#Development Project 2

[jian-wei-24]

Development Project 02: Red VS Blue. (Update 9.0: Final Renders)

Video 1: Turntable animation of the tower environment.

Figure 1: Final Render.

Final Render Story:

High up on a mist-covered mountain stood an old watch tower, its weathered stone walls standing strong against the harsh winds. The tower had stood there for decades, guarding the kingdom below. The soldiers who manned it were a quiet, loyal few, volunteered to stay in this lonely place, far from the bustling city and their loved ones. The tower was their home, their fortress, but also their prison. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. They missed the laughter of their children, the comfort of their partners, and the simple joys of life. For as long as the winds howled and the mountains stood tall, they would remain the silent protectors, ensuring that no shadow would ever threaten the peace of their land. Long live the people, Long live Weng Wang Guo!

Reflection:

I was able to learn and gain experience in areas of development that I had previously avoided, fearing fatal crashes or roadblocks that could halt my progress for days. However, I pushed past my comfort zone and embraced new challenges, such as advanced post-processing, camera animation, asset animation, and enhancing my environment design. By applying the same development principles from my recent first project, I was able to speed up my progress. This experience has better prepared me to handle the workload when I enter the game development industry in the near future.

Extra:

If more time and resources were given for this project, the following are the additional models or effects I wish to add into the project:

Additional animations. (lanterns moving/reacting to wind, human animation, possible war scene where arrows fly into the tower, day-night transition animation)

Different and advance camera angles to showcase the models better.

More visual effects to immerse the viewers.

More unique assets to the environment to be modelled and textured. (More structures, and weaponry etc)

Further advance post-processing.

More Renders:

[ellie-bygrave]

Development Project 2: Arcade Machine

Final renders for my arcade machine project!

I'm super happy with the finished product. I'd like to get some input in my next class about the use of the normal maps on the metal base section as I'm not sure if they're high enough quality or if it would be better to just use actual geometry. I'm not 100% sure about polycount etc when making an asset like this so it may be better to look slightly less good but have reduced polycount, although some feedback I received on Polycount explained that recently low polycount is becoming less essential in making good game models.

I decided to do a couple of colour variations and use the different arcade games from Cyberpunk 2077 as well as the original Roach race that I used just to show some variability in my models. The same with the stickers on the machines.

[ali-kharaghanian]

DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 2 STEP 6

This spaceship was my first experience in hard-surface modeling and designing within the science fiction genre. The process of creating and learning was a valuable journey, even if the final result wasn’t particularly striking. However, as a practice, it was highly beneficial for me.

Here is the final scene of this exercise, where the spaceship races through its solitary world at full speed.

[zoewilkinson]

Development Project 2 - Week 7

14/01/2024

Texture painting.

For my final week on my development pieces, I got straight on with texturing my model because I felt so much more confident using Substance Painter than I did when I started. I began by working on the hat of the model, using light and dark variations of the browns used to enhance the grooves of the cap. I went in with a fabric texture for the base since I knew it looked nice on the previous model, and used different brushes to make a variety of colours in the hat to make it feel more like a real mushroom. Painting the face was a smooth process for this model in comparison to the previous one because I was able to apply the knowledge I learned, however I did find that the skin tone was a bit too close to the colour of the hat, so I went back into the hat model and darkened it slightly just to add some contrast.

Fully textured model.

Rendered mushroom using the Arnold renderer.

The painting process for this model was a lot quicker than the previous model, as I felt overall more confident and had a much better developed knowledge of what to do and where to start, so I was able to move onto rendering much faster.

Overly shiny material on mushroom hat.

After putting the model into UE5, I realised that the material on the hat ended up being completely shiny, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted it to be. To fix it I ended up simply removing the roughness file from the material which was making it shiny, and that seemed to take it down to what I wanted it to be.

After making my turntable render for this model, I was finally ready to combine the models together and take my final renders. I made a quick log model in Blender and textured it in Substance Painter, and put it into the UE5 scene for the mushrooms to stand on to make the scene feel more cohesive. For some final details, I used the inbuilt moss grass texture for the floor in UE5, and created a particle system to make some floating lights that looked like fireflies.

