Chinese Architect Completed

Throughout the entire quarter of modeling, texturing, and export and import everything in the unreal engine, I was able to complete my chinese architect area and it's starting to look good. I made little of things from last update of my project posted in the production blog. One of those changes I made from the last update was apply colllisions, and blocking volumes for each static mesh. These would allow to block a path wherever the player goes to. Apply collisions, and blocking volumes really didn't take me that long since it only took two hours. The next thing I change was adjusting the tiling of the ground texture. The thing I found out while I was trying to tile the ground texture was that it was made out of a static mesh in which I couldn't get how I want the ground to look. I deleted the static mesh that I made in Maya, use a cube brush to create a new mesh, and apply the ground material. Now the ground is starting to look exactly like I wanted. The last thing I made for my environment was to make the lighting.  I made an rgb texture from Photoshop where I took a snapshot of my environment UDK. The idea for this project was to make my environment look like it's coming from a sunny afternoon.  I also added some point lights, and a skylight to fix up the darkness in some areas along with the inside of the dojos and houses. The whole thing took me about five hours to get everything the way how it should look.

Much like how I did in Maya, here's everything that's in the engine:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all I had to keep up to date in this blog though. I made such a progress with this project throughout the whole quarter, and I hope everyone including game companies would like everything I had put into this environment.

 

 

     

Unreal Chinese Architect

 

After spending the entire quarter modeling every single static mesh in Maya, I was now able to bring everything in UDK. I imported everything from what I made in Maya over to UDK along with the difuse ,specular and normal texture maps that I made in Crazybump. The time I spent arranging, as well as apply textures for each of the static meshes took about eight hours. There's still left to be done now that I'm working in UDK. So expect my final post of the project to see how everything turn out.  

Maya Chinese Architect Complete

 

After spending seven weeks working on the environment in Maya, my environment is finally completed. It was so much of a hassle for me to take the time to model, uv, and texture the entire environment that I had spent working throughout the quarter. As you could see, I had added a floor texture to go along with the environment. The floor texture may not be exactly like I want it, but when I take it to the unreal engine, I'll tile it in the material editor, and it'll turn out exactly the way it should look.

 

 



If you have viewed from my pervious post on the dojo, I decided to change the color of the floor. It went from being a black color to a bluish grey. The color change was done in Photoshop where I had to use the hue/saturation to make the adjustments on the floor. I wanted to tone up the lightness of the floor to give it sort of a grey color. I also had mess around with the saturation, and hue to give it a little more of a detail and have a blue like color.

 

 

I had originally textured the entrance gate door in the second week of the quarter. The difference is that the top roofs were textured in high poly at the time I model this asset. I went back to re uv the entrance gate door, and texture it again in Photoshop. This time I applied a rooftop textured on top of a plane. Now the top roofs had turn from being high to low poly. I had spent three hours texuring the entrance gate door.

 

 

The stone table and chairs were finally textured from the pervious post. It really didn't take me too long to texture these assets in which I had only spent 7 minutes texturing them in Photoshop. From what I put in my last post, I also had been soften the edges on both the stone table, and chairs to make them look smooth.

 

 



Here's the three flower pots that I had textured compared to how they were the last time I post it in my production blog. The difference is that the two pots have weave texture, and one pot has a stone texture. The stone pot didn't take me too long to texture in which it only took 2 minutes. The weave pots, however, took me 2 hours to texture both pots. The square weave pot has a brown leather texture on top, while the rounded weave pot has the weave texture all over.

 

 

 

Far from finish texturing my environment, the next asset I had spent texturing is the water wheel. I used brick textures, as well as copying, and pasting brick parts to match the reference. The hue/saturation was also used to give it a brownish gold color. It took me three hours to texture the water wheel in Photoshop.

 



 

The last asset that I had textured in this environment is the chinese garden tea house. This was the longest that took me the most time to texture the entire asset. The time I spent texturing the garden tea house was approximately 8 hours. There was so much in applying textures of rooftops and floors, as well as hue/saturation being used to make color changes. The small bridges were also textured that took approximately 2 hours. I also change the setting from Normal to Color to give a blue like color. Now that everything is textured, I expect to bring every asset to UDK  by next week so that I could arrange my environment, and finish what I could.  Until then, I'll keep up to date with these post until I show the final product.

               





   

Environmental Project Update

As I progress throughout the weeks working on my environment, I add more stuff to put in just to arrange how I want my scene to look. One of my first assets that I had ever created in this scene is a chinese house. It took me three hours to model the entire object as well as 7 hours in puting everything in the uv map. I had spent 2 hours texturing the entire house.

 

After finishing texturing the chinese house, I decide to give my environment more verity by modifying the original building. I deplicated the same building that I made before so that I could start to modify different variations in how each building will look. These houses will have variations of showing only doors, windows, pilars, and missing pieces. It only took me 4 hours just to make these arrangements.

 

 

The next building that took me time to model and uv is the chinese dojo. The modeling took me 8 hours building the dojo as well as 9 hours in putting everything in the uv map. The time it took me to texture was 2 hours.

 

 

Much like I did to the chinese house, I also decided to modify the chinese dojo to give more variety to the environment. I duplicated the original building that I made and modify different variations. The variations that I give to the dojo would either have fences, pilars, doors closing, or wood from above.

 

  

Moving on to the smaller assets, I started off with making flower pots. These babies really didn't take me that long to make since it they took me 5 minutes to make each one. The uving took me 7 minutes, and puting them back in the uv map took me 2 minutes for each one.

 

 

The next smaller assets I made were the stone table and chair. These assets were little longer than the flower pots, but they really didn't take me that longer to make them either. The table lasted 11 minutes to model while the chair took me 5 minutes. The uving for the table took me 5 minutes while the chair took me only 3 minutes.

 

 



The asset that only took me a couple hours to make is the waterwheel. I had to take time to make the stand as well as making the wheel, pilars, and plates. It took me 10 minutes to put everything in the uv map.

 

 

 

The last and longest asset that took me the most time making in the environment was the chinese garden tea house. This asset took me 4 days to create the entire building. I had to create the rooftop for it along with creating the fences. As long as putting everything in the uv map, it took me five days to arrange. I also created three bridges across the environment.One being placed from the entrance, the other right between the four modified dojos, and table, and one next to the chinese garden tea house. It took me 2 hours to model as well as 15 minutes to uv map the bridge.

 

   



As for the first asset I made in my pervious post, I decided to make a change for my entrance gate wall. I originally made rooftop from the entrance gate wall out off high poly cylinders and replacing them with low poly planes. I had texture this asset before but was never able to post it in the production blog. Now with the changes, I place a roof tile texture, and post it in the blog to see how it turned out compare to the last post.

   

 

First Asset

This is is the first week that I'm going to begin the working progress of my environmental project. I'm going to begin modeling the bigger obects first since they take me the most time working on them than the smaller objects. The first asset that I'll be working on is the entrance gate. The reason I would want to begin with this asset because it's the starting point where the player will be spending the most time exploring the chinese architectural area. It's also a better way for me to place later objects so that I could find out how much space everything needs to be put in the entrance gate. I had began working on my first asset and so far, it's has been the beginning phase of the project. The gate may not be as big as I wanted. But once I start putting other assets in my scene, then maybe I would consider making the entrance gate bigger once I'm moving on with the production phase of the project. I'm thinking about putting the stairs in front of the entrance gate along with the upper floor, and side walks around the chinese architectural area. I'll be putting textures once I'm done modeling this entrance gate. Later this week, I'll be posting my finish verison of the entrane gate on the blog.

