Time Taken-3 months
Role-3D environment artist
Tools and Software Used-Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter and Unreal Engine
Brief- Choose from themes like Futuristic Vision, Real History, or Fantasy and Magic, and environments such as Secret Headquarters, Shrine or Temple, or Marketplace and come up with a 3D environment
Process and Challenges - My initial block out in Maya. This was a long way from perfect with a lot of mistakes and improvements to be made. As the temple was not in clear sight and was not standing out. The scene looked like it was more about the things around the temple rather than the temple itself. I made a lot of changes to the model. Added a platform of sorts to increase the height of the whole model. Removed a lot of trees and added other assets to the model. Imported to unreal and added some lighting so I can get an idea of where everything should be. I also changed the windows and tried to make the temple more Japanese style. Various assets are textured here. I aimed for a semi-realistic style for the model. Added moss on the rocks and stairs and huts were made from wood. These are the assets that don’t have emissive elements. I mainly used substance painter for texturing. Added volumetric fog around the platform so, my scene has a kind of a mystic feel to it and the video feels mythical. It took a little while to make the maps. But it worked well.
Solutions- I made a lot of changes to the model. Added a platform of sorts to increase the height of the whole model. Removed a lot of trees and added other assets to the model. Imported to unreal and added some lighting so I can get an idea of where everything should be. I also changed the windows and tried to make the temple more Japanese style. There is a couple of things I wish I would’ve done better or differently I’d say. I should’ve used more of Zbrush to add more backstory to different assets and my UV maps could’ve been better as for some assets I can see the line where I cut the UVs even after texture. I could’ve added more emissive sources to the scene. I did wish to add at least one water asset or add water around the temple. But overall, it turned out better than I expected.
Target Audience- Mobile Game companies or any games with a semi realistic toy style texturing.
Tutor Feedback- Your work shows promise, you have managed to tackle a complex brief with many parts and put together a cohesive and atmospheric final outcome. You mention a semi realistic style in your documentation; to achieve this fully you need to achieve a higher level of detail and fidelity in your environment, this would involve increasing the amount of detail in both your textures and models and as you say Zbrush could be very useful in this regard. Light your environment more effectively and study architectural lighting to showcase your building better.
Continue to push yourself by using bold creative decisions as a basis for researching new technical methods, as you have done with the water, lights and fog.
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