Game Development: The Throne (Dev Log 002)

 

Since the Last post I have been working on a couple of things. Some smaller items that needed finishing and I have Added the Decrees and Upgrades.

Decrees: These are Edicts the player can Pass to improve the Kingdom. They will become available as the story progresses. They cost upfront Gold to set up, then each week the player will receive +gold or Boost to Troops.

There are currently 7 Decrees to Pass: 

• Brewery - Improve the Drinking Establishments and gain gold. 
• Education - With Education comes a better quality of life, and more Taxes!. 
• Port - Construct a Central Port and Benefit from more Trade Income. 
• Prison Reform - Not all Criminals are dangerous, they deserve better living conditions.
• Roads - Constructing Paved Roads to ease the burden of daily travel.
• Barracks Training - Renovate the Old Barracks and begin to Train the Troops.
• Knighthood Program - Establish a Knighthood program and Design the Order. (Choose the Name, Style and Behavior)

 

Upgrades: These are additional bonuses to the Decrees the Player has Passed. Purchasing these Upgrades will give greater bonuses to their respected categories and may help with the End.

There are currently 6 Upgrades to Purchase:

• Brewery Production - Increase Production and Export for more Trade Income. 
• Carriageways - Improving the Roads for Carriages will improve Trade Income. 
• Higher Education - With Higher Education, comes greater Taxes. 
• Advanced Training - Train Elite Troops.
• Admiralty Board - Establishing an Admiralty board will help Rule the Waves. 
• Prison Reform (Parole) - Establish a Parole System for criminals deemed less dangerous. They can choose to serve in the Royal Army to reduce their sentence. 

 

*Note: These Numbers may change throughout the creation of this game. Cost's and Gains for everything will be balanced before release*

Saving/Loading - All the Variables have been added to the Save / Load system.

The Economy also reflects the Decrees and Upgrades. Cost's are deducted and Gains are Awarded.

Characters - Completed Sprites (Walk and Idle)

• Lady Pellem (of Silverton)

 

 

 

Blender Tutorial: How to Make Particles Follow a Path

 

In this Video, we will be taking a look at Particles and how we can make them follow a path we define.

As many of you know by know (and are probably sick of hearing about), I am creating a 2D Game and in which, I needed to create some kind of visual of sending a mass of troops from one place to another. You can check out the Throne Game here.

Creating a Particle System to fit my need was a pretty easy task with Blender. 

 

We can start by aligning the Camera. First we need to jump to the Front View by pressing num-pad 1. Then Hold ctrl alt and num-pad 0. 

 

 

Then using the Image as Planes Add-on (that comes built-in) we can add our map or background image. 

If you do not see the "Image As Planes" option, you just need to activate the Add-on. 

Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Search for Image As Planes and Activate the Add-on.

The Map I used was created in a previous tutorial which can be found here. 

Patreon Subscribers can download the Map .blend file or the other Files here.

Once we have our map in place we need a few more things. Unlike about 99.9% of my tutorials we are actually going to USE the Default Cube!. By changing the Shader Color and Type, the Default Cube becomes the object that will be emitted in the Particle System.

Talking of which, we will need an object for the Particle System, let's add another Cube (the Default Cube is on fire today) and use that for the Particle Emitter. We do need to make some changes such as setting the Start and End, The Lifetime of the Particles and more!. Keep in mind these values will always change depending on your scene.

I wanted a clump of men (or Default Cubes I guess), to suddenly appear and march off to their destination. Though we can get many different variations depending on what effect we are looking for.

We will also need a Curve which will be our "Path" for the Particles to follow. You can use a Bezier Curve if you want but I prefer to add a plane. With the Plane, delete all but one Vert.

There is an easier way to get a single Vertex and to do that you just need to activate another built-in add-on called Extra Objects. 

 

 Once Activated, you can now add a whole bunch of new objects, but we are looking for Single Vertex.

Shift+A > Mesh > Single Vert. Not only will it add a Single Vertex but it place you inside Edit mode also. 

With our Single Vert we can now extrude a path going from one place to another. When we are happy with the Path we just need to convert it to a Curve and we can head over to the Physics Properties Tab.

 

By adding a Force-field Physics Property and playing around with a couple of settings we can easily get the effect I was aiming for. 

Again, you can go crazy and play around with the values to get lots of interesting Variations.

 

Then when we are happy with it we can bake and Render. You can choose to Render it out as an Image sequence or as a Video.

I hope you found this video helpful and as always thanks for reading!.

Game Development: The Throne (Dev Log 001)

 

 

As some of you may already know, recently I have been working on a side project. It's a 2D Side Scroller called The Throne.

It was suggested that I start creating Development Logs and share with you guys the progress of this little game.

So I decided to record pretty much all of the things I have done so far (not much since it's only been a week) you can check out the Video here.

The Throne is a small game where you become a King called Urkhart in the Mythical Land of Kanterbury.

As King you must manage your kingdom, Nobles and other types of annoyances. each week will present, Petitioner, Lords, Ladies and Public Figures. You can choose to act now or Dismiss them.

I have a bunch of things planned to implement such as Trade Agreements, Decrees, Loyalty, Morale and much more.

As you can tell the Art style is really not great and that's down to my poor drawing skills. That being said, I think it does convey an atmosphere and I think it will work for now. If in the future I can afford to hire an artist, I would like to redraw the assets or create a better version of the game with new assets.

Since this is my first real attempt at creating a Game, it will no doubt be rough and I appreciate the continued support!.

If you would like support my channel or this Game further, we now have a Patreon here. Get exclusive Development Updates, In game Content and more!.

2D Animation: Bird / Wing Flap

 

 

In this Video, we are going to Animate a 2D Bird / Wing flap animation as outlined in the "Animators Survival Tool Kit" by Richard Williams.  

 

 

The Book has a bunch of really useful Methods, Principles and Formulas perfect for beginner Animators. 

I have found it to be such a massive help with these videos and recommend checking it out here.

 

 

 

 

We first start by drawing our Bird. You can follow the previous videos principles by using construction lines to create a rough sketch and then go back and add your Detailing/Inking step. In this tutorial I create some materials instead.

Once the Bird has been drawn, we need to create a Chart. 

This will help show us the positions of the Wings on the given frame. It will also give us a visual representation to the Timing. We can see how much or little the wings are Easing in/out.

 

 

We will be talking about Easing in more detail in future videos but as outlined in the Book, the positions work well for a cartoon Bird / wing flap. 

In fact it could be used for a number of flying creatures not just Birds!.

Thankfully we only need to draw 8 Frames for the wings and then we can just duplicate them to loop the action. We could even use the Timer Offset Modifier much like we did in the Previous Lip Sync Tutorial.

Then finally we can add the Up/Down Motion. As the Wings go down, the Body goes Up and vice versa.

I hope you found this video helpful and as always thanks for watching!.

(Note: The Link to the Book is an Affiliate link)

[Blender Grease Pencil / 2D Animation] 2D Character Creation Series : Vlad Von Darkfall

 

In this Three Part Character Creation Series we will be creating a Host called Vlad for an Animated Podcast. 

You can check out Episode One here. Just a quick heads up, the accents are terrible!.

I wanted to see if it was possible for someone like me (Crappy Drawing skills and zero experience) could create something that might resemble an Animation. The results were, not as bad as I though. I mean sure there are plenty of areas that need improvement but for what it is, I am happy with it (kinda..)

 

 

Part One - Character Design.

In this video, we will be designing our Character. First I wanted to jot down some things about Vlad, he would be a Crazy Haired, Friendly Vampire with a slightly old fashion sense. We also need to set up a Construction and Detailing Brush. With our Brushes set up we can then draw three Variations of our character.

We first create some Construction (or sketch) lines to block in the shapes. Using our Construction Brush we can keep the lines messy. The main focus is to make sure the basic shapes look good. Then with our Detailing (or Inking) Brush we can go back and draw the details with much more precision.

If (unlike me) you have any kind of drawing skills, you will find it much easier to design your character. Since my drawing skills are lacking I had to go into Edit mode and play around with some of the strokes. We can also use a bunch of tools from Sculpt Mode (though in this video we didn't use it much).

