DMUGA Week 25 - "Bluurrghgh!"... Quoth the hatter

The week started on a bad note as the computers weren't behaving (Many, many updates!), costing a lot of valuble time in the morning, however, I called a team meeting to discuss the final details of what we want exactly in order to get our level to a finished "playable" state. We finalised the aspects which were a bit hazy to us such as:

-The puzzles & details of them
-Some dialogue of the characters
-Aesthetics of most unsure areas
-Cutscenes
-Main Menu/Controls/Credit list
and some more little bits...

We also distributed some more work that has to be done by the time we come back after the Easter break in order to get us that much closer to finishing generally - I use the word "generally" because there's no way we'll get our level to a polished state for the DMU hand-in, so we plan to refine some more bits afterwards before we submit it to the BL.
I also downloaded all of our current work on Google-Drive and put it into a handy folder for us all to have.

In other news... Lanterns!:

Continuing the bad luck (that's all I seem to be writing about now-a-days), the level has a couple of problems that Dom is so desperately trying to correct.
Plus, my feedback shows I need to vamp-up my character project, which is ok - I just don't like doing characters. I know it's bad of me to say that I definitely can't do something, but I genuinely wouldn't feel proud of any characters I make. If I had tonnes of practice then I maybe wouldn't be too bad, but let's just say it isn't my calling in life.

I know exactly what I need to do in order to do better - most of the issues were on the girl character which is justifiable since I didn't spend half as much time on her textures/aesthetic qualities/development as I did on the robot due to the original deadline. I would be happy in myself if I am able to bring up my mark on the project at least to about 58-60% as it would mean a consistent 2:1.

The things I need to correct are:
-Flat/not aesthetically pleasing textures on the girl
-Too many polys in her shoes
-Proportions are still wrong
-Dress needs more shaping work
-Loops in the face aren't correct
-Add dings/scratches to the robot

I know I can do some of these, it's just a matter of doing it again and doing it better.

Moving on to the NaturalMotion lecture/presentation, it was a good insight behind what they do and what they would require an intern to be able to do for them. I would love to work for a company like NaturalMotoion, as they would be able to help me grow so much as a Games Artist and as a person. I just hope that I get enough time to even put together a half-decent portfolio & CV/Covering letter for them in-time now that I have much more work to do.

We only had a short life-drawing session today, but it was most a rather good one as I feel as though I'm getting better with speed (still very slow, but an improvement on what I was):

In terms of 3D work... I unwrapped my lantern finally, researched into Cotswold-type steps, helped Anya on the gravel material for a bit to try and make it look a bit better, and spent some time with Dom at the end of the day trying to offer even some kind of ideas in order to help in some way with how to go about fixing the current problem in our level (To do with shrinking & growing).
The day was definitely productive, just not productive in the way I would have liked it to be. I needed to have done more on the lantern because it is just going so slow at the moment and I seriously need to speed it up because other things need doing!

I finally finished my lantern on Wednesday (The candle wax & black metal texture you see is just a temporary one, it'll look a lot better hopefully!):

I got the candle flame to move using a simple 'flip-book' texture, and with Dom's help, got the light in the blueprint to change intensity over time - imitating the flickering light.

I also started work on some other things e.g. the water particle effects to go in the fountains/lake, making the high poly version of the fountain to add normal details, and re-arranged the UV's for the large fountain's falling water, ready to have a mask on it to fade our the harsh edges.

Large fountain underside progress

Candle flipbook texture

Candle lantern blueprint

Water-Splash Particle Effect

I needed to refine all of these aspects more over the next few days.

We also had an extremely well-spoken lecture from one of our first-years on the course, who is teaming up to kick-start a "Games Development Society" here at DMU. I think that what they are proposing is a great idea, and it will allow for much more diverse & impressive work. Getting people involved from other courses which relate to games in some way (or even just 3D environments), is good news for anyone getting stuck in.

Thursday was an event-filled ball of fun! Everything went swimmingly, and like always, we had no issues with UE4 whatsoever! In case it isn't clear enough, my sarcasm just blew the roof off.
Our project file wouldn't let us alter the landscape in any way as it'd crash. This was a MAJOR issue at the time because we need to sculpt more into the landscape in order to continue/finish the project - Not to mention to have it not crash on us when we want to change things.

