New Website!

I realize that I haven't posted here in a while, so I figured I would give you all an update. I've got a real website going at www.pwhitman.com and it has my demo reel up, pictures from each of my levels, and a blog update when new things are created or are interesting enough to make my wall. Go there now and check out the new stuff!

The placing has begun

This is the second to last week before finals and the project is due. I'm currently placing assets throughout the level, finishing any textures that are missing, and lighting the scene. These last two weeks are the by far most productive. I have a list of things that need to be done by the end and I'm coming up a bit short at the moment, so this weekend will be project filled in order to get what I want done. Everything is coming together to make a great level. Pictures will be up soon.

Texturing has begun

This week so far has been pretty successful in terms of Texturing. I've got a couple good textures already, one stained glass texture for some windows, some marble and granite floor tiles for the church. I need a solid wood texture, church stone wall texture, catacomb floor/dirty wall texture and some rusted metal textures for some objects around the stage. Also, some dirty stone texture for the statues. Thing are coming along though, and I will produce more textures over the weekend.

Weekend of Bad

This weekend has been work-filled and not much free time, and yesterday I came down with food poisoning so I've been out of commission to work on anything for a day. Tomorrow will be better...maybe, seeing as it is valentines day.

A pre-presentation

This week we were supposed to present our progress and whether we're on track with our milestones in class, but since time was cut short I've got to present on Tuesday. I figured I would post some status updates here in case you cant wait until Tuesday.

I am finishing up modeling and I will soon be texturing the level and objects. I have to finish the statues heads then quickly bone them, model some lanterns and torches for lights, and a few other small things to be done with that. Texturing should be a fairly straight forward process, I've got to make some tile-able textures for the floors of the church/catacombs and the wall/ceiling textures, then the model textures. Once all of those are completed I will be placing assets in the level and making it come to life. I've got about 4 weeks left and I'm slightly behind, but not too far behind. I should be able to get things done on time. Be expecting another post from me in the next couple days for another update on the progress.

Bloggy blog

Quick update, kismet doors are working good now I'm getting to the traps. This is my first time doing this type of kismet, so I may have to call on some friends for their experience. We'll see how things go in the next few days.

Its almost midterms!

After being sick for a good part of last week, I'm just now getting caught up to speed with the project process. I've got the level block-in done and I'm doing some modeling and kismet work to get things in place to where they need to be. I gave myself two weeks to model and two weeks to texture so I've got little bit of room to catch up. I will have some extra time off from work next week so hopefully I'll be able to get things ahead of schedule again. I'm still continuing to model and work with kismet on traps/doors/enemies this weekend.

Update with progress!

This week has been a busy one but I still managed to get some work done. I finished the map and figuring out some traps to go in the level along with part of the level document done. I've began working on the block-in part of the level. This phase is where I get an Unreal level made with no assets or textures, just the bare layout of the level the way I want it. I'm almost finished with this part of the process, then I can begin working with Kismet to make everything work correctly, like doors, traps, enemies, water, and camera sequences. My goal this week is to have most of the Unreal things done so I can start modeling assets.

Concept Document and Map

This week, I've made up my mind with my project. I'm making a level based on a small church and the catacombs underneath it. I am in the process of making the design document and the map for this week. The sooner I get these things done along with a block-in of the level, the sooner I can start modeling, texturing, and coding for the level. I've got to think of different traps for different areas in the level. These traps must be difficult but have a clear solution to them so the player can get past them without a ton of challenge. As the level progresses, the traps get harder to overcome. Challenges make levels fun and thats what's important.

Ideas are brewing

This coming week I plan to take a trip to St. Hugo of the Hills Church and take some reference pictures so I can start getting the concept of the level down. The sooner I get reference pictures, the sooner I can start drawing out a map for the level itself. I'm trying to get things going with a good start so this project can shape up to be something awesome. Milestones will be soon to come, including a concept document, level flowchart/map, and a basic block-in level. Stay tuned!

New class. New Project.

Its that time again, and I am in a new class, Senior Project and it is exactly how it sounds. I've got ten weeks to make a portolio piece that shows off my abilities. I'm a level designer and a modeler so my first instinct is to make a fun level. I spent about a day thinking about what would make a cool level that has not been over done by other students at the school.

