Portfolio Project- Futuristic Racer Diorama

We were assigned one last project before the start of FMP, with between two and three weeks to complete it. We actually had a selection of briefs to choose from so we could create something relevant to our portfolios. I chose to create a diorama, which gave me the freedom to create something I personally found interesting. Naturally I chose a futuristic racing theme since nobody was around to tell me not to!

 

The rough whitebox paintover

It was stated in the brief that there would not be time to concept our scenes, and it was recommended that we recreate something existing or use an existing concept. I wasn’t keen to do this though and I ended up spending the first day of the project doing rough sketches, a whitebox and a paintover. I spent the rest of the week modelling the ship. The surprising issue I encountered was that the tri budget was far higher than what I was used to- I initially assumed that this was because I was supposed to be making something more complex, but after speaking to one of my tutors it was apparent that this was going to be closer to a current gen model than what I was used to. I chamfered most of the edges slightly and tried to smooth things out a little, but in the end I feel that my tri usage could’ve been far more efficient and have had a better result.

The “second week” was a bit tricky. Due to the timing of the project, the Christmas holidays fell right in the middle. This is why the project was to be either two or three weeks, as sacrificing part of our holidays was optional. I opted to try and get what I could done over the holidays, but due to the lack of a proper working environment I didn’t even get close to my goal of finishing the main ship asset. I managed to unwrap and texture the best part of half of it. The time I spent at home probably amounted to a day or two of work in the labs so I had to properly knuckle down when I got back.

For the first couple of days of the third week I had to try and finish off what I had aimed to complete during the holidays. I did not manage to finish texturing the exposed internals of the ship so they are all block colours, and although this looks passable it really isn’t an efficient use of texture space at all. If I return to this project and finish it it will be fine, but it is pretty bad the way I’ve left it.

I had to move on and model the rest of the scene. I had time to model the most essential props, but not any of the smaller pieces such as the toolbox. An interesting problem I found was that I was keen to match the texture sizes recommended in the brief which resulted in attaching separate objects and unwrapping them as one when my instinct would be to keep them separate and use smaller textures. The result of this was me feeling quite overwhelmed when trying to texture so many things at once, so it is entirely possible that the texture quality took a huge hit by this.

The end result

The final result of this project as I handed it in looks quite passable, but if you actually look at the textures it is clearly unfinished. Even the elements that look finished such as the bodywork of the ship are not even close to how I envisioned them. I wanted the body to be plastered with decals and logos like a Formula One car, but this wasn’t feasible primarily due to the extremely limited concepting time. It is also arguable that I tried to accomplish more than I could manage even if I had managed to use the full three weeks’ worth of time. I’m hoping that with my FMP I won’t have so much of an issue with texturing due to the majority being comprised of a large number of smaller assets rather than multiple elements crammed onto one large texture sheet. I plan to revisit this project before I put it in my portfolio as I am not completely satisfied with it as it stands.

Sidescroller Project Post-Mortem

This project was the first one to be undertaken by the entire yeargroup, although we were split into sub-teams to work on different levels. We were tasked with creating a side-scrolling platformer in Unreal Engine 4 with four levels and various characters, and we had six weeks to complete it in.

• What I Worked On

I worked as an environment artist for the “scary” level, alongside two other environment artists and a concept artist.

I ended up making two statues, three pieces of foliage, spiky crystals, doors for the end of the level, some chains with lamps, cave paintings, and a waterfall. I also made a piece of collapsed wall, but I did not include this in personal asset screenshots since the tileable textures were made by another group member.

The statues I made were sculpted in Zbrush, retopologised in 3D Coat and baked down in 3DS Max, whereas for the door I made the base mesh first, sculpted, and baked it back down. I found for the rest of the assets I made I didn't need to sculpt anything, though I did bake down the grass planes from an initial model I made in Max. All assets used Albedo, Roughness and/or Normal maps where needed to work with Unreal Engine 4’s Physically Based Rendering, often with extra Alphas to mask out glow as a dark atmosphere was an important aspect of our level.

• What Worked Well

For the most part people had their specific areas of design to work on- One member working on rocks and architecture, one primarily focusing on the important hero assets and one (me) working on smaller hero assets and miscellaneous objects to populate the scene. This ensured a consistent look between similar kinds of asset.

