All about phase 1, fun and learning
by James · 02/06/2006 (6:55 pm) · 0 comments
So phase one of my project is now complete. My Ice Age Hunter is in game and I learned a lot about the Torque art pipeline which I'd like to share with you plus my next steps.
When I first started out to explore Torque, I must admit I was pretty overwhelmed and I suspect like most, it didn't help that I had very grand ideas as to what I would build with it. My end Goal was pretty simple: Create a multiplayer "Serious Game" to allow player/students the ability to role-play a customizable early ancestor and to explore their Ice Age environment full of flora and fauna of that period... or some such thing. Not to mention supporting website, message board... well... IT'S FREAKIN' HUGE!!!
And I'm going to do this pretty much on my own. WHAT!?
Yeah, I'll admit it. I felt a bit daunted by it all. Grandiose indeed :P
So my first goal is pretty much the big picture but I had to prune it back to something more manageable. First, I had to understand what my own personal goals were. That's easy: to transfer my current skill set to the game market and develop "Serious Games" for the educational market... and if I can work on some commercial games with those skills Bonus!
So what did I want to learn? EVERYTHING! Well no, that's not completely true. I was interested in the modeling and textures that go into building a game character.
Okay, so my first mini-goal (phase 1) is to design, build and put in game my own character. An Ice Age Hunter and do it before the end of January 2006 (my first deadline). For now he'll be a stand in until I've come up with enough research to begin the "real" design work and have a chance to talk to some experts in the field of ice age anthropology.
Cool. To build my Ice Age Hunter I will have to learn about: Building a mesh, rigging the mesh, weighting the mesh for the rig, creating a UV texture, Animating the mesh and finally, importing into Torque. And pretty much in that order. I had to complete one before I could move on the next. Step by step (sometimes baby steps ;)
And low and behold, I did it! Based on my hours spent estimate, it took me a total of 36 hours to complete to this stage. Less than a week fulltime :)
Not only that, I had fun doing it. I learned new tools, new techniques and although at times the progress was slow and sometimes frustrating, even forcing me to start from scratch, I never once felt overwhelmed or defeated by it all. The process of learning this complex process was simply, well, fun!
It occurred to me that most of the learning I do is generally fun and that if I understood why I had fun learning, perhaps the method could be transferred to a Learning object or "Serious Game". It turns out, I am on the right path. The research I've been doing supports the epiphany I had during this process.
Well, now on to my next phase of development. With all that I learned in putting my Ice Age guy together I wanted to go back and learn more about rigging him for animation. So that's phase 2, learn what I can about rigging and producing the basic complement of animations for the character in game. My deadline is the end of February.
Once again wish me luck :)
Oh, what was my "fun & learning" epiphany? One word: Relevance.
More on that with my next post I think ;)
When I first started out to explore Torque, I must admit I was pretty overwhelmed and I suspect like most, it didn't help that I had very grand ideas as to what I would build with it. My end Goal was pretty simple: Create a multiplayer "Serious Game" to allow player/students the ability to role-play a customizable early ancestor and to explore their Ice Age environment full of flora and fauna of that period... or some such thing. Not to mention supporting website, message board... well... IT'S FREAKIN' HUGE!!!
And I'm going to do this pretty much on my own. WHAT!?
Yeah, I'll admit it. I felt a bit daunted by it all. Grandiose indeed :P
So my first goal is pretty much the big picture but I had to prune it back to something more manageable. First, I had to understand what my own personal goals were. That's easy: to transfer my current skill set to the game market and develop "Serious Games" for the educational market... and if I can work on some commercial games with those skills Bonus!
So what did I want to learn? EVERYTHING! Well no, that's not completely true. I was interested in the modeling and textures that go into building a game character.
Okay, so my first mini-goal (phase 1) is to design, build and put in game my own character. An Ice Age Hunter and do it before the end of January 2006 (my first deadline). For now he'll be a stand in until I've come up with enough research to begin the "real" design work and have a chance to talk to some experts in the field of ice age anthropology.
Cool. To build my Ice Age Hunter I will have to learn about: Building a mesh, rigging the mesh, weighting the mesh for the rig, creating a UV texture, Animating the mesh and finally, importing into Torque. And pretty much in that order. I had to complete one before I could move on the next. Step by step (sometimes baby steps ;)
And low and behold, I did it! Based on my hours spent estimate, it took me a total of 36 hours to complete to this stage. Less than a week fulltime :)
Not only that, I had fun doing it. I learned new tools, new techniques and although at times the progress was slow and sometimes frustrating, even forcing me to start from scratch, I never once felt overwhelmed or defeated by it all. The process of learning this complex process was simply, well, fun!
It occurred to me that most of the learning I do is generally fun and that if I understood why I had fun learning, perhaps the method could be transferred to a Learning object or "Serious Game". It turns out, I am on the right path. The research I've been doing supports the epiphany I had during this process.
Well, now on to my next phase of development. With all that I learned in putting my Ice Age guy together I wanted to go back and learn more about rigging him for animation. So that's phase 2, learn what I can about rigging and producing the basic complement of animations for the character in game. My deadline is the end of February.
Once again wish me luck :)
Oh, what was my "fun & learning" epiphany? One word: Relevance.
More on that with my next post I think ;)
