Game Environment Scene Powerpoint

Game Environment Scene Part 5: The Final Product

Finally, the project is complete. Over a month was spent on this project, and it turned out quite well. We, as a group of 3, were tasked with modeling and texturing one building each from the three video games to choose from, those being Overwatch, The Last of Us, and Zelda BoTW. We chose Ilios from Overwatch at the beginning of this project as we really like the design and look of the map.

The building I chose is one of the main capture points on the map: the lighthouse. This did seem a bit daunting to me at first, especially since I chose the only building out of us three that had an actual interior. I started the first week finding references for this model, as well as taking pictures in-game to get different angles that weren't provided online. The following weeks were dedicated to modeling, UVing, and texturing, with the last week being used for finishing touches.

I did the bottom portion first since it was more complicated and I wanted to just get it out of the way. I originally tried modeling it with the inside, but that ended up being too hard to do, especially to get the UVs all matched up correctly. To remedy this I just put doors on it. I did my own custom edge bricks in Photoshop, as well as some texture for the trims along the tops and bottoms of both parts of the building.

I did the lighthouse portion last as it was a much easier thing to model. Both of these took most of the weeks allocated for the project, this somewhat due to the fact that I'm not the best at Maya and my time management was pretty bad. Also, because of my other classes, it was hard to balance this project. I did also run into a major crash at one point, causing me to lose a lot of progress towards the last two weeks for the project, which made me have to rush some portions (mostly textures).

I did two texture sets since it allowed me to get more quality out of my model, despite me having to rush them within the last week before the due date. I would've taken a lot more time had that crash not happened to me so far into the project.

Overall, I feel this project (despite having to rush a few things in the last week and a few disagreements/stress) turned out quite well in the end, and maybe in the future I'll revisit this model and give it some fine tuning to make it look great.

Game Environment Scene Part 4: Finished Model and UVs

I got all of my UVs finished for my model, with a few things being added to the model. I decided not to do the extra brick thing for the corners of the building as that would end up taking a lot more geometry and time that I need. I also ran into a huge roadblock during my work, which was Maya finally crashing for the first time ever for me, so I ended up losing a lot of progress and resulting in much not being able to be finished. I plan on using as much time as possible to get back to where I got to over the break. Over the break I was able to completely finish my model, but due to that crash, I don't have too much done since last time.

I got the top railing in, which ended up taking quite awhile to get each one evenly spaced (I ended up having to use a calculator and using a math problem to find the exact halfway point between two different poles, which ended up taking quite awhile due to all the poles needed). Now, in the actual game, there are cross-hatches that fill in each space like this:

Due to my crash with Maya, I ended up not having time to get those in again, which I plan to implement once I have more time. Thankfully I have all of my UVs done, so texturing should be a piece of cake. Despite my model still needing some texture, I plan on putting it into Unity just to see how it compares in size against my other group members' buildings to see if it needs an increase or decrease in size. I also finished the tower, but ended up leaving out some of the circular railings as I could not find an easy way to implement that in a way where it was even all the way around. Also, I didn't want my tri-count to be too high.

Game Environment Scene Part 3: More Modeling

I managed to get most of my models and UVs done since my last post, and now I'm in the process of texturing and painting for my models. Also, I plan on doing a few more small adjustments to my models themselves since I'm not completely satisfied with them right now. I may possibly add some extra "bricks" to get the bricks into my photo that are shown in the image below, but I'm going to test out bump maps first.

My tri count right now is just a little over 2000, which is pretty good, but I'd like to keep it as low as possible. Below are a few textures that I've selected for my building specifically, with some others within our group being shared. I also plan on getting some brushes to add a few extra details to textures that may be a little bland without extra detail.

Over Thanksgiving Break, I'm not going to be doing a whole lot, but I want to utilize any free time that I have to work on this project, and, if I'm lucky, get my model finished and textured, with a little small details thrown in for good measure. Also, I finally adjusted the top of the lighthouse to fit the original model a lot more, which already looks much better.

Game Environment Scene Part 2: Beginning of Models and References

For this part, I was tasked with beginning my modeling process. To really start this process, I had to get reference, and most of the images online didn't have good angles or looks at the building I am modeling, so I had to actually go in-game to gather reference.

I ended up taking a bunch of different screenshots in-game using the spectator mode that Overwatch has to get all angles of the lighthouse that I plan on modeling. Also, the spectator mode within the game allows me to look fully vertical downards, so I utilized this to get the texture of the roof tiling on the building, and I have plans to get the textures for the walls.

I plan on getting a lot more modeling and UVing done after this point, but I felt like I was struggling a bit to really figure out how to model certain things, such as the doorways into the lighthouse as well as the edges and bevels. I will most likely looks up some tutorials and ask for help to help me figure these problems out. Overall, I just hope to get my problems sorted out so I can utilize my time more efficiently.

Game Environment Scene Part 1: The Blocking

For this project, we are tasked with modeling a few buildings from a choice of three different games, those being Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Last of Us, and Overwatch. We are able to be in a group of three for this project. My group and I all agreed on doing a few buildings from the map Ilios from Overwatch since the buildings stand out with lots of bright colors and they seem much easier to model over more complex buildings that would be present in the Last of Us.

I chose to model the lighthouse on Ilios, one of the main capture points on one of the versions of the map. I wanted to model this since it is a main point of interest on the map and doesn't seem to hard to model.

For our scene, we plan on having that building, as well as two buildings chosen by my group members, and if everything works out right, we'll model the giant pit in the center that is one main part of another version of the map.

The Dining Scene

The Dining Project Part 3: UVing, Lighting, and some more Modeling

For this part of the project, I was tasked with adding in some lighting into my scene, as well as finishing up some models and UVs so I could then get started on the textures.

In terms of lighting, I was able to put in a few different types of lighting, and one of those was the hanging lights that you see here. Since this is a requirement for this project, this was my first priority. What I did is used simple cones and cylinders to represent the light shade and the cable, and a sphere with certain statistics to make a "glowing" light bulb. I used spot lights to achieve the light that it shines down onto the bar and tables.

I also made some small little lights to go on some parts of the shelving behind the bar as another accent and light fixture in the scene. As seen in the first picture, they came out quite well and don't take away from the scene.

Finally, I was able to get windows put into the right wall of my scene, allowing for natural light to enter my scene as well. I put in a sort of skybox as well to add a more natural look for the outside. I ended up using the glass preset for my windows and then messing with those settings for a bit after many failed attempts of recreating a glass texture.

Overall, I feel the progress is going steadily, but I will be starting to pick up my pace since the due date is right around the corner. I did have a few different problems, with things such as lighting not showing up to lights not duplicating to mesh lights not working right. There were many times I had to take breaks due to the program being super finicky and glitchy at times, but hopefully things start to settle in fine again.

The Dining Project Part 2: Modeling and UVing

For this part, I was tasked with modeling and UVing the objects within my scene, and so far, there have been some good parts and some not so good parts. Overall, I feel like I've been getting some decent progress in.

I was able to get my bar all UV'ed (I didn't change it really from the blocking version since it still seemed to fit my scene well, so I only did minor touches to it). I simply used planar UVs and unfolded them by cutting a few corners on the sides.

I kept my shelving the same too as it fit well with my scene, but I do still have plans to add either a mirror or some form of beer dispenser in the middle in the big open part. The UVs went down normally as usual, with the process being the same as the bar UVs.

I managed to do the floors and walls of the cube and get them UV'ed, as well as the ceiling (not pictured) using the same process as my other UVs. I do have plans to go back in and work with them a little bit more if I do happen to add anything like windows or pillars and such.

I got my chairs modeled (it actually was quite simple to do) and now have the UVs to do on it. I experimented a little bit on different ways of UVing it, but I haven't been able to find a way yet.

Finally, I was able to make a stool (with a curved back rest to boot, using just a few edge loops). However, I have run into a problem that I've tried to address and that deals with the UVs. Since I used the extrude tool to make the actual seat part of the stool, the UVs come out very distorted and glitchy, so I may go back in and redo the model itself or find a way to UV it correctly.

The Dining Project Part 1: Blocking

For this project, we are tasked with making a full diner scene with different types of stools, chairs, tables, shelves, and other things that may be present in a diner scene. I'm going to base my scene off of a pizza place since I like the look and design of pizza places, and it seems like an easier scene to me personally. I plan on detailing the stools and chairs to look much more fitting and realistic instead of the block versions present in my scene now, as well as tweaking different aspects of the shelving and posters on the back wall.

