BA3b - Week 5 Summary

BA3b - Week 5 Summary

This week I decided to work a little bit more with the vegetation in the environment. I felt like it was a bit barren and for an environment set in the rain forest I needed a lot more of it. I started off by looking up a lot of reference and other games. A reference that stood out a lot to me was Jared Sobotta's post on Art Station where he shows lots of good photos of a cave environment from the game Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End. 

Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qZygz

Like my previous vegetation, I used speed tree to create these new ivy patches. Since they will be rather performance heavy I created 4 different LOD versions in speed tree.

I also created a new vine that was more tangled than the other ones I made. These I will use to enhance the cave feeling.

Here are the two ivy patches in engine.

I am quite pleased with how they turned out and it definitely gave that extra pow to the scene and made it feel a lot more like its set in a rain forest. 

I also added water caustics to the environment this week! Its something I always knew I would implement but didn't exactly knew how to. Luckily it was a rather straight forward and easy process.

To explain what water caustics are, it's the reflection that water creates when light bounces of it's surface in cave environments. It can also happen under water but for video game environments its a common thing to implement in cave like environments to enhance the visuals. In real life it's not as visual as in games but it looks natural and makes the environment more alive since it adds something to the scene that's constantly moving around.

Water Caustics in The Elder Scrolls: Online

To implement water caustics in my scene I used a tutorial posted on the epic's forum by forum user 'papptimus'. It can be found HERE. His way of doing this was to add panner node to add motion but then use a 4 way split to make it move in 4 different directions, and as a result create the illusion of it being bounced off the water.

Caustics Blueprint Material

When the Blueprint Material had been created all I had to was to apply it as a light function to apply it to a light source.

Light Function highlighted in Red.

And finally here is the result in the engine.

If the GIF is not working press the following LINK

BA3b - Week 4 Summary

BA3b - Week 4 Summary

This week I spent continuing working on assets and built on the environment. I also expanded it and added another larger area to the cave.

To start with, while playing Witcher 3 I noticed that they had created various assets such as buckets and damaged versions of barrels, so figured I could do the same with my barrel to save some time. Here is the result:

I also saw something really interesting while playing the game "The Elder Scrolls: Online" where in a pirate themed dungeon, the pirates that lived there had scavenged parts of their ships to hold up the cave. This was really clever and I thought I could use it for my environment. It's a good way to include a pirate ship while not having to model all of it which would take way too long with the time I have available.

As usual, I started by creating a low poly in Maya to later sculpt the wood in Zbrush. I also used alphas to create the wood texture on it. The reason why I do it this way is because I use the baked information when applying sand/moss to the wood.

High Poly Sculpt in Zbrush

Texturing in Substance Painter

Result in Marmoset Toolbag 2

And here is the result with these assets implemented in the Environment.

I also expanded on the cave this week by adding another room which is way larger than all the other ones. Again, I got my inspiration from The Elder Scrolls: Online where their pirate dungeon had a very different sense of scale than my cove and felt like I needed a room that was a bit more open than my other ones which are rather small and closed in.

Screenshot from The Elder Scrolls: Online

Very early version of my larger room

I also created a new video of the environment to be able to easily show off the scene and receive feedback.

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIMPhEKuPzA

Professional Practice

Rare LTD contacted me the other day and invited me to a on location interview! I am super excited to have come this far in the application process!

BA3b - Week 3 Summary

BA3b - Week 3 Summary

This week I started to create a document which included all the objects I WISH to have in the cave. I do not plan to make all of them but it's good to just get all the ideas  I have out there and to to plan which assets are the most important etc.

I decided to start with a fireplace and some barrel props. Both of these can be scattered around the cave to fill the scene and also with the fireplace being a good source of light to make the lighting a bit more interesting.

The process to create the fireplace was a very straight forward one. I started off by sculpting the rocks in Zbrush to decimate them and make the rest of the fireplace in Maya. Since no bake information was needed, I just created a low poly and then used substance painter to add the normal detail.

Fireplace Texturing in Substance Painter

Fireplace in Marmoset Toolbag 2

As for the fire particles I will be using one of the stock Unreal Engine fire effects since it's perfect for this use and looks great.

Up next was to create a barrel. My process for this was to first create a high poly and sculpt it in Zbrush. I then brought it in to substance painter to texture.

Zbrush Sculpt

When texturing the assets for the pirate cove I always keep the environment around the object in mind. Like adding sand to it and also a hint of green to resemble moss to give the asset history which makes it appear more real.

Texturing in Substance Painter

End result in Marmoset Toolbag 2

When these two assets were done I populated the environment with them and here are some pictures of the result:

And here is a GIF to show it in motion.

GIF link if it's not working

Professional Practice

The Skype interview with Rare LTD went very well and it was an awesome experience! The people I spoke to were super cool and we had quiet a few good laughs! I truly enjoyed it and all I can do now is wait and see!

BA3b - Week 2 Summary

BA3b - Week 2 Summary

This week I started to replace the various bits and bobs that I was not satisfied with for the BA3a hand in. Firstly I continued to learn how Substance Designer worked and followed a tutorial of how to create realistic looking sand by Josh Lynch.

This tutorial was super helpful and I managed to create a much better looking sand texture to add to the pirate cove. The main goal of this texture was to create a sand variation that had the look of people walking though it and to show where the pirates moved around in the cave. I also created it because of how it would look strange with perfectly smooth sand everywhere in a cave that had been resided in.

Substance Designer Overview

Closeup of the substance (Click to enlarge)

Here is the final result rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 2! I'm very pleased with the result and excited to see it in the engine!

With the knowledge I have now gathered from the tutorials I have been following about Substance Designer, it was now time to try make and make a texture entirely from scratch. Up next is a Mud texture to replace the awful looking placeholder mud I used for the last hand in.

Mud Substance Overview

Final result in Marmoset Toolbag 2

I am quite pleased with the result! I decided to make the water puddles in the texture quite blurry since I believe if it would be a perfect reflection then it would use a lot more from the machine to render. Since the water is also supposed to be very dirty, a perfect reflection looks odd.

Here are a few pictures showing off these two new textures in the environment!

Old Sand

New sand texture mixed with the old one.

Old placeholder mud texture

Replaced with new mud texture

Professional Practice

I got a reply from Rare and they were impressed by my application and want me to have a interview over Skype in a few days! Very excited (and of course a bit nervous) for the interview! It's also a nice boost to my confidence to hear back that a games company that I truly respect like my work :)