No Game For Today... We're going straight into asset making.

Last class, we started out by learning a few more ways to build assets in Cinema 4D.

The first thing we learned is Extrude Nurbs; We are all very familiar with the extrude tool by now, but extrude nurbs take it to another level by allowing us to extrude any shape we desire. First we use a spline to create the shape we want to use, but we must also make sure that the shape we create has no open ends. After that, all we need to do is drop the spline on the extrude nurbs and we have our shape as a 3d object. Then, we also learned about:

Grouping objects: We learned a couple different ways to do this based on how your object is set up. If we have a boole, we need to do "current state to object" (under "functions" in the menu ), otherwise, we just select everything and go to "object" in the object menu and select "group object" in general for our 3d models.

Selecting objects: Using the lasso tool allows us to select objects in a specific way; always be aware of the "select visible element only" option under the attributes menu of the lasso. Pay attention as to whether this should be checked or not (depending on what you want to select).

Loft Nurbs: This is the last of the Nurbs; for this one, all we need to do is create some splines and loft nurbs will simply connect them together.

Room Size: Moving forward on our 10 year room project, we need to make a 800x500x800 room and start placing our assets inside it. Make sure that you have a sky, a floor and windows, but remember that we are only ever going to see the inside of the house, so don't focus on the exterior too much.

Games Of The Day:
1) www.playauditorium.com
2) http://www.teagames.com/games/blueprint/play.php

Questions:
-How are the interfaces of these games similar? How are they different?
-What are some social metaphors that could be associated with these games?
-Was there a level on either one of these games where you got completely stuck on? If so, describe the level, and why it was that you were stuck.

There is one thing I need to mention before we move on, and that is "lighting."

Remember: Cinema 4D will offer a basic lighting if you don't add lights, however, if you want to make things more realistic, then you are going to need to add a lot of your own lights to make your scene look how you want. Also, remember that you can always add a "lens" to your lights in order to offer a more realistic look based on your situation.

NEXT: Our first project--"THE TEN YEAR ROOM"

You have all written your statements regarding what you want to be in ten years; I know this wasn't an easy task, but I think it's important to start this dialog in your mind. I have talked to everyone individually and I think everyone has a great career and is ready to move forward on creating assets for their room. I am also extending the project to include other rooms as well. We will continue to learn more Cinema 4D tools while you are creating this first project.

DUE DATE: November 19Th

Game of the Day:

http://www.addictinggames.com/ngame.html

Questions:

- Compare this game to other games of the same genre (platforming; i.e. mario, sonic, etc); in what ways is it similar/different better/worse?

- Do you think games like these work better in 2D, or 3D (a'la Mario Galaxy, Sonic Unleashed, etc), why or why not?

- If you could, how would you improve this game?



Last week we continued elaborating on textures. We are now able to create bump-mapped surfaces and add transparency to our textures by using the attributes in the "attributes menu". 

We also learned how to use Sweep nurbs and Hyper nurbs (remember to change "segments" to get a less round object), and now we just learned Lathe nurbs; this helped us create our lamp and lamp shade. Then we added light to our new lamp; something which we now are able to control more by using it's attributes and adding lenses to create a more realistic effect. 

Last but not least, we learned how to Boole. This helped us create windows in one piece of geometry (remember: Parent the window to Boole then the house to Boole), if you want more Booles, just keep dumping them on your first booled window, and also make sure your window geometry is sticking out on both sides.

Games of the Day:
http://www.gamegum.com/game/663/pong/
http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-579.htm


Questions:
- Pretend that you have never played a video game before ever in your life; what are your impressions of the first game? Why do you think it became so popular back when it first came out?
-  Compare the first game to the second one, in what ways do you feel the second one improved/worsened the basic concept of the first one? How so?
- Describe how you would make a third iteration of this same basic game; in what ways would it be different/similar to the first two?


Today you're going to start working on your '10-Year Room' project.  Create a new Google Doc and write a detailed paragraph (60 words minimum) describing how you see your life being like in 10 years; what job will you have? where will you be living? will you be living alone, or with someone else?
Next, take that life you saw yourself having in 10 years, and make a list of all the possible (unique) objects you can associate with that life (i.e. a musical instrument if you want to be a musician, a camera if you want to be a filmmaker, etc.).
When you're done, just let me know and then you could start making 3d replicas of those objects you listed (for your room).

Game Of The Day:
http://www.hiddenninjagames.com/flash-arcade-game.php?gameid=250&gamename=Music%20Catch%202


Questions:
- Describe your experience playing the game. Was it boring/addicting/soothing/enjoyable?
- This game is meant to be more of a relaxing experience than a tactical/strategic one. What are some of the traits of the game that make it this way?
- If you could, how would you improve this game?

The first thing we learned last class was how to create more textures by using the "content browser" under "windows" in the top menu. Inside the content browser, we went under "presets" and "cinema4d" to find all our materials. I encourage you to explore and experiment with other things inside the content browser. 

Next, we continued to experiment with multiple animations with textures applied. After that, we leaned how to create a spline with the Bezier and Freehand tools, and add a radius to them (using the Circle or other spline tool) so that we could then use sweep nurbs to convert our splines into 3D objects, such as pipes and any geometry that might need to be long and tube-like. Then, we also experimented with hyper nurbs; we created a simple box, then put it through the process of hyper nurbs to see the difference and how we can create a more complex models by using this option. 

Last but not least, we learned how to cut out geometry using the Knife tool. We must make sure we have our geometry editable and are set to select points, so that when we right click we can knife the object, which offers us the option to add more complexity to a simple piece of geometry.



Definitions:
Sweep Nurbs
Hyper Nurbs
Knife Tool
Spline
Radius 
Bazier 

Game of the Day:

Play both of these:

http://games.sticky.tv/cyrkam_airtos/

http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html

Questions:

- What do these 2 games have in common (besides the concept), and how do they differ?

- Comment on, and compare the gameplay mechanics of both games.

- Which one did you think was better? Why?

Link for todays class!

cgtextures.com

Last class we learned a little about Cinema 4D's interface and how to create primitives. Once we knew how to create a primitive, we then learned how to Extrude and Inner Extrude our primitives. We also learned how to manipulate primitives via their Faces, Points and Lines.

First assignment: Our objective was to learn how to animate objects using other work views and parenting. We created a rectangular cube primitive, then created four spheres (by copying and pasting from 1 original sphere). Next, we parented those spheres to the rectangle, and using alternative views, we were able to move the spheres under the rectangle to simulate a car. Once we finished modeling our car, we learned about animation and framing, by moving the car around within 90 frames of animations using key frames.

Game of the Day:
http://www.vectorpark.com/levers/


Questions:
- What do you think is unique about this game? What kind of game would you classify it as?
- Describe in your own words, what the goal of the game is. What is it trying to get you to do?
- If you could, how would you improve/change this game?




Definitions:
key frame - an instance of time in an anmiation.
extrude - to press or push out.
texture - a graphic placed on the surface of a 3D model
radius - half the diameter (total width) of a circle