Week 18: Container City Post-Mortem

After 4 weeks the Container City project is officially done, with today being the final presentation of our level. Hours before our presentation we couldn't gain access to the server where our level was but thankfully there was an easy fix and the presentation went okay and had a positive outcome. In this blog post I will try and cover my involvement with the Container City assignment.

Concepting

Like all other briefs, this project started with my group concepting. The only 2 restraints for the level was that is must feature containers and be either futuristic or dystopian (or both!), apart from that though we could design what ever level we wanted. After a few hours we all eventually settled for the idea that these containers were taken over by an ancient tribe. A ship had crashed ashore and the local tribe used the left over wreckage as their home, you'd play as one of their prisoners, trying to escape.

I began trying to put down these ideas onto paper. We wanted a rough level layout as quickly as possible so when a layout was well-liked I made a very rough block-out in 3DS Max. Looking back at it and especially after seeing some of the other levels being made I think we could have pushed the size of our level slightly. This could have given us more room to try and explain our story even if it meant more asset work.

Once we were all happy with the basic layout we all started concepting the rooms. I took the cells and also decided to have a go at the altar area too, anything to get me to draw some more. I am actually surprised by the results of my concepts but they only give an initial idea and do not really give a good sense of mood or atmosphere due to the lack of values and colour. I'd really like to try photobashing, as I am quite good at Photoshop and photo manipulation, but I think I am scared of bad results at the moment so I have put if off.

Cells Exit

Cells

Altar Entrance

Altar, looking back at the entrance

While doing this concepting we were also constantly gathering reference from the internet, here's a link to my pinterest board related to this brief.

Early Development

To make sure we could keep track of the assets we were creating I made a quick asset list, borrowing heavily from the one I used during the Film Room Project; this asset list grew a bit over the development like the previous one did. I couldn't figure out a decent way to show the texture sheets used though, as many objects shared texture space with other assets which made things confusing.

We each picked certain things to tackle, like particle effects or foliage with the modelling being divided up as there was so much to do. Below is a screenshot of some of the earlier models I made; a container had been provided so I just had to retrofit them to the other sizes and damage a version of one of them.

As a group we chose to create the building blocks of the level first, with all the filler props coming later. This way we'd have a much clearer idea of what the final level would look like and be able to adjust anything if we needed to. I used 2 1024s for all of the textures for my models, but I without a doubt think I could have optimized it much better, possibly allowing more space for more assets. 

Development

After doing the major components we all then focused on populating the level. I also had the task of creating the water material we wanted to include. At first I thought this was going to be daunting task but I found a really helpful YouTube tutorial video[1] which was simple to follow and gave great result, even if the reflections don't work correctly.

As I wasn't the person working in engine I unfortunately don't have any development shots of the level, as most of my time was spent modeling and texturing, therefore it might be hard at the moment to get an idea of what the level actually looks like. Instead here are the texture sheets I had used for the assets. The metalness and roughness had been combined in an RGB space on the right sheet, the left sheet had no metal, so instead I just used a constant in the material editor.

Towards the final days of the project I moved onto decal duty, wanting to create a variety of decals to add extra life into the world. Before this I had never created a decal but there wasn't much difference between creating a texture. All of my decals were 256px in size, yet surprisingly looked fine even when large, which really shocked me.

End Result

For half of the assignment I was unsure if we'd be able to pull this off, as our level wasn't necessarily that "modular" yet I think the final results look really good. There are obviously a few things I'd love to change or tweak but that'll have to be done another time. I'll stop typing for a bit and let the final screenshots talk for themselves.

During our presentation it was mentioned that we could have pushed the idea further and I agree, with more palettes with objects on, just left alone. The larger level size I wanted could have accommodated some of these extra story telling props. Looking at some of the interior screenshots now I do think we could have used some extra colour, as they are very orange and brown.

