Tag: Year Two
Final Steps: Outcome
This is the final outcome for this project.
I decided to include HQ screenshots of various angles, as the tavern itself is rather big, and hard to fit into one shot.
I am very pleased with how this project turned out; I managed to keep to the original design I thought of quite well. I think tackling such an organic design has helped develop both my 3D sculpting and modelling skills. I also enjoyed creating and designing such a natural environment, as it allowed me to explore various references and expand my knowledge of both realistic and stylised games.
I believe an aspect that went well in this project is definitely the sculpted models. I have successfully created visibly organic and sophisticated pieces of nature (with added character, in the case of the Hidden Tavern itself). The textures I have chosen also all complement each other well, and add a sense of coherence within the overall scene.
Furthermore, I think I managed to translate my idea of a ‘forgotten’ tavern being hidden within the landscape quite well, as the overall atmosphere is exactly what I had wanted it to be at the beginning: mystical but somewhat eerie.
However, I think, had I had more time, perhaps, I would have liked to work into the landscape more. I could have expanded it more, maybe added another sculpted tree or two to add diversity within the horizon and make it busier. I also could have attempted to paint the texture samples for the landscape myself, which could have potentially brought even more depth to the project.
Nevertheless, I believe this was a successful project!
Final Steps: Gym
Landscape: Further Development
Once I had gotten to the ‘almost-finished’ point in my project, I started going over certain details I needed to refine.
The first thing I did was work into the actual ground material to diversify it. I started by taking three different seamless textures and blending them together, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of exactly how the Paint tool in UE4 worked. I wanted to change up the colours as I think it would help make the composition seem less artificial and much more dynamic.
I also added more hills and trees in the background to create more depth into my scene. This way, the fog seems more realistic and further accentuated, giving the scene a more eerie atmosphere.
As I took great inspiration from more stylised games such as Genshin Impact and Legend of Zelda, I wanted to keep this somewhat ‘handpainted’ style in the material I use for the landscape as well. Thus, I decided to use the following textures:
By doing this, I aim to make the whole scene more homogenous, and also add more character to it as a whole.
UE4: Fog + Atmosphere Experiments
From the very beginning, I wanted my landscape to look gloomy and somewhat eerie. I aimed to achieve this mainly through the addition of fog within the background of my landscape.
So, I added an ExponentialFog element in my UE4 scene, and changed its colour and intensity until I had several different versions I could choose from.
I am concerned that the intensity of the fog might overshadow the detail on the Tavern itself, so I will aim to make it less intense or add more light in the overall atmosphere of the scene to accentuate the main model.
Hidden Tavern: Almost-Finished
After several rounds of landscape reshaping and designing, my landscape started to look very similar to my initial design. I am quite happy with this, as I am keeping up with the estimated deadlines I had given myself at the beginning of the project, which will hopefully allow me to have more time to edit and refine certain issues with it.
Having now essentially finished the bulk of it, I am now starting to think of ways I could further upgrade it. These are my ideas so far:
- Adding more rocks and trees in the background – make it look a bit busier?
- Adding actual grass to the ground/ changing the texture
- Changing the colour of the stream – make it look more stale/ forgotten?
Check-in: Xmas Break
Before we left for Christmas, I wanted to make sure I was still following the estimated timetable I had made.
It seems I am doing alright, as I have started to import my models into UE, and have experimented with the landscape, but they are both yet to reach their final form.
I will aim to catch up over the holidays, and before we come back to class in January.
Problem-Solving: Unexpected Maya Exporting Issue
Unfortunately, I ran into an issue when it came to importing the OBJ pebble archway from Maya into UE4. For some reason, it imported as an incomplete mesh (see above), no matter how I exported it.
I ended up having to use the school facilities to do this – it seemed like there was a problem with my at-home software. Once I did this, the mesh was fine, and I could continue onto texturing normally.
I was concerned, however, that it would take too long to export a series of different rocks for the landscape, so I decided to use the original pebble OBJ and scale and rotate it in various ways to create the rocks within the landscape design in UE4.
I also added the two sculpted and unwrapped background trees I had done, to add more life to the overall landscape:
Texture: Research + Experiments
As I continued to refine my landscape, I also began to revisit the potential textures I had planned for it when designing it. At first, I thought of painting and creating my own textures and normal maps, but I thought it would (at the very least) be useful for me to look into already existing, professional textures available on Substance Share.
This proved to be very useful, as some of the textures I found were very close, if not exactly what I was looking to use in my scene.
All of the textures I found were both realistic, but not too realistic – I aimed for them to still have a stylised look to them, but not so much that it would look like I used 2D textures.
I also put some of them over my models in Substance 3D Painter to see how it would look, and I was really happy with the outcome, as the normal map really helped emphasize that the tavern is part of the tree itself.
Hidden Tavern: Final Model
The final Maya model for the whole tavern includes a door surrounded by pebbles embedded into the wood. I modelled and unwrapped the door in Maya, whilst the pebbles are a duplicated OBJ I sculpted in ZBrush and unwrapped in Maya.
I hoped to make the ‘tavern’ design more apparent through this, as it is supposed to be hidden, but still visible. I also intended to strengthen the organic style I had chosen for the tavern by adding more natural aspects to it.
I am quite happy with how efficiently I finished this; I have now finished most of my asset list below: