Baking Onto Hard Edges!

Guitar WIP 2

Almost done...

Camera WIP update 3

Almost finished with the model...

Better Pictures Part 2

Better Lighting/Pictures of Old Projects!

More Soon...

70's Pad Update

I took some of my props from the realistic assignment and arranged a little scene out of them to show them in a different context:

And with a vintage filter for fun:

Another shot from the actual level:

Huge updates to portfolio are on the way this weekend, considering GDC is fast approaching.

Color!

Color is something I've always struggled with. This is most likely because for the majority of my life I almost exclusively drew in graphite. This problem most prominently reared its head during my attempts to draw scenes from my imagination. The only solution I saw was to spend a large amount of time doing light and color studies until it became second nature, something my current college schedule simply doesn't allow. That's when I discovered the fantastic website "The Dimensions of Color". I learned more about practical application of color within 10 minutes of reading that than I have in all of my art classes combined. These are two quick and entirely imaginary studies I've done by applying the principles I've learned:



I would highly recommend the website to anyone who wants to improve their understanding of light and color and doesn't mind technical reading.

Final 3D Project

Winter break has finally begun, so this is a good checkpoint for an update.

Over the last month I worked with 4 other peers to create three unique environments in 3D for Games class. The goal was to create a "fantasy" environment; a place you couldn't book a flight to. This definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me to develop my conceptual side.

We planned to split our environment project into 3 bite-sized chunks from different parts of our conceptualized universe in order to show more variety. I started the task of conceptualizing our "hi-tech interior" environment by doing a paintover of a previous greybox from another team member:

This was the first pass I came up with:

The team liked it, but I gave it to another teammate (Shaun Ellis) for another pass and he changed it to look like this:

All in all, the production process for this space went very smoothly, and because of the strong direction of the concept art we were able to finish most major assets within several days. The final space stayed very true to the concept:

In this level I modeled the radial modular walls, walkways, and the "curvy arm pillars" that rise up in-between the walkways. I also played a role in lighting.

The next space I helped develop was an alien jungle. This is the map that I spent the most time in, and I did most of the set dressing and lighting myself. I also modeled and textured the large ferns, small moss sheets and mossy rocks, as well as hand-texture the large platform plants with the orange glowing tops.

(My texture and material setup for the platform plant)

This is the type of environment where it is extremely difficult to unify the scene and lead the eye without overcluttering. Bioluminescent plants look cool, but when they're placed without care they destroy the coherency of the scene. This was happening a lot in the early stages of set dressing before I took it into my own hands. For comparison, here is a side by side of what the lighting and set dressing looked like before and after I took over:

Before:

After:

More pictures and information coming soon...

UPDATE?!

We just finished a massive crunch in 3D for Games class, so this seems like a good checkpoint to post some more recent work.

At the beginning of the school year, we were allotted 2 weeks to create a modular 8-piece construction kit that could be used to convincingly fill some kind of space. For my space I decided to limit my scope and model a kitchen, so I could spend more time addressing each individual prop. I'll post more specific pictures later, but this one example constructed from my modular props:

(click to see detail)

Then, for the next 7 weeks we were tasked with creating a "realistic environment" piece. We were given the option to work in groups, so I collaborated with Clarke Nordhauser (you can find his blog here: http://nordhauser.blogspot.com/).

Our concept was a 70's "shag pad"/studio apartment which had been ransacked and the owner murdered over a drug trade dispute. The most difficult part of this project was the transition between concept and final production, especially when in a collaborative environment, but I feel that we succeeded for the most part.

(click to see detail)

My Props:

-Windows/curved wall

-Blinds

-Curtains

-Retro Table

-Bean Bag Chair

-Air Vent

-Lamp

-Procedural Non-Repeating Carpet

(click to see detail)

My Props:

-Interior of Pinball Machine

-Ficus Tree

-Egg Chair

-Rug

-Fish Tank Exterior

-Magazines

-Air Vent

(click to see detail)

My Props:

-Bed/Blanket/Body

-Nightstands

-Disco Ball

-Egg Chair

-Shag Carpet

-Floor Lamp

-Air Vent

More pictures and info coming soon.

