Project 2- Audience

Time Plan

Week 1- Initial Research

Week 2- Project information, gathering Intel for proposal

Week 3- Start creating proposal or ideas towards my proposal. Uploading methods

Week 4- (Christmas break) finishing of research if needed

Week 5- (Christmas break) upload and finish research on blog and 2d concept

Week 6- Finish concept piece and start modelling process
 

Week 7- Putting detail into model and closing things up for it

Week 8- Uv the model and make sure its clean

Week 9- Texturing the model , this may take awhile

Week 10- Finish texturing

Week 11- Finish up and check over model and work

Week 12- Conclusion and evaluation finished and typed up. Everything on blog

Introduction

This project is about me getting to know a few game companies from the inside out. Ones that I aspire I will be researching and looking at the way they work to help myself produce my own piece of 2D concept art and 3D model using them as inspiration.

The goal for this project is to use inspiration from the companies I have researched and to get my workflow similar to theirs, that way I get a realization of how It feels to work with a big games company.

Characteristics of my chosen company

Who- The chosen company i am choosing to base my asset on is Epic games, they have created many games in the past they have all been very similar. They tend to use a lot of visual elements in their games to keep it playable. Epic Games are a game studio founded in 1991 Maryland, US. They have created games/helped with Gears of war, Paragon, Unreal tournament and fortnite.
What- What about they company that attracts me to research abut them and work they way they do and gain knowledge from them to create my own piece in the way they would is because of the colours and designs they have within their games. I will go more in depth within my research below. What do they use? They use Unreal engine to texture and place their finished assets since its a game engine. They also use Mudbox and Z-brush to model. I will be using Maya since Z-brush isn't available, but they can be used in a similar way and I also prefer it.
Where- They have many studios ranging from china to different states around America and one being in England, so they have many people working together in a workflow. It usually starts with the concept art, then the modelling and texturing. Then you have the team that impliment it into the game and do the movement. Its all one big workflow and that's why deadlines are set so people to take to long for certain pieces of the game.
When- When do they use the elements of art within their games? They use them in many situations, such as making the environment look darker and gloomier or by making it look lighter and more cheerful, either way both create a personality and a feel for the player.

 

Why- Above is an image from BulletStorm. This scene from the game is overlooking the enviroment and they way they have used the lighting to create more of an appealing view for the player is magnificent. It creates a light tone to the viewer. They are well known for creating environments that you can enjoy while playing the game.

However in this image from gears of war 2, it has more of misty, edgy look to it. Creating a mysterious but yet dangerous feel to it. What creates that is the darker toned colours used such as the dark green overgrown plants. If they were bright green you wouldn't get the same feel from it and it would out of place. So creating the right mood for games is very important and I want to be able to use their techniques to create a mood/personality for my asset piece later on in the project. 

Art Visual Elements

I did a bit of research into the visual elements of art work and when I'm looking at their games I can gain a better insight of whats been hiding within the enviroment of it. 

The art elements are composed of line, shape, form, texture, tone and pattern. They are all used within the game studios for different reasons such as creating promo art.

Research Phase

I will be researching a few companies that inspire me rather it be their games or the way they work to create games/art work for advertisement.

Founded in 1991 Maryland, US.

The first company I have chosen to research is Epic Games. I am a very big fan of there game called Paragon. They have made and helped with multiple games such as gears of war judgement, infinity blade series, unreal tournament and a new game coming up called fortnite. Their style of games are different in many ways but they all have one thing in common, the assets, I've noticed in such games like paragon and infinity blade the weapons and environments are similar by the way they look.
They use the Unreal development kit as their main software and game engine. They also heavily use 3DS Max and Z-brush. Maya was used heavily with Gears of War.

Ubisoft is another company that have created many games I have played and enjoyed in the past. The assassin creeds series and far cry series were one of my favourites. Raymen legends was also a great game, along with tom clancys division.

Ubisoft is a Spanish based game industry in sant Cugat del Valles. It was founded 30 years ago on the 12th march 1986.
I love the creativity between the different types of genres of their games. Such as assassin creed and watch dogs 2. They both are stealth games but both have a great story and graphics (for their time).

Nintendo Nintendo is also a great company and has produced many great games over the past years. A great franchise is called Pokemon and I've played it since i was young. I've played through all the games and the animation is always getting better. Their recent games Pokemon sun and moon have 3D sprites and characters.

The have also created games such as mario and zelda. All games that are slowly looking a lot better in terms of detail for the environment and character features.

This is an image of one of the new Pokemon and the graphics which are for a 3DS are a lot better and the environment for the battle scenes has improved tremendously.

                                        

 

 

                                          Epic Games

Paragon is fairly new but it is already one of my favourite games. This was my first MOBA game and I now play a couple of matches in my spare time. It currently has 25 heroes to play as and fight online with. They also add new hero to the roster every 3 weeks. This keeps the community alive and newer players to keep playing.
A big reason why I like this game a lot is because each character is special and are each based of different themes. They have futuristic robot heroes to fantasy themed heroes. The variations of different heroes such as having human and monsters gives the players more of a choice. However its not only the heroes that attract me to keep playing, its the scenery of the map that you play on. At the moment they only have 1 map but more maps have been leaked and will be coming soon. The environment looks great in game.
There is a jungle section of the map which looks great for MOBA game.

I love the environment within the map and the amount of detail put into the map to give it a realistic feel while playing as your hero.

This is a part of the map and this scene alone I find amazing. It has a fantasy/futuristic feel to it, the mix of genres makes it even more interesting to look at, especially while playing.
The heroes play a big part in this game and each character is unique in their own way. A few of my favourites are Kallari, Grux, Sevarog, Grim.exe and Kwang. I noticed that every character has their own unique weapon that matches the hero so well. Looking at the different types of weapons and the way they work while the heroes use them makes me want to create my own based on how most of the paragon ones look. Here is some of my favourite weapons.

As you can see each character has a unique weapon in the game used to defend their selves. My favourite is kallari, she used to thin daggers that look fairly simple but have a lot of small details on them. 

Reviews and what people think of it 

I have done some research on how other people see the game since I cant base this all on my opinion.

I have looked through various reviews such as mmos.com and trustedreviews.com. They both give the same opinion about the graphics, calling them stunning and pretty good for a moba. They go into the enviroment of the game and how it has a unique look to it. The colors bring a welcoming feel to it even though its a tactical fighting game. It shows that their showing the true power of what their unreal engine can produce.

Artists

I have also found a 3D character artist that has worked on a few of the paragon heroes, finding the rest is very difficult but I luckily have found one. The artist is called Mike Kime. 

He has created a great character called Steel and he is showcasing this model on Art station. He used 3DS Max and Z-brush to create him. The texturing however takes place in Unreal Engine which we have access to.  

The concept artist of Steel called James Hawkins. He also created Steels signature weapon which is a wide shield that he carry's with him.

 

I love the design of his shield as it looks different and unique. The shield could also be mistaken for other objects but the way Steel uses it you would think its a shield. In the game it expands from a small circle on this back into a wide long shield. This adds a unique feature to the shield which is interesting. He used Photoshop to create this concept piece.

I have also found another concept artist for Epic Games called Zak Foreman, he has created a few characters and a recent one added the game called Crunch, a gigantic boxing robot.

He used Photoshop and has a few images of how he got the final image for his concept piece.

 

He uses different angles to show what the rest of the parts look like on crunch.

He then started to develop in with more detail. The ideas for each always surprise me. The robotic design is very appealing and the fact that he doesn't look like the average robot makes it even better.

 

He also created the 3D model of it and has video of it on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZgV2ndbArU 

Epics artist tend to work individually and then send of concept pieces for the 3D modellers work. Each hero they produce has a different personality and mood behind them. The concept pieces for each hero's already give an idea of their behavior.

Right now I feel they attracting their target audience which is teens. A lot of the characters are cool looking and have a different feel to them. The attract the right audience by not making the characters too kiddy looking or soft. They have made several scary monstrous characters such as Rampage, Countess and Sevarog. They keep this fantasy/Futuristic appeal to the game that a lot of teens are into.

All the different type of hero's help create a tactical, action, team based MOBA game. It keeps you playing because of the unique differences for each hero and how they can be used, attracting a lot of league of legends fans but for console. They do this so it doesn't get named as a shooting/hack and slash game. They want to keep the appeal of moba and not a online shooter. This is because they have ranged and fighter hero's. A few ranged hero's have guns/magic so its like a shooter third person for newcomers using them.

