Cart CGD

Needless to note that a consistent scale is essential! Here is a file that helps you keep the assists’ scale accurate. You can import this file into your Maya scene or use this file as a starting point.

http://psycho-designs.com/CGD/ScaleReference.zip

This file includes an average sized man, chair, SUV, and measuring tool [Create->Measuring Tools->Distance Tool]. Those are based of the scale we established by Cassandra early in the project.

Also, make sure you set up your grid and scene to scale.

Some of you may already be familiar with SVN. For those of you who aren’t I’ve prepared a short presentation to get things rolling. I’ll be showing this on the class of September 15th.

SVN presentation

UPDATE [ 15 Sept 2009 ]: Here is the graph that I used during the in-class presentation. I also already created the basic Media folders on svn.

MODELLING THE BUILDINGS
Cassandra -> working on the school now and the arcade on the ground level (series of arches). That scene would involve a park
Nancy -> new fountain design coming up to accommodate multilevel planning of the city.

INTERACTIONS
Nick -> will have solid interactions written for next general meeting. This includes initial scenes and events. Must work closely with Cassandra to make sure everything is fly. Some proposed character interactions like tripping, hanging, climbing as dynamics as well as effects to be used (and therefore developed) like fire, water, rolling waves and particle effects.

Visual Style
Sean and Nancy -> should Ok some initial designs and let others feed off those designs when modeling and animating. give immortal a look, see if that lines up with some ideas.
Samir -> animations, still need that camera? ramy can hook you up.

CITY notes:
Bottom of the city would be “surreal”. the Top would be straight, realistic, white washed? Lower city would be very scary, playing on the basement fear for kara and playing with the shapes like the city of gaudi that were discussed in the forums and stuff that Mo designs does in terms of organics. The “Central Piece” of the map, indexed at #31, is in 2 parts, one on the bottom, one on the top. the bottom part is the fountain as a heart in a park, the top part is hung in the sky and will have a monorail hub as the center. The city itself would have a “web” on construction of what would be a monorail system, connecting some buildings together. Think the city of Venice but in the air instead of in the water. The bottom level is also the DEAD level, whereas up above there are parks and nature but all encased in glass.

SOUND
Focus will be on thematic music rather than sound effects as sound effects need to have a solid and final animation base before happening.

WORK WORK
we now encourage everyone to participate in the various positions, so if you have ideas for modelling, but are not doing modelling, model something anyway and see how it flies, this also goes for other stuff like drawings, sounds, interactions, even programming.

CLUB STATUS
Lot’s of questions asked with respect to club status with the now re-starting FASA. Emails have been sent, questions have been asked. getting club has it’s pro and cons, all of which was discussed at meetings, but namely, pro: space and money, con: responsibilities and money.

WEB SITE
Using Cassandra’s template, we intend to build a updatable blog/web space where we can show our work in progress and offer info on the collective in general for media/portfolio purposes. The space will need an official designer as well as graphical input for important elements such as the logo. We have yet to finalize the acronym for our group CCGD.

GENERAL PONDERING
most of us are in Santo’s class now, but we aren’t sure how he is going to manage it. Obviously, since it is the day we are all present, it maybe should be a day when we have our meeting. I also am not in favour of having outside meetings when we will be together already for 4 hours in a day, every week. anyway, Charlotte proposed we consider the following scenario and thinking about it for a week: that santo will actually conduct a class, that is to say: 2 hours presentation, 2 hours work. It’s a grim scenario, but i’m going with charlotte on this, let’s just mull that over and talk about it later.

Hey everyone, we talked about this a while back and I actually did work on these a while back, but whatevs.
Here are some suggestions as far as having an official logo goes.

CCGD Logos PDF

I would appreciate if we could vote for one.
Just post a comment in the following format: VOTE: #1.
UPDATE: Try the poll .
Add any other comments below.BTW, all the fonts used in this are free to use, so no usage violation or anything.

hey, thought i would share a bump map screenshot.

Sorry for the late post, I’ve been neglecting my duties.

Meeting notes for Sunday August 8th general meeting.

-Changes to the game are being applied: The story is being fleshed and along comes things to be worked on: Crowd interaction, monorail systems, ideas of grey and white sky, dead nature, sense of abandonment (personal note: ala GreenPunk maybe?)

-Sahar and Charlotte have started to model the characters and will also do a generic crowd person

-Cassandra made an excellent reference point, we should check out immortel by enki bilal, here are  youtube links: link1 link2

-Samir will be working on water effects using realflow

-Character controls will be finalized, Bump mapping will continue to be worked on.

r.d.

So Nic made a really cool map of the city:

Now this isn’t very practical when it comes to making actual game resources. So I vector’d the map and indexed the building numbers.
Why? Because of naming conventions. When you say: I’m working on building #20, there are NO ambiguities.

Here is the naming convention for 3D files pertaining to the city and models/textures of the city:
All models of buildings are to be put into the Art section of SVN (whatever its name is). Then: Buildings/[Building Number]/["Models" or "Textures"]/[buildingId_[iteration].ma
example: /Art/Buildings/20/Models/20_3.ma

The map will evolve with time. It is important that all changes be re-uploaded to this post. I also include the original SVG file, if anyone needs to make changes to it.

