Week 3: Stress? What stress?!

I am now half way through the film room project and all this week my group have been playing catch-up due to various reasons so thankfully the weekend couldn't have come soon enough, despite this it has been an interesting week.

The average size of the groups for this project is around 4 people, while my group only has 3 members so it would have been logical to have picked a smaller room yet we didn't, the room also is fairly object intensive which doesn't help. 

Our initial plan also had us spend a lot more time concepting than we really needed which was a complete oversight and a waste time. Link this with people in my group being ill and stressed and it meant we we're heavily behind which became clear when we had to do a presentation on our progress. I did really enjoy the presentations though, it was great seeing everyone's work and their ideas and this is something I'd love to see more of, plus I really need more practice in speaking in front of groups!

The concepting stage was great practice, even if it wasn't the best use of time. Below are a few of the concepts I did, with the couch being my personal favourite.

When I realized that time was short I began knocking out models as quickly as I could. I really want to begin exploring Z-Brush, especially after seeing some of the work during our presentations, but this project is already tight on time. It was also while matching everything I had modeled to the picture that I began to notice how much of a wide-angle shot Tarantino had used, as there is some serious perspective distortion on the objects as they get closer to the edge.

Overall this week has looked quite for stressful for some people, and it has been more noticeable in other groups as friendships began to fray, but luckily for me I don't seem to be affected by stress too much. Maybe a lesson on stress management would be useful for some people? Either way this time next week this project should be completed and I will try my hardest to get it done on time.

Week 2: The Film Room Project

This week the Film group project finally got under way after looking through many film stills to find a good scene to replicate. I probably could have looked through a lot less films if I understood the brief correctly, but I also think the explanation of the brief could have been better.

At first I thought we had to recreate a film scene as a small playable area, trying to capture the lighting and mood of the room along with the accuracy of the props, which lead me at the start to choose some bad room choices. It was only towards the end of the week that I found out that we were only recreating the shot, not the entire room, anything behind the camera could basically be ignored.

Our room choices had to be presented in front of a class along with the course tutors and near enough everyone's first choices were shot down for being too brown and green which I agree with. Luckily we we're given a second chance and the results were much stronger from everyone, below are the room choices from my group and while some of them are slightly too brown there is a good choice there.

Our film moodboard

After the presentation we came to the decision (with the help of other people!) to try and recreate this scene from Pulp Fiction and the work could be started!

[1] Butch's Childhood Home

We sat down as group  to discuss our goals for this weekend and one thing became clear, that the Visual Design side of the project was still confusing people. I think showing work examples would solve a lot of the confusion that has popped up with this project as it very clearly shows an end goal, if I was shown a completed 3D scene I probably would have caught on much quicker that we only had to recreate what was being shown and the same goes for showing some Visual Design thumb examples.

To help with the overall management of the project I set up a part of my Google Drive to allow the group to use it, this way important files can be accessed easily without any waiting around. I also set up an Google Excel sheet to help with the asset planning. I am finding this sort of forward planning really enjoyable and I don't know why...

An exciting screenshot of the Excel doc

I think the group will need more planning to help it run smoothly but for now I'd say this is a good start and I can begin the Visual Design side of the project properly over this weekend.

Notes & References
[1] Pulp Fiction (1994) Written & Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Week 1: First Week Back!

Our first week back had us get back into the whole Game Art world and the courses new structure, which now combines the 3D and 2D sides much more effectively. The critical studies section of the courses has also been updated, one part of it is to write up small weekly updates and this is exactly what this post is!

The biggest change we all had to face was the loss of both Diffuse and Spectral maps with the new PBR (Physically Based Rendering) system. The Diffuse map has been replaced with an Albedo map and the Spectral map has been replaced with a Roughness map, and honestly the new maps are not much different from the old ones. The thing I need to get use is the sensitivity of the Roughness map, as if it's pushed too far objects can look insanely shiny.

[1] Example of a Roughness map usage

The new map to come with PBR is a Metalness map, which is a simple black and white map. Black is non metal, white is metal but I personally think adding some grit into the metal could help portray a more realistic result, unless it is like a brand new car for example.

Our "Welcome back!" project was a group project where we were thrown into random groups. In these groups we had to work through a pipeline creating a small Viking dinning table scene, where we’d all eventually work on each others work. The Tri and texture budget was quite low making this a great first project. Working with random people was at first unnerving but by the end of the week things felt like they were fitting together within the group.

