Final Thoughts of Art Test 2

Final thoughts on the Radiant World Loot Chest Art Test.

In the past 3/4 weeks I feel that I have come a long way. I started off a week down, with the bare minimum knowledge of Maya, just enough to get me buy as far as basic building skills. I was unable to finish this chest as far as I would have liked and wanted to do, I got 85% of it done as far as I feel about it, if I hadn't have stupidly thought we had to create our own chest I am sure I would have actually gotten it finished. I ended up creating the same loot chest at least 7 times and everytime I created one I got so much faster at it, in the end the final model that I used took just a day and a half to do all over.

I enjoyed this art test much more than the first, in my mind I achieved more in this one as I felt I had a lot to overcome with my knowledge and even though I don't feel like I have finished this test, I learned so much more and to me that is more valuable!

I am still not sure what I want to specialise in just yet, I love creating assets like this, but I also loved drawing the characters in the first art test. At least I have narrowed it down to two fields. Character Creation and 3D Asset Creator.

Beginning to bake.

Today is the last day I am working on my model, hand in looms on the 20th, the model is just about ready to bake, just got to get everything ready .... my UV is unwrapped and in order

I am suprised at how quickly I've picked up UV layouts, I think I could spend a little more time on the layout to maximise space but times a ticking, you could probably spend hours doing these! My high pol model is smoothed and maxing those awesome hard core edges!

And here are the two models together, snapped to the centre inside each other, with history deleted and freeze transformation done.

Generated my normal and Occlusion maps.

They don't seem to look correct, this is the first attempt at baking ever so I feel a little confused ... I put them on the model to see what it looks like and this is the answer.

Oh dear! I've tried googling this problem and haven't really found a solution, with time ticking I think I will just have to leave it here, and have this as something I really need to focus on in the future. I will cover this in a post about how I feel I've progressed in this project. I think I will just do the colour textures for this so at least it can be shown how it would look on a very basic level like I did with my other model.

((EDIT))

I turned to a classmate Owen for advice and he very kindly put me towards a solution, I tried turning up my anti aliasing to x4 instead of x2 and set my size to 2084 instead of 1024.

Looks like its done the trick! There is a lot more showing up, nothing is pixel/cubey! Here are the textures for my model

I really don't know what else I can do/want to do .... I am worried that I'll mess up what I do have so I think this is the point I will stop ..... look back on what I've done and what I have learned from the future.

Attempting the model again.

In order to do my maps correct and everything in the right order I tried to make the model again, I really am speeding along with the creation of it, however I hit a snag again. Everything was going great, merged everything perfectly so I didn't have overlapping edges when I combined them.

When I started making my HiPoly model I noticed that some of my faces were missing. Tried sorting out the normals, nothing, tried append to polygon .... nothing again. I undid all of the history to see if I'd deleted anything but nope .... they had just vanished. I went to see if the face was still there, it is .... but I can't seem to get it to show.

I was a bit stumped so I just deleted the missing face and filled the hole. It worked!

Back to the grind stone!

((EDIT)) Look familiar, finished making another Hi/Low poly combo, this time its only took me around 10 hours to complete this ... definitely getting quicker at this!

Looking lovely!

A day of learning.

Today I took my models and textures to have a chat with my tutor George for some assistance with my progress, for the past few days I've been wondering where my place is on the course, I feel that a lot of people around me have found their place whether its 2D or 3D and I'm still kind of floating about in the middle which is not really where I want to be halfway through Year 2.

If anything these art tests have shown me that 2D environments are not my thing, I still like the idea of designing characters, but the thing I've always been keen to learn is 3D. Last night the idea of learning all this information was daunting ..... and somewhat scary, but there comes a time in everyone's life (and I agree with my tutor here) where they have to suck it up and get on with it .... and today is a day I suck up a lot. I am way behind where I should be as far as everyone else who knows 3D so today I am just going to chill out and practise what I need to do for the future so that when the time comes I won't need to feel daunted.

Feedback for my UV layout was good, which was something I wanted to get right, advice given for that was to play around a little more to maximise space, I found this was one of the things that built my confidence up, where as like a week ago I pretty much had no idea how to combine everything and get them on one page.

After running through what I have to do I'm aware I've done things in the wrong order, I've made my texture before doing my mapping (Normal. Ambient Occlusion and Gloss) which means I won't be able to change my model without affecting the UV's I've created, lesson learned!

I've been making several notes in my notepad about the process, I'm going to attempt to remake my model now I've learned how to combine the mesh properly using edit mesh > merge tool. Let's see how we get on!

Onwards with the UVing and Texturing.

After a brief scare *with many tears and wailing* where I thought I'd lost all the work I'd done I began the work of UVing my model. Where before in BA3 when I was so confused by UVing and dreaded that part of this project I actually found it quite easy and I can see I've learnt a lot from the last encounter

Last time I created UV's I had every single part of the model in single UV's not making the most of the space, and ended up with over 60 texture .... Yeah .... needless to say that was very bad. This is another small victory for me thanks to the help from our tutor and classmates who gave me advice.

Starting with the basic colour palette trying to discover the closest to the image given by Radiant Worlds.

And this is the end result.

To me it looks a bit tiger-like but I'm very pleased with the outcome, my first attempt at proper UVing and handpainted textures was better than I expected! Could probably tone down the light wood colour so it fits in a little better.

HiPol model finised!

I've never been so happy to finally finish something like this .... Well the model at least .... I know I have a lot more to do but the fact that I've finally done it is a miracle ..... after going through 5 versions of the model I am so happy it looks actually rather good.

This is the mid-way point

And here is the mid-way point and the finished piece ... ready for texturing!

