Introduction
and research
For our second task of the year we have been given the brief
to create a survival weapon. Must not be more than 20,000K Tris and using a 2048
texture size. To start this off I went into looking at existing game examples
such as Dying Light, Dead Rising and Fallout for inspiration. I also looked
into existing weapon in other games and how they could be adapted to look like
a make shift survival weapon. For example my fist idea was inspired from the ‘Whirligig’
saw in Bloodborne and adapt it. I settled on going with the style and character
of weapons within the Dead Rising series.
After spending some time looking into weapon examples within
this game and how they are put together I selected some ingredients that could
work together. From this I furtherly looked into; bikes, Ice hockey sticks and
small motors like strimmer’s, chainsaws and from other garden equipment.
Modeling
process
Now that I had an idea in mind I went straight into Maya and
started blocking things out until I found something I liked. I could now make
progress and start creating the individual pieces required for making my
contraption.
Once I had the low poly complete I separated all the pieces
and started creating high poly versions of the items that make up my weapon.
Once these were also completed I could start the baking process. After
unwrapping the low poly I could then overlap the high and low, duplicate the
low and create a cage ready for exporting into xNormal.
Baking normal and Alpha maps
As well as the normal maps I had to create an alpha map for
my bike chain and the barbed wire. I had very briefly used alphas before but
only for a very small and basic shape. The entire process of making the chain
was the hardest part of the modelling and baking process. I created a single
link and tried duplicating it around a curve. This seemed more troubling than I
expected. Eventually after watching countless tutorials and help from my tutors
I was able to create the full chain. I ran test to try and find out what the
best way to bake the chain would be. To start with I used a cube extruded
around the same curve but that wouldn’t work with the alphas. In the end I used
3 Plains in a ‘H’ shape. This seemed the most effective method and gave a far
better result that previous attempts. I managed to get the high to bake well onto
the plains and with the alpha applied to show the gaps in the chain I am pretty
happy with the result. The barbed wire was a much simpler. Through extruding 2
separate cylinders along a curve and then twisting them around each other I
created the wire. The barbs I ended up adding manually around the wire which
was pretty tedious but came out quite well.
Once I had a completed normal and Alpha map I then rebuilt
my contraption and exported into UE4 so I could get a better look at the
result.
-
Texturing
The next stage in the process is texturing. For this I used
Substance Painter. I am still pretty new to this program as I have only used it
for 1 project before, but I feel I have learned a lot throughout this week and
improved a lot in my texturing skills. For the model I used a mixture of normal
and smart materials. Through this and applying masks I was able to get a good
amount of edge ware, scratches and a range of other imperfections that allow me
to add history to the piece.
As I wanted it to look like it had already been used a few
times before I needed to create blood splatters but before that I needed to
build up layers of damage and dirt. Starting with putting dirt and dust into
crevices and notches I can show what conditions and history each item had.
Making scratched on the edges of the chainsaw where it has been scuffed and
scratched in its use and grime in the handle of the hockey stick were a few examples.
The main issue I have had with the piece is that it is impossible to create
glass in this program so I had to improvise. To do this I used a shiny plastic
material and as the contraption had already been in use I covered this material
in blood. Overall I think this has worked but it’s just a shame that you cannot
alter the opacity of the shards to make it more realistic.
k
Asset Sheet
No comments:
Post a Comment