[WIP][UE4] Canal House (stylized)

Njel

Hello!

Just started a mentorship and was recommended to document the project here. It's my first time writing about my work/process so this might be a bit rough but I'll do my best!

My main goal for this project is to learn as much Unreal Engine and ''shortcuts'' as I can (edge decals, modularity, shaders etc.). To achieve that, I decided to work on a building that is scalable to a larger project. So creating something that's not destructive and allows for easy expansion.
I'm aiming for a stylized look, somewhere in the realm of OW.

Cheers!

Njel

Starting the blockout, mostly doing scale checks - trying to figure out the size of doors, windows and height/width of the building.

anguedrew

Wow! Great start mate! Is this compose of modular pieces? or did you just model it right off the bat? Great stuff man! Looking forward for your mentorship progress and this project as well!

Njel

Hey, thanks for the comment!

I'm still somewhat deciding on the level of modularity. At the moment, there's a interchangeable ground floor (this is going to be the most unique as it can be a store front, cafe or different type of entrance). The upper floors have standard measures so I can change the number of floors and types - mainly window/balcony layout. The last part is the top which is also unique and swappable.

So if I understand your question correctly, yes it is modeled off the bat but with modularity in mind (also using a grid system so it's going to be easier to work with in engine).

Looking forward to posting more!

Njel

Some progress on blockout, at a stage now where I'm comfortable testing out some textures.

Got carried away a little and forgot about the grid, so I had to bring the designs back a bit and make sure I give myself the best possible conditions down the road when working in UE. Since these are canal houses (which are normally stacked one next to the other) there is some concern with not having the sides flush.

I've made a second version without any geo poking over the sides but I would still like to keep this one since I like how it breaks the silhouette. I'll have to see how it looks once I have some more supporting assets and textures to see if I can separate them that way, but most of the houses wont be placed flush next to each-other but might be pushed forward/back or even have some tilt to them. 
I think the flush sides are mostly an issue since I'm judging a single building and is something that will be probably solved by the bigger picture.

Also made some changes to the height of floors and bottom base. Increasing them fixed some scaling issues.

Had some fun in substance designer working on the tileable brick texture. Got some very helpful advice, explanations and tools from mentor to push the stylized feel of the texture. Still very much WIP




Scale checks, making sure things follow a grid system.