Objects will include, but aren't limited to:

• Tables
• Chairs
• Bar
• Shelves
• Stools
• Napkin Holders?
• Possibly a few Pizza Trays at different tables
• Bottles of Wine and other alcoholic beverages
• Possibly Parmesan Cheese Jars
• other items TBD

I'm looking forward to how this project will turn out by the end of the month.

The Grocery Shelf: Something Pretty Fun

For this assignment, we were tasked with making a shelf for holding a different selection of groceries. We were required to model at least three different jars and at least six different boxes (however we were allowed to use a pudding box that we modeled beforehand). This project was loosely based off of a few mini projects that we did leading up to this project, which included modeling a wine bottle, a glass jar with spaghetti sauce in it, and the pudding box that I mentioned before.

I started by modeling the boxes first as they were much easier to model over the glass jars. UVing and texturing a box is probably one of the easiest things to do, and it did end up going quite well. After getting one box done, I was able to pick it up like second nature and model a box every 10-15 minutes instead of every hour. All of my boxes came out pretty well for the most part, which I was glad about because of how easy it actually turned out to be. One problem I did run into on each UV though was the fact that it would not unfold correctly. I tried both Unfold3D and Legacy, but both of them were giving me trouble. I ended up having to not pin the UVs down, which did result in it unfolding correctly. It was a little weird trying to straighten them, but I was able to get it figured out.

After the boxes, I moved onto the jars, and the jars were a much longer process to complete, but when I finally finished them, I was very happy with the results. To model one of the jars is a much longer process than the boxes, dealing with multiple UVs and CV Curves. However, like the boxes, once I got one done, it became almost second nature to me, remembering the process and having it take much less time. Now I wasn't making jars in 10 minute intervals (if I could that would be amazing), but it was much faster than following the tutorials piece-by-piece. I did run into a few problems when it came to UVing the jars, particularly the labels on them. Most of them unfolded fine, but on my jelly jar, I had a bit of a problem. Because the label was large enough to take up more than one row of faces, the UV came out straight like the others, but had some weird curved lines towards the sides, making the checkers and texture look a bit warped towards the edges. However, this wasn't much of a problem since I was able to solve it by making the sides a solid purple color.

Finally, I modeled the shelf last, which was pretty straightforward. I followed the width, depth, and height of a shelf from Ikea, and it came out surprisingly well. I had to make some of my own measurements and just eyeball them since Ikea didn't give out measurements for each individual shelf and side. However, I do feel it came out quite well. I liked the slight shine that came off of it as well.

Overall, I felt this project was actually pretty average. Once I was able to get the hang of the modeling tools and what to do for the boxes and jars, it went quite smoothly other than the occasional hiccup in the UV toolkit or the occasional brain fart, requiring a quick glance back at the tutorials. I did like this project despite the long time it took, and it felt amazing to come out with a great looking final product.

The Table and Chair: Something Very Time Consuming

For this modeling assignment, we were tasked with modeling both a table and a chair. Sounds easy enough. Except we had to use exact measurements given by references, and the chair didn't have any tutorial. So it ended up being a very tedious task and ended up taking a lot more time then I originally thought. We were also tasked with UVing the table and chair, and texturing both accordingly. It seemed like an easier assignment, but once I started, I was very wrong.

First I had to start out with the table, which ended up turning out pretty well for me. We had to follow tutorials on the modeling and texturing, which is always welcome with these projects. In terms of creativity, we couldn't do too much, but I was able to alter the color, shading, and wear on the wooden table to my liking, which I feel ended up turning out much better than I originally thought. There were a few problems I ran into with the table though, mostly having to do with following certain commands and hotkeys displayed in the video, causing me to get stuck in some areas for a few minutes. Also, the bump map acted up with me a few times, seemingly not rendering in the Arnold render view.

Finally, there was my chair. I wanted to do something a little more simpler for this since this was my first time relying on learned lessons and skill alone, so I decided to choose a small stool/chair. I based mine off of a stool from IKEA since most of the measurements and other images were provided there. However, despite the chair in the original image being more of a cotton-type fabric, I decided to go with a more leather kind of texture for it, allowing me to experiment a little bit more with specularity. Also, I made the legs a dark brownish color to add a nice, modern look to the chair, similar to the reference image. The few problems I had with the chair was just figuring out the UVs since it had different attributes to the table. However, it was as if I was UVing 5 different table legs, making the process much more easier for me. Also, I experimented with bevels on the object (since it's a leather material) and there were a few issues with the texture stretching or warping, but they were fixed quite easily.

