Week_01 3DsMax and Cry Engine

Barcelona Pavilion

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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German pavilion in the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona Spain

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Simple forms

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Marble, red onyx and travertine

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Continuous space, inside and outside blended

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Distinction between structure and enclosure, a regular gird of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely-spaced planes

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Building rests on a plinth of travertine

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Large water basin

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Chrome clad cruciform columns, gives a hovering effect, “seems to be struggling to hold the roof up”

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Walls directed movement of the person through different, non-linear paths

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Exotic materials used, plates of high grade stone iemarble veneers and golden onyx and gret tinted glass used as spatial dividers

House at Bordeaux

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Had been designed for a family of parents and three children

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Client Jean Francious Lemoine was paralysed, and an elevator was constructed, combines two parallels together

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Surrounded by an English style park

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Building is composed of three houses superimposed over the other: three floors, the lowest is dug into the rocky hillside and is in several caves

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Composed of cement, glass and aluminium, and creates structural ambiguity

The Rudin House

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Herzon and de Meuron

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Invokes childhood memories of a doll house, contains elements of a traditional house

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Heavy reinforced concrete, held up by thin pillars seemingly to create a floating effect

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Has a large deck, large windows that open outwards

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Shape of the roof, material finishing is cloth asphalt

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House is symmetrical lengthwise, a ladder leads from the underside of the house into the building

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House stands on concrete stroke linear and will ideal, but it contains a side terrace with some classical and vulgar pots suspending railings

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Defined as a monolithic construction that allows connection with nature, as is observed as the water covers the walls and not worn pr damaged material from the walls

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Contains mainly concrete

 Progress of my model in 3ds Max

In this lesson, we explored how to import a 3ds max model into the cryengine environment. It was very annoying getting the right plug-ins into the right folders, and I had 3dsMax 2013, so I had to re-download the 2012 version so that the plug-in would work. After doing this, I had to tediously put in each block of the design in 3dsMax using the box tool.

I decided to do the Barcelona pavilion- I had decided to do the pavilion from the beginning due to it’s interesting material choice as well as it’s decaying potential. Early ideas of mine include the shallow pool area becoming a swampy march due to the humid climate of my Cry-Engine environment in EXP1 as well as the overgrowth of trees penetrating the site. Because design of the Pavilion aimed to blend the interior and exterior together with the open design of the building, I could literally integrate natural elements with the structural and manmade aspects of the mainly marble structure. Decaying of marble as well as glass of the windows would be an interesting thing to analyse and produce in Cry Engine for EXP2.

EXP2 Start

A Blog to split up EXP1 and EXP2 blog posts:

http://russelllowe.com/benv2423_2013/experiment2/brief/brief_exp2.htm

Week_06 and Week_07

For these two lessons, we went through track view and fraps, and how to record Cry-engine to make our final trailer for Experiment 1. It was interesting to try out track view, and to make smooth moving videos. It was much easier to use than I originally thought, but the most frustrating part of track view was to get the camera in the right positions as well as remembering to hit the record button. Every time I adjusted the camera, if I forgot to hit the record button, then I would move the entire camera track. The most time consuming was the process of capturing scenes across my island, and making camera angles/ transitions correctly positioned, paced and timed. I used one camera for the process in track view, and it was much more easier to manage than, say, 6 cameras ( as my friend explained she used 6 cameras to make her trailer, and it was a frustrating task)

EXP1- Cry Engine File and Reflection

Link to the Cry Engine Zip file on mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/m5orkk5cd7j5veq/BENV2423_EXP1-S_Nguyen.zip

For my Experiment 1, I had to conceal the letter N and the number 3 in my island. The initial type of island I wanted to make was a jungle- like type of island with dense vegetation and dirt paths weaving in and out of the jungle. I had trouble deciding how to hide and conceal the letter number combination on my island, but most of them include natural land formations (Trees, rocks, dirt, textures and clouds) and the placement of man-made structures and pillars (ie. the ruins).

