CAGD 495 - Advance Production

 

Sprint 6

This week kickoff was a little bit of the same for me. But it was a little new rewarding some of the assignments that I had to do. This time I also did not got confuse with a certain item that I had to model, which I learned my lesson from last time. 

To start with, I implemented my models into Unity. This do not take much time, but this time I did accumulated a few of them since I was waiting to be done with them before transferring them to my teammates. I also had to fix the sizes and add LODs to it for the better used inside the game. Something small but that makes the difference (I also have done this with all the rest of my models).

The next thing I did was the rat trap. For this, I had a lot of ideas on how to do it, but I had to keep it a little more simple since it is a small prop, as well as having to keep it PG13. Because of these, I decided to do a simple and classic wood rat trap with a piece of moldy cheese on the center. I also decided to add the logo of the game/bakery to make it seem more related to the game itself. At first I wanted to put a dead mouse on the trap, or even just the skeleton of said mouse, but I was encourage not to do it just in case it was the rules to have representations of animal cruelty or because it could be really heavy on the poly count for how detail it can get with new pieces added. It was a shame, but I also like the results of how it looks now.

To continue, I had to do some 2D art. It was a first for me on this game to do something other than 3D models, so I was really happy. I was in charge of doing the banner for the game. I would not lie, I had difficulties coming up with an idea for it and I was also not so happy with the results now that some time has pass. The main idea for this banner was to make something simple and that had the logo of the game on it. I decided to make it seem like Perry was looking behind the logo menacing, with a dark background to make it seem like he is getting lost in the dark, as well as some "cherry filling" sparked around the screen. I was happy with the results at first, specially because I am not a 2D artist and I'm also not good at drawing. But after seen my other teammates drawings and art, I was stuck with the idea that mine did not fit on the aesthetics with their drawings as well as not being good enough like theirs. If this banner changes in the future, I would understand and I kind of want it to happen to make the game look better. 

Next I worked on some pliers. This was a little difficult to decide how to do because their is a lot of pliers with different shapes and for different utilities. I do not know which one was the most appropriate for a bakery, so I decided to to the pliers that I like the most which are the needle nose pliers (I didn't know their names until I made this model). I like how this model came up, as well as how the textures ended up looking. I also implemented this model and the rat trap inside Unity.

And lastly but not least, I did a model of an arcade machine. I think this is one of my favorite models so far. I would have like to make it more high poly because of all the details that I could have implemented, but I am happy how it turned out. I can't wait to do it's textures and see what fun things I cand add to the sides of the cabinet.

I'm exited for next sprint since I would be doing the textures of the arcade machine. I also hope that I can improve my velocity this sprint, although is gonna be hard because of a few personal issues that I would be having the week after break (A.K.A. probably hand surgery).

Sprint 5

This week kick off was more normal for me. I was able to get more things done than last sprint. This was due to some confusion on my part. This was not a bad thing, but I'll make sure I do not get confuse with my projects again.

First of all, I ended up doing the textures for the locks. I did each lock individually since they were a little high poly in comparation to my other models. This ones were a little time consuming because of it. To start with, the base lock was the first one I did, since it was going to be the main color of the locks. For this one I decided to make it look rusty, dirty and bloody at the same time. I also selected a color similar to the ones I used for the keys. I really like how it turned out, but I think I could have added more details that would help to make it look better like scratches, nails and more. 

The second texture was the piece for the pie key. This one was fun to make since I was able to play with the textures. I found a pie texture that I thought would be perfect for this lock. It allowed me to change the color of the crust and filling, which I took advantage of it and decided to make a bloody "cherry" filling. I was really happy with how it turned out and I think is my favorite so far.

To continue, I did the textures for the piece of the hand/finger key. This one was my least favorite, to be honest. I did something simple with the textures: really rusty metal piece, hands full of bruises and veins. Because it was the most simple one of them all, I think I could have done better with it. Make it more realistic, painting the nails so they are more human like, make it seem more out of a horror videogame. I do know what could have make it look better, but I'm still happy with the results. 

And to finish with the locks, the textures for the piece of the eye key. This one was fun to do and I think I went a little overboard with it. I decided to use the same eye color as I did for the eye key, this to keep continuity. I also decided to make really bloodshot on the sclera of the eye, to make it seem sick and more horror like. I also decided to add some veins around the eye to make it seem more unhealthy and with anger. The inside of the eye was also made in the concept of having really read eyes, and making allusion of the fact that the eye is crying blood. I really like how this one turned out, even if is not my favorite of all of them. 

The next thing on the list was the conveyor machine. At first, I didn't even what a conveyor machine was, so I had some difficulties coming up with how to model this piece. And, since it was only the machine and not the belts, it was more easy to model than what I thought it was going to be, aside from the belt inside the machine. I am really happy how the model turned out. I also didn't have many difficulties with it, aside from the beginning on how to model it.

To continue, I did the textures for the conveyor machine. While looking at references, I decided to do it blue and yellow, since it seems the majority of this machines come on those colors. I decided to make it really wear-out and bloody, like someone was stuck inside the machine by Perry. I also wanted it to be really rusty and dirty, since the place has been abandoned for a while. I also love the little details of the logo on the sides of the machine and how they have begging disappearing by the years. 