I kept thinking...do something with a church or a cathedral. If I made a cathedral, the project would be completely focused on modeling and texturing rather than the level itself. A smaller church would be a bit easier to model but the level wouldn't be good enough for a good stage. I was searching churches and cathedrals in Europe and I came across the catacombs in France and that was it. Catacombs have been in a few games in the past but has not been done at the school before and also gives me complete freedom to do what I wish with the level itself. I'm not making a copy of the catacombs, but what I'd be making would be my idea of some catacombs underneath a small church.

This idea gives me the freedom to do some modeling, level design, and kismet coding which are important to level designers. Below is an interesting picture of the catacombs feel that I'll be aiming for.

a new idea!

It was brought to my attention that I need to model something really cool. It is a sword called "Stormbringer" from the Elric series of books. Elric of Melniboné is the last emporer of Melniboné. His sword is said to steal the souls of the things it kills. Here are some concepts I've found on the web of the sword. All pictures came from www.stormbringer.net.

Character Complete

Well, these 10 weeks have flown by. The character is 100% complete. This whole process was fun. I cant wait to get started on the next character. Next time around I'm going to get the model much more complete before progressing on everything else. The unwrap process was somewhat easy but I'd love to get into zbrush for some detail work next time. Texturing was fun but I need to perfect the painting shadows and lights of different materials. Overall, this was a great learning experience and I cannot wait to create something new.

Some Character Renders

Here are some renders of the character. I've got a few more small tweaks to do but a final composite picture will be up here next week and maybe some movies of the character.

Character Texture - Complete!

Eye Texture

Specular Map

Normal Map

Diffuse Map


After a ton of time spent on the texturing part...my character is textured. I used a few different methods to get everything the way I wanted. I tried crazy bumping but it didn't come out as I had pictured, so I decided to mess with the settings and paint on my normal map. Painting on the normal map came out with pretty decent results but if I had my choice, I would have used zbrush to create a higher poly model for the normal map. Overall, the whole texturing process has been a bit harder than I expected. Modeling is just so much easier for me then unwrapping and texture painting.

Character Unwrap and Texturing

The next part of the process is completed. For those that don't know, this part of the process is where we get ready to paint the texture of the skin, clothes, hair, etc. So we have to "unwrap" the character to pretty much flatten it out so its easier to paint on. The character unwrap was not as bad as I expected. Getting the verts together and welding them was a bit tedius but overall it was a fairly painless process. I'm now currently working on the texturing process. Texturing is not my forte but the better it turns out the better the character will look. More pictures will be up soon.

Final Model

It appears that my model is almost complete. I have one small things to do before I can begin the unwrapping process. I have to make some better cuts for the armpits for them to animate better. I threw a biped into the model and tested the rotation of the arm/shoulder and its not there yet. After that is done, I've gotta start next part of the project, which is unwrapping then texturing (maybe normal mapping) then skinning/rigging the character, then finally animating the character. The last three weeks are going to be pretty difficult but the finished product should be worth it.

Dark Elf Progress

This week in class we've been working on getting a Biped setup with a model and getting it rigged and working correctly. I've taken an animation class before so this task was not too difficult. Also, with any free time I've been working on my Dark elf model. At this point I am almost done, just with the face and head remaining. The face is the single hardest part for me in the modeling process. I'm going to go with the "plane" method and go with that this time. Here's an update on the model so far. I think the most difficult parts of this project will be unwrapping, and animating this guy. Hopefully I'll be able to get through it with a piece of art!

Female Model

This week we're focused on the female body. We have the awesome task to model a female. I'm really struggling with this assignment compared to the male. Things are different on a female than on a male! What a shock! Doing things like attaching the breasts, and even the butt of the model is giving me some trouble. They are there but they don't look right. There are much more triangles than there were on the male model especially around the butt and chest areas. I'm going to continue working on this model over the weekend to try to make it look more...female.

Model sheet - Drow Warlock

This is the model sheet I will be using for the creation of my Drow Warlock. Kraig drew it for me at the cost of a lunch (THANK YOU!). I think it turned out very well. I've picked the hard way for modeling this character. Apparently modeling robes and long hair is difficult, but I'm going to try my hardest to get it done in time. The due date for the model of the character is week seven, so I've got about 3 weeks to get it done well.