3D Reflection 15 - Continuing with the Group Project - finishing the layout for my main room

I continued my blockout that I produced over christmas. As I planned the space I made more assets and improved the quality of the assets I had already made by making the meshes tidier and fixing Ngons. The assets I used for the blockout are detailed enough to be used in the final level, and match my reference quite well.

I decided to alter the layout of the large courtyard room, to make it more interesting. I added another level at the top, moved the ceiling pieces down so that the room wouldn't be too tall. Icreated windows using a smaller version of the door piece, and a ceiling lattice frame instead of using large cloth drapes, as I thought it looked messy and felt claustrophobic. I would like to add wicker alphas to the lattice for the final version, as I saw in my inspiration images.

At first I tried expanding the floor space, but this was not going to improve the level of visual interest.

This is what the ceiling looked like before being extended.

Ceiling during extension

Making the frames

Adding the frames

I added a different cloth asset, one that would hang vertically from the ceiling and could be used as an ornate cloth curtain over doors or for decoration. I made a plane and using soft selection, I pulled the vertices in the correct diretion to simulate draped cloth. For the final version I could take it into Zbrush and create more accurate creases.

New cloth design

Playing around with positions of cloth

Final cloth position

The most difficult asset to make so far was a small table, which was decorated with a patterned trim. I found it difficult to purge all of the Ngons from this as I used the chamfer tool incorrectly. As a result I had to completely rework some of the faces to solve these problems, but I was satisfied with the final table.

Making my table from reference of 18th dynasty egyptian tables

Placing vases on top of the table

I wanted to make some elements of a lounge area that could be comfortable to sit around, but I did not want to overdo this as another teammate was already planning to produce a lounge area within the statue room. Therefore I modelled three cushions using the spherify and turbosmooth tools, making sure that they were not too high poly. I placed them into the level, and scattered a few around to represent the messy and raided area.

Cushion creation and placement

Next I produced another plant pot, this time based on ancient ceramic troughs that would have been filled with plants. I created a version that was empty, and a version that had a surface to mimick soil. I could create a soil texture in substance to fill it. I made empty ones so that I could create some knocked over pots, with plants and soil spilling out.

The empty trough

The trough with soil and plants

At this point, I decided that it would be a good idea to place in some foliage to see how my hero asset and the plant pots woould look. As I planned to do the final foliage using alphas, I wanted to save time for the visualisation part, and so I downloaded three plant models that I could use as an example. I will obviously not use these in the final as these are not my work, but they helped me to get a feel of what the final room would look like.

Downloading some example plant models from a website

I liked the height and granduer of the palm trees in the centre of the room

After receiving feedback from my teammates and my tutors, I decided to add some decorative trims to the doors and windows. This was an element that was noticeable in my research also. These small details helped to bring much more realism, as it was supposed to be a room in an egyptian palace.

Making a door trim

Window trims

A snapshot of my courtyard arrangement as it is currently. It looks much more interesting visually than it did.

3D Reflection 14 - Commission work over Christmas Holidays

Over the holidays I was commissioned by a friend to create a motorcycle dashboard for 3D printing. I took it as an opportunity to practise the high poly workflow, using modifiers such as turbosmooth, boolean and shell. I ensured that although it was only going to be 3D printed, Ngons were resolved and the asset was game ready and correctly sized. It was also an opportunity to practise an element of freelancing - setting my own rates and working closely to a given brief. This was a short project but it was fun to be able to practise some of the tools I learnt during this term.

Messing with the boolean tool and working from basic shapes to make complex compound shapes

Final high - poly motorcycle dashboard

Reference

3D Reflection 13 - Blocking out my main room for the project

Over the holidays I made a start on a mid poly 3D block-out for my large room in the dungeon crawler, using the modular kit workflow. The hero asset is going to be a collection of plans and a pond in the centre of the room. This blockout was challenging as I had to use precision and maths I was going in order to make sure that my assets all clicked and fitted into the room. At first I took a hall size reference from various diagrams online, and I began blocking out the ceiling trims and the columns. I made four types of column: a prstine column, chipped, badly damaged and collapsed. As this room would be placed in the run-down section at the start of the crawler it was important that I thought about the amount of damage that had been inflicted. I also created a series of floor pieces that click together. I used the reference images that we gathered in our group presemtation, as well as closely looking at Assassin's Creed Origins for inspiration. 

Size reference cube

Ceiling trim and columns

Pristine vs Chipped column

Floor pieces and central plinth for plants

I also created some wall modular kits, and made three types: an inset wall piece, a door piece and a plain piece, although I did not use the plain piece in the end, but I could use it for another room and apply some colourful wall trims.Once everything was made, I placed it into an Unreal level to test how all the pieces click together. This was a fun process as I could see that my precision and caution when modelling and setting the pivots had paid off, as all of the assets clicked together. One issue was that the collisions of the door pieces were wrong, and as a result the third person character could not walk through. This is an issue I will remedy later on.

As a final touch to dress the room, I added in some wall joint dressings, some vases and draped cloth on the ceiling, as I wanted the room to be closed ultimately as it is meant to be an interior dungeon crawler. In the final version there would be plants decorating the room, particularly in the centre, and water.

Adding a simple shader to attain the mood and adding skylights and atmospheric fog.

