Investigation Board

Investigation Board

To continue on with the project I got some feedback from peers and tutors on what I can add to the scene to improve it, such as assets and composition. In response it was suggested that I fill up the empty space of the walls and floor. From this I had the idea of creating an investigation board made from newspaper articles and photographs. To start this piece I collected a variety of relevant German WW2 images such as newspaper articles, Nazi photographs, Documents and a map of central berlin during the war. To create this asset I will use a x2048 UV scale.

 Process

Once I had enough images to use for the investigation board I took them into Photoshop and arranged them in a way that I thought worked well. Once the images were set out I exported it to Maya where I traced it to create the mesh for the individual pieces of paper. I also added some folded corners in geometry try and make the pieces stand out from each other more. Once unwrapped I took the mesh into Photoshop to make the paper elements and made the remaining back board and components in Substance Painter.

Extra Props

Bottles and cans

The next thing for me to make were the smaller assets such as cans of food rations and some empty glass bottles. I found references for the kinds of food and cans that were used in Germany during WW2. These are going to be very low topology assets and I am going to use an x512 texture scale for both the cans and the bottles.

 

Process

For these cans and bottles I made 2 variants of each. To make the cans I modelled in Maya and baked in Substance Painter. I then textured the metal and the paper for the outside of the can. To finish off the texturing I took text from photo references into Photoshop and created the albedo and roughness maps for them. For the bottles I made a simple albedo and roughness map in substance and created the rest of the material in UE4.

Rug

Now that I had added something to the wall it was time to try and break up the space on the floor. To do this I decided to create an ornate rug. To do this I collected a variety of different rug designs and chose one that was good enough quality image and was fitting for the scene and time period. 

 

To create the rug I simply took the image into Maya, traced, unwrapped the UV and took the snapshot into Photoshop for texturing the albedo. The last thing to do now was to create the normal map in Substance Painter and bring the asset into the scene.  

Lightbulbs

As one of the main light sources in the scene is coming from the top of the stairs it was time to create the lightbulbs and wires to go with them. To make the lightbulbs I used 2 different materials, both on an x512 scale.

Process

To start with I modelled out the lightbulb for the top of the sitars with a basic wire to go with it. To add to the composition of the room downstairs I also decided to create a lightbulb to hang from the ceiling as currently the floorboards are blank. For this asset I made it so the wire would hang down from the ceiling to add some character and history. 

Paper and Documents

To carry on with trying to fill up a bit of wall space I started work on collecting some more images that I could use to portray some narrative to the scene. To do so I gathered some old postcards, passport, map of Europe, random documents and blueprints.

As the postcards and the smaller documents were the same shape I could use the same x2048 UV twice for these images. Once these were finished it was just a matter of adding them to the scene.

Water Container

Metal Water Container

Another asset left for me to make were some large water containers. For this I found multiple references for the design, both old and refurbished versions. This asset should be no more than 1,000 Tris and I will be using an x1024 UV scale.

Process

With sufficient references this was quite easy to model and make. Once I had baked out the normal map I took it into Substance painter to texture the painted metal which I colour picked from the reference. Finally I too the albedo map into Photoshop to create the text to go on the sides of the container.

Pillows

Pillows

The next asset that I decided to make was a pillow to lay on the bed. I wanted to create an old well used pillow, and to do this I decided that I needed to use nCloth in Maya. I found a reference of a design and pillow type that I liked and started the modelling process. This will be a very low poly asset and I will use an x1024 texture size.

 

Process

To start this I made a very basic pillow shape and smoothed it out lots of geometry. Once I had this shape I started using the nCloth functions to collapse it on itself to give it the old, saggy, well-worn look.

For the texturing I took it into substance painter and used a fabric material as a base. I then painted blue stripes over the top and added some stains. Once this asset was made I took it into UE4, and duplicated them on the bed to fill the space.

Type Writer

Type Writer

At this point in the project I thought it would be a good time to start work on the main narrative item for the scene, the type writer. For this piece I had already gathered some references for what I wanted to make. I did some extra research looking into the mechanisms and how the machine functions as well before I started modelling because I wanted to get an idea of how many different parts I was going to need to make. For this asset I will use an x2048 UV scale and due to high amounts of detail I will aim for 4,000 Tris.

Process

To start with I blocked out the type writers separate objects so I knew how many pieces I was going to need and what can be duplicated. To make the keys I made 4 different lever mechanisms for under the keys on the separate levels. All the edges for the keys are the same and I duplicated 46 separate UV’s for the tops of the keys.

 

Once I had the high and low poly objects for each individual piece of the type writer I baked it out and took it into Substance Painter. I did all the texturing apart from the letters on the keys, paint on the front of the type writer and the writer on the paper which I did in Photoshop. In Photoshop I made the albedo map and then duplicated it across to the roughness and metallic maps so that the values are correct for the paint.

 

Door

Door

ow that the main bottom area was coming along nicely I decided it was time to finish the area at the top of the stairs by making the door. For this I collected some references of some different styles and designs and ended up basing my design off the far right example. This piece will be very low poly and I will use an x2048 UV map. 

 

Process

To make the door I modelled it in Maya, and baked and textured it in substance designer. I modelled the frame and the door together as it won’t be opening in this scene. When it came to adding dirt and damage I added some scratched around the handle and at the bottom with some grime. Once the asset was finished, all that was left was to take it into UE4 and add it to the scene.

Lamp

Lamp

The next asset that I wanted to create for the scene was the lamp that would be situated on the desk in the corner. I wanted to make this next as it would allow me to finalise the lighting in the room for the assets that are in it so far. I found a good set of references for a lamp design from that period and so used that to base my model on. To make this asset I knew that I had to use 2 separate UV maps as I would be making glass for the bulb and the lamp. I decided that I was going to make the lamp in x2048 and the glass in x1024. The lamp should be no more than 2,000 Tris.

Process

I modelled out both the glass and the metal lamp together as different objects and materials. Once the maps were baked out for the metal lamp I textured everything in Substance Painter. To make the glass I create the albedo and the roughness in substance but created the glass material in UE4. Once this was in place in the scene I could get to work on fixing the lighting by making it darker and making this lamp and the light at the top of the stairs the 2 main light sources.

 

Coal Bucket

Coal Bucket

The next thing for me to make is to fill the space between the chest and the boiler. To do this I am going to create a coal bucket with coal to help fill up that area. For this I found a solid reference to go from, which was a common design for this era in Germany. I also want to create some coal to go with it to make the bucket look full and to spread around it on the floor.

Process

For the modelling process I made the entire bucket in Maya but decided to make the coal in zBrush because they are difficult shapes and would be much easier to achieve in zBrush. I made 3 separate pieces of coal which were all drastically different. Once they were modelled I spread them around in the bottom of the bucket so that I could bake them across. As well as having coal baked to the normal on the bottom of the inside of the bucket I also added some of the modelled pieces into the bucket. By combining the geometry with the normal map I should achieve the look of a deep and full coal bucket because the normal should show through the gaps in the geometry on top.

 

Texturing

To texture this piece I took the model and the coal into Substance Painter. This asset is a very dirty, damaged and well used piece so most of the time texturing went into making the dirt and damage.

Once the asset and coal was textured I took them into UE4 and arranged the coal on the ground in the scene near the bucket.

Steamer Trunk

Steamer Trunk

The next asset that I decided to make would be the steamer trunk. This is an item that is well travelled and one that the character has used for a long time. For this particular asset I had already gathered some references in the last unit, and so I took inspiration from a variety of them and started modelling in Maya. This piece will also be x2048 and should be no more than 3,000 Tris.

Process

The main reference I used for this piece was the middle top picture. I really liked the design of this one and seemed very fitting for time period. Although I will be using this as a reference there will be many changes in the final product.

For this asset I did the majority of the modelling In Maya, accept for the draw handles. I used zBrush for the handles because I wanted to get a fancier, intricate design on them.

Texturing

I have started doing my normal and A/O baking in Substance Painter as opposed to xNormal now as it seems to be faster and more consistent for me. Once I had the maps baked out I started work on the texturing. I wanted to get a nice range of different materials for this piece to put some contrast in the roughness. In the end I decided to go with a wooden base, iron trim and structure with brass handle bases. Also as this is meant to be a very well used and warn trunk I added plenty of damage variants and dirt build up.

