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Post 25 - SpeedTree

SpeedTree is a powerful software tool designed to streamline the creation of detailed and realistic vegetation for 3D environments. It offers a robust library of trees, plants, and foliage, allowing artists to quickly generate diverse and lifelike flora. SpeedTree's procedural modeling capabilities enable the efficient customization and animation of plant structures, significantly reducing the time and effort needed in the 3D pipeline. By integrating seamlessly with major game engines and rendering software, it enhances the creative workflow, allowing for the rapid iteration and refinement of environmental assets, ultimately leading to more immersive and visually compelling virtual worlds.

This would be my first time using SpeedTree, here are some tutorial I hope to gain insight from:

Unreal Engine 5.2 | Photogrammetry Realistic Tree by The8 Inc. :

SpeedTree 8.3: Modeling a Tree for Games by SpeedTree:

How to use SpeedTree to create foliage for Unreal Engine by PERMANENTSUNSET:

To add to this. I will also find references and knowledge for the type of trees that grow in a specific part of India and set my environments location to pin down the visual motif and have a cohesive ecosystem.

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Post 24 - The Execution

The plan for the Indian Truck Art is simple only in word, yet the execution of the process will be deliberately extensive and exhaustive.

As always taking is slow and steady will yield desired results, of course keeping inline with the time table is also apart of keeping an organize workflow.

The truck being the center piece, the modeling will be carefully approached, and thinking ahead such as using the high poly tires as a part of texturing alpha, so that I can create road details like indents in the mud or dirt with the alpha below where the tires are positioned.

The environment itself will heavy use SpeedTree and the ground will be sculpted in Unreal including the vegetation and other detail like puddles or small rocks.

So far, this is what I have figured out when it comes to executing certain parts of the creative pipeline, some of the concepts and ideas are spontaneous in their nature, yet I plan on making sure that they are documented and critically analyzed before and after.

After all the this process is not only a learning opportunity but also a way on capitalizing on mistakes and mishaps.

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Post 23 - The Unreal Exepirince

Ash Thorp is a prominent figure in the world of concept art and design, particularly known for his impactful contributions to projects utilizing Unreal Engine. His work transcends traditional boundaries, blending imaginative creativity with a deep understanding of digital tools like Unreal Engine to create visually stunning and narrative-rich environments.

Ash's approach to concept art and design is characterized by meticulous attention to detail and a strong narrative focus. His projects often serve as blueprints for immersive worlds and complex narratives, providing inspiration and practical insights for other 3D artists. By meticulously crafting visual elements that resonate with storytelling, Ash demonstrates how concept art can lay the foundation for compelling virtual experiences in Unreal Engine.

Through his collaborations and personal projects, Ash Thorp explores the intersection of artistry and technology, pushing the envelope of what's achievable in digital art. Artists studying his work can learn the importance of narrative cohesion in visual design, understanding how each element contributes to a cohesive and immersive experience. Ash's ability to translate abstract ideas into tangible visual concepts also teaches artists how to communicate their creative vision effectively, bridging the gap between concept and execution.

Furthermore, Ash Thorp's influence extends beyond individual projects. His commitment to sharing knowledge and techniques through workshops, tutorials, and online platforms enriches the broader creative community. Artists can benefit from his insights into workflow optimization, creative problem-solving, and the integration of concept art with real-time engines like Unreal Engine. By studying Ash's methodology and approach, artists gain valuable tools and perspectives to enhance their own practice, whether in concept ideation, visual storytelling, or technical execution.

In essence, Ash Thorp's concept art and design for Unreal Engine serve as a beacon of inspiration and education for 3D artists. His ability to marry artistic vision with technological prowess not only elevates the visual standards of virtual worlds but also empowers artists to push boundaries and innovate in their own creative endeavors.

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Post 22 - Transferable Skills - Lighting and using new Unreal DASH tool

With new version of Unreal Engine 5 come new developer tools to improve and speed up workflow. DASH is one of those contenders to be a tool that "saves lives". DASH is a content browser and foliage generator tool that has its own custom UI, it quickly populates the world with various objects and having control over how dense the generation is can really add a new perspective towards creating outdoor environments. I came across this at random, as I was trying to find quick ways to populate the scene with vegetation for my Final Major Study.

