This month, we learned the basics of Environment Art in Unreal Engine 4. 

Here are the basic competencies we went over. 

1. Blocking out and setting up your Meshes in Unreal Engine

2. Create materials in Substance Designer

3. Create Complex Materials in Substance Designer / ID Masking

 

4. Practice lighting in Unreal Engine 4

The pipeline for this class is as follows,

1. Block out your scene with BSPs.

2. Create meshes in Maya, UV and Lightmap them accoringly.

3. Create materials in substance designer and apply them correctly in Unreal.

4. Set up lighting in your scene.

5. Don't forget to use post process volumes and light-mass importance volumes. 

Visual Effects 1

     This month, I took a class named VEF1. Up above, you can see my one of my particle projects. I did 3 particles; fire, smoke, and sparks. For the fire, I created an emitter from the oil object in the scene. I used a surface emitter type, changed the points to multi streak, added a ramp to the opacity and color, and attached a turbulence field so the particles would go up in a random fashion. 

For the cloud particle, it's all the same process except using a ramp for color I attached a cloud shader and used cloud (software) particles as the type. For the sparks, I emitted from the plug you can see in the video, used multistreak, used a ramp for the color and opacity, and used an expression for the direction. Using an expression for the direction gives them a realistic way to fall down. 

After this, I rendered the fire and sparks as hardware, the smoke as software, and the background as a back-plate. I composited these together, and added a directional blur to the fire in Adobe Premiere to make it look more realistic.

Art Creation For Games

This month, I had ACG. This class focused on the pipeline for getting props from block out stages all the way into unreal engine. There are a few stages to this, which we experienced during our projects this month. 

First, take your reference into Maya and block it out. Get the basic shapes and the general silhouette of the prop.  

Here is an example from my final project blockout

After creating this, you want to use 3 mode in Maya to match the silhouette of the prop. This means you add holding edges everywhere, evenly. This way when you import it to Zbrush, it will sculpt fine and be good for the bake out. If the holding edges are not there or too soft, your bake will look really bad and miss details.

Here is an example from my final project mid-res

After creating this, you want to bring your model into Zbrush and sculpt on the details. Add big scratches you see, or dents. Bolts can be modeled here too. For this prop, I would have modeled on the bolts instead of doing it for a normal map in Zbrush. This way if a player walked up to the prop, it wouldn't look like it's flat from the other angle. 

Here is an example from my final project sculpt

 Now, you will want to create an ingame prop. Take your mid-res, delete the holding edges you added until the silhouette changes, add bevels, and if you made any huge changes in Zbrush, add them into the prop. I didn't have any huge dents or scratches, so I didn't have a need to do it. When you are done, your in-game will look like this. 

 Here is an example from my final project in-game mesh

For this next part, you will need to UV your in game mesh. There are a lot of ways to do this, and I had to pass over a lot of hurdles to make it *alright*. UVing was not my strongpoint, but this class helped a lot. With more practice, I will start UVing really well. 

Here is an example from my final project UVs

 *Note* 

There is a lot of wasted space here. I was too focused on making the textures even for every piece. In the future, I would need to give the bigger, more noticeable pieces more room, and leave the other pieces like the handle or key fairly small. 

For the next part, this will cover PBR texturing. We imported the basic mesh into Substance Painter, baked textures from the high-res sculpt, and began painting. 

Here is an example from my final project textures.

After this, you export the textures and import the in-game model into Unreal Engine. You will create a new material, and hook up all the textures then import it onto the mesh. Your prop is ready! 

 Here is an example from my final project material

 

 

The final render shot

  

These are my final project playblasts for my 3AM Class. 

Project: Car Race

• For this project, we were taught to create a scene of cars going different speeds reaching a destination.
• We learned animation and keying in Maya.
• I explored editing the attribute numbers to make the cars go different speeds.

Project: Bouncing Ball

• For this project, we were taught to create a bouncing ball.
• We learned how to look at the graph editor to see our bounce in curves.
• I explored anticipation with the ball roll.

Project: Smash Ball

• We were taught to have a ball roll around in a scene given to us.
• We learned how to do anticipation, and holding poses.
• I experimented with the way a ball rolls, moving holds, and anticipation times to seem realistic.

Project: Walk Cycle

• For this project, we had to give an ant walk cycle poses; contact, down, passing, up, and contact.
• We learned how to edit curves in the graph editor.
• I explored moving parts of the ant such as antenna, and exploring his facial controls.

Project: Basic Walk 

• For this project, we made the character walk in space and then do an action.
• For this, we practiced moving holds with characters, and how to make them preform actions with expression.
• I explored making arcs with his body movements so it looks natural and not so stale for his animation.

 

• For this project, our assignment was to make Leggy (The Character) Walk from one side of the platform to the other, ending on a turn around and jump.
• We learned how to use the MEL Buttons, Graph Editor, and aspects of a walk cycle.
• Exploring on my own, I looked at the different types of walks you could make a character do after mastering a walk cycle.

•  For this project, we were assigned to create seven different emotions using just the silhouette of Antsy. 
• In this project, we learned the different appearances a character can have to express emotion, and how to display that using body language. 
• On my own, I explored the many types of body language, and how a simple movement of the hand can change a character's emotion completely.

• For this project, we were instructed to make Antsy move across the podium and perform the action of pressing a button. 
• In this project, we learned important things to animation like slow in and slow outs, holding poses, and adding extra movements like blinks to make the animation more realistic
• On my own, I experimented with the different types of poses antsy could do when interacting with the button, such as punching it or pressing it with his finger.

JacobWheat3DA1603

• Explanation of the project for posting
• Tools learned in the class
• What tools did you explore on your own.

 

 

This is the final project over all in the class, and I believe it's my best. I learned to give him character, and I learned in class to have exaggerated poses so people watching can feel how they see him. On my own I explored different posed, up and down when pressing the button. I wanted to see if I should do over-exaggeration or just a normal push. 

    

This is my Smash Ball Project, it was earlier in the class. This project was interesting because we had to make a ball feel emotion. This seems hard, but playing with the squish and squash we learned in class it was easier. This time around, I learned to make the roll even, and mess with other objects in the scene like where the start went and how the brick fell apart.

   

This is the walk cycle project. I wanted to show this because it was what helped lead into our walk final. This isn't one of my best, because I failed to move things like his back and exaggerate poses. I learn how to use the curve projection graph editor on Maya in class. On my own, I explored how different rotations and translates would effect other parts of the walk, and how negative and positive graph curves looked.

Rigging Projects

 These are my poses I created with my rig I created. As you can see, they take advantage of the IK/FK systems in the arms and legs, and the spline in the back. Using these and the different controls

we created in class make a fully controllable character rig.

This is my Early walk

This is an early scene I created

 

Fixing his walk, setting up the scene

 

Adjusting the hips, eyes, and bending down

 

 The final piece