I can use Photoshop and Unreal to texture and to to create my concept piece for my own work. However because i am doing weaponry type objects and not a character I would have to create a concept piece of it and use Maya/Mud box to create it, like steels shield it was created on Photoshop then brought into Z-brush.

The Process 

Epic Games are known to use Unreal Engine for their games and its a lot quicker for them to use that. Their process starts within Photoshop, creating the concept art for the model/weapon or assets for the character. They also create the textures in Photoshop if they are creating new skins for the characters such as in paragon. They then take the model designs into Z-brush or Maya. I will be using Maya for creating my piece since I'm familiar with it and I will find it easier to use. For when creating skins they will take it straight to Unreal and texture the already made character models/asset pieces and build the material within unreal. I will also be using unreal when texturing my piece, plus unreal is a great platform for creating materials. Its easy to use and has many options to alter the way you want your material to look like when complete. I found a lot of the information from the artists I had found, many of the artists I cant find. The ones I did find stated the little process they used and the software they like to use to complete the process.

Style of their games

Their games all tend to have  high quality designs for either props, environments and characters. A lot of their games made. They bring a great feeling towards how the game will go down.  The designs in games such as gears of war with the prop designs, this sort of style is in infinity blade. 

Although the graphics arnt the greatest i like the designs for the shields and swords, which is what om mainly focusing on, the designs and how the can change the feel of a game by making it more interesting.

I like the way they match the style of the character. This makes it a more interesting look.

The graphics for gears of war are pretty good and the overall environment of the battlefields and designs for the guns and enemies are very unique, which is why its such a good game. They keep you interesting and making you visualise the area more.

Such as the designs for the enemies and aliens. The are magnificent and it keeps you motivated to play against them throughout the game.

Since epic games texture in unreal, its safe to say their texturing is pretty well done throughout their games, which is one element that make them stand out from others.

The tones of mood are changed a few times throughout their games, either it be dangerous and deadly to a fun calm but yet chaotic mood. Such as their very old games in 1993-1997, which were just chaotic fun simple games such as 7th legion and seek and destroy. But the deadly slash and fighting games are with the titles of Unreal Championship and Tournament games.

Visual elements

They have a lot of bright colours in their old games and they brought that colourful but yet deadly style back in with paragon. As the maps have a unique art style to them with colours that can lighten the mood of battle. They use colours that stand out a lot such as in gears of war with the aliens. They have unique colours that make that specific alien stand out. They seem to portray that the best within the games, making each character unique and have its own colours and mood to them. So you get a better feeling of the characters.

Fortnite has a colourful set to it although its a pvp survival game that is yet to release. But its a great example to show how colourful designs can work within a game as long as its used right.

Most of their games are cartoon style based but have high detail within the characters such as the paragon heroes and fortnite monsters.

This image is also a good example of colours used to create a specific feel towards characters.

This attracts a lot of gamers that like to use different characters and go up against a variety of people within the games. So they communicate their games within the colours and characters they create, creating the mood, the personality within the game from the variety of characters and also the fact that it doesn't look boring or unattractive. If you want people to be playing your game a lot since most of their games are pvp based, you need to make it  constantly attractive, making the surroundings unique and eye catching so people don't get bored of the maps/enviroment. They do this very well since they had over 1million players on paragon for a few months and the numbers are still very high for a game that's still in beta.

Implementing it into my own work

I will be implementing their great visual elements into my work for this project. I want to be able to create a weapon/shield with unique touch to it, using unusual colours to make it look eye catching within the game. The asset will be designed for a character in the game if i was to put it in a realistic situation. So I will have to make the asset look attractive and using bright colours to give it a strong personality and not a dull sight. I will be using unreal to create the material for my piece. Most of the assets created for paragon such as the one below look unique but have a cartoon feel to it making it look non-realistic but the detail within the weapon makes it real within their world.

Artist Inspiration

He created a hero called Grim.exe which I like to play as a lot and also the gun that came with him. However it doesn't exactly look like a gun so I like the unique different style of it.

I love the style of the futuristic weapon and it can pass as not looking like a weapon as well which makes it even more unique.

I was firstly looking into different weapon designs but since the college is specific with what we create so we cannot create weapons to kill etc. So i am looking into creating an old artefact or futuristic model that not used to kill but to show how  powerful technology is or show off an artistic piece of weaponry at a museum. This way I can still go ahead with a weapon based design but make it look more decorative and for show. 

So I have started drawing up a few sketches and experiments to see what weapon type I want to start with. I've also looked up different designs that already exist to give me some more ideas here are some.

I really like this Bow design. The design looks simple but yet unique with the futuristic type handles and arrow with it. The colours look really nice on it as well.

I like this design because it has cool clean look to it, i want to a create a small sword similar to this but to be able to change its shape and maybe turn into something else. To make the design even more interesting to look at.

This one looks odd but cool, I like it because it could be two different types of weaponry, a knife and a dart. These weapons are all for show though. 

This one is cool because its too different weapons combined and can be switched easily without it looking complicated.

This one looks like it has more of a complicated mechanism within it as it turns from a hammer type sword to a wide bow. The design looks really cool, giving it a futuristic/fantasy type look to it. Making it almost look magical.

This isnt actually a lance but I found it and i think its a piece of machinery but it looks like it could be a great futuristic lance. The model gives it a weaponized type look. 

This is a concept piece of a shield i found and it looks very interesting. I like the way the machinery on the machine look. I may end up doing a shield as it may be easier to do because of the college rules.

 I want to create an interesting model of and these images I've found are very helpful towards my sketches that i have been doing. 

A big game called Skyrim which i am also looking into to get some more ideas if I choose to give it more of a fantasy look.

This is a good image each type of weapon because it shows the differences from all the swords and how they all have small details and unique shapes that make them different from each other. This makes them look better as they don't all look the same.

Shields

Shield have been around for thousands of years mainly used as a piece of equipment to defend against weapons in combat but to also protect themselves or others from harm. 

The evolution of the shield depends on what its used for, Romans had long big shields that they put together to stop overhead arrows. They also had small rounded ones for one on one combat with a sword/spear. However shield were made from different material. Iron is the most common followed by metal and weaker materials such as hard wood that is used a lot in Africa and Hawaii with the colourful looking shields. See through plastic or glass has been implemented in modern day police shields to make it easier to shield against objects while enforcing place or people.

However it wasn't always about how they performed, many shields look very appealing because of the way they look. Many have different patterns and colours mostly in relation to who is using them. They can nice decorative pieces to look at in museums or in homes.

 This is a police shield and it has been designed to be long and light so you can move around quick with it. It has also has see through rectangle applied to it to make it easier to cover your head while looking.

Patterns such as these ones on shields make them appealing to look. However patterns such as this one can have meanings such as the colours used are the same as the tribes flag/clothing.This however is more fragile than the police one as it as ,made from hard wood and straw. Although the police one was made to deflect bullets this one isn't. Each shield is made with an intent to protect from specific weapon that can bring harm, this one were made to protect against spears r swords, hence why its round and larger.

The top one is Hawaiian shield with a great looking pattern on it and below it is a Romans long shield. As you can see the long shields used by the Romans were used mainly as a group to stop overhead arrows from a distance. However their are disadvantages with each shield design. These two would be heavy to carry and will cause you to have sluggish movement. So I must consider the factors of who will be holding my shield and how it will effect them. Defensively it is great but for combat it wouldn't be the best option up close to enemies. 

The Spartans had a great shield that could be used very well defensively when together but also greatly designed for close up combat. As it isn't huge they can move around easier with it in one hand. Many even had a strap so it could go on your forearm which made it easier to move around. The shape of the shield gives space for the other hand to swing a sword or through a spear.

Now that I've got a realism on the shields from the past its time to look at some shields in games/anime's. Made up shields have had and still do some wacky designs to them, either they're huge compared to the person holding it or have some crazy monstrous design to them. Shields like that may not be very viable in real life combat or for the person holding them but in games you can get away with that deepening on the character that is holding it. Making the character really strong to able to carry it like a feather is an example of what your imagination can produce with creating the type of person that will be using my shield in combat.
However not all shields are used in combat as I said they can be decorative. They can also be re-modeled and made smaller so its easier to place in homes. So I may also consider making one that's made to be decorative and not for combat. I like the type of colours and designs that can be put on the shields.

Final fantasy is a good example of having crazy good designs for weaponry. I have found a few shields that look great and have a unique look to them.

I find this one very appealing and would be better as a decorative piece instead of a shield for combat as it doesn't look very combat efficient.

 

This one however is shield combined with a lance like weapon. Shields that can change their form i find very interesting as it can be very helpful in combat. Hi-tech/futuristic designs of shield are my favorite. I also like the old fantasy looking shields such as this one below. 

