CGSource.net - Ole Kristian's Website and Creative Journal
 
JetCraft is a Starcraft 2 custom map under development which aims to replicate the feel of old-school 2D platform sidescrollers.
The main objective is to leave the level through the exit door which will only open once the player has collected all the keys scattered around. The player will also be able to collect various treasures to increase the end score, but only the keys are mandatory to complete the level.
The map comes with its own in-game editor which allows players to create their own JetCraft levels and share with other people online.
Features: (version 1.0.0)
• Play through an extensive list of challenge maps to get the highest scores possible, and unlock even more challenge levels.
• Create and save up to 32 levels using the easy-to-use in-game level editor.
• Play together with up to three other players in the online versus and coop mode.
• Share your creations with other players over Battle.Net.
• Configurable gameplay controls.

Controls(default, current build)
A/D: Walk left/right
W/S: Climb up/down
Space: Jump/Jetpack
Shift: Sprint
E: Use item
[Key bindings can be configured by the player.]

Take a look at the Project Page for newer and updated information.

 
 
Our main bachelor project over at Teesside University this year just went public over the Internet. Just thought I'd share it with whomever is visiting my site these days.

The animation was created by myself, Anders Grønvold Fossli, Tim Daniel Ophus and Christer Johnsen.
Soundtrack by Darren Gregory.

Chuck Borris is a short animation starring an middle aged war veteran pilot who is living a rather troubled life after he came back from the war. During one of his routine medications, he is hit by a remote control airplane and swallows all of his pills in one fell swoop, causing some slight hallucinations.
How will this imaginary war unravel?

And as an additional bonus, here's my mandatory "making-of showreel". It's not entirely accurate compared to the current version of the movie as we've been touching up the clip since the hand-in at Teesside. Most notably is the much improved animation quality.
Software used to create this masterpiece:
3ds Max - Modelling, Unwrapping, Rigging, Animating, Rendering
Photoshop - Texturing
ZBrush - Sculpting
Nuke - Compositing
Premiere Pro - Editing
After Effects - Additional post effects
Enjoy.
 
 
Mass Destruction 2 0.3.x Beta has been released on the Starcraft 2 Arcade Beta server and includes numerous updates and bug fixes.
The older 0.2.1b is still available on the 1.4 Starcraft 2 version.
0.3.0 Beta
• Added a battle log to keep track of events in the game.
• Added three new experimental game modules: Apocalypse, Comanche and Weapon Practice.
• Vote polls are now functional.
• Battlefront attribute upgrade progression switched from exponential to linear.
• Added module descriptions.
• Destruction scores has been implemented.
• The auto team manager can no longer create empty teams.
• Fixed a bug that caused flamethrower and laser projectiles to be destroyed on player impact.
• The projectile system has been optimized.
• Players can no longer leave the battlefield area and survive.
• Arcade initial movement speed has been reduced.
• Fixed a bug with unit collision checks not working correctly with units ignoring terrain height.
• Game mode icon will now show up in the main menu.
• Enabled the zombie option in custom arcade modes.
• EMP will now temporary disable turrets and mechanical units.
• Fixed some issues with node settings not resetting properly in some cases.
• Module code has been reorganized and modularized.
• Fixed a bug where the wrong spawner type would be created.• Increased vector and projectile instance limits.

0.3.1 Beta
• Added a quit game button to the main menu.
• The game timer is now properly stopped when the game ends.
• The game will now display a message when a player has cast a vote in a poll.
• Fixed a bug where the Seeker Missiles target wouldn't get released when holding down the attack button.
• Fixed a bug where the gameplay initializer could run twice.
• Decreased Seeker Missile starting ammo in Comanche.
• Increased spawner instance limit.

0.3.2 Beta
• Fixed a bug where the player leave event could trigger two times.
• Fixed a bug where the flag height would be set incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug with the score board when a player left during the score screen between rounds.
• End game vote method has been changed. Now all player has to vote in order to end the current game.
• Added text tags to highlight the Battlefront armories.
• Added module options to the lobby.
 
 
So Diamond Awards was held about a week ago, so I thought I'd just make a short post about it here. N-Gon Studios won the prize for "Best student work - 3D Filmproduction" with our short film Subway Trouble. That was a rather nice surprise, and a awesome way to end our time at Noroff.
Øyvind indirectly challenged me to model and render our trophy, so I spent a couple of hours the day after to create this.

Because I can.
Picture
 
 
Here's the final batch of observational drawings.
Once again, I've photographed the drawings and slightly altered the levels in Photoshop because I find it just looks better that way.
This pretty much marks the end of my time at the Noroff Institute. Have a nice summer. :)
 
 
We've been nominated for Diamond Awards this year and because of that we had to put together a 30 seconds teaser trailer for Subway Trouble. Diamond Awards is basically just a show by Noroff displaying student projects and giving out some rewards.
Anyways, here's the teaser.
 
 
Here's the final render edited by Ole Petter in Premiere Pro. The voice acting was done by Øyvind.
Go to Vimeo to watch it in HD.

I'm overall quite happy with the end result. All things considered. But if we had more time on our hands I would've certainly looked more into the cinematography and pacing of the film. Now that I can see the film as a whole I feel it's not right there. Would also like to fix some of the flickering issues and some bad geometry triangulation causing shading problem. But these are stuff that will require re-rendering of a bunch of shots.
Big fan of the ending though. That was awesome. :)
 
 
No kidding. We're rendering out our very last shot while editing the final clip like crazy. It's insanity really.
We've got a couple more hours tomorrow before deadline so there shouldn't be any problem finishing on time, I hope...
 
 
It's very rare you are able to render out your desired output straight from the 3D renderer. Compositing is a important part of most CG projects because you can play with the lighting and colors as you wish without having to adjust and re-render the entire scene to get the look you want. It can also be of great help to create that distinct and unique art style for a animated film.

Compositing EXR sequences in After Effects is a pain in the ass and consumes RAM like nothing else, so I sat down and thought myself how to use Nuke, a professional dedicated compositing software, and man am I glad I did. Nuke beats the living shit out of After Effects' sorry ass when it gets to compositing heavy 16-bit images.

I've been spending the last few days compositing every shot we've rendered out and handed everything over to Ole Petter who is editing everything together in Premiere Pro.
Pretty simple setup...
...but it quickly gets more complex with more layers
 
 
So we've decided to cut down on the rendering settings to save precious time. I've lowered the image sampler and GI processing, which means we'll get more aliasing and have a higher chance of getting GI flickering in the shots, but at least we'll be able to finish the project on time.