Jared i.Greene
multimedia portfolio

3D Modeling, Animation, and Game Design


Content Teleportation Device:
Click on one of the links below to teleport the content



3D Modeling

Here are a variety of my 3D renders. Some were intended for modding, some for projects, and some the others were just for fun.

Abstract

About these: I was playing with numerous elements of composition and lighting effects for these renders. The first two images the three bars and the caustic torus were created as a means to play with lighting effects of glass objects. The third image "Continuum" represents an infinity of dimmensions, with each of the rectangles acting as a dimmension, and the openings within them acting as windows through the universe. Only the universes directly in front of you allow for you to see through the window of each rectangular universe. The "Fisho" and "Neptune" renders were merely abstract notions or me simply playing with shapes, light, and glassy effects. The final render edmodel vaguely resembles a space ship, but is created using sharp extruded surfaces to creates the illusion of a 3D fractal.

Characters

About these: The first two are of the cartoon character Bender from the show Futurama. Being an avid fan of the show, I decided to replicate my favorite character. The first is a simple rendering of the model early on in development. The second rendering is a somewhat crude, though well-suited rendering of the Bender character. He is seen enjoying a sunset while relieving himself of some built-up oil pressure. The final render is of a simple mushroom character who was created using a cartoonish renderer.

School Projects

About these: The first row is of a dune buggy that was required to fit specific dimmensions of a trailer. The entire design had to be in high detail, including things like break calipers, suspension, and the engine. My design included three storage boxes, rendered as being diamond plated stainless steel. In the next row, the first render was created for an Engineering class that I took. The project as a whole was to create a robotic arm using home-made hydraulics with syringes as pistons. The goal was to pick up as many ping-pong balls and drop them into a cup. This specific rendered part is the piece responsible grabbing each ball. The next rendering was from a Chemistry class. The requirement was to draw our experiment, however I went the extra mile and instead made a 3D rendering of it. The last images are also from CAD classes. The first is of a Lego brand pirate ship that I used to own (and yes, I actually had to draw every piece and then assemble it within the software). The last two are of a toy racing yacht of original design.

Misc/Landscapes

About these: The first two are simply landscape renders. The first being of an island with massive mountain peaks, the second taking place in a rocky arctic setting. The rest of the images were created during a lazy summer day. The pen, as you may have guessed, was one that I actually owned. Wanting to further my 3D modeling skills, I picked up the first thing on my desk and made a series of renders of my 3D recreation.

Game Design/Modding

For those of you that don’t know, modding is the act of taking a video game engine (the core of the programming that makes the game work, determines graphics quality, physics, etc) and changing it around to be something else. Modding involves 4 overall steps:

1) Reverse-engineering of the current video game and/or its engine
2) Deciding upon what concepts the modder wants to implement (this, of course, depends on what kind of game you’re modding and what you want to mod it into)
3) Creating new 3D models, animations, or sound effects (or modifying original ones)
4) Writing new code or modifying previous code to power the new objects

Modding gets its name from the fact that you’re modifying a publically released video game, though this generally means that you’re giving yourself access to the video game’s engine. Engine development kits can be bought or downloaded for free to make new games from scratch (like Valve’s Source engine, the Crysis Crygen engine, or Battlefield’s Frostbite engine). Modding can simply mean modifying current objects, or it can mean that you are building a completely different video game with different objectives. Modding is generally only done to video games that are released on a PC/Mac format, since they are easier to deconstruct and tools modding tools cannot be built for consoles.

Let’s elaborate a little more on those steps:

1) This involves learning how things work, coding syntaxes, what formats are available for use, and so on. This is important to know because without having knowledge of how to operate within the confines of the game engine, you will not be able to know how to build new objects

2) My modding came in the form of sandboxes. You may have heard this term before depending on your exposure to video games, but a sandbox is basically a free-roam environment in which there is several things to do, and doesn’t necessarily involve any designated goals or objectives. Sandboxes allow the player to run around in a virtual reality doing as he or she pleases (or at least doing as much as the modder has allowed you to be capable of doing.) Theoretically, almost any game can be modded (if the modder knows how to break into the engine, which is sometimes illegal), but one would obviously want to mod a game that uses a capable engine. You would not create a first-person-shooter using a racing game’s engine, and vice-versa. It makes the most sense to use frameworks that are already developed for the direction you want to go in that already have the proper physics set in place.

Steps 3 and 4 can take the longest time, as they are the most labor intensive. Typically mods are created by teams, just like commercially released games are developed by companies. Each individual generally has their own skill-set and sticks to it. On a team, generally don’t model, animators, don’t code, and so on. However, when you’re modding by yourself, as I did, you must learn to do everything for yourself. As I was 13 years old when I started doing this, I had to learn everything from scratch. Modding ended up being the catalyst for my interests in digital creation like 3D modeling, animation, and coding.