Wine Glass - First Try

Glass cups have always been hit or miss in games, so I am attempting to make one myself and see how far I can take it. One of the tricks I used was to attach an inverted fresnel to the diffuse in order to create contrast on the edges of the glass and make it "pop", which is what most game glass is lacking. Not 100% satisfied yet, but here's what I have so far:

(Click to see detail)

Relighting Assignment from last year

Paintover Concept of Epic's Map

Final Render based on Concept

3D for Games assignment. Picture on left is my lighting, picture on right is Epic's original lighting. Rendered in Unreal Development Kit (UDK).

All assets belong to Epic Games.

Finished Character

(Click to see detail)

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Finally. First character. Done.

Character Model - Carl

(Click to see detail)

At this point the model is about 90% complete. Still need to finish the maps, fix some seams and do some touch-ups. I might play around with hair planes if I have time.

I'm pretty happy with it for my first character model.

Base Character - WIP

Very brief update, tight deadlines!

(Click to see detail)

WIP - Campus House #2

(Click to see detail)

The first thing I created today was the rug. The material was created from heavily photoshopped pictures from my phone's camera. Just a simple diffuse this time - it didn't need anything extra.

Then I created a "dirty clutter" decal for the carpet, which took a bit longer than it should have due to troubles making the mask in photoshop. Finally got it working... I'll make more of these later so it's not all the same leaf.

The door/window frame was really fast - I created a plane in Maya, quickly modeled the indents/curvature of a piece of the doorframe and baked out the normals and occlusion. I created a material off of those and applied that material to flat BSP cubes. The normal map gives enough depth that I think I can get away without an extra mesh.

Finally, the leather... table thing? I created an RGB texture in which each color contains a different mask (so I could stop the detail normal map from covering the legs, for example). Then the black color itself comes from a constant. Pretty much all the "leathery" detail comes from the normal map, which contains a combination of the normals from the high-poly smoothed version of the mesh, smaller leather "cracks" as a detail normal, and a "grunge" map (also used in both the walls and carpet) to add a bit of variation and the illusion of wrinkles. Finally, the same grunge map was tiled differently and put into the specular to give the specular itself some variation. Having a nice grunge diffuse and normal texture on hand is absurdly useful - when used right it can be applied to pretty much any texture to add slight variation.

(Click to see detail)

I'm not sure what to tackle next... I'm probably going to end up finishing the door and windows. I'm really getting sick of looking at that black void.

Almost Forgot...

Never got around to uploaded a finished picture of my last commission...

Better late than never.

(Click to see detail)

WIP - Campus House

I want to document my level creation process, not so much for others to see, but so I can track my own pitfalls when it comes to putting a complete package together, and hopefully make myself more efficient in the future.

So, here we are, day 1 of Gorgoroth (me and my roommates' name for our on-campus house), modeled to scale, textured and lit in Unreal. It seemed an obvious choice for a side-project because I don't have to travel far for reference ;)

(Click to see detail)

Today I primarily grayboxed the scene I wanted to work on (the living room) and then began work on the base materials.

I knew from the start that the carpet material would take the most time. I've never really been happy with the carpet materials I see in games - they all suffer from terrible repetition, flatness, or some other issue. In fact, carpets are probably the 2nd most butchered texture in games, the 1st being brick walls (imo).

With that in mind, I designed the carpet with multiple layers of Lerps, Adds and Multiplies in order to create natural-looking variation, and Rotation and Texture Coordinate nodes to ensure that the texture will never repeat.

I then moved onto the walls, which I used a similar process for. They're still a work in progress, and the ceiling is placeholder. However, I felt like I was spending a bit too much time on them, so I decided to move on and get back to them later.

I wanted to start modeling... And it made sense to me that the first model I make should be the light fixture - get the light motivated as soon as possible, right? (Plus I wanted an excuse to try out UDK's new transmissive mask feature.)