 

This character is from Paragon and has a great shield that matches the rest of his Armour and sword.

Another aspect of shields are the different textures they have. As the final fantasy one above has a smooth surface but Greystones shield has a rough metallic, bumpy texture to it with a little scale-like layer over it.

Shields such as the ones from star wars have a great futuristic design as it has an imitated holographic surface.

It has a such a simple design but looks so good. It looks similar to the Shield of the Waganda in Uganda.

 

I am now going to create some of my own designs and do some fantasy, futuristic and old shields.

Concept Piece

I started by drawing out random designs of shield of different types , basing some of my research and implementing that into my own work. I eventually chose one and then began to edit it with the things I thought would look nice with it and developed it to a point where I like it enough to Photoshop it.

Here are my first few sketches for ideas.

 I chose the one on the far left. I was designing a few that had weird unique to them, with all sorts of patterns and weird aesthetics. After o had chose the one on the far left I began to develop it and see what changes I could do to improve it.

 

 I don't have much development but when I came to the idea of having two mini shields being able to connect and de-attach I was satisfied with the idea and what i wanted to then take into Photoshop and start adding colour and detail to it. Like Epic do a lot they use weird and unique colours to make the character assets stand out, so I followed with that idea and gave them colours that bring a bright atmosphere such as yellow, green and blue. But i made them slightly darker as it makes it look older than brand new.

I also added in battle scratches and dirt to the Photoshop version to give it more of a dangerous feel to it.

Above was the first experiment design which I took from paper to test how it would look like if I switched it up a bit, this of course didn't look right and I had no idea how it would logically work. So i decided to stick with the original design below to model.

Above is a quick example of how i created the dirt detail for the final concept image. I pretty much used the pen tool a lot and used the opacity and brush tool to create a nice shade of dirt and detail to my shield to also show the lighting. 

This is my shield and it originally was supposed to be one long shield like the one in the middle but i decided to give it a unique look and add two other shields that can be attachable if needed. The shield is designed to suit up to people 6'1 or under. Since in combat for defending yourself the shield will cover the majority of your body, knees and below the nose. The side shields can added to and create more defensive around your shoulders and arm. As you may be thinking how heavy are the shields. Well all the shields have a layer of leather under the bronze material that overcoats it. The paint on it is designed to make it look stronger and heavier than it is. The main shield weighs around 24lbs as the average long shield which is made from bronze leather and wood that can weigh from 18- 25lbs. 

However the side shields will weigh 15lbs combined to 30lbs. But is best advised to only use the side shields with far ranged combat and then quickly detach the side components and head to battle with the main shield for close up combat. The side shield are made from the same materials but has a wood and leather layer in it, to make it stronger against bullets rather that sword/close combat weapons. The side side metal components barely weigh anything but they connect and securely keep the shield tight together. The components are slightly slanted behind the main shield and so it creates a V shape but further out. Their will also be a leather rounded handle behind the back of the main shield in the centre of it. It should fit great with the average arm size and length for 5'10-6'1 people.

Asset List 

Modelling time frame-
Main Shield body-12Hours (2mondays)
Side Shields-9hours(1monday)
Black stripes aesthetics and attach to shield shape-2hours
Yellow shield pieces aesthetics-2hours
Side connectors-1hour
Shield handle- 1hour
Total hours-27hours
UV time frame-
Main shield- 2hours
Side shields- 1hour
Black stripes- 30mins
Yellow pieces- 30mins
Shield connectors-30mins
Shield handle- 1hour
Total hours-5.30hours
Texturing time frame-
Main shield- 2hours
Side shield-1hour
Black stripes-30mins
Yellow pieces-30mins
Shield connectors-20mins
Shield handle-1hour
Total Time-5.20hours

I have based my time frame on how I have worked previously in projects with modelling, texturing and uv'ing. I have game my self a lot of time since I knowing not the fastest modeller, but limited myself for uv'ing and texturing since I know I'm not that bad with it. Plus it allows me to give myself more time if needed to go back and edit over my model. However it also allows me to give me time for annotating my blog and edit recordings throughout the week at home or in college. Also if this plan doesn't go the way i pictured it I can write up my issue in my evaluations which will be good to reflect on for future purposes.