UPDATE!: Now with color-coded height-maps.

UPDATE!: Now with building descriptions and heights!

PDF of the city map

Inkscape SVG of the city map

Meeting minutes, 14th Jul 2009
1.
Since Jason is still on sabbatical, he is unable to attend and supervise an independent study, especially not of this magnitude. So, to prevent us from working all summer for nothing, we get a class in the fall. This is good for 2 things: first, it gives us a more realistic deadline of December to complete the project, and second, now other students can get credit for their work, like Jos, Sean, Cass, Peter who are also participating in this in a significant way. Keep eyes open for CART 498 class Tuesdays 6:30-10:30.*Side note. Fun class DART 451 on After Effects and compositing available in Fall semester.

2.
Everybody add everybody on msn or whatever chat program please. This will make it easier to ask quick questions since I, for example, have no life and am always online . This information should be added and retrieved from the google doc: “CART CGD CONTACT LIST”. Make sure everyone has access. Here’s the list cuz i’m so nice:

Scott Philip
email/ google talk: montrealmusic/gmail.com
MSN: scottyp_404/hotmail.com

Nancy Elizabeth Townsend:
email: townsend.e.nancy/gmail.com
MSN: nancy_e_townsend/hotmail.com

Xavier Lapointe:
email: lapointe.xavier/gmail.com

Alexis Morin
email/google Talk : carignan.boy/gmail.com
msn : carignan_boy/hotmail.com

Charlotte Fisher
email: charlotte.a.fisher/gmail.com

Jos
email: zeal.bearer/gmail.com

Mohannad Al-Khatib [Mo]
email: Psycho.Designs/gmail.com

Cassandra Lacombe
email: eternal01/gmail.com
msn: eternal_01/hotmail.com

[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]

Sahar Homami
email: s.h1364/gmail.com

Ramy Daghstani
email/gtalk: ramy.daghstani/gmail.com
msn: reality_is_shit/hotmail.com

Sean Braithwaite:
email: brapse/gmail.com

Samir Mesbah
email: sm.shado21/gmail.com

3.
SVN notes, here are the links we talked about:
download tortoiseSVN for win32:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/tortoisesvn/TortoiseSVN-1.6.3.16613-win32-svn-1.6.3.msi?download
download tortoiseSVN for win64:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/tortoisesvn/TortoiseSVN-1.6.3.16613-x64-svn-1.6.3.msi?download
download Scplugin for osX (it’s the mac equivalent of tortoiseSVN) :
http://scplugin.tigris.org/files/documents/1368/45964/SCPlugin-0.7.3q-SVN.1.4.6.dmg
instructions on how to install Scplugin:
http://scplugin.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectProcess?pageID=rgnEkt
video on how to use tortoiseSVN (the same applies to SCplugin, they are fairly the same) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sUYnEylvU0

Pro tips:

• do not merge binaries (executables)

• do not merge maya scene files (even .ma files)

• do not merge .mesh files

• update before committing

• don’t work on someone else’s stuff unless you are both clear that you are working on it

• commit small, incremental, changes to the server (in case something goes wrong, we don’t have to undo ALL the work previously done)

• comment your commits

the user name and password for the SVN server is: user: cartstudents pass: mongoose
the URL of the SVN server is: http://cartcgd.org/svn2009
we will begin making individual accounts for SVN access, that way you can lock a file (prevent others from working on it)
questions? Ramy.daghstani/gmail.com

4.
Artists should be able to start working on the young girl character with small changes to come (the collar). Everyone has work to do, there’s a prop list to get to and a clock tower to make, attachments to enable on the forum, and new technologies to build:
bumpmapping express: Moh+Ramy,
maya super exporter: Charlotte+Xavier,
water: the populace+Ramy.

5.
Jos is up to date vis a vis to the forums. There is a discrepancy of information on what Adam’s world is. So far nothing has been written down with respect to Adam’s perspective on things. This has to change. There has to be a discussion with some laid down concepts with respect to that. Concept art will then be churned and then the models can be changed. Any action before a common source is written down should not be taken. If you want to get started on what Adam’s world looks like (in more specific terms than “endlessly tall buildings”, it needs to start either in the forum or in an artists meeting.

6.
Since water will be a big deal in the game, we have discussed what can help us build good water effects for the game. Glowing rain is possible, so is snow with very low impact on the game. Uncharted’s water effect wasn’t all that good, that’s why you died when you fell in the water (apparently, I never played it, but JOS DID!). In any case, the effect described sounds like this:
texture bend: cheap and totally realizable with a very simple texture bend for “ripples”. Has no transparency, so when an object moves in the water, the fake reflection will get rippled, but you won’t see the object through the water, because it is not transparent.
Texture transparency: your typical low poly water effect. Flat texture with semi transparent blue “wavy texture applied to it. It’s the typical stuff you see in games like WoW.

