Games Art: 2D Pathway - Environment (M4/4)

One of the last two requirements of the Art Pack in the 2D pathway, was to create a model sheet (turnaround) and a final piece (detailed image).

Above is my final model sheet of my part vehicle/part environment scene. I decided on including a front, side, top down (birds eye view) and a back view. In addition, amongst the other graphical elements, are measurements of the heights, widths and lengths of certain objects; such as the ship and dry dock platform. I really enjoyed aligning components to scale and proportion. Moreover, this would then aid a modeller if it was to be made into 3D.

Here is my final render made in Maya's plugin, mental ray. To get the right composition was a tough choice, as I wanted to get several elements into place and direct the field of view towards the focus that is the colossal anti-gravity ship in centre. I looked through several shipping and dockyard environments on Google Images before I came across one of a dry dock in Portsmouth. As I am from the historical naval city, it seemed odd that I did not think of this setting at first (one that I am very familiar with of in the dockyard).

Above are several of the photographs I took on my travels and in my free time to use for my digital work. For example, a range of metal surfaces that I then cropped and shaped to fit certain aspects of the ships etc. After this, I then played around with the blending options in Photoshop to get the best result.

This is the step by step progress of my final piece. As it was only a simple paint over of my 3D render, there are just four shots but it is clear where I have adjusted certain areas. It was really interesting looking back on this at the different stages and the improvements I applied. I attempted to focus my time management as correctly as possible between certain aspects of the art pack requirements. However, I feel I could have spent less time on my variation compositions (regarding detail) and more time on my final piece.

Lastly, this is my final piece paint-over of my previous rendered image. I made sure to use a unique colour palette, not only because of the interesting tones but to capture the elements and mood of the futuristic state of the depleted and desperate world (in my game idea I made the content around). 

Furthermore, I found several weaknesses in my work as regards to painting proportions and large scaled 'hard surfaced' objects. To challenge and overcome this obstacle, I studied in-depth at how to use guidelines and visualise space (of the immense) through real-life examination. In other words, on my travels, in London for example, I looked at buildings etc from afar and their sizes to other bodies surrounding them (jotting mental notes and small doodles/sketches).

Overall, I believe I have refined my practices in both the digital medium as well as in my practical (sketchbook studies) while exploring my ideas revolving around present nautical and future freight transportation, through in-depth research, to the best of my ability.

Winter Submission: Triple A Asset Production - Re-submission UPDATE

For the previous Winter Submission, there were many mistakes and issues I made. This built up to me not being able to have enough time to place my gun in Quixel as well as the Unreal 4 Engine for the deadline hand-in. Fortunately, the first submission was classed as a 'formative' meaning we could re-submit our work with any updates for a re-mark.

I took this opportunity to add in the work I did not get the chance to do in the previous term. The only problem I had to work out, was my time management around my other deadlines and work.

Above and before are some TURTLE renders I created in Maya. I used a low light and contrast to capture the detail and surface variations. In the image above, I removed one of the arcing petals on the barrel to show the work I did on the inside of the gun (which would then open up like a flower for the 'firing mode', if I were to animate it).

On placing my gun and all the components that I baked in xNormals into Quixel, I realised that there were quite a few problems with the normal maps and ambient occlusions such as on the centre stock part seen above.

Quixel allows the user to preview all of the textures and applied materials in the 3DO viewer through the keyboard shortcut (of pressing the numbered keys 1 to 5). Here I have just compiled all of the modes together to compare my practice test. I found this out with some other tips through reading the Quixel online manual at:

http://quixel.se/usermanual/quixelsuite/doku.php?id=3do_hotkeys

Here are the cables at the rear base of my gun model in selected view in Quixel.

I experimented with the size and other variables in the inspector tab to get the best looking textures possible (in this case, the size of the leather effect on the handle of the gun).

I was really pleased with the test outcome above and how powerful Quixel really is (plug-in with Photoshop). For this one, I added on the 'Optimus Prime' material which gave an interesting scratched metal effect on the petal ends.

From adding in my model and its four parts into Quixel (top handle, centre stock, rear cables and the barrel petal ends) I could judge how much time I needed to fix my mistakes and then progress up to placing it in a scene in Unreal.

