Assignment - Using UV Textures

Since I've done a lot of UV texturing already, I went ahead and experimented with creating a mirror texture using VideoTextures. The mirror plane is UV unwrapped and has a texture applied, you just don't see it in game. Followed this tut: http://www.tutorialsforblender3d.com/Game_Engine/VideoTexture/VideoTexture_Mirror_1.html

Processing + Blender

Here's an interesting thing: Processing and Blender, used together to make music affect objects in the Blender game engine. Um, can anyone say perfect? This person figured it out and kindly made his source code available along with a tutorial here. I simply implemented it in our game. Right now it's pretty basic, just acting on an object's scale on different axes, but sophistication will come with time. The only real drawback to this is that it's not portable--meaning, if someone plays our game as an executable, because they won't necessarily have Precessing installed or have the particular sketch that is required, it will not work. Maybe one of our great programmers can figure out how to "embed" this capability? Hmm....anyway, a demo!

"Bioluminescence" Test Level

Just a crude test for a "bioluminescent" type environment. I was pretty pleased with the way this is coming along, especially considering that the first thing I tried worked pretty damn well. (I love it when Blender cooperates.) So, just a quick vid of our character stand-in negotiating a "living" terrain. Effect is accomplished with clever (if I do say so myself : ) lighting and the right UV texture. Texture started out as this, from www.cgtextures.com, which is an awesome site for high quality, free textures.

I'd like to know if the effect comes off to you guys...in other words, does it really look like the terrain lights up in response to the character (or am I just fooling myself)...if you have any suggestions to make it better...so please post!

A Growing Vine

Here's a little animation of a vine growing along a bezier curve. I made this following this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-wF4Nqne1I.

Another Toy!

Using the arrow keys to navigate and the spacebar to fly, the player drives the little light creature around gathering the balls that are arrayed above it.

I used IPO curves to animate the light/flame as a substitute for particles, since particles can't be used in the Game Engine. Also used logic blocks to end the spheres when the player contacts them. The sound track is a song from our team's very own Sarah Spencer!

Try to collect them all before the song ends!

EDIT 2/13/2010:

It seems like some more explanation of how I made my game is in order. The "flame" is an animation made using IPO curves following this series of tutorials. The animation itself is not affected by the spheres that the player is meant to capture. However, the spheres have a "near" sensor for the property of "man" which is attached to an "edit object" actuator set to "end object".

This makes them into a "pickup" which can later be set to be counted as the player collects them. They are also set to "no collision" so that the flame can go through the sphere. This effect can also be achieved by making the spheres an "actor" and a "ghost", but I don't like the "ghost" modifier because I can't figure out how to make it a ghost to the player but not the plane it rests on (meaning it falls through the ground).

The flame emitter is parented to a cone, which has the property of "man" and is set to invisible so only the flame is seen.

So in reality, the cone is what interacts with and "ends" the spheres, but the flame is what the player sees. I did it this way because the flame emitter is picky about what logic bricks are applied to it ( I suspect this is another example of animation reacting in an odd way within the GE) and because I can apply a material to the cone (but not the emitter, which is an empty)--making it possible to later use a touch sensor (which only detects materials) on "pickups" or other game elements if I need to. (No, I'm not sure why I would need to use a touch sensor and not a near sensor, but I try to use things in a way that keeps my options open later down the line--I find it prevents many moments of hair-pulling).

Anyhow, I hope this helps to clarify how my little game was made and on to the next challenge!

Assignment - Making a Toy

For this little game, you move the "character" with the arrow keys, jump with the space bar and each ball plays a piece of music when you hit it. The objective is to hit spheres that sound interesting/good when played together. Be careful though! Hit them too hard and they'll disappear over the edge.

Small spheres play more melodic pieces and are trickier to hit. Medium spheres are more percussive. Larger spheres play more "accent"-like pieces.

I learned how to make a simple 3rd person camera with this assignment & how to incorporate sound and music into the game engine, both of which will be really important to my team's final game.

First Test Render for a Character Skin + World!

Customizable/Pre-made character Rigs for Blender (Use Motion Capture for even more fun!)

Premade, customizable, royalty free, open-source character rigs for Blender. These are really awesome because they have built in Inverse Kinematics and facial expression control. They can also be sculpted/skinned with your own character design.

