The Desert Sessions, PT. 5

Greetings y'all. So I've gotten a bit side tracked by some happenings in my life, but I'm still plugging away. I just finished sculpting out the majority of the terrain, and next is texturing it. UDK has a pretty nifty way of blending between textures based on the height of the terrain that I'm using. I have it set up so that on flat surfaces you have some flat sand with some rocks here and there, raised surfaces have a more bumpy feel to the sand, and the cliff side that overlooks the sea has its own rocky texture. The game engine automatically calculates which texture to show based on height, and I just have to sculpt it out and play with the numerous settings. Another cool feature that UDK terrain has is the ability to simplify its geometry based on the player's view. If the player is right next to a hill for example, they see the high detailed version of it. But, as they walk further away from it, it loses more and more polygons until it's at its lowest poly version. Definitely saves ALOT of processing power, and allows me to make a higher res landscape, so that's awesome. As for all the little dots on the cliff, I'm not sure. I'm sure I'll find some way to troubleshoot it.

Another thing you'll notice is that the water is done. I followed a tutorial on www.hourences.com (if you mod with UDK, check it out, it's an EXTREMELY useful site) , that was very useful in teaching me how to make water look realistic without making the shader itself too complex. I'll no doubt change some stuff about it, like making the reflection of the sun more accurate. But, I'm very, very happy with how it turned out. Which reminds me, another reason why I haven't had too much to show lately is that I decided to take a week to get really in depth with unreal editor's material system. I feel like I can make my objects look ten times more realistic as a result. It'll be the last thing I do to the desert, sort of the icing on the cake if you will.
I also fixed the skybox up a bit, textured some more objects, and I also have some concept work coming in from Bryan. So far it's just one pic showing the overall "feel" of the level, and he's currently working on pics of the shack, plane and rock formation. Here's a little taste:


Pretty sweet, eh? So what now? I finish texturing the terrain, then I place the trees, then some rocks, and then make the crashed plane, shack, and rock formation. I'm sure there will be things in between that come up unexpectedly, but whatever. That's the joy of making game art. :)

The Desert Sessions, PT. 4

I've been mining in the UDK salt mines as of late, and progress is happening. So much, that I've of course, been ignoring the blog a little. I'm getting more comfortable with Zbrush, enough to the point where I don't just stare at a model for an hour, debating how I can possibly get what I want out of it. Let's put it this way, on average I can make a normal map for an object in under a day. I guess it depends on the prop, but that's a huge improvement on one month (laser gun). That one month spent on learning the normal mapping workflow was a pain, but it seems to have paid off. It's a good feeling to know that, as one whole year trying to grasp the Source engine proved fruitless. I feel like I'm getting faster at just about everything that I do, while not losing any quality on the actual result, which makes me extremely happy. A prop that would have taken me a week to do 2 years ago now takes me a day. Well, enough gloating over my artistic growth. To the meat and potatoes, as I say.

I've been texturing, which is really all I can say. It's the bulk of time spent on my work, probably a solid 50%, at least. I've been doing one object at a time with diffuse maps, spec maps, and normal maps. Hell, even the occasional opacity map. The fruits of this labour:

I'll be honest. I'm proud of this one. It might be one of the best models I've done. The spec map works great, the normal map works great, diffuse, everything comes together very well. The normal map took the most time, due to the sheer amount of detail I put into it. The player won't see it too closely, so I didn't go ape shit on it, but most of the reference detail is there. I had a fully rotating reference to look at, which helps immensely. Thanks Newegg.com!

I'm curious to see how the bear trap matches up against the ground texture when I put it in. I might have to do some tweaking on the color, but it'll work one way or another. I wanted to keep this one simple. I'll probably put a chunk of meat on the trap part to make it look like the player is trying to trap some kind of game.

The boom box was similar to the camera in the way that there was a lot of potential detail to show off. So I went nuts with it. It was out of necessity I feel though, because since it's an older type of stereo, it needs the detail to be believable. Think of it as something the player found in a scrapyard somewhere that he somehow fixed and got to work. The knife is one of those simple props that adds a little bit of needed detail to the overall environment.


