Introduction:
In this week’s blog post, I’ll first speak about this week’s lecture and what we went through. I’ll then discuss the group meeting we had this week, where we all caught up and checked what stage everybody was at, seeing if anything needed changing or if we had to add any new features. Due to this meeting, I couldn’t complete the objectives that I set for myself last week, as I had other tasks to prioritise. Afterwards, I’ll be going through the process I took when making changes to my title sequence animation. The changes I made came from the group meeting we had this week, where I was required to alter the effects used and animate an additional piece of text. I would then be covering what I went through when creating and animating the In-Game credits, outlining the ideation behind the animation. Lastly, I’ll be listing the objectives that I’ve set myself to complete by next week.
This Week’s Lecture:
In this week’s lecture, we were allowed to have a one to one talk with our lecturer regarding our progress in our collaborative project. This was the chance for us to speak about any current difficulties we were facing. However, my collaborative group was at a good stage, meaning we didn’t desperately need to discuss any challenging matters with our lecture. With that said, I mentioned to our lecturer that I might contact him in the future if our group does run into any problems, and he was more than happy to assist.
Group Meeting:
We decided to organise an in-person group meeting this week as we only had two weeks left until we submitted our assignment, meaning it was essential to check each other’s work and see what stage everybody was at. This could potentially be our last in-person meeting together; before we submitted our work, we made sure we covered every subject we needed to. Firstly, I got the opportunity to test the current game out, reviewing the gameplay. I liked the aesthetics and the mechanics of the game. I felt proud and couldn’t believe I was part of a project like this for a moment. This was a novelty for me. I was more than satisfied with the gameplay. The only drawback was that the game felt a bit empty in some areas in terms of environmental space. However, Michaela and I still needed to import our assets into the game, which would probably fix this drawback as the game would then consist of more features and feel less empty.
Secondly, we checked up on each other’s work to see if we should make any changes. Regarding my work, Hisham asked if I could undo the honey drips I made in my title sequence animation two weeks ago. He mentioned that he liked the animation; however, it wouldn’t work in this case because of the title’s position on the screen. As it’s now positioned within the screen’s top-right, the honey would be dripping down the right side of the screen, covering the 3D environmental background. As this was now the case, I agreed that it’d be best to scrap the honey drips.

We spoke about any additional features we could implement into the game during our meeting and what features don’t necessarily NEED to be in the game. This was essential as time was now creeping up on us, meaning we had to prioritise our remaining tasks. At this stage, I only had the texturing for the Bird and Spider model to complete and the tumbleweed to create. This led us to speak about the in-game credits that still needed to be completed. I took responsibility for this task as I was already doing the title sequence. Due to the additional task, I asked the group if I could leave the tumbleweed out for now, and come back to it at the very end, only if I had completed all remaining tasks early and had spare time. My group were happy with this decision as they agreed that the tumbleweed wasn’t a priority.
Title Sequence Changes:
So I began this week by editing the title sequence as I wanted to get it finished, so I could send it over to the game designers to implement into the game. This task was simple as I only had to delete the effect I added onto my layer two weeks ago. Once I did this, I needed to render the title sequence into three separate PNG sequences for the game designers to import into Unity.
PNG Sequences:
Another small change I had to make was related to the wobble effect I made in the title design. I had to make sure it looped smoothly before exporting it and sending it over to the game designers. Without this, the title design would consist of a small jump every time the animation resets. The audience will notice the small jump if they remain on the title screen longer than 10 seconds (As the animation is 10 seconds long). To loop this animation, I had to go into the effect panel for the Turbulent Displace effect and enable Cycle Evolution. This alone caused my animation to loop smoothly, meaning I was all good to export my animation.


Final Title Sequence Animation:
I also needed to create another small animation alongside the title design. I had to animate text saying, “Press Any Button To start”. This animation aimed to inform the player on how to begin the game. I wanted the animation to be simple, so it doesn’t overshadow the title design itself. Therefore, I decided to slowly fade in/out the text by animating the opacity.

I animated the keyframes, so it takes 1 second for the text to fade onto the screen and 1 second to fade off the screen. After fading on, the text will remain on the screen for 2 seconds before fading off. I also converted the linear keyframes to Easy Ease, causing the text to slow down as it approaches a keyframe and gradually accelerates as it leaves.
Final “Press Any Button To Start” Animation:
In-Game Credits:
My next task was to animate the credits. We decided it was more ideal to have the credits right at the beginning of the game rather than at the end, as the credits will only consist of six names. We thought it’d be best to have the credits roll through during the game’s tutorial. So for each of our names, I chose to fade them onto the screen by changing the opacity from 0% to 100% and having them move off the screen, using the same particle simulator effect I used in my title design animation.

I decided to go with Orange and Black for the text’s colours as I wanted to stick to the same colour scheme I used for the title design. Furthermore, having too many colours on the screen simultaneously can ruin the aesthetics or make particular objects/assets challenging to see or process. I edited the text to slowly fade in, taking 2 seconds to get from 0% to 100%. Each piece of text would remain on the screen for 3 seconds before it explodes into particles. I thought this was necessary as it doesn’t consist of any drastic motion, meaning it wouldn’t distract the player from the game, as well as it remains on the screen long enough for the player to acknowledge it.
In-Game Credit Animation Example:
Objectives for Next Week:
- Learn how to use Substance Painter for texturing purposes.
- Re-texture the 3D flying bird model.
- Texture the 3D spider model.