Exedre project - Machines, glitches and lot of GIFs
greentooth
Hello ! 
I'm currently working on a little UE4 project where I'm doing various things (VFX, modeling or even animation). It's mostly a demo, I will see if it evolves into something more one day. My current codename is "Exedre".
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One of my goal was to create a convincing terminal/console where the user can type commands and get a feedback. Of course, since my project is about old machines/computers, I wasn't able to resist the urge to add glitches ! This is fully real-time with some custom shaders and render target textures. First time working with accumulation buffers too.
Funny thing is that I use caustic textures to create some of the glitches.
Funny thing is that I use caustic textures to create some of the glitches.
Here is a little video of my current console :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl-GbFYpZU0Some still images :
Some earlier test, where I just started implementing the accumulation buffer and started getting my glitches :
Now that I have a functional console, I'm working on the in-game asset that will use it. I'm still iterating on the design and looking for shapes at the moment.
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I also started looking into holograms. Not sure exactly what I want, but by trying to implement some ideas I found new effects. So I'm mostly experimenting at the moment. The lines were tricky to get right because I use vertex deformation in the shader and without the right UVs and polycount I wasn't getting the deformation I wanted. I'm also trying to find a way to fight against the Temporal AA which kills a bit the quality of the holograms.
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Everything was textured in Substance Painter 2, but I plan to retake a few bits later. I will move forward to some more interaction with the console itself.
One is for printing the text, one for drawing the material that combine the old buffer and the new text buffer, and the last one is the "old" information. Rince and repeat.
I'm still iterating on the materials and the overall mood :
The goal is plastic indeed. For the modeling I wanted an hybrid between futuristic things and retro computers. Not sure if I was able to achieve that, but I'm open to critics.
I used the Maya text tool to produce flat letter (planes) indeed. However I had to rework them by hand to clean them and produce quads, they were full of nasty N-Gons. Once this was done I extruded them, added some loops and produced what you see in the end. It wasn't as long as I thought. It took me 3/4 hours to do the full keyboard (including special characters).
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I'm still working on this project, at a slow pace unfortunately. I had my hands on some other things lately.
Now that I consider the computer "done" I'm working toward the center of the room when I plane to display the hologram and more. Today I experimented with some new holograms :
I'm also working on a robot arm that will be used multiple times for an animated sequence :
I love these kind of effects! Looks promising Froyok. Please do share more when you're making progress.
Any chance to get some kind of breakdown of these awesome hologram effects?
It's hard to say. At the moment I focus on the development of the scene. I don't know yet how I will release the project. Either via partial tutorials or all the assets at once.
Meanwhile I'm trying out some ideas for the room. I'm not satisfied yet about it :
My latest iteration looks like this :
I will texture the mechanical arm this weekend (and will stream it on Twitch over here : ). So meanwhile I will do the rigging so I can start to animate it a bit.
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On an other note, here are some old gifs for when I was developing the terminal glitches and my holograms, I thought you guys might find that interesting :
The only thing I can really suggest in terms of the room layout is the Arms - They look to me like they're supposed to be moving the tube with the lady in it, but because they're so far away and directly opposite each other, I can't quite decide where they're supposed to move it to?
Anyway I love it and I look forward to seeing the progress
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Some other VFX iterations I did for the full body that you can see above :
Also some "loading bar" tests which gave me this (which I don't know yet how I will use) :
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Thank you for the comment !
As for the mechanical arm, I don't plan to use it to manipulate the stasis chamber or the character, but more for handling other mechanical things. (I keep a bit of secret of the exact details.
Thanks for sharing.
On the lower part on the left you have normal map issue with screws.
Here is solution: http://polycount.com/discussion/147227/skew-you-buddy-making-sense-of-skewed-normal-map-details/p1
btw model looks pretty good
Keep going!
Again, thanks for the comments !
For the "water", I wanted to use the native UE4 refraction but ended-up creating a custom unlit shader and sampling manually the scene-color to do what I wanted. In the end I perform three refraction at the same time. I have also a mesh around as the glass.
Ho, I also started adding some custom post-effects (maybe too much... I can't help it haha... ).
I explained the basic concept here : http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2492387/#Comment_2492387
(Initial test in Substance Painter, still fully painted - I didn't bake any details )
(In UE4, doing some lighting tests)
(Still UE4, added the missing eyes)
Step by step of the layers for the face :
I quite like it this way, so I will probably stick with it. I'm currently reworking my rigging tools for Maya to improve the rig for this character, so I should be able to get back on the armor I started working a long time ago. The goal is to have a full armor that can do this kind of things :
(This is a prototype animation here, so no skinning)
I still struggle with this design because of the human body, we are able to do some weird stuff with our shoulders and legs. So I'm stuck a bit on how I could handle easily the pelvis with something mechanical like this.
Thank you !