For this brief we were tasked with designing a level for an existing game, this is supposed to a DLC for the game. I chose the Deadpool game as a base game to build upon because I felt adding the film as a DLC would work perfectly in the game.

Here’s the screenshots of the level I developed in UE4

Here is my final document: XB2001 – LDD

So in the second week of this project I was able to get the AR for the game working very smoothly with Apple’s ARKit. I was able to get the ARCamera integrated very well with the scene.

I have stuck together a pinterest board which helps illustrate some more proffesional examples of good AR use in Games:

This was the blueprint for the ARCamera BP, this encorperates two main functions: the first is a cast to an actor to see whether its a door the player needs to open or a key the players to pick up. The second is the actual camera hit test to see whether the ARKit plugin can detect a flat plane within the world to place a virtual object, in this case it’s the actual scene the player uses.

For the sake of this only being a one week brief I have quickly deployed the level on my iPhone and done a screen recording to show what you can do in the level.

*Future Update*
I’m planning on adding a menu screen and a more fluid lighting system to this level when I get more time to work on it.

For the ‘Door Brief’ I felt like going with a simple solution that mechanically works but also works well in terms of gameplay. For this I came up with a few concepts of doors in corridors, in different rooms like a maze, but finally settled on having a simple room that is accessible from four different doors. The player has to find the correct key for the correct door and access each. Here’s a quick sketch I put together that illustrates the game: 

I also wanted to go a step further and have taken on the ambition of creating this game in AR. Since Apple has just released an amazing API called ‘ARKit’ which has a great integration into UE4 I will try and implement this into the game, allowing the player to become more integrated into the game. This however may not be done in the final version as ARKit has a few bugs in the current build of UE4 and will only be fully supported in 4.18 which currently hasn’t been released yet.

For this brief we were tasked with modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing and finally taking a prop into UE4 all from scratch. For this we were given a choice of three reference images and I felt like taking on the most challenging one. The prop I chose was the generator model from Borderlands 2. This model was a lot more complex than the other choices and had a more difficult reference image as one side was entirely hidden.

The final model I produced I was extremely happy with, I felt I had improved upon my 3D modelling skills, found some more useful techniques for UV unwrapping objects and also found a style of hand texturing that really worked to my advantage.

Here’s a few images of the final prop after it had been taken into UE4, textured, had a material applied and been put into a lit scene:

I felt very proud after texturing this model as it came out very realistic, everything in the texture was made by hand or using a cloud/noise generator in photoshop, I did not use and photographic materials or textures to create this.

Apart from that this whole brief was very fun and helped me expand upon some skills I have really needed to learn. In total the prop was 10718 tris and had a 2K texture applied to it.

Here’s a link to my Maya Binary File 

Here is a short video of me talking about the pros and cons of my prop:

After being set a brief that is based on double exposure/ layering images in photoshop I was very excited. As I have done lost of double exposure photography in the past I knew I’d be able to create some very unique and gorgeous images that would really stand out from the rest. I decided to use some images I have taken in the past, majority consisting of landscapes and architectural images. I also wanted to integrate some grunge and light leaks into the images to give them a more natural and rustic aesthetic to them.

The nine images were heavily influenced by the work’s of Dirk Weustenhagen, I have done work based on Dirk’s in the past and I absolutely adore his work. This pinterest board show’s what exactly inspired me into developing my final works.

The images I have used consist mainly of landscapes of Lake Windermere, I have also used some images of Prestons more urban landscapes. I feel the antithesis between the two settings show a more detailed look at myself: where I’ve come from to where I am now.

I have also assembled a 3D representation of what the cards would look like in a more realistic setting.

Finally here’s a closer look are some of my favourite images, each of these images have had hour spent on each, maticulously crating every element to give a very specific aesthetic and feel to the image.

When designing a sketch up level I thought I would challenge myself because my sketch up skills are rather amateur. I thought pushing my abilities would help me improve. After being tasked with making a level from one of my favourite games I jumped straight to the PS2 era tony hawk games, as they’re some of the best levels I’ve ever played in games. Because the Tony Hawk Underground 2 training map is the one I have probably played the most I felt that one was the most appropriate to recreate.

Source: http://tonyhawkgames.wikia.com

My initial ambitions were to model two levels, the training map and Berlin. However, due to the challenges and amount of time I put in creating the training map I ran out of time to make the Berlin map.

Source: http://tonyhawkgames.wikia.com

When creating a floor plan for the level I took reference images from the internet but also refined my sketches by playing the game and drawing as much as I could on my reference sheet. My references don’t include absolutely everything in the map like boxes and some rails, despite this my reference sheet includes the main level attributes. Most of the level is created from modular components which I could just duplicate and place in different locations.

Even though the map is relatively small, I knew it would be a challenge designing a level that incorporates some very complex bowls, ramps and pipe shapes. Due to sketch up not being very forgiving to creating curves and circles, this level really did challenge me. After a lot of screaming, frustration and even points of giving up I was able to finalise this level.

Here’s a final gallery of the finished level, in no way is this level perfect or 100% accurate, but I felt it was a really good attempt for my poor 3D modelling and Sketch Up Skills.

Sketch Up file LINK

For my business card I took inspiration from minimal graphic design movements to make my design bold and clean. When initially designing the logo I went for something simple, rather than just putting my initials which has been very played out in personal business cards. I felt writing my own name in my handwriting gives a very personal feel to the card.

Logo’s such as Apple, Nike and Google’s really stood out to me as they’re eye catching and simple. I felt subtlety is key when designing the logo, by adding a video game controller to the bottom of my name it helped convey the ‘game’ aspect to my card.

Here’s a Pinterest board of cards and logos that I was inspired by

My initial sketches were of my name condensed into my initials however I eventually brainstormed and stuck to a design encorperating my name and half a game controller.

To make the contact easier you can simply scan the QR code on the reverse of the card with your phone camera and simply add my contact details into your phone book.

Here are the final designs for the card and logo and a few mock up designs