The Artistic Journey of Chris Beacock: August 2014

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Major Assignment Rush Hour - Sonshine

Today we did a rush hour where we presented current progress on our major assignment.

Unfortunately our programmers were not able to come in today so we were unable to get shots or video of the mechanics but this will give an idea of current progress in terms of the art side.

Concept:

Concept Sketches By Me

Concept Images by Me, Brad Craven, Daniel Plaister

Character Concept by Brad Craven

Terrain Assets:

Tileable Terrain Textures by Me

Tree and Rock Assets by Me

Terrain Assets by Eddy Gotts, Harley Gilbert and Brad Craven

Flower Sprites by Daniel Plaister

Current Terrain Progress:

Higher Resolution available on Youtube --->

Charaters:

Main Character by Brad Craven

Child NPC by Brad Craven

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Major Assignment Week 2 - Terrain Assets

This past week, I have been working on Terrain Assets, specifically tilable textures for the Terrain, as well as some rocks and the Light Fruit.

Light Fruit

The Idea behind the light fruit is a star like fruit that is sort of the goal of the game to collect and feed the child, its a transition point for the level.

Concept:
After a few different concept sketches this is what we ended with:

I had it modeled and textured but I had saved in a poorly chosen location and those files appear to have been lost and it appeared I didn't backup to usb. Its a good opportunity to redo though as I wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out the first time.

Rocks

Modeled and started to texture a number of rocks, but got sidetracked into better learning the terrain tools in unity.

Terrain Textures

After spending some time getting more familiar with the terrain tools in Unity 4, I Determined that it would be a good idea to get the tilable textures for the terrain done and went to work on this:

Most still need some work but I wanted to get something in place so the terrain can be painted, and I can just update the file rather than having it grey or having to repaint. I'll probably leave them as is until we can have a good look at them through the occulis rift.

Since getting that done over the weekend I started on the base terrain for the game, which I will cover in the next post. However you can get a sneak peak at the top of the page.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Major Assignment - Week 1 Concepting

*Sonshine Concept art by Brad Craven

Last week we started the major assignment which will fill up the rest of the year, I will be working on a project called Sonshine, which will be an exploration based occulus rift game exploring the strength of relationship between mother and son.

Since starting I have been working on concept art for the game, something I hope to complete this week, after stopping to get a test environment up.

I started by doing a bunch of value thumbnail sketches, which I have yet to develop but it gave me a better feel for it.

I then worked on a map for the test level:

and then I did a couple of concept images for the Log Cabin and Gazebo.

I then started sketching objects that are likely to be in the scene to get a feel for the shapes and forms, before going into concepting.

I then got to work creating a test environment for the first level:

and here is the Unity Webplayer build of the test environment if you'd like a look around:

Friday, August 1, 2014

Canberra RAW Artist Showcase Review - Warning Long and Image Heavy...

Last Wednesday (30July) I took part in a RAWArtists showcase, and it was incredible experience and night. Nerves started to kick in during setup, mixing with the nagging fear that I had forgotten something vital, it gave way to excitement as I finished setup and had the lights going. I took to drawing to take my mind of the impeding opening, and put the sketchbook away as more and more people started to file in through the door. Its a strange feeling when they start looking through your work on display, as I started to feel exposed, naked in front of them, vulnerable to not only their opinons but to their smallest signals in body language. This sense of vulnerablity carries with it a sense of freedom though, and combined with the relief of seeing some friendly faces arrive, soon gives a sense of exhilaration, which combined with a couple of drinks last the rest of the night.

One thing I think is unique with events like the RAWArtist Showcases, is that you are not alone in your exhibit, and there is a real sense of bonding between the artists showcasing as your all mostly going through the same mix of emotions. It sort of felt to me like we were together sailing a strange ship to port.

A big thanks go to the Organisers, and photo and film crews that put so much work and effort into keeping the show running smoothly, and are still working hard to get the promotional material from the show together.

I'd highly recommend the experience to emerging artists of all disciplines.

I'll have video and photos for the show as they become available, but if you like CanberraRAW you'll see them as they're released.