Its finally done!

Hello all!
You guys are such stars.. thanks so much for all the help and the effort you put in! Was amazing working with you all =)
Kate, last night was brilliant. Hats off to you!
Hope all of you had fun as well.
All the best for your pitches and more importantly, the minor!
Rock on,
James and Aarthi

IMPORTANT: Thursday's plan!

Morning!
This is to reconfirm today's meeting with Jeremy at 3 PM today at the
studio. This is a feedback session that everyone compulsorily needs to
attend. So please be there =)

Also, we need everyone to help us out tomorrow in setting up the
place. We've been given three hours in the morning to set up. Between
9:30 AM and 12:30 PM. We've got to finish by then because the bar
opens at 1:00 PM.

Here's whats been delegated to you =)
Incharge of Projector 1: SHREYAS (Incharge during the launch as well)

Incharge of Projector 2: KENNETH (Incharge during the launch as well)

Incharge of Projector 3: ESKI (Incharge during the launch as well)

Computer 1 and 2: ISAAC (Incharge during the launch as well)
PETER (Transportation)
RAY (Transportation)
SHELLEY (during the launch)

Computer 3 and 4: MING (Incharge during the launch as well)
PREET (Transportation)
ADA (Transportation)
ALAN (during the launch)

Bar Tab Ticketing: CHERRY (You would have to help Kate hand out bar tab tickets)
JOYCE

Gaming: Help people play the game -if needed- during the launch
PJ
REECE

Navigation: MIKE
AMY

MC: KATE

Door: You can take turns!
KATE
EMILY BISSLAND
CORDELIA

The following people would have to ensure that things are run
smoothly, even in terms of catering.
MOON SUN
EMILY DAY
LEE
TONY

The folowing people would have to come in at 9:30 AM tomorrow to
transport equipment, and rehearse at The Order:
Shreyas
Kenneth
Peter
Ray
Preet
Ada
Mike
Amy
Paul

NOTE: Those who are incharge of transportation should make sure the
equipment is brought back after the launch as well. Remember you are
responsible for the equipment!

Thanks so much guys!
All of you have done such a great job.. And hats off to the Engine
team for making it all possible!
Cheers,
Aarthi and James

ps. If I have have missed out on anyone, I'm sorry. Please let me know!

Jeremy wants to talk to us!

Hey guys!
A quick mail to say that Jeremy wants to have a group talk.. with all of us present there! So please be there tomorrow (May 16) afternoon at 3PM to meet and catch up with him!
See you all there!
Aarthi

Urgent Call!

Hey Production Team!
There are some important tweaks to be done tomorrow.. so we need you
all of you to come in at 9 AM to help the Engine team out. Please make
sure you're here then! These hours will surely be taken into account
for you to complete your hours!
Thanks =) seeya tomorrow!
Aarthi

We're on RRR!

Hey guys!
Kate has organised for a live studio interview on RRR on Wednesday, May 16 at 7.15pm! Paul, James and Kate would be on air! Check 'em out =)
Cheers,
Aarthi

We're live on selectparks.net

Hey guys!
Check this out =)
http://www.selectparks.net/
Isn't Kate awesome?!
Aarthi

Our website is up!

Hello there =)
Check out the Terra Transeo website..
http://aim.adc.rmit.edu.au/students2007/terratranseo/
A job well done, Shelley!
Cheers,
James and Aarthi

Kate's Update!

Hey guys!
Just to keep you all posted on the marketing side of things.. what Kate has been upto and what we're doing!

We're getting CDs printed by Cinevision. If we can get it to them Monday evening, great, but they know it will most likely be Tuesday morning, first thing, master copy and artwork, and they will be ready Thursday afternoon.

Posters will be put up from Monday evening on!

We've heard back from Chris Dodds at Selectparks - he is able to attend and is happy to organise a post on the selectparks website for us, once our website is up and running (so next week basically). He is also going to post details of the launch.

Kate got an email back from the Talks editor at RRR - she has put us forward to some of the broadcasters but hasn't heard anything back yet. She will be in touch with us again early next week.

We're in talks with RMITV, they may film our launch for us - do we want this?! Guess its fine!

ACMI is unable to exhibit our game in the games lab, logistically not possible, but Helen Stuckey is able to attend the launch.

However, Experimedia is very interested to do something with us, but it won't be until the second half of the year - Indra is unable to attend the launch due to other engagement.

Finally, we heard back from the series producer of Good Game (ABC2 digital show). She said they already have their show for Monday 15th, but wanted to know where the launch was. We sent her an invitation, gave her lots more details about the game, gave links to the website and blog, and also asked her if we could be featured on a later show, and if RMITV filmed the event could they use it?!

Thats it from her side.. she's doing an aweosme job, isnt she!?
I guess I'll see you guys around.. soon =) all fine out here! Its looking great.. and we're down to ironing out a few issues!
Cheers,
Aarthi

ps. Toshi, the animations work fine now =) thanks so much!

Its almost there!

Hello everybody!

As you all know, we're almost there! The Production team finishes off today.. and they've already given all the meshes and textures to the Engine, who've assembled everything. And are putting in the gameplay elements. Its all looking great! Kudos to you guys..

There would be a meeting at 11:30 AM on Monday - the final day of production! what a big sigh of satisfaction?! =) Everyone is expected to come, as we need to talk about our Thursday night launch plans!

Also, as most of you in the Concept and Production team have not fullfilled the complete 108 hours (the assessment requirement) small tasks would be delegated to you from Monday to Friday to help Kate, James and me.. with arrangements at the venue, poster-runs, CD writing runs, etc. Please check the Timesheets Log Book to see the total number of hours you've done through the production (I've tallied hours worked until Wednesday).

AND those of who want to test out the game, please feel free to do so on the two Macs set up next to the back exit of the studio!!

Cheers,
Aarthi

ps. Please email me screenshots of your work to be blogged and uploaded to the website! Thanks..

City screenshots from Gerard!

No excuses this time!

Hello all!
Just a quick note to say please keep yourself free on May 15th in the evening! As you all know, we've reached the last stages of our project.. and its been amazing, every bit of it. Check the blog for some of the work thats been done until last Thursday. http://terratranseo.blogspot.com
As you all know, we finish on the 14th of May (Monday) and we're having a get-together on the 15th of May to celebrate its completion =)
We'll be meeting up at the studio at 6 PM to have a go at the game (if you haven't done it by then!) and then head to Bimbo's on Brunswick St. (Fitzroy) for $4 pizzas and beer!
See you all on Monday!
Cheers,
James and Aarthi

ps. Those of you who werent around for Thursday's photo session, your last chance is Tuesday morning at 10:30 AM. Otherwise we'd have to put up your mugshots from day one!
Lok, Way and Lewis, Tuesday morning 10:30 AM suits you guys?

pps. Andy, Laura and Toshi: We would love to get your photos as well =) Say Wednesday night when we meet up for the meeting? How does that sound?

Work in Progress!

Work in Progress!?

These are take off on some of the shop windows!

Haha.. Any comments?

Website Template!

Great job Shelley!

Our Logo!!

This was done by Connor Parker, who was here as a work-ex student! He's done an awesome job.. in the time he's been here!

Terra Transeo Update + Photo Shoot!

Hey guys!
We intend to have a photo shoot tomorrow at 11 AM as informed earlier! Umm... so please do bring in plain coloured collared shirt with you! If you're not there, we'd be forced to put up those mug shots (remember the ones on the white board?!) in the game!
Everything seems to be going great with the production team and the engine team.. they seem to be pumping out stuff everyday!
We've got the terrain for the city and the forest done with.. Cordelia and Gerard have done a great job! Thanks to John Power.. he's like a whiz kid! A great source of support to us we must say!
On the Sound front, we have a meeting tomorrow with them at 4.30 PM. They seem to be having a great time as well. They're providing us a few souonds tomorrow to tet out and then giving us sounds over a few days until next Wednesday, so that we dont overwhelm the Engine team with work.
We also intend to start importing the finished pieces into the engine from tomorrow on!
The best bit of news that we had today was we've finally decided on a place for our launch! Its called the Order of Melbourne and we've got it for free! You can check it out at http://www.theorder.com.au/
We've also had Jeremy's nephew working for a week with us... he's awesome! He's done some of the artwork for us. Especially the logo! Its looking great.
Check out our blog tonight for more of the artwork, logo, etc.
Don't forget tomorrow.. Be there or be square!
The Producers

ps. Sorry for being slack about the blog over the last week.

Production Update!

Hello all =)
What a wonderful day its turned out to be?! Things are going great now.. Kudos to the Engine team.. they've worked out almost all the concepts that we needed tested out! And have got them running! AND they've built a prototype of the city with the actual layout and its looking great! Congrats Gerard.. good job!
The Production team have finished modelling the characters.. Kenneths been amazing! and we are going to have them mapped by Isaac and Tony tomorrow so that MoonSun and Peter start off animating tomorrow afternoon..
We're thinking of getting all the basics done by Friday night so that we can import everything into the Engine on Monday morning and then tweak everything from then on for a week! Everythings been worked out in terms of who's doing what in the city.. so hope its all clear to you guys! Please do ask us if you need help!
The Production team is again meeting at 9 AM tomorrow to finalise the work on the island!
Thats it for now! Cheers guys..
More later!
The Producers

Production Team - File Management

Hi all,

I'd like to round up topics from our last meeting since there are many things to remember, and also some additional details.

1. Submit files to team leader for backing up by 5.00pm everyday. Keep the back up files with you too.

2. A model need to have 1 version of seperate objects and 1 version of combined objects (if it has more than 1 object) Please read the note about how to prepare your Maya model to Unreal at the end of this mail.

3. After a model is finished (combined), it will be save in 2 versions:
1) Triangulated for testing in UT (TT_PModel_buildingOrangeTri_v001_TT.ma)
2) 4 sides polygon for unwrap UV (TT_PModel_buildingOrange_v010_TT.ma because it's not final yet ).
When it's in the unwrap process by texturer, the file will be save as: TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_v001_AS.ma
After finishing unwrap UV, the model will be sent back to modeler again to triangulate, save as final version and put into final folder .

Note:The file name of a uv snapshot(unwrapped uv) will be: TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_UV_v001_TT.jpg save it in working files>>UV folder


4. Modeller has to make a dummy targa file(image map of a material) to apply to the model and name it according to the model file name. Save it in the final folder of its catagory on Terra server. Here is the example:

TT_PModel_buildingOrange_v001_TT.ma ---> model file name
TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_vFinal_AS.tga ---> dummy targa file name (mean that it's known who will do this texture)

In case of 1 model has more than 1 material on it, different materials (and mostly different textures) have to be applied on the model. For example, a building with brick(wall), glass(roof) and wood(floor) needs 3 materials. To make it easier for texture team to know which faces are which material, the dummy targa files should be solid color images. This is how the dummy targa names will be:

TT_PModel_buildingOrange_v001_TT.ma ---> model file name
TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_wall_vFinal_AS.tga ---> dummy targa file name
TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_roof_vFinal_AS.tga ---> dummy targa file name
TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_floor_vFinal_AS.tga ---> dummy targa file name

or it'd be defined by level so the file name'd be: TT_PTexture_buildingOrange_level1_vFinal_AS.tga ---> dummy targa file name

Texturer will name a texture file by following the dummy targa file name, but change from "vFinal" to "v001". Once the final texture is done, just replace the dummy file . This way the model will not have missing image file problem.

5. Final folder is only for final files. If you have the new final file, you have to put the old final file to the working files folder and rename it to a version.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

how to prepare your Maya model to Unreal

In Maya, go to Display>>Grid>>option box and change to this settings

Length and width : 1024
Grid line every: 16
Subdivisions: 1

also go to every camera attribute and change Far Clip Plane:4000

The following is from unreal wiki.


Your Model

1. Should be "facing positive X". Meaning, in Maya, the model's front side should be toward the positive end of the X-axis. This will ensure a proper orientation in Ued.
2. Should be near the origin. Meaning, in Maya, the model's center should be on or near Maya's world origin, where all axis converge at zero.
3. Should have its Center pivot placed in a reasonable place. For example, a wheel would likely need the center pivot in the middle, while an hammer may need the center to be along the handle somewhere. It depends on if this is meant to be used as a mover, how it should move, or how it should be normally placed as a static mesh object in UnrealEd.
4. Should be one single object, not multiple objects placed together (unless you want them to be separate in UnrealEd). Use Polygon → Combine. Merge any extraneous faces, edges and vertices.
5. Should have the normals facing the correct direction. Use Display → PolygonComponents → Normals to see which direction your polygonal faces are "facing".
6. Should have different materials (shaders) applied to the polygonal faces that are meant to have different materials textures applied in UnrealEd. For example, you are making a car. You chassis has a texture all its own, but you want to use a simple glass material for the windshield. In this case, in Maya, you'd apply one color (material, shader) to the chassis and another color for the windshield. It doesn't matter what color, it's just an indicator to UnrealEd that these are separate materials that you'll apply in UnrealEd.
7. Should have its polygon texture alignment ready to go. Use the tools found in EditPolygons → Texture → ... to apply various projection schemes (like cylindrical, planar or automatic) and adjust the scale and orientation of those projections, if applicable.

Thx for reading,
Cherry ^_^

More updates!

Allo!
Sorry, we meant Monday, the 30th of April =) not May. Typing error. Sorry!
We had a great day today. The Production team have kicked off work and are enthusiastic about every single thing.. they're building models. making textures, loads of graphiti.. a great group that seems to be lovin' it! Good job guys.. The Concept team has finally gone their own ways to rest for a bit.. after an exhausting week of squeezing all their creative juices out! The Engine team, mindless of things going around are working full paced on things and have given us great feedback on the EPOCs..
The Sound guys met up with us as well today and discussed the engine with Sam as well. They're planning to start off work on Monday.. and seem keen to get their hands on the game as well =) a great trio!
We've decided not to rely on the computers at Uni anymore.. so please ensure you take back-ups even when you go out for an hour! You may back-up on the Terra which is accessible on the Macs and before you leave for the day, please ensure you ask Aarthi to back up your files on her HardDrive, And please fill in the timesheets in the black file thats on the table outside the Dub room.
Thats pretty much it for now.. So laters!
Have a great weekend!
The Producers!

All set to get your hands dirty?!

Hey all!
How're you guys doing? Hope all is well =) and the production team is an excited bunch today.

The Concept team have their document almost ready now and its all set to go! It looks amazing and trust us, they've done a great job, working around the clock, managing their time time well with classes and stuff! Its looking really good... You should take a look at it when you come in tomorrow.

Paul, James and I are looking at the document and trying to make it very clear and concise so that you guys don't have any issues during production.

We're also meeting the Sound guys today to find out their ideas =) they're really keen to get going as well. Seem to be a very professional and fun bunch!

Kate is going to take a break for a while and get things rolling next week with the marketing of Terra Transeo! We're kinda thinking of taking to a bigger level this level. Fingers crossed =)

The Engine team have gotten most of the stuff together but are still working out a few issues! But they're pretty much sailing through things now.. Sam's a master trooper we think.. He's been looking at so many things at the same time.. and trying to get it all work! Way to go all of you!

We're sorry we have so many issues with the computers out here! And the network.. its a pain isn't it?! Really sorry about it, but we have to stick it out and get it done by the 14th of May.. so hope you guys are ok with that. We don't have much of a choice do we?!

We would like the entire class to come in at 9 AM on Monday, the 30th of May. Just for an hour!

We're also going to have a photo shoot and a small get-together =) to get us all in the spirit! So don't forget to bring in a light plain-coloured collared shirt in on Monday (and a tie if you have one!) Also, please do come in at 9 AM sharp!

Kepp a lookout on the blog tonight or tomorrow morning to see some of the work that the production crew have done for the day!

Cheers guys.. We think you're all champions to keep things going on.. and be bright and cheerful even when we have these computer issues going on.
Rock on,
The Producers!