Project Production Schedule

Week 2

Goals

1.       Work on your splash paper

2.       Work on style guide

3.       Find references based on the artist you have chosen and inspiration as well as sketches and  other research material

Task

1.       Post your style guide with the gathered references in your portfolio production blog

2.       Sketch out how you want to arrange your scene

3.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

08/07/2012

Work on your goal, task, and schedule list- 10 hours

 Due date: 08/09/2012

08/08/2012

Work on splash paper- 1-2 hours

Update portfolio production blog-1 hour

Due date: 08/09/2012

08/12/2012

Update your portfolio production blog-1 hour

Sketch out how you want your scene to arrange your scene- 1 hour

Due date: 08/12/2012

Week 3

Goals

1.       Create an asset list refer to the material covered in your style guide

2.       Choose one asset from the list

3.       Create three long objects this week if possible

4.       Create a Alpha milestone for project

Task

1.       Create a Chinese entrance

2.       Create Chinese house  

3.       Create Chinese dojo

4.       Create Chinese temple

5.       Update your portfolio production blog

6.       6. Create a Alpha milestone for project                                                

Schedule

08/14/2012

Create an asset list refer to the material covered in your style guide-1 hour

Due date: 08/16/2012

08/18/2012

Create a Chinese entrance-2 hours

Due date: 08/18/2012

Create Chinese house-1-2 hours

Create Chinese temple

Due date: 08/19/2012

08/19/2012

Create Chinese dojo-3-4 hours

Due date 08/19/2012

Update Portfolio production blog-1 hour

Week 4

Goals

1.       Create smaller objects

2.       Finish modeling the entire environment

Task

1.       Create three small Chinese bridges

2.       Create Chinese garden tea house

3.       Create Chinese shrine

4.       Create Water wheel

5.       Create Chinese flower pots

6.       Create Chinese bench

7.       Create Stone table and chairs

8.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

08/23/2012

Create three small Chinese bridges- 1 hour

Create Chinese garden tea house- 2 hours

Due date: 08/23/2012

08/24/2012

Create Water Wheel- 1 hour

Create Chinese flower Pots- 1 hour

Create Chinese bench- 1 hour

Due date: 08/24/2012

08/25/2012

Create stone table and chairs- 1 hour

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Due date: 08/25/2012

Week 5

Goals

1.       Be prepare for a presentation

2.       Rework asset/to do list

Task

1.       Present your project in class

2.       Find and download textures

3.       UV map your objects

4.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

08/28/2012

Rework to do list- 2 hours or more

Date due: 08/30/2012

08/30/2012

Find and download textures -2 hours or more

Due date: 08/31/2012

08/31/2012

UV map your objects – 2 hours or more

Date due: 09/01/2012

09/03/2012

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Due date: 09/04/2012

Week 6

Goals

1.       Show a complete project

2.       Download udk

3.       Import objects from Maya to udk

4.       Find time to go to school to use Crazybump

Task

1.       Put together a pretty good progress of the work for the pre beta milestone

2.       Texture objects

3.       Make files to import to udk

4.       Save the texture files as targa

5.       Take the targa texture files to Crazybump to create specular and normal maps

6.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

09/04/2012

Texture objects- 4 hours

Due date: 09/05/2012

09/05/2012

Make files to import to udk- 1 hour

Save the texture files as targa- 1 hour

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Due date: 09/06/2012

09/06/2012

Take the targa texture files to Crazybump to create specular and normal maps – 4 hours

Due date: 09/07/2012

09/07/2012

Import objects from Maya to udk- 2 hours

Due date: 09/07/2012

Week 7

Goals

1.       Make all necessary changes

2.       Continue to work through your individual production list based off individual projects

3.       work on your project based on your schedule

Task

1.       Work on the material editor to apply expressions of your objects in udk

2.       Bring the objects into the scene

3.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

09/09/2012

Make all necessary changes- 3 hours or more

Due date: 09/11/2012

09/10/2012

Work on the material editor to apply expressions of your objects in udk- 4 hours or more