• What Didn't Work Well

For our level there was definitely a lack of communication between the engine artists and the rest of us. On our side I don’t think most of us were that great at either getting assets to them soon enough or not telling them they were done and on drive. Obviously I can’t say much about the engine artists’ experience but they made some questionable design decisions (such as colouring some of the waterfalls bright blue) and ignored my very small list of tweaks to be made. This is understandable since I made said notes only a day before hand in but most of the issues I brought up could easily be fixed in seconds.

What we should’ve done is borrow the engine off the engine artists occasionally to make tweaks ourselves. One of us tried to do this once but didn't give notice and so some work had to be scrapped, as the engine artist had still been working on the most recent version. Again solely a communication problem.

• Problems I Faced, and How I Overcame Them

It was very difficult in the earlier stages of the project before the modelling stage. I didn't feel very confident with my concepting skills especially next to the dedicated concept artist. Even during the whiteboxing stage I felt quite useless as I intended to sculpt my most important assets from scratch and so spending a lot of time on whiteboxes wasn't an efficient use of time for me.

I pushed ahead with modelling what I could as early as possible to make myself useful as early as possible. I also tried to focus on the more complicated assets first to get them out of the way so I would be able to focus on smaller assets to populate the scene near the end. This worked out very well for me as I was able to ask the rest of my group what needed doing and take on extra assets to push things towards completion.

• What would I do differently if given a second shot?

If I were to undertake a project similar to this one I would ensure that there was a concrete system for communication between the environment and engine artists, with specific pieces of information that must be passed between people so assets could be imported correctly and as soon as possible. I would also either push for the level to have more man-made architecture or experiment with vertex painting in-engine, as the way it is now the level is 90% generic rocks.

• Conclusion

I’m happy to have been a part of this project, not because of the end result but because I gained a lot of experience as well as some work for my portfolio. Most levels turned out very well but I admit the one I was a part of feels lacking. A lot of this blog entry probably comes off as complaining about other people’s work but I really do think everyone in the project did the best they could, and considering how pessimistic people were about the project around the midway mark I know things could’ve gone much worse. This has all been a very important learning experience and great practice for working in a multifaceted development team.

A Pretty Late Mid-Project Update Blog

The deadline for the sidescroller project is looming ever nearer, and most assets are complete or nearing completion. I intended to write this blog earlier in the project but I ended up being too focused on the project itself, so I’ll keep this fairly short so as to leave some things for the post-mortem blog.

We’ve had some worries over the course of the project about being able to meet the deadline, but at least out team is doing well and all the original assets will be finished very soon. The other environment artists in team Scary seem to like jumping from working on asset to asset to keep things interesting and fresh whereas I have preferred to focus on one asset at a time to keep things straight-forward. This isn’t necessarily better practice, especially as it means a lot of my stuff wasn’t whiteboxed very well but it has allowed me to branch out to other things due to getting my complex and more important assets out of the way at the beginning of the project.

I was slightly worried about not getting much experience or input with the engine work, but I did manage to have a play around with particle effects. I’m quite pleased with the waterfall I made as I was quite apprehensive when I decided to take on the task. This is where I am somewhat worried about the final build of the level though, as although I was told the engine artists would be working with particles I’ve yet to see if they can position or make edits to the system independently. I don’t really like not having the ability to go in and place the assets myself without a heavy amount of planning, it wouldn’t be a problem if the engine artist assigned to the project was with our group but since they are jumping between working on two levels this of course isn’t possible. All I can do is wait to see what they give us at the end.

Assets I have produced for the level

I’ve learnt a lot so far in this project, but there’s still more I want to learn. I have still yet to try polypainting so that is one thing I want to do over the Christmas break. I think most of the assets I produced for this project are portfolio-worthy so I’m less worried about that than I was at the start. I’m really looking forward to seeing the end result of everyone’s collaborative effort.

My Slightly Twee FMP Inspiration

My current main idea for my FMP first came to me while working on the group project at the end of last term. I was listening through some songs by my favourite musician that I hadn’t heard in a long time as I worked, and I found myself really inspired by one particular track. I had a very vivid picture in my head of what the song depicted and I really wanted to create that scene. Naturally there was a problem in that I was busy with the group project and didn’t have the time to commit to a large side project just for fun. So I put aside the idea for the FMP.

