Art Creation for Games (Final Project)

The final project for Art Creation for Games involved putting together all the skillsets learned this month. The requirements were to build a complete environment in Unreal Engine 4. For this project, I chose the following reference image from the ones supplied:

The idea wasn't to replicate the environment exactly, but to use it as a basis for our project, while injecting my own creativity and ideas. This way I could show off what I learned throughout the month. I did the majority of the work for this project in Maya 2016, Photoshop CC 2015, and Unreal Engine 4. I created all the meshes and laid out the UVs in Maya. I then created textures for everything in Photoshop. Finally, I compiled everything in the scene in Unreal Engine. Here is the final result:

I also took a couple screen recordings of the environment. This first one is just me navigating the scene in Unreal. 

                                          The second one is the actual gameplay in Unreal. 

Overall, this was the most enjoyable project I have had since starting school at Full Sail University. I really got to see all my talents and skills combine into one glorious environment. I will definitely keep working on projects like this in my free time and look forward to learning more about Unreal Engine 4. 

Art Creation for Games (Lesson #3, Texture)

In my last post, I showed the process of laying out UV's for meshes in Maya. The next lesson for Art Creation for Games involved building upon that foundation. Solid UV work is a vital part of the texturing process. There are two different types of textures used in video games, Collage Textures and Tiling Textures. Collage Textures are unique and created for a specific asset such as a character or individual item. Tiling Textures are seamless and created to repeat or tile. This type of texture could be used for surfaces such as a brick wall or a tiled floor. Below are some examples of both types of textures. 

Examples of tiling textures via Art Creation for Games curriculum. 

Example of a collage texture via Art Creation for Games curriculum.

I also learned the process for creating textures in Photoshop.

1. Determine the working size of your texture 
2. Keep brightness and saturation in the middle 
3. Remove any obvious details/specific details 
4. Add detail from large to small 
5. Consider use and size on screen when adding details

The Archway

Time to implement it! For this lesson, I was given three different assets to texture. The first asset was an archway. 

Base mesh.

Texture provided for archway.

I started off by fixing some issues with the face normals. Autodesk defines normals as, "a theoretical line that is perpendicular to the surface of a polygon. In Maya, normals are used to determine the orientation of a polygon face (face normals), or how the edges of faces will visually appear in relation to each other when shaded (vertex normals)." This means all the face normals need to be pointed in the correct direction to ensure the texture is visible. 

The spikes show the orientation of the face normals for the geometry. Notice they are all pointing the same direction after I applied conformity to them.

Next, I moved on to laying out the UVs of the archway and then importing the texture. I made sure all the UVs were proportional to ensure the texture wouldn't stretch on the archway mesh. 

Screenshot of UV layout in Maya.

As you can see in the screenshot above, I laid out the UV's over the corresponding part of texture I wanted that piece of geometry to have.  With the normals oriented correctly, my UVs laid out, and the texture properly applied, I am ready for a final render. 

Final render in Maya, utilizing MentalRay.

Overall, I was satisfied with the final project. As you can see, you are able to add a considerable amount of detail to a basic mesh by utilizing textures. Next, I will be moving onto the second part of the assignment: texturing a barrel. 

The Barrel

I started off with the base mesh of the barrel, provided to me.

Base mesh for the barrel.

 I started off by repeating the process I did for the archway; cleaned up the face normals and laid out the UVs. The texture for the barrel that was provided was actually two textures, one for the wood and one for the metal.

Textures provided for the barrel.

In order to have an easier time laying out the UVs over these textures, I took them into Photoshop. In Photoshop, I combined the two textures into one. 

Combined textures.

After bringing the texture into Maya, I simply laid the out the UVs for the barrel to match the corresponding material I overlaid all the metal bands on top of each other over the metal part of the texture and then laid out the rest of the barrel on the wood part of the texture.

UVs laid out on my new texture.

 Last, its time to generate the final render for the barrel. After setting up a couple area lights to really showcase the texture, I rendered out the barrel with MentalRay.

Final render in Maya, utilizing MentalRay.

The Pipes

The last asset for this assignment was a configuration of plumbing pipes. This was a more complex mesh because, unlike the archway and barrel, it contained variety of of different parts with differing proportions. As with the previous two assets, I cleaned up the normals and laid out the UVs. The texture for this asset was a basic checkerboard pattern that allowed me to check for squashing and squishing of the UVs. 

Base mesh for the pipe asset.

Provided texture for the pipe asset. 

After laying out the UVs I imported the texture. As you can see, I tried to keep the UVs as simple as possible to avoid proportion issues.

UV layout for the pipe asset. 

After that, I was ready to create the final render!

Final render in Maya, utilizing MentalRay.

After completing these three assets, I definitely feel a lot more comfortable with UVs and textures in Maya. I will keep working on these methods in the future to continue to increase my competency. All of these skills will build a strong foundation for the next lesson, "Block out, Mid, High Res & In-Game builds."

Art Creation for Games (Lesson #2, UV's)

Lesson 2 dove into UV's. The project involved modeling part of toilet in Maya, laying out the UV's, and checking it with a checkerboard pattern. 

Reference Image

Maya Build

UV's for build.

Checkboard Pattern UV Check.

This is the perfect setup to use before applying a texture to ensure the UV's are not suffering from extreme squash and stretch.

Art Creation for Games (Lesson #1, Pipeline)

Today I started the Art Creation for Games course, which aims to "provide students with a strong knowledge of the way real time 3D content is modeled and textured. Students develop game models of simple and complex props, foliage, and various game environments. In addition to modeling, students paint color, generate normal maps, and specular maps for created geometry. Special attention will be paid to the creation of clean and optimized models for use in games." (Full Sail University 2014 Course Catalog).

Lesson 1 covered the industry pipeline. We discussed the various software used in art creation for video games, terminology, concepts of game modeling, and culling. The first assignment for the course involved working with a reference image of a Mame arcade table. 

I took the image into Photoshop to create a breakdown of the object. This allowed me to identify various components of the object and determine what assets could be reused throughout the model to increase efficiency. 

I then proceeded to Maya to block-out the mesh. I utilized the breakdown and reference image as the foundation for my mesh in Maya. I also imported a human mesh provided to use as a standard for the size and proportions of my arcade table. This human mesh represented the proper scaling used in Unreal Engine 4. 

After completing my block-out, I duplicated my mesh to begin modeling the in-game mesh. I took my duplicated block-out mesh and proceeded to add secondary and tertiary details while consulting my references. I duplicated objects that could be reused throughout the mesh such as the joysticks and control buttons. 

This was a quick build, and the project was done during a three hour lab. I learned quite a bit about the pipeline of video game art creation and was able to implement a lot of the techniques taught.