Game artist
Jennifer Stevens
Digital Dreamer
Games Production – Style Matrix
Name: Jennifer Stevens
P number: P13203711
Email: p13203711@myemail.dmu.ac.uk
Enviroment 2: Through the gateway
Overview: This is the final project of the in the series of 3 style matrix briefs. It addresses the ‘through the gateway’ project brief which asks for a semi stylised environment which could be on the other side of a gateway provided in concept form to you. My response to the brief was to build and Aztec temple throne room. The project could be no more than 80,000 and had a texture budget of 2x 2048. I decided to split my texture sheet up into 8 x 1024 so I was able to create and texture more assets for my environment. My project was modelled in 3DS max then textured in substance painter.
Research: Research for this project involved a lot of searching through historical images of Aztec ruins, artifacts and culture. I particularly found it difficult with some of my reference images to tell Aztec apart from Mayan and other South American cultures. I then created a couple of mood boards and pintrest boards of things I found particularly interesting. From these I developed quick grey scale concepts incorporating my favourite elements and started to generate environment ideas. From the length of time on the project I realised my outside environments may be a bit too much of a stretch for the amount of time I have to complete the project. So I started to lean more towards enclosed environments. As soon as I had sketched the throne room idea, with its multitier design filled with treasures and ancient artic facts, I knew I wanted to pursue this concept. lying to the final model.
Viewer:
Unwraps:
Texture:
Other relevant imagery:For this project in particular I created a variety of alpha stamps which I then used in combination with height maps to generate normal maps mimicking raised or carved lines. These were used on a lot of the tiles, artifacts and even some walls to save tris whilst also adding detailing to the particular assets.
Conclusion: In conclusion I feel this project could have run a smoother course if I had spent so long determined to fix the issue I came across while creating the Zbrush model of the wall head sculpture. I wasted an awful lot of time on this and I am just very disappointed I allowed this niggling problem to absorb most of my time. I am still bothered by the issue I encountered and I will find out why this problem keeps happening to me however I do think taking the executive decision to abandon this asset and texture everything else solely in substance painter which was upsetting as I can never achieve the normal map detail I want in my assets. I do feel my knowledge and skill level is improving and my confidence in tackling bigger projects is definitely building. The area of my project I am most proud of is the texturing which is usually a weak point for me but I found I have improved greatly and the materials mimic the materials that the objects would be in reality. The gold I find is not too over powering but still has a nice glow to it. I am in general pleased with what I have produced however not all the elements I wanted in the environment made it in after just 3 weeks. Im aiming to get them textured and added during polish week.
