So today, I worked with room transitioning. It was a very simple process once I had all the resources in hand. What I mainly needed was an object that moves the main sprite to another room/level when they collide. In this case, I made a simple yellow block at the end of my first level. It's probably likely that either Ty or Justin have added something like this in our RPG game but I figured it is something I should probably learn if I ever work with Game Maker in the future.
Adding a "Collision" action to the yellow block from the main sprite and adding a "Different Room" object will get the job done as simple as that. No scripts needed. I'm pretty proud of myself because I did this without any tutorials and it kinda shows that I've learnt most of the basic fundamentals and tools in this program. Though despite that, I found a very quick tutorial video in case I decide to look back at Game Maker in the future.
So today, I was able to a way to adjust the camera views in the game. Rather than showing the whole room, this feature focuses and follows the main sprite where ever it goes. I figured this would be a useful tool to implement to our game, especially since it is an RPG. Basically, to get this to work, the settings of the room had to be adjusted by setting the "View In Room" options to 640x480 (rather than the default settings of 1024x768). The next thing I discovered was a very useful tool under the room settings called "Object Following". By the looks of it, I knew this was exactly what I needed in order for this camera view feature to work.
Now since I was able to create a camera view that followed the main sprite where ever it went, I came across another problem in which the mute button is no where to be found. This is because the mute button was actually in a fixed position. Since the camera is always moving, the mute button appears once the object reaches the edge of the room. Upon a bit of researching, I was able to create this script for the mute button:
x = view_xview[0] + view_wview[0] - sprite_width - 15;
y = view_yview[0] + view_hview[0] - sprite_height - 5;
Now where ever the camera follows the mute button will always be accessible. I actually was glad I found this issue early on before I started adding on more rooms, scripts, etc.
Today I managed to (somewhat) apply gravity and collisions to my already-made level. To get this done, I recommend checking out the videos provided below. I chose these tutorials mainly because they are pretty quick and very informative if you are looking to add these functions (gravity, collisions) into a game. In order to add collisions to my game, 2 individual objects were needed. In this case the main sprite and the walls of the level were the 2 objects used. I also added a collision action to the main sprite only when it touches the walls. This allows the sprite to bounce off the walls rather than go through the walls.
The gravity in my game still has some issues but I was able to get most of the steps done. Basically to add gravity, the vertical speed and movement needed some adjustments. The issue I am having right now is that once my main sprite touches the ground, it starts to bounce as a reaction due to the collisions I added early on. Ty was able to give me some helpful advice and suggested I should maybe play around with the vertical speed (and possibly setting it to 0).
Today I was asked to do a few retouches on the sprites Ty made for our game. My main job on this assignment was to add a drop shadow type effect on all the sprites that were sent (which were about 15 of them). So I went and used Photoshop to do this. Something I found useful was the Sharpen Tool that was under the Filter Tab. This effect sharpens/darkens the edges of the sprites so it's a bit easier to see. I did this for all the sprites individually and saved them as I went on (to save confusion). The next thing I did was add a black outline to them. By duplicating the sprites and adding a colour overlay to one of them (in this case, a black colour for the outline effect) the results were acceptable.
Now that I got the mute button up and running for the RPG project Justin, Ty and I are creating, I really want to look more in depth on the basic fundamentals of the program such as character movement and levels/rooms so I can apply some of these skills on the RPG project. Although the creation of the mute button was rather lengthly, it makes things easier for me as I got more familiar with scripting and sprites. I was able to find a few helpful videos on youtube regarding character movement:
Both videos go over everything you should know to get started on basic movement altogether. Though with the room I created, collisions are going to be one of the main factors which I will for sure look more into.
Today, I was able to create a working mute button. I found that adding this script (under the left click tab) everything seemed to work the way I wanted to: audio_master_gain(mutestatus); mutestatus = !mutestatus; image_index = mutestatus;
Rather than focusing on what I needed to add onto the script, the solution was compressing the previous script I had. After a bit of research, I found that adding a variable ( in this case it is mutestatus), controls the mute button such as the sub-images and volume since it is applied to those objects. At this point, what I hope to do is add rooms to test if this button can be used throughout the whole game that Ty, Justin and I are creating. I also want to look at working with movement in GameMaker.
