UDK Crypt Preview

Hey Guys =)

Okay, finished the last statue, I'm not quite happy with a few things in the modeling, but I don't have time to fix them now, story of my life.. =) Also rescaled the floors as I thought they were a bit out of proportion. More space has been created, so it feels a tad empty right now. I'm hoping the lighting and shadows will help me out there. A few extra bits and bobs (like torches) will probably be needed =) Tomorrow is the last day.. set aside for exterior work (trees and bushes etc's), lighting, and audio, so lots of work to do! =) Nights! =)

UDK Crypt Statues

Heeey =) Okay, got two more days left on this project.. time is warping by! =) Finished a statue, I decided not to break it up too much, cuz I kinda liked it as is =) Also finished the dais =) Hope you guys like =)

Going to finish the last statue later today and start doing a bit of the exterior, lighting and sounds =) Cheers guys! =)

UDK Crypt Floors

Heeeey! =)  About half way through the project now, really excited to be heading toward the finish now! =) Redone the floor, happier with this cuz it feels more like rock slabs =) Worked on grave pieces for the sides.. Taylor showed me a great tutorial on specular maps. Definitely worth reading if you are confused like I was about specular maps. =) Also learnt that UDK has to have Normal maps with the Y channel flipped, so basically X+Y-Z+ (instead of the usual X+Y+Z+), when you render maps in 3DS/Xnormal.

Downloaded a bunch of Blizzcon 2011 videos, very inspiring stuff, particularly the Diablo 3 gameplay demos and Making of Black Soulstone cinematic. Next going to make the dias and the broken lady statue =) Have a nice weekend guys! =)

Crypt Columns

Heey! =) Jus a quick update, as we have to hand in our dissertations by 4pm today! Eeek! =) Columns have been made =) The door has been redone.. =) Going to work more on the interior next and keep you updated on it =)

Okay got to run! =) Have to put finishing touches to my dissertation! Meeep! =) See you guys again soon! =)

Crypt Walls

Heey! =) Been working on the walls for the crypt.. took much longer than I wanted, learnt quite a bit =) Not happy with the floor and door so going to redo them. Taylor gave me some great advice and help, the man is a God at 3d =) The wall slabs were made separate and attached together. UV unwraps were comped together after baking in Xnormal.

Previously couldn't use Xnormal cuz for some reason it wouldn't bake properly, recently found though that if you export your high and low polys from 3DS Max as FBX's with the Zbrush preset, then it's fine. If you want very fast bakes use the Optix (GPU) renderer =) Also trying to learn how to do better unwraps in general, so using the checker texture to check my unwraps more carefully now. Will give more info on the texturing later on.

Really excited about going forward now.. The columns are next =) Nights =)

Crypt Preview

So pretty early stages right now. Spent a bit of time researching, checked out Orb's work. Downloaded his cracks brush, and made my own spray detail brush as he didn't share that brush, it looked pretty handy for laying in broad detail. But I still feel waay noob, got lots of practice ahead, I may have to revise things as I go. Also checked out Johnstone's steps (senior artist at Epic Games). Lots of work to do, so getting off to bed. Nights =)

UDK Crypt! =)

Heeeey! =) Jus a quick update =) Done my dissertation, took me three weeks to write one paragraph, and then one late nighter to write the whole thing, including rewriting that one paragraph =) Unlol =)

Okay, decided not to do the fantasy room now.. Yip, did alot of concept work for it, but kinda lost motivation for it, so after a few hours of scribbling around in my sketchy, this is UDK Crypt! =)

It's going to be waaaaaaaaaay more fun and I feel more passionate about doing some temple ruins sculpting using Zbrush and projection master. Found this reaaally inspiring Pixologic interview of Epic Games artists on how they used Zbrush. Enjoy =) Will show my full process on this soon. =) Here's jus some development stuff atm, basically going to concept as I go on this, which is my preferred style anyway. =)

So excited about this! =) Listening to a load of Neverwinter Nights music too, gets me in the mood =) Used Mp3ToBmu to rip it from the NWN2 music folder =) NWN is so awesome =) Tomorrow I'm going to work on the sculpting and texturing and keep you guys updated on how things go =) It's off to the races! =) Cheers and see you soon! =)

Final Major Project - Low Poly & Texturing

Hey Guys =)

Sorry it's been SOOOO long since my last update =( Had a few teething issues with the pig sculpt. Spent a lot of time trying to get it right, the low poly had to artriculate properly for animation, and I had HUGE problems with texture seams, which I ended up painting them out on the Normal map and hiding them with fur, lull =) I don't think this was a particularly good sculpt but showing process if interested..

(Ctrl + click to view)

Wasn't looking forward to making the low poly, but I recently found 3D-Coat which saved my ass =) It has a feature called Auto-retopology! =) Spent a weekend figuring out how to draw autopology which was definitely worth it imho. =) 3DCoat creates nice smooth topology that follows your high poly. You basically import your decimated high poly mesh from Zbrush, and draw on your desired edge flow, and 3DCoat makes a nice low poly model for you. =)

 (Ctrl + click to view)

My workflow for this project was -
o Blockout the basic shape in 3DS Max (See here for detail on the Zbrush sculpt)
o Sculpt high poly in Zbrush
o Decimate high poly
o Auto-retopo decimated high poly in 3DCoat (low poly)
o Import low poly into 3DS Max
o Render to texture high poly onto low poly in 3DS Max (Normal Map)

From there I create lighting and do diffuse texturing in 3DS Max and Photoshop =)

Here's a quick overview of the proj... =)

High Poly sculpt in Zbrush, fun part =)

Decimate the High Poly using Decimation Master in Zbrush

(used to make the Low Poly mesh)

Auto-retopo in 3DCoat =)

(makes the Low Poly mesh)

Unwrapping the Low Poly in 3DS Max

(ready for texturing, and rendering on the High Poly Normal map)

Render to Texture the High Poly onto the Low Poly model

(creates a Normal Map)

Normal Map projects the High Poly onto the Low Poly model

This is ready for Diffuse (colour) texturing now. As you can see there are artifacts (bits that didn't bake properly from the high poly). In this case I painted them out of the Normal map with Photoshop. I had to bake this map many times before getting it right, so don't worry if yours doesn't turn out perfect the first time. Patience and making sure you have a good low poly mesh that fits the high poly well. =)

Okay at this point, before I begin texturing, I like to setup a good lighting for my scene. I want a nice even light to fall across the model, so lights were placed all around the model. I try to alternate the colours of the lights and not make them too bright either. Cameras are also placed into the scene so I can have specific views. A stage is made and I place in a nice fading neutral background image to start off the texturing.

I basically texture by overlaying the Normal map onto the Diffuse map (exported from the Unwrap). I'll then paint colours and Multiply phototextures (CG Textures) in Photoshop onto the Diffuse map. The separate elements - eyes, tusks, and the tail, were textured in the same way. Fur was then added with the Hair and Fur modifier, placed onto the low poly mesh. I then selected the polys to grow hair out of and then shaped it with the hair brush tools all in the modifier. One little bug I came across was that I had to set the Hair Rendering Method to "Geometry" mode before it would render properly. =)

I'm including this to show that you really have to push through some stages, even if they look like utter crap and you're really frustrated =( This was particularly true when making the low poly, fixing the UV unwrap seams, texturing which sometimes doesn't work out, and the fur not rendering properly or looking nice. Don't be afraid to jus redo stuff over again. Hope this helps =)

So now I'm going to move onto the next project which is a UDK enviro! =) Gonna be fun! =) See you Guys! =)