Modelling Phase

I have started modelling but before i start anything I have set my grid and put in a 6ft man to compare my shield to. 

I have set my pivot point as well. The reason for setting my grid is that when i put it into unreal engine it is the right size.

I took it into unreal to make sure my grid is set up and ready so when I take it into the game engine it will come out at the right size.

I also have started experimenting with my shields. I then imported my Photoshop image to model from.
Here is a video of me creating some of pieces and putting them together so its easier to texture. The VLC cut off most the time during the recordings so Im going to stick with screenshots later on when i do my UVs and texturing.

In this video I was creating the little aesthetics on the shields such as the black stripes and the yellow decorations.

 For each little aesthetic on my on shield I made separately so its easier to texture and so that I extrude them easier.

In this image was showing the geometry of my shield pieces which i will be going over and cleaning up.

 Here Im sorting out the last aesthetic on my two side shields. I used the edge extrude to get a cleaner look with it.

 I then extruded all the faces out to make come out like it supposed to.

 I cleaned up the geometry on the main aesthetic of my shield.

This is an image of all the completed parts and i gave them dull colours similar to what i want when i properly texture it, This helps giving me a better idea of the type of colours Im going to use.

In this video I was adjusting my placement of my black stripes and made them look attached to my shield rather than floating a cm away from it.

The issue

Below is an image of new shield and you can tell by the cleaned up geometry, the old one i recently created had parts missing in unreal(which I will show later). So I made new one thinking my old one was corrupted or the UVS were broken.

Here i have a few images of the process since I did videos on VLC but they got corrupted, however i took the same way of creating the second one as i did with the first so all I had to do was create it cleaner.

I then added the handle which will be made out of leather.

I decided to go with a more rounded one which will also be able to around the wrist/arm since how big it is. I bevelled it so its more smoother.

Uv and Texturing

I then started to sort out my UVS and used the tool automatic to split them up.

I used the sew, unfold and cut tools to arrange my net and combine them accordingly.

I combined them soI had the back, front and sides, this made it easier to texture over as well. Plus it looks cleaner

Here I completed the main shield UVs and arranged them appropriately.

I then started on the side shield UVs, my geometry wast the greatest but I managed to clean it a bit so that it worked in Unreal.

This is the yellow side plates this didn't need much adjusting since its all one colour/texture.

Same with the other small ones they're all the same texture so I just needed the main parts of it large, so it doesn't stretch.
These arn't the actual textures for my shield I will be making them after I UV these first.

Texturing in Unreal

 

I started by texturing my main shield first and I used a rough spotty pre set brush which helped me give it a dirty rough texture to my dark blue colour. Instead of having dirt on the shield like in my concept art I prefer a rough dirty texture one it, making it look like its loosing colour instead of having mud and dirt dust on it. I feel like this gives it an older look than just making it look unclean.

 This is the normal map for it and it came out with the right rough but yet smooth texture I want.

I also added the scars/scratches on the paint job from varies damages on it. Giving it an old rusty look.
Below is my side shields I gave them the same old rusty look with a darker green rather  than a lighter green.

 This is my normal map and it also came out pretty well.

As you can see I improved the texture on my side shields and which made them look a lot more realistic, the reason for this is because the dirt texture didn't look right. So i decided to give it more detail like how the paragon assets are. Plus the texture wasn't very good anyway, so I improved it.

This is my metal connectors texture. I used the noise filter over and over again, with the blurring tool to create a smooth scratched metallic texture. 

I used very simple nodes for the creation of most of my smaller textures since it didn't need much to create what i wanted.

 This is the texture for my black aluminium painted stripes on my shield.

This is the texture I'm using for the yellow aesthetics on my shield.

This is the finished handle and the UV map. Below is the texture i created for it in Photoshop. I used the shattered glass technique to create a nice leather texture and gave it a brown colour.

The normal and base map 

Below is how it looks in Unreal, I like the way it came out.

I made each texture so that the pixels worked with how large and small the objects I was texturing was. This was helpful so that I didn't need as much detail for the smaller objects but I needed more for the bigger ones such as the shields.

This is a close up of the leather on my bulky handle. I wanted to give it fresh looking leather look as if its been kept well looked.

Errors/Changes

I had a few errors here and there but the main one was that my shield had broken pieces in it when i sent it to unreal. So I created a new one but it still gad the same issue. So I eventually found out the issue and it was to do with the geometry, I had a few errors were the edges weren't connected and the angles leading up to the point of my shield were very sharp, making it hard for Unreal.

