Film room project post mortem

What went well?

·         Modelling

I think all the modelling went very well and all the assets that were made came out very well.

·         Setting up the scene in engine

Getting all the assets into engine and have them in the right place was done very quick and saved a lot of time.

·         Splitting up the work load

I think that that work for modelling the assets was well done. So people who had assets that were hard or would take longer did not have to worry about having to do other jobs and people who only a few small and easy assets would not get bored waiting for other people.

What didn’t go well?

·         Timing

I feel that too much time was spent on some area that should not have taken so long as they and that is why I feel when trying to work in engine, some stuff was a bit rushed when more time could have been put into it.

What did I learn?

·         Colour Correction

Using the Colour correction in unreal, to make the scene match the original image.

·         Perspective Tool

How to use the perspective tool in 3DS max and how it can help make a quick white box.

·         Lighting in unreal 4

I learned how to use lights in unreal 4, how to make them work and how to change the settings to get different effects.  

·         Light maps

I learned how to make a light map in 3DS max and how to make it work in engine.

What would I do different next time?

·         Get into engine sooner

Could have started building the scene soon in engine and not wait for all the assets to be completed. I think if we had done this more problems would have been found soon and saving time.

·         Better time management

Try to plan out timing better next time and try to stick with it.

·         Be more organised

I think I need to be more organised and try to keep better file management, and to make sure files are named well.

Week 4, Year 2 Lights, camera, and now we have another problem

So the deadline for the film room was only a few days away and we need to get everything into engine. All the models had been made and textured we had a full scene in 3DS max, that look great.

So this is how it was now all we had to do was get it into engine. I volunteer for the job because that way I could learn how lights work in unreal 4. Getting it into engine was fine it was when I added the lights and then tried to build them. This is when I found out that a lot of the assets did not have light maps for them. So we had to find out which assets did not have them and make them. Then in engine make sure the light map resolution was put up so lights and shadows would work correctly. After that we found that the assets with metallic map were only showing as black but that was an easy fix just need to add a sphere reflection capture. The only way I knew you had to do that was when I used SDK (source developer kit) you had to add in to some areas mostly room to make sure reflections would work.  

Now that the lights and everything else was working now we had to take the final shot. The first problem was getting the camera in the right. Then playing around with the settings to try and make it match the forced perspective. The next problem was getting a reader from the camera and removing the sprites for the lights but after that we got the final shot and … wow

I cannot believe how well this turned out but that just makes me happier knowing that all the hard work that I and the other guys put in, has paid off with a great result. This was a very hard week making sure that everything work and trying not to pull my hair out at unreal 4.

Week 3, Year 2 Walls, ceiling and forced perspective

So this week still working on the film room Project. I was given the task of creating the walls and ceiling and the other objects was split up between the other group members. I was give the walls and the ceiling because my white box came the best out of the other group.

So my plan was to create one side of the wall then copy it over to the other side but very quickly I found a problem with this idea and so did my other team members. In the film they used forced perspective in the scene. This made the room off set and when I copied the wall over it was not in line at all. So I only had to move some of the vertex.

Texturing the walls was very ease only because it was just white but making the texture on the back walls was a very hard and challenging. I started by making one pattern and copying into a line. Then copying the line moving it over and up a bit and then doing the same all the way across, made sure it would tile and then added it to the wall texture.

     

 So this week I had a go at making landscapes in unreal and found out there are a 2 ways going about it. You can start with a flat landscape and then use the tools to make the hill or make an image but it has to be in grayscale with a 16 bit channel and saved as a png. I used the image way it was fast at getting better results and what you can do is edited in unreal with the same tools as if you were going to start from scratch. What I would like to do is try and add a river to it at one point.

After I made my landscape I had a go with the foliage tool to add bushes and rocks around the area. This gave me the idea that if my own trees, bushes, and grass I could make a simply and quick wood. 

Week 2, Year 2 Out of one and right back into another

So at the start of this week was the hand in date for the asset swap project and on the very same day we found out the next project. The film room project, this is another group one but this time it was only a team of 4. The idea is that we pick a room from a film but we had to look at lighting and mood.