Likewise with Quixel, I placed my model into Unreal and experimented with placing the materials onto the gun, to decide and also learn how to use/harness certain aspects of the software's; in time for the re-submission hand-in. 

Here I placed my different maps into their corresponding material nodes. I enjoyed placing these in and looking into the different channels and their basic uses such as for emissive lighting.

I made sure to organise my separate maps into their representative asset folders with that part of the gun (four folders).

Here I have displayed clearly my worst map of the stock part that needed correcting. I believe that I baked, not knowing I had changed the original obj UV map layout, after combining several parts together in Maya. This resulted in UV faces not aligning where they should be.

From working with Maya more closely, overtime, I have learned and understood more elements from independent learning. That being said, I have also had a fair amount of help from some tutorials such as that on the main Quixel website at:

http://quixel.se/hub/tutorial/uv-mapping-for-the-suite/

Understanding the UV layout editor in Maya better, has definitely helped with my work flow and method of producing the best possible results. Above is the wires in the centre stock part of my gun (that I focused on mainly as a thing to fix). It is quite clear to see how the surface of the UV's are wrong, but the unwrapping process to make them right would be something that I had not yet done (a cylindrical unwrap or automatic unwrap would not suffice).

I was able to find an excellent tutorial on YouTube (see link below) on how to unwrap a curved pipe manually. By forming a seam along the length of the tube and then cutting the UV's. I was able to then unfold vertically and to give a decent even layout, I used the unfold UV tool in the UV Editor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dahgVetfUZg

After around seven hours of resizing all the faces and correcting the scale in the Editor, I was able to complete the new UV's for the centre stock which was one of the main issues.

Here I have a before and after of the difference in the unwrap of the stock on the gun. As I was pushed for time last term, this was one of the reasons the UV's were messy. However, after working on other projects and models in Maya, I have more experience in the way they are laid out then I did before and so was able to work to the best of my ability and successfully overall.

As I had re-done the low poly models UV's in Maya, this meant I had to re-bake my guns normals and ambient occlusion maps for the stock part in xNormals.

Since last using Quixel, many updates have been applied improving performance and optimisation of things like the 3DO viewer. I selected in a white box above, the way Quixel orders my separate four components neatly. This allowed for a simple method of selection when it came to adding on the material texture.

Here is the final material called 'Galvanized Metal' that I used for the stock from the material library. I was really pleased with the clean result and how the UV's turned out with a texture on it as a whole.

One of the final stages for the re-submission was to place my gun model in a scene in Unreal. Here I attached the petal end maps to the right nodes; as like in the previously mentioned.

For some reason, the texture and ambient occlusion maps appeared very dark when I placed them on the model parts and pressed test play. This resulted in the stock on the model in the scene view to look black; rather than a shiny metallic finish. To counter this, I simply bumped up the brightness to 5 on both the albedo and ambient occlusion maps on the adjustments panel in the Editor which surprisingly worked.

The Unreal build required us to set up a sort of diorama scene showcasing the model. I decided to go on a simple sci-fi vibe (following the background of the gun) and set it up like it were being examined with side lights projecting onto it.

I placed a few tall pillars around the outside of the gun (in centre) and made a thin tall rectangle to represent fluorescent tube lamps which I then duplicated and placed on the pillars. Although, I had a try independently at emissive placement on an objects material (with no success); I was able to find a fantastic, quick and easy to understand tutorial, of how to apply a Multiply expression to the emissive colour (which is different to the more familiar Unity engine) to make an emissive glow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtyNXjN_HFk

I was quite pleased with the emissive lighting procedure and think it added an interesting cinematic element to the scene. Above is the material layout with a simple glow (before I added a light neon blue colour to the emission).

In addition to the emissive light panels, I added in some spot lights and also changed the time of day by rotating the skybox to create a dramatic effect for the sci-fi feel.

Above is a screenshot in-game of the final scene. A last minute feature I added into the build, was to make the gun look like it was levitating via a magnetic levitation display. I would have liked to have had more time and include things like a script that rotated the gun slowly around 360° and wobbled slightly over time; for a realism touch.

Overall, I am happy with how I have recovered this project from its major complications and issues (and also not knowing my own limitations before). On the other hand, we learn a lot from our mistakes and I definitely found out some these and tried to the best of my ability to rectify them.

