Unreal Engine 4 (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

To complete the project we are required to take the model into Unreal Engine 4 to get the best out of our model in terms of lighting and scenery etc.
As mentioned in a previous post I was going to make the scene a beach like. So first of all I set to making the scene using the default assets found in the engine. I used several rocks, a few shrubs and made the ground texture a sand. I also added a spotlight above where I was going to place my model and made the light an ambient orange as if it was late afternoon.

Making the scene

Secondly I imported my asset, the textures and then used the material editor to apply all the different texture maps to the material and then dragged my shoe into the scene and then applied the material.

Applying the textures to the material

Below are my final pictures of the model in the scene and I can't say how happy I am with the final result. This has been the hardest project so far for me and I had quite a few troubles but at each stage I think I have excelled myself and learnt a lot at each stage. I plan on working on personal projects in my own time in the future. I sent a few pictures to family and friends and some of them thought it was real! I would have to say my favourite bit about the shoe is the converse logo because it looks super realistic!

Creating The Texture Maps (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

Below are the all the texture maps that I have created. The colour ID map was hand made in ZBrush, as mentioned earlier I had the mistake of merging everything so I painted them by hand. The normal and cavity maps were generated using XNormal. These turned out quite well first time so I was happy with the result. Lastly I created the remaining maps in Quixel. However because my Colour ID map was not perfect I had quite a lot of whit space and pixelated areas so I spent a few hours clone stamping and colouring myself in Photoshop to get the result I wanted. I then also added images of the logo and stitching using a stitch brush I downloaded from DeviantArt. Overall I was really happy with the result and I can't wait to get them into the next stage!

Roughness

Colour ID Map

Albedo

Normals

Cavity

Metalness

This is what my shoe looked like before I added the stitching and made the toe cap black. I think it's starting to look great!

Quixel Render

UV Unwrapping (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

In this stage I UV Unwrap my low poly model. However, due to getting some bad advice in a previous lesson from a friend I happened to merge my individual parts together. and then dyna meshed the object. This ended up filling in my whole shoe. (this can be seen in the picture on my previous post).

I then thought, why don't I embrace this mistake and make the most of it? So I planned to make the inside of the shoe filled with sand and at the final stage I was going to portray the shoe on a beach scene.

Anyway, below are my UV Unwraps. They were done quickly inside ZBrush due to my earlier mistake. It's not the best unwrap in the world but it will do for me.

UV Unwrap

Wireframe on Low Poly

Low Poly Model (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

Now was the time to create a low poly model based of the high poly model. My aim was to try to get the model around 15,000 tris. However It ended up being a bit more (27,000) due to me having to use the cleanup tool on my shoelaces.

I started off by decimating the high poly model in ZBrush so that I could open it in Maya. Once In Maya I used the quad draw tool and made a simple mesh around my shoe. This was quite a simple task as I am used to using these tools so It didn't take me that long.

Then with a little bit of help from Phil again we managed to add the laces without too much difficulty.

Decimated Model in Maya

 Finished Low Poly Model

Adding Detail (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

After getting my high poly to a stage I was happy and after having a bit of help from Phil to sort out the various problems that I had made for myself, I took it to ZBrush to add detail to the high poly.
I gathered a few images off google and made them into alphas with Photoshop and I also put together my own alpha to add a diamond shape to the front of the shoe.

Sole Alpha

Custom Diamond Alpha

Logo Alpha

With the alphas above and using surface noise to get a cloth like finish to the base of the shoe I got the following results. I'm really happy with how this worked out and it was worth the effort to make my own alphas as I don't think I could have got the same amount of detail by hand for example. 

Sole Alpha Applied

Logo Alpha Applied

Diamond Alpha Applied

Full High Poly Shoe

Modeling The Shoe (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

High Poly Render

This is my 2nd milestone in our Games Art assessment.

In this milestone we have to have a high poly model ready to take into ZBrush.

I started our with the sole of the shoe using the quad draw tool and then extruded my way up to the top of the shoe. I then added the tongue into the centre. All of this was pretty basic stuff to me now and i feel more confident using the multi tools. I extruded a few areas out that are more embossed on the shoe such as the rubber.

After I was happy with my initial shape I used a cylinder to cut some holes into my model using the boolen tool. I think this was a quick and effective way to go about the task and it didn't seem to mess up my typology!

Once I had the holes in place I added polygons to the cut out circles to make the metal rings that allow the shoelace to feed through. I was quite happy with how it looks.

