And we cut to intermission...

Hello y'all,

I finally completed all assignments for this semester. Now all that is left is to do exams. Since last week, I worked like crazy on my group's GDW game, marketing projects, and the Game Engine Homework. Thankfully the GDW was a great success, my marketing professors enjoyed my groups' presentations, and I nabbed all 65 exp. points for Game Engine Design. Before the GDW was due, I was working on a Particle Tool as per requirement for the GDW. Unfortunately I was not able to fully complete it, as it lacked RGBA adjustments. In case you don't know, RBGA stands for Red Green Blue Alpha. The first three colours when mixed create more or less the entire visual colour spectrum, depending on the value of each colour variable. Alpha represents opacity; the higher the value, the more opaque it is - the lower the value, the more transparent it is. After the GDW, I figured out how to integrate RGBA in my particle tool, and then submitted as part of my Game Engine Design homework mark. This brought my experience points from 35 to 50, giving me 100% of the homework marks.

This is my particle tool upon opening it. Simple grey texture with no effect applied. We can change that!

In this picture, I increased its red value, and decreased its green, blue, and alpha values. I also increased each particle's lifespan, speed, and size. Finally, I changed the direction of the emitter. Hmm... looks like a candle light!!

In my particle tool, I have three versions: point emitter (like the pictures above), planar emitter (like the one shown here), and air emitter (where all particles float around in the air). My particle tool has a feature where I can save a particle's attributes and load them whenever I want, even after I close the program. A few days ago, I set up my particles to look like mist in planar mode, and then saved its attributes. At the time of writing this post, I loaded up the text file by pressing a single button, and voila, my mist effect is back!!

However I was able to gain an extra 15 points, for a mark of 130%. I had two options, do three easy questions for an easy 15 points, or do one hard question and actually learn something that may be beneficial for studying for the exam. I chose the latter. The hard question I chose to do was a Normal Map Shader, that essentially makes a 3D model look more realistic. It proved quite difficult (hence why it's a "hard" question), and asked the professor for help. Unfortunately I was unable to complete it in time, however I did learn the theory of it quite well. Before I left with the 50 points, I approached the TA of the course, and showed him how I knew how to code the rest of the shader, but didn't have enough time. The TA then told me that although he cannot give me marks for it, I could do three easy questions quickly. I took the challenge, picked the easiest three questions, completed them in a matter of five minutes, and then the TA gave me my final marks. I quickly thanked him, darted out for the bus, and ultimately missed it. Oh well, I caught the next bus half an hour later, when I thought that it came every hour.

ARGH BUS, Y U NO WAIT?! :(

As for my final modeling assignment, I was forced to submit it incomplete. All I had to do was weight paint it (as in bind the model's skin to the skeleton I created), but it wasn't working the night before it was due. So I decided to go to sleep, and then ask the professor the next day (the due date) why I was experiencing my problem. I asked the prof what was wrong, he gave me information on how to work around it. The problem was that the model wouldn't go back to its bind pose (aka default pose) after I would move it. But he told me to ignore it, save the default pose as a separate file, and then export the skin weights to that extra file after I'm done weight painting. I also did another part of the assignment called "character sets", which I completed for the extra file, since I was to submit that. I ended up weight painting the whole body except for the neck and the fingers, as I was short on time. I then tried to export the weights, and that wasn't working, so I submitted the non-bind pose version. I then forgot that the character sets were on the extra file, not the file I was working on, so I submitted the extra file for the prof as proof that I have character sets. Hopefully he considers it!

This here's my level, which was part of my final modeling assignment. I created "character start" and "character end" locators in the scene, so that the GDW game program will know where the character starts and finishes the level. I also set up spotlights where the modeled lights are, in the scene.

Here's the final look of my model, Adolf Rothschild!! Although his weight painting isn't complete, and he has a small normal map error on his lip, he's come a long way. During the holidays, I plan to fix these small errors, and then I'll be able to fully animate him next semester.

Anyway, now all I have to do is study for exams, and after that, Christmas and New Years! Hooray!!
See you all next semester! =)