End of Studio 1

Tomorrow is the due date for the project and we have something we are proud to present. It is not all that we wanted it to be, but it is still a great project.
We cut the Capture the Flag aspect of the map since there really was no reason for it. We cut the environmental interaction down to minimum because we ended up not having enough time.
We got the shader working, hand painted textures, modular houses and plenty of unique assets and buildings. As of the writing of this, the only thing needed to do is complete the set dressing and burning the DVD. Time permitting, there will be an update with an image of our level completed.

In game

Here are some images of how the models and textures look in game. The lighting is not the one used in the actual level.

I like how my textures look with the post processing material. The modularity of the houses can be improved. That being said, how they look now remind of the cardboard buildings Andy would play with in Toy Story, which to me, is awesome.

One weekend left to get all the textures and models into UDK, set dressing the hell out of the level, and creating promotional videos. Easy.
Meanwhile, here are some models with their textures on. These are the Power Plant and the Jail, respectively.

Power Plant

Here are the textures for the Power Plant building.

Update in textures, focus.

So after some discussion with the professor, Matt brought up the fact that he would rather have this map be a Death Match map instead of a capture the flag map. The reason is that, in a CTF map, players stick to specific routes and focus on getting the flags. In a DM map, players move freely around the environment. This allows for exploration of the level and then players get to see, or at least walk around all the assets and work we put into the level. So officially, this has become entirely about looks, which means we need great textures and a whole damn lot of excellent set dressing. And speaking of textures, here are some more.

GO TO MATT'S BLOG NOW!

Why are you still here? I clearly told you to go check MATT'S BLOG! He totally got the post processing material working. Still, I must work on appropriate textures to go with that material. So here are a few examples of looks.

Paint/brush texture

Cracks on walls (Entrance building)

Simulated Toon lines

The original texture can been seen in the previews post. All that remains is to plug them into Unreal and see how they match with the material.

Textures

We still dont have the post-processing material that we need for the cel-shaded effect, so we are taking a plan B approach and doing hand painted textures on the buildings.

UVs

Here are some UVs finished. These are for the Church.

Midterm Reviews

So we just had midterm reviews and we are technically on schedule, but facing the wrong direction. Let me explain.

In our schedule, we set as a goal to have the level doc, art bible and style guide ready by midterms; and the level doc was not ready. Also Matt had to reinstall Windows on his computer and forgot to back up his udk files, which means we lost the boiler explosion and mock-up level. We still do have the boiler models, so the explosion sequence is no problem to get back. The level, however, must be re-made and presented on Thursday. Both the Level Doc and mock up were Matt's responsibility, but now I have taken over the Doc so that he can focus on making the mock-up and fine tuning for its first play test next week. Originally, textures for unique buildings were supposed to be done by next week, but they will be pushed back and the playable level goal will be pushed up in its place. This gives me more time to work on UVs and textures and make any corrections to map scale or lay out.

On other news, the Church model is now UVed. The House modules will soon be done too and last  I knew before this post, Matt was almost done with the Power Plant UVs. The Factory, Town Hall and Jail still need to be UVed.

We might also might have found our holy grail in a freshman that kicks ass as an artist in modeling, texturing and scripting in Unreal. He just so happens to have created a post processing material that is very much exactly what we need and have been trying to achieve. Matt is talking to him to reach a collaboration agreement. Check out his portfolio "here" (later, not now, because it is not a link yet).

Factory

Going on with modeling, here is the Factory building for our level. It needs more detail, but I like how it looks so far. Comments and suggestions, please, dont be shy. Also, don't forget to keep checking Matt's blog.

Factory, with dude for size reference.

More Concepts

Here are two more concepts I drew for buildings. The factory is a unique building. The house is an example made up of modules.

Factory

House example

Modeling

Midterm reviews are quick approaching and things must be done so they can get presented. We are currently working double time on models to get them into the Unreal engine and see if they need modifications.

For the houses that will populate the majority of the town we are going with modular assets to mix and match and create a diverse town while saving time. Here are most of the modules I have done for that. They are separated in first floor, single story and second floor assets. So far it's only walls and windows, but soon doors will be part of this all.

Also, through the magic of collaboration, a good friend of mine has given us permission to use some of her assets from her animation. Her name is Natalia Mercado and you can see her work here. She very graciously gave us a time machine with plenty of gears that are already UV'd, which saves us valuable time. 

Natalia Mercado copyright.

Art art art

This project used to count with the incredible art skills of one Wirt Salthouse. Sadly, that is no longer the case as he has had to prioritize other jobs. Concept art for some buildings is still needed so I'm taking on the position of concept artist from now on. So far I have 3 more buildings done: Town Hall, Armory and Power Plant. Images of the last two can be seen below, while the former will be added once I find a larger scanner.

Armory 

Power Plant

Art Direction

So with some models completed I went ahead and tried some concept for what we intend our level to look like. Painted in photoshop over ambien occlusions of the church and the jail. Comments, opinions and suggestions are welcome, as always.

Model by Matt Williams

Model by me

Click on the images to see full size. 

Documentation

This weekend I was sick, had a cyst in my eye and was an extra on a film in the middle of the wilderness surrounded by spiders the size of a small dog. But that has nothing to do with this post.

Modeling was placed on the back burner for the week so that I could work on the Art Bible and Style sheet for the project. I gathered all my references for architecture, lighting and details and placed them face first on a word doc. Yeah, take it. 

The hardest part has been deciding the lighting palette. The lighting is based on a sunset, but the intensity has not been quite decided yet. The environment is pretty much orange and red, so a red sunset would intensify the monochromatic scale and help unify other colors. However, a bluer sky, a later time in which the sun has almost set completely but the night sky is not quite there yet, allows for a cooler dominant light and secondary light sources are more visible. 

We are probably going for the red lights because they are much more dramatic. Updates coming soon. 

Sunday Update

Good news, everyone! Through our power's combined, we have achieved a cel shader that is all kinds of awesome. Pictures of that will come later and you can probably catch them first in Matt's blog. 

More good news, everyone! I have begun importing models from Maya into the UDK and the scale of the buildings seems correct. The simple ramp shader I had tested also works fine on the models. However, some faces appear invisible in the UDK, so that still needs work. This probably means some remodeling needs to be done. Also, none, and I mean NONE of my Maya models have centered pivots nor are they at the origin point, so I have been correcting that. Pictures and images to come. 

Cel Shading

I have said that I want the final product to be done in cel shading. In Maya, this is a very easy thing to do, in Unreal, not so much. Matt and I looked at various tutorials on the internet and none proved to be very useful. The best one we got was on how to get the Team Fortress 2 shader. However, I was relentless and, in an incredible struck of luck, actually looked through a text book from one of my classes, Mastering the Unreal Engine vol 2. There is almost an entire chapter on how to make a toon shader in the UDK.

So never having done any materials in UDK before, here I post the results of my experiment.

Not too shabby, eh? Ok, now I must get to modeling. Check out Matt's blog to see his example trap here.


MATT'S BLOG

Forward

So if you haven't checked out Matt's blog already, you should. You can find a link to it at the bottom of all my posts from now on.

Moving along with the project at hand, here are some images from models I created for this project during the summer. Granted, the project was not this one exactly, but it served to establish the theme and context for it.  Concept art for my project was done by Wirt Salthouse.

All models were done in Maya 2010 with a Ramp Shader and Toon Line. Without the Toon Line the models get a painterly effect that I also like. We will try to incorporate a shader like this to our level in Unreal.


MATT'S BLOG

Dangerous Environments

I haven't pitched my ideas for projects to the class yet, but it has pretty much been decided that I will be working with a friend on a collaborative project. I will be in charge of most the artistic parts, mood and set dressing and the sort, while he takes care of the more technical aspects such as Unreal. This doesn't mean we will work exclusively in those areas, but that those will be our focus areas. You can follow him in mwilli28.blogspot.com. He has uploaded some images of work we did over the summer in preparation for this project.

Our plan is to make a small scale multiplayer map. Currently it is supposed to be a Capture the Flag style map. Some suggestions were made to lessen the use of weapons and make so that players have to use the environment to attack each other. I fully support this idea and after discussing it with Matt it appears that making destructible environments in Unreal is not that complicated. I would love to have a final level of which a high percentage is fully destructible.

And so it begins...

I firmly believe the Mexican Revolution could only be made cooler if it had run on Steampunk technology. I have been thinking this for a while but have been largely unable to do anything about it. Today, I have still not found a way to travel back in time, but I do have an alternative that will satisfy the need for the world to find out how a Mexican Steampunk town would have been.

I'm Andy and I am a World Designer. For those of you eluded by the obvious this means I design worlds. Not in real life, mind you, but for games. I have long opposed keeping a blog, but this one will serve to document the process of the project at hand. Ideally, the end result would be a playable level powered by the Unreal Engine (R), but we will see how this goes.