And lastly but not least, I did the models for 7 different types of knifes. This is were I got confuse with. At first I thought I had to do different types of knives but in really I just had to do a bread knife instead. Even with this confusion from my part, I really like how the models and their textures came out in the end. For the models, they are different enough to be seen as their own type of knife ( they are chef and meat knives, which are the most used ones in bakeries). As for the textures, I decided to do the same kind of knife, to make allusion that they are the same brand of knife. All of them have rust and blood, since perry most likely would have use them on his victims. I use the most basic design of knife for their handle to make it more easy to identify too. Even with my confusion, I'm glad I was able to make this knifes. I really like how they turned out.

For next sprint, I'll implement my last models into unity. I have to also wait to see what other things I can do, since we finish with all the 3D modeling for now. 

Sprint 4

This kick off was slower for me again, but this time was mostly because of the complicated models that I had to do and them breaking constantly. 

First of all, I decided to finish the textures of the elevator, since this was going to be a piece that was needed by the level designers in order to used them in different levels of the game.

I was really happy in how ragged and broken the elevator looks, making it seem more old and belonging into an abandoned place. 

I also decided to add al little easter egg inside the elevator (which is the emergency button missing/broken). I thought that this would be a good gag for the players, as well as for my teammates.

Next was the models of the locks. This one was the reason why I took so long to give any more results. When I saw the concept art for the locks, I knew that there were going to be really high poly, which is not a good sing for me. I ended up asking for help to someone with more experience in character modeling because the eye and hands models where more complicated for me. I ended up using ZBrush for these two models in specific, which kind of break the models inside Maya, since they used different topologies. 

After the models where approved, I notices that they had a lot of NGons, which can break the rendering of the models inside the game engine. This made me to go back to the models and try to fixed all the NGons to make them quads. This was a really long process, specially because the models where really high poly (this was because of all the details that the models have). I was able to reduce some of the models' topology (the eye and pie locks), but the hands model were a different story. They were the one that break the most. 

After fixing the models as much as I could, the UV sets were another nightmare with the hands model. It was really hard to try to make the UV sets for this model in specific, since it has a lot of special shapes and its shapes are too organic to do a quick unfold. The UVs were constantly breaking thanks to this too. 

In the end, I was able to fix the models the best I could, as well as making them have a UV set that could be use into texturing, without breaking anything. I also was able to reduce the polygons from some of the models, expect for the hand. They are still too high, even after reducing the amount of faces used in the model. 

For next sprint, I'm hopping to at least not have any more problems with my models like this sprint. It was really draining in time and motivation. I also would like to be able to increase my productivity, to be able to help my teammates in the long run.

Sprint 3 

This kick off was slower for me. Due to personal reasons, I had to work at a slower rate than other sprints. I know this is not an excuse and that I could affect my teammates, but I did my best to still do work.

Lets start with the main part of my project. This time I had to do a coffee table and two types of chairs to go with it. For the table, I decided to use a squared table (specially since we already had a circular one), This was a pretty simple model to make, since it used primitive shapes mostly. The most complicated part of it was to make it seem as a single object, but that did not presented a challenge either. 

Next was the table textures. I decided to make it seem like the table was not being used for years, and that humidity (maybe by water, maybe by blood) started to rot the wood structure of the table, as well as having some stains that people would have to guess what they could be. I also make it seem like the metal leg of the chair started to rust from the environment. In the end, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I'm glad I choose the designs that I did.

I also think that the table combines with the atmosphere that the game tries to convey. 

For the next model, I did a simple chair. Although I said "simple," the shape of the chair is not simple at all, since it have details that could not being done with simple shapes. This made it complicated to stay in a certain range of polycount, without loosing the shape too much. 

I really like how this chair turned out, but it  needed a variation to make it more apparent that there was a fight or murder inside the factory.  For this specific chair, I made it look like someone was hit with it with enough force to make an indent and crook the legs of a metal based chair. I am happy with the end result. 

For their respective textures, I decided to do something similar with the legs of the table, since they are both made out of steel. The chai would be the item covered in blood the most, which could indicate a sudden attack while siting up without any worry. I really like how they turned out, and how they combine with the table.

I also started to do the model for the elevator. This was a big model, since it had a lot of separate pieces because of their nature. Since it's going to have a lot of moving parts, I had to make most of it separate from each other, which too some time to adjust. I also got some corrupted fields when most of the model was done, so I had to go back to a later version to be able to start the model again, which made me get behind schedule. In the end, I was not able to finish the textures of the elevator, but the model works on its own.

For next sprint, I hope to be able to finish more things and to be able to solve all of my personal problems. I also hope to see how can I do better models that could be use for the end of the game. I'll start by finishing the textures of the elevator and putting everything into Unity.

Sprint 2

This kick off and sprint was really complicated and really hard to work on. I had to continue working on the key objects and their textures. After a few errors, a lot of my progress was halt by it.

Lets start with most of my work. One of the most easy things I did was the textures for the keys. I was able to make them look old and creepy, which was what we had in mind for them. Even though the eye key designed got change, I was happy with their final.

