Thanks Josh @ WARP DOGS, glad you like it! :D
So for making worlds, it's taken some trial and error to get it down to something resembling a process but what I start off with is the basic place I have in mind, usually something I've made awhile ago...
This place goes awhile back. This is from September last year:
The original, basic idea was a very cheap, very shady summer camp in a swamp(maybe the Everglades!?). Run down trailers in the place of cabins. And sharp, rusty objects. Then, the player would walk through a forest path to a deadly beach full of bombs, radioactive waste barrels, rusty nails, shards of glass, etc...
Later on I went back to this and modeled several more trailers.
And kind of left it there, I wasn't entirely satisfied with that concept... So I thought about making it part summer camp, part theme park. Or part summer camp, part water park. This is when I would move on to something else when I got indecisive instead of picking something and working at it... (if I don't make up my mind, I'll never make up my mind...)
And now I'm back to this trailer park/suspicious summer camp idea but from a fresh perspective. The idea of a tetanus filled campscape isn't really the focus... it's something else! When I'm making a world, I have a pretty clear but vague idea of how I want it to flow. Just basic things For this one, I want:
1. Start inside a trailer(no music, ambient swamp noise)
2. Walk through a trailer "park"(hear the summer camp wandering music) Player sees ferris wheel in the distance, big top tents, hints of what is beyond area.
3. Walk to a turnstile with a carnival on the other side.
4. Requires a puzzle item to pass(if they don't have it, I want them to really want to get in there so that's their goal now)
But then there comes the question- what does the trailer look like inside? What does it look like outside? What would the carnival look like? Any interesting things to see or do anywhere?
*Concept art at it's finest*
I think making things look interesting is very important! I want the graphics to be zesty, especially considering the context of the virtual worlds. This is a bit of a spoiler, but within Frog Days, there were(are!?) 4 other beings(aliens!?) that have tampered with the virtual worlds before you, the player, arrive. They used digital tools only accessible to them to have god-like dominion over these places. The intention of the tools was to allow access into exploring deeper or obstructed parts of the worlds by manipulating objects in a variety of ways. But things got out of hand very quickly...
*Before, with the idea of a giant fire hydrant*
Each of these beings have their own themes. For example, one uses the FlamingOS paint program within the worlds to paint landscapes and then hangs them on walls... For this location, I've decided this territory belongs to the one who loves Christmas stuff. To keep things brief, say you're an alien who knows nothing about Earth culture or holidays... And now you're exploring virtual worlds reconstructed from an Earthling's digitized brain. Perhaps you like the look of it and just kind of put it around your new found virtual living space or where ever you happen to go. If you stumble upon a door with a wreath on it, there's a good chance this fellow has been there before.
So keeping these factors in mind, I start tamper around with it...
*After*
And at this point I'm ready to setup some camera views.
Setting up a camera is a bit tricky sometimes... same-direction views needs to be spaced out enough to have a steady sense of movement per screen while also looking interesting.
Now just because the camera is in there doesn't mean it's time to render the final shots! I then work on finishing things off, moving things, moving the camera, whatever it takes to get some good interesting looking shots. Sometimes I can add things I've already modeled(like the fire hydrant) other times I model things specifically for the scene(TV, TV stand, bed, pool) and others that will be used later(more Christmas ornaments)
The same goes for the exterior. Here's an (almost done) overhead view:
This section still needs more trees and stuff to it, but it's nearly done. When the environment is close to being done, I get it setup in the game using the viewport renders.
This entire world(minus what's inside the side show tent I'm not showing yet) is 99% done, it just needs a little more detailing. When I'm satisfied with the environment, I render it... then index the renders in photoshop and replace the viewport renders with the final ones. Here's a couple renders:
So that's basically how I go about setting up scenes.
By the way, I've also added more sounds on freesound.org:
http://freesound.org/people/swordofkings128/That's most of my processed recorded stuff for now, I've got more I need to go through and clean up somewhere... eventually.
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