Current feelings at this point are a little bit on edge, relieved, happy that I've done something that confused the heck out of me just a week ago! I do like using Maya even with it frustrating me at times. I think I'd love to do more low poly modeling than high but I have to think about possible employment choices in the future with the lower option. Maybe have a look at that in BA6 .... but yeah .... Huzzah! Model is getting there!

((EDIT))

Three boxes together

Rebuilding the box

Well I went to start doing my hi poly model and discovered that some parts of my topology was wrong and getting really messy, so .....

instead of spending hours on hours trying to fix something that wouldn't work, with no save files going back where I could feasibly fix it, I decided to remake the model, it only took two hours last time so now I know what I'm doing with creating the shapes. And I know what I need to do to get the model hi poly and ready for texturing, then comes the part where I am a little in the dark still ...

BUT life is a journey so let's just have fun!

((EDIT)) Starting with a much cleaner mesh than I started off with ..... so I can see I am working much faster and cleaner already ..... must practise more after hand in!

((EDIT, EDIT)) Then Maya crashed and I lost stuff ..... All of my cries.

Starting in Maya

Today I started making what I should have been making and with a little help and advice I managed to build the loot chest to the specifications provided in the form of concept art. Once I got into the swing of it I really enjoyed myself, I love how simple cubes can turn into something that looks like what I want it to!

((edit, turns out I lost my file, so I have started remaking it, fortunately I mostly remembered how I made it, I think I preferred the original but, no use crying over spilled milk ;P))

Small victories!

Made a little mistake ....

Everybody lets here a massive WAH WAH WAHHHHHHHH for me right now. I completely misunderstood the Art Test, what a n00b. For some reason I took the test to be create a chest to fit in with the style ..... HOWEVER we are supposed to replicate the loot chest with the image provided by Radiant Worlds. I don't know why I didn't catch on to this especially as we had the examples in the zip file of the process from concept image to in game asset.

Oh well I still have two weeks on this test before hand in so I can rectify this error and get on with what I am actually supposed to do, thankfully I asked for some help with our tutor and discovered this in time!

BUT I still want to have a go at doing this loot chest with a tongue as a test anyway, because I came so far with the designing of it I think it would help me to just experiment with Maya as I have come to realise how rusty I am with it. We had a very interesting lecture today going over what we have learned so far on the course and just looking back I can barely remember much .... so I am going to attempt to do something in Maya every day or so just to keep up with it.

Phew ....

Current Feelings on this half of the project.

It's amazing what a difference a week makes, I guess I have to be on the right path somewhere as I do feel completely different with this art test. Maybe it was the break that gave me the chance to settle down and almost get over myself, but I do feel a lot more confident in my research so far.

I haven't yet started on my 3D model but I am looking forward to it, with my 2D work I just felt like 'urgh I have to do another piece' environment art isn't for me let's just leave it at that :). It's just one of those things I will have to put a bit more effort into if I want to get better at it

I had a brief chat with my Course Leader about how I felt about this project and how I was feeling about the first half and it has definitely made me feel more motivated to do work, she reminded me that I'm still at uni and still learning so it's good to find such weaknesses because its the right time to do so, it does make you feel really good when you feel that there is someone who believes in you even if you don't believe in yourself.

Anyway I'm probably ranting as I have done quite a bit with this blog! Have a happy kitten!

Examples of chests

Before I start making my designs I feel a bit of research into how chests look in games is needed, I normally see the bog standard brown wooden chests with locks on in the games I play so I want to find a few wackier chests to take inspiration from. I didn't even realise that when I was thinking about a chest with a tounge on it that this was a thing in D&D with a creature called a Mimic.

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the mimic is a type of fictional monster. It is portrayed as being able to change its shape to disguise its body as an inanimate object, commonly a chest. The mimic has a powerful adhesive that holds fast to creatures who touch the creature, allowing the mimic to beat the creature with its powerful pseudopods. The mimic was introduced in the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game's original Monster Manual. The mimic subsequently appeared in the game's second edition and third edition. Several variants of the creature have been introduced, with a variety of abilities and sizes.

I would still like to use a tounge or something in my designs but I will just have to be careful that I don't end up 'mimicking' the Mimic :D *insert laughter here*

I made a few mood boards of images of chests from games and real world items.

A few initial sketches.

Here are a few test drawings, just trying to understand the style, I absolutely love the eyes, they are the style I would normally do anyway, I love cute eyes! These are just a small start with pen so they could be better, will have more goes at these to get better with the style. Also a couple of chest drawings, I would love to include a tounge on the chest like it has a cheeky look to it. The art style from SkySaga looks very unique so I would like to make the chest look unique to it aswell.

Radiant Worlds (formally Blitz) Research.

To understand the art style I am expected to produce I must first research the company as I have never heard of them before, TO GOOGLE

"Located in the picturesque town of Royal Leamington Spa, Radiant Worlds is a professional indie game development studio comprising more than 70 talented individuals. We are united in our pursuit of creative and personal excellence, and the delivery of our brilliant new game, SkySaga: Infinite Isles.
Our heritage is as long as the games industry itself, stretching back over 30 years with cherished titles on all platforms. SkySaga represents the culmination of a long-held ambition and a fantastic partnership with the Korean publishing giant Smilegate, who are helping us transform our vivid dream into a thrilling reality."

This is taken from their Linkedin page

Here is a collection of some of the work they have produced found through google to help with me seeing their style.

To me their style has the gorgeous hand drawn quality like Blizzard, with the essence of Minecraft and Stonehearth, and it looks really cute, the style is very sweet looking but also some parts are a little creepy with the detatched arms and legs, I love the sheep, everything has a really nice colour to it!

First off I will have a few goes at replicating the style to get some practise in and then move on to starting the designs for the loot chest. All in all I am very excited to create this item, a lot more excited than when I got through doing the Environmental pre vis work.