In the first week I and my group just came up with ideas and we all each made our own moodboards. I pick out a room that I found that had an interesting colours used in it. I then pick out some of these rooms and look at their colour palette

This is total recall (1990) I pick this room because of the strong use of red lights in a blue, grey room.

The way I found to fine out the colour palette of an image, is to break down the colour. There is a great way to do this in Photoshop, if you go to Filter > Pixelate > crystallize. I then used the eyedropper tool to pick out colours that were the most present.

After me and my group were all done making moodboards and colour palettes. We showed each other what we have got and made a group diction on witch would be the best room. Our first idea was to go with Balin tomb out of Lord of the rings.

But after having a talk with other people we found that this room would be too hard create because of the amount of assets that would need to be make. It would have taken far too long. So we went back a step and had a relook at what we had and see if we could find a room with more of a simply layout and had less in it but still had few assets in it to still make it interesting.

So after some rethinking we pick this room out of Xmen first class. I think this room was a much better idea to go with because of the shape of the room. It is just not flat walls and the other objects in the room have a very nice looking shape that make them stand out.

In game production we had a look at how to use perspective match tool in 3DS max. With this tool you could put in an image in to 3DS Max and then match the XYZ to the image so that when you start to model it will match the perspective in the image.  

By doing this I was able to create a very quick white box for the room. We all used this white box as a template for when we came to create the assets.

So this week in unreal I had a look on how to make a Static mesh into a physical mesh so that when you load the level the mesh can move around and the player can interact with it. It was very simply to do all you have to do is place an object it to the level and then in bottom right box to go the physics tab and then tick the simulate physics. So now knowing this I came up with the idea to make 10 pin bowling in unreal, sadly you cannot control the bowling ball

Week 1, Year 2 A new year and new things

So I made it past my first year of universal at De Montfort doing Game art design and so I’m starting my 2^nd year. Already we have been set a project but this is a group project and there are new software and technique we have to learn.

This project is called asset swap. I and 5 other people have to create 6 different assets and put them in a scene, all in 1 week but we are not just picking 1 and just working on that. We had to work on 1 stage for all 6 assets and that way all the assets would be completed. This is so we can get a feel of what it’s like working in a team because no one in the game industry works on their own. I found this project very fun and a nice start to the start of the year.

This is the finale Silhouette and concept for the tankard I made. I did this digitally because I want to try and improve my digital painting. I then also had to make this in 3D after that I had to make the texture for the hog. I found the hog very hard to texture because I could not think of a way to get photo that I could use as a texture. So I had a go at trying to back by only using the tools in Photoshop. I found my end result was ok but it did not fit that well in the end scene. I do wish now I had taken more time to think of what I could have done to get the result that was really needed.

Then end scene look great the only thing that did make not look right was the texture for the hog that I made. It did get retextured but did still show a lot of the old texture. If I was to do this again I would look a lot more in to texturing, like maybe trying to digital paint it. I also could have spent a little less time on the concept part of the project.

So this year we are now using unreal 4 and wow it is funny. I have been playing around with it just learning very simply things like how to move and how to import models and textures but there are so many other tools I want to and I think what I may try and do is once a week try and learn a new tool in unreal 4.

So this year there are some software I really want to look into and learn, like Zbrush. I would really like to learn Zbrush because I think it would really help me with my work in the future. So for anything very complex like a high detail statues or character. Zbrush could help me make the high poly model and then bake it down into a normal map.

So in my own time there may be other subjects I would like to write about. So of the idea I have got are Good and bad level design, the history of competitive gaming, what make a level look good, and then maybe some reviews of game that have come out.

Well this first week was very good and I am very happy being back. It was a little hard at first being put into a group project and having to learn a new technique on the very first day but I think it was a good way to get be into the year after all these next few year are not going to be easy at all. So I need to keep pushing myself to be the best that I can be and then not to stop and keep going.

Thank you for reading