In working through the Mystery Island project, I definitely found many of the processes to be draining, repetitive, and tedious. However, I can also appreciate the efficiency of modular design. I know it would take far longer to design a multitude of complex, individualized, assets rather than a few simple pieces that can be easily recycled. The process largely involved importing assets and organizing them together, and then using the vertex snap to piece together the parts. I also got experience with the easy-to-use terrain tool in Unity which I thought was simple and well-designed. One of my greatest take-aways from this assignment was project organization. As seen in the images below, I had to make sure to group and label everything precisely, otherwise it would be extremely easy to become overwhelmed or get lost. Each asset had many components; material, texture, and model. I created groups for each asset, and then compiled all those asset groups under a broader modular component group. In creating the outpost to be used in this scene, I also learned a lot and refreshed some rusty areas. Getting experience modeling from scratch, UVW unwrapping, and texturing was the highlight of this activity for me. I definitely enjoyed the creative freedom, and being able to create the really cool textures that I used, even though I didn't have much to work with. Unwrapping the UVW templates was slightly aggravating, but I think I understand it to a far greater extent than I ever did in previous years when we went over it briefly. However, I think texturing in Photoshop was definitely my strong point. It was also important to learn how to model efficiently and set myself up for success when UVW unwrapping. In fact, several times I completely reworked a model so that the UVW part would be easier. Overall, I learned a lot through this activity. I also was able to connect my scene to an interesting concept for a mystery-horror game on an Island, called Vacant Isle, where players are stranded and have to survive, explore, and collect clues in order to solve the mystery of the island which is now connected to their life/survival. My game concept is largely based upon exploring the outposts, as well as the clues left behind in them from their previous occupiers/inhabitants. They give the player something interesting to interact with on the island, besides the boring environment. Review and main-points:
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While designing my outpost I have encountered a few issues. One of which is in creating a viable design that is unique and original. I wanted to do something along a post- apocalyptic/dystopian theme, similar to a fallout shelter or bunker. My other goal was to keep it efficient and modular, however, because of this, the result is a bit boring to look at. Creating the outpost is very similar to making the modular house. I have used modular components and segments, primarily from rectangles, although I have added extra details on particular pieces such as the doors and windows. The connect, chamfer, inset, bevel, extrude, and editable poly tools have been imperative in the design. This time around I have felt much better about organizing and naming each of the pieces as well as aligning them correctly. I learned from my mistakes in creating the modular house, but have otherwise used most of the same techniques from the tutorials. In the future I would like to texture my outpost so that it stands out more. Currently it looks very drab and plain, especially because the modular parts aren't super in-depth/detailed, with efficiency in mind. However, textures could make up for these deficits and add further layers to the design, distinguishing it more. These images are two inspirations for future work with textures. I like the metal plates and the grunginess in the designs. Conclusion:
One of the most essential mainstream practices in creating 3D assets, especially in game design, is making them efficient and minimalist. Rather than developing every asset individually, modular design involves making only the most essential parts and creating pieces that can be reused/reapplied. This contributes to faster rendering, less storage space being taken up, smoother gameplay, and more overall efficiency. This also assists the level design team in adding on new levels or modifying the environment in the game, making the game more adaptable. While working with modular design in creating this house, I found that it was a much quicker process overall. One of the most important things was to organize and name the pieces so that they didn't get mixed up, which could be tragic to forget and would make it extremely hard to discern all the different asset parts. I also was refreshed on good modeling techniques and tools, such as using connect, inset, and bevel. These tools were essential in creating the details on the window and door. The connect tool was especially useful in making new edges and vertices that helped when using the vertex snap tool and piecing all the parts together. Some difficulties I had included navigating the viewports and piecing the assets together. I also found that some of the rotations and orientations on my walls were not perfectly aligned which made it harder to line up with other asset pieces. Overall, modular design made the process of creating the house far less tedious or overcomplicated. It is also a far better asset for using in a game since only the necessary parts of the façade were worked on, ignoring the unimportant details, edges, and faces. The most important lesson I learned is that it is important to be well organized by explicitly naming the pieces, and working with angle and vertex snap on - so that everything aligns cleanly. Conclusion:
Recently my class has been learning about the game design process, specifically the careers that are involved. Looking at these specific jobs, there are definitely some that peak my interest, that could be potential career paths I want to follow. I find myself to be a pretty naturally inclined artist and I have always picked up on drawing. This would lead me into the pathway option of 2D Artist. I really enjoy drawing and find that it comes with a lot more freedom than most other positions, which are usually working off of the concept by the 2D Artists. Since I am very creative and especially great at drawing creatures/humans, I think a character concept artist would be a really great position to suit me. Not only would it give me a lot of creative freedom, but I would also be able to do what I love. Another option I am interested in is to be a 3D Modeler. I have really enjoyed my experience with Blender in particular and love the workflow of 3D Modeling. It is a very invigorating challenge to try to figure out what technique and specific path to take in order to create a particular asset or character. There are so many different ways to accomplish any given task, and modeling always has something new to offer. Being able to contribute directly to the end project of what players will actually see and interact with in the video game, would be really awesome to be a part of. Although I was mildly surprised to learn that there was an official Writer position, it made a lot of sense. The writing, script, and plot to a game are arguably the most crucial aspect. Great scenery means nothing without an intriguing storyline to follow. I feel like this would be a great fit for me because I am a good writer and this position would also give me a lot of freedom to help develop a suspenseful plot, add in witty humor, and give life to the characters; all things I think I would strive at. Though I find interest in each of these individual jobs and components of the development team, I think I could also potentially make a great Art Director. This position would combine a lot of the skills I have been developing in this class such as 2D Art, 3D Modeling, Animating, and Texturing all into one job. The Art Director oversees a lot of the creativity and visual components of the project. As someone who has experience in all these fields, as well as many of the soft skills that come with this job such as interpersonal communication. creativity, and leadership, this would be a good goal to work up to. This proves to me it is important to keep up with all these hard skills, but also join extracurricular and take opportunities to develop a more impressive portfolio for soft skills too. Overall I think it is important to have some idea of what to look forward to in the future, and begin preparing now. Summary:
Lighting is an extremely valuable tool when it comes to creating a render or scene in any 3D modeling program. For one of my assignments I had to place two easily modeled dumbbells and on a simple planar. I was able to make an extremely realistic and advanced looking scene with simple models that took a few minutes to make, using just lighting and materials. First, I applied a texture to the plane and used a UV Map to alter it to fit the scene better. To compliment that, I added in a bump map which gave it more texture. After that I added the brushed metal preset physical material to my dumbbells and messed around with the parameters a bit to create a more realistic looking texture on them. Then I added a skylight and spot light to create the effect of a street lamp shining down on the dumbbells, and altered the color a bit so it looked more like augmented light. I turned on shadows so it appeared more realistic and more interactive with the ground/plane. Finally I added fog to create a more ominous effect and to top off the scene. As you can see, the image without lighting is tremendously worse and appears bland. Not only do the dumbbells feel distant from the ground, but the scene is basic and doesn't appear to be realistic at all. However, with the lights and environmental effects, the scene is surreal and the environment sets a tone/mood. Overall this goes to show that lighting and materials can go a long way and can turn simple models into a very advanced and realistic scene. Summary:
This quarter my class has been learning how to use the material editor more in depth in 3ds Max. Materials are extremely helpful in making a scene more realistic and to create more detail on the object. Personally I love working with textures and shaders. Working with textures is extremely convenient, and by allowing you to transfer a detail from a photo into a material for your model, it gives you the capability to replicate real life surfaces very easily for your models. For example when creating my board game, all I had to do was take a picture of the box in real life and then Photoshop it and mess around with the material parameter editor to completely replicate the box into a 3D model. Although not all textures are as easy to apply as a game box, it is a super convenient tool in creating texture by pulling them off of photos. Shaders are also very useful. Shaders create realistic lighting effects and there are several different types of shaders for creating different levels of lighting. They are very useful for creating realism and are super fun to mess around with. As you can see the shaders brought a lot of depth and realism to my robot walker, as well as emphasized the metallic structure of it. Maps are also very useful, especially for creating more depth in the surface of the material, though I am still struggling to learn how to use them.
