Boss Monster

For the Boss Monster to fit in the Arena, she would have to look sick and taken over by mushrooms and rot. He design would have to be scary and aggressive, but at the same time it would have to reflect the fact she is a victim herself and sick from the corruption.

I put together a mood board first, where I found even more interesting types of mushroom I could use.

I had sketched some ideas beforehand, while working on the battle arena. I found a photo of the "ink mushroom" when putting together the moodboard, which inspired the idea of a veil hiding her disfigured face, only the eye, her weak point, being visible. 

I also sketched out some gestural drawings to understand how the character would move and get a feeling of her personality: she would be very quick, gliding above the ground and dashing at the player. 

I then drew some iterations, as I still wanted to explore different concepts. I had an idea of the witch having overgrown when she got corrupted, being stuck in her house. It generated the interesting design on the far right, which I absolutely love, but wouldn't have worked in the context of limited underground space, as the character would be huge and wouldn't have space to move.

I ended up going with the first option and iterated on that, drawing inspiration from the different types of mushrooms I found. 

Since I wasn't really sure which one to choose, I took the ones I liked most (1,3, 9 and 8) and detailed them.

The second and last ones weren't aggressive enough, while the third one wasn't clear enough, as you can't see the details on the face properly. So I went with the first one. I wasn't completely convinced about the horns though, so I made some more sketches of that.

I also detailed the ones I liked the most, adding some ornaments. In the end, I chose the third one as it conveys the Slavic monster image I was going for the best. 

I sculpted the character in ZBrush, then sent it to Photoshop using the Zbrush to Photoshop plugin. I am really happy with how the sculpt turned out, as it already had a good level of detail. making my job easier. 

I then only had to add some colours and details and it was done. This is the final outcome:

And a size comparison to the player character:

Battle Arena

The High Concept I chose for the Battle Arena was a corrupted forest, guarded by a witch. As the forest has been corrupted by an unknown force, the witch, who was the forest's guardian, was also defeated and turned evil while trying to protect and heal the forest.

To portray the magical but creepy forest vibe, I researched mushrooms and rot, and looked for photos of twisted tree roots. Before sketching anything, I put together my mood board:

I then drew some blue sky sketches, to get an idea of how my arena was going to look, what kind of shape language I was going for. I really liked the tree with the face, which I ended up using in my final work, although in a slightly different way. I went with the idea of the arena being underground, as that would make for a very gloomy, wet and rotten environment and would also provide really dramatic lighting. 

 

I then proceeded to iterate on the idea and also on different gameplay scenarios. I chose to go with the second picture, as I really liked the lighting and the shape language, like everything is tilted and pointing towards the centre, towards the battleground. The light beams are like spotlights pointing to a stage, directing the viewer's attention to where the battle is going to take place.

I ended up changing the gate, as the shape wasn't interesting enough and didn't provide a strong enough point of interest. So I sketched a few ideas:

After getting some feedback, I went with the spiral one, as it repeated the circular, twisted shape language I was going for. 

I then made a rough block-out in 3ds max, on top of which I drew he detailed sketch. I made the shape of the arena more bowl-like, as the cylinder shape created too many vertical lines in the scene and made it look small. 

I ended up using the tree as the entrance to the battle arena: The spirit tree that suffers under the corruption and underneath which the Boss Monster awaits. 

I also sketched out some gameplay ideas:

I then went on to figure out a colour palette. I used photos with different colour schemes and set them to Overlay as well as blurred them to generate ideas quickly.

I chose the first one, but added more of the green and brown from the tree in the arena to make it look more consistent.

I sculpted everything in zbrush, then used some of the textures I made for previous projects to get a even more 3D information for my arena. I got everything in Unreal and took a high resolution screenshot to use as a base.

I decided to use this close-up photo, as the arena should be the main point of interest for this project and I wanted to show all the details clearly. I ended up making the arena even larger, as it still looked a bit small for a Boss battle, where the player needs to have space to move and fight.

For the rendering, I first added the details without lighting information: I added some ferns and moss and the eye and mushrooms, as well as fixed some of the things from the screenshot and added some accents and contrast. 

At the end, I added the lighting. I am really happy how it turned out in terms of light, but overall as well. At first, I wasn't planning for the mushroom spores to glow, but I think it adds a more mystic feeling to the arena. 

I also added a back view (it's pretty much the same as the other side of the arena) and an unlit screenshot of the scene from above.

Group Project: Hell Circus

We established our concept for the Group Project as soon as it started, brainstorming together for ideas. We wanted something unique that would reflect the Transition theme and after some thought, we settled on a horror game set in a Circus that is the entrance to Hell. The levels would be like the circles of hell and the player would transition from one to the other as the environment gets progressively more aggressive and scary.

Once the high concept had been decided, we started thinking about how to implement it using our characters and how to convey the creepy mystical vibe of the Hell Circus. 

