BA3 - Final Renders

The 'miniature' cathedral is now done and the finished piece ended up with 6x 2048x2048 texture maps all using PBR and a polycount on 23 437. Here are some beauty renders using Marmoset Toolbag 2.

BA3 - Creation of the Final - Modules

Now with the tileable textures done and the window and door ready to become modules I merged them together with the tileable wall texture I created. 

It was now time to create the flying buttress that is another feature that Gothic architecture was known for. I created this by the same workflow as the window and door. First I created a High Poly version to later make it into Low Poly and bake the textures. I created the texture by using Substance Painter and Photoshop.

Now I had enough modules to start building the miniature cathedral itself. I realised that the blockout I had made was a bit to narrow and it did look very odd in the front with just a doorway and no windows. So I decided to make the cathedral a bit wider and add 2 windows next to the doorway. For the railing next to the roof I took the decorative part from the buttress. This saved me both time and also performance because now I could use the same texture for them both.

Now it was time for the circle window at the top of the cathedral, I decided to create a rosé window because many Gothic cathedrals have those kind of windows on the front. 

To save time I took parts of the window I had created and made a rosé shaped frame. To show the progress of this window I made this image.

To create the middle of the window, for the bricks I sculpted in Zbrush and baked. The center of that rose is the only texture I haven't made myself on the whole cathedral. If I had the time I would probably make something myself but time was of the essence.

With the rosé window in place the cathedral was now done, next blog post will be the final renders.

BA3 - Creation of the Final - Tileable Textures

When the window was done I also decided to re-use the doorway from my previous studies. But since that one already was finished I just had to delete some unwanted parts, such as the wall behind the doorway etc. Up next was to create a Tileable wall texture that I could use on my Cathedral. This one will be very useful cause I will be able to use this texture for many different parts.

My approach for this texture was the same as the sandstone floor texture I created as a study. I started off by using 3dsMax and place simple boxes in a formation that could be tileable in all directions.

When the bake was done it was time for the texture itself. By the help of the AO and Normal I can create a nice PBR texture using Substance Painter.

When I was pleased with the result I imported it to Photoshop to add yet more details. Here is the finished result in Marmoset Toolbag 2.

I also created a version of this texture without the dirt at the bottom so it would be tileable upwards as well.

Now with this texture done I did the same process for the roof, only think I skipped with this one was the Zbrush stage because it was not necessary. I created the Roof tiles by first making boxes that were tileable and then layer them. They will not end up layered in the game but the AO will create a shadow that makes it look like they are layered.

BA3 - Next Gen and PBR

Since I will be using PBR for my final asset I figured I'd study a game that uses both PBR and are next gen. I decided to use Assassin's Creed Unity for my study, I choose this game because as I said it is using both PBR and are Next gen. It also have lots and lots of architecture in it and on top of that it is Gothic architecture, couldn't get more perfect than that.

So, I booted up the game and ran around in the city starting to gather pictures. I used the PS4 version which is running in 900p and does have lower texture resolutions than the PC version.

I quickly noticed how they actually model all the detailed architecture, a few years ago this would just be a simple plane that was baked. But now the detail is actual geometry and it does give a very good silhouette. I guess it is also needed in a game like assassins creed where you will be very close to the object and interact with it by climbing.

Since AC: Unity is set in Paris I also took many pictures of the Gothic cathedral Notre-dame. I have read on a reportage that this took a single artist 8 months to build. I can definitely understand this because it's not only the exterior that he created but also the interior. I can just imagine how much time he must have spent optimizing this model, considering it has to be used for 3 different platforms all with their own graphic settings.

When walking around in the city of this game I am truly impressed by the amount of different cathedrals and accuracy that they put into them. All the carvings and everything is there and most of the buildings also have an interior. It's amazing what a big team of people can achieve in 3 years time.

Reference:

All pictures in this blogpost is taken by me in the game "Assassin's Creed Unity" made and published by Ubisoft in 2014.

BA3 - Creation of the Final - The Window

And now finally to start working on my 'miniature' Cathedral. Since I only had 2 weeks to create this cathedral I decided to re-use some of my earlier studies. Since I had already created a high poly Gothic window I continued to work on it. I rather quickly created a low poly version and while working on it I started to wonder how detailed architectural pieces like this one actually was in games now. They used to be just flat surfaces baked but is that so still? Because of this I did a study in Assassin's Creed Unity which I have created another blog post about. It turned out that windows now actually had proper geometry, so with a clearer idea of how to approach this Low Poly I came up with a model with 543 Polys.

Now it was time for texturing the window, since I wanted to use PBR (Physically Based Rendering) for this project I decided to texture using Substance Painter. This is an excellent texturing software which supports PBR and let you create materials using real life data. Also it let you paint directly onto your asset.

Texture creation with Substance Painter

After getting the result I wanted from Substance Painter I imported the texture to Photoshop and added more dirt and colour variation to the model. Here is the result in Marmoset Toolbag 2.

BA3 - Final Project Preperation

Okay so we have now received our final project for BA3 and what we will have to create is some sort of Folly. We have a soft limit of 10 meter square and it have to be a game ready asset, so we have to think a lot about optimization and proper topology while creating this asset.

Since I have never heard about the term "Folly" I started by doing a little bit of research and collected images for a moodboard.

Since I have studied a lot about Gothic architecture I will be creating something using this architectural style. I also want to involve some sort of buttress and pointed archway into my folly because those two are the main innovations of Gothic style. I really liked the idea of having a 8 sided folly where you can view it from every side. So I gave it a go and created a blockout.

I really liked the idea of it being next to the water as well and though this would give nice environment for the folly to be located in. So I gave it a test render in Zbrush.

After giving it some thought I really wasn't pleased with how this folly came out so I decided to go back to the drawing board. I continued my research of Follies and found that some cathedrals in America have graveyards full of Gothic folly's. I wound this very interesting and started gathering images of this. I found one that I really got attached to that was called "Dexter Mausoleum" located in Spring Grove's graveyard.

As you can see this looks like a sort of miniature version of a cathedral. I got really inspired by this and wanted to achieve something similar with my folly. Of course since I have about 2 weeks I cannot create something as detailed as this but I will try to use modules and tileable textures etc to achieve something similar in the time I got. Also to save time I will re-use some of my studies in this model, such as the doorway and the window.

I also created a modularity board to show me what parts I need to create that are unique and which ones that can be copied to several places.

I also created a asset list just to keep in check how many assets I will have to create.