Due date: 09/12/2012

09/12/2012

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Due date: 09/13/2012

09/13/2012

Bring objects into the scene-1 hour

Due date: 09/13/2012

Week 8

Goals

1.       Continue to work through your production list based on individual projects

2.       Complete 80 % of your project

Task

1.       Arrange your scene

2.       Tone down the shiningness for each object

3.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

09/19/2012

Arrange your scene- 1 hour

Update portfolio production- 1 hour

Due date: 09/20/2012

09/20/2012

Tone down the shiningness for each object- 2-3 hours

Due date: 09/20/2012

09/22/2012

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Date due: 09/25/2012

Week 9

Goals

1.       Finish up the final 10-20 % of the production work

2.       Finish up the final 10% production work

Task

1.       Create volumes in the scene

2.       Create water material

3.       Update portfolio production blog

Schedule

09/25/2012

Create volumes in the scene- 2 hours

Due date: 09/27/2012

09/26/2012

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Due date: 09/27/2012

09/28/2012

Create water material- 1-2 hours

Due date: 09/28/2012

09/28/2012

Update portfolio production blog- 1 hour

Due date: 10/02/2012

Week 10

Goals

1.       Finish portfolio project

Task

1.       Create a kismit sequence

2.       Test out the level

Schedule

10/02/2102

Create kismit sequence- 2-3 hours

Test out the level- 1 hour

Due date: 10/04/2012

Environmental Artist Reviews

Alex Kam

The website that Alex has posted is nothing more than just displaying a grey background and showing off a gallery whenever anyone enters the site. His name is being placed on upper left corner of the screen along with the information and page sections. On the bottom of his name, he relieves that he’s a 3d Environmental Artist, and lives in Montreal, QC, Canada. The pages are displayed in three sections: gallery, resume, and his email address. In the gallery, the page is split into two sections: Professional Work, and Personal Artwork. Under Professional Work, he has made work for two games: Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nations, and Captain America: Super Soldier. Under Personal Artwork, he has made five projects: Destroyed China Town, Dusky Hallway, Tackle Shop, Urban Back Alley, Sci Fi Create, and Gothic Door. I like how he arrange his projects showing the actual scenes on top, and showing random stuff on the bottom like polygon objects (w/o textures), texture maps (diff, spec, normal and alpha), and other scenes. The styles that Alex had chosen for his scenes were pretty interesting especially the Destroyed China Town, Tackle Shop, and Urban Back Alley stood out the most in his portfolio. I felt he chose the best objects, appropriate texture, and scenery to showcase environment.

Steven Skidmore

Steven’s website has a grey color, but it’s being companied by a darker grey in the top of the screen along with a logo being placed behind Steven’s name and profession. The site has six page sections underneath Steven’s info: Resume, Game Assets, High Poly, Reel/Videos, Contact, and To: Renderman Developmental Page. The text, images and reel/videos are being placed in the bottom of the screen. As of professional work, he’s currently working on Darksiders II. One of his best works so far is the Tech Market. It’s a very dark alleys, rooftops, and basements all over the levels. The objects are filled with machinery, cardboard boxes, concrete pillars, wood, fans, lights, and statues. He has some of the best high polygon work I ever seen like the house, the interior kitchen, and the bass guitar.

Liam Tart

The design for Liam’s site is still displaying a grey color. But unlike Alex’s and steven’s, it has been broken down into four sections: a solid grey in the middle, two grey textures on the sides, a little less dark grey on the lower top, and bottom of the screen, and a gradient textured grey on top. His name, info (email and phone), and profession are placed on top of the screen. The pages are split into three sections: Art, Resume, and About. The projects I like the most from Liam are the Fantasy Dungeon, and Handheld/Mobile. The Fantasy Dungeon is nothing but a small room filled with wooden boxes and chest. The fire torches are being placed on the side of the pillars. The Handheld/Mobile has two environments: Villainous Rocket Base, and Zombies!!! City Assets. The Villainous Rocket Base is more like a space station type of environment. It has an opening on top, while the rocket is being placed in the middle of the scene. Zombie!!! City Assests shows more of an environment that takes place in a city. It consisted of a hospital along with other random city buildings. There’re even cars and trucks that are being placed in the scene. I sort of like these environments since they really give an industrial feel. Much like Alex’s, Liam has placed the scenes on top of the screen. The difference is that he placed the textured objects along with the texture maps (diff, spec, and normal) on the bottom of the screen.