Today I basically worked with the scripting for the mute button. I can tell that I am quite close to what I am aiming to achieve at the moment (which is a working and clickable mute button). I have all the resources in hand and it is only a matter of working with the scripting. Since I have two sub images that are grouped into a sprite, I figured there may be a few ways to get this done through scripting. Little did I know this may be a bit more challenging than I thought it would be. What I attempted to do today was adding two "Change Sprite" actions. One for the first image and one for the second image. Unfortunately for me, this method does not switch back and forth from the "Sound On" button and "Sound Off" button. What I also tried was adding this script for the sprite itself:
This also gave me the same result that I didn't want. The only positive thing that came out of these two methods is that I am one step closer to finding a way to make a clickable button. The only problem I am experiencing is having the button click back and forth without any issues.
Today, I worked with making a clickable mute button. The first thing that I had to do was create two different sprites (one for the "on" button and one for the "off" button):
To do this, I needed to create a sprite and place both .png files into them by using the "add from file" option. After that, I created an object (using these two .png files) and used a script that controlled the sound volume when left-clicked with the mouse.
After testing out the button, I still come across a significant problem in which the volume icon switches on its own. This only really tells me that there is something wrong with the scripting in "Left Click Pressed" area of the project.
Today in Game Maker, I was able to make a ton of progress. I was also able to implement sprites, sounds and rooms. I also got started on creating scripts in hopes of creating a working mute button. There are plenty of helpful videos on Youtube to help anyone get started with this program. The two videos I recommend for starters of GameMaker are:
These videos basically help you get started on creating a very basic game with a background, rooms, movement, etc. I created a scrolling background by adding a picture to the room folder and set the Horizontal Speed to 1:
Adding a mute button is a more challenging task. What I did here was add a sprite for mute and used a script for when the left button of the mouse is clicked.
Tommorow, I plan on creating an object that changes sprites when clicked.
Today I am getting used to using Gamemaker by watching basic tutorials (on how to create sprites, room, etc.). My main focus right now is creating a mute button/volume control for an RPG game Ty, Justin and I are creating. My role in the group for now is to find out how to create a mute/volume control option to implement in our game. I figured it might be a little bit of a challenge especially since I have no experience at all with Gamemaker. For right now, I will be creating a game myself just to get familiar with this program.
Today, I have decided to start working on a program called "Game Maker Studios" along with Ty and Justin. As a group, we compiled a list of objectives that we are looking to add in to this RPG game. I feel it will be a bit of a challenge for me as I have no experience at all with Game Maker Studios. Our list includes:
At least 15 story missions
At least 30 side quests
Character animation
Functional combat
Functional enemy AI
At least 17 bosses
A relatively open world
Volume Control
Save/load functionality
Different weapons/spells
An inventory screen
Although we are working together on this project, we will be updating our blogs individually.
In the month of both September/October, I focused on graphic designing and motion graphics in which I felt went very well. I worked mainly on two programs (Photoshop CS6 and Cinema 4D). Since I had a bit of experience with both programs, the main concepts were somewhat easy to grasp making the tutorials I watched easy to follow. I am actually considering using these two programs in the future (possibly again in this course) because I enjoyed working with them. Though for right now, I am planning on using to Game Maker Studios for my next project in this independent course.
Today I was able to combine all my skills of Cinema 4D (Camera Movement, Particles to Text Transtion, 3D Logos, HDRI Maps, etc.) all into one project which I felt displays the progress I've reached in this program. A little skill I learned over the long weekend that I forgot to mention is breaking the text into different layers where each letter of a text could be controlled individually. I am really satisfied with the end result and am considering looking more into Cinema 4D in the future. As of right now, I am trying to find some sound effects/video effects that would go with it.
UPDATE:
I was able to find a "glitch overlay" file that I could use on a editing program called "Sony Vegas Pro" which offers a free 30 day trial. For the sound effects, I used an MP3 version of a video that features sound effects from a movie called "Transformers". Here are the links for these:
Right now, I am currently working with doing a transition from particles to text. I felt it was a more advanced task, but I was able to find a step by step video of which I followed through. In the video, it the tool "Poly FX" was used quite a few times to create a collision between an object and the text to create small particles. Poly FX is the main tool that should be use when working with collisions in Cinema 4D. It can be located under the MoText column.
There are many settings to adjust such as the depth and coordinates of the objects, though fortunately those are included in the video below:
In today's class, I focused on making the transition from 3D logos to creating 3D text. I found it much more simpler because there are lesser steps in importing/creating text. I looked at a few tutorials in making 3D text and worked with adding different layers to the text by duplicating the MoText function. It is important to also add materials to all the text to do so. Going to MoText - Caps - Fillet Caps on all the layers will add depth to the objects. Basically, when adding layers to text, you should have the same materials, settings, etc.
Today I was able to work with the Target Camera tool. I feel like this is a useful object to work with in the future and definitely simple enough to use. Basically, the target camera tool focuses on one object and follows it where ever it goes. In today's class, I used a sphere (with gold material) on the HDRI map I have been using recently and added a target camera that followed the sphere:
The tutorials I used were these videos below which I found quite helpful:
Today I tested out the new render settings with a more advanced animation. Again, the render itself was really quick and also smooth in movement despite the frames being more "occupied". This will help me in the future when rendering projects and I will probably be using this animation and adding more to it for my final project with Cinema 4D. I found out that disabling all the things I didn't need (such as blurriness and reflection) also helps reduce the render time.
As of today, I tested out the new render settings using my basic camera movement skills and an HDRI map file. Fortunately for me, the render time of the animation was a lot faster than usual which saves me a ton of time and makes things a lot simpler. Each frame took about 30 seconds to render and the quality of them were not affected by the new render settings. Tomorrow I will hopefully look more into advanced camera movements with these new render changes.
As I mentioned on the post of the previous day, the render time for an animation is an issue I wanted to focus on reducing. A simple 5 second animation would take 30+ minutes to render. What I wanted to do was change up the render settings on Cinema 4D without it affecting the quality of the animations.
The two tutorials I encourage to checking out are these two videos that are quick and easy to follow.
What I found out was that when rendering the file, it is recommended to animate the project into either a PNG or JPEG sequence for the best quality. Quicktime Movie is also acceptable for animations and is the format I set it to (just to make things simpler). I also worked with the Anti- Aliasing, Global Illumination settings and disabled the auto-save option. Basically, I took off the things I didn't need. I'm hoping the changes I made will reduce the amount of render time.
Currently, I am learning how to do basic camera movements on Cinema 4D. For right now, I am using the basic camera tool but hope I will eventually have the ability to work with the more advanced camera tools (Target & Stereo Camera).
What I found was really useful is that I am able to add different angles to the same animation by adding multiple cameras. Using the stage tool will combine all the cameras used.
Something to remember when adding cameras is to set two key frames (one for the beginning of the animation and one after it) otherwise, the animation won't function properly. This was one problem I came across while dealing with this project. I also found that the waiting time for the render of the animation was much longer than I thought it should have been, which stood out to be really the only issue I am currently dealing with, as of right now. Other than that, I feel like I'm making really good progress so far.
Something I've been really interested in wanting to learn is to do camera animations/movements. I was able to find plenty of youtube videos that I figured could assist me in doing so. Though, before doing that, I needed a background to prevent it from looking plain. Upon some researching, I came across material textures that I found on OpenFootage (called HDRI's). These are really useful as they cover up the whole 360 degrees of the scene. In order to add it onto the project file, I needed to make it into a material that I could place onto the ACSS Totem logo itself. This was the tutorial I used to do just that:
Tomorrow, hopefully I will be able to work around with the camera function and make a basic camera animation/movement.
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