Game Asset Production

Game Scene

Final Update

December 16, 2020

Despite me having slowed down in progress these past few weeks, I was in fact able to fully complete the Factory Rooftop building. This includes the shack structure in all its exterior and interior glory, the stairways, the upper and lower flooring, and all previous work that has been completed. In total, the building structure took up about 2 and a half UV maps. Because of this, I was able to pass things along to our texture artist, Justin, as I still continued to work on the next building pieces. This means I properly UVed, provided IDs, and checked on my end that everything baked before handing over my exports. I also created our dead tree asset that goes inside the Raven's Dome to work as our LOD, as well as a rock asset to fill in our scene a bit.

I went with the route of assembling my entire building in Maya, combining the pieces that share the same UV map, delete history and freeze transformation, export, and place them all together within Unity and assign the correct texture maps to them. With my completed building, I then populated the scene with smaller assets that were ready to be placed about. With that, my work was finished and ready for the walkthrough for showcasing. The total tri count I had ended up with was somewhere in the 83,000 range. Overall, I feel I mirrored the original BioShock Infinite scene quite well - I am very glad how it all came together.

Game Screenshot

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Game Scene

Update 6

December 9, 2020

It has been a while, and I have certainly not shown much in the way of progress considering the amount of time that has past. I did finish the glass ceiling finally, and got a roofed asset paired with chimneys completed - both fully UVed. I went back and pieced together some earlier assets that were just left as modular pieces - I will probably do this for everything at some point to make for more efficient exporting. Of course, I returned to the shack structure and have continued UVing and mirroring things over.

The deadline is near, and I have a lot of work ahead of me. Finally completing all assets for the Factory Rooftop building will be my top priority. I am not too discouraged, however, as a window of time has opened up for me for this final stretch.

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Game Scene

Update 5

November 18, 2020

This week I decided to take a break from the larger asset after having made small progress with organizing the outliner and beveling and UVing, and moved on to one of the other models on my checklist: the glass ceiling. This is another non-modular, but much smaller asset to go on the factory rooftop. It took me no time at all - only taking a few hours to block out the right dimensions, model half and detail it, then mirror over. However, modeling isn't entirely finished, which also means UVing hasn't started yet either.

Having the premise of the shapes complete, I will go over it again with finer details, UV and duplicate to once again utilize stacking for efficiency, and maybe add some floaters. Though I have not done the best job setting aside time for myself when working on these assets (of which all factory rooftop assets should have been complete by now), I continue to strive for improving productivity.

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Game Scene

Update 4

November 14, 2020

I made some headway with modeling and UVing this week. In particular, the modular concrete walls are now finished and UVed. I then moved on to the shack structure: referencing the dimensions from the blocked out scene in Unity and blocking out in greater detail in Maya, and planning out the most efficient approach to create and duplicate pieces where appropriate.

Following some gameplay references, I discovered how poor the integrity of the infrastructure really is. There are walls clipping into other objects, and metal support beams connecting with marble support beams - it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. From this I realized a lot of the game assets in BioShock Infinite for this section of gameplay are likely randomized together in some fashion. It was incredibly difficult to create and have pieced together, but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this one.

I am only partially finished with the modeling, but much of what is seen will later be mirrored and fit into place. I was also carefully considering how UVing will be done - trying my best to utilize duplicating pieces wherever possible. I am always keeping in mind the poly count, which objects will be close enough to warrant more heavy detail and beveling, and thinking about the texturing later down the pipeline as I model. Hopefully, as I continue with this large asset I will complete it and with little to no problems.

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Game Scene

Update 3

November 3, 2020

Unfortunately, this week I have very little to show as far as progress goes. I was unable to complete the tasks I set for myself with finishing up the majority of the rooftop assets. What I did accomplish was one of the modular pieces: the concrete wall. Although this part of it is complete, there are variations needed before I can call it finished such as corner pieces and versions of itself where some of the detail will not be visible anyways (trying not to add to the poly count with detail that will never be seen). Not to mention none of it is UVed.

It has been difficult working on this modular piece, though it is a simple form. In particular, the fact that it is modular and will be viewed from both sides makes things tricky when modeling. I also needed to create this piece from three separate parts just to keep the poly count from getting out of hand (since being a modular piece it will be duplicated many times).

It goes without saying, but moving forward I intend to finish what I had originally thought would be complete by now. I will finish this concrete wall, move on to the shack, start on other assets like the metal stairs, and have everything UVed. That is my goal for until the end of next week.

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Game Scene

Update 2

October 27, 2020

My role for the group thus far has been to create the larger assets like the buildings and landmark pieces. While in Maya, I began doing modular modeling for the factory rooftop structure in our scene. Much of the sides of the building actually require only a few modular parts: the base wall, corners, windows, and a top trim. I moved on and created modular brick walls as well, and variations of this which will be used for certain set pieces. All of these have also been properly UVed.

Of course, much of these will be texture focused to really bring them out. However, the trim pieces do have an intricate design, and so I gave it some attention and modeled in that detail - and I think it came out nicely. I found the poly count for the modular trim was just too high, and so I opted to create a low poly version and will have the high detail be baked on later when in Painter.

I felt I completed the majority of what was expected of me this week. What I did not get around to doing was the shack structure and its framework, and some further modular models. These I plan to complete for next week, and move on to finishing the rest of the assets for the factory rooftop.

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Game Scene

Update 1

October 20, 2020

It seems I have made a return to BioShock Infinite. A year ago this was the main inspiration for a previous project in Digital Modeling, and it will once again be the the source of reference for this game scene in Asset Production. As a group, we began to pull in-game screenshots, and have decided we want to recreate the environment and aesthetics of the Raven's Dome segment of the game.

