August 2018

Monthly Archives
amit
In Workshop

Workshop Progress 02 – 2D Side Scroller

It is a slow progress with our Workshop due to other commitment. But in this post, I will explain some of the early tests, adjustment and changes that we have done during my meeting with Nachi and myself. And then the basic block out I started doing for level design.

Adjusting the jump settings


One of the first thing we reacted on was the floating feeling of the jumping. So, we decided to figure out how to fix this. We basically adjusted individually settings and slowly we figured out a setting that worked. We didn’t know what every setting did and Himanshu ensured we had access to Gravity Scale this time around which was essential to tweaking the jumping. Eventually we figured out that Braking Deceleration Falling was the setting that gave the falling a more rapid speed.

Adjusting the Metric

Because we changed the jumping setting it affected the overall height and length. This meant we needed to adjust the test platforms and decide the minimum and maximum metrics for single jump, double jump and high + long jumps. To do this we added bigger objects and saw if we could jump over it, and if we could jump over it from higher elevation and so on.


Registration of the Metric

To ensure we got accurate numbers we went into side view and used the measurement tool to measure height, length and other details.

As we continued we made changes on the go. For example the height of the highest platform for double jump standing still.

And then later we changed the gap of the platforms the player can jump from.

After we finished these metrics we talked a bit about Supergrid which the plugin is we are using to do rapid level design. I won’t go into it here. But I will end with a video showing some of the early level design I did, I might explain by making a video next time. So be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel for those type of content.

 

 

 

amit
In Movie Production

Film Production 01 – Poker Night: A Dark Comedy

Last year I assisted in producing a short movie called Poker Night: A Dark Comedy by Omegastar Productions and my own freelance studio which also does production. During development and production I also did Photography and helped with Lighting. Now, this was a zero budget so we mainly dependent on contacts and resources we could borrow. Our location was rather small so we had a few challenges to deal with to create the setting we wanted. As seen in the images below this is what we had to work with.

We decided not to use the room natural light and installed a hanging light source of our own from the roof in the middle of the room. We did have to try different light bulbs to get the desired range, intensity and color we wanted.

Another challenge was considering that the room needed to be bigger than it looked, and considering camera angles such as the kitchen on the other side. In other words, that kitchen needed to disappear. So a magic trick was required.

What could we do? We knew white bounces the light around and makes everything more visible, as shown in the image above with the light coming from the roof. So we spent sometime and put up black blankets to stop the light from spreading, and make it easier to create the room to become bigger. Also, I was the Boomer and On set sound guy a few times as well in the middle of everything. As the image below shows, there is no kitchen anymore.

We did try LED lights, Soft Boxes and such but due to the size of the room we needed to solve our lighting in this way. As such the image below shows how it ended up looking. The room feels bigger now and yes the last thing we did was add tape around the lamp to make the light softer towards the walls, to stop it from creating harsh light and shadow.

With that out of the way we did some photoshoot for behind the scenes, posters and more.

For this we used two LED lights and one soft box to lit up the cast. The LED lights was mainly to fix some background crease and issues, while the soft box was to soften them up. We also kept the room main light on to get a general even bounce. After the cast left I took photo of the Dealer and the gentle girl with a very different lighting setting and condition, within the same room.

The idea above was to see the highlights of the mask, well enough to know it was the dealer and half of the face of the “victim” as the main facial subject as the eyes goes back and forth. Of course, the emotion of fear is the intended focus here.

Here the idea is to keep 70% of the mask visible in burned out golden light, and one of the eyes slightly visible in the dark. Keeping the contrast between light and dark. The focal point being left side but still giving the viewer ability to look at right side. Making the most obscure part the eyes. These images were then prepared by the director himself, into posters such as the one below. Due to the high contrast it made it easier to stylized the posters.

I hope that was a fun and useful read. Feel free to follow Omegastar Productions at following places:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Omegastar_Pro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/omegastarproductions
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omegastar_pro/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD2SQzetdsymWMsm9FNU57A?view_as=public
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/omegastarproductions/overview

amit
In Workshop

Workshop 01 – Side Scroller Game

One of the side projects I have going right now is a Side Scroller inspired by Duke Nukem Manhatten Project. I am helping out with is designing and lighting up the game. The idea is going trough concept phase right now, and we have given ourselves 60 days to complete the project, due to other commitments all of us have the first 30 days of August. The purpose is to learn together with a group of other people, looking to improve their skills.

So far I am brainstorming and pitching some mechanics which are poorly sketched, here are some examples.

 

Rolling Mechanics

DiveShot_Mechanic

As you can see there are some core feedback loop going on using movement mechanics, and additionally I have suggested the use of a Speed Injection, which is meant to slow the players time, to make it easier to tackle more complex scenarios featuring more of above obstacles and challenges.

Of course, this is all very early stages and people might drop out, including me, for various of reasons but I thought I would give it a try.

Besides that we have set up a preforce using amazon services and connected it directly in to Unreal Engine, which is what we will be using for this particular project.

Stick around for future updates regarding this project.

 

 

 

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