This is the side of the shack. I'm happy with how this layout turned out, it just seems like it flows well. Not sure why. The bucket was one of the first models I textured, and has some pre-meditated dirt at the bottom like most of my objects. This is a dirty environment after all. Textures on the meat slab are incoming. You can get a glimpse of the skybox texture which has the setting sun situated at the edge of the cliff, thus creating what Valve calls a "vista". It's pretty much a sight that is supposed to direct your eye. A pretty sight to behold, if you will. Thanks to Jake for this nifty little idea. Obviously, I'm shopping out the trees, since it's a view out into the ocean.
Here's the makeshift table. The specularity for the flashlight top needs to be tweaked, as does the water bottle. I've been trying to get a good looking material going for the bottle, but that has proven difficult due to my lack of knowledge on Unreal's material editor. I might add an item or two if time allows.

Things will really come together when the shack is completed. For now, objects just float on checked default surfaces. The backpack is heavily zbrushed, but the other items were simple tasks. Getting the uv layout for the lightmap on the tennis ball to work was a pain. I had to utilize some trickery, that's for sure.

Now this is a closeup of the light, which makes it look a little worse than the player will see. It'll be seen from further away, rest assured. Getting the lighting to look right for the room was no problem. Making light hit the lamp in a desirable way was another story. I basically had to make the light that affected the rest of the room not affect the actual lamp, and I created a new one to specifically light the lamp itself and nothing else.

The first aid kit was my first model to texture. Like everything else, it's a mixture of zbrush and photoshop as far as the normal mapping goes. I think it'll blend well with the completed environment. Here's pics of some of my zbrush models fresh out of the view port itself. Keep in mind that these are incomplete, as they are taken into photoshop afterwords. Correct some bad normal baking, and then add in some detail with the Nvidia normal map filter.

Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna keep plugging away at it, and I'll have another update when I get more stuff textured. Hopefully it'll at least be almost done at that point. I talked to Bryan Jares, my concept artist, and he's gonna get started on some drawings/ paintings soon. I'll post those up when I get them. Speaking of that, Bryan, here's your section of the post:

This is a VERY rough layout of the map. It's just to give you some idea of where everything is situated. Mind the horrible photoshopping. The bottom right rock texture indicates where the cliff drops off into the ocean. It's pretty much situated in the Australian desert, on a cliff right by the sea. The brownish orange shapes at the right of the image are rock formations. There should be two pics in the "general landscape" folder on photobucket that give you an idea of what this looks like. There's also a folder that shows how the cliff side will look. As for the actual ground, in the general landscape folder, look to the pics with orange sand in them. That's what I'm aiming for. As for the plane crash, there's a plane at the top of the image, as well as some trees under that. I want there to be some separation between the plane wreck and makeshift shack. It won't be a forest by any means, but just a concentration of trees to break up the environment. Finally, the shack itself will be left VERY open for you to decide. Just make sure that the dimensions fit with the rough model I have now.
If things are left too open for you and you need some direction, here's some pics that are the closest to what I want. All the other pics on the photobucket page are meant to garner some additional inspiration for where you could go with it:

Feel free to add in some metal surfaces, as seen in the other pics.

These are the pics that look the most like how I want the overall landscape to look. Take a look at the pic with the vehicle in it. Replace the jeep with the wrecked plane, and assume that the background is how the area beyond the plane is. It's just an endless open desert with trees obscuring the view.

Here's a list of things that HAVE to happen with these concepts.

1) It needs to be based in reality. No fantasy stuff, as I'm sure you're aware.

2) The time of the day is during the sunset. So as with that sort of lighting, objects in the exterior part of the environment will be pretty dark, but I still want to be able to see some detail in them.

3) Try to stick with the sort of lighting the skybox would offer. I don't want you to feel too restricted on color, but keep it within that realm.

4) Stick to the reference I give you, obviously. Also heed to the layout I gave you in the 2nd pic from the top of your part of the post.

5) No need to include the actual props I've done. What I'm mainly concerned about is the plane, shack, and overall landscape.

Other then that, go nuts. If there are little things you can do to make the environment more interesting, go for it. Chances are, I'll probably like them.

Here's a breakdown of the pics I'll need:

1) A pic with the same rough angle as the layout pic a gave you. Just something to get a feel for the whole place. Can be very roughly detailed like we discussed earlier.

2) An image of the plane wreck.

3) An image of the shack exterior

4) A pic of the shack interior.

5) A pic of the rock formations.