Now came the hardest part so far... the actual shoelaces!

For the two dangling shoelaces I used the EP curve tool as suggested and that was fine. However the laces up the tongue took me a while longer and I ended up extruding a cube several times and then smoothing to get the desired effect. I then duplicated them one by one all the way up the shoe.

I'm really happy with how it looks so far and I'm eager to take it further!

Base

Typology of the base

Boolen circles.

Polygon shapes to make the rings

Other view

Adding the laces..

The finished laces!

Reference Images (Triple A Asset) - Games Art 15/16

This term we have the task to plan out and make a Triple AAA asset. I have chosen to model a Converse All Star shoe as it has the multiple surfaces that are required for this task and I also think it will stretch my skills along the way. I have the actual shoes that I was going to model so I always had the reference when I came to class. However to get my modeling started I also used the online converse designer to grab some images from different angles.

Converse - Reference Images

I would also like to point out that the shoes I will be making have a black toe cap unlike the images above. My next milestone should be the first stages of modeling. I look forward to getting to work!

Summer Project - Pirate Cyborg

For our Summer Project we were set the task to design and model our own cyborg character. I set about putting a mood board together, I initially wanted to do a 'Pirate skeleton cyborg' but ended up deciding to not do the bones as I thought flesh would be easier to model. This is the first time we have really been asked to model start to finish with our own design and I'm not going to lie I did struggle. Although I struggled with the modelling process, I did however enjoy the design part of the task, drawing is something I have only really picked up in the last year. So I really put some effort in with my concept and I'm really happy with how the picture turned out. In my opinion it is the best piece of art I have produced so far.

Mood board

Model Sheet

Character Concept

Story

However... When I started to model the character I ran into a few problems. I found it simple enough to follow my model sheet and was pleasantly surprised that my basic model resembled some sort of a human. Once I had finished doing the limbs and torso I decided to work up the cyborg arm and I don't know what happened at this point but I selected an option in one of the menus and it split all my edges/verts and pretty much doubled my polycount.

Now I probably should have started over, but I foolishly decided to try and correct this and after moving a quite a lot of verts around I ended up with a mess of triangles and I know triangles are bad for character modelling.

At this point I decided to export it to Mudbox, however Mudbox complained and told me my model was bad.

Started Modelling

Body with limbs

Side view

Front view

Cyborg arm

Peg leg and boot!

From this project I have learned not to mess around with settings that I don't know much about!

Combat Knife - Games Art 15/16

Knife render

Reference

This year in our Games Art sessions we are creating high poly assets. To get us started we were given the task to model this combat knife. This is the first time I have made a proper high poly asset and the techniques are much different to low poly models. We were shown how to use the 'Quad Draw' tool to quickly map out the overall shape of the knife.
The top image is a render of my attempt, I am quite happy with my model and I'm looking forward adding more detail to it next week and eagerly awaiting the moment we get to texture it!
Although I am happy with it, I did encounter a few issues but after reviewing my mistakes I managed to resolve them.

Galactic Guardians (Spring Submission) - Game Encounters 14/15

This term we had to work in groups of three or more to make our game. the requirements were to include a highscore system, flying and shooting. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and it was great that we were given the freedom to make a game of our choice whilst sticking to the requirements. We decided to go with a space game where you have to protect planets from the enemies (Snelia). Overall our game consisted of four scenes, one menu and three levels.

Menu

Above is a picture of our menu, in my opinion it is great and in i'm really proud of it. It just really gives the feel that you are actually in a spaceship cockpit. The next 3 pictures are of the levels. They are played the same way but they look visually different.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

 Below is the pause menu, this appears when you press the escape key. You also get a similar screen when you die. Both of these screens can take you back to the menu or you can start the level again.

Pause menu

Script - Orbiting debris

 The pictures above and below are just some of the scripts that I did. The script above is code to make objects orbit around one another. We used this to make space debris float around planets and other objects.
The script below is to lock the camera to certain positions. This is so the player can not turn around 360 degrees. It works great and it really gives you the feeling that you are locked into your seat ready for battle!

Script - Menu camera

My favourite part of making this game was working in a group to achieve the goal together. I also enjoyed making particle systems for the boost effects on our ship. But overall I think the games main menu is the most impressive visually. On a bad note, I would have liked to add a few more levels to the game as I do think it lacks a little in fun factor, but this could be due to the fact I've played it a lot.

I'm looking forward to the next Game Encounters project!