Week 10

The scene is near completion, the only things I have left to do are the two pink pieces; the back wall and the pillar. The scene itself has shifted slightly from a desert scene because when I was playing with the textures I found that I liked this more and it contributed better to the entire scene. The longest part will just be baking for the pieces, everything else will be relatively quick. I haven't quite decided yet but I may add in a plant or two on the floor and the ceiling if I think the camera will see it. Placing in UDK will be easy and all of these pieces should be ready to get dropped into it.

Week 8 Progress

This week I finished the high poly zbrush sculpt of the pedestal that will be in the center of my environment. The only thing I have left to do is possibly sculpt the ground, the back wall with the stained glass texture on it and possibly the ceiling and then everything should be completely modeled and ready for texturing and placement. I've baked maps but due to a few issues have to go back and rebake everything I currently have and am about halfway done with that. The low poly version of every piece created (left, front, right walls and pedestal) however is also ready for real time placement and diffuse/specular creation will begin as soon as the new AO and Normal bakes finish for each piece. I have also learned enough in UDK for proper object importing and camera placement as well as a few ideas to try for my stained glass window. 

Week 7 Progress

I didn't get much done this weekend because of visiting family but the three main wall pieces are done with low poly pieces and maps baked for two of them, the third will be baked shortly. I'm going to start looking into the stained glass effect if possible and trying to finish the back wall so that it can be placed as well. The only pieces I have left are the floor, the ceiling, and the pedestal (as well as the glass and wall mentioned above). Hopefully I'll be able to make more progress this weekend and try to catch up to where I should be at.

Week 6 Progress

This week I focused on retopology for the pedestal, I unfortunately ran into a few issues doing so but eventually got it all sorted out (oh Zbrush...) the new topology for the pedestal has been projected on and is now ready to continue into the final sculpting phase and then eventually map baking. The second image is of the high poly version of two of the walls for the enclosed area that the pedestal will be held in with the stained glass, the top two pieces are of the straight left wall while the bottom two are for the front wall that is mostly missing. The front wall has been retopologized and is in the process of having maps baked and diffuse created. Next I still have the ceiling, the right wall, the dome for the ceiling (if it gets seen, it may be combined with the ceiling via dynamesh and then sculpted on), the floor, and possibly corner pieces or rounded destroyed arch ways to sit right outside of the enclosed area. The stained glass still has to be done as well but it shouldn't need any type of high poly sculpting.

Week 5 Project Self Assessment

What was the end goal for the project at week 1?
To create and render an environment similar to the concept art that was posted earlier on the blog

What is your goal for the final project as it stands right now?
To create a much smaller environment piece still going off of the concept art but allowing myself to focus on much more detail within the constrained area to make it look nicer and then place it within a real time engine or renderer (such as UDK or Marmoset)

What has been your biggest obstacle in your project thus far?
Figuring out how I wanted to do everything; such as allowing myself to create an entire environment like how I had originally painted in the concept and forego some high end details that would be missed with the scale of the environment and the camera shots I had planned to do, or to focus on higher end details within a much smaller environment so that even with it being smaller the detail would allow it to otherwise succeed.

Are you ahead, behind, or right on pace for finishing your project at this moment?
I feel that I'm currently right on the edge of behind and right on pace, the reason being that I changed from a full environment to the smaller section within the environment and having the idea of taking most or all of my pieces into zbrush allowing me to give the necessary detail.

What are your biggest technical obstacles in the coming weeks?
Trying to figure out how I want to do the stained glass. If I decide to do it in a regular animation environment my concern greatly decreases because I have had decent experience creating glass in the past with materials within maya. My current decision, however, is to have everything shown in a real time environment and I have no experience creating or using glass within a game engine, especially with my want for it to look as nice as possible since it will be one of the focal points of the entire piece.

Write a full list of everything that you have left to do.
Finish the pedestal and retopologize a low poly version for use within the game environment and use the poly paint or create UVs to create a diffuse, spec, and normal map within either ZBrush, 3DS Max, or xNormal.
Learn how to create or use glass in the way I want for the real time environment to create a stained glass effect in real time.
Create, sculpt and then retopologize and create maps for the walls, ground, and ceiling of the environment.
Turn the textured plane into a cloth object and find out how to implement it within the real time engine.

Write a week by week breakdown of how you will accomplish these tasks.
Week 5: Finish pedestal and begin on walls/floor
Week 6: Get farther on/finish some of the walls and floor
Week 7: Have all pieces sculpted and retopologized, begin texture and map creation
Week 8: Have textures done and begin placing in the environment
Week 9: Have everything placed and done, final touches and tweaking where necessary
Week 10: Turn it in!

Week 5 Progress

I focused on the pedestal this week working on a high poly sculpt in zbrush. It's nearly completed, I'm thinking about retopping and projecting it then sculpting on it a bit more to fix some of the sculpting issues I was having. That aside, the only thing I'm missing is adding some type of decoration on the side inset and adding more extreme wear and tear like cracks and missing chunks. I've also pretty much finalized the flag texture, the biggest change was to the area around the tail of the eagle, I took away some of it and messed a bit more with the spec and bump maps as well to have the symbol look a bit more worn from weather and age.

Week 4 Progress

I've changed and near finalized the flag design, including spec and bump maps. Basic modeling on the centerpiece of the environment is in progress and a high poly sculpt of the pedestal that sits in the center building piece has been started as well. Lighting for the environment is also near its final stages. The flag will be used as all live cloth within the environment and will be placed in several different areas.