"Fireflies in UE5 - under 2 minute tutorial" (Jarvis, 2022)

I followed this tutorial to make the fireflies, because I thought it would add a nice extra detail to the scene that would bring it together as one total piece, as well as making it look like the characters are looking at them. As a finalised piece, I’m really proud of the outcome and how I’ve applied everything I’ve learned this semester into it.

Bibliography

Jarvis, R., 2022. Fireflies in UE5 - under 2 minute tutorial. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-yPNPd1s14&ab_channel=RosieJarvis [Accessed 14 January 2024].

[alecbicheno]

Development project 2 blog post 5

14/01/24

For this project I am happy with how I turned out overall. I think I have showcased my huge improvement with using Blender than when I used it for the first time at the beginning of the semester. I’m much more comfortable with modelling and sculpting within it, as well as having a better understanding of texturing using nodes.

I am much happier with this design than the one I made for the weekly project. This time round it is a cohesive design that makes more sense biologically. The last one had big wing like fins intended to help it swim through water with greater speed and agility, with some small legs which didn’t serve any real purpose. This design is one where it exists around the sea floor, easily able to walk around, but with the ability to tuck in its legs quickly swim in a fashion like prawns or shrimp.

Some things I might consider adding would be some claws which would help it hunt and grab onto prey, perhaps some fins to help its mobility through the water, potentially on the legs, and a different colour scheme, one with more dull greys and blues for better camouflage.

There are a few things I would like to have done differently. Firstly, some generic adjustments to the shape of the body, smoothing out some parts or having others bulge out a bit further. More specifically I would re do the tail, I would make it flatter and give it a bit more shape, perhaps some larger more rounded sections similar to a shrimp or lobster which fit better aesthetically. The legs could also do with a redesign, I would keep the shape and size as I’m happy with those, but I could simply just add a bit more detail, perhaps around the joints, as well as maybe adding fins like mentioned above. The mandibles could do with some spikes or jagged sections, as realistically this would need those in order to hold onto anything it catches with greater success. Lastly, I would try to get the eyes the colour I was struggling to achieve as discussed in the previous blog post.

The following are some renders of the finished product.

[girlwiththegreenhat]

team fortress 2 finally getting rid of the bots after 5 years

work on the team fortress 2 comic continuing after 7+ years

half life 3 development looking more likely than ever with legitimate code, file, and voicework leaks referencing a new non-VR single-player game from valve featuring a HEV suit wearing protagonist and Xen creatures and concepts

shoutout to the valve fan that found the genie lamp. you a real one

[chalkrub]

thank you for a great art fight! here's some of my final attacks. had a blast, already missing it - see you next year!

[tackykachowch]

How it feels to not like timebomb after s2

[saxandviolins77]

Sometimes I see people saying the Constructicons don't fit with the Decepticons because of their alt modes and their jobs...

But like, it makes total sense to me they'd be evil...

...They're engineers...

[cascowriteswords]

[[this is a fic idea i'm currently fleshing out. i haven't written anything substantial in a loooong time but i'm trying to gain some momentum/motivation to write this🤞]]

A canon/fix-it [kinda?] story - Clarke and Lexa share a painful, unresolved history. Time has passed since they last saw each other, but echoes of their bond still haunt them both. Their story is one of deep longing, unspoken words, and the agonizing weight of silence.

[firestorm09890]

WOOOOOO OKAY SO TAX COLLECTOR RODYA

So far, all the other sinners who've had cantos have had a big special Canto-related ID that's usually like a 'bad timeline' for them or they mirror someone they despise or whatever Spicebush Yi Sang counts as

G Corp Gregor The One Who Shall Grip Sinclair Spicebush Yi Sang Captain Ishmael

And... Rodion didn't get anything like that. Rodion, who pretends she's hot shit while ignoring her problems. Whose final boss for her Canto was just running away from something.

Until now, after what was Rodion-focused enough to be almost like a Canto 2 part 2.

It's not special or anything, just a two-star T Corp goon, but isn't that apt too? She wanted to be special. A savior. And all she gets in this mirror world is to be some nameless slave to the system, beating time out of people she had wanted to save. That's pretty bad timeline to me

[jian-wei-24]

Development Project 02: Red VS Blue. (Update 8.0: Own assets declaration)

Figure 1: 42 modelled assets

There are 42 modular components of the military outpost tower. The landscape was also terraformed and the flag icon was drawn by me.