For pics 2, 3, and 4, no need to put in the environment around them. Just the objects themselves. As for what's a painting and what's a drawing or rough sketch, it depends on what you want to put into this project. I would be thrilled if they could all be detailed paintings, but I definitely don't expect you to feel like that has to happen. If I can at least get a rough sketch on s0ome of the pics, I would be happy enough. The most important pics to have painted would be the shack and plane.

Well, I think that just about covers it. If you have any questions at all, just ask. My email is 3dryan@gmail.com, or you can hit me up on Steam. I'll try to be on as much as possible. The link for my photobucket is: http://s573.photobucket.com/home/3DRyan.

Good luck you, sir!

Well I'll be!

Looks like Jake has put up a nice little image of our laser rifle project on his portfolio site. Shiny ZBrush sculpt included!

http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?from_url=true&portfolio_id=3433284&individual_id=150335

The Desert Sessions, PT. 3

Ahoy! More modeling progress is abound. Everything is currently modeled except for:

-fire pit
-crashed airplane
-shack
-terrain

I know. The four biggest, most important parts, right? The reason why I'm putting those on hold is due to not having any concepts sketched out yet. My minions have yet to complete this task, and I still don't know when this will happen. I've got a bunch of new models to show for now, as well as some bushes modeled in Speedtree. Observe:

A camera on a tripod, a hand-carved grave, and a big ol' slab of ribs. I've been thinking about using a simple concept that the guy who is stranded here was not alone on his disastrous trip. He had a buddy that was killed in the crash. So, he buried his body and made a grave with his hat nailed to it in remembrance, over time. The camera and tripod suggests that either the player or the dead friend is/was a photographer. The rib slab, along with all the other bones and meat you see throughout the level are from animals that the survivor has eaten in order to survive. There's a sort of thought process behind all this stuff where I want to tell a simple story through prop work, and I think what I've got so far is pretty good. Especially since I'm no story teller to begin with.

Here we have a make-shift table with some items on it that include: flashlight w/ top screwed off and battery, med kit, notepad w/ pencil, passport, and Ipod. Once again, simple story implication. The table is just thrown together by the survivor to have a place to organize his stuff and think about his situation, maybe a place to plan his departure for help.

Bug spray, sun hat, leg bone, meat chunk, and jaw bone. Not much to say here.

Two examples of grass patches found in the level. Grass tends to clump together in this type of place, so I just decided to make it as separate static meshes. If there's an area where there's alot of grass, i can clump it together. The tree stump is an example of trying to break up the environment a bit more. Just having some speedtrees thrown in doesn't do the job well enough for me. It needs some custom mesh work to give it some character. Plus, it's stuff that you just can't achieve in Speedtree. The grass is Maya paint effects, which works well enough for something as simple as grass. Try modeling it from scratch, and your head will explode.

A tree that has been hit by lightning. A lucky thing for our survivor, who has stripped the branches for firewood. I had to really watch the poly count on this one, plus it would take way too long to model it with lots of branches as if it just fell. The firewood concept remedies that. It's weird how story elements can lessen your poly count. Ha!

Bushes to help once again, break up the environment. Once again, everything will have its own custom textures, especially the leaves which will look drastically different.

Well, now I put the level together in the editor and then start texturing. When it's generally composed, I'll post some pics of it. Unreal is refusing to build my lighting at the moment, and I'm probably going to physically harm it. If I find a way to actually do this, I'll let you all know.

The Desert Sessions, PT. 2

I figured I would post some process on the modeling of the desert. I've been modeling like a fiend as of late, mainly due to the fact that I quit one of my jobs. It's amazing how much more time I have on my hands to do the stuff I actually enjoy doing, and it shows. So, the props you see below are mainly just things that I've been thinking about that you would find in the "straggler's" living space. No conceptual drawings or paintings are needed, they're just things that I know I'll have regardless of anything. Speaking of concept drawings and such, I'm still waiting on stuff in that department to start up, which will hopefully be soon. It's hard for me to tell. I will say that a new person is aboard now, one that actually does conceptualization as a soon-to-be living, so it's exciting to have him aboard. Joe is still tentative at this point, and Jake seems to have done his part which was a big help. So, nothing else really to talk about. I'm just gonna keep modeling until I'm happy with the amount of props I have. Then, I'll get my hands dirty with some texturing. Enjoy the pics.