All in all, I feel both my table and my chair came out quite well, despite all of the obstacles and difficulties with Maya. However, this project took me practically a full day to complete, so it'll probably convince me to start setting certain work schedules for these types of projects. Hopefully I can keep improving my skills from here and start to perfect the techniques used in this assignment.

The Pencil

For this assignment, as the title entails, we had to model and texture our very own pencil using many different Maya techniques such as booleans, edge loops, and different texturing techniques such as bump maps and specular maps. This was our first time dealing with actual textures, so we had to use the UV editor to really get into the nitty-gritty, even though the only area using a texture was small. When I first started it seemed very daunting, and it was a pretty challenging task despite having the tutorial videos to follow along with. Since modeling isn't really my forte, it did take a long time to get it done.

For my pencil, since we had to follow tutorial videos for the most part, I wasn't able to do too much in forms of creativity. However, when it came to putting my name on the pencil, I wanted to go with a cursive font to add sort of a formal and nice look to the name. I tried to be as accurate as I could be by being super nitpicky about small things like the crimp being a certain size and the end of the pencil fitting into the crimp right.

I did have a few issues when doing this project, partly because it was so convoluted and new to me that it was hard to comprehend certain parts of the project. However, one issue I had right off the bat was the fact that my old mouse actually lost its middle-mouse click, making it impossible to move the camera around the scene without, similar to my last project. I did however receive my mouse the following day that this project assigned, allowing me to utilize the middle-mouse click once again. Also, I did have another issue that many other people had, and that was placing the edge loop on the pencil to make a space for the nametag. In the tutorial video, the multi-cut tool was selected and then it was as easy as dragging it across the pencil and hitting enter. However, that wasn't the case for me. Whenever I would hit enter, nothing would happen, which made me very irritated and frustrated. However, after some trial-and-error, the class was able to find a solution, which then helped my issue.

Overall, I feel my pencil came out pretty well in the long run. Every one of these projects always feels like a miniature accomplishment because of just how tedious or convoluted they can really be. If I could improve anything about my pencil, it would probably be the shininess or texture that the pencil has. Right now, it looks decent enough, but you could easily tell that it's a digital model. It would be cool to add in some certain textures and different coloring techniques to make it look like a real-life object, but as of now, that's pretty far away from my skill level.

Primitives: A Good Start

This assignment was called the Primitives assignment, based off of the names of the objects that we had to use in our scenes. It felt like a pretty daunting task at first, especially with my very small knowledge of Maya, but I feel it ended up turning out well.

We were tasked with making a scene (any kind of scene, whether it be a house, a car driving down a freeway, or a skyscraper falling to the ground) using only primitives. Primitives are the standard, stock shapes that come with Maya and are a simple start point for modeling almost anything (however, they may not be used as much for bigger projects). We were only allowed to adjust the size, rotation, and placement of these objects, and we were prohibited from changing vertices or faces specifically. Just the barebones adjustment tools.

For my scene, I wanted to go with a sunset time of day since sunsets seem to have very warm and nice looking colors, adding a very calm effect to the image. I wanted to model a car that was based off of something in real life and show it parked at a small parking lot or pit stop out in the desert since that can fit well with a sunset vibe. I wanted the image to be more focused on the car, so the car takes up a big portion of my image, with it being more towards the left edge to eliminate any symmetry from my composition. I also added a mountain range of various colors far in the background to add a landscape and horizon to the scene, as well as some boulders and rocks in-between. I also added some light poles that would normally be present on a real-life parking lot, adding more of a believable feel to the image.

I think one main issue I had was every time I would render out my image and save it as a jpeg, for some reason the image would come out much darker than the original, making it look low quality and grossly colored. Thankfully though, I managed to figure out a way to save the image just as it appeared in the render window after messing with some color settings Also, my mouse actually lost the middle-mouse click a few days ago, so it made navigating around Maya much harder since middle-mouse allows you to move the camera around horizontally and vertically. The way I remedied this was to set a hotkey to the Tracking Tool.

Overall though, I felt my final render ended up coming out just as I had wanted, despite the different complications I had with Maya both with hardware and knowledge. I'm glad I was able to become more acquainted with Maya after this project, and I hope to learn even more in the future.

