My Scene - ClockTown

Youtube (LOW QUALITY VERSION)

Adding distant torches

 (Above) NEW

I've added lots of lights in the distant town, I just used single point lights instead of using torches as the light sources are so far away, they don't require additional meshes to accompany them.

This is the torch model that I'm using It's based of the original torch from Ocarina of time.

adding extra streets

I've added extra streets down from the exit paths of the main street. The main reason for this is to make the streets seem more sprawling (especially in my video). with this addition it gives people something else to look at when the camera is showing the lower part of the street, besides a locked door.

(Above) OLD

(Above) NEW

detail textures (Normal maps) and wireframe

Here are some screenshots showing the normal map detail without any colour. They help to show the work that went into the normal maps.

Asset dump

These are just some assets that I've made that I haven't made asset analysis' on. I have lots more assets to include, but i fear it would take too much time to blog

Shop Signs

ROCK.

Just one rock that I made in Zbrush. Still working on getting the vertex colours working and getting AO to work with tiling textures.

Creating interesting silhouettes (THE CLOCK OF CLOCKTOWN)

Due to the foggy air, I'm able to create interesting looking silhouettes without the effort of adding in all the detain. with only a small amount of polygons I can create the illusion of a broken building that would realisticly have a high amount of polygons.

Vertex Painting

I've been applying vertex paint to my assets in UE4. it helps to add dirt of any other discolourment to meshes. It is especially useful on meshes that have tiled textures, where AO would not have been available.

Trees in the scene

(above) are my current trees (long distance) in my UE4 scene. They are simple billboard pine trees. Upon showing my scene to Nigel in a feedback session, he noted that I should possibly look at removing the tree's because they conflict with the idea of the scene being a polluted and depressing place. As the scene is a wooden town with the idea that the land has been stripped of resources, It doesn't make sense them being there. With that I suggested maybe there being less trees and possibly dead trees and tree stumps. So I quickly created some billboards...

(above is the new tree sprites. This time I deliberately left of the billboard face camera effect. I did this because dead trees have a much more distinct form than the almost symmetrical pine trees. This means that when the pines were facing the camera they all looked the same, but it was fine. when the dead trees faced the camera, It was obvious it was a copy and paste job. so I left the function off so I could get different angles and take advantage of "2 sided material".

methods of importing to UE4

I devised a method for importing all my assets into UE4 without missing anything in my Maya scene. I did this by creating an identical scene file in Maya, and I simply exported an asset then instantly deleted it from the copied file. By doing this I could identify what I had possibly forgotten by what was left in the scene. Doing it this way not only prevents me from forgetting assets, but it also prevents me from exporting junk or duplicates into the UE4 scene.

Getting EVERYTHING into UE4

So, I got every assets I have thus far created into UE4. Instead of creating any more models, my aim from now until submission is to texture as much of my existing models as possible. They are already unwrapped, I just need to put in the time to get a material onto them. As you can see from the screenshot, Lots of the "uppertown" assets are missing textures. I have prioritised the lower town, and have completed 95% of it as it was the more detailed part of the scene in the first place.

EVERY ASSETS AND TEXTURE WAS CREATED AS PART OF THIS PROJECT WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE GROUND MATERIAL IN THE LANDSCAPE AND THE SKYBOX MATERIAL.

assets and textures

My scene has (so far as of 03/05) 170 different materials covering about the same in assets, This is why I have stopped posting asset overviews on the blog (There are simply too much).

However, in this post, I'm going to show some of the major assets in the scene.
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FORTHCOMING!

Particle Effects.

It's hard for me to take pictures of rain and water droplets on the floor, (so your're going to have to take my word). I've added a rain particle emitter above my scene and it loops so that rain is constantly falling. I've also done the same with the water splashes on the floor. They are not perfectly timed together, but they are quite convincing never the less. other emitters in the scene include the ember/smoke/flame emitter I have on my torches.

terrain

This is the blueprint I've been developing for my landscape/terrain. I've added 5 separate textures into the material so that I can seamlessly blend them together to avoid obvious tiling. there is a grass layer, 2 rock, 1 mud and a gravel texture. I've also added different multiply nodes to certain textures so that I can have some textures larger or smaller than others. This allows me to further reduce tiling, and help create a convincing landscape.

