The group project feedback and reflection

As the submission deadline draws close, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the group project.

As it's the first time making an environment as a group, it presented some challenges, but equally was quite fun to undertake.

One of my main concerns working as a group was transferring files. As perforce wasn't working for us, we had to upload a master unreal file, which presented problems for us - some members of the team didn't know how to properly extract files, which resulted in a blank unreal file loading, however, after I showed them how to do it, this problem was fixed.

Furthermore, I had feedback from Pat and Will for what I could do to the project in order to finalise it, acting on feedback they said compositionally, a few things could be changed, so as per their advice, I moved and duplicated the coin chest to fit in with the greed theme a bit more, additionally adding to the composition of the scene by guiding the eye to the front of the room. My original scene was also too bright, however, I needed light so I could see the assets within my room, so I played with the exposure and colour of my scene for the final master file.

Original design

Altered design with compositional changes and lighting

Finalised design for asset zoo hand-in

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 25)

This week's focus for self directed was making another prop.

As my journey on my focus for environment art continues, I thought it would be fitting to create a new environment piece.

I used a base mega scan metal texture for the initial texture, but in substance painter, I added various wear and age to this piece in order to get a convincing look.

I asked for feedback on the work from peers, but they all agreed that if I kept trying to push it, the work would lose its intended look - I wanted a worn telescope, versus a damaged and ruined on. So reflecting on this, I think they were right to say that. However, if I could go back and change anything, I would definitely go back and try to optimise a little bit more as I believe there could potentially be some loops I could remove to save on triangle count.

3D Games production (Week 25)

This week's focus was on finalising my group project room.

We had a presentation to see where we were at in terms of work load and group progression - I said what I had included in the scene, including hero assets and small scale props, of which I hit the mark for the brief in terms of quantity. Furthermore I have nice composition in my scene and lighting which overall guides the player to the intended place, at the front of the room.

I made my level, then dragged out all the props to create my asset zoo, then duplicating this file and deleting the asset zoo, I used this as the master file for the group of which we could all start branching off from the hub area.

3D Games production (Week 24)

This week's focus was compiling my scene - from my first initial sketch, I knew what I wanted to go for.

Having leading lines that add to the overall composition, along with having implied space that adds to the scene.

I believe the overall lighting scenario is really strong in my work, it helps draw your attention to the front of the room where it should be, as this is where most of the hero assets are located.

However, one problem I encountered was everything was the incorrect size. In max, my unit set up was set as 'generic' rather than centimetre which resulted in me having to resize everything, making the room an extra wall longer, not that it was an issue, because I have already made the assets to cover the additional space.

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 23)

For this week's self directed, I wanted to document some texture I did - in a previous post I outlined my asset zoo that I created, however I thought it would be best to post images of substance painter files and include a few props that would go within the scene.

For these examples, I included the metal strongbox, wooden trough and marble floor decal.

I really like the floor decal, because I had an idea of having an imprint in the floor, almost like a great hall, or in a similar style to stone where the rocks are cut differently to make a circle - then justifying this by having it with marble and gold, which overall helps reemphasis the greed motif.

3D Games Production (Group project contextual task)

This post focus is on the contextual task in the brief, which comprises of me investigating my chosen focus.

My focus is on Environment art.

There are a lot of different employability requirements that separate into different sub sections and jobs. Each studio will have different requirements, Indie studios will have a lot more requirements due to their small team size, whereas bigger AAA companies like Activision and Naughty Dog will have more niche jobs, such as a Texture artist specific job.

But as an Environment artist, generally, you would need to understand the following: Modelling of high and low poly models (same as character art), hard surface, texturing using substance painter and designer - sometimes this can encompass other jobs such as Level design and Lighting art, depending on the size of the company will depend if these get implemented into your job role.

The focus of getting hired in an Environment art role would be to have a decent portfolio demonstrating your knowledge of the workflow. Knowing things like: Colour, composition, efficient modelling and UV texture economy. The portfolio should show that you are keen to investigate different moods, locations, time settings - competent texture workflow and maybe even concepting props in order to show that you can fit the role of a full environmental artist.

3D Games production (Week 23)

Over the past week, I have gone ahead and started creating more assets and filling in my asset zoo.

I decided it would be efficient for me to demonstrate everything I have done, this includes decals - so I took a default cube within unreal, put a rough black material on it, this was to make sure everything could be seen.

Overall, there are a lot of reusable assets - moving forward, it is my intention to reuse things like the chest, coffin, gold etc, this way I can efficiently fill out my level.

I believe I should be going with a crypt shaped room, with beams running over the ceiling, then have coffins stacked on top of shelves - I can then separate the sections with smaller props and this is the treasure that 'people died with'.

Coffin substance painter texture sample

Asset zoo

Wood floor substance designer texture sample

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 21)

This week's focus for self directed was creating a new asset for my portfolio - I wanted to replace 1 of the 2 props I had in my portfolio, since my skills have evolved after doing these pieces.

I wanted to reflect what I have learned in the texturing, modelling and software use. In this case I incorporated the use of Substance Designer and further enhanced presentation of the maps by using Marmoset Toolbag to display what each visualisation mode looks like.

Flat maps

Visualisation maps

Artstation thumbnail

3D Games production (Week 21)

This week I started texturing some of my props, I wanted to keep in theme with the medieval style me and my group have, however, I wanted to add some nods to other styles, for example, on my light hero asset, I wanted to add some kind of piping to draw away the idea of  having a solid slab of metal - furthermore, I started combining textures to have unique effects, such as combining marble within substance painter with my own marble to have a unique look to the props.

3D Games production (Week 20)

This week, we started on our group project, I went ahead drafting ideas.

