日本の冒険
Jordan's
Journal Page
(Comments section at the bottom of the page)
Report #1
So, my Unreal project upon attempting to export it as a playable game went and crashed and become unrecoverable. I did happen to take pictures from my phone only a few hours before. (pictures shown on the sides)
I had a great time with Unreal, the landscape generating/lighting workflow was a learning curve, the texture nodes were interesting to get familiar with as I hadn't worked in too much of an in-depth adjustment space before.
I do feel like this experiment was a success, I have yet to use blueprints and importing my own assets but looking at current trajectory it shouldn't be too much trouble.
Unreal Tutorial - Landscaping
Recovered Photo - Flame FX and Lighting in Unreal
Camera FX and Colour Corrective Adjustments
Initial Blocking Out in Maya
Tile Sculpting with Repeatability - ZBrush
Fence Normal Map Detail Sculpted out in ZBrush
Report #2
From the closing of the first assignment I went on to do a block out in maya to figure out the layout of the main platform on which the character will be walking, and will be constrained to only moving within this area situated at the base of the Pagoda.
There have been hurdles... but there has been some nice results. Using ZBrush I made a high detail wood and stone texture for the tiles, lanterns and fence.
I continued on to Substance Painter to bake the high detail (from the ZBrush sculpt as a 3D Artist variety of charcoal rubbing). The resulting normal map would give the impression of actual geometry in an game optimised state. I put my first few modules into Unreal to test scale, textures, and design cohesion before going on to more momentous objects such as the Pagoda.
(Progress Photos Shown Top and Bottom of this Section)
(Progress Photos Shown Top and Bottom of this Section)
Adding colour to the Sculpted Normals in Substance Painter
Lantern in Substance Painter
First Unreal Import and Scaling Test
Pagoda Blockout
Report #3
Diving into Maya and constantly searching out for life references
to hopefully recreate the technical marvel that the pagoda is. There are different styles of pagodas over the centuries the curve of the roof and the wooden detailing has had an evolution of sorts.
The Higashiyama Fuji Yasaka Pagoda in Kyoto had atypically flat roofs and simple structural beaming. I pushed towards a design along the lines of the more complex Horyuji Temple Pagoda in Nara.
I had to create a list of things I had to consider:
- Level of Detail - Distance from Character,
- Cultural/Historic accuracy via design
- My own technical capabilities
- Texturing with a poly conservative objective
- What can be made modular for cleaner texturing work
Next step will be to UV, texture and then pass off to Ryan who will be taking the responsibility of Unreal pipeline - scene composition, lighting, effects, game narrative, and audio. We intend to have occasional cross-overs so we don't get hung up on certain details and keep a twice scrutinised process so we both are happy with the appeal of the particular components making up the game.
A Placeholder Pagoda for the Eventual Module Placement
Pagoda Module Separation and UV-ing
Pagoda Parts in Substance Painter
Report #4
Things are coming together, as a research project this will continue to be developed over the following months - whether it be a scenic VR or a protect the flag survival game will be more apparent, as the scope of achievable blueprints controlling the range of character and interactive events occur are yet to be more whole roundly covered.
I have tried to make the spline script to generate stone path along a curve but I ran into an error where it would only place the mesh in its default orientation despite the "forward axis" rule being run in the right direction. This is the 9min tutorial I went by:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJyWSzfwEk8&t=187s
Currently developing a subject to change video showcase on important steps in the game's development, which is below.
To conclude in what we hope to achieve in the continuation of this project it would be essentially a complete game, so that all areas of game design are explored for the sake of understanding the different components of the pipeline and industry.
To bullet point it, the next stage is to create:
- Artful game composition
- Game dynamic scripting/animations for characters, moveable objects and instructional material
- Layered lighting and colour grading
Using World Engine to create a more natural feel to better align to the outset goals
This showcase video is 7.9MB large
Notable Sources
Finding the links for programs:
Headed to Pluralsight for some much needed help with creating a criteria for what had to be done - proper sizing, good module building practice
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https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/intro-zbrush-4r7-2090/table-of-contents
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https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/maya-creating-modular-game-assets/table-of-contents
For finding out how to move from Maya, to ZBrush to Substance Painter. - I did need to find specific work arounds like using only using ZRemesher on the high poly to optimise for game and hold the shape of the low ploy in Maya.
For making the pagoda roof, and the complex truss joinery holding up the roof I learnt a few tricks here. I was only able to rely upon it for some general workflow and tool-use tricks but they were helpful in taking on an architectural masterpiece for in game use.
For finding ways to have products without the need to construct everything we looked at:
