Class 33

Today I followed through on recreating the zombie moving animation. because it was accidentally deleted last class. this time around it looks a little better, so i'm happy it was deleted. Next class I will attempt to come back to it and change it again, until its actually good. Along with recreating of the animation, I stumbled upon why my animation looked so strange. It is because the frame count for the animation is not that high so it cycles through the images relatively fast, which doesn't work well with body motion, so if I want to add body swaying of any kind. I need to make it have more frames, which might just have to be a job for another day. 

Class 32

Today I created some cabinets for Justin's kitchen. I then started to work on the zombie walking animation. Next class I will ignore everything else and just try to finish up the animation. If I complete it early I will work on redoing the player animations. I made these cabinet sprites modular so that they can be placed in whatever orientation Justin wants them. I learned that doing furniture in a modular fashion is the best way to make furniture sprites. It increases the variations in in-game rooms and gives more freedom to the development of levels. 

   

- My walking animation sadly was accidentally deleted. So next class I will recreate it. And reform it greatly (hopefully)

Class 31

Today I worked on more kitchen furniture, I started by making a clean version of the oven. I then covered it with dirt grim and other stuff. The Character and fridge are in the picture for reference of size. Tomorrow I will most likely make counter tops for the kitchen, then if I have time I will attempt to make a dinning room table. with chairs or something. I increased my knowledge of layers in Photoshop as well as shifting images around. I'm putting all the Kitchen sprites onto one picture so they can essentially be cut out and placed into the game. Its just seemed like a more efficient way to transport all of the images as-well as have them all in one spot to reference each other for levels of detail and art style.

Class 30

Today I didn't come to class, instead I decided to sleep in and do my info tech work on my free time. So for my free time work I will probably do some more self training on code, via my home made game. And I will also attempt to make some sprites for our in class game "Drop Dead". The sprites I make will probably be smaller items like trash or table top decorations. I don't have Photoshop at home, which is a powerful tool when it comes to layers, it also has lots brushes I can use to simulate dirty surfaces and texture. So by keeping my sprites small I avoid the need for extreme detail. But I might just make some clean looking sprites and then make them look dirty and grimy in class. But for sure next class I will be working on making more kitchen sprites. On my free time I learned how to make things in game maker persistent, after hours and hours of horrible guessing and searching online, I found out. Its just a little button in the room settings and the object settings. Somewhat of an easy solution, but I learned it the hard way.  

Class 29

Today I made some more furniture for the house, I started by making this nice clean fridge. On the first layer I made some sticky notes, pictures, and other stuff to make the fridge look more used. Then for the second layer I added dirt rust and other stuff to make it look old and worn, likes its been around for a long time. The final product looks significantly better then the first sprite. Next class I will try to work on more kitchen related furniture. Unless of course Justin wants me to do something else, but he yells 'furniture" at me everyday, so the chances are slim.
By making this fridge I experimented with creating shiny surfaces with pixel art, the lighter line coming down the fridge gives it a metallic look, and personally I think it looks effective as creating a the illusion of 3D space.

Class 28

Today I didn't do much work in game, I mostly discussed the game with Justin, Simran, Howard, and Connor. We talked about where the game is going and what we want to do with it. Which we still have no idea where it goings. We also talked about more stuff I need to do for furniture. Which I will be doing next class. Because I have no pictures of us sitting down having a nice old conversation, I just put this GIF of Spider Dog instead. Hopefully it properly conveys the seriousness of our ideas/game development.
So next class I will continue work on interior sprites and maybe, just maybe touch up the running animation. Not certain on that though, its important, but hard, very... very... hard...
Also I would do the zombie walking animation. I learned that making plans in advance for the games development is very, very, necessary. Obviously that's something we already knew, but didn't fully understand the importance. During that class I hit the equivalent of a writers block. So we sat down and talked about what we need done. We debated about what should be done and Justin eventually decided that we needed more and more furniture. We then discussed what kind of furniture we wanted, and what was needed. We came to the conclusion, every house has a kitchen. So next class I  will work on Kitchen sprites.  

Class 27

Today I started by organizing the players gun sprites into neat groups, its just easier to work in a clean environment. I also transferred over the idle/blinking animations into my new copy of the game. I then started to create a reloading animation for the shotgun. I started with dissecting Howard's code, as seen in the second screenshot. Then I took that code over and converted it into what I needed. In the third screenshot you can see the finished product of code, and finally the GIF is how it works in game. Obviously not the best animation, but its good for now. Well I was trying to originally create the reload animation I accidentally got the sprite to change in between shots rather then reloads. So now I know how to make a firing animation. Next class I will look at the other guns and see if a reloading animation or firing animation would work for them. I'm thinking about making a bolt animation for the sniper rifle.

And here's another GIF of Justins Youtube channel.

Class 26

Today I did a little bit of everything. I started by fixing my game by downloading a newer version from Howard. I also did some work on some more trash for Justin. Along with the trash I changed some minor details to the Ak47 and Hunting Rifle in game. I also changed the floor tiles for the first room, making them look a little less like a giant tile, and making the color difference softer so the character doesn't blend into the background. But still fits into the environment. I learned more about the colours we are using for our games background and how they contrast with the actual player. This problem can probably be fixed with a shadow underneath the player, instead of changing the colour of every single ground tile we have. Justin is working on shadows, but i'm not quite sure if hes continued developing them. So hopefully he will add them and the character with feel like hes actually in the game, rather then just being a picture on another picture.  