I modeled a hog's head, with a 600 Tri limit 

In the group, I had to texture this barrel, while someone else would texture the hog's head I created

At the end of the week we were also set our first full project, again a group task, but this time groups could be chosen by us which I think is a mistake, because within the first few hours all most everyone had grouped up back into their friendship groups. I personally think having random groups is a much better way to prepare us for the industry, as it’ll be very rare if we ever get to chose who we work with during our Junior years.

I’ll go into more detail about the project next week when we've actually started it and hopefully I will have updated the design of the blog too, I think it's time for a change!

Notes & References
[1]http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice

UDK: First Level Complete!

Yay! My first level in Unreal has been finished as part of a Summer project, I have been doing the level for a few hours a night over roughly 2 months. The most time consuming part has been learning about the UDK engine, figuring out how certain things are done like skydomes and fog while also trying to build the entire level out of modular pieces.

As I said in my previous post, the project was given to us at the end of our first year to do over the Summer, I have no idea if it's mandatory. I chosen to create a playable level of an abandoned subway, with a character (I haven't started the character yet!) within the given resource limits. We had 15k tris and 20mb worth of textures to use, at the beginning I had no idea how this related to a small playable level.

I started with a sketchbook to throw down my ideas, while also searching the internet for inspiration and reference. I knew I wanted to have this abandoned subway lived in, for a while at least, maybe an abandoned subway turned into a bomb shelter?

I also worked out my texture budget in my sketchbook

 Once I had a good idea about the level I tried to draw out the entire thing. I did this before I spent a vast amount of time going through the How to Draw [1] book, therefore some of the constructions are off. I definitely want to return to this drawing to see if I can improve it.

I now had the difficult task of figuring out how to build this level in UDK. My knowledge at this point with UDK was non-existent so it was going to be painful, I started to create the main pieces of the level in Max but had to restart them a few times because I wasn't thinking in small enough sections.

Eventually i got on a roll with this stuff and even managed to get my collision meshes working without much problem. Unfortunately I had no idea what a lightmap was, never even heard of one, and UDK kept spitting out these errors mentioning them. After some research I realized that I would need go back and do a lightmap for everything I had built, similar to doing the UV Maps only more tedious. Doing 20 lightmaps in a row was not a fun experience.

One of my level props, an old drinks machine

As I progressed with building the level plenty more little things kept popping up similar to the lightmaps, small things I had no idea about that my level would need to be even semi-competent. Creating the skydome was one of these, so I took this opportunity to create my own. The texture for the dome broke my texture limit, but in my opinion it was more important to learn than stick within the budget. 

One of the biggest things I picked up was how versatile the UDK material editor can be, by following this a set of tutorials [2] I managed to set up an animated skydome with a working sun, all using the material editor. I began using the material editor even more, creating working lights, controlling the specularity and other things.

It became complicated

I made sure to get the rest of my textures within the 20mb budget... just. I again thought it was more important to learn about making objects light up using the emission section of the material editor instead of staying within the limit. My final texture budget (without the skydome diffuse) was 20,120kb.

Staying within the given 15,000 triangle limit was slightly easier, but I was shocked at how quick that can be filled up with level geometry. I wanted to have many smaller props to fill the level, making it feel real and alive but I soon had to scale my vision down as the tri-count quickly piled up. If I restarted the level I'd scale my idea down to simply an abandoned subway, without the "lived-in shelter" thing going on, because a 15k tri-limit is tiny unless you're going to make a low-poly game.

The final product might come short of my original concept, but when I started I wasn't entirely sure how far 15,000 tris would go. I now know the tri-limit lends it self to maybe an isometric level where the low-polycount wouldn't be directly in front of the player like an FPS. Sadly I tried to create my level for an FPS, leaving the level feeling empty. Below are some screenshots of the level!

Despite me missing the mark on my original concept I think I have created some nice looking screenshots, especially with the added post-processing and fog effects, even if I found controlling them a little confusing. I wanted to add in dust particles and some sinister ground fog but this would have further increased my texture budget.

The candle light is animated! Woooaah!

I have now a much better grasp of the UDK engine thanks to this summer project, which will hopefully place me in a better position for Year 2 as we begin to work in-engine more. For the rest of the summer I plan to continue drawing and also begin the character portion of this project, while eagerly waiting for Destiny.

Notes & References
[1] How to Draw written by Scott Robertson & Thomas Bertling
[2] Tutorials created by Julio Juarex

Summer Break Update.

