Big Game Project: Fourth week

Here is a screen-shot of a few entities I have created so far. I have come to a point where I can safely tell more in depth of my work as I am more secure about how I do things and I feel that I have enough quality in everything. I’ll tell a bit about my work process and more in depth of how Unreal Engine works and other programs that I use.

 

Photoshop

I Mainly use Photoshop as a tool to create all the 2D graphics for our game Temple of Light, I occasionally create concept art for our 3D artists so that they have something to follow. But this week I have mainly created more materials for meshes and more tile-able textures. My work process is quite simple, First I consult with my superior to see if there is anything in particular he wants in a material. After I have gotten some direction I start to make the details. I usually start with the color of the mesh or material, mainly I keep it simple to see if everything aligns on the mesh in Unreal Engine 4, if it does I know for sure that I can continue. After that I continue with making the Normal map, I usually use Crazybump to make my Normals. At this point I start with making a gray scaled drawing in Photoshop, the whites makes the high points for the Normal while the darker ones makes cavities in it. This understanding makes it easy to paint in Photoshop to make a Normal later on in Crazybump. The image below shows a complete example of how my height planning looks before it has been brought into Crazybump.

CrazyBump

From Crazybump I can get a normal out of my Height map which I created in Photoshop. The Normal map is the main file I usually get from Crazybump, I rarely collect other maps such as Diffuse, Specular, Occlusion or Displacement maps. There is rarely a use for them for me as we don’t need them, but I do take them if I get an idea of how I can use a particular map, example-wise I might use any map from Crazybump to improve my diffuse map to get out more details. I tend to go back to Crazybump several times over to create different details on my Normal map. You can combine several Normals in Photoshop by using overlay in layers. You can see on the picture underneath what Crazybump looks like.

Unreal Engine 4

As you may see Unreal Engine 4 takes care of lighting very well, as on this picture I have only applied a Metallic, Roughness and a Normal map. Under all of them is a very plain and simple diffuse map.

See picture below for comparison.

This Image is in unlit mode, which means no details at all is shown. It turns off Normals, Roughness and Metallics, it only shows the Diffuse map.

Normals is not anything new, while on the other hand Roughness and Metallics are. Unreal Engine 4 have replaced Specular maps with these two instead, Unreal Engine 4 can still handle Specular maps but these maps work in a better way, they reflect and bounce lighting from other materials and meshes while a Specular map only makes out which part should be light and dark.

Roughness and Metallic maps are quite simple in how they work, they are only formed up with a gray-scale. The more white they are the more rough or metallic it will get and the more black it is the less metallic or Rough it will be.

I use Specular maps on rare occasions now as before I didn’t know how to work with metallics or Roughness maps. But with practice I am learning how to make them faster and understand them better. So going from only using a specular map now I have to focus on making two more instead, but it does pay of as the result is much more pleasing. As I said I rarely use specular maps, but I did find a use for them and that is making black holes in materials, now if they might need them just as the firetrap on the first picture of this post.

To wrap this week up Everything seems to go fine, just a little bit hectic with finishing texturing on such a small time with so many details going into everything. But I will manage to cmplete everything that I have to do, I will just have to keep on working day and night.

Big Game Project: Third week

Yes, the third week have passed and everything seems to go fine, a little bit less of a productive week since it is like a long weekend because of the easter. I kept on working with the usual stuff and everything seems to check out.

 

Though I stayed and worked a bit more during the easter and I created a character build with a CAT rig in 3ds Max with and a simple base mesh with it. I exported it to Motionbuilder and tried out some simple animations which was ok.  when I imported it to Unreal engine 4 it for some reason didn’t have the mesh linked to the skeleton and when you bring it out in a scene the characters body parts flies all over the place. I will have to consult with someone to help me with this as it is a serious problem. I did this to see if we can use this pipeline method.

 

Me and Joakim then started to instead working with sounds as the animations will have to be at a hold for now. we started to plan for what we would need, test recording and test to create some sounds. Everything went great, there are just a few question marks on some sounds of how we are going to go about and create those sounds, but eventually we will probably be able to achieve some interesting sounds.

Big Game Project: Second week

The project goes on but not without problems or complications but it gets solved one way or another. The learning process is slow, and so is the production for the graphics, hopefully though it will pay off in the end.

 

We have play tested our game, and we have a working prototype. Now we only have to aim for to complete everything that is supposed to be ready for the Alpha.

 

I have created more materials, learned how to refine them and tile them correctly in Unreal Engine 4. I have also started to create a a bunch of concepts that the 3D artists will use as a guide towards creating the meshes. I will later on make the textures for them when the meshes are done and I don’t have anything much more urgent to complete, such as more concepts.

Big Game Project: First week

This is my first entry, these following weeks I will do my work and then reflect upon it. I will also include in this first entry of what our game is about.

Our game is a puzzle game which is based on mirrors reflecting light from a source to a destination. It all takes place in a temple which is in the desert.

 

I had a slow start, I had to wait for about two days before I could start working, this happened mainly because we didn’t have any real concept or anything of a real guideline for that matter either. I couldn’t just start creating textures when I don’t know what it should look like.

 

Anyway, when I did get the chance to start working I kept on working so much that I almost forgot about the time. Most days i stayed until it was 11:00 pm. I even forgot how much time I actually really spent on each asset. So I found it difficult to figure out how I was going to note down the correct amount of time on the Scrum. I will try to address this by keeping an eye out on the clock a bit more.

 

The things I create are Materials in Unreal Engine 4. By creating them I must learn how to create the Materials we want, the process goes like this: First I create textures in Photoshop CS6, then I import them into Unreal Engine 4, create the materials with those textures. Some Materials can be made straight from within Unreal Engine 4, but for me to be able to do that I will have to learn it. Later on we will use these materials to sort of like paint the levels, we will be able to simply drag and drop the materials to surfaces and then even blend Materials over each other. This is also something I will have to learn as I am quite new at this.