Class 25

Today I didn't really do much. I attempted to add a sprint button, but Howard's movement code is like a maze. So all I managed to do was break my game, so now all I can do is walk diagonally. Tomorrow I might attempt to clean up the movement code or fix my game. Probably just fix my game. The movement code is pretty messy so I never actually cleaned it up, However, we decided against a sprint button anyways. We felt that it might take away from the game if your just running super fast everywhere. Looking through Howards movement code helped me later down the road when I added the shotgun reloading aniamtion. Looking through his code gave me a better understanding of  how the game is being developed and greatly helped me due better as coder. 



And here is a GIF of Justin, from like 2012.
It would be better with sound. But that's some next level stuff I don't feel like doing.

Class 24

Today I created two bandit sprites and a guy in a sleeping bag. These are sprites Justin wanted for his cut scene. The head on the sleeping bag is currently a placeholder, so its just the default player face. Tomorrow I will just do whatever Justin needs me to do again. Tomorrow I will attempt to dive into some coding, my coding skills aren't the best but I can still manage some basic stuff. I will attempt to add a sprint button to Howard's movement code. Which might prove challenging because his coding style is very different from mine, and reading someone else's code can be challenging. Especially when its much more complicated. I learned easier ways to add clothes to my characters, I just added layers of clothing over creepy pictures of the same character in underwear. By doing that I successfully made two separate characters with different weapons.  

Class 23

Today I didn't come to class because I was busy helping someone get ready for an after school grad cruise. SO. I don't have any screenshots to show of my "IN" Class work. Instead I will do all my work from my home laptop. Sadly I don't have Photoshop or any fancy drawing programs to work on sprites. So I will just do extra work next class and post some of the pictures on here. However I know what I am doing next class and that is more furniture. and whatever Justin tells me to do because I owe it to him for skipping.

(To clarify I am only doing whatever he says that is "class" related)

 - Here are some screenshots of Justin being the "Boss of Development"

Class 22

DAY 22

Today me and Justin continued some work on the story of the game. I also started making some basic trash. Yes Trash. Well actually like a pile of old boards or something. Honestly who knows. As long as it looks good. Also did some minor work to the bandit because he felt to normal to me. Sadly however I didn't get a screenshot of the new and improved version. So two classes from now I will upload a picture of the "Cannibal". I will also do some more work on garbage sprites and indoor decor.

Class 21

DAY 21
Today I made some more furniture and a bandit character for Justin. I also continued to help Connor redo Simrans work. Helping Connor was pretty hard and kind of an eye opener. Connor and I disagree a lot, and when it came to art, it was ten times worse. However we debated and managed to find equal ground. Working together we managed to make some pretty good looking gun icons. I also learned that two minds are better then one, even when it comes to art. So far Connors work on our game fits the style a lot more then Simrans previous sprites. Even though Simrans stuff is pretty much being redone I still think he can be useful to our game. Although i'm not quite sure what work of Simran's has actually made it into the game, its still nice to have his opinion and input. And even though Simran and myself don't always get along , I still think hes a good fit for our game development. Hopefully I can use what I learned from teaching Connor and we can work around some of the differences and make this game the best it can be.    

Class 20

DAY 20
Today I started to work on some of the furniture for the starting house and other interiors. We also continued our talk on story development. Next class I will work on more furniture and possibly a bandit character for Justin.

Class 19

Today Justin and I didn't do much work on the game itself today. Instead we started to work on a story concept for the game. Justin feels like the story is an important part in the game (I also agree to that) so next class I will add a few collisions into the game and draw up a story board with Justin.

Class 18

DAY 18
Today I created a muzzle flash for the guns. We also discussed more about our problems with our perspective. Hopefully next class we can get to the bottom of that problem. Another note is that on my free time and some of my class time i'm teaching myself to use Game Maker so i'm not just a "art monkey" as you said. My secondary "Learners Game" is a physics based side scroller.

Its current sprites are purely placeholder. The whole purpose of this game is for me to learn more about coding in Game Maker. The player "Box" has changing sprite states for when the player is moving left and right. (Hence the white arrow)

Class 17

DAY 17
Today I created a simple animation for the characters idle state. I also helped Connor settle into the class. Over the weekend I learned some basic Game Maker code. Hopefully now I can help with some deeper development of the game and not just artwork.
We are also now running into some development issues. The games viewpoint seems strange because some things appear to be at a top down perspective well other things are more isometric. This obviously can make the game look strange at times.

Class 16

DAY 16 
Today I downloaded game maker studio to my computer so I can work on the game through GM instead of photoshop. The setup took most of my class time up. But with the few minutes of work I got done I managed to start some early work on a idle animation for the character (as requested/demanded  by Mr Bilesky himself) Animating sprites is way easier to do directly in game maker then it is in photoshop.  Hopefully now I can improve the games animations by working in GM. Next class I will continue my work on the idle animation or re-make the running animation for the player character.
It really just depends on my mood.

(No screenshot for today, so just picture the following)
- Me sitting at my computer downloading Game Maker, the kid to my left laughing in a high pitched tone that could break glass, and of course Simran to my right doing... well... nobody really knows.
 

Class 15

DAY 15
Today I created the last gun (for now), the hunting rifle. I also started to work on a bandit character, sadly i'm not the smartest person and I accidentally deleted it. The bandit sprite took up a good portion of my class time. So all I have to show for this day is this fancy looking hunting rifle. Tomorrow I will ask around the group to find out what else needs to get done. If they don't have any suggestions I will restart my work on the Bandit sprite.

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