Particle effects, water, the character, the level's gone alpha.. I've been real busy!

At around 5:35 the cool shite starts happening! Look at that wood! Woah, wouldn't it be cool if my crates had tiny bits that flew off of it like that..

The creates are made out of kactors instead of Apex destructibles 'cause people like to smash into these creates and I can have more of these than I could if I had used kactors. So no splintering wood bits in favor of upholding gameplay.

Meanwhile, in Amsterdam..

Since my level has an airplane on fire, I built a simple fire and ember particle based on a UDK tutorial I found. Gotta keep it simple 'cause this is the most framerate-heavy section of track, yo. It can get down to 28fps, so It's probably going to be neutered from what you see below.

Also, we've begun working on the character project! (Yay!) Turns out my teacher doesn't want our characters to have faces so they have to be wearing a helmet that covers their head. Bummer, but hey, At least I can use the DeLorean materials for his helmet! (Also, they have to be human)

It's simple, but hey, I've never done a character before.

The down side is that my teacher has required that we create our character's clothing in ZBrush. I've never used ZBrush. My first few months using a new program are always filled with me bitching at how overly complicated doing the simplest thing is. ZBrush is no exception. In fact, I'd say it's one of the worst programs I've seen in regards to learning curve. You can tell it was designed by artists and not software engineers in quite a bit of the methodology for completing the majority of tasks I've come across. (There are a couple instances where I was like, "Oh, okay. That makes perfect sense!") I still don't know how to properly save despite their being like, four areas where you can do so. Apparently only one way actually does what you want? I could bitch about this program all day but the long and short of it is we are not getting along at all.

This is actually fine, as I expect it, except we are being graded on how well our first scribble in ZBrush turns out! I just don't like a large chunk of my class grade being based on my first attempt at using a new program. Wish there was some build-up, ya know? A BA in Game Design is a pretty new thing and we are the first graduating class for Ringling to put at least some emphasis on learning ZBrush, but it really needs work.

The upswing is I got the water in my level to look pretty darn good!

Awww yeah...

Not sure how how/if my method is out of fashion, but here's how I did it anyways:
Made a water material, made a white froth material, put the white froth material and the water material on two separate pieces of geometry, layered the white froth over the water, put a fog volume in the water. A lot of people have asked me why I didn't just use a depth-based alpha like a normal person except that I did and it's in there and it didn't help fade the water color like it's shown above in the slightest. So, I put a fog volume in there. Problem solved.

As the school year enters the countdown-to-summer-phase, this year has turned out way better than I had expected! Game-wise though, my big hope is that one of my projects, at least, gets into the annual Best of Ringling Show at the end of next month. Basically, (well, for my major) the faculty sit down and select the top 3 student works for each of the 3 projects. That's one car, one character, and one level per class. (This might vary, but those are the numbers I was given) I really want my car and level to be showcased there! Below is a little bit past the Alpha build of my level!

Full speed ahead!!
An amazing track by James Landino be here!