[UE4] How to train your dragon : Viking Cliff House
polycounter lvl 10
Hi there Polycounters 
Having finished my last portfolio piece, I'm going to tackle something a bit bigger this time :
My aim on this one, is to approach the concept with a more realistic style, going for less saturated colors, and why not, some of the ambiance you can find in Vikings (TV show).
I'm going to use : Maya, Zbrush, Xnormal, UE4, Substance Painter & designer, maybe Topogun and Crazy Bump.
I'll regularly post news and screens as I progress in the making of that scene.
So, first and foremost, here's the breakdown of the environment :
I'll be working on the polycount hangout most days (European time), don't hesitate to pass by and say Hi !
See you next update ~
Having finished my last portfolio piece, I'm going to tackle something a bit bigger this time :
My aim on this one, is to approach the concept with a more realistic style, going for less saturated colors, and why not, some of the ambiance you can find in Vikings (TV show).
I'm going to use : Maya, Zbrush, Xnormal, UE4, Substance Painter & designer, maybe Topogun and Crazy Bump.
I'll regularly post news and screens as I progress in the making of that scene.
So, first and foremost, here's the breakdown of the environment :
Main Items
Wood
Wood planks and moss
Cliff Rawks
More rocks, with Guano, yum yum !
I'll be working on the polycount hangout most days (European time), don't hesitate to pass by and say Hi !
See you next update ~
Replies
Work Time : 4 Hours
So, I got a little bit of time tonight to give the blockout a shot. I first wanted to give the Drakkar hull a bit of work so I could get it's proportions (kinda) right before nailing the rest of the scene quickly.
This is what it gives after 4 hours of placing boxes around
(I think I'll set a "image heavy" disclaimer on that topic...
Work Time : ~7 Hours
Yesterday and today have been a bit special. First, I finished blocking out the scene, caring a good deal on the main volumes. I'm pretty close to it now.
Then, I Tried to figure out some workflow to get the job done faster on these very repetitive wood slabs there's in this scene.
This is what I am going for (with repetitive objects) :
- Loosely sculpt the item to give some interesting normals
- Slam a tiled texture onto the model in substance designer.
- Add some details and some weathering effects (this is the part where I'm still wondering. I wonder if I should add these post Substance designer or not. If I do, I could vertex paint some details in engine, such as moss or guano.)
Since Substance Designer's Workflow is non destructive, I only have to change the detail normal of the specific Item I'm making to "texture" a new object. I guess I'll get more in depth in the next update.
Here's what I've got so far :
Cheers ! See you in a couple of days
Alright ! Time for a little update.
It's been a hell of a couple of weeks, didn't have much time to work. During my free time, I started working on a Maya that automates the Pre bake steps such as :
-Triangulating low poly
-Applying smoothing groups
-Creating the cage
-Apply a cage material
-Putting all the meshes into nice, neat groups
If you're interested by the script, just ask me, I'll drop a link to it.
I've also been working on the shields. I decided to take a procedural approach with substance designer. This is how I did it :
I modeled 4 types of shields (4 wooden part, 2 trims, 4 metal thingies on top).
Textured everything with substance designer and exposed a few options to change the crest automatically, the different colors, the opacity, the paint peeling and the wood underneath.
Here's the result
All these shields are 1 substance, there's 10 crests available, and all the colors of the rainbow