During the summer holidays I revisited the idea to keep it fresh in my mind. I created a Pinterest board to collect some visual examples.

The main idea was some kind of treehouse research base in the middle of the rainforest, overlooking a huge vista of trees stretching off into the distance. The base would be mostly constructed out of scrappy-looking materials such as tarpaulin and wire meshes on a base of wood. The strongest part of this idea I feel was how the humidity of the rainforest could bring out the colours in all the different materials. However the rest was very wishy-washy and hard to elaborate on, so I knew I’d have to rethink it.

More recently however I have had another brainwave that I think simplifies the idea yet makes it far more interesting. It would be pointless to constrain myself to keeping things exactly like my original vision when I could build off that base and make something better. I think it would be really interesting to actually have the inside of the treehouse be very modern, possibly even futuristic. This would both provide a more solid theme with greater contrast between interior and exterior, and also allow me to model a wider variety of assets. Modern design has the added bonus of still looking good with fewer assets so it is harder to mess up.

I’ve yet to pin down the interior design to the same extent as the rainforest outside but I think at least the theme is very clear. Amplifying the contrast between the interior and exterior should create a very comfortable atmosphere.

Technical constraints I would need to consider might include Unreal Engine 4’s ability to render glass convincingly and my own skills in creating a realistic humid or rainy scene. I’ve also been having issues with doing lightmaps on two-sided materials in my current project, and not having them on foliage in a scene with so much of it could cause serious performance issues so I need to find a solution to that problem soon.

Side-Scroller Project

I am currently working on a project along with the entire year group to create a short side-scrolling platformer game. We have been split into six sub-groups, with four groups making a level for the game, one making characters and a final comprised of two engine artists. The group I am in is working on the level to be described as “Scary”. The tutors are taking the roles of art directors.

We have been in the asset-making stage for a few days now and I am quite confident that we are going to get a great end result. Each level team is comprised of three environment artists and one concept artist- as one of the environment artists I feel that at this stage I am finally coming into my element.

The first stage of the project was of course idea gathering, and we did this by using Pinterest to gather pictures and create moodboards. This lasted for quite a while, and I was often worried that we were wasting time by not moving on sooner but I know it was good that we explored a lot of ideas quite deeply before pinning things down.

The next stage involved designing the level, then concepting and whiteboxing assets. I found this stage quite difficult, as most of the assets I had been asked to design were either heavily reliant on other assets and the style guide (which had not been completed at this time) or required little actual design work. Add to that my lack of drawing skill in comparison to the group’s concept artist and I was left feeling pretty useless for quite a while, which was at times pretty demoralising. However we passed the whiteboxing stage without much issue, and could finally move on to asset creation.

To keep everyone in the loop we like to have a lot of meetings. As the project has moved along we have gone from quite long but infrequent meetings during the idea development phases to shorter daily “scrums” now that we know what we’re doing. Recently we have been discussing things like sharing assets between levels to save time and keep the style consistent.

As things are now, I have modelled and textured some crystals to act as hazards in our level, though I need to go back and rearrange them into clusters before I send them to the engine artists. I have also been sculpting a medium sized statue. That's what I should be continuing with today.

King of the Dead Group Project

Third year has begun, and we have finally been blessed with Unreal Engine 4. Physically Based Rendering is beautiful, and it truly is exciting seeing the tools we have at our disposal advance along with the industry. What was technically our first assignment involved creation of materials in UE4, however we did no actual designing or modelling for it. It’s nice to be back to asset creation (though saying that implies I haven’t been practicing over summer!) So this was our first proper project, a group assignment to create a small scene involving a throne, a character, and a backdrop. A scene that would have to fit the title- “King of the Dead”.

We had two weeks for the whole project, which turned out to not be too restrictive in the end. Of course in the early days of the project I was constantly thinking we needed to speed up. The initial brainstorm didn’t take long… But gathering reference material sure did though. We used a Pinterest board to gather mood board images so we’d have something visual to base the idea around, but the problem was that we would of course stumble upon images that were inspiring, but would take us in a completely different direction. Expanding ideas is great, but not on the third or fourth day when we really need stick with something and start concepting!

