The end of lessons is near! Today was spent stuffing a little more information into the remaining nooks and crannies of our brains. Phew! Everyone made it through–and with flying colours, I might add.
Visual Artists learned the 12 principles of animation today, and got to describe some exaggerated character walks they each acted out during a fun exercise with Andrew Lunga, one of our Research Assistants. They rigged and animated and were all rigged-out by the end of the day! But it was a lot of fun, and we can’t wait to see our characters come to life thanks to the skills we learned today.
Gameplay Artists put their heads together and came up with some more refined level ideas, and presented a couple to the group during our wrap-up discussion at the end of the day. Jeremy Alvarez, one of the Gameplay Artists and programming instructor, has been working hard in the evenings testing different gameplay scenarios. He and Travis Mercredi, another Gameplay Artist and sound instructor, have come up with some really fun stuff! Michael Morris had some unique ideas for the heads-up display, using a medicine wheel. It was really exciting to be able to start to envision actually playing the game!
So despite the heavy lessons and tired brains after a long day, much has been accomplished! We have our boss character modelled and ready for texturing. We have a boss level in the making, which combines two of our favourite mechanics to form the final level in the game. The other levels and characters are coming along nicely as well; the mini-games we worked on together last week are shaping into some really fun puzzles and sneaky stealth levels, and environment elements are being prepped for level beautification!
There’s only one more, lighter lesson for the Visual Artists tomorrow morning, and then it’s pure production time for all. This is going to be fun.
Check out what they’ve created so far:
