Test Cinematic -- text box animations

Here is the map for my cinematic. In intend for the camera to anmiate and look at the text box. The text box will appear and then dissappear to simulate a conversation.

Here is the set up in Kismet. Each node has a different function.

When the player triggers the scene they are stopped and the camera is activated. The text is hidden at first.

Then the text box appears, this simualtes a line of dialogue.

Varli - model

Here is a 3D model I created. It's Varli, one of the lead characters of my story. I plan to Rig this model and try out some animations.

Character Design -- Varli

Here are some costume designs. I've experimented with elements of science fiction. They range from the feminine to a tomboyish look. Some look more innocent and others look more assertive.

 Here are some head designs. Some look more fantasy based while some look more realistic. Some of the cartoony designs look a little over the top. The more Sci-Fi looking designs also look too conspicuous to work within the story.

Importing Skeletal meshes with Animations into UDK (Test)

To create cutscenes in UDK im going to need Skeletal meshes and animatrions. These meshes will be animated and act out the scenes. This is how the narrative could be told.

First I created a basic block and then skinnd it to two bones. Using the bones and the animation feature of max I created a basic animation of the box turning. Here it is at frame 0.

Here is the box at frame 30. This is a basic animation I created to see if I can import it to UDK successfully.

I used a max plugin called Ator X (which was downloaded from the udn website) to export the skeletal mesh as a PSK file and the animation as a PSA file. The PSK file could be easliy imported into UDK as a skeletal mesh. The PSA file couldn't be imported the same way. I had to create an AnimeSet in UDK first and then import the PSA file into that.

Here is the skeletal mesh in the Animeset editor. Animation sequences can be viewed in this editor. here is the mesh at the beginning of the animation sequence.

Here is the mesh at the end of the animation sequence. The protoype worked, the skeletal mesh and the animation sequence was imported into UDK successfully.