Final Industry Review Stylized Cannon and Medusa Environment & Props

Beauty Shots

Asset Zoo

Materials of Grass and Hedge

References from Overwatch

Stylized Cannon

Unreal Engine 5 Renders

ZBrush Renders

Wireframe and AO in Maya

UV's and Tricount: 11,792 tris

References

Week 15 - Final - 'A' Stage

Building made of modular roof and brick pieces.

Interior of building.

Rest of outdoor view.

Bush Leaves Material Instance.

Grass Material Instance.

Proof of submission through Perforce.

I finished wrapping up the exterior and interior environment for Medusa's garden. It has been a wild ride going through the process of accomplishing this project. I appreciate all my group members for all of their hard work. I created windy grass and created some leaves for the bushes, referenced from a very good tutorial I found on YouTube by Viktoriia Zavhorodnia. They have their own material instances to be able to have a wide range of customization. I reused and reworked pieces from the modular 3D assignment. I thought it would be a good fit for this group project for the building. I also made a custom roof to go along with it. I also retextures and touched up the sculpts of some of the models to fit with the Overwatch style. Overall, I am very pleased with what has been accomplished with this environment despite the time constraints.

Cannon Project Part 6– Creating Materials and Textures in Substance Painter, final display of your work in UE

High Res Screenshots in Unreal Engine

UV's in Maya

Tri Count: 11,792

References

I went back and changed my UV layout in Substance Painter to correct some baking mistakes. To make it easier to texture and correct any potential problems, I imported every part of the cannon separately. I created four categories in Substance Painter for the cannon's metal and wood, wheels, and planks. To add more detail to the textures, I used real-world and professional references from ArtStation.

FIEA Artist Roadmap

 Artist Roadmap

We will be using the Research Tab/Area of our blog in order to start documenting the following:

We need to have a clear idea of where we are heading with our art and where we would like to take ourselves as Artist.

The first part of understanding how to get to a destination is knowing definitively where we are going.

These series of questions and exercises will help us verbalize our ideas and then start to visually build that vision as well.

Projecting Out Past Graduation

Questions:

1. If you could project out past graduation, what is your overall career goal?

• Would you like to work in AAA game development.

I would be open to the idea of working in the AAA game industry. I have some connections on how it functions. However, I am aware of the instability recently occurring between the introduction of AI, layoffs, and competition for various artist positions that are very difficult to find.

• Would you prefer a midsize team?

A midsize team sounds good. Usually when a team is bigger, it is harder to manage and for everyone to be on the same page on accomplishing tasks. A pro to having a bigger team is more work being completed. A midsize group could offer the most stability out of the other sized teams, regardless of the company.

• Would you like a smaller team?

I do best when working in smaller groups due to planning tasks amongst the group. Downside is more work to be done. Company stability could be a bit better than an indie team.

• Would you like to be on an Indy team?

More creative freedom is possible in indie groups, but there is more risk of inconsistent pay and benefits. Management could potentially be more dysfunctional due to possible inexperience of proper pipeline and dividing up tasks. Hiring can be limited unless starting own indie company.

• Would you like to work for a simulation company?

Out of all the teams and companies, I think simulation companies would be the most stable work environment due to being connected to the government, military, medical, and education. There is always a need for people within those industries.

• Would you like to work in the theme park industry?

I always thought the theme park industry would be interesting to be a part of. With my skillset, I am unsure where I would fit or where to find the specific work. Jobs seem limited.

2. If you could project out into starting your career, what sounds the most appealing to you?

• Would you like to work as a Character Artist?

No. I believe it is too competitive and limited in the job market, unless proper connections are made or are very skilled in order to stand out.

• Would you like to work as an Environment Artist?

This is what I am trying to specialize as currently. I want to learn Substance Designer since it is used in some companies. I want to know how Speed Tree works as well if working in a more realistic style. I need to look more into what other technical knowledge is needed in order to stand out when applying for jobs. Environment artists are also more prevalent in various industries compared to other art specialties.

• Would you like to work as a Hard Surface Artist?

I believe I do well with creating more geometric objects than organic. Job opportunity is more varied depending on what industry I would want to be a part of.

• Would you like to work as a Weapons/Prop Artist?

Possibly if there is a demand. I think it is too niche and there is limited job opportunity. My skills align due to creating various props over the span of my education and outside of school. Could be more prevalent in military simulation industry.

• Would you like to work as an Vehicle Artist?

I feel as if this would be important to look into due to probably needing to create vehicles for military simulation. I am unsure how much or if any technical knowledge is needed to be a vehicle artists, or if there is more focus on just the art itself.

• Would you like to work as an Lighter?

I am not really interested in being a lighting artist, despite needing to know how to properly light a scene as an environment artist. I think it is also limited in demand as a character artist is.

3. What are some of the top companies that you are interested in working for?

• EA, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Iron Galaxy, etc.

If Game Industry: EA, Bungie, Bad Robot Games, Greensky Games, Gravity Well.

If Military Simulation Industry: Lockheed Martin, Dignitas Technologies, Red 6, A Square Games, Leidos.

Inspiring Reference

1. Create an Artstation account - I would like for you to create an Artstation Account.

2. **Create a collection for your top 10 artist -**After your account is created, it's possible for you to make collections, this allows for you to find images on Artstation and then add them to a collection that you give a name to.

Make a collection for your top 10 artist that you like/are inspired by. Some may be in your collection because you really like their design work, others may because of their layout and how they present their work, some you may enjoy because of their use of subject matter, some you will be drawn to their modeling abilities.

Filippo Ubertino, Nicholas Cort, Tor Frick, Anton Mishchenko, Paweł Kostecki, Pilgrim, Stefan Wacker, Ben Malert, Jordan Powers, Viktoriia Zavhorodnia, Michael Vicente - Orb, Remy Lauret, Yauheni Vasiutsinski,  Alexander VerikArt, Najah Benithman, Fenix Xu.

2. Creating A Visual Board Of Inspiration - After your collection is completed, we need to make a pure ref board that is in the 16X9 aspect ratio.

Place your top images from each of your artist on this board, this visual map should start to reveal to you visually some of the most important subject matter that will start to guide and inform the type of work you want to make.

Cannon Project Part 5 – Creating Game Resolution Models In Maya And Creating Our First Bake In Substance Painter

Renders of first bake in Substance Painter. 

I touched up some of the details on the cannon before exporting out of ZBrush. Vertex colors were incorporated to make texturing more organized. Every piece of the cannon had to be exported out separately from each other for the bake to come out well. Once in Maya, I made sure naming conventions between the low and high meshes were the same before it was brought into Substance Painter.

Week 12 - First Bake - 'B' Stage

I created a first pass of texturing and baking in Substance Painter. I tried to follow closely to various references found online of Overwatch levels to match the style as accurately as possible. Every texture was exported out of Substance Painter and imported into Unreal Engine 5. Afterwards, I put the textures onto the materials. Final image is proof of Perforce submission.

Cannon Project Part 4– Creating High Resolution Sculptures In ZBrush Part 2

I added in more details/clarity into the wooden stand and floor. Afterwards, I sharpened and used Orb's cut brushes on the cannon and its metal pieces.