Digital Japan 3DVisual

Ryan's

Journal Page

(Comment section at base of page)

Report #1

The first week of our journey into Unreal Engine and the idea to create an authentic Japanese VR experience began with a tutorial that Jordan found that could help us with understanding the basics of Unreal Engine and how we were going to go about the rest of our project with the end goal in mind to create this VR game.

The tutorial was excellent as it showed us how to properly set up a scene, create an environment, import assets, and generally operate the software in a manner that was easy to understand and get the hang of. Along with this we began collecting reference images and creating a prop list of what we way need to model within maya, and what we could access from secondary sources such as free online asset websites etc.

Report #2

The next few weeks were spent modelling assets that were going to make up our scene. I began by modelling the Torii Gate and some rock variations that could be used as fillers for certain areas where needed. I started work on our secondary and smaller shrine scene but blocking out the cavern and testing lighting to see how it would all work. Jordan did an amazing job creating the base tiles and fencing for the start area and with another tutorial he found gave him a good preocedural workflow between Maya, Zbrush, and Substance Painter.

Along with this base modelling getting started we had to create a UE4 project that would serve as our platform. We were quite unsure of the scope at this point this, if we would be able to pull off the VR plan we originally had, or if it would turn out as a straight render using UE4, both of which we have had no experience with. With our first submission due in week 4 the progress we made so far was good.

Report #3

Leading up to this most recent assessment, we have had to make a few changes due to the fact of scale and technical issues we faced with some of the work. Jordan and myself both made the decision to drop the second scene and focus mainly on the first one so we can have a fully functional and finished piece rather than get bogged down with too much work.

On another note also we decided to divide the work so that we can both focus mainly on what we wanted to learn out of this assessment, which for myself was to create a functional VR walkthrough where as Jordan’s goals were to become proficient within zbrush and enhance his skills with the pipeline between that and substance painter. We both have strong aspirations of becoming game modellers and together I believe this project will help us to become more aware of what it takes to reach this level.

I will focus mainly on the unreal side of things with setting up the scene with FX and lighting and the overall polished product where as Jordan will focus mainly on modelling. We will cross over where necessary to ensure we are both happy with how it’s looking and to assist where possible.