GUI Reflection

What did you do?
I created an animated GUI by using buttons that perform an action when the user hovers their cursor over it. Most of my GUI is based around a point and click game where the player uses the cursor to click on various elements of the environment.
Original Intentions
My final result does meet my original intentions somewhat the overall design is similar but the intended genre is not. The GUI was originally intended for a first person game in which the character controls the character. But ended up turning into a point and click due to the nature of the interactive objects via cursor. Other than that the design and placement of the onscreen elements remain the same to my original concept sketch.

Here are the concept designs I made. I liked the first one the best, and chose to do that one in Photoshop.  As you can see it still bares the basic similarities to my final design.








Self Evaluation
Overall I managed to manage my time quite effectively, unlike some of the other projects. I decided on my design relatively fast something that often caused problems for me in the past. If I had more time, I would have liked to use the frames from 3D Max to make an animation activate in Flash. I did not know how to do this nor have enough time remaining.
What did you struggle with?
One thing I did struggle with in this project was getting to grips with Flash again. We haven't used Flash much this year and don't know how to use it as well as 3D-Max or Photoshop. In fact we had to be re-instructed by Chris on how to make buttons, which we did in Year 1.
What did you find easy?
I found actually creating the various elements of my GUI the easiest due, to its rather simple straightforward design. A simple red and yellow bar for health and stamina, basic round mini map etc. Most of it was already created in Photoshop when we had to flesh out our initial concept sketch. Porting things from the PSD file and converting them into buttons was a relatively easy process.          
Comparison to Professional work
I think that some students in this class made the mistake of not thinking how their GUI was going to be used in a game including me. At first my GUI was intended for a first person shooter which was then changed to a point and click browser game due to the nature of the pop up notes. Professional GUI's are made my player usability in mind, not how many common GUI elements you can cram in at once. No point and click I have seen has a Health bar, Stamina, or even a mini map. Because of this I don't think my GUI compares well to a professional one. As it is not player friendly or genre specific.
What do others think?
Most of the feedback I received stated that it was compact, out of the way, overall a good design for an FPS game. Though l'm still unsure whether it is an FPS game for the sake of my original intention lets say it is. During this time I listened to what other students thought they did wrong the most common one was. The GUI taking up too much space, too cluttered etc. I was careful to keep the design as simple and out of the way as possible but still serve its purpose as an on screen status update.
What could you improve upon?
-Keep genre in mind
-Animated more bits to add interest
-Look more aesthetically pleasing


I have already discussed the issue about genre and the lack of time to animate. Another thing I would have liked to improve on was to make it look nicer. Make the design unique with various shapes to make it fit the theme. Since my environment was inspired by the steam punk style it would have made sense to add steampunk elements into my GUI. Such as brass, cogs, steam things to make it more unique.

Here is an example of a steam punk GUI. Note it is made out of wood to give it a more classical, Victorian feel with various forms of metal like the clock. This is what I would have liked to achieve, to create a unique GUI that fits the theme and style of the game it was intended for.

If I could do it again? 

If I could do this project again I would spend more time into the initial idea to make it as previously mentioned. 

"more unique"

I would add various steam punk elements like brass, clocks etc. To emphasize the theme the game itself has. Also have a definite genre in mind and design the interface for ease of use for that particular type of game.   

    

3D Work Reflection

For my environment I did a steam punk inspired industrial corridor meant to represent the corridors in the Salt building in an alternate timeline. The environment is entirely metal and industrialized to emphasize the steam punk style I was aiming for. I did this by adding various mechanical props in the scene such as control panels, valve operated doors, and various pipes and factory like elements. Chris taught us how to do interior environments in one of his lessons in particular corridors. I used the technique he showed to model the inside of the corridor without much difficulty. The result was a convincing indoor environment which did not show any empty space and looked real. Since my environment was symmetrical for the most part it was easy to simply do one side then clone and mirror it to the other side cutting the workload in half. The basic shapes I used in my environment were actually quite basic but the end result looked far better than I anticipated.

My final design meets my original intentions fairly well if you look at my concept designs and compare them to the final result, they are very similar. Apart from animation my environment meets my original plan. The only part I left out was all the complicated animation I thought I could achieve. I wanted lots of movement within my scene so it wouldn't be boring. I soon gave up though due to time constraints despite this I still wanted at least some actions so I settled for something as simple as a door opening. I wanted the valve to turn as well but I couldn't group the valve and door together and move them individually.

I regret spending too much of my time starting over and over again unhappy with the overall shape of the corridor. This soaked up far too much time I could have spent on more worthwhile things. After a while I picked up the pace a little and started to manage my time a little better. If I had that attitude from the beginning I could have accomplished a lot more and spent some time on animation.

For this project I struggled most with the animation side of things as I just could not get it to work the way I wanted it to. Because of this I had to cut out all those moving parts I planned to animate. It was hard to make animation look natural and not clip through anything.

For this project I found initial idea to be quite easy. I designed a idea I liked and stuck with it. This was surprising to me as I usually get hung up on what to actually create. But after my first concept sketch I had a clear vision of what I wanted and how I was going to do it.