The next assignment is now upon us and it's become clear that this Container City project has been more of an introduction to level design, which will filter into the next brief. I won't go over the new assignment in this post but I am already quite excited for it.

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

Week 11: Character Duo Post-Mortem

Just before we break up for Christmas our dichotomous character duos are finished and handed in. Just like with the turret project, this blog post will cover the entire process, what worked  and what didn't work.

Concepting

The entire project started with me just thinking of existing duos, and then making a pinterest board out of it. While I was doing this I was also using my notebook to think of ideas of my own duo; this was a mistake but I didn't realize it at the time. By picking a theme and style this slowly began to pigeon-hole my thought process which eventually led me to a potentially stale design.

I had eventually made a choice on the theme and began to design the first character, which was my second mistake. I should have designed both characters together. I struggled with the initial shape generation of this character which is why I jumped straight into sketching heads.

With one character done, I began to think about the second character. I knew I wanted this character to be a larger, protector of the child, yet not combat focused. I was confused on how to go about generating ideas for this character, so I tried what worked with the turret, a bash kit. I grabbed shapes that I liked from the moodboard to get my bash kit going.

It was at this point that I had to present my concepts. I had only one character complete with a small selection of silhouettes for the other character. The end result of the presentation was that the silhouettes are far more interesting than the final character, and while I liked the child soldier, was the idea really pushing myself out of my comfort zone? I decided to scrap the child and restart with the silhouettes.

Post-Presentation #1

I pulled more shapes from the moodboard and just began piecing them together to make interesting shapes. I didn't think about the duo or the theme at this point, I just wanted interesting silhouettes and eventually I had a good selection to chose from; then I paired them up into interesting duos to try and get some good dichotomy going. The silhouette I picked had elements that reminded me of feudal Japan, with a headdress and lanterns so I began researching the theme on pinterest while trying to push the idea within the silhouette.

I picked the duo I liked the most, which was an older, larger guardian figure and a younger girl, who clearly travel together. With a couple picked I pushed forward with the design process until I had orthographics.

Modelling

As we only had to model one character I chose the big guy as he seemed a lot more interesting with his huge backpack. I decided to go for a 8,000 tri-limit, which was larger than we're used to but not completely insane. It felt like a comfortable size. I modeled it with Z-Brush in mind, learning from my mistakes on the turret but this also tripped me up, as I found out later, I didn't focus on the overall model enough, my mind was to focused on the sculpting.

Base model complete I took it into Z-Brush and began sculpting. This time I actually had fun with Z-Brush, as I wasn't learning it for the first time. There's still plenty to learn but I got stuff done! I then baked it all out, added the extra arm and the other lanterns and then dropped it into UE4. I still needed to the pose character but I was getting ready to begin texturing.

I had to do another presentation for critique at this stage, and unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan, which is something you don't want to happen with only a week left. The overall critique was that my model didn't capture the likeness of my concept. While my concept Big Guy had a caring look, the model looked quite creepy and his overall igloo shape was lost. I agreed mostly but I just wish I could have been told earlier.

Post-Presentation #2

I decided to remake the model low-poly. I am still unsure if this was a good idea but I did manage to model and texture both characters and hopefully their quality is still to standard. Both characters come to only 2,600 tris which is a significant drop from 8,000 for one model. It was a challenge to try and capture the characters in a low-poly limit.

About 1,300 each

 As I was now very short on time I decided to skip Z-Brush, but i did try and go for a painterly texture sheet which was a bit different than I am used to. When I started the guy I had to find my feet for the style but I think by the time I had reached the girl I had found my footing. I do however need a lot more practice with skin as I think my faces have come off a little flat, and certain other elements such as the hair could also use some more practice.

The metalness, roughness and AO are all in 1 RBG texture sheet

Final Outcome

I am happy with the final characters but I am always wondering if the higher poly version would have been better. Due to the characters low-poly count I made the textures quite small too, which means that these characters probably wouldn't be viewed up close. I had also made some mistakes with the unwrapping, I should have had the facial features take up a lot more space over other parts of the meshes, like the legs or bags for example, then these characters might have been usable up close.