This was getting me close to the "Why even bother?" line of tolerance to failures. The plan of action as of Thursday night was to take it on the chin and go back to an old save, but that would have set us back by around a week of a few people's work.
Dom contacted a technician at 'Epic Games' and tried to get help from them.

In terms of any good that happened on Thursday, I spoke to Steve about how to go about making a more detailed fountain, and he gave me a breakdown of the one he did for his FMP. This was really handy as I think I have a better understanding of how to go about making mine better, but I will need to try and test it out to see if it looks any better.

Friday was brilliant! The level is OK and isn't going to die on us! It turns out that the way in which we were editing the levels after Dom put in the level streaming was probably just bad practice. We were working in the level streamer and trying to alter the landscape through that as opposed to actually loading the level map and editing it in there.
So, lesson learnt. No matter what, ALWAYS load the level you want to edit using the content browser, NOT in the level streamer!
We've tested it and it all works fine again, and we also know that despite the "Fatal Error"(s), we can still cook the project and play it which is all we need to do after we've finished editing it all.

In other news, Kat from 3rd year gave us a mini introduction to Z-Brush (which is desperately needed!), and I learnt quite a lot. I can't wait for the next session because everything she wants to go through with us are things which are vitally needed in the Z-brush world, and I should really know by now.

I also started making a water mask based on what I saw of Steve's fountain textures from Thursday. I have tried a couple of masks and they both look good, and with some tweaking, I think it'll turn out good. I need to combine what I originally had with what I am doing now to get the effect that I want.

Things to do to get decent fountain water behaviours now are:

-Refined water mask -

-Unwrap the fountain properly
-Make a Sub UV particle effect using 4 different water droplets
-Refine the mesh of the falling water to a more 3D/Rounded mesh

The level so far:

Over the Easter break I have a lot to get done, this includes:

OTM: Key, Fountain refinement, Tree refinement, Particle effects, other LODs, River Mesh & Materials.
Writing: Reflective Writing Task
Presentation: Any topic that interests us
Character Project: Either REDO an entire character (probably won't happen), or, improve the current one significantly based on the feedback given.
Other: Add to portfolio, look into tutorials for Z-brush & Blueprinting.

Soo much to do! I'm genuinely scared that I won't get it all done... Only time will tell.

DMUGA Week 24 - UE4 Problems & fixes + Degenerate tangent base issue

I know we have technically got a fair amount of time left on this project... But is it enough to do what we want to? There are so many things yet to be done, and Easter break is fast approaching. I plan to only do 1-1.5 weeks worth of work over Easter and take half of it off, so I can do a little bit but not much; not to mention the extended writing task which will also need to be completed.

Monday wasn't the most pleasurable of days as our frame rate has significantly dropped to only 13 FPS! This is not on and we seriously need to ask for help on optimizing our level.
I had a look into LOD's today and it turns out, you cannot remove a LOD from a mesh once it is imported (seriously?), plus, the LOD's import 90 degrees at the wrong angle so you have to fix that externally.
EDIT: There is now a "Re-Import LOD" button, so dealing with LODs is a bit more manageable! (Version 4.7.3) :)

LOD Export in 3DX Max - Perfectly normal

UE4 Imports them rotated 90 degrees  on the Y-axis

Nevertheless, I made 2 LOD's for 3 of my foliage meshes (Though I'm not going to import them until we decide to).

I spent some more time on the entrance tree; just trying to get it to not look out of place/bad still. I looked into paving stones for the starting area, discussed some important decisions on the game-play + cut-scenes with my team-mates, re-arranged some things in our level to make them sit better, and finally imported the hedge archway! Wooo!

Thankfully, Steve has come up with a fix for the "DEGENERATE TANGENT BASES" problem:

Importing Problem from last week

HOW TO FIX:

Create a cube and convert it to an editable MESH

Attach the box to the problem mesh

Delete the cube

Re-Export

Such an annoying problem that cost me more than half a days work trying to fix, easily solved in 2mins... Thanks Steve!
EDIT: May not work every time, unfortunately.