The water fountain has different approaches which depend on the level of interaction we intend to have with it, solutions include:
maya fluids / particle solution: may or may not be able to export to Ogre even though there is a particle exporter for OGRE.
baked mesh solution: includes baking a water render and exporting to Ogre and simply keying the vertex animation for it, we can also use RealFlow to create really good water effects, but these have setbacks as they can generate very high poly counts.
Video texture: just a simple texture that has a clip of water sprouting out. Very meh, but very easy on the processor.
A height map solution: this is good for water falls. (note: height maps are also good for mountainous terrain)

7.

Nancy needs help with some Zbrush stuff, maybe  Moh can help, Sahar still needs a working OgreExporter for mac and maya2008, Charlotte needs to get acquainted with a new breed of operating felines, and I need to murder SteveJobs.

All is well. Weee

• Crowd of clones – action sequence where a giant mass of the CHARACTERS themselves
• The world is now three blocks. Each character has their own buildings in their own style but can wander into each others.
• Everyone should have something to model by next meeting (in two weeks)
• Everyone please get Maya 2008 and Ogre exporter working (Charlotte?)
• Toon outline can Ogre?
• ALEXI – SVN instructions on forum please?
• Ruby Gloom (everybody watch out)
• A disastrous event that all three witness and all three are trying to get to the city center. Getting hit by clones. Buildings fall and they open new passage ways.
• The city if bigger than you, you are not bigger than the city. The ANTI super hero. You have no power and the city works against you.
• Disorient the player by rotating the city as it crumbles.
• Interactions between the characters: different motives clashing. The 3 failures of mankind – the end of innocence (Kara – her fantasies are failing into industry), fall of nature (Gloria – a barren world), end of
• Avoid dialogue except for random expletives.
• ARTISTS MEETING Next Sunday July 5^th
• BALLS!! (transformers 2)
• Cassandra create a scale reference obj file.  Person, building, object etc.
• The chair of Computation Arts class for 400 levels.
• Charlotte warn her about Zbrush EMAIL.

here is the quick test/example I made

http://psycho-designs.com/cgd/normalTest.zip

[13MB-ish]
it includes a low res .obj, a normal map .tif and an occlusion map .tif [that could be applied as a diffuse map for now to enhance the details]

Here is a preview of the Normal map effect

There are so many different ways to create normal maps, each with their pros and cons.. most of which involve modeling a high resolution model to translate the details of which into the normal map that will make the low res look like the high [example above]
here are the techniques I used in the past and what I think about them:

-ZBrush:
Pros:

• can handle millions of polygons which allows for extreme details [wrinkles!]
• you can go up and down in subdivision levels so you can work at any resolution, then go down to the base mesh, export it and generate the normal map for it
• gives so many options for the creation of normal maps [like the pre-sharpening details and precise RGB control]
• can generate cavity maps
• you can use bump maps to sculpt the details that will later be included in the normal map

Cons:

• not ideal for hard surface models [weapons, cars]
• its very tricky to generate normal maps out of multiple high res meshes for one low res mesh [like the example above, the little straps are gray because they are separate meshes [subtools] they couldn’t have been included in the normal map if it was generated within ZBrush, which is needed to have a truely low res model] <-[I'm not sure if that makes sense, let me know if it doesn't]
• can’t change the vertex count [extruding faces, splitting edges, deleting vertexes] of the the model

-Maya [and presumably Max]:
Pros:

• You can have all modeling tools Maya offers to create your high res model. Which means its good for hard surface models
• Can generate other maps like occlusion and displacement maps [displacement maps don't work in games but they are useful to enhance the details of the textures]

Cons:

• Can’t handle high res meshes from ZBrush [1 million and above] no matter how much ram you throw at it [learned that the hard way]
• Clunky controls/interface for generating [baking] the maps.
• Can be unstable at times [Save!]

-XNormal: [me preferred choice! and what was used for the example above]
Its a free program for windows that can be downloaded here: http://www.xnormal.net/Downloads.aspx
Pros:

• Generates beautiful Normal maps, better looking than the techniques above.
• Its Free! and easy to use [video tutorials are available on the site]
• Can handle the heavy meshes of ZBrush.
• You can import multiple high res meshes to generate a normal map for one or more low res meshes. which means you can have the organic high res character mesh from ZBrush and the hard surface armor and straps from Maya and generate one normal map that includes all of the meshes.
• Generates countless maps that include: occlusion, cavity, thickness, hight, complexity, and convexity map [no idea WTF that is]

Cons:

• its for windows only as far as I know
• nothing yet [this is only my second time using it, I'll be updating this list once I find other cons]

Nvidia’s Photoshop plugin:
this is whats mentioned in the link posted by Ramy. its a plugin that generates normal maps out of gray scale bump maps.
Pros:

• Useful for details that are easier to paint as texture than model [like hair and text]
• its free!
• can be easy to use if there is not much tweaking needed

Cons:

• hard to control or predict the results [complicated interface]
• painting details in 2D is very limited compared to actually modeling/sculpting those details in 3D