SPRINT SIX
This sprint, my tasks shifted towards level design. My priority is to assist Branden and Jonathan, our two level designers, with polishing the levels and making sure they are the best that they can be.
I took on 12 points this sprint and completed 8 of them. In addition to art-passing some of the levels, my tasks still include modeling props and setting up prefabs as needed. Aside from my defined tasks, I am frequently in discussions with other team mates, trying to help out however I can.
LEVEL DESIGN
I worked on three different rooms, following directions from Branden and Jonathan so I could do work where it was most needed. Last sprint I mentioned that I was working on one of the rooms simply to illustrate to our level designers what could be done with these assets. Turns out I'm working alongside them now and we're going to use that version of the level for real. Unfortunately, due to some branch merging confusion, my updated levels somehow did not make it into the build.
Here are a couple of close-up shots. Just a side note, but I'm really loving how those Daggerfall paintings ended up looking in-game.
FUNGUS
First off, here's something fun: fungus! This was probably the first thing I worked on this sprint. It was really simple to model this in a way that allows for some interesting variation.
The mushrooms and the blue stalks exist on separate meshes. That way, level designers can spice things up with different combinations. I made two prefabs, one of them having an emission material and a point light. So these can be used as a light source, or as simple set dressing.
BANNERS
Banners! These were relatively straightforward to make. I decided to make two different designs, with each one having a pristine and a damaged variant. The blue one is rather generic, but I wanted the red one to have some sort of meaningful motif on it. I got the idea to incorporate Kevyn's Squiggmar concept art (with adjustments), as a way of suggesting some kind of deeper lore.
SHOPKEEPER VARIANT
Next up, our charming shopkeeper makes a return. She is supposed to appear inside the castle to give the player another chance to purchase upgrades. It would hardly be appropriate to see a tent in there, so we needed a second model. We pondered the idea of having it be a different character entirely (I kind of liked the idea of this one being a mole person), but we also liked the absurdity of her just somehow showing up in different places. Like a cuter and less insane Ford Cruller.
The only new things I modeled here are the rucksack and the lantern. She already had a rig, so it was quite simple to pose her on Bert's barrel.
BONES
Rattle me bones! This very low poly pile of bones has an interesting story. I started by literally taking all the bones off the existing skeleton model, giving them rigid bodies, and dropping a bunch of them in a pile. I had to make a cylindrical wall around it so they fell in a contained mound instead of spreading out.
One I had a good pile, I froze the simulation. I combined all the bones into one mesh, duplicated it, then converted the mesh to a convex hull. I baked a diffuse, normal, and ambient occlusion map directly in blender.
I did 90% of the texturing all in blender. In substance, pretty much all I did was add some extra ambient occlusion and exported with a Unity template. For the the final I brought back some of the 3d bones and played with the positions. The result is a really efficient and good-looking asset. Shiver me timbers.
BATTLEMAGE STATUE (WIP)
Lastly, here's some progress on the task I am currently working on. This started out as a 1-point card, but it turned out to be bigger than that. The task was to make a small variety of statues depicting heroes and monsters.
My strategy for modeling statues is to start with a rigged character model, that way I can pose it and adjust that pose however I like to create different variations. She's meant to be a battlemage.
I started with our skeleton lancer model, then replaced the skeleton body with a low poly human, then remade the lance into a staff and changed up the clothes. Partially this was for convenience, but I also liked how seeing the skeletons alongside similarly-dressed statues seemed to imply a shared lore for the denizens of Citadel.
SPRINT FIVE
This sprint has been busy for all of us. Very busy. I took on 15 points, and completed 13. My work included creature modelling & rigging for Squiggmar, prop modelling for light sources, and some Unity work. The only cards I have left over are for some low-priority props.
SQUIGGMAR
Squiggmar lives! This was my big focus at the start of the sprint. I took Kevyn's awesome concept art, worked some of my own cursed imagination into it, and the result was something truly monstrous. Early on, I called our instructor over to have a look at it and he said it was an abomination. That told me I was on exactly the right track.