I'm almost half way through the summer break now and I've played a few games, done some drawing and messed around in UDK enough so that it doesn't scare me. I have also made some progress in the project that we we're given at the start of the summer, so I can finally show off some of that too! First up I'll go over what I've been playing and share my thoughts on the games.

Dark Souls II

I finally got around to playing Dark Souls II! The first game completely took me by surprise and I fell in love with it, so the sequel had a lot to live up to for me. I personally think the game just misses the mark of the first one but as a game by itself it is still overall fantastic, with the same great combat and exploration.

Wearing a dressing gown I stormed the castle... [1]

I think it's a number of minor details that made Dark Souls II  fall short. While the game can look breath taking (like the above screenshot) there are a few areas that look unsightly. The story this time around was even slower, taking around 30 hours for anything to really pick up, and with some of the areas and bosses feeling like a filler certain moments of the game became a real struggle to push through, not because of difficulty but because I was bored. Despite this, Dark Souls II is still more Dark Souls and that is never a bad thing!

Spec Ops: The Line

I decided to pick Spec Ops up in the Steam Summer Sale after hearing many people praise the story and they weren't wrong! A game that could often look like your average military shooter the story is great, with a superb ending to wrap it all up. Unfortunately the sections in between the story telling are your generic shooter.

To The Moon

Another game I grabbed during the sale due to the internet talk about the game's story. The most interaction you receive with game is exploring the environments in search for items that help you advance the story, so the entire game is basically leaning on the story aspect. Luckily the story was engaging and heart warming with some likable characters, but i can only recommend this game if you can look past the lack of actual gameplay.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Ever since Bayonetta I have been a huge fan of Platinum Games, therefore picking up Metal Gear Rising on the cheap was a smart move for me. I am only a few hours in but every boss fight has had me smiling and at times out-right laughing due to how ridiculous they are.  The combat is quick and brutal, but at times can feel button mashey, this doesn't bother me though, the game plays well and is an utter laugh.

The game looks great when caught mid-fight [1]

Drawing

I have spent a large chunk of my summer so far practicing my 2D skills. I've tried to keep a good balance between traditional and digital, studying and creative. Simply drawing for creative purposes is something still quite new to me, which probably sounds wierd.

An area I have been trying to improve upon is my draftsmanship and to help with that I bought a copy of Scott Robertson's How to Draw which spends a huge amount of time simply explaining how to draw in perspective correctly. The drawing below is probably the most interesting thing I've done from the book so far, but I already feel more confident in perspective.

Drawn with help from the book "How to Draw" [2]

Below are 2 drawings from imagination, using reference for the armor on the knights. Playing Dark Souls has had a clear influence on me, as I've been drawing plenty of knights and weird monsters.

The end results after a few hours of practicing drawing armor

An idea popped into my head, maybe a Dark Souls boss?

Along side all the traditional stuff I wanted to seriously increase my digital painting abilities, so I've made sure to spend a few hours a day painting in Photoshop and I think it has worked so far. Progress is slow but I can see small improvement with each painting I do. Below are a selection of paintings I've done.

Virtual plein air

Virtual plein air 

Virtual plein air

William Bougueraeu Master Study [3]

3D

The main summer project had us choose from a list of themes, and the themes were split into 2 categories. One category wanted us to create a character or vehicle set within a small scene, the other was to make an actual playable level with a character. Both of these had the usual resource restrictions.

The list of themes covered everything, from ancient ruins to desert canyons. I picked the abandoned subway theme because as soon as I read it I imagined a Metro 2033/The Last of Us style subway. Looking back I wish I chosen another theme as I already feel like I've done the survival thing to death, but I am really happy with everything I've done with it.

I will go into detail about the entire process once it's all finished but for now I'll just show a few WIP screenshots.

The above shots are very dark but that is because the lighting isn't final yet and there are many props to add to really bring the level to life but hopefully it gives the idea I am aiming for. Below I've added a screenshot with more light to help with viewing. Learning UDK has been really fun because it appears the engine has limitless options when it comes to adding things to make the level stand out, trying to think about how to build the level out of smaller modular pieces has also been interesting.

While I'd love to become a conceptual artist, working as a level builder inside the engine is something else that's interests me, it is like playing with virtual Legos and this is why I've been having fun with figuring out UDK. I without a doubt have a long way to go with both UDK and my 2D work but the longer I spend doing each the more confidence I'm gaining, when the level is complete I will do a more in-depth post about it.

Reference & Notes
[1] Both screenshots taken in-game

[2] How to Draw written by Scott Robertson & Thomas Bertling
[3] William Bouguereau - Moissoneuse Original