Ahh its done! Everything handed in and submitted! I still cant quite believe that this is the conclusion of 20 weeks of work. Ill be honest there were times I really didn’t think I was going to make it but here I am at the end I set out to make a level and that’s exactly what I’ve done. I am so pleased with what I have made despite a multitude of things going wrong but here I stand competent and complete.
As for the actual week and what I achieved during it was a fair amount much more than I was comfortable with being so close to the deadline but it needed to be done and early on when I was ill I knew my perspective deadline was out the window. Early on in the week I was texturing Buer’s the final building needing texturing and the one that slotted between the Beelzepub and Alastor’s. The colour them of Alastor’s was purple to act as a blend between Alastor’s blue theme and The Beelzepub’s red. This being the final asset I was creating I really didn’t come across any problems using the same techniques I had used on previous buildings to create raised concrete effect on the building’s exterior and giving the painted would a slightly glossy finish. The roof tiles are going to be recycling Alastor’s red tiles so I did not see it necessary to remake a whole new set for this building.
Having already added Unreal 4’s built in atmospheric fog prior to this week I was happy with how the mood of environment was developing however I wanted to add a bit more fog and to do this I made a particle system. This particle system has 2 emitters with it one which slow floats small tear shaped particles around the area, which was the easier one to make, the second spawns large almost transparent clouds around the base of the fountain. These clouds then slowly circulate the centre of the level barely overlapping the pavement stones lining each building. This gives the impression of heavy cold air slinking around the level as the player explores. Not being the most confident with particle systems I feel that I achieved the effect I wanted very well. I will admit that the particle user face is hard to understand but once I understood the curve diagrams at the bottom of the window I could chart more efficiently how I wanted the particle to react. This was much easier for me than adjusting number values.
Another major thing I did this week was adding in potion bottles and scrolls to Buer’s window display and some dotted around the level. To save time I only painted the corks of the bottle and the scrolls then created glossy glass materials to apply to the base. This way I could re-use bottles and give them an alternative colour rather than needing to duplicate the bottles in max and import them as alternatives of themselves. Ideally I would have like a few more items in Buer’s window such as the Ouija board, pestle and mortar and spell books discussed when originally modelling Buer’s but I knew I was running out of time so instead only potion and a few scrolls occupy the window.
Finally I added some very simple programming to the level blueprint to help the player exit the game. I moved the player start to behind the Cerberus gates facing into the level. Upon stepping forward the gates swing open and the level is revealed to the player. The player can the mover around the level as the gates close behind them. Once the player is finished and wishes to exit the game they simply walk back through the gates to the end of the tunnel, at which point an end level trigger has spawned into the environment, the player activates this the level fades to black and ends.
Over all Im very pleased with the final outcome of my Gothic Victorian Stylized environment. I really didn’t want to create too serious an environment just a quirky take on the gothic genre. I have greatly improved my 3D and engine knowledge and I feel I’ve conquered one of my demons. Texturing has always been a bit of a down side for me but with this project I can confidently say I did my best with the knowledge I had and the knowledge I gained in order to complete my FMP and I feel a much better more complete artist at the end of it all.
Thank you so much for reading through my journey its been a rewarding experience for me and I hope you take something away from it too.