This is the progress of each time I inserted it into Unreal for part of the shield that was cleaned and eventually, the one on the far left worked and it was because of the sharp angles of my geometry.

A little change I made near the end of the project was to turn my yellow shield aesthetics to a bronze colour. I thought it would match better and the yellow is a little bit to bright. I also chose this because it gives it more of a eye-catching old look to it like how epic do with their hero assets.

This is the base and normal map of the bronze texture I created within a few minutes.

Here is a picture of the before and after for the change of the colour.

This is the bronze texture in Unreal and I used 2 simple material expression constant nodes to give it a metallic shiny look. The normal map gave it a old ridged look that added to the feel of the shield. I was considering giving it a rustier look but It wouldn't of matched the rest of the shield.

I aimed to make the textures as clean as possible as the texture epic game use are pretty good in unreal and they like to give off a realistic visual even though its cartoon based.

This is what the yellow looked like before the bronze texture. I felt it looked to boring and bright at the same time.

These errors ended up pushing my expected time I would plan on modelling and texturing the model than I thought I would looking back at my schedule. I took about another lesson longer to finished the main shield and texturing it since I had the unreal issue. However I finished the whole model within the end of the week and the annotating and uploading images was something I can do at home so I wasn't very worried about that.

I would count this as a change but in maya before figuring out a good way of completing my model to look nice compared to my original photoshop design, I created a bunch and I left them around so I could later on come back and look ta my debvolpment. Below is the older/experiments, trying to find a easier way to create it.

Im glad I eventually got a good looking model for my design since the old one looked really bad, so im glad I found better techniques and ways to create it looking nicier and more alike to my original design.

Finished textures on Model

These are some high resolution screenshots that i took after adding all the created textures onto my model in unreal, with many of the textures I didn't use a complicated system to make them look nice, I just used normal maps and spec maps for most. I also used the simple material expression constant nodes to create the realistic feel.

So far i have followed the exact way epic games would use to create a model/asset and texturing it in unreal.

 This image is focusing on the connectors for my shields, I wanted to give it a gritty metallic look which I think I have achieved. I'm glad that it connects well and matches the rest of the design.

This is the black stripes on the shield, I also intended to have the rectangular bumps on them as a little small aesthetic change that wasn't on my 2D design, i prefer it looking like this than just plain and gritty.

 This is a close up of my black stripes and the yellow side pieces. I also like the way the blue main shield colour came out on the shield. I gave a little green tint to it, to show the colours rusting slightly on the shield. Like epic do in paragon they had rust and scars on their characters and weapons to give them a little bit of personality.
Like with this skin of khaimera, his axes have a glow on it which give it a small unique feature for the rest of the skin.

Below is a close up of the scars/rust on the shield, this is a battle scar and it shows that the shield has been damaged before/used. It makes it look more valiant/dangerous to show that it has battle scars.

I'm happy with the way the scar came out as it looks like its also rusting a bit which shows how old the shield is.

Evaluation

(I know its over 500 words but I answered every valuable point for the evaluation with detail)

This project was called Audience.  The main goal for this project was to research a chosen game company that I aspire and to create something within their art style and the process they make their assets/small environments.  We were expected to also create a 2D piece for our asset/environment. To achieve the requirements of this project I chose a company which I aspire a lot, Epic has created one of newly favourite games to play called Paragon. I chose them because I love the art style they use for their games. It’s a cartoony look but with detail, that was the main reason I chose them since I felt my skills could match their art style well.  So therefore my audience was that company, so I decided to start thinking of what I could create for them using their process for what they would do to create models.

I started to do research on them and collect valuable information such as the process and what programmes they use in order to complete their assets. I eventually noticed how much I like the look of the weapons and assets for the hero’s in paragon.  Since Epic had made this game I thought it would be a good idea to create a hero asset such as a weapon however I wasn’t allowed to create an exact weapon since it was against the college rules, I would of had to disguise is it with a unique design. I then came across the idea of creating a shield as I liked the look of a lot of them when I researched a few online. I started to draw a few and research the differences between different shields and what they were made from/how they were made. All this little components from my research helped me develop a final design from various sketches. I tried to give it a unique different look so it didn’t look like a simple shield with simple materials. The style I created my 2D and 3D model in was the cartoony look but with detailed textures which I created in Photoshop. Photoshop was used a lot within this project since I used it to create my 2D concept art for Maya to model from. The main programme used was Maya since some artists such as Mike Kime (who works for Epic games) use Maya and Z-brush to create his models. Maya was used to create my experiments of the shield and the final product.  Unreal was also used to render out high resolution pictures of my shield and too add and edit my textures I created.

