Environment Project - Mountains/Skydomes - 3D Art 1 (Module 3 Week 14)

Critique Notes

• Move the player start forward about 2 ft. 
• Crumble the rocks at the border or add other details to make the floating island theme more apparent to the user. (Did not get to this week).
• Fix the plant wind movement. 
• Angle the wings out on the gargoyle. (Did not get to this week.)
• Increase ground resolution and fix the weird bake spot (on a stone). (Did not get to this week.)

Mountains Process

First, I tried applying the WB height map export to a UE4 landscape and then exported out that file to sculpt on. I was met with tons of swiss-cheesing and general mesh gore issues but eventually figured out that exporting the mesh straight from WB with the mesh output node gave me a better base to work with. After sculpting and texturing an entire mountain range this way, I imported it into Unreal only to realize it didn't maintain the same shape as the original mountains and had somehow become very flat (I think the scaling of things got messed up somewhere). I decided to scrap this mesh because it was so shallow I wasn't able to hide the edges with the fog. For my final attempt at making a mountain, I ended up taking that second sculpt and pulled down the edges as far as I could in ZBrush so that it could be hidden in the fog and then re-textured it and placed multiple instances in the scene as static meshes. This method worked as a quick fix, but it really dulled out a lot of the details I put into the mountain and I will need to go back to try and get them back in. The final result can be seen in the beauty shots above.

Skydome Process

For the skydome, I illustrated the textures above and applied them within a copy of Epic's sample skydome BP. I also changed the values of my exponential height fog to give the scene both a little more clarity and some cooler tones, which I thought might fit the fantasy vibe a bit better.

Environment Project - Pillar Game Res - 3D Art 1 (Module 3 Week 13)

 Critique Notes:

• Add a sturdier base to the candle holder. Also, make it feel more part of the pillar base. 🗹
• Remove the little bricks entirely and chip them into regular damage instead. 🗹
• Offset the inset faces (especially the bottom one), make them into more interesting grooves and give them more thickness for better visual weight. 🗹
• Add some visible damage to the gargoyle to better match Orb style. 🗹
• Add more visible gradient to rocks and add a splash of lighter color on each rock face. 🗹

I re-sculpted my pillar with the new offset faces and had a ton of issues baking, but I was able to make most of the improvements I wanted. I think I might have gone overboard with the tertiary on my re-sculpt so I might flatten it out a little for the next pass depending on feedback. I was not able to make major lighting changes in the scene this week so I will continue working on that going forward.

White Boxing and Concept (Common Art Week 13)

    This week, I adjusted asset sizes as needed to reduce the size of the overall play space by around half of what I had originally came up with (as recommended during our last critique). I created a thinner version of my modular window + wall and used it to create a thinner overall structure for the church. 

    I also resized/recreated the floor, the roof, the front doors, the carpet, the pews, the alter, and the candles (which I added two variations to and improved the shape of overall). I also created several entirely new meshes this week, including the chandelier, tree, fence, and a snow pile. All proxies are currently in a pretty rough state regarding geometry but I will begin reworking assets as soon as their concepts and proxies are approved and ready for further development.

Environment Project – Pillar High Res - 3D Art 1 (Module 3 Week 12)

 Critique Notes from Last Week:

• Ground Plane: 
• May need to add some more area to the play space. 🗹
• I extended out the player start area.
• Fix low resolution issues (mainly in the stones and stairs). 🗹
• I re-sculpted and re-textured the stones leading up to the pillar on the ground plane. 
• Vegetation: 
• Increase grass density. 🗹
• Add green to the ground texture where grass will be for a more seamless look. 🗹
• Make sure the foliage materials are two-sided within Unreal. 🗹
• Fix the pivot of the simple grass wind. ☐
• I wasn't able to fix the pivot on the grass wind of the bush, so I removed it for now.
• Rocks: 
• Fix the low resolution issues. Some cracks are too pronounced for the style goal. 🗹
• I attempted to re-sculpt the rocks, but it led to less desirable results than the original models so I ended up re-texturing the originals instead. This seems to be the part I am struggling with most in the project; I think it's improved now but it still may need attention.

Art Style Guides - Custom Style Guide/Starting Prototype (Common Art Week 12)

 

This week, my main responsibilities included creating proxy models and setting them up in UE4 to represent the story my team and I finalized earlier this week, which was revised to narrow down our scope. I created the props and pieces above and tried to include modularity where possible (mainly walls), both in Maya and in-engine using hierarchies and separated pieces. I used the standard UE4 mannequin guy for scale and a third-person controller for running around for quick testing when I didn't have a headset. I didn't include the window glass and floors here because I used simple planes with no divisions. I created basic materials for each object and used the gold metal material from the UE4 starter content pack for the incense burner in the scene view. 

*Disclosure: Some scene images have been brightened for blog readability.

I also helped find images for this week's inspiration slide, this time taking images from games my team has found inspiration of throughout the duration of the project so far and will continue to look at going forward as we continue to design and create original assets.

Environment Project – Vegetation Set - 3D Art 1 (Module 3 Week 11)

 Critique Notes:

• Don't forget to rebuild reflection capture.
• Rocks and layout are okay but texture resolution needs to be increased.
• Ground plane resolution also needs to be increased.
• Fix Navmesh.
• Watch saturation levels.

Making foliage is a challenge! I had a lot of difficult getting my blade sculpts to bake down onto flat planes. I found work-arounds by extruding faces and slicing them back off after baking. I made some improvement on my rocks and ground plane but don't think I've quite hit the resolution target I need yet, so I'll need to continue working on those. Every piece of foliage was baked from a sculpt with the exception of the flower which was created using a .png drawing of a flower I created.

Art Style Guides - Discovering Your Own Art Style (Common Art Week 11)

Slides:

Photobashed Images:

This week, I continued focusing on mood and inspiration development for our VR experience. I created two photobashed images and applied Photoshop filters and gradients to the other images I found to give them a cohesive look. In addition, I created a very basic frame for presentation elements based on the main frame found by another team member.

Environment Project – Ground / Modular Rock Set - 3D Art 1 (Module 3 Week 10)

 Professor Zuccarello's Notes on Proxy Phase:

    Art Issues:

• Sky is over-saturated.
• Add more variation/complexity in grass shapes and sizes (too similar in appearance). At least one needs to be super short.
• Add more variation/complexity in rock shapes (too similar in shape appearance).
• Make the play space / ground plane less square and more dynamic.

    Technical Issues:

• Move player start away from the edge of the void.
• Match interactable pick-up blueprint from reference project.
• Use foliage brush to add vegetation to the environment.
• Begin working on Navmesh.

For the rocks, I mostly used the Orb brushes to build out more variety in the set and sculpt in secondary and tertiary details. I am still working on lighting but am aiming for a dusk/early nightfall look. I used an alpha for the separated stones in the steps and morphed the shape of the plane around to get it less square. The only issue I am now having is with the Nav Mesh, but I will have that fixed up in addition to better vegetation next week.