Week 17: More Meshing About

Next week will be the final week of this Container City project and at the moment I feel like it is the calm before the storm. The main texturing is now done and I am creating extra assets to help populate the level; I also tried some Z-Brush this week but the results haven't really blown me away, I'll go over the outcome a little later.

Now that the texturing is finished on some of the assets, I can at last show off some of the work I've been doing over the last 2 weeks. I also feel a little more comfortable with the PBR system now, as I think I have captured some good likeness in the materials I am trying to simulate.

Below are a wooden beam and a generic stone block, which we'll be using to help break up some of the repetitive walls and also hide any unwanted seams or holes in the level. My aim for the wood was to have it look extremely weathered and worn, which I think I have done quite well thanks to an old park bench I found. The Altar I decided to create out of modular pieces, this way we can expand the design or size of the thing if needed and can also use some of the pieces elsewhere in the level.

I used Z-Brush on the altar and while some parts came out quite nice, such as the stone disk, other parts came out poorly, like the main building block is either missing the detail or looks oddly burnt, as you can see from the picture above. I however do think I've nailed the stone texture across the altar.

The logs had a problem with the texture looking repeated, as I can not stand easily noticeable, repeating textures so I had to readjust some of the unwrapping; without the use of Z-Brush I think I managed to capture the gnarled look of an old log.

I also had fun trying to imply a damper surface on the bottom of these stone pillars, where maybe dirt and water have been splashed about more. This isn't everything I have modeled, as there are a few smaller things that use the same texture space but there isn't much point in showing them. I am now making a few more assets to help fill some of the spaces, like altar seats, bones and a wall ornament, with some other ideas up my sleeves too. I just hope I can get this all done by the end of next week.

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

Week 15: First Week of 2015

I had to check that this week was still only the first week back of term, as it has felt like an eternity already; I am still unsure if this is a good thing. Being the first week back we've been given our first project of 2015, which this post will cover.

Container City

The assignment for us is to create a small playable level out of shipping containers in a realistic, dystopian or futuristic setting, in a group of 4. This might sound quite restricting but we have a lot of exploration room in how these containers are used, maybe they've been refurbished for a space prison or a group of survivors have taken shelter inside a cluster of them. The main point is that the containers are visible in some manner.

Lest We Forget: Brink [1]

At first the brief of the project didn't get me hyped up for the new year, but after getting my head around it for a week I began to get excited for the potential of the end result. I've also spent a lot more time in studio and I hopefully plan to continue this trend, maybe the energy inside the studio has rubbed off on me, even if it might not seem like it.

Our group began generating ideas while also making a block-out during the early part of the week, by the middle of the week we had a fairly good idea of the level plan and a theme. Our idea is that a cargo ship crashed ashore and then a local tribe eventually moved into the wreckage of the containers, turning it into their home. The player will control a prisoner, who makes their way upwards through the container temple in hopes of getting out. Below is a rough plan and block out.

With a rough plan and a block out we could begin pushing into the concepting stage, which is what I have been doing over the later part of the week. I have kept the concepts to line art only for now, adding values to something as complicated as an environment is something I don't really have time to experiment with, it could be done at the end of the project though if I have time. The block out has really helped speed up the concepting as the perspective is for the most part sorted, I just used the block-out as an underlay and drew over the top.

Cells

Cells Exit, the statue changed slightly as it didn't look scary enough

The cells would be quite dark and covered in sand, with water in places. As the player makes their way upwards, the sand slowly disappears as the containers become more prominent which should signify that the player is leaving the beached area. As the player gets closer to the finish, natural light will begin to shine down through cracks and more over growth will be seen, until the player reaches the altar which is outside and clearly aboard the freighter. Adding values or doing a photobash would probably sell this idea a lot more.

Altar Entrance

I am at the moment in the process of concepting the opposite view of the altar, to try and give a complete view of the area. Next week my group should be well into the modelled stage, and hopefully have the base level built at least. I think if we don't begin to move will fall behind though, and I don't want another group project to end up in stress.

References and Notes

[1] Screenshot from Brink, developed by Splash Damage.

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.