REAL TIME 3D ENVIRONMENT
ROLES/CONTRIBUTIONS
SOLO PROJECT
- 3D Asset Creation
- Lighting
- Character Creation and Rigging
- Environment Design
PROJECT OVERVIEW
This project was done to help familiarise myself with Unreal Engine 5 and it's many differences with Unity, while building my workflow efficiency with 3D modelling/rigging. I gave myself two weeks to create an ancient tomb scene complete with my own assets, and rendered in a short clip with my character using a pre-existing animation.
FINAL RENDER
THE PROCESS
IDEA AND REFERENCES
For this scene I wanted to recreate something similar to an ancient idol on a pedestal. Similar to the ones seen in Indiana Jones films.
For the theme I was inspired by ancient Egypt, with it's desert oranges and dusty/sandy areas.
INITIAL SKETCHES
During this step I was able to test what would and wouldn't work with the project. My original concept involved a more complex looking idol and character, resembling the Egyptian god, Anubis.
By figuring this early on in the project I was able to save a lot of time and go with a more simplified idol and character.
HARD SURFACE MODELS
As I'm still relatively new to Maya and 3D modelling, some of these weren't as good of quality as they could be, however there is noticeable improvement in not just quality but speed at modelling. Especially for the head bust, however, the poly count is way too high for what it needs to be, something that has been greatly improved since.
SCULPTING/TEXTURING
This process went a lot smoother than my first time doing this, there wasn't any errors and I was clearly becoming more familiar with the workflow of baking high poly onto low poly.
CHARACTER MODEL/RIG
Character creation and rigging is something I have struggled a lot with when first trying this.
My original topology of the model wasn't great and so I had to subdivide it a couple times to fix the knew bending. This meant I had to make the character way higher poly than necessary, but I was able to get a better result than my previous character.
ENVIRONMENT
All of my models were designed to be reusable in the scene, from the walls to the chairs. I also told a little story with the layout.
The light in the ceiling was caused by a rock falling down, the same rock that also fell on two chairs and let a bunch of dirt fall on that section of the floor.
Creating this little bit of detail helps bring the scene to life
FINAL COMMENTS
I'm quite proud of my accomplishments considering I only gave myself two weeks to complete this. In this short time I was able to get myself into Unreal Engine 5 for the first time, model and rig a character, as well as model and texture sever different assets.
There were several different issues I encountered, mostly to do with weight painting the rig and trying to stay with a low poly count. These issues have been identified and will hopefully be less of an issue in future projects.