AAA Asset- The Finale.

With the hand in date today I though I would throw up all screenshots and what not for the nearly completed object on its own post.

The cannon on its pier with some of the lighting twiddled to achieve a more atmospheric effect.

I created some cannon balls to add to the scene. They are just Unreal's default spheres with a dark rusty cast iron texture thrown on (although I'm unsure how well it shows up on them).

Quixel 3Do image with the UVs and ambient occlusions thrown onto the model to show how everything all works together (or something to that effect). 

A top-ish view. The UV's were triangulated so that they would cooperate with the .obj exported from zBrush better.

Over all I am fairly pleased with how it turned out. It is far from perfect and could be far better but it looks the part, at least to one degree or another. I learned a lot about them processes required to make a game asset, skills and knowledge I am thankful for.

I have had several problems with the project. My overall time management could of been better which would have given me more wiggle room later on to fix completely fixable mistakes which I have had to forgo correcting to try and get everything else done.

I have mentioned above that my UV layouts were sub-par. Having previously negative relationships with UV's in the past led me to just get one out that worked. It is far from perfect but I stand by the fact that it (mostly) works.

Adding materials and textures in Quixel Suite gave me some issues. It can be seen that the metal looks a bit flat and let us not forget the colour map "shadows" (which remind me of nuclear shadows, hence "shadows").

My experience in ZBrush, however, was overall a positive. it went smoothly for me and produced some decent detailing and colour maps. The normal maps were functional but there was room for improvement.

My Maya modeling went well. There were a few problems with vertices but I was able to fix them and carry on with no detriment to the final model.

It seems, reflecting on the whole project (read: ordeal) that I am capable of learning and implementing the techniques necessary but I am far from a natural. 

Did I enjoy the project? Yes-ish.

Am I happy I did it? Yes. Would I do it again? No.    

I am and will forever be a 2D artist.

ZBrush Stuff- Insert Multimesh Brushes

This weeks ZBrush class included an introduction to "Insert Multimesh Brushes". An exiting sounding term for what is arguably ZBrush's equivalent to kit-bashing, using pre-made tools of objects such as gun barrels and panels and slamming them on other objects.

Here is a monstrosity I conjured up whist getting to grips with the idea:

I started by throwing stuff onto a six-sided cylinder.

I continued to throw stuff onto the six-sided cylinder.

The six-sided cylinder now has a huge gun barrel sticking out the front. 

A front view showing added spine and barrel radiator detail

The finished (?) product. A large thrown-together space cannon.

For all your ship vaporising needs.

ZBush Stuff: Dynamesh

This week in our ZBrush lesson we were looking the Dynamesh feature of ZBrush. To get a feel for the feature we were told just to mess around and model what ever we wished, this was my result.

This is the front view of my space-borne monster-creature-thing I came up with. I looked at crabs and their shell for inspiration to help me with designing the creatures "hull". 

A side view, not that exiting.

The top of the creature is pitted with holes of varying sizes. I imagined that it would fire internally manufactured projectiles at its foes through these pits. They also have the added advantage of being visually disturbing and therefore interesting.

The rear "engine" of the beast. It needs to move in space somehow.

ZBrush Stuff- Head Sculpt

This year we started practicing with ZBrush, the 3-D sculpting program. When getting to grips with the software we were given the task of sculpting a head, using a pre-made base render and modeling and deforming it to make our own.

I began by warping the base mesh here and there with the move tool.

Here I moved the eyes farther apart and made his cheekbones and jaw stronger.

Softening the jaw ever so slightly, I made the dips in the temples more prominent.

Here I added another level of subdivisions.

After adding yet more subdivisions I flattened the bridge of the nose more and made the lines coming down from his cheekbones more severe. I also made a conscious effort to make his features more asymmetric and therefore more realistic. This can be seen in the placement of his eyes, nostrils, ears and on his jaw, chin and cheekbones.  

A three-quarter-ish view.

At a profile he looks slightly more ordinary and less chiseled and powerful than the image that is betrayed by the front view.

Another three-quarter view after a while of sculpting. I added hair (sort of) and pulled his cheekbones up higher so they didn't look as "off" as I think they did earlier. 

Not the happiest looking chap...

Another front view featuring stronger temples and forehead bone-star-ridge-thing.