I tried to make the letters as subliminal as possible, with glimpses of the letter or the number in each scene of my movie. The text that I placed in the trailer also acted as a guide for the viewer’s eyes, as they would either be directed to a letter/ number, or away from it, but the letter/ number would be in the corner of their eyes, revealing them to the audience, even camouflaged. Most of the letter number combination are only seen from aerial shots, which I aimed to place in my scene, but also could be seen from ground level flashing in front of the viewer as well as on oblique angles as I place the trailer camera, showing the viewer that the letter/number would only be seen at a specific angle or specific time of day.

This assignment was tedious and it was very, very hard to keep a constant and efficient workflow during it, because Cry Engine had been down and caused many file corruptions and program crashes, that it had been very discouraging and frustrating to keep up with the weekly tasks and to progressively model my terrain and cry engine level. I had to start my level three times due to this file corruption, and it was a true annoyance to model them all up again.

With my first assignment done, and Cry Engine working again as the Crytek website is up again, I can now concentrate on Experiment 2 with more experience and knowledge of Cry Engine, to make a much more better trailer and a much more better level than this one.

EXP1- Movie Trailer "Remnants"

 (If the video is too small, this is the link to the YouTube video:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9BLT0o5RY&feature=youtu.be)  or, it is in the zip file with the Cry Engine level as well :)

Within my trailer, I decided to depict an island which had human ruins scattered around, to show that nature had overrun human/man-made structures.This also alludes to an idea that the island's past inhabitants had left messages around the island, man-made or otherwise for others to find (in this context, the "messages" are the letter N and the number 3)
This is also reinforced with my title of the "movie trailer", Remnants, which alludes to the messages remaining on the island for the viewer to find. The text I added in the movie also directs the focus of the viewer's eyes around the scenes, and they sometimes direct the viewer to the obvious N or 3, or they make it so that the letter number combination are glimpsed from the corner of the eye.

The music I added a soothing and piano/orchestral piece to suit the slow panning and the absorbing of the natural landscape of the island I made.

Music: "Promised Eternity" by Masashi Hamauzu\
Edited by me

EXP1- Hidden Letter and Number Snapshots

Within my island, I have hidden the letter N and the number 3 in my environment. They can be seen through aerial shots or from oblique angles from different points from the island.

Week_05- Subliminal

Within my cry engine environment, I aim to hide the letter N and the number 3, as following my student number and letter combination. For the moment, my Island is shaped as a giant three, and the letter N is scattered through the island as marks on cliffs, rock formations and ruin formations. I plan to place some decals on the island that hide the letter and numbers even further.
In one of the areas, there is a cabin which I plan to place some decals and rock formations in the shapes of my letter number combination, as well as manipulate some shadows into those shapes.

I am aiming to create a jungle like island that has many old structural remains scattered though the island that reveal and show the letter and the number, ie. have them placed in a formation that resembles the number letter. 

I will make each letter and number a separate thing- I will try not to make them placed next to each other, as this would be very obvious if one looks at the video. I am also considering the way the camera goes past the different number and letter scenes. The camera would slow down and allow the viewer to see and try to spot the number letter combination, ie. pan sideways as well as absorb the natural and detailed parts of the island.

Week_04- Weather and Skybox

Since my file corrupted, and due to the servers being down, I had to use another made up terrain to test out the sky box, and even then I had trouble with the sky box as the ocean began to glow.

These next screen shots are screen captures from my recovered cry engine files with sky box used. These are in the Labs at uni, and still, sky box makes the sea glow

 Some other stuff:
Waterfall

Rain

Fog

This lesson was very annoying to do as the sky box kept making the terrain and the ocean glow in the background. I will eventually use another sky type for my assignment, when the cry engine is not ma functioning. It was a huge obstacle for me to do this part of the task today and even more so due to the server being down that my file corrupted.