With the the Three Variations done, I decided to mix and match some features of each character (except the Boris Johnson Looking guy at the end) to create the first draft of Vlad. Then with some Color Fills he was ready for Mobility.

Part Two - Rigging

In this video, we will be taking our Character and creating an Armature (or Rig) and adding some Constraints, giving our character the ability of movement.

We will need to add the rest of the Body and each of them will need to be a separate stroke. Now we have a couple of options when doing this. Instead of adding a new stroke each time (wasting our time needing to set everything up again) we can just use the original Head Stroke.

Simply add a new layer and draw a body part. Then (in edit mode) select only that part and press P. This will bring up the Separation Menu and we can Separate by stroke. You can do this for all the body parts.

We will need a Neck, Torso, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Upper Leg, Lower Leg and foot. We can duplicate the Arms and legs to make things even easier. Once we have our pieces we can then add an armature.

Starting with a single bone, we can extrude out the part that we need. Then by adding some rotation, transform and Inverse kinematic Constraints we can make our Armature move more fluidly. IK constraints are really easy to set up and only need to do so once.

Then we can parent each of the Body Parts to each of the bones. Add a few empties for control and we are done with the Rigging.

 

Part Three - Lip Syncing (and more..)

In this video, we will be taking a look at my new favorite Modifier in order to not only Lip Sync but it can be used for a number of other things such as Blinks, Eyebrow Articulation, Hand shapes and more!.

With our character rigged and ready to go we just need to draw some Mouth Shapes. There are plenty of Lip Syncing Mouth Charts available online and I suggest using one of them as a guide. 

 

 If you want you can download Vlad's Mouth Shapes here.

 

 

Once we have our Mouth Shapes we can then use the Timer Offset Modifier. (NOTE: The Timer Offset Modifier is broken in Blender Version 2.92 In the video I am using Version 2.93 I believe the Modifier also works in Some Older Versions of Blender).

This Modifier is really useful, not only for Lip syncing but as I mentioned it's great for other things like Blinks, Expressions and anything else you want to quickly change the pose for.

When it comes to the actual Lip Syncing, you may need to "hold the frame" or extend the mouth position. It will always depend on how fast/slow your character is talking. 

For example, in the Video the character says "Hello". We will first add the H shape and extend it for an additional frame. Then the L shape for two frames and then finally the O shape. The Character Extends the O so I think we can hold the position for three or even four frames. Again this will always depend on the speed of your characters Audio.

If we mess things up and the timing is off? Don't worry!. We can move keyframes around and add new ones really easily. It's not too difficult, maybe just time consuming and depending on how long your animation is, you may be there for a little while. In the Animation I had two characters talking for a couple of Minuets and it didn't really take that long.

So in the end it turns out the Grease Pencil is easier to use than I once thought. I enjoyed making these videos and I hope you guys enjoyed them too. If you did enjoy this series be sure to look out for more Grease Pencil Tutorials!.

Blender Add-on: The Shader Library [Version 1.09] - New Planets and Misc Improvements

 

In this video, we will be taking a look at The Shader Library add-on (version 1.09). 

You can check out the preview video here or head over to the Shader Library VR Observatory.

Download the add-on here.

 

Changes as of version 1.09:

Cosmic Shaders Changed;

• Continental World 
• Color Variation added. 
• Day/Night Shadow (and controls) added.
• City Lights added.
• User now has a choice to choose Emission / BSDF Shader.
  

              

Cosmic Shaders Added;

• Rocky - A Rocky Planet with optional Atmospheric Glow.
  
• Golden - A Golden sci-fi world.
• Moon - A basic Moon.
• Icy - An Icy world.
  

 

All Images Rendered in Eevee.

Continental Shader (using BSDF Shader)

 

 

 

Continental Cosmic Shader (using BSDF Shader) with Clouds. 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocky Cosmic Shader
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Cosmic Shader.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moon Cosmic Shader
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Icy Cosmic Shader
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

+ many more variations based on the values you input. 