Here is the YouTube channel that led me to learn about DASH:

I mostly enjoyed the tutorials from Josh Powers an d wanted to learn more about him.

Josh Powers is a notable figure in Unreal Engine 5 scen, where his expertise lies in the intricate craft of lighting and environment design. His contributions are marked by a deep understanding of how lighting influences mood, atmosphere, and visual storytelling within virtual environments.

Through his work, Josh not only showcases technical prowess but also demonstrates a keen artistic sensibility in balancing realism and artistic expression. His projects often feature meticulously crafted lighting setups that highlight the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5, pushing boundaries in real-time rendering fidelity.

One of Josh's significant contributions is his exploration of advanced lighting techniques that elevate the visual quality of virtual worlds. His use of dynamic global illumination, ray tracing, and advanced material shaders creates environments that are not only visually stunning but also immersive and believable. His approach not only aims for visual fidelity but also emphasizes efficiency in achieving cinematic-quality lighting within interactive environments.

Beyond his personal projects, Josh Powers shares his expertise through tutorials, workshops, and educational content. He breaks down complex lighting setups and techniques, offering insights into how other 3D artists can achieve similar results in their own projects using Unreal Engine 5. His willingness to share knowledge and techniques fosters a community of learning and experimentation, empowering fellow artists to elevate their skills in lighting and environmental design.

Josh's work serves as both inspiration and practical guidance for 3D artists looking to enhance their understanding of lighting dynamics and environmental storytelling in real-time engines. By pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in Unreal Engine 5, he contributes to the ongoing evolution of interactive storytelling and immersive experiences in the gaming and entertainment industries. His impact extends beyond individual projects, influencing the broader community of digital artists striving to create compelling and visually stunning virtual worlds.

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Post 21 - Practice makes Perfect

Thanks to ZBrush Guides for being frequent with their site uploads I am able to practice some ZBrush skills that are well behind then others.

Pablo Munoz Gomez is a ZBrush artist and educator who provides in-depth tutorials and resources for mastering ZBrush. His recent guides and webinars focus on advanced sculpting techniques and stylized character design. Having a deep understanding of ZBrush, he shares his knowledge through detailed tutorials, guides, and resources. His content is designed to help both beginners and advanced users enhance their skills in digital sculpting and character creation. Proving comprehensive tutorials, catering towards different skill levels from beginner to advanced. These tutorials cover a wide range of topics, including sculpting, texturing, and rendering.

Pablo often creates tutorials that guide users through complete projects, from initial concept to final render. These projects cover various themes such as character creation, creature design, and hard surface modeling. He provides real-time demonstrations of his workflow, giving insight into the practical application of techniques in a professional setting.

And the best part about this is that, the learning recourses are free, so anybody can follow along.

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Post 20 - Decision

India Truck Art is the winner.

Now that I have the time, this is the project I am the most exited about, since I would like to show of my Hard Surface skills based in Realism.

And as a heads up, I will be traveling to India on short business, so I hope to find out more about this Truck Art culture.

What grabbed my attention is that in a way its intentional graffiti, with overly saturated colors and just how cool it is to drive around the country not only representing the company the individual works for but the individual themselves are expressed through their design choices.

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Post 19 - Ideas for Major Study

A procedural generated shooter game - A simple game where the player would go through an endless set of procedurally generated environments like a warehouse, to then exit out of a chosen door end then end up fighting their way through enemies in a small 4x4 parking lot. A good example of this would be Due Process. Yet my game would have a 3/4 top down view.

Cyberpunk Environment - Having moved to Poland. CD Project Red is only 8 bus stops and a 7 min walk from where I live. I have made friends with some of the juniors that come by the bar on the weekends, and have told me that a place opens up around every 6 month. Having played the game and enyoyed the detailed environments from the grungy and full of life Night City to the baron but exciting Outlands, I would like to combine those two environments into one, and make a simple petrol station environment or a motel exterior with unique vehicles and story to have a shot of joining the leagues of CD Project Red's Art Team

India Truck Art - This project would be something I would even do in my spare time if I had the time to do so. I have been putting this concept for about a year now, due to come unforeseen circumstances. I was largely inspired by Vox's Borders video on this topic and was majorly impressed by how the presenter described these moving pieces of road art and how much actually study and research is done in India on this style expedition. For this I would create a forest environment assisted by SpeedTree and model the truck exterior and interior manually in Maya then texture it in my idea of what India Truck Art but of course keeping the art trend and religious symbolism and cultural elements in the texturing phase.