The lamp itself was just an extruded cylinder with, I believe, 15 sides. Fairly low-poly, just enough to get the silhouette right. I didn't bother fixing UV's for the black metal stand, since I'm planning on just using constants for diffuse and specular there. The one part I did make sure to UV was the top translucent plastic... I need a gradient there for the transmissive mask. And after playing with the values of the transmissive mask and transmissive color a bit, I'm extremely happy with the result - fairly accurate to how the light actually does spread through and illuminate the plastic.

So, next I'm going to start modeling from big to small, starting with either the couch, tv stand, or coffee table. I'm also planning on getting those doors and windows in so that we aren't constantly looking into the black void of Unreal space.

Next update tomorrow...

Augmented Reality

If you can see it, touch it, hear it, taste it, and smell it... is it real?

What if everyone can see it?

Imagine walking around in a digitally augmented world. As you walk past buildings, virtual signs pop out, telling you if there is currently seating available and displaying a virtual button to click for the menu. Your friend's name appears over their head as you walk up to them, and with a universal tagging system, you play a little prank and attach the description box "didn't shower today" onto them for the world to see (hey, not your fault they enabled friend description permissions). You look up at the night-time sky to see each star marked by name. You invite your friend to a game of chess, but neither of you has a board. No problem; you clear off a spot on a nearby table and a chess board appears, fully set up, for you and your friend to manipulate in real-time with your hands.

If you lose your keys, a compass-like arrow in your field of vision points directly to them and tells you how far away they are. Better yet, your car instantly recognizes who you are and will not start for anybody you haven't authorized.

You have edited your personal preferences so that words you don't like to hear are censored-out of surrounding people's speech for you in real-time. When someone says a big word you don't know the meaning of, you can convert that word into text and read a dictionary definition.

You haven't sat down at a physical television or computer screen in years - just project your own into 3d space and make it visible to whoever else you want. And if you're trying to explain what something looks like to a particularly non-imaginative person? Just draw it - in mid air!

There are no "computer programs" anymore - not in the normal sense. There is only reality, and the virtual framework that augments it. "Applications" exist as tangible, 3d objects with which to interact.

Video games run on their own "channels" or "frequencies", visible only to those who enable them in their feed. Gigantic boss dragons loom over treasure chests at the bases of historical landmarks.

The newest "Discovery Channel" special, say "Underwater Earth", simulates a tidal wave enveloping your local area in real-time, crashing down and rushing between the cracks of buildings as you gaze around seeing it all play out around you.

Don't own a drum kit? Or a piano? Don't have to - project whatever kind of instrument you'd like into reality and play it at your local gig.

The word "internet" doesn't exist anymore. Only the word "reality".

No single corporation owns authoritative power over "reality". On the contrary, every user has equal power, contributing to reality in a similar fashion to Wikipedia. Personal changes only effect individuals who allow for them, while a universal database of information grows larger every second, giving every human on earth access to any education they desire, on-demand.

These are but a few of the possibilities of advanced augmented reality - the combination of the virtual world and the real world. This world would be visualized through handheld displays, specialized glasses, and, eventually, contact lenses. Is this what the future holds? That all depends on company politics and people.

We are just now starting to see the beginnings of augmented reality - in advertisements, browsers, games, and maps. But this technology, given enough time, is potentially the most exciting invention since the internet itself.

Until then, enjoy these first toddler steps into this uncharted realm:

Layar - Augmented Reality Mobile Browser: http://layar.com/

GE Augmented Reality website: http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

One of the first AR games: http://www.indiecade.com/index.php?/games/selected/levelhead

Playing with Lightmass...

Still having issues, but I have discovered that Dominant Lights are amazing. The entire scene is now lit by just 1 light.

Now, to tinker with more settings... I'm sure it can look a lot better!

Unreal Lighting Issues... fixed!

Finally, no more ugly black gradients on the corners of walls!

Also, a new window material that isn't noticeable in this shot. :P