Week 6 – 6/01/2020
This week I plan to further develop on my ideas by texturing already modelled assets such as my desk and weapon. I will also begin modelling some additional filler assets which I decided to add to my scene to make it seem less empty, such as:
- Lighting
- Cans
- Trash Can
- Ground assets (Paper etc)
If I manage to finish modelling these assets to a reasonable standard I will begin texturing them to see which is the best color combination for the entire scene.
Due to my weapon causing me a great deal of stress, i decided to work on other assets within my scene. Below you can see a test piece of a workbench which I could potentially use for my scene, I like this as the structure of the desk itself is pieced together in a way that I could use a variety of materials such as wood or metal.
I decided to play around with some more layouts for my scene in Maya as I’m still not entirely sure how I’m planning to layout my scene. Below is an image of one of my ideas which was to have the workshop within an attic, however I’m not a huge fan of the idea of using a large amount of wood to texture the majority of my scene so I will most likely not be using this idea.
In the image below you can see quite possibly the most basic room layout, which is something I actually think will look best in my opinion as I want a very small scale room as to not take attention away from the focal point of the scene itself. I plan to texture the walls/floor in a light grey concrete with some alterations in colour and roughness to differentiate between the two. I plan to use these types of textures as this room is intended to be a dystopian style workshop and I personally think this would suit this the best.
To visualise how my scene will look with my weapon over the hologram/stand already produced in the ideas and test pieces stage, I imported the fbx of my weapon to have a rough idea of how it would look when displayed in unreal engine. I’m not overly happy with how things are going currently however this is mainly due to my weapon not being finished and my scene lacking filler assets and further details.
Below is a slideshow displaying three images of my weapon, the first two images are unfinished but I decided to screenshot the process as I got slightly carried away while texturing the weapon. The final image shows the weapon in it’s final form fully textured and baked. Overall I’m relatively happy with the outcome considering I’ve been having some issues regarding my mental health as well as some issues at home causing a lot of stress.
As stated in my visual ideas and also in my plan for this week, I have produced below a very basic cylinder with some minor detail to create the basic shape of a monster energy can. I unwrapped and imported this into Substance Painter where I textured the object using a PNG of the Monster energy logo and painted a height map of the lid on top of the can to save polycount. Even though this was intended to just be a blockout I personally think this has turned out rather well and will be using this in my final piece.
After blocking out various ideas for my trash can during the visual ideas stage of the project, I decided to merge my ideas into one design. Although this asset is very simplistic I managed to model the asset in such a way that I’d be able to seamlessly texture the lid of the asset which was just two basic shapes combined together as well as cutting geometry into the lid to easily add detail which reduced polycount by using height.
Seeing as my bulletboard asset is an extremely simple shape I didn’t necessarily have to blockout the design at all, this asset is simply a cube shaped and extruded which didn’t take much time at all with some minor details such as pins to hold the planes of paper to the board. I then unwrapped and imported this into Substance painter where I textured the asset using various grunges and procedurals. The only struggle with this asset was texturing the cork, I couldn’t manage to get the texture correct however I think in the end I managed to get the best visual outcome to my own abilities.
Below is the walls and flooring for my scene before and after texturing the asset. Within substance painter this texturing style doesn’t look particularly visually appealing however once imported and making use of the lighting and post processing within Unreal Engine I believe I can make this work, if not I will alter this until it looks right. I’m not overly happy with the simplicity of the model however I really didn’t want to produce a full scene for this project yet I think I can pull off creating such a small project.
After the production of the assets above I decided it was time to start importing some of these assets into Unreal Engine to see the progress of my scene so far. Which doesn’t look to great without any lighting however I will be fixing this issue after I’ve fully placed my assets.
Due to this asset being a basic pipe extending from one part of my wall to another, I didn’t deem it necessary to blockout or sketch multiple types of pipes for this asset in particular. However in the slides below you can see a before and after image of my pipes. I personally think that the textures looked pretty accurate however I’m not sure how they will look in unreal engine yet which will determine whether I like the texturing style or not.
To light my scene I plan on using an emissive LED light strip extending from one side of the wall along the floor and up onto my desk asset, I will use this as a light by making use of the function in Unreal which allows you to use emissive as a static light which also allows me to boost the brightness of the emission. In a close up image of the desk you can see some tape holding the lighting on the desk, I’m not overly happy with this choice but I felt it was the only way to keep things realistic.
In my visual ideas and test pieces I decided to create a vent for my scene as my room will be set in a basement type area which will need ventilation. I also personally think this is a suitable filler asset for my walls to make the scene far less empty in combination with the bulletboard displayed further above. I don’t particularly like the textures on this asset as they look extremely dull however I have the substance file saved and can simply go back and alter it if the asset looks poor in Unreal Engine.
To further fill the emptiness of my scene, I thought that making a chair would be suitable seeing as I already have a workbench so it just makes sense to have something in the scene which a character would sit on to build the weapon with comfort. This is by far one of my most simplistic assets so far and I’m not overly happy with the model, however using my textures I personally think that they improve the overall look of the asset which will hopefully also look good in combination with lighting and post processing in Unreal Engine.
Using my sketches and a hologram from district 9 I’ve produced a relatively simplistic stand to display my weapon hovering above it similar to the magnetic shoe/globe holders which I have talked more about in my research. I wasn’t overly happy with the model however with some slight additions using Substance Painter I think I have manged to achieve a color style that fits the theme ‘Cyberpunk’ by adding a very simplistic emissive lighting to the base of the stand. Overall I’m quite happy with the outcome of this asset however in the future I will work much harder on the development stage of projects as this has impacted the final outcome of many of my assets in a bad way.
Below is a GIF displaying the build up of all of my assets placed strategically around within Unreal Engine to create my final layout of my scene. Personally I don’t think this looks particularly visually appealing however with some lighting alterations and additions I believe I can make this work.
In the images below you can see two images, the first being my room with just a standard spotlight with a green tint to fill the room which was just absolutely terrible, I also experimented with Rect lighting, which allowed me to create an effect that the emissive on my wire lighting was a light however this didn’t work too well.
In the second image you can see my final piece after playing with the emission on my LED light strip allowing me to use this as a static light in my scene which also let me increase the value of the light to brighten the scene even further. I also made use of the post processing to increase the Ambient Occlusion in certain areas of the scene to make them appear more dark.
To further show off my scene I have taken close up screenshots of various aspects of my scene, in the first image you can see even clearer how the emissive lighting really glows and lights the scene quite well (Thank u ash) lol. The second image is just a simple close up of some of my cans displayed on the floor by my trash can asset to show how the lighting has affected the assets within my scene. The third image simply displays my gun in it’s final form hovering over the weapon stand.
Overall I’m quite happy with how the scene has turned out due to various medical reasons meaning the inability/lack of motivation to produce work. However I am definitely going to be working harder on my personal issues to hopefully allow for better time management, development and overall outcome of my final project.
James' 2nd Year - Level 3 