Bed

Bed frame and mattress

Now that all the structural pieces have been made it was time to move back to making assets to fill up the room. As I was aiming to make the larger assets first I decided to start work on the bed frame and mattress that will go in the corner of the room. To start with I gathered a bunch of examples as reference so I could decide on a design. This piece will be an x2048 UV scale and I will aim for it to be no more than 2000 Tris although this can change depending on the design.

Process

Once I had an idea of a design and dimensions I started work modelling in Maya. To be efficient as possible I made the bed frame using lots of procedural parts. By doing this I can get the most out of the UV space as by duplicating the separate parts they will be using up less space. For the bed I made 10 separate pieces, then baked them out in xNormal.

For this piece I wanted to go for an old painted metal frame with chipped paint and rust. By using Substance painter and a combination of different techniques such as generators and free hand painting.

The next thing to do was create the mattress to sit on top of the frame. For this I created the pattern for the buttons in Maya and then took it into zBrush to make it less uniform in shape by making it more wavy and old. I then baked this out and took it into Substance painter to texture, by adding stains and dirt it was easy to add some age.

Structural Elements

Beams and planks

Before I continued with creating more prop type assets I started work on creating the structural wood elements for the scene. This included creating the central beam and some planks to use around the room. For these I wanted to do them in the same style and pipeline as I did with the steps on the stairs using zBrush as I was happy with how that style turned out previously. For these pieces I used a single X2048 UV map.

Process

To create these pieces I modelled out the low poly blocks in Maya and took them into zBrush. As before I used basic brushes and smoothing to sculpt some grain and flow of the wood. I baked these out in xNormal and took them into substance painter. Once again this involved using generators to add some dirt and wear. Throughout the process of completing this asset I was thinking about how these pieces would go together structurally.   

The last thing to do was to add them to the scene to add some structure to the room. Once I had brought these into UE4 I put the beam in place and then duplicated the same plank multiple times around the room, each time changing the scale and rotation each time meaning that I can get multiple variations out of the same asset.

Floorboards

The final step for making the wooden structural elements in the scene was to make the floorboards for the ceiling in the scene. As I really like the finish of the wood through the technique I have been using before, I decided to use the same process again for these. Once again I am going to use a x2048 UV scale.

Process

Once again I used the same process of using zBrush to make the high poly. I made 2 separate floorboards for the scene. By doing this I can duplicate them in 4 different ways giving 8 different variation and allowing me to avoid any repetition.

Once I had these in place it was time to work on the lighting. For this I used a directional light and created some light shafts and bloom from it in order to make the god rays. Once these were in a tweaked the values and colour.

 

Stairs and Railing

Stairs

The next asset for me to start work on is the basement stairs. To start with I looked into many existing examples of different types of steps and stairs. After collecting a variety of different references I had a good idea of what I wanted to make for the scene. For this piece I am going to use an x2048 UV scale and I aim for it to be no more than 500 Tris.

 

Process

Taking inspiration from a range of images I started work on modelling the stairs. For this I did the majority of the work in Maya but for the high poly I wanted to use zBrush. This is because I wanted a more organic looking oak style steps to go on the frame of the stairs. For this I took in 2 different steps and the top, larger step into zBrush and carved some rough grains and knots. Once I had sculpted the high poly steps I baked out the high to the low in xNormal.

 

Texturing

By doing it this way I have a normal map that once taken into Substance painter I can generate a curvature map from it and generate wear and dirt. Overall I think that this effect has worked really well and has almost given a slightly stylised look to the wood.

Railing

Once the stairs were complete I decided it was a good time to create a procedural railing system to go alongside the stairs. For this asset I was able to make it using an x1024 UV scale. Due to restrictions in UV space, the wall attachment has a different texel density and contains more detail.

Process

To make the rail system I started by working out the best and most efficient way I could make it. I decided to make 3 separate pieces; rail, ends and wall attachments. Through hiding the seams underneath the wall attachments I created a full procedural system for the hand rail. Once baked and textured in substance designer I took the system into UE4 and set it up alongside the stairs in the scene.

Boiler

Boiler & Pipe system

Now that I had both my floor and wall materials finished it was time to move back to making assets for the scene, as I still needed to focus on the larger pieces. I looked back at the assets I had gathered reference for in the previous half of this project. After looking through I decided it would be a good idea to create the big boiler that would be situated in the corner of the room.  As well as the boiler I also intend to create a procedural pipe system to go with it.