After putting together a mood board, I settled on a demon clown character that would be standing in the third level, blocking the player from proceeding to the last one. His assets would be a mask, a dagger and a bowling pin. Initially, as you will see in the concept art I made for it, he was supposed to have a butcher knife and a revolver. I switched the butcher knife with a dagger as it didn't fit the character. The revolver I wasn't sure I would be able to make in time, so I changed it to a bowling pin, that the demon would throw at the player in an hypothetical boss battle. 

I started sculpting, blocking out the main shapes at first. For the face, I blocked out the muscle structure first, to make it easier to shape it into the face I wanted. 

Initially, the pants were really puffy, but it looked unnatural and it would have caused problems when it comes to baking, so I changed that. I also had some problems with the posture of the character and managed to fix it using Transpose Master to move all the elements together. In the end, I added some strands on the hair to make the hairstyle more interesting. 

I really like how the mask turned out. It looks clean and sharp. On the other hand, I think the posture of the character might still be slightly off and could have been improved. 

I then retopped the character, skinned and rigged it. I think I could have used less topology for the face, but since it's a high detail area, I think it works, though it's something I should keep in mind. I also made and retopped the assets. 

I then textured everything in Substance Painter, using mainly Fill layer and procedurals to add variation to the texture, as well as Mask Editors to darken cavities and lighten some edges. I handprinted the skin using Fill layers with black masks and a dirt brush. 

I made the eye texture in Substance Designer and then implemented in the same way as I did with the fox's eyes: I made a simple eye shader using Parallax Occlusion Mapping. 

I added it into Unreal and lit it using a Rectlight. I had some problems with the dagger texture, as it wasn't exporting properly from Substance Painter: the Metallness was wrong and the sRGB was turned off automatically and couldn't be turned on so I knew from the start something was wrong. When I applied the material to the dagger, it looked shiny, but in a plastic kind of way rather than metal. 

I took the textures in Photoshop and exported them from there after checking the channels (everything looked fine there), which fixed the problem. 

This is the final outcome:

I think the character could have been more detailed in terms of texturing, but overall I am quite please with how it turned out, since it was my first go at more realistic textures, rather than the stylized ones I prefer. 

Survival Vehicle - Colour and Photobash

 In regards to experimenting with colour, I picked a photo from the internet that I though would fit the image and vibe I had in mind, then applied its colours to my sketch using an Overlay layer. I mixed and matched them, trying to figure out which ones would fit best and work better with the concept. I ended up picking a more muddy palette to convey the worn-out look, as the car and its owner have been through a lot already.

I then looked for the pieces and photos I needed for the photo bash. I first blocked out the car in 3ds Max, then took the model to photoshop and built upon that. 

I cut and placed all the pieces from photos first, then started rendering them to make them fit together. I added shadows using clipping masks and a soft brush. I also added scratches and dirt to show what the vehicle has endured not only against demons but against the environment, and to make it fit the apocalyptic vehicle concept. I think the wear and tear details tell an object's story more than anything else. 

This was the final work:

I am quite happy with it, although the perspective could use some more work. 

Reusable Textures and Modular Assets

As video game engines aren't yet all-powerful and time is precious in the video game industry, solutions had to be found in order to generate massive environments that the engine could process and load fast. 

Some of the ones I have learned and researched about are tiling/trim shits and modular assets. 

Tiling textures and trim sheets are generally used to texture large, generic surfaces and good resolutions without using huge textures and wasting unnecessary budget and time. They also preserve the Texel density that would otherwise be lost using a large texture. Even more, using a 4096x4096 or bigger to texture every part of a huge environment would immediately make the game unplayable, or at the very least drastically decrease its performance.

 While tiling textures tile in all directions, trim sheets tile only in one. 

Tiling textures and trims can be used in multiple parts of a game, even in different environments. For example, if you've made a stone tile sheet for a stone floor, that texture can be used later for a stone wall. 

Although tiling and trim sheets do have obvious repetition and can't have unique details, that can be hidden using things such as decals and props in order to distract the viewer from it and break the pattern. 

Modular assets, on the other hand, are like puzzle pieces. They are assets made to fit together in various patterns in order to build environments easily. I will give an example from Nintendo's "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" as it is the latest one I've played and I noticed the patterns in most of the environments, especially in the Zora's Domain area.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Zora's Domain

The arch is the same one repeated over and over again most likely. There are multiple areas surrounded by these arches in the Zora's home as the environment was surely thought-out beforehand and is using modular assets in a smart way. There are also the sharp tower pieces that are reused throughout the palace as well as the floor and the columns sustaining it above the water. I think there is one floor piece with its column that it's just repeated to create the walkways of the Domain. 

This way, this beautiful large environment has been built with a bit more over three modular pieces. 

In conclusion, reusable textures and modular assets are used to save time and budget, as well as optimize the game.