Zelda and it's influence on me

When I was 11, I discovered the Legend of Zelda series. I remember being at a friends house watching her older brother play this game; it was colourful and beautiful and captivated me. 
I got my GameCube and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and was completely besotted from the start. 

The storyline pulled at my heartstrings and I empathised with the characters; though they didn't have voices; they spoke to me. 

When you first leave home and get on that pirate ship, it felt so real. I was still so young and the idea of leaving home, especially with a bunch of marauding pirates, was terrifying to me; but that's what's great about video games; you can completely engulf yourself in an alternate reality where you can do things you never could dream of doing in real life. 

The forsaken fortress was one of the most terrifying place's I'd ever been. Being flung from a pirate's canon into a prison felt dangerous. You were stranded and had to find your way to Ganon's lair. The first time you meet Ganon was exciting and you really started to feel like a hero being born. 

I could go on for days about all the different gorgeous islands that made up this little universe; but one of my favourtie things was the fact you could ride your boat around this world and it felt like you were completely free. 

One of my favourite things to do, was after a long time adventuring around, I would return to Outset Island and visit my grandmother. A strange thing to do considering none of these characters are real; but it felt real to me. 

I remember the first time I saw 'Hyrule Castle', Time had stopped inside it and it was up to you to start it again... The fear I felt when I knew all those monsters were suddenly going to be flung back into time was intense. 

I was so infatuated by 'Hyrule' I even wrote about it in my entrance exams to get into secondary school; so really I have Link to thank for my education. 

I decided to write this blog as I wanted to say thanks to the game that pretty much changed my life. It's escapism allowed me to get through some very hard times in my life and it's beauty encouraged me to get into the video game industry. 

So, Thanks, Link. 

Vehicle project

When the vehicle project was first announced, it didn't excite me too much, until I started to look at Penny Farthings and I realized I could make something really whacky and interesting. 

Steampunk has been a style I've loved ever since I played Bioshock: Infinite. I loved the idea of taking a Victorian vehicle and adding wings and an engine. 

I really enjoyed modelling to less than 15,000 tris, I'm normally bad with sticking to my poly count, but I did well with this project. 

My texturing is normally quite poor but with this project I was happy with the wings and the engine. 

I like the little details, especially the lamp on the front with the wire mesh around it. I used the engine as handlebars as I felt that would make it a unique design. 

It isn't as smooth as I would normally like it to be but it was quite a low poly count. 

Environment Project: Second Attempt

Second Attempt: After I failed my first attempt at an environment; I decided to try again. After talking to my tutor, he said I needed to make the bar more cluttered to make it more realistic and used. 

I decided to make the bar, the fallen in wall and the bookshelf and then make a series of assetts that I could texture and then multiply. 

List of Assets: 

• 3 different colours of leather bound books
• wooden barrel
• tall stool
• short stool
• lather chair
• 3 different colours of beer pump
• 3 different types of bottle
• beer tankard
• candles 

I used my own paintings to put into the picture frames to make it seem a lot more realistic and add a personal touch to the scene. 

Playing with Unity even more: My coursemate showed me some more great things you can do with Unity, which lead me to build a little island for my bar to sit on. He showed me how to create mountains and water. My favourite thing was getting a proper sky and putting fog in the scene to make it feel more creepy and abandoned. It seems odd to have a bar on a desert island, but I love surrealism. 

Environment project: First attempt

Initial Ideas: When we first got the brief for the environment; I liked the idea of doing something disused and derelict. I thought about doing a wild western ranch, then an old Buddhist temple but eventually decided to design a bar, inspired by 'The Salty Oyster' bar in Bioshock: Infinite.

 

Above: The Salty Oyster bar from Bioshock: Infinite

I really enjoyed designing an environment. I always wanted to go into environment modelling so this was a project I was particularly excited about. 

Playing with Unity: For the first time, I put my environment into Unity. I played with the lighting and made light shine through the holes in the ceiling. I loved using the engine, as it felt like I'd finally made something that could be in a game.