Tuesday wasn't a great day either if I'm honest... We had a big problem which was easily fixed by just going to a previous back-up of our file - It kept crashing when anything was altered in the level + upon opening it.
The other problems were down to getting the blueprints to work as we want them to. It took a while, but Dom figured it out at the end of the day and we could leave with our chins up!

I began making the broken paving stone which are going at the start of the level - we settled on square cracked & broken ones as opposed to hexagonal or mosaic shaped tiles. I tried to make a quick stone texture with moss on (AGAIN) as a base (No roughness or specular map for the rock & moss were used) just to see what it would look like, and I can certainly say it was better than my previous attempts:

As lame as it sounds... I'm currently watching every single one of the blueprinting essentials from the Unreal Engine channel on Youtube because I want to further understand what Dom is scripting & actually try to make something for myself - I made a working compass using an Enumeration table!

Tutorial:

Blueprint Essentials - 5 - Enum Variables

This week's life drawing outcome was average at best - I still nee to work on just relaxing more and trying new mark-making techniques because I know I can do better for sure:

I also spent some time in Z-Brush again to get more used to using it, and watching some workflow tutorials on making rocks.

Wednesday was such a good day in terms of learning! Kit (A Student from our 3rd Year), did a lecture on baking normal maps and how to best go about them. I didn't get into baking until the second year and it's proving extremely useful. However, it was good to get a "This is how you should do them because this is how it works" type of answer to "How do I bake a normal map?".

It's rather convenient because I also learnt a good technique to creating rocky surfaces in 3DS Max quite fast and easily, then baking them down for decent results for the time taken to produce..

Here's the tutorial I used:

Large-Scale Rubble Tutorial

Here's the results of using it on my pavement slabs (They're not as good, but they'll do!):

High Poly 1

High Poly 2

Low Poly Assets

Low Poly Wire-frame

Thursday was a really good day again! I went to the "How to write a covering letter" seminar in the morning which was very helpful, got my paving stones done (to an extent) and in engine looking al-right, Dom and I were looking at the lighting of the level/attempting to fix our translucency problem in the water (by half covering it up & half fixing it), and I re-imported/imported everything that needed to be put in at this stage since I hadn't done so for a while now.

Translucency Problem

Added underwater fog - It turns on only when the player is below a certain height in the level

TO IMPROVE THE PROBLEM: Delete the default atmospheric fog from the scene if you haven't already - It isn't necessary (For us at least).

I also re-arranged a lot of the trees at the start to a much more organised fashion but still keeping it natural:

And finally, we come to Friday...the 13th. I'm not superstitious or anything, but today wasn't the best of days in terms of productivity (at least that's what it felt like).

The 9am lecture was about our "extended piece of writing" task to be done over the Easter holidays. It's not a massively long essay, but I feel that what is required of us in terms of referencing is slightly odd. We need to write about our career aspirations and relate them to the progress we've made this year whilst referencing from secondary resources e.g. magazines. I get that you'd need to reference for things like "I was to be a good environment artist and in order to do so I need to know the process or program of X - Featured in magazine Y.". Or, "I want to work for company X, and I have the skills demonstrated in article Y which would make me perfect for this job role." But other than that, as it's a personal reflection, I don't see why it is completely necessary to do so. I'm probably missing the point slightly and not understanding fully what it is I need to do though, so I'll need to clarify things next Monday.

I did however manage to sort my accommodation for next year (Woohoo!), but it took me until about quarter to 12. After having had lunch, I went to finally start making a lamp and... I had to reimport animated fishes, but not just any fish, ones that just wouldn't want to work properly purely on the basis that we re-scaled them to a more appropriate size for the Game Engine - This causes major issues which we ended up not being able to fix, and just going with the original anyway; having to deal with offset pivots, and enlarged fish.

We know how to position pivots... These just like to stay where they are!

The good news is that we have a working fish blueprint with AI & an animation which come together to make an awesome asset!
Dom and I also spent a very long time trying to generate procedural kelp for the underwater area because you cannot paint skeletal meshes with the foliage brush (UE4 Version 4.7.2). Therefore, after a few failed attempts, we got one which generate in a box patch, and one in a circle patch (Which was actually quite challenging!).