Ludwig--a more cartoony/squash & stretch character:

http://jasonpierce.animadillo.com/resource/ludwig/ludwig.html

Mancandy--a more realistic/stiff character:

http://freefac.org/posts/mancandy-248-rc1

To use in combination with these characters, there are several free Motion Capture libraries on the web, these are just a few (Blender can import .c3d and .bvh files, which both of these sites have):

http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm#

http://www.mocapdata.com/index.cgi

More Work in Blender

A test for glowing bioluminescent grass that waves in the wind. Next step is to make the light/reflection move with the grass.

EDIT: A newer version--liking this one more

Blender Physics (Assignment 2) & More Concept Art

This video records Blender physics at work with some objects I have created. The physics engine in Blender is pretty user friendly and kind of fun.

What I am really excited about with this particular file though, is the way it looks when rendered. Using a haloing effect, I'm experimenting with the design for some of the plant life that is to be incorporated in our game.

Here are some frames rendered from the same scene in the above video. Actually rendering an animation of this kind of shut my computer down, so my next step is to determine how to retain the design while reducing the calculations required.

Some inspiration for bioluminescence

Bioluminescent water

Deep sea bioluminescent creatures

Ideas and Concepts

Here's a concept of what an environment may look like in our game.

Maybe a villain?

Sexy Billiards

Watch a video of me playing the game Play the game

Is the game fun? Why? Why not?

The game is easy to learn, but a bit of a challenge to win. It's pretty funny (and a testament to the physics of the game) that I have the same results with this pool playing game as I do when playing pool in reality--mediocre. The primary appeal of the game seems to be based in the fact that you can choose a "sexy" opponent (all female). As a female, the "sexy" part doesn't make much of a difference to me. Throughout the course of the game, your "sexy" opponent insults or compliments you according to the success of your last play. Probably the best part of this game is the commentary--not so much because they're witty or funny, but because some are obviously very badly translated into English.

I would say the game is entertaining but not really very fun. It’s a way to pass some time, but I won’t be coming back to it. Mostly, the lack of fun comes from a lack of progress. There are no levels, and only four opponents, all of which are female (no males for the female players!?). All of the opponents play the same way, so there’s not even a way to play a different style of opponent. Once you have won or lost, you go back to the main screen and choose an opponent. There is a high score tracker, but it’s really pretty pointless. There is no incentive to play the game once you’ve played each opponent and observed their ridiculous commentary.

What are the goals of the game?

The goal of the game is, like most, to win. Presumably, one should also be titillated by the "banter" with your "sexy" opponent.

What is the game theme?

The theme of the game is in the name -- Sexy Billiards. Have a sexy time playing billiards! Also, for me, the theme became “get beaten repeatedly by insulting & repetitive female representations of a computerized opponent.”

What experience(s) does the designer wish the player to enjoy? Does the designer succeed? Why? Why not?

The designer seems to want the player to have a good time imagining him/herself engaged in a battle of billiards against a sexy and witty opponent. The billiards part of the game is well done with an appropriate challenge level that adjust as one gets better at the game, making it mildly entertaining. The "sexy" part pretty much escapes me -- making the game more fun for only half of its audience as the only available sexy opponents are female.

Theo Jansen's Strandbeasts

Theo Jansen is a kinetic sculptor and engineer who makes amazing creatures (from irrigation tubing and plastic bottles) that possess a primitive form of intelligence.

This video is a TED lecture where he presents footage and demonstrates the creatures he calls Strandbeasts--really cool stuff!

Also, his official website.

Toward the end of this video is a demo of a "Animaris Rhinoceros Transport". It is capable of carrying very heavy loads and weighs about 2 tons. All I could think, watching this armored "animal" skimming across the pavement, was that this creature should be in a video game--this is the personal tank of the future soldier.

Pictures of Final Installation of Interactive Creature

These photos show the rim of the porthole screen a bit better than the video. The window floated in empty black space while the tiny creature inside followed you around and the sound of red noise and water surged forward from the depths of the blacked out background.

Motion-tracking creature made with Processing

Interactive Creature

Here's a video of one of my final project in fall 2009's Computational Design class with Meg Mitchell. It's a Plexiglass covered porthole with an environment and creature rear projected on it through Mylar. The creature tracks brightness (motion) while the grass waves to its own rhythm.