I created a particularly nasty rig for this guy, and I can't wait to see what our animator does with it. He has a mouth with a full range of movement and a variety of different eyes complete with eyelids. And of course, the tentacles.
LIGHTING
In the prop department, my attention has pretty much been focused on light sources. First of all, I made this animated mesh-based flame effect for our torches. This is a simple effect that cuts down on the amount of particle work someone else would have to do, and I think the look came out quite nicely.
I have been playing a lot of Quake recently. I find myself mesmerized by the fire in that game, so I took inspiration from it. They didn't use bones for animation in that game, but this one does. My version consists of one big mesh for the base of the flame, controlled by two bones, and four separate blobs controlled by one bone each. It has a looping, 22 frame animation with those bones twisting, moving, and scaling.
Next up, the brazier:
Not much to say here. I simply googled "brazier" for reference, and picked two images. One of a modern brazier, and the other one from Elder Scrolls Online. Then I kinda smashed 'em together. My extra 3d work that I do in free time came in useful here, since I already had a really good texture set-up for a pile of ashes in an ashtray. I turned the ashes into a smart material, and applied it to the brazier with very few adjustments necessary.
Finally, the candles:
This was a very simple process, and it was easy to get a good amount of variation once I had the base candle made. I modeled & textured the candle seen in the center of the image, then stretched it out and squished it down to make two more variants. They all use the same texture as the first. The candle holder was also quite straight-forward, and I made three variations with different heights to match the three candles.
UNITY
I finally updated my local copy of the project from the Github, so I could better get an idea of where things are and where I can be most useful going forward. I have quite a bit of experience in level design, especially when it comes to lighting & aesthetic elements. I saw a way I could help by giving some pointers, so I went for it.
First things first, I took it upon myself to spruce up the camp scene. I made a unique skybox to set a different mood, tweaked the directional light and added an additional point light inside the shop, imported a custom terrain model, and scattered some rocks around.
I did this mainly as a demonstration to our level designers of how to incorporate aesthetics into their levels, but Tyler liked the revised camp scene enough to include it directly. I also made some changes directly to one of the room templates, this one is purely for illustration purposes and will remain only on my branch.
I also decided to start submitting my work as Unity packages, which was a natural extension of the work I was already doing in Unity. This way, I can ensure that my models are set up as intended and save someone else the time of doing it. This made a lot of sense for things like the flame effect, which requires an animator controller set up. I updated our already-existing torch prefab to include a point light and the animated flame, and made a new prefab for the brazier with the same features. My personal goal is to make sure our level designers have access to a library of assets that are very easy to use.
SPRINT FOUR
This was a slightly slower sprint for me, but I got some great work done. I was assigned 16 points, and completed 8 of them, with 1 point currently waiting to be verified. Once again, my tasks included a mixture of character & prop modelling.
At the start of this sprint, we had pretty much exhausted all the prop modelling cards in our backlog, but it was clear that we needed a lot more. I suggested that we start a collaborative asset list for 3d artists & level designers to suggest props, and our lead designer approved of that idea. I know from past experience as a level designer that it's important to develop a level's aesthetic along with the gameplay, at least to some degree. And it really helps to have a good library of assets at your disposal to spice up the levels.
So that was the first thing I did this sprint. Once that was done, our leads picked through the list and made cards for a few of those props, and got them assigned to us 3d artists.
SKELLIES
These spooky scary lads proved to be more complicated than expected. Kevyn once again delivered some great concept art.
I started by modeling just a regular skeleton, following an orthographic reference I found online. This gave me the base I needed to give it clothes and the unique items for the archer and lancer. I made an effort to get the arm and leg bones accurate, but simplified the ribcage and pelvis since they weren't going to be visible. The skull took a little while to get right.
Modelling the base skeleton was the most complicated and time-consuming part, and it was important to do it right. The specialized equipment for the lancer & archer was very simple and straightforward by comparison. After making these, I am convinced that modelling skeletons is an exercise that every character artist should do at least once. I am always thinking about skeletons, but ignoring the flesh and modelling just the skeleton is a different and interesting process.