Here's the box version:

Lastly, I spent a bit of time just re-importing the grass as Anya changed the textures so they work correctly with our current wind set-up - A couple of problems which took some more time, and before I knew it, it was about half 6 in the evening and I had to go...
So, nothing physically made in terms of modelling today, but a lot did actually go on.

Overall, I had a bit below average week in terms of work being produced, but in terms of learning, I had a great time and I'm so glad to be surrounded by the tutors & students we have at DMU so that I can learn all these cool new (to me) things!

DMUGA Week 23 - Lookin' good! :)

Monday was a productive day as I finished off my flowers I started at the weekend, & mapped out the boundaries for the non-playable area:

It was really bugging me that I attempted the rope texture at the weekend and I couldn't manage to get it to all match up perfectly to make it tile, so with a simple bit of advice from Anya... it wasn't hard at all, plus, I thought I'd just try and keep it simple and not overcomplicate it... It's a piece of rope!

Here's how I made my extremely basic rope texture in 4 easy steps using pretty much just the filters in Photoshop:

Simple!

I quickly made a stalk for the lily-pads because Anya's idea what that it would give the underwater part a more 'surreal' appearance... Which it does!

I began an ornate archway for the entrance to the secondary gardens, then called it a day.

Life drawing this week was good again because we did the movement poses for 20-30 seconds each, and I really think it helps my speed because as I've said numerous time before, it is one of my weaknesses.

It's hard to see because my screenshots were all taken at the end of this week after the changes were made, but if you look back to the previous blog posts, you'll see the lighting has changed a fair amount and it now has a much more natural but enhanced look in my opinion. I fiddled around it with to get it a bit less harsh on the eyes, and Dom/Anya got rid of the auto exposure which was becoming more and more annoying for us to work with.

Potions, Cakes & Food!:

Finished off the archway:

I re-arranged all of the hedges to fit more perfectly together and be more symmetrical, but in the end, we ended up just making 4 separate long hedges to get rid of the constant break in the hedges:

Dom & I (Pretty much all Dom), attempted the bump offset material I mentioned in the previous post, and you could see it was trying to work, but I think we needed a much more refined mask as it was made in a couple of minutes just to test the method to see if it worked:

I did a bit more work on the swing by making a quick texture for it to see if it worked or not, and finally made it look like it was broken + I had Dom to the rescue again when I was frustrated by the concept of modelling a knot... It's much more basic than I thought and I was just being a 'wuss'. Anyway, here's the swing in the level:

I realised the tree now looks ridiculously out of place with the weird roots coming out of it, so I started to play about with the bottom and see if I could make it look less weird.

I started making the butterfly texture and I finished it on Thursday. Butterflies are a must... And I must say they are a very nice touch to our level which is only possible due to the scripting of Dom, We haven't yet put it in our level, but it is tested and working nicely - Here's the texture sheet:

I started making the archway to go within the arch of the hedge archways to act as support for them, and break up the greenery a little.

We finally have a very good water that we are all proud of! Woohoo! I didn't like it at first because I loved the abnormally cyan coloured water we already had, but this one grew on me but there was one thing missing... Refraction! By just adding a couple of nodes in the material editor, we finally got a water that looks good from the top as well as the bottom:

Top:

Underwater:

I Finished butterfly based off of the common blue butterfly on Thursday:

3DS Max Render

UK Butterflies

Obviously it is changed a little bit because I thought it would stand out more in our level with the black outline (I may change it back though), but the majority of the butterfly's design is there:

I had so many problems when it came to finishing the VERY basic job of making the archway for the hedges purely because of a bug in unreal engine which does not like this particular arch shape whatsoever...

Not only does this error come up, ALL of the UV's are reset I.e. if you unwrapped it, it is no longer unwrapped...

This took up a lot of my time and I ended up just leaving it and asking Steve & Craig (3D tutors) for advice, and just gave it to them to see if they could find a fix. Therefore, I feel like I wasted my day.

Friday was a nice and relaxed day as I was just making the maze to go in the flowerbed, texturing one playing card with the ace of hearts (I want to have the King, Queen & Jack), and making the bridge fit into place with our level so that now it is a nice fit!

So, overall it was a good week, I'm excited to move and and get so much more done the next week because I feel as if we're just running a bit behind at the moment, but hopefully it'll come together! :)