Even looking back now, I still think this project was awesome. The sentry gun project, I feel, was a great project that gave us the opportunity to really have free reign with the concepting stage. For this project we were supposed to design and build a sentry gun that would track and fire at the player. We were given pre made blueprints for this, although a lot of people chose to add awesome things that required more blueprints. I loved this project because there were loads of really cool results, because everyone came up with something different.
The first hurdle was deciding what sort of subject to follow. I researched into a range of subjects but eventually decided on something ancient Chinese, because I really liked the colours and the intricate designs. I think this is another project that I'd potentially like to do again, purely because I just enjoyed it so much. Maybe I'd try one of the other subjects I'd researched.
We were told to bring in some objects that we could possibly use to influence out designs. I brought in a hair clip and a can opener, neither of which were particularly inspiring objects. So, instead I used some of the silouhettes in my bash-kit, as well as some silouhettes from the mood board. Next time I should thing harder about the silouhettes of the object that I'm going to use.
I then used this bash kit to create some (In my opinion) pretty cool concepts. To begin with my favourite was 19, I really liked the legs and the use of the dragon's head as the cannon. I really like this method of idea forming, it's a really good way of making ideas when you have nothing. I had no idea what I wanted to make before I made these, then all of a sudden ideas were springing up everywhere.
I chose six different designs and considered which one I could take further. Amanda pointed out that number 24 looked like a cat, which sparked an idea in my head; Lucky Cats! I first thought these where Chinese, but after some research I found out that they're Japanese.
I continued with 4 of my choices, experimenting with which to take further, but I couldn't let go of the Lucky Cat idea. So I thought that that was probably the best bet to go for.
I started thinking about how the stand would work so that it would still look like a statue but would be able to swivel so that it could track the player. Whilst I was concepting this I build a prototype to check that it would be able to work in engine.
I then worked on the face and experimented with different expression, but then decided to stick with the typical look.
I experimented with different colours, and after getting feedback I decided on 4 separate colour schemes. I changed the base so it was as if it rotated on a pole, because this looked like it worked more convincingly and it didn't look like it was about to topple off at any point.
This was the final result. Elliot helped me get the arm to rotate as the gun fired and snap back, to look like it was reloading. I feel like I need to look further into blueprints and how the animation works, because it still confuses me a lot.
I'm genuinely proud of how this project went. I feel like my concepting stage was really strong, and because of that I was able to produce an end result that works well. Next time I think I'd make it higher poly and improve the textures, because there are visible seams in some parts, although I did try my hardest to cover them up. Overall I'd say that this has been up there as one of my favourite projects so far!
No comments:
Post a Comment