WEEK 21
12/02/2023
WEEK 22 – ENVIRONMENT
19/02/2023
TEXTURING – MARKET STALLS
WEEK 23
26/02/2023
TEXTURING – LARGER ASSETS
WEEK 24
04/03/2023
TEXTURING – KITCHEN
WEEK 25
11/03/2023
TEXTRUING – MODULAR BUILDINGS
WEEK 26
18/03/2023
EASTER
WEEK 27
25/03/2023
EASTER
WEEK 28
01/04/2023
BUILDING REWORK
Coming back after Easter break, I was able to pinpoint exactly what my issue was with my scene; I was unhappy with the buildings. Since they fill a lot of the environment, it was important they looked right, and having them built from modular pieces wasn’t working as I’d hoped.
Because of this, I experimented with making individual building assets, as opposed to modular pieces. While this may take longer in a larger area, for my smaller scale project it worked perfectly, and allowed me to get each asset looking exactly as I wanted. Before making the whole scene over, I tested the process on only one building, and confirmed with my team.
WEEK 29
08/04/2023
BUILDING RETEXTURE
WEEK 30
15/04/2023
FINISHING DETAILS
With the scene being almost complete at this stage, I was also able to assist the other members of my group with making sure everything was game ready. This included scaling the models in comparison to the environment and each other.
EFFECTS AND LIGHTING
CINEMATIC
WEEK 31
22/04/2023
CRITICAL APPRAISAL
I was very proud of my Character project; I feel that I learned a lot, and got to experiment with techniques that I hadn’t used before. Creating clothing in Marvelous Designer, retopologising in Maya, making hair cards, and using Substance Designer were all new skills that I learned for this character. I was also able to develop on my existing skills; modelling, texturing and rigging, which allowed me to create my best work as far as body sculpting and detail. I also learned a lot about how models are made specifically for games.
I was very pleased with how I managed to capture the style that I was going for, and how the initial design translated to my model. I found the pre-production research into mythology and imagery, and further development of the character to be interesting, and having a strong research baseline and references enabled me to work a lot more efficiently overall. I definitely found it helpful having the input of both my classmates, tutors and friends. The colour scheme, shapes, and textures I think worked well together, and helped to portray the dark tone of the character.
While my technical skills definitely improved, there was a few areas I would like to continue working on, and things I would have liked to have done with more time. Retopologising the shirt and trousers completely was one of these areas, which would have helped both with the shaping of the low poly and the optimisation of the model, as well as decreasing the number of polygons in the cloak, or changing the shape so that the low poly could be simulated as fabric. One issue I had, that I would have liked to fix was the shaping of the cloak, and how it baked onto the low poly – trying to catch both sides of the shape while still keeping the poly count in check was something I found difficult, and would like to research more. To develop further I would like to expand my knowledge on shaders and lighting to give a perfect finish to my final renders, specifically in the area of hair shaders, and rendering hair cards to look realistic.
Altogether I found the project both enjoyable and valuable in helping me to improve my skills and understanding of the entire process of creating characters for games, which I hope to translate and expand on for further projects.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aoxe6J
I was also pleased with the outcome of my environment project, though I would like to continue to work on it. Because of the scale of my project, I had to develop an efficient pipeline for all of my assets, which I think I did successfully, and I found I could rely on my already existing skills in modelling and texturing. I felt myself getting more confident in these as the project went on, and getting to work more in Unreal Engine also allowed me to broaden my skills especially in effects such as the cloth simulation, and the workflow that goes into putting environments together.
This project also allowed me to develop collaborative skills, through working towards a wider project where the themes and style has to be cohesive. I found that having feedback from my team and tutors as I went was especially helpful, as it helped me to pinpoint what areas to focus on. I felt that myself and my team communicated very effectively. I also was very pleased with how my references to both real life and other games influenced my overall outcome. I found working on two projects at once to be challenging, and pushed me to manage my time carefully, but on the other hand I think having a break part way to work on a different concept helped me to come back to my environment with fresh eyes.
I would have liked to have developed my concept more at the start of the project, which may have sped up the time I spent moving larger elements and framing my final renders in Unreal. I think I slightly overestimated how much could be done in the time, causing me to have to cut back on the quantity of assets, and more detailed areas that could be added to my environment. The main area I struggled with was making the scene full enough to feel real. I think having more small props and vegetation to fill out some areas may help with this, which I would like to work on going forward. The addition of characters, as it would have in a finished game, would also help in the long run. Having to make most of my larger buildings again after not being contend with the modular workflow outcome also meant that some time was lost in the remake, though I was far more pleased with the outcome.
Overall I was happy with my environment, and would like to continue to develop it in order to perfect it for my portfolio.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/obNamm