To sum it up:
Throughout the last couple weeks my class has worked on creating a neighborhood. There was a variety of items we had to make however we got freedom in how we created them and overall this assignment was great for revisiting old skills and trying out new skills. Personally, this is the type of assignment I want to see more of. It is fun to get some freedom and break through from simply following a tutorial and not actually getting to apply the skills we learned or really grasp them. This project was a great break from that and gave us much needed freedom. I was extremely surprised by what I could do and overall think my items turned out surprisingly good. I was particularly happy with how well my fire hydrant, trash bins, and lamp turned out. I had a ton of fun experimenting with some tools we recently began learning as well as some older ones such as loft, which is my favorite to this day. Getting to apply a variety of skills to creating a bunch of different objects and creating one large scene/environment was challenging, but also a ton of fun. This is the model of assignment I look forward to in the future and think the tutorials we do should take up less time and be more straight to the point. They should simply teach us how to apply the tool, or should cover the concept without going so far in depth, beyond our current skill level, to where we are simply copying the tutorial completely without actually soaking in/analyzing what is going on. Everyone has different tools and types of modeling they strive with and this activity gave us the opportunity to explore that and get more practice with it. Overall I felt myself grow during this activity and had tons of fun with it. Summary:
I have already evaluated several different compound objects, and now I have two more to add to the list. Now that I have some experience with Terrain and Scatter, I am officially going to add them to my ranking! Scatter is an amazing tool that allows you to apply and randomly generate an object throughout a scene. You can apply it to any other object and specify how many copies of it you want as well as place other parameters. Scatter is extremely easy to use and is super great for duplicating an object throughout your scene, especially if you aren't too specific about its placements. It also adds realism considering the random placement, similar to in real life. For example in this Old West scene I designed, I was easily able to randomly place three objects (a cacti, rock, and tumbleweed) I made, throughout the environment in amounts I specified. As you can see it adds to the scene and makes it look more realistic and less plain. It took a matter of minutes to learn how to use and to apply it, several times, overall rendering it very efficient and productive. The other tool I learned and got to try was the Terrain tool. This tool is also one of my favorites so far as well. This tool is amazing for making landscapes and is also extremely simple to use. All you have to do is create splines outlining where you want the land to level in and move them to where you want the land to extrude or dip down. It is super easy to do this and gives the user a surprising about of control. I also used it to make a rock and can imagine it being applied to several other multi layered objects. It reminds me of Loft in some aspects but gives a little bit more control. Overall these two tools are great additions to my skill set and think they're two of my favorites that I have learned so far. Although they are great for landscape/environmental art, they can be applied to other objects and be re-purposed outside of that singular use. In conclusion;
Now that I have evaluated all the tools and in particular, ProBoolean, I would like to look closer into the Loft tool. This tool comes as a close second to ProBoolean, so I decided to explore it more. It is relatively easy to get the hang of Loft but hard to master. It also appears to be limited to a singular line segment and has some unpredictable behavior. Besides these limitations though, it is amazing for creating relatively complex shapes and parts. For example I was able to make this screwdriver all from one line segment and using just a few splines. I also made the lightsaber handle in a matter of minutes, showing how fast and easy the Loft tool is to use. To get a better idea of how much this tool is capable of, I started making another object with it, but using multiple parts and using it in a couple different and new ways. I decided to do a sniper/gun so I could closer evaluate it to ProBoolean which I also used to make a gun, particular focusing on the nozzle and scope. The images above are the two guns I made using the two different tools. I used Loft to make the one on the left and ProBoolean for the one on the right. Loft actually gave me more capability for more of the parts on the gun and was also able to make a nozzle/barrel and scope, that turned out better than the ones I made with ProBoolean. I am also particularly surprised and happy with how well Loft worked for creating the butt of the sniper, and created the exact shape I was going for with only two splines. Overall Loft is a really great tool and can be used for many things. Although it has limitations, it has a lot of potential and is one of the most versatile tools, and for me competes with ProBoolean as one of the best compound objects. Synopsis:
Compound objects are used for various different purposes, however the one I find myself using the most casually is ProBoolean. ProBoolean works with combining and subtracting shapes from each other, basically turning standard primitives into a tool. ProBoolean is great because you can use shapes to create more unique shapes. It is fun, easy, and convenient to use. The Loft tool applies the shape of splines to a simple line and is great for creating a shape with multiple layers to it, however the tool does appear to be limited to creating singular parts with symmetry all around, like handles and tools. Sweep is similar to Loft and also uses splines/lines, but is very complex. Sweep applies the shape of a line segment to the border of a spline to add texture. Sweep is great for creating things like architectural molding, but is relatively unpredictable and often results in creating normals. It's a really difficult process and isn't enjoyable considering the lack of control it gives the user. ProCutter is another compound object tool. ProCutter allows you to embed a shape or text into another object. However, it is similar to ProBoolean, but with less potential, overall putting it low on my list. BlobMesh creates a metaball that you can apply to any object to create a unique shape. It is great for making cushions or more rounded objects. However, Blobmesh is limited to making cushy or slimy textures and is also very unpredictable when applying it to an object. Lastly is Array which systematically aligns objects by using a grid system. Although Array makes it much easier to align objects and get things systematically into place, it is very hard to tell what coordinates to plug in and requires a great understanding of the coordinate system. Summary:
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AuthorMy name is Quinn Peterson! I will be reflecting about my art work in this blog! Archives
May 2022
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