Research

As I had already previously collected some solid references for this piece I had a good Idea what I wanted to go for.  For my main reference I decided to base the design on the picture on the far right.

With a good reference I started the modelling process. For this asset I didn’t want it to be any more than 2500 Tris and I want to use an x2048 UV scale, I also wanted to use x2048 for the pipe system. Throughout the modelling process I had to keep in mind how the pipe system will integrate with the boiler. To make use this wasn’t an issue I made sure that the openings in the side of the boiler were the same shape and size as the pipes. For the pipes themselves I designed 6 separate sections that can all fit together freely.

Texturing

Starting with the boiler I baked out the normal and A/O maps in xNormal and brought it all into Substance painter. Although the reference I was going off was black and white I looked into materials that could be used for creating old iron boilers in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. The two materials I ended up using was a combination off black wrought iron and brass. As the area that the boiler will be in the scene is a very dark corner I feel the touch off brass will help with reflections and bring the piece out of the darkness. All the texturing for both the boiler and the pipes was done in substance painter accept the gangue on the boiler which was a simple job in Photoshop.

Once I was happy with the asset I decided to take it into marmoset to get some beauty shops for an asset sheet.

The last thing to do was to now take bot the boiler asset and the pipe system into UE4 and arrange them in the scene. As there are a lot more assets to be made for the scene and the layout may change, the pipe layout will be customized to fit the environment.  

Materials

I knew for the scene that I wanted to create both a brick and concrete material for the walls and floor. To start with I thought it would be best to start with the concrete floor. This is because I have not used Substance Designer in a while and so wanted to start with the easier of the 2 materials to improve my knowledge of the software before trying to tackle the brick material.

Concrete

To start the process I started gathering a variety of references including concrete and potential damage that could be included in the design. After collecting a suitable number of images to go from I started work on the material in Substance Designer.

I also used a part of the floor in my bedroom as a good example to follow as it has some nice damaged areas and has some interesting textures.

Creation

To start in substance painter I had to watch a quick video to remind myself of the program and started with the creation of the concrete material. To start with I focused on the larger details such as the water marks and damp, and the flow of the concrete . I then moved onto the texture such as grains and finally the damage areas like scratches. The last thing was to colour grade from reference and tweak to lessen the number colours.

         

 Brick

The first thing to do was to gather plenty of references and decide on the type of brick that I would like and would be suitable for the scene.

Creation

I had learnt a lot in the creation of the concrete but I wanted to learn some more about the process itself when creating materials in Substance so I did some research looking into the Algorithmic documentation for the program. This is because I know the bricks are going to be more difficult and as they are going to take up so much of the space in the scene I wanted to make sure they were done to a good standard.

A new technique that I had learnt was the ability to view height maps in the viewer so you can work in a way that’s more like sculpting as you can get a better understanding and realistic view of the material that you’re creating. Knowing this I started working on blocking out the pattern for the bricks.

 

Through the workflow of making large to small details and shapes I finished the modelling phase of the material. This was quite difficult and took a lot of time to make as I was learning a lot of new techniques within the software. From the grayscale height map I had created I made the rest of the maps including; Albedo, Normal, A/O, roughness and metallic maps.

Once I had the maps finished and I was happy this the material I took it into some other programs to see how it looked. I created a material sheet for each program as It would allow me to see how it looks in each of the software packages. 

Once I had the material ready in UE4 I learnt about Parallax occlusion, the ability to use height maps to give more depth to the material. I think that using parallax for this material works really well as it makes the bricks pop a lot more.   

 

Dirt

Now that I had a decent number of assets made and the room has started to fill, I decided to make one last material to vertex paint onto the floor. As this scene is meant to be very dusty and dirty I thought that this would be a good idea.

Process

To do this I went into substance designer and created a very simple dirt material. This will not be very visible in the scene as it will be in the darker areas but it is more useful for making a contrast in the roughness of the concrete on the floor.

Once this material was finished I took it into UE4 and created the vertex paint material in combination with the concrete floor. Once the material was set up I had to remake the floor as a plane with more geometry as else I wouldn’t be able to paint. To compromise I used a 10 x 10 grid for the floor. Then all that was left was to paint directly onto the concrete in area where there would be a lot of dirt build up.