[ellie-bygrave]

Development Project 2: Arcade Machine

Here's one of my final renders! I'm really happy with how this has turned out. I'm planning to do a couple of colour variations and a wireframe render as well.

[ali-kharaghanian]

DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 2 STEP 5

After finishing the modeling, I moved on to designing the layers on the body. I used a grid-like pattern with squares that rise to varying thicknesses from the surface, adding depth and texture. The sharp, pointed sections attached to the wings are another key detail of the design, enhancing the overall complexity and reinforcing the futuristic and aerodynamic aesthetic of the model.

[zoewilkinson]

Development Project 2 – Week 5

23/12/2023

Since it’s now Christmas break, I’ve been working hard to get further ahead with my development projects to try and avoid falling behind. In my last post, I was able to start texturing my mushroom character and completed the hat. This week I was able to complete the texturing of the rest of the model, as well as creating some renders.

Multiple face texturing attempts.

I took a few attempts to get the texturing of the face right, as I struggled to balance the blending of the colours. At this point I still wasn’t overly confident using Substance Painter, so I focused more on painting the colours over adding textures. I also thought that for the mushroom face and body a smooth, shiny finish would be nice because it would feel like a real smooth mushroom. I focused most of the detail on the cheeks, adding the blush and the freckles as the main focal point.

Continuing texturing using Substance Painter.

I felt a lot more confident using Substance Painter after finishing the face, so the rest of the body was a much faster process. I saved the hex codes of the colours to be able to colour match the body parts, and I think that I was overall successful. After finishing all the texturing and attaching them to my materials in Maya, I decided I wanted to repaint the hat because I had a few artefacts I was unhappy with and knew I could fix.

Before and after repainting the hat texture.

Final hat texture.

Mushroom character rendered in the Arnold renderer.

I put the model into the Arnold renderer in Maya to take some initial renders of the model and see how the characters looked in a real render, rather than just the scene. I’m really pleased in how the renders turned out and how much my work has already progressed over this project. In addition to this, I also wanted to make a turntable render video to upload and show all angles of my model. I had never done this before so I followed a tutorial to achieve this.

"Rendering Turntables In Unreal 5.1" (mmmcgyver, 2022)

I'm so pleased with this model and the overall quality of the piece. I think there is a huge improvement between this model and my weekly project model, and an even bigger difference between my work previous to this semester. I will be making a second mushroom model and combining them together in a simple scene in UE5 to finish this project.

Bibliography

mmmcgyver, 2022. Rendering Turntables In Unreal 5.1. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FRUY3G_GKU&t=848s&ab_channel=mmmcgyver [Accessed 23 December 2023].

[alecbicheno]

Development project 2 blog post 4

29/12/23

Here I began work on the legs. I chose a design that was reminiscent of some aquatic life such as on lobsters, but also one that was similar to an AI generated image that we made during one lesson to help with idea generation. I wanted them to be very slender and spindly in comparison to the body but still retaining a look of an exoskeleton. I then sculpted on the torso so help the legs look more attached to the body.

I then moved onto the eyes where I replaced the stalks with ones that I sculpted out from the head and replaced the sphere with an “icosphere” with four subdivisions and then removed the vertices to create the hexagonal pattern which insects have on their eyes. After this is where I began texturing.

I began with the body and legs, wanting something like a crab or lobster shell in texture. Using nodes, I created a texture in Blender which was rough and bumpy, but still retained a little shine to it. For the colouring, I wanted it to be dark and of a reddish nature, so I managed to achieve a mottled effect of mostly brown, with some black and red/orange in there. These colours were also in a pattern using the wave texture node which hugely increased the overall look.

After applying these I worked on the mandibles, I wanted a rough toothy texture in a dark beige/ grey colour, however after creating the texture the colour wasn’t working how I envisioned it, so I opted to put this on the teeth and instead have the mandibles be the same as the rest of the shell.

It was here where I began working on the eyes. An insect with its compound eyes usually has a dark colour but when looked at closely, a spectrum of colours can be seen. I tried to create this effect on the eyes and somewhat succeeded, however it was showing as a rainbow of colours in a matte texture. I managed to have it where the colours were fainter, nicely blended and on the edge of the eye from wherever you looked at them, but it still didn’t look correct, so I just opted for a shiny black to finish.