PROPS
For the pieces of rusted armor, I mostly just took the skeleton lancer's armor and bent it into different shapes. When texturing, I used some of the smart materials I made for the Orc's armor and weapon, and hand painted details such as scratches, dents, and rust patterns.
The rocks were something I made at the last minute, and so far haven't been verified. Modelling it was a simple matter of sculpting with subdivision levels, baking the high to the low. In painter, I started with a rock smart material I made a year ago, but did some heavy modifications. I blended in a second material, this one a wet rock material I made in designer. Then I added some color variation and bits of dirt.
I still have 7 points rolling over to the next sprint. That includes another prop card, rigs for the skeletons, and everything involved in Squiggmarr. Get ready for tentacles.
SPRINT THREE
This sprint, I was assigned 15 points, and completed all but 1. My tasks mostly involved modelling power-ups and other items, but I also made some props and a creature.
Items/Props
Here are several of the power-ups you may come across in the dungeon. These were all fairly straightforward to make, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I remember really liking Jack Sparrow's compass as a kid, so I referenced it for our own compass.
The serrated stone (top middle) is one of the few examples of sculpting I've done for this game. I started with a rectangular block, then gave it several subdivision levels and just went for it. I baked the detail from the highest subdivision on to the lowest. After texturing, I added some extra detail to the low poly model to give the teeth some real jagged definition.
The spell stone (bottom right) has an interesting story, because I actually textured most of it in Blender and.... MS Paint. It consists of three layers. The inner layer consists of several flat cards arranged in a star shape, using a fuzzy alpha map to create a glowing effect. I wanted quick results, so I just painted the alpha map in MS Paint, and ended up using that same image.
The middle and outer layers I textured using nodes in Blender, which you can see on the right, then baked that down to image textures. I did some fine tuning in substance painter, but not much. I gave this one a skeleton and a super simple idle animation, so the different layers move around passively, showing off the magic within.
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| Look, potions! You can use these to restore lost HP or mana. |
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| Big blunt weapon for big blunt orcs |
We wanted some tasteful paintings to add to the elegance and spookiness of the castle. I made these a couple nights ago, after midnight with a cool breeze blowing from the open window. For the vibes, you see.
I used some of my screenshots of Daggerfall as the subjects, with a few filters & adjustments. I felt that it was a very good match for our game's aesthetic. Stayed up until 3 AM just playing that game after I finished up these paintings.
FLYING EYE
These are another of the enemy types you'll face in the castle. Kevyn once again delivered some beautifully creepy designs. He came up with quite a few different and comparably awesome designs and settled on this one. Didn't run into any issues exactly, but it took a while until I was satisfied with the pattern on the wings. It's meant to look like a bunch of eyes, as a way of making the creature have a more intimidating presentation.
Coming up next..... Squigmar
SPRINT TWO
This sprint was busy for me. I completed 18 points worth of work, yet still had time to rest and work on my other projects... somehow. I'm not sure how much I was assigned at the start, but I took on more work throughout the sprint and finished every card. Nothing rolled over to the next sprint.
Overall, my work went very, very well. Probably my biggest issue is knowing when to turn my brain off and relax. Often when working on a task, I reach a point where I get locked in, so when I'm detailing and finishing an asset it's hard for me to break away.
SHOPKEEPER
I loved the concept art Kevyn provided for our shopkeeper. Modeling her was a lot of fun, and I feel very proud of my work. The textures for the boots came out particularly well, and I feel like I found a new technique for hand-painting textures that I quite like. It honestly feels amazing to finish a character and bring them to life through their textures and rig. She's definitely one of my favorite low-poly characters yet.
GOBLINS
These goblins turned out nasty. Kevyn provided some beautifully gruesome art that got me really inspired. I spent about 10 hours in one day working on the goblin from start to finish. I figured that every part of this thing's design should be discomforting, so I payed attention to get the nastiest folds of their flesh and clothes appropriately disgusting.
