Post Mortem Aftermath Project

So the aftermath project which we started beginning of trimester 4 went for 6 weeks before it was bumped up another week as there were 2 concurrent projects which was tough for all students to complete. During this project which was my main project as the other project didn’t really work to my skills very well , I learnt a lot more about the many programs that we can use, mainly a semi new and very up and coming program called Quixel Suite and the Unreal Engine 4! This project required us to create a landscape in the unreal engine that followed a story or uncovered a story as it went through and the basic premise of this project’s story was that the viewer was on a train and that there was an attack of a party that had happened.

This project, since we were putting our assets that we make into a video game engine we had to research the main pipeline in which we create normal maps from higher poly models onto the lower poly models which go into the game. So one way that we did this was to create a medium poly model and add chamfers and turbo smooth modifiers to it to create the more smoother edge looks and bake it down for use within Quixel or in engine. For this map i actually made a more higher poly version and put it into Quixels NDO program, which is specifically used to create normal maps. In it i made little bolt things to make it look like it was holding the seat together and some scratches which weren’t really see able in the end.

Following the normal map pipeline, this lead onto learning and researching the way of how PBR works, which means Physically Based Rendering to me it is quite hard to explain but essentially it changes everything about the lighting and shading and how it works, It makes everything look much more realistic and uses a lot of different techniques to create something. PBR spits out and uses multiple different types of texture maps to simulate the way that the light will reflect using roughness, metalness for how metallic something is and AO.

The project which we showed off the the many students in our class for last minute feedback and stuff ended up going good minus some of our textures, lighting and stuff was not finished enough so for the next week, the other team members will work on that.

For this project we had a small group of 5 people who all worked on something relating to this project, and we also found some audio students willing to help us on this project. Their audio was really nice and very clean, but we never really got to the stages of implementing it into our scene. Here’s hoping it gets implemented into the scene if we continue this project, which some of us will. Most of the sounds that were made would of been used to show that we were on a train. So train sounds, ambient win sounds and or heavy snow fall were going to be used.

As I said earlier this project was to create a landscape based upon a story that followed a set theme, our theme was a steam punk style, and our setting was a train that was going through the snowy mountains. Our group which as said consisted of 5 members and some audio students. I was mainly the only one who put all of the assets into the unreal engine and placed everything whereas the rest of the members just modeled the assets and textured their models. During this process I learnt how to mainly get started in the engine, placing items, importing various assets and textures, using said textures in the material viewer/creator by plugging them into their respective slots and finally adding lights.

See images at bottom for semi-final product.

Throughout the main process of using unreal the artist must usually import the assets of mock-up assets into the engine and build a small version of the level so that once the assets are fully complete they can be replaced in the end. As shown below this is all of the assets used in the final version sorted as best as they could, with a glitched test folder..

Assets

Materials & some Textures

Following some concept images created by the other artists in the group we followed the look and style of steam-punk or Victorian era stuff. As said before i did most of the unreal engine asset placement and creation of materials so yeah i followed a lot of the reference images and concepts created by our group. The style was followed really closely to better incorporate everyone concepts into the project.

Throughout the next week, after the feedback given to us on showing time we will finalize our project and create the original desired aftermath that we as a group decided upon. But as stated a few time above we did follow the brief as best we could except for the aftermath portion which was supposed to be the aftermath of a party or an escaped prisoner or experiment. So the rest of the brief was successfully completed, which was the theme which we completely nailed. The theme we chose was a steam-punk train so we looked at a lot of steam-punk or Victorian styled art and reference. By next week the project hopefully in the hands of another group member will be able to destroy and make it look like an aftermath!

Google drive, slack and meetups. This. This is what we used. Google drive was used to store all of our project files which was so helpful especially when it came to coordinating with our audio members and grabbing all of our assets from one place and using them together.
Our folder structures were used efficiently and our naming conventions were used as best as can be. When it came to exporting our files we exported them using the right file types with the suffix SM_ for static mesh as it wont be moving objects. We also used slack to communicate with the modeling team, sharing our work and gaining feedback from our members and then applying that feedback. Facebook was also used as we gathered outside members (namely the audio students) so that we could collaborate with them.

I feel as if i took on a more leadership role in this group as many members worked on their other projects and i stayed to work on this one. And also because many members didn’t communicate that well when it came to taking a leadership role. I kept most of the group together and on track by helping out whenever i could, teaching some of the other members things to help them get along. The google drive was setup by me where i labeled the folders with the proper folder structures and placing stuff where it needed to be. The project as a whole went well as it was very out of scope before we changed it up and it finished within scope, the timing overall was great as it finished in time, still with another week to finalize some of the stuff ups.

Applying my own feedback from other members
During this project I tested out multiple textures of my models, which I asked everyone in the group but in the end I gave myself feedback where I used another members colour scheme to better fit the assets and I even changed the texture types from velvet which was the original idea to a more cotton type since it looked too shiny.

THE SEMI FINAL PRODUCT!