**BONUS**

Some trees I made in Speedtree, the awe-inspiring tree generator I love so much. The textures for the bark and leaves are just placeholders:

New Website Is Up!

So, this happened a whole lot sooner than I thought it would, but my newly designed website is up! Thanks to the flash man, Ryan Harlow for making it functional. Now it's a pretty easy task to actually update it, since I designed it to have stuff added to it. This is the opposite of how my old, crappy site was. And to that old piece of crust, I say good riddance. And as you can tell by looking at it, this very blog is linked to it. Well, not much to say, just that the new site is up. Check it out at:

www.3dryan.com

The Desert Sessions, PT.1

Alright. so the desert is coming along nicely. I've even come up with an official name. Henceforth, it will be known as "Desert Straggler". I think it has a nice ring to it. Anyway, I've got some 3D sketching pics to show. Now obviously, it's extremely simplified. This version is made with the sole purpose to give Joe an idea of where things are within the level. Observe:

Okay, so what you're looking at is a cliifside that overlooks the ocean. Obviously, the blue is ocean, orange is cliffside, gray is ground, orange sticks are trees, the metallic looking square is a small shanty, the small cylinder in front of that is a fireplace, the red thing is a crashed plane, the large orange block next to the shack is a rock formation, and the block that looks like sand is a rocky beach area. Confused? I hope not. If not, here's the general concept of the area. Two men were flying their small plane above the coast of southern Australia when they lost control and crashed right near a cliff that overlooks the ocean. The crash was fatal for one guy, but the other survived and now lives alone, stranded and surrounded by nothing but desert and ocean. He has constructed a shanty for himself from sheet metal, as well as a small bonfire area, a grave site for his friend, and two tall light stands to help illuminate his habitat. You can see the crash site as well, which tells you that he didn't venture too far away from it. Now obviously, there are many plot holes in this story, and as to how he collected all this stuff, but I don't care. If I held back and made this totally realistic, it would be boring. He just so happens to have this stuff. Deal with it.


Before I even had a theme to go by, I knew a couple things that I wanted out of this project.

1) It had to be open ended, like if you took a chunk out of the map in Fallout 3. You can look around in all directions.

2) It had to be outdoors, so that I can show my skills in making exterior, organic environments.

3) I had to have something that would really let me sculpt some terrain, so I could show that I'm familiar with that tool set within Unreal.

4) It had to have a skybox.

5) It had to have some sort of water, whether it be a river, ocean, or lake.

6) It had to be more ambitious as far as scope goes. It'll take me until May at least. Trust me.

7) It had to take place during sunset. It's something you don't see as much as daylight scenes in games. Also, it'll be more fun and challenging to light as well as just looking prettier in general.

I this project fits all aspects very well.


Landmarks:
Shanty campsite- The metallic shanty mentioned earlier with a campfire in front of it. It sits right between the edge of the cliff and the wooded area. It contains many personal belongings, like a toothbrush, clothes, pictures, etc. Good little details that will tell a story. Situated between the campfire and rock formation are fixed up floodlights that he has duct taped and custom rigged together to stand properly.

Grave site- Not sure where it'll be yet. This can be pretty flexible. It will be a small dirt pile in the ground that has a small, crudely made wooden cross sticking in it. Simple.

Airplane crash- The prop that tells us how the player got here. It's a small plane that can only accompany two people. It'll have the front end all crunched up, with a good amount of grit on it. You know, it'll look like a crashed plane. For some reason, it keeps coming up as red and blue in my head.

Open space- Wide open area behind the crashed plane. It's almost completely flat, and you can see pretty far away. Minimal trees, but plenty of smaller vegetation. Gives you the biggest impression that it's a desert.

Cliff side rocks and beach- Next to the shanty is a bunch of rock formations that eventually lead to a half sand, half stone beach. If you are looking at the ocean, on the right opposite side of the cliff, there is no beach sand, but just steep cliffs.

Small wooded area- Located where the bulk of the trees are. It breaks the environment up a bit. Makes the composition of the environment better.

This all may sound kind of confusing, but after me, Joe, and Jake have our talks, it'll make sense like it currently does in my head. Haha.

And for a better idea of reference, here's my Photobucket page with pics of inspiration:

http://s573.photobucket.com/home/3DRyan

Now, it's on to learning more Speedtree and waiting for sketches. Huzzah!