Later on, I transferred them into Unity to see how they would look like. This was no problem, but in the end, this would give me problems that I would explained further.

After this, I continue on my next models, which would be the Ouija board that Perry is using to summon demons. It was fun to do, since I play a lot with the different types of boards that are out there, as well as figuring out how it would look on something so ordinary as a pie tin.

The modeling was fun to do as well, since It was simple, but gratifying. The pie tin was really easy to make, but the pointer, since it has an specific shape, was more harder than I thought. The pie shape that it has was a easy to achieve, but the hole in the middle was hard to do without having any Ngons or complicated topology. I also decided to do a high poly version of this objects, to try to bake some information into the original low poly objects to same memory during the game. I really like how the end product of the objects came, and my favorite part, the pointer, was the most fun to make.

The texturing for this objects were fun to do too. It was easy to make, and I decided to use the same symbols I did for the concept art. For those symbols, I decided to use the iconography of Beelzebub, which is the demon that represents gluttony. I thought it would go well with the whole concept of the game and the focus on pies and a pie lover. 

I was glad to see that the information of the high poly bake did not disrupt the models' textures too much. For the pie tin, I just used a regular tin textures with marks of blood, dirt and rust around it. I also use PNG image to put the symbols, letters, and more into the inside of the container. Is a really subtitle texturing, but it works well with it. 

The next one is the pointer. This one was my favorite and I think I even went overboard a little with the inside of it. For this one, I just used a texture that look similar to a pie crust combined with wood. Similar to the pie tin, I also added dirt and blood marks on it, as well as using the PGN image of the symbols that I drew for the original concept art. But my favorite part of it is the "filling" of the pie. I tried to make it as gruesome as possible, and for that I used flesh texture, making it pass for a weird cherry filling. 

When I imported both objects into Unity, they look good and did not showed any problems or errors. So I decided to import the keys again, but this time as single objects and not as a group. This is when I got another problem. When I imported the group of keys, they work perfectly fine with the textures, but the single keys were not taking the textures properly, even if they had the same UVs. This force to me to make the textures all over again, but this time one texture sheet for each key, to prevent another error to happen. I also keep having the problem with Maya not letting me export OBJs, which makes the process even more slower.

I have to say that I was not happy with this, but still keep working on it and decided to change a few things to make them look better. I was determine to at least do something good out of this tragedy. Even if it took more of my time, I was even more happy with the results of the new keys. They look better, in my opinion, and this time they do not present any problem with Unity as single objects. 

After finishing with all of this objects, I made them into prefabs for the programmers and level designers to use. I exported the packages to the respective folder on our driver and they were able to use them without any issues or errors, which made me happy. 

For my next sprint, I'll work on a coffee table and their respective chairs, as well as an elevator that would be use in the game. I am hopping to be able to work faster, and to not have any more problems like this sprint. 

Sprint 1

I’m a 3D artist. This kick off and sprint was shorter for me in my experience with other sprints. Usually I think they are the same amount of time between each other, but this one was a little shorter for me. I am not sure if it is because I have never been on a dev team bigger than just 3 people, but to try to organize everyone and having more people with the same job as you is weird for me. I think this may have been the reason why it felt shorter. I think this would become the norm when working in a more professional environment for now on, so it is a good experience to have. 

But letting aside my feelings on rewarding bigger or smaller teams; to my work.

The kickoff was fun to have. A lot of people giving their ideas on how to make the different levels, animation, models and more made it easier to have ideas for future models for me. I was in charge of doing the 3 main keys that the player would need to  be able to escape the pie factory in the game. At first I was not sure what to make of them since it is something so simple as a key. After talking with my lead designer, we came up with the idea of having them be more creepy looking to fit with the aesthetics of the game, which would be a horror game. This allowed me to have a lot of fun with the concept art. 

First I gathered all my reference images that I was going to use to create the keys. I decided to make each key different from the other one to make it more obvious that they are for different locks. With the concept art, I experimented with creepy concepts like severed fingers and eyeballs. I incorporated them like they were shoved by force into the key, to make it more demon-like activity from Perry’s part. And for the last one I decided to do a key that represented Perry’s love for pies, which ended up looking like a keepsake for a pie.

After receiving the approval of the concept art, I started modeling. The pie and eyeball keys were not a problem at all, since they had pretty simple shapes. On the other hand, the finger key was more of a challenge to make, since I had never done fingers before and they had more natural/irregular shapes than the other two. This took me longer than what I expected to do, but the results were good in my opinion.

But then, a tragedy happened. When I wanted to export the models for texturing, Maya decided to act up and denied my access to it. My certification was verified but it acted like it was not activated. This set me behind by a lot, not only in this class, but the rest of my classes too. In the end, I was able to solve the problem with the Autodesk customer support, but it still made me get behind by a lot. To compensate, this sprint I hope to be able to work a lot more and, now that I also have a new computer, I hope to be able to work faster without any issues. 

For the next sprint, I’ll finish the UV sets and textures for the keys, as well as starting with the concept art for the Ouija board and its respective 3D model. I just hope to not get any more technical problems like this sprint again, since that could affect not only me, but my team members too.