Portfolio 2 Start

    After some trial and errors, I had to completely retopologize the Fish Hut due to baking and performance issues. I was able to reduce the low-poly mesh from approximately 180,000 triangles down to 90,000 triangles across 105 individual meshes.

Because the retopology process was more time-consuming than anticipated, I was unable to complete the UV mapping and texturing stages as originally planned. Moving forward, I plan to spread out the remaining tasks to allow enough time to properly finish the environment.

This experience highlighted the importance of breaking down my workflow more thoroughly during pre-production so I can better anticipate potential technical challenges and adjust my schedule accordingly.

Schedule Project 2:

• June 23rd: Sculpt rest of environment (beach landscape, rocks, bones, and palm tree). Roll over of UVing the fish hut.
• June 30th: Hand-paint the environment assets and complete UV's in Maya. Roll over hand-painting fish hut.
• July 7th: Polish water shader. Finalize and import 2D parallax planes into the background.
• Stretch Goal: Sculpt the two cat characters.

Portfolio 1 Week 4 End

ZBrush Renders

Original Concept Art

   

I was able to knock out the rest of the sculpt for the fishhut. Only minor touch ups remain for the ladder and beam that hold onto the fish. This next sprint, I'll be exporting it out of ZBrush for UV's and some retopo. Afterwards, I'll send it to Substance Painter for a first bake and basic textures/color to see how everything looks.

Schedule Project 2:

• June 16th: Bake maps and hand-paint the main fishhut in Substance Painter.
• June 23rd: Sculpt rest of environment (beach landscape, rocks, bones, and palm tree).
• June 30th: Hand-paint the environment assets and complete UV's in Maya.
• July 7th: Polish water shader. Finalize and import 2D parallax planes into the background.
• Stretch Goal: Sculpt the two cat characters.

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Sprint #2 Delivery

Pass of Lighting Scene in UE5

Asset Lineup in Maya

There were errors initially with some of the lights that I fixed by unlocking normals (Thanks Eggsy!)

Perforce Proof of Submission of Work Files

     

    To more accurately represent the area and enhance the environment's overall scale, I used Maya to change the proportions of the couches, booths, and chairs. Additionally, I made a few of new items to give the coffee shop more visual interest and clutter, which made the area seem less empty and more populated.

    I started positioning the revised objects throughout the scene after importing them into Unreal Engine 5. In order to account for the outside light that will come via the windows, I created a lighting pass on the interior area, slightly decreasing the brightness and a little warmer. After the external lighting is in place, more changes will be required for the interior lighting.

    Before setting up the lighting, I utilized the mood and lighting board that was made at the beginning of the project as reference. My goal was to present a cozy, inviting coffee shop atmosphere while maintaining aesthetically pleasing lighting that improves the scene's overall design.

Portfolio 1 3rd Critique

Sculpt in ZBrush

Water Shader in UE5

      This past week, I made significant progress on the area around the fish hut. I was able to make a water shader by following Kacey's video tutorial on YouTube. In the future, I want to further modify it by using ZBrush to sculpt and build a styled wave texture in place of the existing wave normal map.

    Additionally, I'm making good progress on the fish hut's ZBrush sculpt. I want to finish the sculpt this week so that I may use the remaining time in the project schedule for texturing/rendering during the last sprint.

    I'll be reducing the project's scope and concentrating only on the fish hut rather than the surrounding environment in order to make sure I fulfill the deadlines next week.

Shader Tutorial by Kacey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiMcPnTyO9k

Portfolio 1 Mid Check

New Additions to Composition

Overall Scene from a Distance

After receiving great recommendations on how to approach the distant background, I slightly rearranged my work schedule. In order to correctly incorporate a custom parallax effect for my 3D scene, I conducted additional research. I separated the original concept art from the foreground, midground, and background in Procreate. Since they are still in the rough sketching/coloring stage, they are a work in progress. After I've finished sculpting and texturing the main fish hut, I intend to include it later in the final polishing stage.

Along with adding rocks and bones and resizing the terrain to make it much smaller, I also changed the surroundings to closely resemble the original concept art. Additionally, I included the rough blockouts of the two cat figures, one behind the bar and the one in the boat. After these next two check-ins, I want to include them in future revisions. My primary goal is to make the fish hut the composition's major focal point.

Research for Parallax Effect in UE5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaELfOmk1g

Sprint #1 Delivery

Render in UE5

Size Comparison of Seating

Tables

 

Various Lights

Proof of Submission in Perforce of Proxy Meshes in UE5 Content Browser

Portfolio 1 Start

Schedule:

May 19th - 

Finish blockout and import into ZBrush. Begin primary sculpt and game ready blockout in Maya. Need to do more  research on finding better references of tri count for stylized buildings. So far, tri count went from 121,000 tris to 56,000 tris.

May 26th - 

Finish secondary and tertiary sculpt and export out of ZBrush. Finish UV’s on game ready blockout. Export to Substance Painter and have first pass on bake and textures.

June 2nd - 

Finish textures and have Unreal Engine scene polished. Add water into scene and clouds VFX/skybox.

Video Research:

Stylized Sculpting

https://youtu.be/bLrbuqfq__g?si=KoyXIUa4NqVrR4aK

Stylized Wood Sculpting

https://youtu.be/cfU5delfZ7E?si=d_-qp27HDzpS8pCS

Rock Sculpt

https://youtu.be/JBDbYdpaMsI?si=oG_mzh6oNGeBqW24

How to Create Water UE5

https://youtu.be/3tmEmemHgI8?si=2vqd2gBh6IhEV6Ep