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.