I had learnt many new tips and techniques during this project; the main lesson learnt was to always try to keep my geometry clean for mesh so that I wouldn’t have any issue when putting it into Unreal. I learnt a few tips in Photoshop such as using filters to create effects for rust, bumps quicker than hand making every little detail. The type of research I did for my chosen company was combined of, why, who, where and how they created game assets and the way they used colours for various reasons such ass creating mood and tone in game scenes, creating personality’s for the characters and their assets.

The research I did for shields got me thinking of the size of the shield and the reasoning behind the shape of it, since every shield had a reason to have a specific shape. The materials were also something I thought about and how heavy it would be with certain metals and wood. These helped me make big decisions throughout my project. Now I decided to make out of a strong bronze metal and is layered underneath with leather. The design of the shield is to be deceiving and to make it look heavier and stronger than it actually is. This makes it an intimidating shield on the battle field. I ended up making decisions for the colours last since I wanted to get the design complete first. I then looked up patterns on shields and some of the African colours on their shields looked very bright and gave the shield a strong value to look at. So I decided to do the same and gave them bright but matching colours. I took a lot of inspiration from the hero “Greystone” from paragon as he has a shield that is very shiny but with slick bright colours that made it look very valuable. It influenced me in a way to use colours that stand out but also to have a meaning behind them. I wanted to get a lot of detail into my textures so on Photoshop I ended taking up more time on texturing than I had planned, the reason for this was to find the perfect shade of colours for my shield and the perfect realism of the marks and bumps I wanted on it. So that slowed down my texturing phase therefore having less time for annotating but I did a lot of that at home.

I had a few problems throughout this project; an annoying one was the VLC media corrupting for most of my Maya creation videos. So I stuck to screenshots throughout the rest of the project. A big one was the geometry of most of my pieces for the shields. I had a few unclean pieces so I re-done them to get a better outcome in Unreal. The main one was the big main shield which I had to re-do twice because pieces were missing when I sent it to unreal. This was because my geometry had to be cleaned up and I had a lot of sharp edges that Unreal couldn’t pick up, in result leaving holes. That used up more time than I thought but I’m glad the problem was solved, so I’ve learnt from that to always try to keep my mesh clean even if it’s something small.  I also had a few changes from my original design; I had made the main blue colour and green colour on my shields a darker shade instead of having it really bright. Also I gave the yellow colour for my side pieces of my shield a more darker bronze yellow colour which I mentioned in my blog.

Overall I am happy with my project and how it’s devolved over the stages to become the final product. I feel I have matched my company’s art style in various ways. I am mostly happy with the way the textures came out and after I adjusted them in Unreal, the textures gave it the final touch and if I hadn’t of invested much time into the texturing the shield would of looked nowhere as good as it looks now. It wouldn’t have given off the feeling of it matching my company’s style. Something I wasn’t too keen on was the way my side shields look, I regret not going back and putting a bit more time to make them look better, I should have smoothed it down like my main shield and added edges to keep the form.  However I stuck to my schedule pretty well and the times were pretty accurate that I had originally put down but the Unreal issue set me back a bit but overall it wasn’t a problem since I did a lot of my catching up/completing work at home for the blog. But all of the time put into this project was worth it as I learnt a lot from this project and having to use our skills we picked up from our texturing project to then implement into this one was great. It helped me put the skills I learnt to good use, giving myself an easier time completing task for the project quicker and cleaner. Using Maya again helped pick up on a few new tips on creating awkward shapes with using fewer polygons but with a cleaner geometry.  I learnt how to use some new tools when sewing and cleaning up the UV’s.  I picked up on new ways of creating textures in Photoshop I haven’t used before so I can apply all this new knowledge into my FMP, also looking back t this project to see my improvement and development of skills.

What I can improve on in my next project would most likely be on using my time more on modelling more than anything since I know will get my annotating and video editing at home. Also my modelling in general and geometry will be something I defiantly want to improve on for the next last project.