Got Nothing Yet

Hyper-Realism

For our final picture, we were tasked with doing something out of the ordinary. We were supposed to composite two or more pictures together to create a unique looking image, whether that be a small person in a big world or a baseball with the insides of an orange. For this image, I decided to put my friend into a big world, and originally, I wanted to have him sitting on a smaller version of my car, making it more like a toy than an actual car. Unfortunately, due to certain angles, lighting, and colors that the car was in my pictures, none of them were easy to cut out, making it a very large hassle to cut it out. So, I decided to make my friend sit on my phone laying on my desk, which turned out much, much better than I expected. All I had to do was add a cooling filter to him, some curves adjustment, some extra shading, and a slight glow on his back to represent the phone screen glow. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think next time though, I definitely want to take pictures in front of a background relatively different to what I want to cut out so that way it is a much easier process for me and so the cutouts look much nicer and cleaner.

The 3D Stealth Game v1

For this final project, we were assigned with making a harder difficulty stealth level with an alien theme, utilizing new mechanics and assets given to us, as well as free reign on whether or not we want to add more scripts or programming. Now, after looking over the assets that were given to me, I thought that it could be decent, but I wanted to do something more and have texture and more immersive elements, and that's where my terrain came in.

I've experimented with Unity a little while ago back in high school, and I liked how easily the terrain was able to be used and sculpted, and how nice it could look with texture and other environmental elements, so I utilized it for this level. Many of my playtesters really liked this aspect, and they felt it made it very unique and different from the many other maps being provided in the class. I utilized the different trees and other elements provided within the standard assets to add onto the existing assets given to me, and I felt it made a good combination and flow.

The first part of my level was pretty self-explanatory: a simple jump to the other platform before walking up to the next part. Most playtesters were able to easily complete this, but some of the playtesters suggested that I use some sort of compositional element or prop that stands out to help lead them to the first hill since the first hill to get up is a bit hard to make out from the other terrain around it. Also, they felt that the jump could be tweaked just a tad bit since they felt that if you don't get the jump timing right at the edge of the plank, you would fall down most of the time, which could be very frustrating for some.

The next part of my level heavily utilized the stealth mechanics and the enemy "aliens", and when designing this area, I designed it in a way where if the player was in their line of sight, they would lose, so that is what I based the design around. Unfortunately, that wasn't how it worked, so most of the playtesters were able to walk right through the area without being touched by any of the robots. They felt that this area should be a lot more challenging than it is as of now, but they felt it was a good concept.

The third obstacle of the level was a jumping puzzle, with many different planks connecting different small islands, with the width of them decreasing and the presence of jumps being part of some of them. My playtesters felt this was a well designed area, with it being a good challenge while also not being hard enough to be frustrating or annoying. However, one playtester pointed out to me (I was experimenting with different lighting levels and such during the day) that the shadow coming from the tree on the other side makes it near impossible to see the last jump, making it very frustrating to get through. I have already made adjustments to that front. Some playtesters also suggested adding a tad more difficulty to it, so I will be doing that as well.

Finally, we have the fourth obstacle, and this had to be my playtesters' favorite mechanic and challenge in this level. There is a locked gate that you have to get through and the only way to get to the other side is by getting over the fence. There are two different boxes, one small and one big, as well as a medium-sized box within the side area, being guarded by a few robots and some jump puzzles.

What made the playtesters like this puzzle so much was because it utilized box physics as a way to solve the puzzle. You have to push the box between the small and big boxes by the gate to make a way up and over, and they felt it was one of the most unique and creative mechanics they had seen out of most of the maps provided that day. They also felt the difficulty was good as you also needed to avoid robots while pushing the box. One playtester also pointed out just how perfect the placement of the box was. When you walk up to the gate initially, you see the pink box with the pink arrow pointing to the spot it needs to go. As soon as you turn around, you are able to see that pink box on top of the building in the small side area, easily being able to grab the players' attention and lead them exactly where they needed to go, which I felt was awesome since I never had the original intention of doing that when designing. After hopping over the fence, the game ends there.

Overall as of now, many of my playtesters felt this was a good level, and they felt it was a good start to something more. I plan on utilizing more terrain and areas, as well as tweaking and polishing existing areas to make it feel well-made and fleshed out.