Stylized Fantasy Treehouse Environment from Concept - In this idea I would like to recreate an environment from ArtStation and the artist I have chosen would be OKU, an environment 2D artists.

Here is his portfolio link: https://oku.artstation.com/

And here is the piece I would like to create from the concept:

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Post 18 - Live Brief and Learning Outcomes

Working in teams, I took on the role of director, ensuring that the project stayed on track and that our team remained organized and focused throughout the process. Individually, I contributed by designing a Fantasy Interior Asset Pack in Unreal Engine, which provided the backdrop for our film. I also crafted the original storyline for our reimagining of Hansel and Gretel, infusing it with fresh, creative elements. Additionally, I worked on three 2D character designs in Photoshop, including their facial expressions, to bring our characters to life visually.

Here are some thing I learning outcomes and challenges during the Live Brief:

Leadership and Team Management: Developed skills in leadership by directing a team project, improving my ability to organize, coordinate, and maintain project timelines. Faced challenges in maintaining team morale under pressure, and at times, had to enforce tight deadlines which led to stress and occasional friction within the team.

Technical Proficiency in Unreal Engine: Gained expertise in creating and implementing Fantasy Interior Asset Packs, enhancing my understanding of 3D environment design and asset integration. Encountered technical issues and bugs that required significant time to resolve, causing delays and sometimes leading to compromises in the level of detail or polish of the final assets.

Creative Writing and Story Development: Improved skills in narrative creation and scriptwriting, learning to adapt classic tales into modern reimagining. Time constraints sometimes necessitated simplifying or cutting certain story elements, which led to compromises on the original vision and depth of the narrative.

2D Character Design and Digital Art: Developed proficiency in character design using Photoshop, improving my ability to convey emotions through detailed facial expressions in 2D art. Due to tight deadlines, there were instances where I had to rush certain aspects of the character designs, which impacted the overall quality and consistency of the artwork.

Project Management and Coordination: Applied project management techniques to ensure smooth workflow and timely completion, gaining experience in delegating tasks and responsibilities effectively. Balancing multiple roles and responsibilities often led to burnout and reduced efficiency, making it challenging to maintain consistent oversight over all project aspects.

Collaboration and Teamwork: Fostered a collaborative working environment, leveraging each team member’s strengths and enhancing skills in giving and receiving constructive feedback. Differing opinions and creative visions sometimes led to conflicts that required mediation, and reaching consensus often meant compromising on certain creative aspects.

Problem-Solving and Adaptability: Navigated challenges and obstacles creatively and efficiently, adapting to changes and unexpected issues with flexibility and resourcefulness. Frequent problem-solving under pressure occasionally led to quick fixes rather than optimal solutions, impacting the overall quality and coherence of the project.

Artistic Vision and Direction: Developed a cohesive artistic vision for the project, learning to guide and inspire the team towards a unified creative goal. Time constraints and resource limitations sometimes forced compromises on the artistic vision, leading to a final product that differed from the initial conceptualization.

Overall, the Live Brief was a transformative experience that provided valuable lessons in both the technical and interpersonal aspects of creative collaboration. As the director, I honed my leadership and organizational skills, ensuring the team's success despite challenges such as time constraints and technical difficulties. While these challenges sometimes required compromises on our artistic vision, they also taught us resilience, adaptability, and the importance of effective communication. This project not only enhanced my proficiency in Unreal Engine and digital art but also deepened my understanding of narrative development and team dynamics, preparing me for future endeavors in the 3D art and design industry.

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Post 17 - Curiouser and Curiouser

Whenever I get stuck and my dyslexic brain needs a break from words and writing, I tend to browse YouTube and look for ways to "cheat" or rather look for ways to speed up 3D modeling workflow or even how I can speed up or accelerate development in the 3D creative pipeline.

During on of my scavenges I found this:

Wizix explores a custom python tool that he has made and released to the public for a small fee. He goes over how to use the tool in Maya.