4) Working off previously written code is the easiest and saves the most time, so creating new objects that do similar things to objects that already exist will make for the swiftest results. For instance, in Battlefield 1942 I wanted to make a jet-powered boat that had the ability to nearly fly. So I maniulated code from airplanes and boats that already existed. After I designed my 3D model and skinned it (giving it texture/graphics) I would implement the code using that model to give me a final result of a jet-powered boat that sailed through the sky after hitting ramps.

Battlefield 1942

My most reputable modding release was a map (also known as a level) that modified the game far from the original game-play experience. The map, called Mt. Stuntmore, was a culmination of various different vehicles and abilities. It was created for the game Battlefield 1942, released in 2002, which was the first of the highly successful Battlefield series created by DICE.

This map, which was originally built for the "Stunts Mod" was eventually ported to the "Interstate '82" (IS82) mod, a community of gamers that enjoy racing vehicles in the game in absurd and difficult fashions. The map was very well receieved by the IS82 community, having given it much praise and high regard. The map was, in fact, reveled to the point where a stranger decided to make this video-tour of some of the elements within the map, over to the right. I was not aware of this video until many years after its release.

Mt. Stuntmore also featured some vehicles that were modded from the core game. For instance, if you watch the video, you will see the stunt biplane, which was modded from the original German Bf109. I added things like extra machine guns in the nose, missiles, colorful smoke trails, the top wing to make it a biplane, enhanced controls, and multiple "wing walker" player positions which allowed other players to ride on the wing of your plane as you flew.

I also created several original creations that were a first for the Battlefield 1942 game engine. I was the first person to create a playable soccerfield in which players could push around a large ball in a hidden underground field. Another crowd favorite was the waterslide. Limitations within the game engine prohibited me from using animated water, however it was nonetheless another creation that had never been done before. There were a number of hidden "easter eggs" throughout the level that made playing an enjoyable experience every time, these included interesting places or special vehicles. There are a multitude of vehicles that I haven't mentioned here, though this video does a decent job at displaying a few of them.

What was a particularly unprecedented creation of coding was that I was able to build a train with the extremely limited physics engine. This was achieved by using invisible collision meshes that kept the train going straight, while the train engine's code simulated the mass of the vehicle and it's slow accelleration and breaking abilities. Attached to the train were a pilotable helicopter that could take off during the train's movement and a pilotable V2 missile. Unfortunately, the physics to allow pivot points between train cars did not exist, so the train was really only able to go forward or backward.

Boom. Big Boom.

One of my prototyped easter eggs was a nuclear missile that would destroy every single vehicle and player in the game. The way it was found was extraordinarily difficult, involving the use of glitches in the game to slide through certain parts of a maze to get to its contols. In the end, the missile, which was also pilotable, was controlled when walking up to a random fern plant and entering it like a vehicle. The player was then transported to roughly 10,000 feet in the air. If they clicked the fire button, the nuclear missile would fire and have a limited amount of fuel. However, in reality this didn't matter because it would blow everything up regardless of its point of detonation.

This video I created to the left shows an example of the nuclear missile in testing. Unfortunately, it could never be released because of the excessive load its use would put on the online server, causing it to crash and all players to be disconnected. Because this is an obvious flaw, the missile was rendered useless, though it was still amusing to prototype its usage and play around with on local servers which wouldn't crash.

Animation

The world is animated, so should your digital experiences! Even this website is an example in and of itself of a how animation can make an experience feel more lively. Unfortunately, it would seem the bulk of my animations have been lost with time. These would appear to be what's left of my old days animating.

The Swingship

This animation to the right was my entry for the state-wide TSA (Technology Student Association) competition, held at The College Of New Jersey. The category of competition was "Engineering Animation". The prompt was to design a theme-park ride and display how it works within the animation. My entry earned me a shiny trophey that said "2nd Place," meaning I was the second best animator in the state in high school at the time.

In reality, however, my competitor that earned 1st failed to do a number of things: his ride itself was not animated, instead a camera just floated around; there was no texture to the ride (meaning it was just a grey blob); and he neglected to demonstrate the mechanics of the ride that allow it to operate. I however, did all three of these things, which left me dumbfounded as to how I received second. Can you notice I'm still a little bitter about it? This animation was of a typical swing-ship that would may see at carnivals or typical theme-parks, styled to be like a viking ship.






An animated portfolio website project

This was my first attempt at a portfolio website for my photography back in high school. It was a school project, and I had to include a number of animated elements, including this animated splash screen. The project included a working photo gallery, animated interactive navigation menu, and the splash screen.