Week 16:...All the better to enchant you with

Howdy Folks

This week on Game Art the pressure has certainly been setting in as I’ve been working hard to complete the crocodile character that I started 8 weeks ago. It has been a tough week and I have increased my working hours from 10 hours a day to in between 12-16 hours.

Of course this is a lot of time to be working, nonetheless, I have been able to achieve a great deal.

I started the week, working on the crocodile skins again, I felt that it was much too brown from last week and was not a true reflection of crocodile armour. I used the reference board that I made last week and really tried to understand what it is I was trying to create.

I worked on the croc, first trying to get the base colour correct and then adding darker and lighter tones in order to create interesting contrast throughout the mesh.

Despite my effort, I still didn’t capture the true tones of the crocodile, it was far too yellow.

I sent my work off to Angel, so he could give me feedback. In the meantime, I went back and revisited the skin of the priestess. I started with the base colour and began working my way up the layers.

I also worked on the hand and leg wraps as well. It was quite enjoyable to use the smart materials to create some interesting outcomes. I particularly enjoyed using the fabrics smart materials and playing with the UV rotation of the height details. I used the Leonardo Ninja turtle for reference.

Working on the skin allowed me to learn a great deal about skin hues and colour zones, particularly when texturing the face. Getting the face to look right was challenging, especially as it is a focal point of a character.

Although I was making progress the skin, it still was not looking right and I was beginning to get frustrated.

I asked from help from my peer Chris Lonsdale and he was able to show me how to use generators in

Substance Painter. This was very useful, as now I had a means of adding hues to my character without it seeming too blotchy as the previous attempts.

I used the M_dirt generator to create the ambient occlusion and Curvature map which I could paint different hues onto. I could use this as a base and then work up the layers. Getting the right skin shade wasn’t easy, but to do so I created a reference board colour palette in Photoshop.

I moved onto the face and was able to capture the right colour zones in the right areas. Hoorah!

Once complete, I polished the hands and the feet and then added dirt and grime to the rest of the body, in order to show she has been affected by her environment.

Of course, there are definite improvements that can be made to this character; I certainly need to practice texturing skin after I graduate in order to improve. However, I am glad with my progress; I have certainly learnt a lot from this process.

Afterwards, I revisited the crocodile assets, this time determined to finish it.

I got word back from Tiflos and he suggested:

“It needs more occlusion map in multiply and cavity/curvature map in an overlayed map, you need to make visible the lines of the scales, normal map is not enough. Now that you have it better, you can start comparing your model with real photos, put a photo on the side with the same perspective and try to make all the details similar to the photo, it could help. But again you need the AO and cavity map (extracted from normal map with any map generator) Also use different lights to see how it is going for yourself, lightning changes all.”

I spent some time to understand what he meant in order to prevent myself from making the same hasty mistakes. I applied what I learned from Angel’s advice and what Chris had showed me about using generators in Substance, and it was starting to look like a crocodile, furthermore, this technique was very time efficient .

(yippee!)

In the afternoon, we had a lecture with Fee Stuart an Indie game developer, who came in to talk about her experiences of working in the gaming industry, her game and the benefits of working in an indie company.

She also offered advice on getting a job and this was all very helpful. It was nice to learn about her experiences and I’ve benefited from attending the seminar. Here is a clip of her game, which was developed from a winning game jam project:

Afterwards, Cameron small from Small Impact games, came into the university as he was thinking about

recruiting 3rd year students to work on his game, ‘The Black Death’. This was very exciting, especially since I

was very impressed when playing the game at EGX Rezzed, now I could have the opportunity to work on the game.

Afterwards, I continued working on the crocodile, it was nearly complete and I was determined to finish it.

I watched this tutorial on tips and tricks with using generators and I was very glad to learn about painting in

and out masks with the generator, this was very useful.

From what I learned I as ale to add more contrast to the mesh by darkening the crevices and adding white highlights to the edges.

The crocodile was nearly complete, and all that was left to make a few minor adjustments and then paint in the whiteness of the crocodile skin.

To do this I used the generators, but only working in the roughness layer. It was a very enjoyable experience concluding the texturing of the crocodile. Doesn’t she look beautiful?

I’m so glad to have completed the crocodile, it has taken the most time, but I’m very glad with the final outcome, hooray!

The next day we had a degree show meeting, Chris Wright (tutor) informed us on the event and how we must format our work for him to have them printed. It was great to imagine the degree show, but it was crazy to believe how fast time as passed since first year, I’m all grown up now!

I revisited the eyes of my character, she looked mad, because her eyes were too dilated and wide open. Similarly, I edited the shape of the crocodile eye.

Afterwards, I went to work on texturing the tortoise shell. This was a challenging task, as I needed to make sure the shell looked fascinating and believable, whilst adding contrast to the character as discussed with Del.

With help of my reference board and the Leonardo Ninja turtle sculpt.

With these references I was able to make two designs for the shield, I am very proud with both.

2nd Version:

I pushed myself to work on the arm guard at the end of the day. The previous version was too creamy and did not look anything like a crab shell. This time I made sure I had proper reference and a colour palette to work from, and viola:

So there you have it folks, my busy, hectic week. I realized this week, I have certainly overworked myself, in fact I feel as though this is the most I’ve pushed my body in my life. Although, this amount of effort is required for me to achieve my tasks, it does have tolls on the body.

Despite this, I am glad that I pushed myself, this week I’ve been staying to schedule and even spending time to post my work up (which had been an irrational fear) and even practice studies again. I am very happy with my effort this week, so I’m treating myself to watch the new Captain America: Civil war film.

If I keep this effort up and keep holding my head high I will be successful, I’ve come so far with this project and I am looking forward to the future.

Thanks for reading

Bye for now