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. 

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. 

 

Animal Project: Texturing the Fox and Implementation

For texturing, I chose a stylized look to fit the sculpt style.

I started by using a couple of fill layers with procedurals to add more variation to the colours and add a watercolour like effects. I mainly used cloud procedurals, but I also used a Crystals one, that gave it a subtle brush stroke like effect. Afterwards, I used layers with the Mask Editor generator to add shadow in the cavities and highlights on the edges. 

I also used two Light generator layers to add more variation to the colours, giving it the darker orange fur bits. 

I then painted some darker spots using a brown fill layer and painting into the mask, to keep the workflow non-destructive. I did the same for painting the black and white parts on the fur. I added some yellowish colour into the white parts, to make them more interesting. 

For the saddle, I used a similar process: used procedurals to add colour and roughness variation, then used Mask Editors to darken the cracks and lighten the edges. For the blanket, I made the pattern in Photoshop, the imported it and placed it on the model. 

I made a simple eyeball texture in Substance Designer using the Shape node as a base. 

For the presentation, I made a cartoony grass and flowers texture, using a grass texture I made before as a base and adding the stylized flowers to it. 

I used a Shape node set to the disc shape and offset it using the Transform 2D node. I then offset it to the other side and blended the two together, creating the shape of the petal. I used Splatter Circular to put the petals in the shape of a flower. I used multiple Tile Samplers to put everything together, then added colours. At first, I had made the grass really green, but after getting feedback, I changed it to a more teal colour, to match the blue on the fox's saddle. 

I put the fox together in Unreal and lit it using a Rectlight. I used an emissive Material and a Particle System to create blue fireflies around Brutus (the fox).

Here is the outcome:

Words can't describe how happy I am with how this turned out. I managed to achieve the exact style I was hoping for at the beginning and I am really pleased with how the fur patterns turned out. The magical vibe I was aiming for is there too, so I am really pleased with my fox. 

Animal Project: Retopology, Unwrapping and Baking

The retopping and unwrapping went smooth overall, but for some little setbacks. When making the deformation loops for the face I failed to actually make them loop around the eyes and mouth, so I had to redo them. Once I got the hang of it though, it went quickly. 

I retopped one part of the fox and mirrored the other half in, but after mirroring it, the loops broke again. I am not sure if it's because of the modifier or something else happened, but I managed to fix and make them loop properly pretty quickly. 

After retopping the saddle too, I was still a lot underbudget, so I added more topology using the Swift Loop tool. I ended up with a final count of  18,572 tris for both the fox and the saddle. I also added material IDs to it so it would make it easier to texture each part individually in painter while still having the whole model baked together. 

I then unwrapped the body and the head onto two different UV sheets. I didn't try to straighten them, since it's an organic shape and it wouldn't have worked, I tried to use the space as best as I could, though there is always space for improvements. Still, I believe I am getting slightly better at using the UV space, even if it isn't perfect. 

For the saddle, I straightened the bits I could without deforming them and it made it easier to fit them on the UV sheet. 

The eyeballs I just cut in half and made the back part smaller as it wouldn't be visible.

I baked the fox in Substance Painter. The bake came out well but for a few errors on the normal and ambient occlusion maps, spcifically on the saddle. I tweaked the model and baked it again. This time, there were less errors and I could paint over them in Photoshop. 

This is the baked model:

Animal Project: Sculpting the Fox

The fox sculpt was quite enjoyable to do, and I am really happy with how it turned out in the end. I could also definitely see an improvement in how fast I sculpt, as it didn't take nearly as long as other times, even though I had to sculpt an animal, which is quite a complex thing. 

I started by making a block out, starting from a sphere for the head and then using symmetry and inserting shapes to build up the main forms. The legs were a bit long, so I shortened them, before proceeding to sculpt details. 

Here is where I made a mistake. I hadn't noticed the toes had merged together and messed up that part of the mesh. I had already sculpted a lot of the detail for the face and started the body, so starting over was definitely out of question. Thankfully, there was an easy fix for it: I duplicated the mesh and fixed it, then transferred the details from one mesh to the other using Project.

I continued sculpting the pattern on the body. At first, I had made it too plain compared to the head, going in a straight line across the fox, which didn't offer much interest. So I changed that into a more curved, swirling pattern that still followed the shape of the body, but in a more interesting way. 

After sculpting the fox itself, I sculpted the saddle too: I first made the base using Extract for the blanket and ZModeller for the harness straps. I sculpted the bags from a square, softening it's edges by subdividing it and using the Move and Trim Dynamic tools. I added some detail using Mallet Fast and Orb Cracks and it was done. 

Backyard: Decal, Implementation and Presentation

Making the decal and putting the scene together were the last steps of my project. For the decal, I needed something to break the repetition of the cobblestones and also to give the tree a hole in the pavement were it could be growing from. So I made a decal for that, with cracks at the edges. I first sculpted it in ZBrush using Mallet Fast and Orb Cracks: 

Then I took the resources into Substance Designer and began editing them to make the decal. I used the grass and flower nodes from the cobblestones to keep the same look for the flowers, since they are the same as the ones sprouting from between the stones. I added a bit of noise to the cracks, but otherwise I kept it simple, to match the rest of the floor. 

I then took everything into Unreal and started building up my scene. I added blue lights to the windows and fire (that I had built beforehand using a particle system and aiming for a stylized, cartoony look), to make them glow brighter and have a bigger impact. I added warm light to the lamp. I love how it contrasts with the cold one from the fire. 

This was the final result:

I think it turned out alright, although there are some things I would change now:

- add more colour variation to the tree crown

- add something to frame the scene and not make it seems so empty (like some wooden posts framing the wall and maybe a little part of the roof of the house on top of it.)

- I also would make the tree trunk a bit less shiny, cause even if it's stylized I could have toned it down a bit. 

Overall, I really like how the assets turned out, but I think I could plan out my scenes a bit better.