Add Life - Part I

Weekly Blog Entry Research & Project Updates (9)

This week I began working in Substance Painter… or trying too. I had a major false start wherein I realized my UV maps needed to be retooled again (I had forgotten to jump into Maya’s Layout settings to increase map resolution and increase padding between shells) for all 29 assets.

After that I was able to get started (though I did notice that in working with black masks for my environments I would get some unwanted discoloration at certain edges I have yet been unable to remove – thankfully my work around is to simply lean into the initial notion of having as little variety in the texture work as possible; you’ll notice I snuck some in the modern room regardless by simply doing some creative work without masks – note I can easily make all textures the same if the modern room’s initial look doesn’t gel with the rest of the environment assets – lesson learned for next project though, DON’T BE AFRAID TO SIMPLY MAKE AS MANY UV TEXTURE SHEETS AS YOU FEEL NECESSARY, YOU DON’T NEED TO TRY AND PACK MUCH IN A SINGLE SHEET!). For this week, my work mainly revolved around getting a few assets looking how I wanted (because the majority of assets will look similar/identical with some color swaps, getting the first few right will ensure I can quickly knock out the rest next week.

Therefore, the Mausoleum Room, the Modern Room, the Vulture, and a Hall Variant (Straight) are what I textured – to be discussed with advisor regarding if the look is working thus far.

First we have the Vulture...

Partially transparent and reflective - all birds will have this texture.

Variation will come in the form of color.

I downloaded this substance for the birds.

Below is the modern room - notice the new UV layout on the right (appropriate padding between shells).

Some variation in the whites of the floor and wall and pillars.

Iron Shiny used for ceiling extrusions and pillars.

More variations/substances I used for specific parts of the space (keeping with the design sensibilities of the space while adding some variation)

Hallways designs will be very similar to modern room above.

Mausoleum Room - all marble (contrast in design and texture to the sensibilities of the more modern spaces of the piece).

Tentative Project Schedule

· Week 10 (This Week): Texturing/Polish (Lighting/Any Additional Changes) Museum Space/Birds

· Week 11 – Week 14: Putting Everything Together – Place assets in game engine (Unity); appropriate scaling, duplicating, lighting work, sound work (acoustics in Museum Space and how the glass of the birds plays with that) and final polish. I give myself 4 weeks – more time than any step earlier - but can easily be pushed to less time if I am behind in the previous steps outlined in the schedule above.