Large decorative vases added for dressings

Creating a ceiling drape 

Overall this block out was useful for me to plan my assets and where they will be placed in the main room. I would like to make a block out for my L-shaped tomb room and my corridor, and I think that I can use many of these block out assets for my final room. 

Traditional - Blog topic 6

Edgar Degas' 'Bust of a Woman' is an example of cool and warm toned Impressionist art. Degas uses coloured pencils on warm toned paper. 

The model is lit from the right hand side, which is indicated by the lighter warmer tones used, particularly in the hair and face. He has also used the warm tones of the paper under a loose light blue pencil, to accentuate the light hitting the clothing. In the darker shadowed areas of high contrast, Degas has used a solid fill cool tone to send these areas into more depth and further away from the eye. This can best be seen with the shirt on the left hand side of the sketch, and at the back of the head. These dark contrasts add an element of depth and 3Dimension. 

The face features smooth transitions between tones, such as around the chin and under the eyes, which demonstrates the original soft texture of the skin well in this sketch. However, in contrast to this the hair is textured using more streaked mark making. In addition, the shirt is sketched using rougher and broader pencil strokes, defining the roughness of the fabric and breaking up the texture quality between the skin and the clothing. Similarly, the background is loosely textured albeit with a coarse shading method and the use of horizontal lines, which allows the model to stand out well but lets the background become part of the sketch as well.

Degas uses occasional strokes of bright red to accentuate tone in the face and the background. For example, his gentle use of red in the face creates a realistic colouring which is brought out better with the surrounding use of cooler grey and light blue tones. There is a slight curvature to the red markings, which creates a sense of rounded form of the cheeks. The light tones highlight the brightest planes of the face, along the right temple and cheek, as well as along the bridge of the nose. 

The blues and browns in this sketch are well balanced, and there is a general feeling of warmth and gesture to the piece. This can be seen well in the arm and the background blue around the face, indicating movement. 

I really like how well Degas has represented the youth and personality of the subject, through expression and surface quality of the face. the sketch is overall aesthetically appealing and interesting to look at as the eyes are drawn to the many different textures and tones of the piece.

'Bust of a Woman', c. 1880- c.1885, by Edgar Degas

Digital Reflection 21 - Final mini project hand in and post mortem document

I finished the mini project by placing all of my work into a presentation and handing it in for marking. I placed in some information in the first few slides regarding the project idea, gameplay, synopsis and a mini style guide. These slides were made by me and shared with the rest of my group for them to put into their presentations too, for the sake of continuity and clarity.

Title page, made by Cerys in my group

Shared slides, made by me 

I then placed in my own work, including my moodboards and my project pages. In the middle of the powerpoint, in the character section, I made a newer version of the character size comparison sheet, with everyones most up to date version of their character (and the train design). This helped to not only demonstrate the scale of each character and the vehicle, but it also demonstrated the shared style that we tried to follow as a team and the use of shape language and colours. The only issue with this is that not everyone's project was finished and so it doesn't share all the aspects of the style, such as the bright highlights on some of the characters.

Regardless, I was very happy with the outcome of my presentation, as I think it showed a strong effort to create continuity within the team's style and vision of the game concept.

Finally, I filled in the post mortem document for the project to see what went well and what I could improve for the future project. I also dictated what I wanted to feed forwards into the next project, such as keeping an asset management list and creating a strong style guide from the very beginning of the project.

3D reflection 12 - Choosing and developing our group project idea

We went through as series of ideas as a group, based on the theme of realistic contemporary. We started with a jail set during a riot, but decided to explore other elements of the theme, such as a modern day ruins of an ancient temple. However, we struggled to think of a good narrative and way to develop this environment, and so we explored other ideas. We strayed from the idea of a contemporary setting, and looked at ancient Egyptian palaces, in old royal society. We did not want to include fantasy elements as this would stray too far from our original prompt, but after talking about the idea in more detail we figured out a way to develop the rooms of the dungeon crawler according to a basic narrative: the game is set at the end of a conflict over an ancient Egyptian city. the protagonist is a messenger who has delivered a message far too late to the pharaoh about the raid on the city. Therefore he must traipse through a  palace that has been damaged on the outskirts, in the more communal areas (e.g. the holy area and the courtyard were mainly available for commoners to visit in ancient palaces), and move inwards towards a more pristine protected undamaged area, and finally end up in the pharaoh's room which is virtually untouched.

 Page from our group powerpoint

The move from poorer to richer and damaged to pristine is how our crawler will develop, along with different themed rooms, such as a statue room, a throne room, a tomb room, and others that we distributed amongst the group members. We made a plan of the characters and rooms that would be featured in a group powerpoint, before displaying our ideas to the tutors.

The feedback that we received was to distribute the rooms according to the level of damage and wealth they display in order to make a continuous development. From this, we split the rooms into three categories: damaged and poorer, medium wear and fairly wealthy, and finally very pristine and wealthy. we then re-distributed the rooms so that we would make our sections in the same categories. For example, I am now making the courtyard, a tomb and a corridor in the damaged and poor category early on in the dungeon crawler. I am also making the Pharaoh for my character.
Our main style guide is the art of Assassins Creed Origins, set in Ancient Egypt.

My page from the group powerpoint

The next stage, according to my plan, is to make the 3D blockout of my rooms over the holidays.

Old floor plan

Newest basic floor plan