Week 10: A seaming pile of...

Once again I had a problem with my seams after doing the baking, but luckily I managed to figure part of the problem out. Despite the title, my frustration this week doesn't come from UV seams but from, ironically, the dichotomous views of the different lecturers/teachers on the course.

The week started off with me continuing on with the model, I had finished with the Z-Brush sculpt and was really happy with the outcome, and was now baking it. The seam problem I had with the turret popped up again, all the preparation work I had done with the normals didn't appear to have fixed anything. After some googling and tinkering I had noticed that 3DS Max was importing the bump files in with an increase in gamma, linked with the already high standard gamma it was making my normals look way over the top. This didn't fix the seaming completely but it did make it less noticeable.

It was just as I was finishing the sculpt when my work was looked over and given 2 thumbs up. There were some tweaks that were suggested, like relaxing the hand and adding in the other lantern that I knew I had to do, this was all going to be done after the baking. There were also a few other pointers that I agreed with and took them on board too. Everything was going well so I baked it, tweaked the model and then dropped it into engine to get ready for texturing.

We had a final presentation to do and this is what I had to show, as I had not got around to texturing or rigging the character yet. It was during the presentation that a completely different view point came in, mentioning that my model hadn't captured the concept. Parts of the critique I agreed with, like for example the face on the model is quite menacing, while the guy's face on the concept it actually pretty caring and rounded. At the end it was suggested that I restart the model with a lower poly count. I just wish this was mentioned earlier and not with a week left.

After working hard over the last few days I am now back were I left off, except this time with 2 characters and a much, much smaller tri count. The original tri count was 8,000, now there's only 2,600 between the both characters.

I took inspiration from the low-poly TF2 models

I have yet to decide if restarting completely was a good idea, I think when both characters are textured I'll be able to make a better decision, but the more I look at the pair together the more I prefer it; I can always finish the higher poly version during my spare time. For now I need to focus on texturing them both for Wednesday.

Week 9: Duos Continued

The last week has been a standard week, where I have been continuing on with the character duo project trying to get it completed for the deadline, only to find out that we've been given an extra week. This is great news overall but I wish we we're told sooner.

After the burning my original concepts received I picked up the pieces from the only thing that had got some positive crit, my bash kit, and I started from there. The pieces for the bash kit came from my original Pinterest/moodboards but this time I stuck things together with no real goal in mind; I just wanted to create some interesting silhouettes.

Bash kit into characters

When I had finally picked a silhouette pairing I began exploring what the characters could be and I settled on a feudal Japan theme, certain aspects of the silhouettes just made my mind think of that era. The final duo are a young girl and an older uncle/grandparent type character.  I also did not skip the colour iterations this time and I think they have already helped me create a stronger duo, but I do think that the process needs some working on.

Final iterations then the orthographics

The Duo!

I powered through the concepting stage over the weekend to try and keep on schedule as the deadline had not been pushed back yet, it would have been nicer to have been able to spend more time refining certain parts of it but I do think I have a stronger duo now than with my previous design. I'm still planning on getting this finished for the original deadline; the extra week I'll use to do some cool extra stuff that I'd love to do with the majority of my projects. I want to have a go at doing a final 2D piece of both characters, maybe another poster and if I can I might start modelling the girl.

At the moment I have just finished doing the base model of the big guy and I am preparing him for Z-Brush, I've taken all the precautions I can to try and stop the horrible seams my turret had but it will only be until after I'm done will I know if I have been successful.

By the end of the next week I'd like the model to be fully textured and in engine, but after the baking fiasco I had last time I'm not going to hold my breath. This assignment so far hasn't made me want to go fetal and I don't plan on it forcing me to either, the same time next week however I will have found out the outcome.