sweethamspamwich

[sweethamspamwich]

Ok...

Good...

YES........

FUCK

After spending way too many hours over the course of a week trying to get my character model from VRoid Studio, to Blender, to Mixamo, to Unreal, I can confidently say that it is ALMOST working!! It's been a lot of trial and error, especially with textures, and I'm gonna keep on trialing and erroring until it works, but for now I'm taking a break otherwise I'm gonna pull my hair out lol

(Disclaimer: the face and body UVs for this model were downloaded for free from Booth and they are not mine)

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment: Blender integration (this one is from a while back, I'm not sure why I didn't post about it earlier)

Following our class tutorials, I recreated a lamp post from a reference image. Once I had a better feel for Blender, I modeled my power object (a spool of thread) and a building (Oli's water tower).

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment: Sound

I was so excited to finally break out my good microphone and do some foley work for this assignment. I got back to my apartment on Sunday night with all my equipment - mic stand, audio interface, shock mount, pop filter, literally everything I could possibly need. Except for the cord that I needed to connect the interface to my PC.

⠀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⠄⠀⠀ ⢸⠀⡼⠢⡄⠀⠀⢀⡀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⣄⠄⠧⠀ ⠈⢶⠀⡠⠗⠢⣤⠏⠀⡹⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡠⢤⡀⠀⢹⡆⠀⠁ ⠀⠘⢸⠀⠀⠤⠊⠀⡜⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣤⡶⠚⠁⠀⠈⠛⠛⠓⠦⣄⠀⠀⠀⠈⢇⠀⢰⢠⢳⠁⠉⢃ ⠀⠀⢻⠀⠇⠀⠀⠀⠃⠀⠀⠀⢀⡴⣋⠔⢊⠏⠁⠀⠈⠫⡑⠢⡀⠈⠳⡄⠀⠀⠀⡇⠘⠃⠀⡵⠀⢸ ⠀⠀⠀⣆⠀⠀⠳⣠⠇⠀⠀⢠⠊⠀⠃⠀⣡⣴⣶⣶⣶⣶⣤⡀⠀⠀⠀⠘⡄⠀⠘⡄⠊⠀⠀⠀⡰⠃ ⠀⠀⠀⠈⠦⢤⠠⠋⠀⠀⠀⡎⠀⠀⠀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠀⠀⠀⠸⡀⠀⠉⠣⠤⠴⠞⠁⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡀⠀⠀⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠀⠀⠀⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⠁⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀⠀⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡆⠀⣾⣿⣿⡿⠋⠀⠀⠀⠉⠻⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀⢠⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢹⣴⣿⣿⠟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⢿⣿⣿⢀⡎⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⡁⢉⠡⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⡙⠋⢸⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠙⠤⢄⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⡠⠤⠞⠉⠊⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

So I had to record on my phone for now. I'll probably go back and re-record with my good microphone once I get that cord, but luckily the microphone on my old Apple earbuds isn't too bad, and Audacity does a pretty good job of cleaning up background noise!

I recorded a couple basic sounds just to get started. I really wanted a rumble sort of sound for my big door sliding open, which I managed to achieve by recording myself scraping my nails against this weird candle topper thing (I think it's supposed to help the candle melt evenly, but I just like it because it's pretty and it helps me make silly little noises). I then brought those sounds into Audacity, layered them on top of each other, and messed around with EQ, pitch, reverb, and distortion until I was somewhat satisfied with the result. I also wanted to try my hand at some voice work, so as much as I hate listening to recordings of myself, I tried to make a little noise that played whenever you jump. I decided to record in my closet because the soft clothes would provide better acoustics. I now have at least 3 recordings of me performing many different variations of "HUP!" and "HUH!" and other jumping noises on my phone, which is 3 too many if you ask me. I picked the one I liked best, brought it into Audacity, reduced background noise, trimmed it, and finally imported it to my project.

More silly little noises coming soon :)

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment: Put a silly little guy in your game using Mixamo

Alright I'm ALMOST completely caught up now! This assignment was pretty simple, just follow a tutorial to add a custom 3rd person character into your game using characters and animations from Mixamo. I didn't really run into any trouble on this one, but I do wish I'd chosen a less stylized character model, as the animations on Mixamo are motion captured, and thus look a little bit unsettling on this guy.

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment: Color Your Game

This was probably the biggest assignment thus far, but I gave it my best shot! First order of business, new project statement: I intend to create a music-based puzzle game with a fun and stylized feel inspired by "kid-core" and 90s aesthetics.

