Final Year Project - Week Ten: (3rd April - 9th April)
- Ryan Harlee Jones
- Apr 30, 2017
- 7 min read
Final Year Project - Week Ten: (3rd April - 9th April)
Monday / Tuesday:
The Monday and Tuesday of the first week back at home for the Easter break was slow, being back home wasn't the issue, my computer however was.
A few weeks before-hand my computer's PSU fried itself, this left me without a computer to do my work on. However, my family were buying a new piece for me so that I continue work from home. The delivery of the new piece took longer than expected, so I was unable to do much during the Monday and Tuesday, so I took this opportunity to get comfortable back at home and do some other things.
Wednesday:
Wednesday the piece for my computer arrived about midday, this took some time to set up considering some of the wires needed extensions and to be plugged in correctly.
By the time the machine was up and running, it was getting late into the evening.
I decided to finish off my CV and correct anything else I needed on my website in preparation for the Ubisoft Internship that had been mentioned in a lecture. This also needed to be finished at some point anyway for Expotees, so I felt as though it was worth while.
The CV was finished fairly quickly, and I was pleased with the new layout that I had placed all my information in. Although the layout differed from the typical structure that some tutors at the university had given us, I decided to structure my CV from information I had asked individuals in industry. One of the pieces of information that stuck in my head is about the profile section, one person advised not to place this at the top, this being that he believed that viewers would only be interested in the "about me" section if they find the rest of the CV is what they are looking for.

Fig 01. Personal CV (Jones, 2017)
The website took more time, as I went through each page I had making sure that there was not missing information. The front page changed the most, as I felt that it wasn't to the point nor user friendly enough, especially to people who needed to view a large amount of them quickly.

Fig 02. Updated Website Front Page (Jones, 2017)
Thursday:
The Thursday consisted of finishing off my applications for the two Ubisoft jobs that I wanted to sign up for. While going through the things that the company wanted me to submit, I saw that the program that was being used to help me apply could fill in my information from my LinkedIn account. Some of the fields were being left blank, so I decided to work on my LinkedIn account before taking the submission any further. I used this to find what sections of information needed changing or adding.
I also after filling in more of the information came across a section for adding additional files, or a cover letter. I used my template for prior cover letters I had created and spent a little time personalising cover letters for both of the applications.
Friday:
On the Friday I decided that it was time to continue with the actual project file, I created a list on my computer of things that were still unfinished and then used the "MoSCoW" technique to prioritise. The MoSCoW technique being something shown to me in a lecture, listing tasks as "Must have", "Should have","Could have" and "Won't have".

Fig 03. Rough Sticky Note Checklist (Jones, 2017)
A lot of the day I spent my time researching even more particle systems and watching how creators online went about balancing their use of materials to the actual particle systems. I found some very useful break downs of how certain users created special effects using just textures and making them function a certain way through the material editor, along with some people creating the most basic default particle material and then doing all the work in the particle system editor. Eventually after a handful of hours I managed to create a functional but simple candle effect. In the end this was much simpler than I had thought, but my knowledge of the program at the time was holding me back.
Instead of creating multiple modules for the candle and making it super complicated, in the end I was just missing the change over life modifier, so that the large particles could start at the bottom, creating the candle bulb shape, to then taper off to a smaller size to give the candle a tip at the top. I then decided to make the lifespan of the particles vary slightly so that the top would look like the flame is flickering.
Fig 04,05. Candle Effect Image / Particle System Image (Jones, 2017)
After achieving this particle effect I felt confident enough to continue on towards the portal effect I wanted to create for the doorways. I had a better idea of how to get this particle effect functioning than I did the candle. I started by creating simple images in Photoshop of the symbols I was using, as I wanted to make sure each doorway was labelled appropriately, like a level select would be.
I wanted to make these look dynamic rather than just stuck in front of the doorway, so after some playing around with multiple modules I found a rotation module, which allowed me to change the values so that the icon looked like it was bobbing around or hovering in front of the doorway.

Fig 06. Symbol Image (Jones, 2017)
Saturday:
The Saturday I was looking forward to tweaking the new particle effects I was working on. I decided to focus on finishing the portal effect and then figure out if any other ones were needed before continuing onto the texturing phase.
The portal effects next step was to actually place an effect in the background that looked like it was distorting the air, or warping. I originally tested a glowing background, although I found the glow on the background fought with the glow on the symbol, rendering the symbol almost invisible.
I took some reference from more tutorials online, making use of different pieces from various videos. I simply created a square with smaller squares inside in Photoshop to use as the particle effects image. I made the velocity of this particle come towards the doorway from the outside, but also grow in size as it got closer. This set the warp effect nicely for me, and it worked even better once i changed the spawn of the particle to be slightly irregular.
The issue that I came across was still what colour to make the actual particle, and also how to change it so the emissive value was toned down. In the end, via the material editor, I decided to multiply the emissive value to a negative value, this made the particle image become see-through and a black / grey kind of colour.
This choice allowed me to have the emissive symbol on the front stand out, the transparency of the background effect allowed the distortion to display nicely.
Lastly I decided to add some simple sparkle particle effects to help fill out the negative space, these were set with a velocity that sent the particles towards the inside of the environment from the doorway, and then a colour over life modifier that changed their colour from birth to the end of their life.
Fig 07,08. Portal Effect Image / Particle System Image (Jones, 2017)
After this I began work on an extra piece which would block one of the doorways off, the logic being that it was a final level kind of doorway, and couldn't be accessed till a certain point. I followed another set of videos which allowed me to create a material which would change in transparency along with a gradient. I planned to try to see what I could do with the material to create an effect.
Sunday:
The Sunday I made use of the material I had created the day before and applied it to a simple mesh I had made. I placed this mesh in front of the door I wanted blocked and made it seem like there was an ethereal barrier that prevented players from accessing this portal. More work could have been done on this effect, but I knew that AI needed to start work on other areas and could always come back to this later if time allowed me.
Fig 09,10. Barrier Effect Image / Material Editor Image (Jones, 2017)
The next thing on my list that I remembered while working on the particle effects was the asset texal rate. Before I could start texturing my assets I remember being advised b y some other students to go through my UV maps and make sure that the texal rate was consistent unless I wanted them different for specific reasons.
I applied my UV material to a cube, and found which of my assets had the lowest texal rate that could not get any higher, and then used that to bring all the other assets texal rate down to match it. So I matched the texal rate of that asset to my cube, and then used that as reference for my other assets. Considering I was saving a lot of space because of this, I thought about placing all the assets together in groups to save even more space between them all.
Considering I was still had a lot to accomplish, and I would have had to rebuild and place all the pieces again if I did this, I decided to keep this in mind for future reference and move on to the other things I needed to focus on.
Summary:
This week overall started off worryingly, as without a computer I was starting to get nervous about the time that I was losing. Although during the progress of the week, quite a bit was accomplished. Although at this stage I should be getting to the point of almost being finished so I can spend some time polishing my finished product. So although I am making progress, I feel as though it is not enough in comparison to the pace I need to be finishing things at. But at the same time, this week there was a fair amount of things to learn, and also to accomplish elsewhere rather than on my project, so hopefully in the coming week progress on the actual scene will have jumped forward drastically.
-Ryan Harlee Jones
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