Miscellaneous Assets

Miscellaneous Assets in this post includes small objects created and used in the game.

Chair created for the office space; generic shader applied as texture wasn't needed. The overall shape was constrained by the concept art, fitting in with the cartoony, skewed effect the game is utilising. I like the process in creating this asset, but would wish to texture it next time.

Ceiling support. Generic texture applied in-engine, basic geometry, utilising edge loops and transform constraints to create overall shape.

Desk Created as to the concept artists spec, with a working lamp placed on the top surface. This allowed me to explore Mayas' built in light tool, find the best combination of light and placement for export.

Door created using basic polygon shapes, with an extrusion on the front face to create the window. The handle was created as a separate mesh and combined with the door mesh.

Lamp was created as to uniformly light the scene, using the edge loop tool and transform constraints to create the overall shape. The faces where the glass would be was extracted as to allow another material to be applied, making the appearance of transparent glass, allowing a light source to be placed inside of the mesh.  

Both the floor plane and the windows were textured using hand painted .psd files. The creation of a texture tile made the application of the material onto a mesh appear more refined. Hand painting the texture in photoshop took its time, but I am pleased with the result, and I can reuse the texture for a later date.

The smelting pot was constructed using a basic cylinder polygon object, with the transform constraints creating the scale and shape. Edge looping and extruding the top faces allowed the object to become a container. Unwrapping the UV maps and importing them into Photoshop allowed the hand painting of the texture maps, these were then applied to the mesh. I enjoyed the texturing of this model, and I am pleased with the end result.

The light strip was created to initially light the scene from above. It was then decided that this asset would not be used, and became obsolete.

Generator

The Generator asset plays a key role in the game, acting as a puzzle, upon which the player must complete to continue their progress in the game.

They Grey-boxing of the generator follows closely to the concept art presented, and incorporates buttons, a cog, and some handles. The concept defines the generator to be skewed and stylized in design, with 2 pipes extruding from the top and the right side.

 After some liaising with our concept artist, it was decided that the pipes protruding from the generator should be modelled in a more stylized way. In addition to this, it was decided that the top pipe will have to feature a longer pipe, as to allow the generator to fit, according to the prototype, in the scene. 

As my first asset created for the game, I had to re-learn most of the basic tools in Maya. Next time I try to recreate an asset in Maya, I would like to spend a little more time learning the tool set, as this will allow me to become more familiar and comfortable with modelling. I am, however, pleased with the result in terms of a first attempt.

Key Maker

Upon receiving the concept work, the key maker design for the winter submission began with modelling from a single cube polygon. Edge loops and manipulation of the edges of the polygon grafted the overall dimensions of the machine, with the parameters set by the concept work.

The side features of the machine were created as separate mesh objects to aid in easy texturing, with the bulk of the texturing being hand painted; fitting with the direction of the game build.

As you can see from the reference material, the overall smoothness and seams of the texture are not perfect, but for the direction of the build, they are adequate. As this was one of my first attempts relearning the texturing process, I have learnt that polishing the UV mapping, and getting the UV seams right the first time saves a lot of hassle further along the pipeline.

Asset building: Cabinet

The concept art made the creation of an in game cabinet furniture asset. As this was a integral part of the game, the finished asset had to be textured.
Greyboxing the initial mesh involved edge looping a cube, use of transform controls for size and scale, and extrusion of several surfaces.




Small parts of the cabinet, such as the shelves and the door handles, were created separately as to allow a smooth topology for texturing.
The UV mapping was optimised as to allow easy texturing. The textures for this mesh were hand painted to fit in with the general feel and look of the end game. I found that I have enjoyed painting the textures by hand, as they give a good result. The only problem, I find, is that hand painting textures takes a lot of time, which in turn, teaches me that the modelling side of asset building is not intensive, and that I should spend more time working out the texture.

Golden Key

A golden key was commissioned via the concept art for the group game. After loading and the reviewing the concept art in Autodesk Maya, I found the best approach (in my limited skillset, so far!) was to use the quad draw function. I drew out the basic shape of the edge of the key, and created edge loops to maintain the basic geometry of the key when extruded.


The use of the extrusion tool allowed the key to form as a mesh, with the crease tool maintaining any hard edges defining the keys shape.


Smoothing the key created a even topology, and the application of a generic material shader bypassed the need for texture mapping. The specular value for the material was adjusted as to create the look of a shiny metal.

This particular asset I am pleased with, this is due to me getting to use the quad draw function more, allowing me to expand my skills with this tool. In turn, the finished result looks better than I expected.

Asset Building: Wooden Box and Barrel

An asset required for the team build was that of a wooden box; industrial in design, fitting to the concept art presented.

Simple greybox modelling began with a cube polygon, inserting an edge loop around all six sides. The side faces are then extruded as to create the raised edges of the wooden box.

Taking the greybox, unwrapping the UVs allowed texturing of the box. This particular object, being a simple mesh, was easy to unwrap and to define the texture seams. Modelling this object allowed me to take a little time, and learn as much of the uv editing tool as I could.

Hand painting the texture as a tile allowed for easy reproduction over the uv.
This texture is then applied to the low poly mesh in the material editor. I am pleased with the result of this asset, the texture and seams of the uv has turned out better than I expected. I would, however, like to next time explore the possibilities of bump mapping the mesh to create some finer textures.

The barrel asset was constructed using a similar technique, with the texture applied being a generic shader. I did not have time to texture this asset in the end, so the addition of a generic shader does not give the asset any justice.

Generator and switch

The concept for the asset 'Generator', was defined as a central game asset. This being the case, the basic geometry of the object was confined by the dimensions of the space it would occupy; this meant that the asset would have to feature an elongated pipe extruding from the top of the asset. 

The Generator was constructed from a basic cube polygon, edge loops were used to define the overall shape. The assets features were constructed directly on the mesh; this proved to be troublesome as the UV unwrap turned out to be complex. It was decided that the generator asset was to have a basic material texture applied to save time.   

A switch was also created in conjunction to the generator asset. This switch was to be used in a core part of the game, stemming from the use of the generator, enabling the player to continue their progression.

This asset was produced using basic polygon shapes, with the transform constraints defining size and shape, with the edge loop tool creating the skew on the arm.

GreyBoxing Walls

The confines of the level was first to be defined by grey-boxing the playable area of the game. The scale and dimensions of the modelling was extracted from the paper prototype and concept sketches. Windows and door cut-outs in the wall meshes have been placed according to the prototype and concept art, allowing for assets including doors to be placed on the mesh.

The overall layout of the grey-boxing constrains 3 rooms and a hallway.

This mesh was then refined, with changes to the overall shape, dimensions and placement of windows, to adhere to the concept art better.

The stylized shape of the windows and doors hints at the art style used the game. This style, however, dictates that there were to be less windows and openings, as to bring a gloomier atmosphere; this means that the interior of the building will have to rely on ambient lighting and other light sources to create the desired atmosphere.

Next, some rough assets have been dropped into the scene, as to allow correct measurements and the desired playable area. These assets lack textures, so rely on shaders at this point for depth.

The next steps for this scene are interior light placement, window greyboxing, inclusion of more assets, and texturing.

Here is an example of adding lighting through the unity game engine: