A Simple Start... #14

The 3D Box of Doom...

Having established that its not worth modelling anything in 3D unless you have a solid piece of concept art and reference images. I started with that exact topic, nothing fancy, just simple and rough.

Starting with a rather simple prop, a wooden crate, I took a little time to look into techniques for Modelling and UVing as well as Texturing for 3D. Everything from maximising texture space on the UV maps to similar objects' UV's occupying the same Texture space. All these little tips built up and combined to make for a more smooth and much improved working process.

I feel that the advice to always use concept art and reference images is key to making a great prop.

Although the Wooden Crates UV Map looks very basic, you can see from the Textured Crate image that the verity in the three Wooden Crates is evident, not just a repeat pattern although they all use the exact same UV and Texture Map.

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Final Environment Concept Art... #13

A Finilized-ish Environment Perspective Drawing...

This time I refined the last drawing I did and improved the perspective too. I'm pretty happy with this concept and think its about time I moved over to the 3D Modelling stage next.

Again I used bleed proof paper, along with the 0.3mm Fineliner, a Copic T1 Tonal Grey and a Pro-marker in Blue.

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More Concept Art... #12

An Environment Perspective Drawing...

Here I use bleed proof paper again, along with a 0.3mm Fineliner, a Copic T1 Tonal Grey and a Pro-marker in Blue - because Copic Markers are so damned expensive! - The prespective is a little messed up, but its been a while since my Graphic Comm classes back in High School, just imagine, I actually achieved a Higher in that subject too!

Moving towards a slightly more outdoor-ish concept, yet still contained within an inner building. Here I decided to incorporate the water element that I previously thought about. The thinking behind this being that I could model an interior environment and give it a frontage for added detail.

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Concept Art... In Colour... #11

Some more Concept Art...

Following on from my last blog post on thumbnails, here I have gone into a little more detail. Exploring a bunch of different things all within a few drawings. Everything from a Medevil type concept, a Hobbit style storage room and a slightly wired mystic/magic shrine type concept.

Towards the end of these drawings I have started to integrate an element of water in the scenes. At this stage I quite like the idea of having some form of water feature or something in my 3D Environment Scene - not entirely sure right now though.

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Initial Environment Concepts... #10

Environment Thumbnails...

Well, some of these are a touch bigger than thumbnail size, but its the thought that counts. I wasn't as interested about how big the doodles where as opposed to the actual drawings themselves.

Here, I use bleed-proof paper and a mixture of black marker and fine liner...

I was quite surprised when I sat down and started to draw these concepts out on paper. At the time it had been quite a while since I last put pen/pencil to paper - it was a rather bad phase, and it shows in the first image (top-right).

However as I tried to wrack my brains and scribbled away, it all started to come back to me and by the end of the first sheet of paper I was starting to get the hang of drawing again.


There was a slight focus on Temples and Magic... can you tell?

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Game Props... More Research... #9

Game Props and Assets...

A dive into the topic of Prop and Asset creation threw up some real gold nuggets and some great advice for a budding 3D Artist.

One piece of pure gold that I stumbled upon was the direct link between the Props Concept Art and the Modelling of the Prop. I found a huge amount of advice on forums such as polycount.

But the one single piece of information I came away with was the very important need to have concept art or reference images to work form. It may seem like a totally obvious statement, but seeing a model made from memory vs one constructed from both memory and concept art/reference images is just huge... a bit of a slap in the face.

^ A great example of the vast amount of game props and assets that it takes to fill a game or feature film animation.

^ A GREAT video from Carbine Studio on the topic of Prop and Asset Creation for Games! (Youtube really does have some real golden nuggets hidden amongst all that poor quality trash.) This is a must watch, it really is an inspiring insight into the role of a Prop Artist in the Games Industry... up until the bit near the end which is in the form of a blooper ending. Hearing that last bit could be a bit soul crushing...

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Mood Boards... Continued... Continued... #8

Again with the Mood Boards...?A little foray into the land of Textures... and by foray I mean a mooch around google images searching for realistic textures that one might find in the likes of the initial Concept Art image provided in the Project Brief.

Realistic Textures...

Hand Painted Textures...

I also decided to explore hand painted textures too. This may or may not be of relevance to the project but it is still a worth while exploration of textures as I do have a slightly more bias interest in the more less real realities.

I like the fact that a lot of games strive for realism and that's great, it works well for the games that do go down that path, but I tend to think that things like 3D Animation shouldn't be about realism, that's what video cameras and live action are for.

I just happen to slightly suck at Digital Painting... which is a bit of a problem and something I really need to (and want to) investigate more. However, this project is more about the 3D Environment Sample rather than Digital Painting... Perhaps in the future when I have more time.

*Sighs*

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