Games Art: 2D Pathway - Environment (M3/4)

While experimenting with certain painting techniques, I planned to either photo-manipulate or fully paint my compositions towards my model sheet and final piece. Moreover, I found both practices very difficult when it came to perspectives and hard edges; to show the scale of the ships.

Here is my first variation piece. I wanted to capture both the positives and negatives to the colossal floating container ships set in a dystopian future. One example of this is in the foreground, with the decaying 'ordinary' ship been left for scrap while the other soars over towards an ever increasingly bleak horizon; an overpopulated earth.

While struggling to find the best perspectives/atmospheres, I was at the same time modelling simple ships in Maya, to produce renders that could then aid me and I could then paint over them. Above is the result of one of these, following the same composition and angles. I enjoyed playing around with the depth and thickness of the cloud obscuring the giant ships structures.

I experimented with several settings to get the best mid-day sun effect for my third composition idea I had (using the rendering feature mental ray in Maya).

I placed a blinn shader on some of the ships to get a chrome effect which reflects nearby shapes as well.

This is my third comp I did. I really enjoyed playing about with brushes and forming hard light with the sunny environment. The image depicts the launch of one of the largest anti-gravity ships (AGS) and perhaps the last hope of transporting hundreds of tonnes of goods for humanity. 

After changing the weather and time of day in the previous comps, I wanted to try a night scene (of which I have never painted before and also posed lots of small challenges). Keeping the same perspective as before, I wanted to show in more detail the exterior environment such as a working dockyard setting; which could then be used in a games setting/map etc.

To make the lighting seem more vivid and cinematic, I created my own lens flares in Photoshop following an anamorphic example. I was able to make this in just five minutes and think it added a bit more character to a few of my pieces. 

After speaking to a fellow student, I was suggested to play around with light in a global mental ray ibl setting (skylight & environment lighting). This required a little trial and error with nodes and attributes in the editor, till I was able to place in a HDRI image which acts like a global illumination, for the scene I would then render.

Here I have the render settings I placed on a low final gather and quality, to get a quicker result that I could then just keep tweaking to till I was happy. As I continued with this however, I realised I was not managing my time in the best way I could and decided to just go with a fog and area lit rendered comp from earlier.

Overhead, is two attempts I tried with lighting the night scene. I wanted to give an artificial mood with the large fluorescent tube lamps. Although I spent quite a long time 'testing' and not using the features for my final ideas, I think I have gained a lot more knowledge independently with rendering models in mental ray and hope to go back to this in the future.

Games Art: 2D Pathway - Environment (M2/4)

For the second milestone in the 2D pathway, we had to create thumbnail sketches of primitive shapes and silhouettes.

Above and below are my thumbnail drawings, using just one tone to block out ideas and forms.

I created two thumbnail sheets. One for ships and the other for the environment setting. As my focus is on the future shipping industry, I wanted to convey both elements and explore alternate structures.

Above is my first sketchbook study in a series of four (using an array of mediums). I began to construct using 2B to 6B pencils, a level horizon with a ship above and a dockyard below; almost squeezing the sky to a strip in the center field of view.

In this second sketchbook study, I used both pencils and fineliner pens to bring the ships out in context. However, I feel the front view looks a little flat and if I was to go over this again, I would add more tone into the shading to bring more value and form overall.

I made this sketch using black biro pen and a ruler, copying from the mental ray render I did in Maya (second image down).

This is the last study I did on paper using a range of grey Letraset Pro Marker pens. I was fairly pleased with how the foreground turned out making the lighter grey values in the background fade out in distance and scale.

Here is one of the renders I did using mental ray in Maya. I blocked out some simple models of three different ships in two hours and then positioned them about; gathering ideas and compositions.

I quite liked setting up the ships hull antenna's and making different features on the normally smoothed surface.

The front of the anti-gravity ships (AGS) contain a modified bulbous bow fan. This allows air to vent the engines, enabling anti-gravity without over heating!

I also created a colour palette of nautical/shipping tones and OSHA colour combinations of hazard and caution warnings (often found around machinery). I will then use this to help me with my digital paintings and final piece later on.