the reasoning behind it as the players not only don't need to see a lot of details, but also simply accessible to computers that are not too advanced. 

SPRINT BLOG 2

For this Sprint, I continue texturing the character models. Since my producer wanted them to look similar to a GameCube character, I took the inspiration from Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker as their design has a similar tone as the models that I was working on. 

                 

As for the female model, I took inspiration from Princess Peach from Mario Party 5.

Next thing I did is to add different skin colors for each of the models. Instead of manually brushing over the original skin colors, I instead used the masked option on each colors. That way I was able to color fill new colors immediately instead of repeatedly brushing. The only issue I ran into when texturing the skin colors is figuring the clothes color, but I was able to get past it easily by simply testing out the colors to see what looks good or not.

After finishing the character models, I moved on to work on the apartment building modular pieces. This was something I wasn't familiar of and that is modeling building exteriors. I had experienced with furniture and walls, but not a whole building. Using the concept art for reference, I was able to model it starting off with the bottom part of the apartment. I start by multi-cut the top and extrude it to make those edges pop. I then added in the doors and windows as well. The only exception were the stairs. Since the the limit is under 3k tri-gons, I don't want to push it by adding in the stairs, hence I removed it.

I decided to model the roof of the apartment building in order to get the easier part of modeling out of the way. The only issue I ran into are the extra n-gons that appeared so I got rid of them.

 

When working on the middle section of the apartment, I begin working on cylindrical windows. I began by adding in a cylinder shape for reference and use it as a trace. From there, I multi-cut the block and extrude the faces. From there, I did another extrude and added windows. After I finished up with the windows, I began to work on the balcony section of the apartment. I start by multi-cutting the block that way top half is where the doors should be and the bottom half is where the balcony fence should be. Extruding the balcony was difficult as at the time I wanted to add the doors as well, which means adding more of the tri-gons. Since the doors aren't actually necessary to the game, I got rid of them. I also got rid of the back of the fence as the player wouldn't be seeing much of it anyway. 

Once I finished modeling the apartment, I begin to UV each section of it. I began UVing the bottom section of the apartment which wasn't difficult to do at first. All I did was splitting the walls up cut out the windows and doors so it can be textured separately. There was an issue that I didn't notice until I start UVing it and it was when one of the windows had an extra face. Whenever I tried to fix it, it just make things worse, leaving the whole window red. To resolve this, I deleted half of the building, duplicated the other half, and replaced the broken half with a cleaner one.

The top section of the apartment, the roof, was not that hard to UV either. What I did was cutting flat surface of the roof separately from the borders. The only problem was trying to figure out how to unfold the borders without any errors. So I ended up having to cut four corners and split them up.

UVing the middle section of the apartment took a while than it should be. I did the same thing of what I did to the bottom section and that is splitting up the walls in each section while also separating the windows. I do the same to each floors of the building. The issue I ran into through some of them are the unusual unfolded UVs. For some reason they look crooked than they should be, leaving me to split up some UVs in order to make them more straighter and cleaner as I can.

Once I UVed all of the sections, I was able to organized the whole UV layout of the apartment building.

The second sprint has been challenging, but despite that, I managed to get all the tasks done in this sprint. Modeling the apartment especially was something I never experienced before until now, so this wasn't easy to model. I expect in the upcoming sprints that I'll soon be modeling more difficult props to make. 

SPRINT BLOG 1

For the game, Aftershock Simulator, I work as a modeler. I did a project similar to this last semester, but unlike the project, I actually enjoy of what I'm doing. This really feel more professional and there is a lot of passion into this project. I really give it in perspective of what is like working for a game studio.

 The first model I designed is a fire hydrant. This was created as a prop for the city. It was simple to design and only ran into one complication. When finishing the model, I realized I was missing the screws on the fire hydrant, which ended up with me having to multi-cut and extrude to get it right. 

The next models are the NPCs. I chose to design them as I am familiar with making character models as I model one from my personal project. The models so far are my favorite to do and had fun with what I'm designing. The issue that I ran into was the reference. I was told that the characters are to be similar to Mii Models with the exception of floating hands. However, there were not enough turnaround sheets for me to find. I had to find two separate references to model and fix what look wrong. As of now, I am currently texturing them with different skin colors.