To make the landscape I used all the tools available. I particularly favoured the erosion tool, It really helped to make the hillsides rough and allow shadows to get caught on ridges.

outer environment

(above). So this is a brief and quick look at how the scene is shaping up. I've matched the the environment's weather and "atmosphere" so that the rain doesn't seem so out of place. I've went with a mixture of Exponential height fog and very thick (low opacity) clouds. It's resulted in awesome and gloomy vistas, with mountain silhouettes only just visible.

(above). This is the main bulk of my distant buildings, they are using one 2048 texture and are under 10k polygons. They lend themselves well to creating silhouettes at far distances.

Making very reflective puddles

Here I am using my roughness map/texture to add maximum reflections onto my puddles. (Roughness on water is at the value of 0.0. 0 is the value of still water according to PBR charts).

DAY/NIGHT CYCLE

I've put in a day night cycle into my scene, so i can get all of the lighting scenarios. Despite this, I am going to be using static lighting because it gives the best results due to the fact it can do high quality light bakes.

Above is my blueprint for day/night cycle.

Physical Base Rendering (PBR) In my scene.

I'm working with the Traditional (old) style rendering technique of using a diffuse/normal/spec in my project. This is not out of choice however. I started texturing my scene weeks before I knew about PBR, and how to use it. So when I was finally lectured about it, I had already created 40-50 textures already. because of this I've decided to carry on creating textures in that way, I don't want to create any contrast between assets. I am however using the roughness in UE4 with a constant to create a "wet" effect on my materials.

I will experiment with PBR in the future after this project, It is however the next gen version of texturing, and is the only way forward as far as I'm concerned.

High poly sculpting for assets

Due to the nature of my project Iv'e found it hard to implement high poly sculpting techniques to enhance my normal maps. The reason for this is because I have SO many assets to create, I already have way over 100 models, so making a high poly model for each is not feasible. I have however made high poly assets for a select few items. items that I feel are important to have a high level of detail, because without it, they would look incredibly flat. Examples in my scene include extruded bricks (like above), fabrics and highly complex surfaces such as the lock mechanism of my chests.
in future projects I know now that I should scale down my ambitions so that i would have more time to create higher quality assets.

(Above) I added a second layer to my normal map created in xnormal. The second layer is a very light 50% multiply of a normal map generated from the texture that I created with a 2D normal map creation software. This gives the texture a slight roughness that corresponds to the diffuse map.

Adding decay and damage

I've been adding damage to the buildings, to add more complexity, and to make the building more interesting. the main way I've done this is by extruding bricks outwards, and removing bricks to leave bare spaces where the bricks have come away from the render.

TOP: I've added wooden beams within the extrusions to show the structure of the buildings.

Changes to a few assets

I've made a few changes and reworks to some assets within the scene. Above is the straw parasol which I had already created with holes in using alpha transparencies. I feel that if the lower town was partially abandoned, It would not have any straw on the parasols as the upkeep is clearly going to be minimal.

below is the steep pathway that originally was flat. I added ridges to the path to simulate planks, but it ended up looking to "clean" for the scene. I reworked it to have crude wooden planks that where raised up above a lower level of terrain. It looks much more interesting and fitting. With this design I was able to make thinks look more gritty and dislodged.

UNREAL ENGINE 4

I've been getting up to scratch with UE4 in the last few days, I've learned a lot of things that I had never got to know back in UE3/UDK. Ive leaned the ins and outs of the cascade system, I've learned how to make CPU particles and GPU accelerated particles, I want to eventually add a fog particles system to roll through my scene using alphas. So far I've made fire and I've been using the Unreal level blueprint editor to create light sources that have brightness variables.

I feel I've achieved the cluttered and "overtaken" feel with the town. My goal now is to make it seem that the lower town is abandoned and older and the upper town is the place where the population has moved to. I've gotten the two main features into the upper town, the windmill and the pulley system. I now need to texture them and get them in engine.

new floor

I've created a new floor for the main courtyard as I feel that the last courtyard was too clean and didn't suit the style of the lower town.

Top: OLD

Bottom: NEW