Our group came up with the idea of 'the seven deadly sins' - of which, my room would be based off the greed sin.

Moving forward, it is my intention to include various 'items of riches' - I was thinking of mainly gold, then having a yellow tint to the scene with a post process volume.

So I started planning assets out and making them, so far I have established I wanted to go with a combination of several materials, like gold, stone and marble, going with a gothic feel for my room.

Sketched idea

Saddled animal project reflection

I wanted to reflect on my saddled animal project.

This project was quite challenging, but also quite fun to do - having the opportunity to create a creature is different from any other project I have done. But taking the skills from first year, taking into account animation loops, it was quite straight forward, but fairly time consuming to get it accurate.

The brief stated that you could do a 1024 for the head, I however didn't do this - I was quite conscious of getting my piece to look cohesive and getting accurate texel density. Of course it is standard to have them on 2 sheets, but because I am good at getting UV economy, I took the risk to do it on one sheet and I believe it paid off.

Overall the piece looks accurate for the time period, the colours and motifs juxtapose the time period and make for a dark but also visually appealing scene, the volumetric clouds especially exemplify the dark nature of the first world war.

Creating the diorama to fit in with trench warfare - however, If I were to add anything to the scene, I would have definitely added an unexploded artillery shell to the diorama in order to add some extra story telling features.

Saddled animal contextual task

-       How does creation of meshes made for deforming/animated assets differ from static mesh creation?

The deformation loops are used on models that are going to be animated, such as humans, creatures, monsters etc - this is to animate them to perform realistic movement.

Such as the deformation loops around the eyes, being used to stimulate blinking, or the knee deformation loops to make sure the knee can bend correctly without pulling on the mesh. Which can sometimes result in the mesh pulling if it is not retopologised or rigged correctly.

How does your mesh show the or use of the animal within its gameplay world or setting?

Because my animal is set during ww1, it has reflected reference I gathered for dogs of the same time period, having a leather satchel with a medic sign on it, or the addition of the pouch which would be used to store items in, like bandages or medicine.

In addition to having the diorama, the dog in context makes sense - much like say for example Riley from call of duty ghosts, the dog would play a key role in missions delivering goods from one area to another.

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 19)

This week, I collated a powerpoint for roughness.

I wanted to do this powerpoint to help out my peers and understanding roughness, in order to better their textures and get a more accurate depiction on how light looks when interacting with an object.

I added various real life examples of pictures where roughness can be seen when interacting with light.

Here are some slide examples.

3D Games production (Week 19)

This week's focus was on finalising the creature project.

Overall, I really like the aesthetics of the final result - I have combined the base and the dog to have a cohesive scene. The baking for the base went really well considering the otherwise lack of tris that were available.

One thing I did try to make were some light shafts, however, after attempting this, there was no blocking geometry to cast any rays onto my scene, so I decided to scrap it, in turn I tried to turn up the bloom to replicate something similar.

While texturing, I kept similar visual keys to help streamline the texturing process.

For example, I made the paws of my dog brown as if it had been walking in the mud, additionally having some paw prints in the mud of the base - both of which correspond nicely in response to the previously mentioned cohesion within my scene.

3D Games production (Week 18)

This week's focus was on texturing for the saddle and dog.

Overall, I wanted to try go along with the base and push the realistic boundary of my texture authoring.

When baking down my high poly for the dog, I made a curvature map and a darker colour to act as fake ambient occlusion which would 'seep' into the crevasses of the fur - as well as the saddle, I made sure the roughness was very low on top of both of the textures to indicate rain, like I envisioned it for my overall scene.

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 18)

This week's focus for self directed was setting up my unreal scene, along with creating the presentation base for my dog.

From the reference I gathered previously, I wanted this to look the part for a WW1 style scene, including wooden posts which supported barbed wire, which could be seen in no mans land outside the trenches, I believe it has come together to look really authentic. 

Base under 2k tris

3D Games production (Week 17)

This week's focus was on retopologising our creature, I went the additional mile to make sure I unwrapped it.

We have the option to put the head and eyes on seperate UV sheets, however, Given my experience with texturing and the addition to inconsistent texel density, I thought it would be wise for me to put them all on one sheet, this way I can control my UVs and save on texture space, but making sure I had the geometry to bake down the textures consistently.

UVs

Retop

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 17)

Over the weekend, I started a new personal project.

I wanted to add some more stuff to my portfolio, I thought of an idea to do a 'film noir' scene.

Overall, the scene is looking nice and has a lot of the space filled out, however I will need to look at the lighting in more depth in order to get a stronger mood.

3D Games production (Week 16)

This week's focus was mainly on finalising my high poly sculpt.

Some things I learned this week, was being able to accentuate certain features on the body, such as the legs, this was in order to focus on where the muscle groups were, using brushes like the dam standard and creating custom fur alphas in photoshop, helped me push the high poly further, ready for re-topologising and texturing.

Low poly with no added detail

High poly with sculpted fur

Fur alpha

3D Games production: Self directed (Week 16)

This week's focus was on retopologising my 'saddle' for my dog.

I took into the account what my high poly was doing and Zremeshed it, then brought it into 3DS max, removed what will be the non-visible topology, which left the saddle at about 6800 tris, which is below budget.

Because this saddle is the only thing on there, I made sure to try and utilise the UV space as much as possible, but given the shapes, it made this process a bit difficult.

Then progressing to star texturing in substance painter. I wanted to make sure my saddle had roughness variation, coming off the back end of my research, in would rain on the continent and in the trenches, so for this scene I would want it raining, which would justify having reflective roughness properties over the model.

Retopology