Re-formatting

After the assignment was submitted, due to feedback from our tutor, we are required to re-format our models. So in this case, the problems were the correct files, the way the files were presented and also there was issues with the look of the crates as they did'nt match the design of The Persistence.

So I went back into Substance and added just a dirty texture to the models, I didn't have a lot of time to re-texture the whole model so this was my way of satisfying the requirements while saving time. I also just created a small level in Unreal and uploaded my models into it in order to display them in that way as there was issues with the Sketch Fab turntable format.

These are my Scifi crates in UE4 fully animated, and below i will place some renders of them for the reformatting.

Unit Evaluation

I am very happy with how the models turned out over all. This was an art test for Firesprite from their game The Persistence so the communication aspect of that was very bare, there was not a lot of feedback as to what exactly we were to do so I just took it upon myself to create the three crates with only my thoughts in mind. After all, that is normally what an art test entails. At the beginning of the unit, we were told that it we would be making crates for the game to possibly have within it, so my designs were made with that in mind, however we later were told that it was in fact an art test and no communication would be made with the company, so I changed my crates in terms on texture, design and over all theme with the thought that it was not in fact for The Persistence and was in fact our own skills put into use. This altered my designs quite a lot, however I am happy with the outcome in the end of the unit.

The only things I would change would probably be the initial designs of the crates, as I did want to lean more towards a Borderlands style crate so that would mean I would have to go against the concept art of The Persistence but at this time, it was not an art test.

Texturing and Animation

The last part of the cosmetic side of these models is the texturing process, this was done in Substance Painter. I used this program to colour, texture and add further detail to my assets.

From the pictures above, these are my models after the texturing process of the creation of the assets. The look I wanted to go for with these models is very similar among all three assets, I wanted to keep them very similar and follow the same points and image and keep a consistent theme throughout, with the differences in the models being purely the geometry of the models that was established in the creation process.

The style I conceived with the models is a very weathered look to the models, I prefer assets to look used and torn up a little bit so this was what I aimed for with these models.

After this section of the model was complete and each of my three assets each contained the consistent style that I created, I moved on to the animation aspect of the process. For animation, I used Maya for this and to avoid the whole process of how I created the animation, I will go over what I did and why I did it.

The opening slots of my models are shown as below:

As shown above, these are where the crates open and close. These hatches are fairly small and I spoke about my design choices very early on in this process but I will reiterate it here, the reason that the hatches are small is because when the unit began, the designs were supposed to be based upon the original concept art from Firesprite however, as specified later on, this is an art test so the choices of design are really up to me, so with that in mind, I created small hatches and openings on my models and here are the animations:

https://sketchfab.com/models/171db50cb4284b97903d45001356bce2

https://sketchfab.com/models/629ffa2040b244c2a0eb8b6ad36fa0f4

https://sketchfab.com/models/e31977e57f6f4bacabc698e2396e772f

These are my finished models with their finished animations.

Creating The Models in Maya

Using my concept art as reference, I created models almost identical to the ones I drew. I will not go through how I made the models and simply just write about why I made what I made and how it affects the models as a whole.

So, the creation of the models was very simple and took me almost no time at all, as the concept art was already created and finished, it made the modelling process much easier and simpler. The difficult part about the process was the UVing and baking process.

My first model had many problems with the baking from high to low poly, the details did not transfer properly and looked skewed and distorted. This took a lot of time to fix as I could not tell what was the problem with the model, as it turns out, the problem was with the UV map, some pieces were too small and not large enough and some faces had completely collapsed, meaning no details could be transferred. After figuring this out, I eventually got my UVs looking okay again and the bake worked perfectly.

The details I used in the bake were just vents and bolts that I created and re-used on all my models to create a similar theme throughout my three models while also saving myself time.

As you can see by the picture above, the details transferred seamlessly onto the model.

Going through this process and messing it up the first time made it so much easier for me to catch and fix problems with my second models and shortened the time spent on baking the models.

PreProduction and Concept Art

As you can tell from the choices of models I made, I like the chunkier and more rough looking crates, I want to avoid the 'brand new' look and instead lean towards a worn down used texture to the models, making them look weathered and gritty will give the illusion of a lot of use and that is the image I want to emulate with my own models. I want to create very thick and heavy looking assets that stand out in the scifi environment and draws the player to them.

With my concept art, I based the details upon the existing models shown in my mood board and created 3 very similar but unique in their own way crates. The idea behind these concept art pieces is to create 3 very chunky and gritty looking designs topped with strips of neon lights that draw the player to them while also making them believable enough for them to blend with the scenery. I created these concepts in Paint Tool Sai and later edited them in Photoshop to get the look I wanted. The first concept was me trying to get into the concept art process and it was very new to me, the others were created much later on using techniques I found online.

This concept was the first one I made. Concept is very new to me, especially with hard surface models, this piece was very much the result of me trying new things with the program and testing out different colours and techniques. The look I wanted to go for is a very chunky and thick crate with an indent around the top and bottom that glowed with a blue light. This light would be the main focal point of the model and really draw the player to the asset.

After completing my first model, I did some more practice with Paint Tool Sai and these two concepts here are the result of watching tutorials about colour, shade and gradients with this particular program. The main point of these two models will be as I described earlier the focal point being the colour lights, as you can see I deviated from the blue in my first model and created different colours within the models, whether this colour difference is for purpose or cosmetic is down to the user, this is an art test after all so my goal is not entirely function with these, however the colours could be changed to grant the users purpose, for an example, if the crate's purpose was to give health benefits to the player, it could be changed to red and so forth.

Research and Plans

My primary source of research was through viewing scifi crates in existing games. My main inspiration for my own designs and ideas was Borderlands and Mass Effect. These games are highly detailed and stylised and their hard surface designs are very iconic and stand out against the environment while being completely believable. My other source was of course Firesprite's own game The Persistence and their concept art. What I gathered from the concept art was that the crates had to have a small opening at the top rather than a larger opening much like the crates seen in Borderlands and also that they have set colours for their crates, whether that be based on the content of the crates or not.

The ideas I have for my crates so far is that I want dark metal crates, some large and others small with large vibrant lights striping along them, however, I will experiment with a few styles and designs until I am happy with it.

Introduction to unit 1

This unit is based on a project for Firesprite, we are creating 3 science fiction themed crates based off of our own original concept art. Based off of the concept art, we are to create the models in Maya, animate then texture them in Substance Painter. This blog will document my process of completing this unit and filling every requirement based on the VLE.

The unit has been cut up into tasks:

1: Task one is basically the usual pre-production of an assignment, so this will include moodboards, research and idea generation, as well as the creation of my concept artwork.

2: Task two is the creation of the models and the unwrapping of UVs and also the high to low poly bake.

3: Task three is an extension of task two, where we have to create normal maps and start developing our textures.

4: Task four is the animation part of the unit and then we must present our finished pieces on a turntable format.

The idea of this unit is to use the skills we have already learned and apply them to the creation of professional standard assets in the form of sci-fi themed crates, based upon the influence of Firesprites Playstation VR game The Persistence.