I was told by a number of people that my work was up to a professional standard including Chris, a few students, and Simon who came to the digital showcase. So it must be comparable to professional work.            

Audio Reflection

                Reflection

For my audio I created some factory background noise, using Foley techniques. By hitting two pieces of metal together and recording the sound with a portable recorder. I used Cubase to add a reverb effect, to make the sound seem more ambient and atmospheric. Whilst the result does sound quite good it did not fit my original intentions, because the team decided to just use a sounds track throughout the trailer. So using my audio just didn't fit. I also wanted to add other background noises such as machinery, muffled voices and other complicated things l would have never done in time. Overall I created two sounds effects footsteps on metal and some factory machinery, both seemed to fit my environment quite well. 

Overall I wish I had taken the audio a bit more seriously and spent more time working on it even though we didn't use audio in our final trailer. The end result would have been far more appealing with realistic sound effects rather than just a soundtrack. Parts I struggled with on this audio unit were mostly software based. I found it hard to work with Cubase because of my lack of experience with the program. Other parts that I found hard were getting the portable recorder to record clear, and usable sounds. There may have been some method of removing background noise I was not aware of, but this did frustrate me quite a bit. 

Aside from the difficulties of the audio there were parts that were well suited to me, and found much easier. I found using Foley techniques far easier and more effective than creating the sounds digitally in Cubase. After trying and failing to replicate the sound of metal in Cubase, I turned to Foley. By simply hitting two bits of metal together and recording it created a realistic effect that sounds like machinery in a factory. With a bit of editing I could use the machine sounds as a footsteps sound as well. By turning up the tempo and echo effects I created footsteps. Foley was by far my favorite part of the unit.   

Overall I am quite proud of how my audio turned out and think it is comparable to professional work. Even though I didn't create much sound after we decided to take the easy route and just use a sounds track and narration. I tried to make the sounds as atmospheric as possible and fit in with the environment. Create the feeling of being in a long, metal corridor. Quiet sounds in the backgrounds emphasize how lonely and eerie a cold, industrial environment is supposed to be. Despite this I think using the soundtrack instead was the right decision. The music seemed to fit very well surprisingly transitions in the trailer matched up with the music seamlessly whether this was intentional or just lucky I am not sure.   

After asking a few students the overall impression was it was quite realistic and gave of the impression of an echo.                 

I could improve on my audio by actually creating more of it. Industrial Environments will have more than one kind of machine operating. The slow and steady bashing metal together sounds a bit awkward for being too slow. Other improvements I could make include learning how to navigate Cubase better since since I was struggling to work the program. I could have done so much more with the audio if I knew how to work Cubase properly.     

GUI Designs

Here is mock up design of my GUI. It features a mini map in the top left corner, with the health and stamina bar running along side it. In the bottom right corner we have an inventory slider which lets the player cycle through his inventory in game. When a hot key is held down the slider will open up so the player can see the next item in the slider allowing easy item switching, without pausing the game. This is similar to the monster hunter GUI, which you can see in my previous post.

Here is a more old school GUI with bare basic requirements. Heath and stamina are on the left, whilst objective pointer is in the top right.

Game UI

Here are 3 designs of potential game user interfaces based of various games I have played.

1. Is a UI based on the monster hunter series which is a third person action RPG. This UI can also work well in first person perspective as it doesn't take much space and is visually appealing. The Inventory slider allows for easy switching between various items in-game without resorting to pausing the game. The player simply presses a button to open up the inventory, uses two other keys to cycle through to the item they want equipped, then press the same button to lock it. This is used in Monster Hunter to cycle through various healing items and traps which need to be accessed quickly.

2. This is a much more old school design similar to old FPS games. The health and stamina bars run vertically along the side of the screen, and are divided into health squares for easy measuring. It is important to keep status information about the player in one place most of the time to avoid confusion. Instead of a mini map this UI features a simple arrow that points to the next objective (very old school)

3. This is based of a game called Minecraft which features inventory slots along the bottom which can be cycled through using the mouse wheel, or the numbered hot keys. This allows easy and quick item selecting. Instead of a health bar the player gets the number of hit points he has remaining as this takes less space, same for stamina.

Here are some professional examples...

Trailer Sequence

Here we have created a final plan for the content of our trailer and what order our scenes will be in.

1. Will be the beginning splash screen Age Rating, Team Name, etc. This is also when the sound track will start and gradually build over time.
2. Next will be a narration sequence featuring a written version as well as a spoken version reading it out.
3. First environment scene will be Isaac Salt Building.
4. Next will be Alex E interior of the Salt building.
5. Next will be Alex J church style environment.
6. Then my SteamPunk corridor.

3D Production Log

Today I made good progress on my environment I finished the basic shape as well as adding textures to the scene. As you can see there are still some details to add as well as model the vault style door I want to open and the end of my section of the trailer. Overall l'm quite pleased with my progress so far and hope to complete it soon. Other elements I wish to add to this scene include Door, 2nd Room, Animated Fans and other industrial elements.