Introduction
For this project we will be presented with art tests. The first 3 weeks we have been given mock art tests, made by the university, based off industry tests. These tests included a variety of skill sets varying from 2D character design, UI through to 3D environment asset design.
When presented with the options I couldn't decide if I wanted to do UI design as it is more of a niche market. After speaking to the tutors I decided it was not for me as was more based around lay-out grids and the user experience then the visual design. Also the style of game we where designing the UI for didn't interest me.
After a brief moment of speculation I settled on re-designing 2 assets from Half Life 1, 30 years after the incident ending half life 2. This is to be a current gen game so needs to have suitably high graphics.
Half Life Research (And Black Mesa)
I'd never taken much interest into the half life franchise so my knowledge is very bleak. As a first step I started watching some play throughs of appropriate areas. The 2 Assets I would be re-visiting where origionally from the chapter 'Power Up' In half life 1.I watched several play throughs of that chapter so I could get a feel for the assets place in the world and if there where any important interactions from the player. Here is the first part of the main walkthrough series I used.
Although it was useful knowing the assets place in this game it is some-what dated information given that this is a model to make for a later sequel. Because of this I started looking into the story of half life 2 and what effect 'the combine' would of had on the world.
After looking at this article: Half Life 2 Storyline. I decided to do some research into the combine tech as I wanted to show they had taken over Black Mesa. I went for this choice as if the facility had simply been blewn up by the Dark Energy Reactor going critical there wouldn't be much left for me to create.
Finding good pictures of Combine tech was not an easy task, most game play videos people just ran past objects too quickly/far away for me to get a good look and pictures of just the tech, not the combine humanoids, where sparce. Wanting to keep the design true to the origional and feel like it fits in the Half life timeline I was eager to gather better research.
This was when I realised I may not have the half life game but I have something better. G-Mod. With G-Mod I was able to pull out half life 2 assets used in the actual game and get a close look at the objects at all angles. Not only this but I could also pull out working NPCs and weapons which would try to kill me as they would in the game. To top it all off the whole G-Mod heads up display and creative tools where a copy of the ones used in half life 2.
This was when I realised I may not have the half life game but I have something better. G-Mod. With G-Mod I was able to pull out half life 2 assets used in the actual game and get a close look at the objects at all angles. Not only this but I could also pull out working NPCs and weapons which would try to kill me as they would in the game. To top it all off the whole G-Mod heads up display and creative tools where a copy of the ones used in half life 2.
The first asset I will make is the Console (Left of Pic). Using this Image of the origional Assets and my newly aquired knowledge of Half Life I felt ready to start creating my assets and them feel like part of a credible sequel.
The Console.
For my console I knew I wanted to have the older console but that had been taken over by the combine. I really wanted to show how the technology had been hacked into so In amoungst my console research I also grabbed some pictures of the inside of older PCs. I done this because I wanted to show the internal hardware and wires hanging out where the combine had ripped out what they didn't need and plugged in their own technology over the old tech.
Taking elements from each of my reference pictures I started doing some very quick digital sketches of pieces that could be included in my design. I then pieced them all together over a console in the origional style untill I had something I was happy with. Here's a image containing the pieces I sketched and how they would fit into the design.
With a rough idea in-front of me I started modelling. The Fan cage I wanted to include inside my console I thought may use too much geometry to fit into my 5000 tri limit. Because of this I done a quick test to see if I could replicate a simular look using alpha transparency instead over a simple dome shape.
Although it was I success I felt it didn't really look good enough to be part of my model. In the end I decided to model the Fan cage but be careful with my Tri count. After all this part will be hardly noticeble as will be covering a fan on the inside of the Console.
With that done I carried on modeling my console, trying to keep a clean mesh throughout both the low and high poly model. Below you can see the low poly model compared to the high. There's quite a noticeable difference, hopefully using the high poly model I can make the low one appear almost as smooth and detailed as the high.
Here's a closer look at just the models .
As you can see there is far more detail in the high poly one and over all it has a much smoother, life-like feel. Using a modelling technique known as baking I should be able to replicate the look of the high poly surface onto the low poly one using textures. This means I can keep my geometry to the same low number but give the illusion of there being more detail within it.
I ran into a few small issues during the baking with seems and lighting imformation being stretched and strange over the surface but a few tweaks of the UVs and lining up edges of the Low poly with the High I finally got something that looked pretty good. Here is the same model, one with the Normal Map made from the high poly model (Baked) and one without. As you can see there is a noticeable difference.
I'm really happy with the outcome, given that the console has such a low amount of geometry and yet it looks almost as good as the High poly one. Seeings as I now have some extra Tris I can use I will add a few bolts where they didn't come out that well from the baking (Around the Air Conditioning Unit).
The buttons over the main console behind the newly possitioned Combine screen didn't come out that well either so I will bake the High poly Buttons onto the UV when I texture the console. With the Baking and all my Textures I should end up with a very good looking console. I'm really glad I learnt this technique of making Low Poly assets look like higher ones and is something I will be sure to practise as and when I can.
Now I know the low poly UVs and Mesh lined up well with the high poly console It was time to bake the whole thing as one object. After a bit of fiddeling UVs around and a couple of test bakes I had something I was reasonably happy with and could work with.
Saying that the Information wasn't perfect in some areas and I had horrid seams or not enough imformation. In particular the buttons on the dash where hardly noticeable. To fix this I came up with the idea of baking my High poly dash onto a simple plane, then taking the normal map generated from that and embedding it in my whole console normal map in a convincing way.
When I opened up the Console normal map (Right) I realised it was a bit messy in places and could quickly see where seams and messy lighting would be. I edited the normal map in photoshop using the blur tool to blend edges more smoothly, the stamp tool to cover bits of detail that where too extreme (or simply didn't work as they should) and adjusted contrast of parts untill I had something I was happy with.
Next I simply added an ambient Occlusion to my model to give it a bit more depth with some fake shadow details. I will overlay this Occlusion map over my diffuse (Colour) map once I have completed that. Here you can see the final bake of my model and how the dash board came out.
As you can see, during the un-wrapping and baking process I found pointless geometry so I now have an extra 400 tris to play with. With this in mind I'm thinking of adding a little something resting on the shelf or maybe against it, or maybe have a pipe coming out of the side... Who knows...Either way I now have the possibilty to explore some more props to add to my Console.
First I thought of having either bullets or combine ammo scattered on the shelf, then I decided the shelf was good as it was. After a few various Ideas I settled on the idea of adding a Combine shotgun leaning against the side of the shelf. Below is a little diagram to give me an idea of where it would go and how it would look.
(Yeah its very rough but it serves its purpose) I thought that part of the console looked a bit bare compared to the rest and something leaning against it would really complete the Image. I looked at a few Combine weapons and even considered including a crowbar but decided on the BullPup in the end as it had a nice shape and I should be able to replicate it well given my geomatry restrictions.
Baring in mind I couldn't go over 400 tris I made both my Low poly Gun and the High. Once again you can see there is quite a difference in the ammount of detail. Using the same technique as before I'm hoping to make my low poly gun look as good as the high one.
I managed to bake the details from the high gun onto the low one, however I experienced a slight Issue that made the outcome not as good as I had anticipated.
I'm only meant to have one UV sheet for this whole asset and it was already pretty full from before. I'd finally made a Normal map which fitted the way the UVs where and made the console look really nice, Obviously I didn't want to move around too many UVs as I didn't want to ruin how it looked.This meant I had to find another way around it.
To get around this problem I baked the gun on a seperate UV (making it very small on the UV) and then fitted it into a gap in my UV sheet. I had to move one piece of little importance on the UV to fit it in but even then it meant the gun was too low resolution. An object of this size needed more space then some of the smaller internal pieces of the console. I managed to piece the two UVs together in a way that didn't ruin the Console however the High poly detail on the gun is lower resolution then I'd like.
Saying that I managed to tweak it to not look that bad and I should be able to make it look better when I texture it. It would have probably been better If I baked it taking up the whole UV sheet seperate and then shrank it down to fit the consoles UV. Regardless, here is the Console with the gun.
I very quickly re-done the guns Normal map in a better way and now it looks exactly as I wanted. Quick close up of the gun and as you can see it's much smoother and the details stand out to the same quality as the console.
With the models now truly done it's finally time to start texturing the console.
The Chernobyl Disaster happened in 1986 so it has been almost 30 years since the incident. Half life 3 is s'posed to be set 30 years after the nuclear disaster of the second half life situated around the year 2000. This meant that chernobyl pictures made for a very good source for accurate research.With a rough idea in-front of me I started modelling. The Fan cage I wanted to include inside my console I thought may use too much geometry to fit into my 5000 tri limit. Because of this I done a quick test to see if I could replicate a simular look using alpha transparency instead over a simple dome shape.
Although it was I success I felt it didn't really look good enough to be part of my model. In the end I decided to model the Fan cage but be careful with my Tri count. After all this part will be hardly noticeble as will be covering a fan on the inside of the Console.
With that done I carried on modeling my console, trying to keep a clean mesh throughout both the low and high poly model. Below you can see the low poly model compared to the high. There's quite a noticeable difference, hopefully using the high poly model I can make the low one appear almost as smooth and detailed as the high.
Here's a closer look at just the models .
As you can see there is far more detail in the high poly one and over all it has a much smoother, life-like feel. Using a modelling technique known as baking I should be able to replicate the look of the high poly surface onto the low poly one using textures. This means I can keep my geometry to the same low number but give the illusion of there being more detail within it.
Baking Research (Not Cakes)
Knowing I would need to use this baking technique I wanted to research into it before I started ruining my model. I read a bit about it untill I understood the theory behind how and why it works, and also why it is used. With this in mind It was time to test it out practically on an element within my Console model.
I chose to use the button as it was something very round where you could really see the difference in lighting and surface detail between the low and high. Also the button would be interactable with in the game so I saw it as an important (all be it small) feature. Using the video below I done a quick test to see if I could do it and do it well.
I chose to use the button as it was something very round where you could really see the difference in lighting and surface detail between the low and high. Also the button would be interactable with in the game so I saw it as an important (all be it small) feature. Using the video below I done a quick test to see if I could do it and do it well.
The first time I done It I ended up with messy black lines over the edges where the button met the base. With some help I re-alligned my low poly button with the High and tried again.
This time it was a success.
Although the edges of the button are more angular the difference between them is barely noticeable given the huge difference in the amount of Tris that make up each. You can see the Low poly button has the same surface detail and lighting detail as the high poly one which gives this smooth Illusion. Using this technique I should be able to get very good look for my low poly console.
With the research done I started baking each piece of my high model onto the low and checking the results where right before eventually baking the whole console together. During this process I found faces that where'nt needed and found that deleting some edge loops meant I had a better result.
This time it was a success.
Although the edges of the button are more angular the difference between them is barely noticeable given the huge difference in the amount of Tris that make up each. You can see the Low poly button has the same surface detail and lighting detail as the high poly one which gives this smooth Illusion. Using this technique I should be able to get very good look for my low poly console.
With the research done I started baking each piece of my high model onto the low and checking the results where right before eventually baking the whole console together. During this process I found faces that where'nt needed and found that deleting some edge loops meant I had a better result.
I ran into a few small issues during the baking with seems and lighting imformation being stretched and strange over the surface but a few tweaks of the UVs and lining up edges of the Low poly with the High I finally got something that looked pretty good. Here is the same model, one with the Normal Map made from the high poly model (Baked) and one without. As you can see there is a noticeable difference.
I'm really happy with the outcome, given that the console has such a low amount of geometry and yet it looks almost as good as the High poly one. Seeings as I now have some extra Tris I can use I will add a few bolts where they didn't come out that well from the baking (Around the Air Conditioning Unit).
The buttons over the main console behind the newly possitioned Combine screen didn't come out that well either so I will bake the High poly Buttons onto the UV when I texture the console. With the Baking and all my Textures I should end up with a very good looking console. I'm really glad I learnt this technique of making Low Poly assets look like higher ones and is something I will be sure to practise as and when I can.
Further Baking and Sneaky Techniques.
Saying that the Information wasn't perfect in some areas and I had horrid seams or not enough imformation. In particular the buttons on the dash where hardly noticeable. To fix this I came up with the idea of baking my High poly dash onto a simple plane, then taking the normal map generated from that and embedding it in my whole console normal map in a convincing way.
When I opened up the Console normal map (Right) I realised it was a bit messy in places and could quickly see where seams and messy lighting would be. I edited the normal map in photoshop using the blur tool to blend edges more smoothly, the stamp tool to cover bits of detail that where too extreme (or simply didn't work as they should) and adjusted contrast of parts untill I had something I was happy with.
Next I simply added an ambient Occlusion to my model to give it a bit more depth with some fake shadow details. I will overlay this Occlusion map over my diffuse (Colour) map once I have completed that. Here you can see the final bake of my model and how the dash board came out.
As you can see, during the un-wrapping and baking process I found pointless geometry so I now have an extra 400 tris to play with. With this in mind I'm thinking of adding a little something resting on the shelf or maybe against it, or maybe have a pipe coming out of the side... Who knows...Either way I now have the possibilty to explore some more props to add to my Console.
An Extra Prop??
Now I have more geometry to play with I wanted to add something a bit different to my console. I am happy with the console as a whole so don't want to adjust anything with that but I would like to have something extra as part of it.First I thought of having either bullets or combine ammo scattered on the shelf, then I decided the shelf was good as it was. After a few various Ideas I settled on the idea of adding a Combine shotgun leaning against the side of the shelf. Below is a little diagram to give me an idea of where it would go and how it would look.
(Yeah its very rough but it serves its purpose) I thought that part of the console looked a bit bare compared to the rest and something leaning against it would really complete the Image. I looked at a few Combine weapons and even considered including a crowbar but decided on the BullPup in the end as it had a nice shape and I should be able to replicate it well given my geomatry restrictions.
Baring in mind I couldn't go over 400 tris I made both my Low poly Gun and the High. Once again you can see there is quite a difference in the ammount of detail. Using the same technique as before I'm hoping to make my low poly gun look as good as the high one.
I managed to bake the details from the high gun onto the low one, however I experienced a slight Issue that made the outcome not as good as I had anticipated.
I'm only meant to have one UV sheet for this whole asset and it was already pretty full from before. I'd finally made a Normal map which fitted the way the UVs where and made the console look really nice, Obviously I didn't want to move around too many UVs as I didn't want to ruin how it looked.This meant I had to find another way around it.
To get around this problem I baked the gun on a seperate UV (making it very small on the UV) and then fitted it into a gap in my UV sheet. I had to move one piece of little importance on the UV to fit it in but even then it meant the gun was too low resolution. An object of this size needed more space then some of the smaller internal pieces of the console. I managed to piece the two UVs together in a way that didn't ruin the Console however the High poly detail on the gun is lower resolution then I'd like.
Saying that I managed to tweak it to not look that bad and I should be able to make it look better when I texture it. It would have probably been better If I baked it taking up the whole UV sheet seperate and then shrank it down to fit the consoles UV. Regardless, here is the Console with the gun.
I very quickly re-done the guns Normal map in a better way and now it looks exactly as I wanted. Quick close up of the gun and as you can see it's much smoother and the details stand out to the same quality as the console.
With the models now truly done it's finally time to start texturing the console.
Chernobyl Disaster.
After seeing these pictures I get a feel that there's a greeny yellow hue over most things with kind've dark roughed up bits scattered around. I wil try to replicate a slightly less extreme version of this on the origional console. It will make for good comparison against the shinier blue of the combines technology.
Texturing.
With a bit of research done I started working on texturing the base layer of my model. This first stage is just getting photos and materials down onto the model and checking they work together and editing them all appropriately.
At this stage the model looks rather flat and detailess, to add some life to the object I needed to add some grime, scratches and general wear. In our lecture they covered how objects in games shouldn't look like they just 'sprang to exhistance'. All environments have been lived in so need to look as such.
With this in mind I started gathering photos of how modern FPS games had replicated this worn look. I played call of duty advanced warfare on the PS4 and started looking at metallic assets around the maps. Here's a collection of images I thought could be useful.
I found running around this game and anylising how they'd made the assets very helpful to me as this was the kind've level I was aiming to achieve with my console.
Using this research I started adding some more details to my texture like scratches and grime and really layering up the texture giving it a 'lived' look. I constantly checked how it looked on the model untill I had something I was reasonably happy with.
I then made a normal map for some of my texture pieces and embedded it into the normal map made from the baking process. With this all looking okay I made a specular map and batch baked an ambient occlusion from maya which I overlayed over my Colour Map.
As well as these base maps for my model to really work I needed a couple more. I added the mask below to the alpha channel of my colour map so that the combine screen looked holographic. I also made the emission map (glow map) below so that the combine tech appeared to glow in game.
With my various textures all done it was time to try and assemble them into a use-able material in the game engine.
As well as the screenshots here's a recording of it in game with a FPS coded player controller.
The Fuse control panel was something I was looking forward to. I managed to fake all the individual fuses, flick switches, lights and bolts on it. The part I was most impressed with was the way it looked like cables were coming down from the bottom.
I found running around this game and anylising how they'd made the assets very helpful to me as this was the kind've level I was aiming to achieve with my console.
Using this research I started adding some more details to my texture like scratches and grime and really layering up the texture giving it a 'lived' look. I constantly checked how it looked on the model untill I had something I was reasonably happy with.
I then made a normal map for some of my texture pieces and embedded it into the normal map made from the baking process. With this all looking okay I made a specular map and batch baked an ambient occlusion from maya which I overlayed over my Colour Map.
As well as these base maps for my model to really work I needed a couple more. I added the mask below to the alpha channel of my colour map so that the combine screen looked holographic. I also made the emission map (glow map) below so that the combine tech appeared to glow in game.
With my various textures all done it was time to try and assemble them into a use-able material in the game engine.
Making Materials (Unreal 4).
After putting all my textures and my low poly model into the game engine I started to assemble them into nice looking materials.
Here you can see how I made the base material used on my model. I put in a constant node set to 1 and connected it to the metallic option of my material, this made the material have a very nice metallic look.
Here you can see how I made the base material used on my model. I put in a constant node set to 1 and connected it to the metallic option of my material, this made the material have a very nice metallic look.
Unfortunately after no end of playing around I could not figure out how to get the Combine screen to be semi-transparent whilst the rest remained fully solid. This meant I had to use a second material just for the screen.
I made the screen of my model out of a different material and re-imported it into the game engine, this meant I now had another material slot on the object that would only be applied to the screen.
To get this to look how I want it and really good took a bit of playing around but I finally came out with this.
I used my colour map and mutiplied it with the emissive map so the interface on the holographic screen really popped out from the background. I also used another constant value which I multiplied with the emissive map so that I could edit the brightness of the glow. I found a value of 3 to work the best.
Model In Game.
With all that done I had a game asset I was very happy with. I created a very basic scene with my console and a floor and set up point lights around the scene to create some mood lighting.
I then added a red point light to give some lighting information with the button glow and some more red lights to simulate the lights inside the computer (these lights also helped show the details within the consoles interior).
The Generator.
After the starbound art test I still had a week left till submission, I saw this as an opportunity to go back and create the generator.
Now I have a basic understanding of how baking works I really wanted to see how much I could get out of it. Push it and see just how much detail I could fake using the normal information.
I started by making a very basic Generator, made mostly of cubes. This way I had a easy surface to fake my details onto effectively. I then made a higher poly version where I started putting details into it. I didn't get to finish the high poly with all the details I was aiming to put in but I got enough done to test it as I wanted. This is something I will aim to experiment with after this project and finish to a better standard than my console.
Now I have a basic understanding of how baking works I really wanted to see how much I could get out of it. Push it and see just how much detail I could fake using the normal information.
I started by making a very basic Generator, made mostly of cubes. This way I had a easy surface to fake my details onto effectively. I then made a higher poly version where I started putting details into it. I didn't get to finish the high poly with all the details I was aiming to put in but I got enough done to test it as I wanted. This is something I will aim to experiment with after this project and finish to a better standard than my console.
With this done I un-wrapped the components I was most keen on baking and started trying to get a nice bake which gave me a good, clean normal map. After a few attempts I managed to end up with something I was rather happy with.
The Fuse control panel was something I was looking forward to. I managed to fake all the individual fuses, flick switches, lights and bolts on it. The part I was most impressed with was the way it looked like cables were coming down from the bottom.
Another piece I was interested in was the turbine. I was keen to fake a fan and electronic tubes along the edge of the cylinder. Again I was very happy with how it turned out, I think the fan looks very good considering its on a flat face. The tubes however still look a bit flat when you see them intersect with the back part.