You guys have been dropping some suggestions and that's awesome!. It's great to see what you may or may not want to see in the future versions of this add-on and hopefully I can make it as useful as possible.

Some things have been added others are still coming but if you want to make any suggestions you can leave a comment here or head over to our facebook group here.
 

Blender Add-on: The Shader Library [Version 1.08] - The Cosmic Shader Update

 

In this video, we take a look at another update for The Shader Library (version 1.08). 

In this update we we now have Cosmic Shaders!. These Shaders are Procedurally Generated and have the ability to be changed for variations.

Changes as of version 1.08:

Cosmic Shaders Added;

• Dust Planet - A Barren Planet with optional Atmospheric Glow.
  
• Continental World - An Earth-like Planet with optional Clouds and Atmosphere.
• Star Sphere - A Star-field that is best used on (though not restricted to) a sphere.
  

More Planets will be added in future updates, if you have any suggestions on what you would like to see added or have any suggestions on options you would like in the Operator be sure to let me know in the Video's comments.

You can download the updated script here. 

 

Once you have downloaded the update, you will now have the Cosmic Shaders Tab.

With your object selected, you can select the Planet Type and the desired Shader.

 

Star Sphere

With the "Star Scale" we can increase or decrease the size of the stars.

The "Star Density" will effect the coverage of the stars.

Dust Planet

The "Planet Hue" allows you to change the Hue of the whole Planet.

With the "Stripe Amount" You can add or remove the horizontal stripes. 

Enabling "Atmospheric Glow" should be a law!. 

Not really but it really does make everything look better. With it enabled you can choose the "Atmos Color" and "Glow Amount"

Continental World

The "Land Hue" is similar to the Dust Planet with the exception that this will only change the Hue for the Landmass. 

We can increase the size of the Continents with the "Land Scale" amount. 

With "Water Level" we can increase or decrease the level of the water. 

Atmospheric Glow is exactly the same as the Dust Planet.

Enable Clouds and you can change the "Cloud Scale" and "Cloud Visibility" too.

Blender Python Tutorial: Redo Operator

 

 

In this video we will be taking a look at how we can add the Redo Function to our add-ons.. *Spoiler Alert* - It's super easy!..

The Redo Operator Panel is a fantastic little addition to any add-on, it gives the user more control of the Operator (after Execution). For this example I will be using a Template Panel and Operator. You can find the Template script here.

I add a cube and change the location (though this could be any function or action you want). Then by adding some BL info in the operator we can add our Redo Panel. 

Once we have it working we can then make it look better by turning the Operator into a Pop-up Dialog Box (which is something we covered in a previous video). We can also make it look pretty by defining the draw method (again something we covered in a previous video).

Scripting Playlist

I hope you find this video helpful and I hope you guys are enjoying the series so far!.

As always, thanks for Reading!..

Blender Add-on: The Shader Library [Version 1.07] - UI and Misc Changes

In this Video, I wanted to share with you the update for the Shader Library Add-on (version 1.07). 

The Shader Library is a Free Blender Add-on I have been developing for a little while now. In this Version I had to make some adjustments under the hood and decided to make some additional improvements.

You can find the script here.

Check out the Full list of changes below:

Changes as of version 1.07

• UI Change for Gold, Silver and Copper Shader. (Roughness Slider has been added).
• UI Change for Ghost Shader. (Transparency Slider has been added ). 
• Variant Option for Ghost Shader. (In Cycles Only, A Variant Option has been added).
• UI Change for Hologram Shader. (Wireframe Amount Slider has been added).
• Diamond Shader Fix (Diamond Shader now works in Eevee Render Engine).
• Optimized script. (File size now 42KiB).

 

The Gold Shader Operator

This now has a Slider for the Roughness Value. You can set the Amount of Roughness to your Gold Shader.

(Note, This is the Same for the Silver and Copper Shader also)

The Ghost Shader Operator

This now has a Transparency Slider. At 0 the Shader is 100% Transparent. At 1, the Shader is Visible.

The Ghost Shader Operator (In Cycles)

When using the Ghost Shader in The Cycles Render Engine the Operator will have a "Variant" Option. (This name should be changed to something more applicable).

 

 

With this option enabled it will add a subtle effect to the shader and you will be able to see the whole object (see Images below).

Ghost Shader

This is the Ghost Shader by default. We can see through Suzanne and any objects behind her but we do not see her right ear and the other side of the Model.

The Ghost Shader (Variant)

With the Variant Enabled we can now see the whole model and anything behind it. I think the name "Variant" should be changed to something more applicable. (Got an idea what that should be? Let us know in the comments!).

The Hologram Shader Operator

The Wireframe Size Slider has been added. You can set how big or small the wireframe effect is. Though the slider goes up to 1, you can manually enter a value for more Wireframeness?...

 

 

 Update 1.08 is now available. Check out the blog post here. 

Why is it not Working? : Particle System and Panels

 

In this video, we will be doing another "Why is it not working?" thanks to a question I get asked quite frequently. "How can I add other things to my Panel".

We will be adding some Particle System Properties to our Panel. We can easily find out how to do this by checking out the Info Window as we actually change the options manually. Once we know where the options or Properties live we can then reference them in our Panel and bring over as much or as little as we want.

Having your commonly used tools and properties at hand is not only easy to do but is a great way to speed up your workflow.

You can download the Basic Template here, or you can download the finished script here.

I hope you find this video helpful and as always thanks for reading!.

Blender Python Tutorial: Application Timers

 

In this video, we will be taking a quick look at Timers. We will be creating a simple timer that will run a function once after a set amount of time. Then we will create a timer that will run a function once every second for a set amount of times.

This timer is quite simple but effective. If you want to run a Function after (x) amount of seconds this will do the trick.

We first create a Function and call it in_5_seconds. After 5 seconds we want something to happen, such as printing a message to the System Console.
We are not limited to just printing messages, we could add objects, make adjustments or even run other functions.

We can then call the Function as a Timer: bpy.app.timers.register(in_5_seconds, first_interval= 5). We just need to add the Function Name and then set the First Interval.

Since this is a float, we can lower the number to slow it down.

The next Timer we will be taking a look at is one where we can Run a Function once, every (x) amount of seconds for (n) amount of times. With this Timer we can set how many times we want a function to run along with how quick the function is ran between intervals.

We first create a Global Variable called counter. This variable will go up as our Function is ran. Once it hits a defined value it will then stop running the Function.

For this Timer we must make sure we add the If statement. We need to tell the Timer when to stop. By using the Counter we can define the amount of times the Function is ran. When we call this Timer we only need to add the Function Name.

There are other example of Timers and if you want to check out the Official Docs you can click here. If you want to see more Complex Timers be sure to let us know in the comments.

I hope you find this helpful and as always thanks for reading!.

Blender Python Tutorial: How to Create a Random Word Generator [Learn Python for beginners]

 

In this video we will be creating a pretty Basic Word Generator. In the previous tutorial we created some Digital Graffiti and some of you had asked how I came up with the name and concept and as many of you will know, I am terrible when it comes to naming things.

So, using Python I made a simple Random Word Generator and thought it would be a good idea to show you guys how I did that and if you want to follow along you can download the template script here. 

Alternatively you can download the Finished script here.

I hope you find this video helpful and as always, thanks for watching!

Blender Tutorial: The Leaky Cauldron (Harry Potter Style VFX)

 

 

In this Video we will be turning our footage into a Harry Potter Style VFX Shot. 

 

I wanted to turn our bright, vibrant video footage (download here) into something right out of Diagon Alley.

 

With a little tracking we can add a 2D Plane for our sign and change the colors of our shot to get that grungy vibe. 

 

The Sign took a few mins to create, though I would suggest creating your own and spend a little more time making it look better. 

 

 

If you do want to use the Sign, you can find the download here.

In the actual Harry Potter Movie, the Sign starts off Black and then appears as if by magic. To simulate that same effect, I took a video (download here) and used it as the Factor of a Mix Node.

With a little Color Correction and Color Grading we have our Diagon Alley (kinda, but not really).. You can take this further and add more images of videos (such as the birds above the sign) and add more life into shot.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful and as always, thanks for reading!.