Level Design Workflow/ Pipeline
I and going to be starting my 3rd year of games desing at university next year and decided to get some practise in over the summer. I will be creating 3 levels in unreal as part of a project and wanted to ask some opinions on my planned workflow. I've done some research and i think i may have something good here. Please feel free to point out my "mistakes" and give me some of your opinions.
Many thanks in advance, workflow bellow..........................
Level design workflow:
The following contains the workflow I will use for each environment.
- (RESEARCH) Find inspiration as well as reference images for the overall level/lighting/props ect.
- (CONCEPT) Top down rough design to work out how the level plan will look
- (BLOCKING OUT) Blocking out in Unreal with BSP objects. Helps get the correct scale and positioning.
- (1st LIGHTING PASS) Create mood lighting as well as basic lighting of the overall level.
- (Modelling) Slowly introduce modelled assets.
- (2ND LIGHTING PASS) Tweak lighting to suit new level as more complicated object will be present.
- (ADVANCE MODELLING) Unwrapping final assets and finalizing their positions.
- (TEXTURING) Texture the assets in the environment either with unique “Hero prop” techniques or with tillable/ master materials/ vertex painting.
- (EFFECTS PASS) Adding in specific particle, flares, ect.
- (FINAL TWEAKS) Inspecting final lighting as well as textures making small adjustments.
Detailed workflow
RESEARCH
- Establish a Location/ Theme and Setting, conduct research on the final choice in a broad scope. (Right down to the trees in the area)
- Find main reference images for overall level, included but not limited to: Landscape images, Prop Images, Lighting Reference, Colour Reference, and Inspiration Images.
CONCEPT
- 1ST Draft top down concept, this will be used to help plan ahead so I have some sort of idea of what I want to create when I open up the engine.
- 2nd more refined design, created in Photoshop. This will take into account more details scale as well as misc props. This will act as my base plan
BLOCKING OUT
- Translate the top down design in the engine as best available using BSP objects.
- Fix problems that will occur. Scale, placements as well as tweaks
- Place objects that represent more complex shapes, mountains, rocks ect
1ST LIGHT PASS
- Set the basic ambient lighting for the scene with the directional light
- Add in secondary lights that will be used to set the scene (Flame lights ect)
MODELLING
- Creating Low poly models to replace the blocking out BSP’s
- Fix position errors
- Start adding more miscellaneous details, medium to small props.
2ND LIGHT PASS
- Re adjust lighting if necessary (due to new props, which may have transparent/ translucent properties)
ADVANCE MODELLING
- Create higher fidelity models baking down the normal maps and adding the new geometry to the level
- Adding in all props at this point
TEXTURING
- Create tillable textures
- Creature “Hero Prop” textures
- Assign them to materials in engine and apply to environment.
EFFECTS PASS
- Insert particles that will enhance the atmosphere of the level, fire, snow, emitter objects for example.
FINAL TWEAKS
- Re adjust prop positions
- Re adjust lighting
- Fix texture issues
- Misc tweaking
Replies
As for your workflow, it's looking good. Only thing is lighting and post process is usualy the last step that goes into a level. You can put in some temporary lighting that helps you to see what you're doing but keep it neutral. Avoid extreme lighting conditions while you're still working on the assets or you will feel tempted to tweak things in the textures/materials that actualy should be tweaked in lighting and post process. If you're still hellbent on adding lighting early then make at least a test box with neutral lighting for your assets.