Mass Effect 3 art - Marc-Antoine Hamelin
polycounter lvl 12
Hi everyone,
So I finally got around to update my portfolio and add the final stuff I did on Mass Effect before I left Bioware.
The Element Zero mines level that you see below was all done by myself, which includes modeling/textures/lighting/optimization/debug.
I'm pretty happy with the final result, especially for the size of the map and the time we had to work on the pack. Unfortunately, Omega flew a little under the radar, while Citadel was very well received.
About 90% of the meshes were textured using only one 2048x1024 texture to optimize the memory; in this case to get more memory for light maps. In the end, the palette ended up being used throughout the rest of the Omega maps, which were done by the rest of my fellow level artists Mark Linington, Fran
So I finally got around to update my portfolio and add the final stuff I did on Mass Effect before I left Bioware.
The Element Zero mines level that you see below was all done by myself, which includes modeling/textures/lighting/optimization/debug.
I'm pretty happy with the final result, especially for the size of the map and the time we had to work on the pack. Unfortunately, Omega flew a little under the radar, while Citadel was very well received.
About 90% of the meshes were textured using only one 2048x1024 texture to optimize the memory; in this case to get more memory for light maps. In the end, the palette ended up being used throughout the rest of the Omega maps, which were done by the rest of my fellow level artists Mark Linington, Fran
Replies
You can visit my portfolio to see some of my older work as well!
Thanks for sharing!
I'm impressed that you managed to get away with using just one 2048 for a lot of your assets.
As an example how long did it takes to complete these environments were you alone on all of these?
^^^ makes me want to play mass effects coop again!
some awesome work dude!!
Thanks for the kind words!
rockstar6
Thanks! I'd also say that the Omega map is my favourite as well. Visually it's a lot more interesting, since it's pretty much the only map out of all the ones I worked on that is set indoors with artificial lighting and had the most opportunities to create cool lighting setups and establishing shots.
Mistry10
Yeah, it's pretty efficient. I'll try to see if I can't dig up the texture, even though it's nothing mindblowing.
I doubt that using such a technique will make the next-gen transition so well, but it was a great way to create maps really fast without having to create a high resolution mesh every time and that you had to bake afterwards.
I really liked this method of working, 1. because it allows you to work on more than one maps for the project, and 2. because by themselves the meshes are pretty simple, so it kind of makes you think more of the shapes, the composition, the lighting, etc.
Basically it lets you think of the map as a whole, and less about every individual pieces. Also, our turnaround for Mass Effect 3 and Omega had to be pretty damn fast, so we couldn't afford to model everything in high res.
Zarakun
Thanks! Yes, I was alone on these maps. I can't recall exactly, but it was about 3-5 months total for each maps, which included grey boxing/modeling/textures/lighting/polish/debug.
Pretty much every map in Mass Effect (with some exceptions) were all tackled by one environment artist that would see it completed throughout production. I was lucky to work with an extremely talented team; each level artists were equally well versed in modeling, texturing, and lighting.
SA_22, ae.
Thank you!
NickGW
Thanks for the kind words! Sanctuary was a level done in Montr
Thanks!
Mistry10
Ok, so this is how we made it.
First I create a trim mesh in 3ds Max.
Then I bake the result in normal map, then I create the diffuse texture. The third part is a mix of 3 different masks.
The red channel I used as a cubemap mask/spec mask.
The green channel was used for emissive in order to consolidate the number of materials on modules that needed to have lights attached to them (again, with a checkbox in the custom shader). That way, we reduced the number of draw calls on modules which repeat a lot (it's a really huge map with a really long view distance/playable area...).
I used the blue channel as another cubemap mask, and also to be able to tint the texture with a checkbox in a custom shader I made for the map.
Once these are done, I textured all the modules and created a "palette" with the resulting trim material:
Cheers!
But I have to ask....Everything was constructed with tileable textures? There were no High poly models baked down? Especially in the last picture you posted of the grayish corridor. That is all constructed from tileable trim textures?
Thanks for any info!
Cheers.
The breakdown is pretty cool too.
It makes me want to play again...
Thanks for sharing
Great work man
Very inspiring, thank you very much for sharing your work .