UE4 lab computer

UE4 has put me in somewhat of a quandary, as we are able to use any version of UE4 we desire people are downloading a variety of versions onto the uni labs. while this make it convenient to avoid the large bug in 4.4. it means I am forced to jump from one version to another as people have deleted older version!

Luckily to bypass this I have exported the blockout as a single mesh and am now working in 4.5. I will continue this method as its making me more flexible as to where in the labs I work (unlike some who are confined to a handful of P.Cs or to download their version again and again) and giving me a additional backup which cannot fall privy to the major bugs so many have suffered from this week (in our class and in the second years RTE assignments) which corrupts every UE4 related file , backup and the software itself!

Block out

Here is my blockout for "Dazzle Dock" the flyby itself is quite crude however I intend to create a much more refined cinematic for the final outcome. as illustrated the ship will sit loose in its dock without the beams I was intending as feedback suggested I implement a slight swaying to make the level more dynamic.

The only issue I truly face with my design is keeping the player/camera within the confines of the level and not to see any of the absent areas like the rear of buildings and lack of floor beyond the wall. I will also be using parts of other building outside the level to make it appear like the edge of a built up dock/city area.

The buildings, dock floor and walls will be modular, as this will free up time for texture development and other tasks. unique pieces like the crane will be reused with slight variations with the rotation of the top and what (if anything) they will be holding.

Here is my plan for the upcoming weeks, the highlighted yellow areas will be cut from the project if I am pressed for time or need to prioritise other aspects of the project. The grey area  at week 11 does include lighting and the cinematic sequence however Jon has suggested I do this earlier and focus on small portions of the map highlighting the best aspects. 

Stanley Dock!

I have found out that the above painting by Edward Wadsworth is of an actual dazzle ship of unknown name being worked on at Stanley dock. while this dock is now blocked off to the public it still shows up on Google maps, where I was able to gather a top down view to base my dock on. I have also since found several images of nearby buildings used during W.W.1. to base my building on.

Below is a mood board demonstrating which buildings I intend to use as reference for my level, unfortunately these have been commissioned to be demolished and as such have been blocked off from public interference. Having said this I am able to get texture reference in the form of wall textures from my local area, as there are a number of abandoned red brick buildings and construction sites open to the public for me to gather images.

Ref:

1) unkown. (2004). Dazzle camouflage. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage. Last accessed 04/11/2014.

2) unkown. (n/a). n/a. Available: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Liverpool,+Merseyside/@53.4206695,-3.0006652,367m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x487adf8a647060b7:0x42dc046f3f176e01. Last accessed 04/11/2014.

Researching WW1

For my Advanced 3D module I decided to go with the First World War period as it is an often under used setting for games and films and has a large variety of interesting and odd looking military hardware to populate my scene.

Above are a handfull of military bases and hardware, the trenches are way to cliché and I'm sure many of my piers will do similar trench levels so I will immediately cast this idea aside. the destroyed tank however could make a nice element alongside other military hardware like the howitzers or being overshadowed by a soaring Zepplin?

Here the famous Dazzle Ships used by the Brits from the mid-end of World War 1. This would make an interesting centrepiece for a map and thus may become the focus of a dock like map? further research needed.

A beached U-boat on the shores of Britain, this could allow some really interesting level, scale may be an issue however. I included sea defences in this mood board as I could include them along the shoreline/ cliff-side as a  point of interest in the map however this may make the map far too large.

whilst the U-boat is very iconic, research has led me to the conclusion that very few schematics or blueprints of this model have been kept or simply not been put online. 

Conclusion: Dazzle ships are definitely the most interesting route to take for this project however I need a way to incorporate it into a level so I will now look into where they were built/ housed.