Building my board tokens

I am going to make human like tokens to adventure around my board game. I've decided to make my tokens look like ordinary board game tokens.

Animating my board game

I have thought of a cool idea of animating my board game. First I will make my spaceship land on the pad and have 3 or 4 people walk out and move towards the board. I havent decided yet if I will make them walk realistically, or hop around space by space like you do with a real board game. But anyway, they will travel around the board game and I will make sure that 1 person will land on the robotic arm space which will then show the robotic arm do some damage on that person. Fianlly they will escape the robot and walk freely towards the castle of light. (quite like the name castle of light, makes it sound cool :D)

Robotic arm continued...

I mentioned earlier that I needed to make my robotic arm more futuristic and mechanical. I found another material called "pro materials metal" and then fiddled around with the tools and found this cool chrome effect. I also added wiring to the arm to make it look more realistic.

Board game continued.....

I have finally made my castle for my finale for my board game..... I experimented with mew amterials and found one called "pro material stone" which I then used marble to create this futuristic castle.



I had to see what my whole board will look like with that really cool "ink and paint" tool. This is the outcome.

Building my final piece for my board

I need to build a finale for when the players escape the robotic arm. I was thinking of building a futuristic castle or palace, something that looks like this.

A futuristic idea

This is what I have been working on so far, for my futuristic board game.



As you can see here in the image below, I used a the lighting pillars to create that futuristic look. Also I placed them next to my reflective blue glass to create that reflecting look to give it that modern look. The car paint material also creates a very good visual look too as it reflects the light also.



Now I am trying out different filters. I found this material called "ink and paint" and it really gives it a cool look.

SPP TASK

"Using your own personal experience, write a few lines that describe how a personal contact has provided a creative opportunity for you."

I have been thinking about this a lot, and the only creative opportunity that I was given, was playing the cello. At the age of 5, my Mum wanted a cellist in the family because she loves listening to cello solos on the radio. So she started hiring tutors to aid me through. 7 years down the line, I was 12 and this is the age I realised how important playing the cello really is. I went for an interview to "Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School" which was renouned for their good grades, strong catholic belief and high class musical orchestras. I did not pass the interview as the questions they asked me was about religion, and at that time, I had no clue. But once they heard I played the cello, they were very interested in me. They asked me to come back and perform a few solos, and they were very impressed. I still remember what the guy said to me afterwards, "you are a very talented young boy." So this was the start of my journey through secondary school, and through thsoe 5 years, I have learnt a lot musically. If it wasn't for cardinal vaughan, I don't think I would be here today.

Process of making my board game

Descision Making

For the board game Ive decided to make two seperate board games instead of making just the one. This is because, to make one board game with all three criterias will be pretty difficult so I'm going to make one board with both visual and animation aspects and the another seperate board game for playability purposes.

1. Visual (Roma)
2. Animation (Andy)
3. Playability (Brad)

So my inital idea (see below) of my game "Escape from the Robot" will be for the visual and animation bit of my project. This is because the futuristic theme for this will be great for the visual side of things and I've already got the animation and movement of my game already in my head, so everything is set to go on this.

Here is an image of what my board will look like. Its pretty basic looking at the moment, I need to start thinking of textures and materials for my board and robotic arm. Also I need to find out ways of making my robotic arm look more mechanical, maybe adding wiring, a metallic effect and other features that will make it look futuristic.
I will later on post an iamge of what my weavy pipe maze will look like.



Later on I will post my other idea of my playability game.

FURTHERMORE...............

I made this metal knot using a tutorial and it was really what I was looking for as I have to build a robitc arm and I want to make it look as metallic as possible

Robotic Arm created in 3D Max

Done this with Andy Love. Made the arm able to pick up objects and move around, which will be very useful for my board game as my board game consisits of an robotic arm which picks up the players tokens. This was done by not using any bone structure but instead linking the differnet parts of the arm so that they move together.

Board Game Notes

Board Game Notes

Board Game Title – “Can You Escape From The Robot”

1. Turn Base Game
2. 2-5 players
3. Players have 5 models to choose from, each having their own colour. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black
4. Aim of the game is to reach the end of the board to escape the robot.
5. Players move their model by using 1 dice.
6. If player lands on the “Robot” space on the board, the player must grab the ball “energy source for the robotic arm” and put it in one of the 5 pipe holes. When the ball comes out of the pipe, it will land on a specific colour which will trigger the robotic arm to grab that coloured model and place it all the way back to the beginning.

Image of game

The robotic arm will look something like this, which will be placed in the middle of the board game.



The actual board



The weaving pipe maze



It will look something like this, but the maze will start with 5 vertical pipes up top where the player will choose which pipe to put the ball in.

I am going to try and make the pipes rotate as well as being extremely weaved to give it that extra motion look.

Toy Train in Environment

Chose to put my toy train in a babys room. This decision is due to the spacing and suitablity that we discussed about in the previous lecture. The toy train situates on a shelf with a lot of place, meaning that the toy train has some sort of importance over the other objects in the room.

Toy Train

My toy train


My toy train

YEAR 2 - VIRUTAL ENVIRONMENT PATHWAY

THE ART OF SEEING!

What is the object or surface?

Metallic Bullard



What is the important feature that stands out for you?

Its shiny and reflects the sunlight. Also its the only thing metallic in the area.

What is it made of?

Steel

What does it sound and smell like?

I flicked it, and it made a "ting" sound. It smells like metal.

How is the object surface lit? Where is it situated? How does this add to the textural quality of the object?

The object surface is lit up by the sunlight. Its situated next to the orange tree pub. The textural quality is that is very smooth and has a cold feel to it.

What is the object or surface?

My winter jacket



What is the important feature that stands out for you?

It's my jacket and its a mixture of cotton and leather

What is it made of?

Cotton and leather

What does it sound and smell like?

I scratch it, and it makes a sound like when your moving around on a leather sofa. It smells of smoke.

How is the object surface lit? Where is it situated? How does this add to the textural quality of the object?

It's situated on me because i am wearing it. It has a contrast of textural quality because its a mixture of smooth leather and furry cotton.

What is the object or surface?

A Wall



What is the important feature that stands out for you?

It's an unusual wall because its a greyish and green colour

What is it made of?

Bricks and cement

What does it sound and smell like?

It smells of nothing

How is the object surface lit? Where is it situated? How does this add to the textural quality of the object?

It's the wall of the orange tree pub. The textural quality is that is very smooth and has a cold feel to it.

Poker Logos

I like this logo because it shows the contrast of style and colour between the suit spades and hearts. The idea of using the suits of playing cards might be inspiring to make my logo.




This logo is quite cool aswell, as it quite a unique idea, using the pictures of the cards and creating a meaning with it. This logo shows the king looking quite depressed as he most probably got a bad beat on poker, hence the name "Bad Beat Poker Club."

Ideas for my interactive box design

Ideas for my interactive box design

I was thinking that my interactive box design would be poker based, so I was thinking my design would start at a poker table.

Chinese zodiac, rabbit (aspects of a rabbit)
Picture of a joker (sense of humour)
Annoyance (eczema)
Picture of Bruce Lee (my hero)
audiovisual (documentary)
My avatar design

Firstly I was thinking of opening my project with a first person view of the casino where it will seem like the person is actually walking towards it. Then the casino doors will open allowing the uesr to ahve a glimpse of the glamour in the casino. Then the camera will guide the user to a door which will show a small room consisting of a large poker table. I was thinking of having this room very smoky and dark with a large light on top of the table, giving that old school effect where in the olden days, poker used to be played like this e.g. in really old gangster films. Then the camera will zoom on to the table (over-head view) allowing the user to interact with the items on the table.

It would have 5 cards faced up with pictures of my 5 objects that relate to me as a person. The 5 cards will still look like playing cards, it will make out to be a royal flush (best hand in poker).

There will also be poker chips which give the user more options, what the functions of the chips will be, I will figure out later on.
The pictures will be interactive allowing the user to click them, which will then open up another window showing the content of the picture he or she clicked.
Was thinking, once the user clicks the card, the card will lift up and turn around showing the content at the back.
BUT…. This isn’t finalised, I could come up with a more creative idea.

Still images of my poker world

Here are some still images that I have rendered from my poker room.





Image of my avatar design. (poker player)



THIS IS MY LAST YEAR FLASH PROJECT.... PLZ click the link below



CLIFF COOK FLASH.swf

Creating my human avatar

Here is where I show you how I started creating my poker player avatar. Firstly I created a box which will be the body and starting point of my avatar. Then I used the bevel and extruding tool to create new polygons which formed my neck, arms and legs. (The beveling tool slants the arms so it looks more realistic).
This was the easy part, now I have to create the hands, feet and head with all the features so that my avatar will look as humanly as possible. Oh and I nearly forgot that I had to mess around with the vertexes to make the body look more human, such as the pecs, biceps, thighs etc.

I found creating hands to be a nuisance because I wanted my hands to look really realistic as I had a plan for my avatar to be holding some playing cards. So all the attention will be drawn to my avatars hands so I want the hands to look really good.
Therefore I used this tutorial to create the hands which consists of knuckles and fingers.

I also used this tutorial to create my feet and head.







Now that I got my human shaped avatar ready, I had to input features on to it to make him look like a poker player.

Baseball Cap

First I started with the baseball cap which was done by extruding and beveling some polygons, then moving some vertexes around to get the correct shape.

Sunglasses

I insetted the polygons and then extruded them slightly to create the lens. Then I used the cutting tool to create the handles.

Nose and mouth

This was done by moving the vertexes and insetting and extruding some polygons.

How I overcomed my problem with 3D Max

If you have read my blog, you would know that I have been struggling with this project because of my lack of experience with the software 3D Max. I was not able to create a human looking avatar but I overcome this problem by asking for some help from my lecturer and reading this 3D Max book that I got from the library called "Foundations 3ds Max 8 architectural visualization." This book taught me all the basic tools needed to create my avatar, and with the help of my lecturer and friends, I was able to create my avatar exactly how I wanted it.

Planning my avatar......... FINAL

Success!! I have thought up a really good idea for my avatar which relates to me in every single way and is also quite easy to create on 3D Max. I decided to create an avatar based on the card game "Poker." For the past 4 years I have been obsessed with the game and art of playing poker, I really love playing and watching the game. So my avatar will look like a real professional poker player. The environment he will be placed in, will odviously be in a poker room which will consist of my avatar sitting down on a poker table in a casino.

MY AVATAR

I did some research on what my avatar will look like and I really want my avatar to look like my favourite poker player "Phil Hellmuth."



So basically I got an idea to have my avatar wear a black baseball hat and black sunglasses preferably holding some playing cards or poker chips. The clothes he will be wearing will be a simple black polo shirt, maybe with a poker logo on it, blue jeans and white trainers.

MY ENVIRONMENT

I have an idea of my environment being a poker room in a classy casino. The main thing you will see is the poker table in the centre of the room with my avatar sititng down playing with either chips or cards. Around the table there will be a bar, a large, flat TV screen and other features that will make my environment look more like a casino. Because I have experience in going to poker tournaments in casinos, I know exactly what poker rooms look like, so this will be useful in making it look as realistic as possible.
Here's an image that I got from the internet showing you what a poker room in a casino would be like.



The main object of my environment will be my poker table so I think its important that I know exactly what my table will look like. I grabbed this image that I like from the internet because it has the poker chips and playing cards on it, so people who see my project will instantly reaslise that its a poker table.



A real life professional poker tournament



I decided to add this video to my blog to show what a real life poker tournament looks like. As you can see from this video, the poker room looks very classy, with a bar and beautiful waitresses in dresses. This is how I want my poker room to look like.

3D Max Work

My cartoon blob thing

My robotic legs

















Here are my two pieces of work that I have created in my seminar group. I learnt how to do these pretty easily so I could use the concept of how I made this in creating my avatar.

Planning my Avatar Continued.....

I was on the internet browsing through some websites to give me inspiration on what my avatar will look like. At this stage I am thinking of a simpler design due to my lack of experience using 3D Max. I came across this site "create your own south park character" which I found pretty cool as the design of the characters are so simple.






I started creating my armoured avatar on photoshop, but then I realised that I would have to create this on 3D Max. My avatar design was too complex for me to implement this on to 3D Max as my skills on this software is very limited. Instead I am going to create a simpler avatar based on the idea of a manga character armoured.
Here is a simple manga character that I took from my manga book that i am going to use as my starting guideline.




I went on Adobe Illustrator and opened up the image that I got from my manga book. First I removed the head because I am going to replace it with a picture of my face and then I used the pen tool to draw an outline of the body which came out looking like this. I did this because it will be easier for me to draw my final sketch and add some features to it.



Here is my final design of ym avatar. As you can see I ahev added some features onto the original drawing to make the character look more robotic and less human. When it comes to designing this on to 3D Max, I had an idea to add circuit boards and wires that I will grab from the internet and place it onto the skin of my avatar.




Thinking of what character my avatar would be, its got me thinking of this game I used to love palying when I was a kid. The game is called "worms" which as you can see from the top, looks really cool and is SO simple to design. I like the idea of creating a simple, animated character like this because it looks really effective. I still want to keep with the theme of my avatar being armoured or well protected due to my skin disease. But importantly I need my avatar design to me much more simpler than the design I had at the bottom because there are too many features I need to create on 3D Max and I don't have the knowledge to overcome it.



Here is a little preview of my attempted human avatar design, I tried to make it as human as possible but creating the bodily areas such as the pecs, shoulders, hands, knees I found too hard.
So now I am going to sketch out a few simple ideas on my sketch book and come up with a design that relates to me and preferably easy to create on 3D Max





Here is a design that I was working earlier on, as you cans ee I have used the robotic legs that I have made in the past and I thena ttached a body on to it. I was going for the idea of creating a half robot, half human character but then I decided that this cahracter does not really relate to me in anyway and I did not really like the design of it in the first place.
So after some long tihnking I decided to go back to teh drawing board and think of another idea for my avatar.

Planning my Avatar Design

I decided that my finished avatar will be in manga form as I have some experience in drawing manga characters. Also the manga features would be easy for me to make on 3D Max as it involves a lot of simple drawings. Due to a lot of thinking of how my avater would relate to me personally, I thought I will make my avatar wear some sort of protective armour or be half human and half robot. This is because I have eczema which causes me a lot of stress and irritance in my life and if I had a second identity, that identity would prevent any sort of skin disease occuring.





















I have got these images from the internet and this manga book that I have, and I want to base my avatar design around these pictures. I am going to attempt sketching my avatar then publish my sketch on to my journal later on

Second Life Diary

Day 1

On my first day on Second Life I watned to get familiar with the controls and interactions I have with ym avatar. This is the main window with a lot of tools and functions that enables the user to be fully interactive with your avatar.

















Here is my avatar that I have designed so far.


















Once I created my avatar I decided to explore more of the second life world, so I clicked the search tool and decided to go to freebie Island where it says I could buy clothes, accessories for free!!

I teleported to this location and it seemed like a popular place for users as it was very packed. There were a number of displays which were actually interactive and if I clicked on it, a window appears enabling me to browse the items I could purchase for free!

Then I met my friend Damien who is also doing Multimedia in Trent and we decided to sit down next to each other and have a pleasant chat. It was really easy to find him because when he logged into second life, a message appeared telling me that he’s online, so I sent him a message, telling him where I was and we explored the rest of second life together.
















Day 2
Me and Damien (his avatar name Decker Doobie) decided to go to the club “oxygen” to meet some new people and to socialise. But unfortunately it was a bit too early for people to start clubbing.

















Mission Viejo

I decided to go to a museum to check out some art, so I teleported to Mission Viejo which appeared to be a sex museum as there were a lot of erotic content. Some of the displays are interactive for the user, such as this one below, you can click the arrows to change the display.

















Day 3 – I teleported to an island called HippiePay which is one of popular places listed on second life. I asked around what this place actually offers. Apparently if I go on to these machines and click on it, a web page appears opening up a survey which I can complete for some Free Lindens (second life money).



I didn’t take part in the survey and on this island there’s not much to do, so I decided to leave and go to another popular place called Freebie Beach.
When I arrived at my location, I first saw this large billboard with a lot of options that I could do on this island. (Shown below)



I first clicked on beach and it automatically took me to the beach where I decided to sunbathe for a bit



I found this pretty boring as all I was doing was sitting down admiring the water. So I decided to be adventurous and buy some weapons which I found pretty cool. There were a lot of weapons on offer such as guns, swords, futuristic weapons etc but I decided to go for a Melee type of weapon, the sword. This feature of Second Life reminded me of this online game I was playing called “Might and Magic” where I can go to shops and purchase weapons to aid me on my adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed picking out different types of weapons and making my avatar wear them.



During my journey around Second Life I found out theres not much you can do without Linden Dollars. All the exciting things such as buying land, furniture, swimming pools etc all need you to have money. So at the moment now, I have no idea where to go.