BA2b (Project 2) - Week 5 Summary

Jobs and Roles for this Week

Charlotte (Myself): Texture House, Stalls, Wagon, Crossbow, Bridge Planks Natalia: Texture Runic stones, Tanning Rack, torches, more mushrooms

Jack: Fruit, Hay bales, Movie Set Props - Directors Chair and Camera

Billy: Loading Screen image, concepting the movie posters for the level select screen

Johan: Level Building, Mechanics, Crossbow model, Sound

My Concept Art/ Texturing and Process:

Market Stalls Texturing:

Problem 1:

This issue was similar to the tile problem where the UV's weren't completely together, however on a much smaller scale. Originally I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able make the lines at the front blend with the ones at the top, as the second was fine yet the rest weren't; so I contacted Jack about it. He did offer to redo it if it was completely needed but I thought I would try and solve it by myself.

I managed to fix this problem by manually adjusting the sides of the lines repeatedly and checking them in Marmoset Toolbag 2. Now it thankfully blends really well, despite the lines being slightly different widths!

Jacks Untextured 3D Model

Jacks 3D Model with My Texturing

My Diffuse Maps

Strengths:

- Overall Aesthetic: The stalls will fit very well with our hand-painted level and matches the other assets I have textured with the same wood.

- Concept to 3D: Even though I drew the original concept for this model, I added some more details like the rug underneath the fruit boxes and on the metal box. I feel like it added more to the design and even though I understand this change probably wouldn't happen in the industry (as it is late in the asset design process), however it was good to think about how I could add more. (As the stalls were the second concept I created for this project in the first week).

- Saving Time: I reused the wood and metal from other models I have textured for this project.

- Asset Variation: The variety of colours will give the level more differentiation as well as being more aesthetically pleasing for the viewer. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Cloth Texturing: I need to practice drawing cloth to get more realistic looking folds when I paint as I'm not too competent drawing them right now. After this project I will create more studies to practice and look at where the light and shadows hit.

- Metal Texturing: The metal isn't as polished as I wanted it to be and I did have some trouble drawing the back of the metal box (situated in front of the stall). The player won't really be able to see it which I'm happy about but I still thought it deserved a mention as I need to practice drawing large sheets of metal.

- Content Variation: If I had more time I could've also changed the fruit inside the stall boxes for extra variation - like fish or meat e.t.c.

Bridge Planks Texturing:

Johans Untextured Models

Johans Models with my Textures

My Diffuse Map

Strengths:

- Polishing: Because the wooden planks were the main focus of this asset, I decided to spend some more time polishing the previous wood I had already made. It looks very similar except I added more highlights and different colours, like more yellow tones. I feel like this really added a lot to the visual impact of the main wooden texture..

- Saving Time: I reused the previous wood texture I had already made which saves lots of time. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Extended Polishing: Even though I was happy with the overall look of the wood, there are a few areas I could've polished more like the lighter sides with more highlights and extended rendering, as well as the darker wooden edges. For example, making sure the edges are all black and wrap around the sides of the model nicely, instead of some bits of brown extending too far.

Wagon Texturing:

Jacks Untextured 3D Model

Jacks 3D Model with My Texturing

My Diffuse Map

Strengths:

- Metal Texturing: Seemingly the bane of my life this project, I decided to have a go at painting some new metal textures, which is seen just above the light wooden planks. The smaller cuts in the metal looks a lot more natural than the large lines I have previously drawn, and will be using it in my future assets instead of the previous from my shield.

- Saving Time: Instead of completely painting new wood and metal textures for the UV's, I copied them from my other diffuse maps I textured.

- Time Taken: This is currently my third large asset I've textured this week, and I've become a lot quicker at getting them done! It's not easy to prove but I spent a lot less time completing this than the shield and sign post from last week. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Metal Texturing (Wheels): Despite improving my metal drawing skills slightly, the wheels were especially difficult. Because we're nearing the end of the project I also wasn't able to spend as much time altering them as I wanted.

- Specular Map: Not really a texturing issue, but I feel the wagon would benefit from a specular map, especially because the wheels look so flat in the renders and not very shiny, despite the highlights in the texture I created.

Wheat Texture

This is the final wheat texture I painted quickly for the fields in the village, which is the last scene of the level.

In - Game Screenshot

To add variation to the fields, Johan took my texture and darkened it in Photoshop; as well as placing it alongside the original. I think this worked really well as the fields now look more realistic, as before it looked like there was just a bright yellow patch in the scene.

Strengths:

- Looking like Wheat: Even though the texture itself looks pretty simple, it does the job well and looks very much like a strand of wheat, especially when placed in a bunch together.

- Team Collaboration: As Johan was placing the wheat in the fields we both agreed that there should be more variation with them, this discussion meant that we were able to achieve a more realistic looking wheat field. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Polishing: Because I drew this quite quickly as it was needed for the level, I didn't get to polish it as much as I wanted. I used the liquify tool a lot when it came to the strands at the top, which ended up looking a bit too wavy. This isn't very noticeable in the scene but if I was to do it again, I would change it so they looked more linear.

Crossbow and Bolt Texturing

Johans Untextured Models

Johans Models with my Texturing

My Diffuse Maps

My Alpha Map

Strengths:

- Overall Aesthetic: I'm super proud of this asset! I think the overall look is very fitting with the style of our level and I really like the mix of dark and light wood. The different colours, being the blue feathers on the crossbow bolt and red straps contrast each other very well.

- Metal Texturing: I used the new metal I drew from my stalls and it's definitely the most fitting I've used and textured on an asset so far. It looks believable and I couldn't be happier with how the metal looks on this.

- Saving Time: Instead of completely painting new wood and metal textures for the UV's, I copied them from my other diffuse maps I textured. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- String Texturing: I feel like what lets the overall crossbow design down is the string at the front as it's such a focal point. It was also difficult to texture because the UV's for that particular part were very small.

- Bone Texturing: Another thing to add to the list of things I will need to improve on. I feel like bone texturing is similar to stone with the harsh edges, highlights and shadows; which is not a particularly strong area of mine. I will need to start looking at where the shadows and light hit in order to gain more of an understanding how to draw bones properly.

Barrel Texturing:

Jacks Untextured 3D Model

Jacks 3D Model with my texturing

My Diffuse Map

Strengths:

- Simple, Quick and Fairly Easy: Possibly the easiest asset I've textured so far, except for altering my existing metal texture into circles. The wood was just copied from my previous models and it was easy to place in the UV's.

- Saving Time: Instead of completely painting new wood and metal textures for the UV's, I copied them from my other diffuse maps I textured. Weaknesses / Improvements:

- Polishing: Because we're approaching the end of the project soon I didn't spend too long texturing the barrel, which meant the quality suffered a bit. I could've textured the inner rim of the barrel to correspond with the separate planks but instead I copied an existing singular plank there instead. If I had more time then I would go back and redo it but I have a lot to do.