References

For this week, my tasks were to create an annotated map and block out scene so that we may better judge the appropriate dimensions and keep things to scale with the player's height. Our scene will consist of three buildings the player will stand atop, much like what our reference shows. Of course, we do plan to include the various doodads that are normally included in this setting: the skyline track, balloons, an air boat, propaganda posters, crates, and other small props the player may find lying around.

We plan to utilize modular modeling to accomplish much of the assets and to keep the pipeline flowing nicely. This is especially needed for the bottoms of the structures as there is repetition there. Along with modeling and texturing, there are some great graphical features in BioShock Infinite that we will take away to create our particle effects and animations: tears in space, thrusters, floating animations, and foliage blowing in the wind.

Object List

• Raven's Dome
• Main platform, stone stairs, walls & windows, pillars, glass dome, hanging cages, arch with eye, balcony railing, planters & foliage, a large dead tree, trees with foliage & rocks
• Factory Rooftop
• Main platform, metal stairs with railings, shack with interior, brick structure with rooftop, walls, glass roof opening, pipes, boxes, papers & wood debris
• Victorian Building
• Balcony step, side balconies, balcony railings, walls & windows, planters & foliage, doorways, roof, bed, fireplace mantle, dresser, bookshelves, table, couch & stool
• Air Boat
• Metal & wood flooring, circular extrusions on either side, center & side engines, cabin-glass front with searchlights & small railings
• Skyline Track
• Straight piece, turn piece, dip & rise piece
• Props
• Weapons - pistol, sniper rifle, crank gun
• Tear objects - weapon barrel, turret, tesla coil
• Crates & medical kits
• Food & salts
• Safe
• Skyhook
• Wrench

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Micro Tower

October 12, 2020

This assignment asked of me to create game assets for a Tower Defense style game assuming it would be used for mobile. I had to model and texture tower pieces (a base and three toppers), also create additional small props, utilize the LOD component within Unity by having a high and low poly for each of the tower pieces, and set up the scene with some terrain. This time around I got to choose my theme, and took references from the game Starcraft.

References

Modeling took up most of my time throughout the process considering I was going in the direction of a somewhat detailed theme. It was especially challenging to balance the needed detail for certain areas while also keeping track of my poly count threshold of 2,500 tris per high poly tower piece. But, once I moved on to UVing, IDs, and eventually Painter, the speed of my process quickened.

Given my theme is scrappy and futuristic, and the goal is to consider this for mobile, it was easy to tackle how I wanted to texture them. I went for simple textures while keeping the color scheme brownish-tan. I could have gone back to add in a bit more detail like scratches or grunge, but the time crunch was kicking in by this stage, unfortunately. In Unity is where I set up the LOD component and brought in all of my low and high poly models. This allows for higher detail models to instantiate when zoomed in, then switch over to a lesser detailed version of that model for the sake of smooth gameplay when rendering.

Once again, time management has been my biggest challenge in overcoming. Of course, it is easy to say given it is an all-encompassing obstacle. Otherwise, I will admit I spent much longer in the modeling stage than was necessary. Looking at my work now, I do think the art style of my towers and props clash a bit with my choice of terrain. Had I made more time for myself, I would have most certainly tried to look for sources in how to make stylized terrain. Regardless, I am pleased with my results, and have certainly learned a lot of new tools and methods for this workflow.

Game Screenshots

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SciFi Hallway

September 27, 2020

For this assignment, I have been tasked in creating modular models that will then be pieced together within Unity. Once the game scene is assembled, I must make it playable with sound, particle effects, animated objects, and appropriate indoor lighting. With the theme given to me (a futuristic hallway), I started with the first step: look for references to help begin modeling.

References

Per usual, modeling took longer than I anticipated, particularly the corner modular pieces. And despite my best efforts with keeping things modular, I found out too late that my two ceiling pieces leave a gap between them when placed together. Aside from that, I was able to correctly model my modular pieces. I had no issues when UVing, thankfully. However, many problems arose when I was setting things up for texturing in Painter with IDs. I spent hours trying to relearn the steps for it, and came to the realization that I was doing it wrong.

I had tried dozens of times bringing in my low poly, high poly, and floaters with their IDs in to Painter, and the results always came out abysmal. After many failed attempts, I eventually caught on with my mistake of trying to bake in IDs twice. Once with high poly, then with floaters separate. Suffice to say, I am still a novice when it comes to Painter.

Continuing in Painter, I had to rely heavily on what texture materials Painter provides. I will give myself some credit though as I messed with color, adding some grunge, and utilizing the smart material feature when working with two separate UVs with shared IDs. I also had to skip the alpha stamping as my biggest problem yet came to my attention: time.

Getting things into Unity became my main priority. Even at this point I wasn't sure I would finish in time. I had several wasted hours on just getting my scene pieced together. I tried doing a bit of it in the Unity scene, then noticed my pivots I assigned in Maya were not carried over correctly. I then decided to go in Maya to assemble the scene. It seemed to be going faster, but still took about a few hours, then got it back in Unity. At this point, manually applying mesh colliders, placing the right material for each piece, and trying to move pieces around became a huge mess. I resorted to restarting piecing my scene together in Unity after all.

Unfortunately, the majority of what I did not get done were the features within Unity to polish my game scene. I completed the bare bones of what is necessary for walking through my scene: a player, the hallway, colliders, ambient sound, sub-par lighting, and a looped animation. I am a bit sad that I did not get to see my hard work finalized in a more completed state. Alas, such is tradition, it seems, to continue to have poor time management.

Game Screenshot

I do look forward to my next assignments, so that I may better myself in all facets of where my quality lacked. I know I could have made this far easier for myself, but sometimes I just don't see the problems until the clock starts ticking.