Week 16: Meshing About

This weeks, or last weeks update I should say has fallen by the wayside a little. I've spent the last week knocking out various meshes, unwrapping them and making sure they work within engine all for my group project, the container city. I am going to keep this post a little shorter than usual but I will go over some of the things I did last week.

First up is the concept art that I started while writing the last post, the view from the opposite side of the altar.

Standing at the Altar, looking back at the entrance

We sat down at the start of the week and made a plan about what we needed to mesh out first and everyone in our group agreed that we should begin with the bigger pieces first, the main components of our level. We also agreed to make sure each object was unwrapped too, with the lightmap, to help get a clearer picture of the final level. We didn't want no ugly lighting errors!

I created a spreadsheet again to track our progress on the assets, I think certain parts of it still need some tweaking to be made clearer but overall I think this quite an effective way to make an asset list. The planning and creation of this spreadsheet is something I enjoyed, like the previous group project; maybe I should have taken a career in management?

Everything I created I tested in engine first, to make sure the lightmap and collision worked correctly. Once everything is textured I'll post up more detailed images, but at the moment there isn't much point. I also gave myself the task of creating the water we wanted in the level, which actually wasn't too difficult with the help from this Youtube video [1]. The water effect isn't the best ever, but once in the level it pulls it off convincingly enough without a massive hog on resources it seems.

Water Material: Mostly for my own reference

The rest of this week I will be mostly texturing, with maybe some more asset creation towards the end if I can squeeze it in. I will also be doing a little bit of sneaky Z-Brush work on the altar, as I think the idea behind the Mayan style will benefit greatly with a little Z-Brush love. I'll be trying to write up the next post on Sunday too, if I don't get to (un)wrapped up in texturing. Ha ha. Ha... puns.

References & Notes
[1] UE4 - Interior Water #1 by Pub Games