Academy of Art GAM 360 WIP Thread
Hey Polycounters,
I'm currently teaching a course at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. As part of the course, students will be posting WIP images of their scenes to gather feedback. Each of them will start by picking out an approved concept they want to complete during the 15 week course.
The purpose of the course is to have students develop a full environment inside of Unreal Engine 4, from block out to final production. I'll be going over various topics on organic and hard surface modeling, as well as conceptual theory that goes into building an environment.
I'll let each of them introduce themselves here along with their concept and why they picked it. After that, they'll be updating twice a week with screenshots of their work.
I'm super excited to see what they accomplish over the semester! Thanks for watching.
I'm currently teaching a course at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. As part of the course, students will be posting WIP images of their scenes to gather feedback. Each of them will start by picking out an approved concept they want to complete during the 15 week course.
The purpose of the course is to have students develop a full environment inside of Unreal Engine 4, from block out to final production. I'll be going over various topics on organic and hard surface modeling, as well as conceptual theory that goes into building an environment.
I'll let each of them introduce themselves here along with their concept and why they picked it. After that, they'll be updating twice a week with screenshots of their work.
I'm super excited to see what they accomplish over the semester! Thanks for watching.
Replies
Hey Rachael! Conceptually I like the layout, but the scale seems a little.. strange? I don't know what reference you're working off of, but to me the room/barn seems a bit narrow. Can't wait to see how it turns out though! I'm already imagining cracks of light pouring between wood boards and hitting on old dusty stacks of games.
Also, if you haven't yet exported the UE4 mannequin from the starter content, you should. Importing it into Maya/3DS is going to help with discovering any proportion/scaling issues before import.
Do they use covers for the machines? Do they keep extra cords? If so, where? I assume some things might be boxed up?
You might have already answered those questions and just haven't made the models for them yet, which is completely okay. Just overall think about not only what is going on at that very moment in the scene, but also what happens before and after. Thinking about that will help you fill in some more variety and story to the scene.
this is the thread
I'm thinking about making a girl's video gaming room.
Omar Naranjo here,
I went quite light on the block out only to get a sense of where the bigger objects would go in my scene, there is space to place a car, I will place the car partially covered for added interest but the main focus will be on the work bench. It will contain an assortment of tools and as well as a supercharger and gaskets. there are two doors, as well as the large garage door(this will have a swinging mechanism). also next to the work bench there is a welding station with a make shift exhaust vent. Lastly there is a shelf that will contain other objects and an exhaust system to the right.
This is blocking screenshots of Girl's video gaming room. I want to make compact scene with many detailed assets, so I chose this narrow interior concept.
My hero assets will be the desk and the objects on the desk.
This week, the students are breaking their blockouts into simple, modular pieces and props, and then bringing those into Unreal and placing them. They're also starting to do the high poly model of their "Hero" asset for the scene. This asset represents the focal point of the whole scene. I'm excited to see what the students choose as the hero piece!
Hi again, Omar here, Im really glad to see everyone so exited about this thread. I got my block out in Unreal and went ahead and thought I would play with the lighting and rough out the mood I want to go for. I would still like more contrast in some areas but its still early on and once I add in more props I think I will hone the mood im going for.
One thing that's not super clear right now is the white light source on the floor is coming from?
I'd suggest you bring your car into the scene as soon as possible too. Can't wait to see where it goes next!
This is my in progress bedroom blockout in Unreal Engine
@Forceless_Luke Starting really interesting, I think this one is very original and can be a blast to work in to. Good luck!
And here is my first few modular pieces imported into UE with a couple directional lights thrown in for good fun. I think this sort of dramatic, through the cracks dawn lighting will look really great in the end with a few interior lights as well coming from the machines.
EDIT: Progress blockout
EDIT 2.0: The Arcade Machine Untextured
Here is my blockout in Unreal with some lighting.
Like the block out so far! I definitely think you should look into using the Unreal terrain tool, but its good to get the basic slope blocked out in Maya first, import it, then build your terrain to match.
@rberk
Great start! I would suggest making a few different wood modules, as right now you can see a very obvious repeating pattern. Also, you might want to have less spacing and open sections so that it isn't uniformly uneven. Lastly, it looks like a good start on the arcade machine, but I would make sure it has realistic dimensions. It feels a bit off at the moment. You can probably find a blueprint or at least dimensions for an arcade cabinet online...or bring a small tape measure with you to an arcade near you to get exact measurements yourself. It's a good model for your blockout, but you'll want more detail for the actual low poly.
@Johnnyho90
Great start Johnny! You've got a good sense of scale, and the basic lighting is very helpful to start getting a sense of the mood of the scene. Once we start applying materials I can really see this coming to life! Don't forget to make some ceiling modules and think about that as well - I know it isn't included you in your original concept, so you'll need to come up with something. But it's a great start!
@MNguyen3DEnv
Really nice start! I think you've got an excellent sense of scale established and this will really help you going forward.
@Jay_Choi_Modeler
Great start! Thanks for showing the breakdown of your modules below as well! It looks like everything came into the editor well and I like the basic lighting you've started. I think in your scene, the most dramatic lighting would be to have everything lit by the TV and computer monitors.
Thank you all! Really excited to see where your work goes, and look forward to discussing it more in class tonight.
This is the second blockout in Unreal with more props.
lookin good!!
Now I'm working on the controller, and I'm not sure these are okay to do UV.
Is the lowpoly model is too low? I need your critics and suggestions.
the controller gonna be this big.
Its being awesome see how everyone progresses so far, very promising.
Hey Jay!
The controller looks great so far! I think your low poly for the controller might be a little too dense, in particular for the cylindrical handles. As sections of a cylinder become smaller, you can start collapsing some of your edge loops. However, this can sometimes make the object harder to unwrap. It all depends.
If the controller is your "hero prop" and you will be taking some very close up screenshots of it, then it's probably okay. Think about it from the player's perspective. If this is a first person game like Gone Home, and the character can pick up the controller and look at it, its okay to have your low poly be this dense. If this is a third person game and you are only seeing the controller from 20 feet away, it can be much lower. For example, all of the face buttons could be baked as part of your normal map and wouldn't need to be modeled.
Scale and what not appears to look good so far. Perhaps place a camera in Unreal and match it to your concept if you haven't already. I'm curious to what you'll do for the roofs of the structures. Your concept shows a tile, but optionally you could do thatch with scattered alpha planes like in Witcher (just my own personal preference). Also, the structures could be made with smaller modular pieces, similar to what Rachel did with her barn, that way you're not unwrapping and texturing an entire building.
A similar concept by Erik Van Helvoirt:
Here my highpoly and lowpoly main prop and is also uved. I have empty space in my uv layout, i'm not sure how to fill it out without messing with the texture ratio.
In terms of uvs, I dont know what rez or texel you are going to work on but I suggest doing a simmetry and try to get the best rez posible in your asset, you dont have to go crazy about simmetry just in between the doors. But again this depends of your texel. Keep going!
- Omar Here, I think its time to pre-heat the oven, I think I can do some edits but heres what I got so far with the Supercharger.
Hi-Poly: around 47kLo-Poly: 2453
I have some other objects to push further that I will post later - Thanks
@MNguyen3DEnv
The new scale really helps the room feel more natural. Good job so far!
I'm working on the texturing of the controller.
and I'm going to add some fingerprints and put a sticker on it.
I followed many demos on the Youtube and made my first texture by Substance Designer.
Does it look like a carpet?