For me this is ground breaking as coding is a weakness of mine, so having someone from the industry present a quick and easy way of placing hard surface detail models like bolts or sci-fi details on an assets I am currently working on is a missive time save, as I do not have to spend time creating these details myself as it is simple as select a face and or vert, then tell the script which preset details you wish to appear on that selected geometry.

This is also good when it comes to baking. as before exporting having these details color coded to bake a color map for roughness or metalness maps helps to make quick work of texturing the asset and not having to manfully pain in the details in Quixel or Substance.

I will be definitely be using this tool in my pipeline for the end of semester Major Project as I will be divinity tackling a hard surface model.

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Post 16 - The Film

Here is the finished short film:

In its finished form it explores concepts motioned before in the blogs.

It shows how gameplay design could be added and what the story is about. The art direction is much better then expected and I am very proud of the outcome since I did not know what the team achieved for their environment nearing the end of the project.

Honestly, the story feels rushed and it could have went into depth but understanding the time constrains placed by the Brief compromises had to have been made.

Overall, the short film relates to the origins of Hansel and Gretel and the team achieved every task set out.

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Post 15 - Developing story practice, a critique and analyses of story telling devices

Good, the bad and the great. But what makes a story interesting enough for the reader, watcher or listener?

Is it deep world building with complex layers of history, culture and mixture of traditions?

Or the characters that live in the world, with layered characteristics, quirks and mannerisms?

To me a good story is where all these aspects have thought out intention behind them, the writer knows and understands that the world and its people are one and the same and intentionally build both around each other. A good example of this is would be the recently released The Mandalorian as it explores a culture within an already established Star Wars universe, where the main character is intentionally surrounded by mysterious circumstances and outcomes. The story deeply explores the Mandalorian "cult" and its hobbits and traditions whilst testing the protagonist on those ways and if he is to create his own path rather then follow its ways whist subtly examining a role model and possibly a parent relationship as the protagonist travels around the Star Wars universe.

A bad story is one that hits a lot of its story point but misses out on the opportunity to go into further exploration of the plot and rather creates new plot points without closing the readers, watchers or listeners curiosity. To me its a story that continues without closing of its previous story build up and does not relief the suspense around a certain plot point, which tends to disappoint. Also, builds a world and its characters but does not explain or explore its depths and forgets to mention their complexity. An example? Prometheus (2012). Great art direction and cinematography. The story does not dissect its rich narrative structures, as it tends to leave more questions then answers, the plot falters in its explanation and mostly on its characters and their relationships. It honestly would require a person who is already invested in the Alien universe to guide the audience through its complex background and explain the films happenstance as the story play out but as by itself it lacks the focus of depth and altogether is a bunch of neatly glued concepts that need work.

A great story, is one that know what a good and bad story can be and makes sure to greet the audience with depth and slight complexity and does not require words to explain a thousand pictures and concepts but rather lets the art speak for itself. I have been rather impressed with Frank Herbert's Dune series of novels and the recently released movies directed by Denis Villeneuve. The director seriously took it upon himself to paint Frank Herbert's vison of Dune. My suggestion is to watch and re-watch the movie over and over as there are hidden layers within the story telling mechanics, only after a few viewings will these hidden art visuals be noticed. The color palette is rich and hints a parallels to into its previous plots or when a sequence of events unfolds the colors reflect the kind of story that the audience will be given, from its gray almost melancholic shades to now more vibrant and saturated hues as a battle for the protagonist is about to unfold. The relationships are crucially yet softly pounded into the viewers understanding such as Paul's mother is not only a parent figure but also a mentor or life coach as she train him in the ways of her culture.

The reason I am making note of this storytelling fascination is that we have been told stories from an young age and I have always been intrigued by what is not being said rather then the obvious. We are told of traditions, history and culture, not only from the perspective of those whom have experienced their events but also the surround perspective of certain decisions influenced by the the world. A retelling of an earthquake could not be told if there were no survivors and their bravery and stubbornness to survive. A retelling of war could not be told if the story was not passed on by the generation who have lived in such a time. My point is that stories are not so simple and should not be cut to a minimum but break boundaries and explore forms without compromises.

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Post 14 - Scripting the Story

After much discussion the team and I had to compromise on how the script should play out for the 45 second video.

The original video was meant to introduce the viewer into the world and its characters, its future events and relationship exploration between each character.

Certain dialogue had to be minimized and shortened to fit the 45 second expectation.