Upon going through my material from my look-book, I definitely still want to keep the playful and colorful style I was aiming for in the beginning, but I've narrowed down my main aesthetic inspirations to 2 key sources - Itousa (a Japanese artist/illustrator) and Rudo Company (an animation studio based in Buenos Aires). I've used some of their work (pictured above) to help me create a color palette for my project. It's not yet set in stone, but I think it's a great set of colors to start with.

I also revisited Roxy's character design (or lack there of) and came up with a more concrete idea of what I want her to look like. This involved a lot of noodling around on Hero Forge, a website that, while technically meant for creating D&D miniatures, I find immensely helpful for designing characters. Seriously I cannot say enough great things about Hero Forge, go check it out if you haven't already. ANYWAY, after playing around on Hero Forge for a bit, I settled on a general design that I felt pretty happy with! I then drew her in my sketchbook, tweaking a few things here and there as I went. Drawing is definitely not my strong suit, so it was a little frustrating, but I'm pretty happy with it! Everything is still subject to change, but now I have something to work off of.

Finally, I did some texturing in my game. I wanted things to look really stylized and cute, but as stated previously, 2D art isn't really my forte. So I tried to find some free stylized textures online and adjust them accordingly. The three main materials I was looking for were bricks, wooden planks, and something quilted. I found bricks super fast, so I added them into my game and changed the tint so that they were a brighter, more golden yellow. Next was the wood, which took a bit longer, but overall didn't cause me much grief. The biggest issue was that the texture I downloaded had both a normal map AND a height map, so I struggled a bit trying to make it look right. Lastly, and unfortunately most importantly, was the quilt texture. THIS texture gave me HELL. Every quilted texture I found was either too photo-realistic or had no dimension whatsoever, and I swear I looked for hours. I finally found the PERFECT texture on ArtStation, like I was ready to whip out my wallet and pay just about anything for it, only to find that the artist wasn't selling it anywhere. This is why I have decided that I will be teaching myself how to make custom stylized PBR textures. I settled on this very flat quilted square texture I found online for now, but JUST YOU WAIT TIL I GET MY HANDS ON SUBSTANCE DESIGNER

(also, adding materials to my game made me realized just how messed up my UVs were in terms of scale, so I'm definitely gonna need to go back and fix that lol)

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment ???: The one where my computer hates me.

Yesterday I spent a cumulative 8 hours fixing a million different problems on my pc that weren’t allowing me to work on my game. I finally got it to work around 9pm. I would like permission to scream now please. What if I just ate it? What if I just ate my computer? Wouldn’t have to update my drivers anymore if I just crunched down on my graphics card. Safely ejecting my external hard drive? Just consume the whole thing like a ravenous bear. Problem solved. Did you ever think about THAT?? Mmmmmmmm yummy 😃

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment 3: Greyboxing

Here's a simple greybox model of of Oli's water tower made in UE5. It's a very small step in building the environment, but it's a step nonetheless!

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment 2: Look-Book

Here's some pieces of the preliminary look-book for my game! As you can probably tell, it's not entirely fleshed out yet. It started with Oli, a character a played in a ttrpg campaign a while back. We never ended up finishing that campaign, but I loved the character so much that ever since then I've tried to incorporate him into my other creative projects whenever I can. With this project, I really want to build up his backstory and develop him more as a character.

[sweethamspamwich]

Update: here is a video with sound that I took by shoving my phone into the ear of my headset because I’m too tired to download OBS and my computer has no speakers 🥲

Please enjoy the very quiet game audio interspersed with loud clicky keyboard noises!!

[sweethamspamwich]

Assignment 1: World-building?

The goal for this assignment was to create an environment in Unreal Engine 5 using the landscape editor. And I did do that? To an extent? I played around and sculpted some nice hills and mountains, but I felt limited by my lack of knowledge of UE5's modelling tools, so I was GOING TO do some independent research to figure it out until I got distracted rediscovering my love of Blueprint. TLDR, in an attempt to "fuck around and find out," I bypassed finding out and pretty much just fucked around.

So now a have some mountains, which is fine, but also every time the player jumps it makes one of three randomized farting sounds and produces a violent explosion of green smoke.

Will I be using that mechanic in my final project? Probably not. But it was so fun to goof around in Blueprint and figure everything out that I don't regret doing it even a little bit :)

note: the screen recording has no sound and that makes me very sad and I am very sorry