The orc took a lot less time to finish up, mainly because we decided to make him a juiced-up version of the goblin instead of something new entirely. Half the modeling was already done since I had a goblin with good topology, the same essential anatomy, and a good rig. It was mostly a matter of scaling him up, redistributing his proportions and just generally changing stuff up. Added some more extrusions for the biceps, and an edge loop here and there. A lot of the orc's unique personality showed up while texturing.
PROPS
I can always have some fun making props. It may be something simple like a chair or a coin, but I delight in giving it some extra detail to make it special. Even if it isn't something that's going to be particularly noticeable in-game. Like giving the mine a name, or coming up with some king's face to go on the coin.
SPRINT ONE
Hello! We've just about wrapped up the first sprint on our game, Citadel. I'm working on this project as a 3d artist, where my duties include modeling, texturing, and rigging. I am looking forward to this, and I feel very good about our team. I know that I can take on a lot of work if I need to, but I need to be careful to pace myself.
My work in this sprint involved props & characters. I was assigned to make two environmental props, a sword, and our mysterious protagonist.
Character Modelling
The very first step was to model... something. Our designer & producer wanted to make sure that our game started out with some assets that are a step above basic primitives. I was totally on the same page. I know from experience how important it is to develop the game's aesthetic all along the way, and not just its systems. You don't want to end up with giant pills standing in for your actors weeks into development.
So I threw together this little fella. They're about 1.5 meters tall, following the specifications in our GDD. Now for the real work.
Once our artist Kevyn had an approved concept for the player, I got started on modeling them. I spent the summer working on low-poly characters with hand-painted textures, so this is really the same deal. I feel very at home making low-poly androgynous heroes like this!
I cannot say I encountered any issues worth mentioning on modeling and texturing, other than that it took a little while to get the shape of the hood right. Nothing that slowed my progress. I modeled them in Blender, and textured in substance painter.
Our designer provided a color palette on the moodboard that was all shades of blue. I made an ID map using vertex colors to match his palette, then used that baked ID map as the basis for the texture. I started painting on lines, adding details and folds, and pores and freckles. Instead of making the eyes white, I went for a brilliant blue to match the gemstone, and gave both of those an emissive.
I wasn't sure whether our designer wanted the skin to be blue as well, but I tried it anyways and we both really liked the look of it. He wanted a little more contrast, so I added a subtle emissive to the skin. Just like that, we invented a slightly bioluminescent fantasy species.
I specifically asked for this card to be a three pointer that includes modeling, texturing, and rigging. With the way I like to work, I tend to do a bit of all three at once. To me, it naturally makes the most sense to track this as one task, rather than breaking it up more.
In retrospect, rigging probably could have been tracked separately as its own 1-point card. They already have an armature and skin weights, I just need to get it set up in a way that's friendly for an animator. My rigging is self-taught. I can easily make a rig that I am comfortable posing and animating with, but I need to do more work to ensure it matches what our animator is used to.
Prop Modelling
Below, you can see the model for the shop. This was fairly straightforward to model, and I had some fun adding personal touches and details. I experimented with the design slightly and got some feedback from our designer to reach what you see here.
The modeling here was quite simple and did not present any new challenges. I blocked in the basic shape very quickly, then added some poles and a tarp. I assigned vertex colors to get an ID map, unfolded some basic UVs and started exploring ideas in Substance Painter.
The tarp was looking way too modern, and I decided to remove it entirely. I was left to my own devices to come up with the design here, but I kept checking in to see if it was going in a good direction. I added signs, a table, and some miscellaneous items to clutter up the place.
That leaves one more environmental prop, the sword, and an animation-ready rig for our player character. I must say, this sprint seemed to go by a little bit faster than I expected! I spent less than 8 hours on that tent, but I worked on it bit by bit and ended up sitting with it for a few days before finalizing it. With props like this, I'll make a point of getting them finished quickly.
In the future, I think I might ask to focus more exclusively on characters and items, and see if our second modeler is comfortable handling the environments and props.
