WIP#1 - Research, reference and blockout

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking my post, I am currently attending CGMA's UE4 Modular Environment course taught by Clinton Crumpler and I decide to write a series of blog of my weekly update for this project.

It's a 10 week course and it is mainly focused on developing a game environment by using modular parts in Maya and UE4, and I decided to choose an abandoned bar environment to work on. Our first week of the course is mostly about gathering and analysing references, scheduling and planning the project, and creating blockout with an industry standard modular workflow.

Reference:

I don't have a particular concept to follow, it's mostly a collage of different reference images. 

Blockout:

To start with, I quickly blockout the wall in Maya, without making it modular first, just to plan my interior space. Then I built very simple blockout of my main furniture modular pieces and throw them in it to adjust the space. Then in photoshop I did a quick sketch on it to divide my modular pieces. The goal is to use as few modular pieces as possible to build your space.

After I finalise the size of all my modular piece, I moved to Maya and start building my modular meshes with more details. It's still ok to amend the shapes at this stage if you found some errors when building them.

This is what I have in Maya at the time, the silhouette of your modular should be as close as your final pieces as possible. They should have a good pivot point on the grid, and every modular should nicely snapped to each other when you assemble them.

What's next?

For week02 of our course, the assignment will be properly setting up and assembling our modular piece in Unreal in an efficient manner. And I will start detail planning the texture I will be using for both tileable and unique ones, and same time keep developing my mesh.

Thanks for checking out my work and feel free to let me know your opinions about it so I can improve them in the future! 

Or check out more detailed post on my ArtStation blog: https://www.artstation.com/hsclaratan/blog

See you next week!

WIP#3 - Abandoned Hotel Bar - Texturing tile-able, trim sheet and unique assets

Trim sheet texture:

I finished the texture for my trim sheet, I haven't test it in unreal yet so there might be slight twist later on, but overall I think I finalised all the materials for each trim and how I want the color arrangement to be, you might notice my wood material here is relatively 'cleaner' here, this is because I'm going to use it in a large area of my modular pieces and too much dirt/damage look will mess up with its 'tile-ability'. So for the damage I will use decal/blend material to achieve that later on.

I improved my wooden panel mesh since last time and modeled more edges to emphasis that wood feel, also put different color id on the horizontal and vertical panel, by doing so I can better manipulate the directions of the wood grain during the texturing process. 

Unique mesh baking:

I've had my high poly unique meshes last time, so this week I just finalised my low poly version and bake them properly.

I bake the texture maps from my high poly mesh using Marmoset toolbag, it gives you better baking result than substance painter, I use this technique where you explode your meshes for better baking result, this helps me get rid of the normal map projection issue and give you a clean bake.

Basically by setting up two key frames in Maya and export the exploded version when baking, and you can always slide it back to original position when export the whole mesh into unreal later on.

I used this trick on mostly of my assets baking and it all baked successfully without any error.

  

Texturing:

For the texturing, I set up some smart materials for me to use on trim sheet and most of my assets, so I can make sure they will have a more harmonized look. 

For the edge of my table, I decided to treat it as a hybrid texture and use the metal part of my trim sheet. 

Some previews in Marmoset: 

I have three types of lamps in my scene, they shared the same style so to create them more efficiently, I break them down into different unique parts where they don't look the same and only modelled, texture those parts. Then assemble them in the end like I did with my tables and chairs.

So basically those three lamps are using only one texture maps, this will save lots of draw calls in unreal, and also much easier to texture them.

For the metal part I used the same smart materials for the tables, and reduce the dirt level a bit to avoid repetition. I tried to create the lampshade with a classy buttermilk glass look without using transparency, I used the fiberglass material in substance painter, modified the color gradient and roughness level to get the look I want. 

Tile-able textures:

I was trying to create as much as tile-able materials I can, and I wanted to use this opportunity to practice my material creation skills, so I didn't use any textures from megascan and I've made all my tiling material from scratch inside substance designer.

I've finished with my floor and ceiling tiles, and plaster ceiling material, still have a green plaster wall material to do. But overall I'm more comfortable now creating texture in substance designer.

I didn't have time to test them properly inside unreal, but I'm planning to do this next week soon and also will learn how to transfer the exposed parameter inside engine to control the result more efficiently.

Also I will need to make another set of them to have a damaged and broken look, and use that to blend with my first set. So you might notice that they look quite clean compare to my chairs and tables.

What's next

My next stage is to bring all the updated assets and textures into unreal and test them properly, and also apply my trim sheet texture to my modular pieces, will also be my first time so that should be fun!

Thanks for checking my blog and if you have any feedback please feel free to leave me any comments

See you later!

You can also view more detailed update on my art station blog: 

My Artstation:  artstation.com/hsclaratan

WIP#2 - Basic setup in UE4, trim sheet and unique texture

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my second update of the project

Blockout Set Up in UE4:

Trim sheet:

After finishing setting up the blockout in unreal, I started planning my trim sheet. I used my Asset list I've created in the first week and divided my textures into trims, tile-able, unique, and hybrid textures. And then mark them up in my scene.

To build my trims, I first used photoshop 10x10 grid guide layout to divide them up, then export it into Maya, turn on the same 10x10 grid, and start building up each trim mesh on top of my reference image.

After I have the general blockout of my trim sheet mesh, I did some tests on my assets before polish them just to see how they will work on actually models. For example when I applied the wooden panel trim on my the outside part of my bar counter models, with the normal map it still looks quite flat so I know I need to extrude that part of the mesh to give it more shape later on.

Besides that, my task next week for the trim sheet will be bringing it to ZBrush and add more ornament details using alpha brush, and sculpt some wear and damages onto it. 

A little preview of my work in progress trim sheet this week.

High-poly mesh for unique assets:

In the meantime I keep updating my timeline and to do list just to get organised.

What's next?

For the next week, I'll keep polishing my trim sheet, after I finalise it I'll bake it properly and do more test on my other modular assets. In the meantime I'll do the ZBrush pass on my unique meshes, and after that start to optimise them into low-poly meshes, setup uv and bake them in Marmoset.

Again, thanks for reading my blog and feel free to let me know your opinions about my work so I can improve them in the future! See you next week!

You can also view more detailed update on my art station blog: 

My Artstation:  artstation.com/hsclaratan