I started sketching ideas fairly early on, which did help reign things back in in the end. It was an odd experience though, as at first I felt I was just killing time by jotting down rough ideas. They were all based on this concept one of the other group members had thought up involving a king frozen in a cryogenic chamber, though some involved incorporation of another idea of a parasitic entity. This rough sketching went on for a fair while and I was starting to feel really demoralised because I felt no feeling of direction, but I was surprised when we finally got together to share our ideas and everyone decided we should develop our design based on several of my ideas. It’s really easy to forget that concept art really isn’t about the quality of the drawings.

After this I made a few quick whiteboxes and everyone had a shot at doing paintovers. When things seemed to be coming together we began modelling. Since the design was constructed of various different shapes it could be broken down easily and people could choose to make whichever parts they wanted. I chose to start on the spider leg-like structures that adorned the throne, and since the other team member working on the throne was also doing most of the engine work I ended up making the entire throne apart from the central cryo pod itself.

I was a little unsure of whether my textures were interesting and convincing enough but I was reassured by the rest of the team that they were perfectly adequate. However this was only a little over half way through the second week, so I still had a couple of days to spare. Because of this I decided I would make a rock, one that could be subtly duplicated so that it could be used in various places around the scene to break up all the solid lines and make things a little more interesting. It was nice to be able to do some sculpting, since the rest of my work had been made in Max only. It was a bit of a reminder of my lack of knowledge though- My teammates pointed out several things in ZBrush that would’ve made things much faster for me… Unfortunately each time it was too late to execute them. I have noted them down for the future.

And now, the assets have been assembled in engine and the end result has come out really quite successfully. I think maybe the final scene could’ve done with a bit more There were a few hiccups, such as everyone forgetting to make light maps, forgetting to scale down textures, lack of collision (it wasn’t in the brief?)… But for the first proper project of the third year it went really quite well. Especially considering it was a group project, if it went as badly as my first group project experience I don’t know what I would’ve done!

…And I’ve just now noticed that some details I added to the model aren’t in the final render… see I knew things couldn’t possibly have gone that well. Group work eh.

Personal Review of the Second Year

The primary purpose of a university is the advancement of knowledge. Whether this means educating about pre-existing knowledge or advancing research.

With this in mind, what I want to get out of my time at University is not just existing knowledge but the ability to develop said knowledge further to be a more effective game artist.

When I leave University I hope to be able to get a job, but that is mostly out of necessity. If I feel my work still isn’t up to industry level I will want to keep furthering my learning for a better portfolio. Of course even in industry I will need to keep learning to keep up with advancements in technology and ensure I am the best I can be at what I do.

Now that I am almost at the end of year two, I do feel like I am starting to really get the hang of all the software and their best uses. I’m quite proud of several of the models I produced this year. Of course, I still have a long way to go.

Currently I think that aspects I particularly need to improve on are effective use of textures and my speed in creating them. I have found that this year I have improved significantly with modeling speed, starting to effectively use modifiers and understand the importance of modularity.

Year 1 Vehicle Project VS Year 2 Vehicle Project

On top of this, I’m starting to gain a better understanding of the conditions I work best under and things that help me learn. Especially in the latter half of the academic year, my productivity had increased an awful lot due to my improved routine and time management. Plus as a side effect of this other aspects of my life such as diet and sleeping patterns have improved too.

This year has had a lot of challenging times, especially early on, as I’ve had to learn my best approach to each project through trial and error. One thing I realized I had a big problem with was allocating time to different stages of a project. This was particularly evident with the building front project, where the total time I spent on it was more than enough, but too little of that time was spent on the texturing as I was too focused on getting the mesh perfect.

The building project. Too much time wasted on the details, but the potential was there.

Balancing multiple projects at once still can cause some problems and it is a challenge having to decide on the priority of different tasks, but I consider this to be an important life skill that I just have to learn.

Over summer I want to take a lot of texture photos and compile more tillable textures from these photos. I also think it might be a good idea to set myself some small projects just to keep things I have learned fresh in my mind over those four months, and to make re-starting at the beginning of year three less of a shock to the system.

At the moment I have very little work that I feel I can put in my portfolio, so I am looking forward to the FMP where I hope to produce something of value. So far my experience in Uni has been primarily to practice and advance my skills so I know they aren’t my absolute best. When I leave Uni I want to have produced something I am proud of so I can show potential employers (and myself) what I can really do.