Games DesiGn Project

Just over four weeks ago, my uncle phoned my from Swan-

sea to inform me that I had been allowed to spend 3 days

of work experience in the Applied Design and Engineering

Department of The Swansea Met University. Bubbling with

excitement from then on, My first day began as I made my

way through the fronts doors of the Building and was kindly

greeted by Adam one of the workers in the Department. Any

nervousness I had before was instantly quelled by the sight of

his Doctor Who T-shirt, I knew after that I was in for a great

3 days. Adam took my up to the floor I would spend my time

on, and then an hour of health and safety although it really felt

like five minutes, I was introduced to Julian and it was on to

motion capture with him.

From my prior knowledge of mo-cap, I knew the setup

would be long and arduous but as I have found with my other

work experience placements, all new things, boring and all, I

find fascinating. Little did I know that morning when I woke

up that at 10 o’clock, I would be suiting up to have myself cap-

tured by the cameras in the room. All the points of my joints

and the red of the camera lenses would make up a fantastic

final animation. I was warned that the suit was communal and

the distinct smell of sweaty falafels was interesting to say the

least. After a quick hop skip and a jump my captures were

brought into motion builder and cleaned up to look just a bit

more presentable. Running comfortable ahead of schedule

and without any big problems that had the experienced head

of Julian nearly worried, we opened up the chasm of games

design possibilities that is UDK (Unreal Development Kit).

The software reminded me a lot of a Seinfeld episode with

a stubborn owner of a soup shop, where if not every pack-

age file or lightning change was not perfect to UDK it would

throw it right back at you, that being said Julian did a great job

in introducing a software that students don’t even master after

a three year course. In the afternoon of the second day I was

shown the calmer, simpler engine of Unity and with a huge

chunk of beginners luck found out a handy little animation

trick that would benefit us in the future.

The next day was spent designing the basic features of my

characters head and face. This was without a shadow of a

doubt my favorite part of the 3 days and the sense of achieve-

ment I felt with my finished piece was unparalleled. My work

station for this part of the course was the Games room in

the ‘dungeons’ of the buildings, as Julian lead me down the

winding corridors I was blind to the light that awaited me

at the end of our path. This light was a room made of the

dreams all gamers in the world have. The back wall was lined

with top of the range, mega computers, labelled with the

unmistakable mark of Alienware. All current console con-

sole could be found as well, after 5 minutes I was alb to pick

my jaw up off the ground I got back to business. The last

day was bittersweet as I had a finished playable level and a

walking character but it also marked the end of a fantastic

experience, in which I learned the guts of a three-year course

in about 3 days from the mentoring of Julian and Adam who

from the word go, guided and aided me in the workings of

the fantastic department. I am thrilled to have been giving

the opportunity by John Carroll Head of the Department.

From having worked in the University Julian was in the pro-

cess of having made three games under an initiative to bring

industry back to Wales.

The course from talking to the guys seems to offer a wide

range of possible careers in Video games and because it fo-

cuses on Games design it can be a lot more specific over a

general Graphic Design course. I thank all in the department

and my aunt and uncle for opening up this career path and

renewing my passion for designing games.

Getting animated with the Swansea Metropolitan University

Games DesiGn Project

With every mouse click, MotionBuilder gets closer to animating Terrance.

This is when we had wrapped up the work in MotionBuilder, the character model has been put onto the actor rig which is on my mo-cap take.

Below: MotionBuilder timeline window.Initial sketch for character.r

Games DesiGn Project

CharaCter profile:

I decided to model my character on the Handsome Jack, the

villain from the hit sequel Borderlands 2. Jack is a suave, well

kept man and his face mirrors that with well defined features

which I tried to sculpt onto my character using Mudbox. My

character became a bit more old school baddy as I slightly

hooked his nose and pointed his chin. This gave him an air of

untrust, which was what I was trying to achieve. After I hand

the basic of my character designed, Julian told to to think up

his back story, what he does etc. This would make it easier to

add little details when I would be finishing him on the last

day. So I borrowed the teeming imaginations of my young

cousin and between we came up with a character who is one

of those new age villains, a mastermind that is the head of his

organization but delicates out all the menial task leaving him-

self in an almost godlike state, from my preliminary sketched

i imagined him in a suit but when it came to designing him in

Mudbox i was only able to get colour on him so changed over

to a bright jumpsuit that added a comical feel to him, i would

say his final design would be between Handsome Jack and The

Joker, a sort of mask of welcomeness that would lull you into

a false a sense of security but life up the vale and you will see

your worst nightmares. May I present Terrance and his amaz-

ing technicolour jumpsuit.

Terrance says Hello, a comparison between the sample head I started with and Terrance’s final face in Mudbox. Pretty pleased with the results.

Monoprint concepts for our hero Terrance.

Games DesiGn Project

Terrance here- Owner of the Technicolour Jumpsuit. In a T-Pose in MoCap because it is an easy pose to calibrate positioning.

… Which is why you gotta idle. While Terrance is not moving we need to give him an animation as he is waiting to receive an action.Monoprint concepts for our hero Terrance.