First Unreal Tournament Assets

Recently I have been working a lot, but think it's important to keep creative in my spare time after work.

Recently I have made my first Unreal Tournament cosmetic items; working towards producing quality assets fit for the game and marketplace.

For now I am focusing on a "Simple/Basic" set of items to cut my teeth on and get accustomed to getting functional items in-game.  One of the main concerns that is getting discussed on the forums is readability and optimization.  For an FPS game you want to maintain an easy-read, and a high frame rate... Much like in most games.

In my opinion the next-gen shaders are too expensive, and I want to reduce the number of passes and materials used for each item.  The supplied Beret (which actually looks like an Ascot hat) is pretty low-spec and I am aiming to match that level of complexity for my simple/basic set.

For now I will concentrate on these simple/basic items and creating a flexible and optimized texture set and materials.  Such as multiple tiling textures which could be applied across the set of cosmetics, flexible materials to apply custom colours/patterns and effects.  The built-in library will also be expanded and I will make good use of these - Meaning smaller files for quicker loading and rendering.

Unreal Tournament is a very fast paced game, and I think the "easy read" is very important, and having high-end and resource intensive assets less important than you might think.  UT (Unreal Tournament) is still in early development, but is looking very promising, getting in there early is a great boon to understanding the player's and developer's needs

My simple Fedora - Substance Painter Screen grab. (PBR)

The Fedora in-game and fully functional - Kinda looks okay without much further work already.

Unreal Tournament is in very early development (Pre-Alpha), but is already pretty fun to play.  The engine everything is still updated very often and is uncertain how everything will end up, and I will go along for the journey and enjoy the ride!

An early WIP of another addition to my Basic Set. (3DS Max/Mental Ray materials & renders)

The vertex count is more important than the triangle count, and it seems the vert-normals have to be imported as bi-normals, which increases the overall cost.  But I'll look into it, there was an issue with split normals and inverted/flipped normal maps in UDK3, but doesn't matter in UE4.

My next item is going to be more exciting, and not part of the basic set.  Some form of sci-fi Valkyrie helmet that has effects triggered in-game through certain actions/events.

February Update: Banner Saga Inspired me (thanks Stoic)

I have been trying out a different art style in Photoshop this week, and I'm quite happy with the results.

I have got inspired by a lovely game called The Banner Saga, which pays homage and borrows a bit of art inspiration from older cartoons such as Lord of the rings, and games like Dragons Lair.  The technique for these older cartoons often involved rotoscoping, and totally hand drawn cells for animation,

A screen shot from the Game Dragon's Lair (1983)

The main things I stole were;
1)  A muted and minimal palette
2)  Strong line-work, which is also minimal
3)  Coloured lines - I normally use weighted lines, but by using colours instead of thickness it changes the whole feel.  Making sure never to use pure-black is a good start.
4)  Iron-Age theme - By not having metal armour, or anything too fantastical (magic/demons etc) it feels more real
5)  Human aspects - By not depicting them fighting or blowing things up you are drawn into the details of their clothes, their posture and accessories more.  It's quite an interesting way to tackle some fundamental character design ideas... Rather than "Its an angry barbarian with a huge hammer smashing something, or with ornate and over-sized features and details all over the place with rim light and dull+shiney materials for no particular reason.

picture 1: A Spear Maiden (If that's a thing?)

I am happy with the images and style - It helps me stay away from typical "Hollywood" art which is basically aimed at kids or someone I am not.

Let's be honest, the world is full of bad remakes, and throw-away art that is so formulaic it is annoying.  So maybe we do need to start looking further back to re-vitalize the styles people get to see.  The Pixar fad is waning, and I think Marvel will run out of heroes sometime as well.

The latest miracle in popular cinema and concept art!

Above is an example of what is popular imagery wise.  Unfortunately for me I have been exposed to sci-fi art loads recently, and follow an artist or two who did some concept work for the film.  So for me it looks just like a lot of other sci-fi concept work I have seen, but with Mila Kuniz in the middle.  It might be a good film - I don't know, but personally I have no interest in it.  There will be a lot of explosions, and a plot twist with an open-ending for a sequel.  If we're lucky there will be a lava zone, ice zone, city (in the sky?), ocean, desert landscapes we sweep past with the action.

Anyways, here is the second picture I did - Sticking to my theme pretty close.

Picture 2: Warrior Chief

I'm going to carry on with the them and try creating more characters, trying to keep them different enough to keep me interested, yet the same.  When looking for a job it is good to show you can adapt on a theme while retaining it's soul.

My fave from this series - Have had a few comments comparing here to Ygritte from Game of Thrones

Getting into Creating Video Games

How do I start making games then?

First off you need a passion for video games!  It doesn't matter what kind of games you enjoy or what platform you play them on - Get stuck in and enjoying a good game is the key to understanding what people like, how games play, what looks cool and what works.

So play a lot of games, and try not to pirate/copy the games you enjoy if you can afford to purchase them.  Also try not to fall for media hype - a lot of games that sell a lot are not very good to play for a long time, or may feel exactly like the last game you played.  Talk about games with friends, read online and look at game play footage - I trust user reviews over .

The latest number one hit on steam is an Indy game "Darkest Dungeon" - a mixture of Dark Souls and turn-based RPGs

Don't just look at games though!  You have to try and draw inspiration from everything that interests you, and look into art history to discover great images.  A typical source of inspiration is TV and films.  Many film and TV directors have strong roots in classical art, recreating work that has been tried and tested though-out thousands of years of history.

Build up inspiration, and develop yourself as an artist & game creator

Here is a wall of cool images to inspire, grabbed from Art Station

You have already started just by imagining new ideas and ways to improve and change what you have already played.  The next step is to write and draw down ideas... You want to make a role-playing-game from the perspective of the baddies/evil side?  Write down your main influences and look for more reference and stuff to create more ideas.  Take photos of cool looking textures - maybe a wall which is decaying with loads of moss might look nice for your castle.  Maybe a funny looking person you see in town might become a villain.  Maybe you love the way the shadows are cast across the path and you think it would look great for an entrance to a location in a game?

A lovely scene by an old artist - John-Atkinson Grimshaw - Would be nice in a game?

These notes may not always become a project, but by thinking about it you can drop things you got bored of and keep themes you like, and the ideas evolve into a better game/project later down the road.  These ideas, photos, drawings and things all start to pile up, and soon enough you are becoming a game maker and a better artist.

Getting into games

So we have all these awesome ideas, but how do we put them to use?  The simple answer is just do it!  Look online, do searches, chat with people online and just do something.  In the start you have to learn new software, and there is a lot of different software out there so it can be hard to pick.

Game Maker Studio - making a 2D platform game

Essential tools I would say include a gaming PC, not only to find and play current games but also to use programs such as ZBrush, Blender, and Photoshop efficiently.  You may have to access someone else's PC or maybe go to an internet cafe, or if you are lucky at school or college.

A character created in ZBrush by Danial Spivak

In game development for major AAA titles like Call of Duty or Dragon Age Origins it takes hundreds or thousands of professions a long time (six months upwards) to create a game.  So for most of us these kind of games are impossible.

But this doesn't mean we can't make smaller, and in some ways even better stuff.  For example many games encourage players to make their own content or "mods" - This can be from making hats for your favourite character in DoTA2, possibly making a bit of money while enjoying the game.

A recent sword design for DOTA2 by nate Hallinan - From polycount

Some games are made by a single person or a small team.  These are typically independent developers, and create "Indy" games.  A great success story of an Indy game is Mine Craft, which was sold for two billion dollars in 2014.  These games I must say are my favourite, normally smaller, but with a lot of character, interesting concepts and are really fun and interesting to play & learn.

First projects - Start Small

The secret to learning and getting better is lots of small projects.  Give yourself a day, a week, or a month to accomplish and finish something.  This can be your first character in Brush, making a treasure chest that opens when the player stands next to it in UE4, or even a simple chair.

Start small, and always try to "finish" a project, even if you get bored, or think of something else you would rather do.  To finish a project you should have something you can show others, maybe someone can run around a landscape you created, or maybe it's a picture of a monster.

It doesn't matter how good or bad you believe it to be - Post images of your work and ask for critique and comments (C&C).  Sometimes people won’t say anything and don't seem to care, other times people will tell you why they think your work sucks.  Sometimes people will say "wow, that's great".  

Try and get as much information and feedback as possible, and work out why your work sucks.  This is what makes you better quicker.  Some great places to post are on forums and social networks.

Here is a way to start making your own game from scratch in 2D.  The guy that teaches in the videos is Tom Francis, who made a game called Gunpoint on his own.  Gunpoint is a great little game and he obviously knows what he is on about.  The program used is a free game maker called Game Maker Studio.  If you are following the tutorials give yourself a week to go through them, then the rest of the month to finish a small sample area.  This is a nice project as the software & tutorial is totally free and designed for beginners.

Project Planning

While project planning sounds very boring it is very simple and essential to creating strong work.  Keep in mind you always learn from every project and the next project will be easier, quicker and a little more painless.  Eventually you will realise that you have learned a lot and are actually pretty good!

1) Goals - what is the final outcome?  Set a deadline date (a week/month maybe).

2) Inspiration and reference - Grab images of anything you want to incorporate, games and films to rip off characters and assets from.

3) Planning - Before you dive straight in look for holes in your knowledge - If you are making a whole level maybe consider starting with a sample area like a small room.  At this point look for good tutorials to help you out.  If you get stuck on on something try your best to overcome it, ask questions online and look for solutions or ways to avoid repeating difficult processes.

 

For a picture I drew this week I got inspired by the game Banner Saga.  I collected images like this for reference

4) White boxing or outlining.  This is a major area of a project.  This is when you block out the rough outlines - maybe it's a loose character, or a dungeon or street scene in a game engine, At this point don't worry about textures and other details, just make sure it feels good.  If it’s a level have a walk around, if it’s an asset try looking at it from different angles and get feedback from others.  At the end of this stage you are about half way through.

 

For my example here I started drawing a rough outline - Similar to using a pencil

5) Detailing and tweaking.  This is when you make stuff look as good as possible and try to make sure everything works.  It may involve a lot of long & boring processes like rigging a character, creating shaders in your chosen game engine, playing with AI or whatever.  I would say this is the hardest part and is the most likely place to encounter problems - Stick at it and learn as you go.  If something is totally flustering you move onto something else for a little bit then come back to the problem and research solutions online.

 

I spent a lot of time cleaning up the image and outlining image and picking a palette of muted colours

6) Finishing.  Possibly the most important part of a project.  In short this is where you try your best to show off your work, hide the bad bits and highlight the strong bits.  Not everyone will know as much as you and may not have an idea that you have took shortcuts or cheated in any way.  A typical thing with character artists is to skip the technical processes (like unwrapping/texturing, re-topology rigging) but they will still have a great looking picture that they have touched up in Photoshop.  This is not cheating, and is almost expected.  Try and think of who you are showing it to and consider your goals - Did you hit all of your targets in the planning stage?

 

Before finishing this picture I spent time tweaking it, and adding/changing colours so it felt better.  I also added some simple effects and tweaks to the image.  To finish it I posted it online

The Spear Maiden picture for me was a one day project.  In the end it took a lot longer than I expected, but I put in some extra time and stuck with it.  In the end I learned quite a bit about line-art and the outcome feels alright.  For this picture I "cheated" by using pinterest to find some pictures of hands to help me get okay looking hands and fingers.  I could have stuck with bad looking hands, but that little bit of extra effort and care made a big difference.  Personally I could never of drawn this a year ago so quickly, but by doing a lot of little "projects" all the time I am learning the process & getting better.

BearMan 3D Character - Work in Progress

I have been getting into Dungeons & Dragons recently with the release of the new fifth edition rules.  So I decided to model a character to fit.

The idea is a barbarian who has taken the "Path of the Totem Warrior".  This means they are closely associate with animals and nature, being able to call upon an ancestral guide and adopting aspects of these creatures.  This guy is very bear-like.

I am aiming for quite a stylised look, with exaggerated proportions.  But I also want a balance, and not have it too cartoony - Like the games DOTA2 and World of Warcraft.

Here is my block out so far.  I need to add more smaller things and parts to add interest.

Here I added other parts to create more interest, including a warrior belt with furs, an evil claw and bandages

I have made a low poly version and started to hand paint textures using Substance Painter & Photoshop

For the end product I am aiming to have a low-poly/real-time character.  I really have too many triangles and the textures are 2x 4096px, which is pretty large.

There are a few different outcomes to publish; Zbrush clay renders (quickest), Zbrush with poly paint (quick), and then low-poly game renders.  In the future I will try more posed Zbrush renders, touched up in photoshop.  These are the most impressive and often involve some form of composition, and with little regard for real-time viability.  What I have here in the "T-pose" is pretty boring to look at and doesn't show the model in the best light.

New Year - New Ways (Ditch the Hang-Ups)

Hey!  Its a new year, and we are all still here, which is nice.  I have decided to try and approach my art work and 3D models a bit differently from now on...

I have suffered from maybe a lack of "faith" in the way media and art is going.  When I create something it is often by my own low-standards, and showing distain for the popular.  I spent the last three years working and studying non-stop.  In this time I learned a lot about art and what people want to see.

Here is a fantastic piece of concept art, but my training just lets me see photo-elements and Photoshop filters (high-pass, find edges etc)

For some reason I have still been dismissing modern "pop art", as it gets very formulaic and "samey".  I am a strong believer in personality through art, but have seen too much that it has sickened me to a degree.  For example I get bored of concept art, the golden ratio, stolen compositions and palettes (even if from traditional masters of yester-year).

Here is another great piece.  This one is by Tom Edwards, who was a favourite student on our course the year before me.  All I see is Albert Bierstadt, and a signature paying homage to Frank Frezetta

In 3D there are too many Sci-fi corridors, boring looking textures created from dDo2 and the Quixel suite.  I see a new sci-fi rail-gun every week, and surprise-surprise I am now sick of seeing these.  Another popular one in the last years has been "Hyper realistic" character models.  I can see that many of these models share generic parts downloaded from badking.com.  If I see another photo-shopped composit-render with depth of field blur and rim-light I might stab myself in the eyes with my pen.  Here is the latest page on Polycount, and many examples of what I just mentioned just above.

What I have to remember is that I have had the blessing of being immersed in top-rate digital and traditional art & photography.  The fact is there are patterns to what works, what others like, and what is popular.  My problem is that I like to go against the grain , and fail to see value in quality work.  My main issue is originality - I have OD'd on art so nothing seems original for long thanks to the internet.

So what are these "new ways" mentioned in the title?  Well, I am going to follow the saying "if you can't beat them, join them".  There are many ways I can do more impressive work, and a lot quicker using shortcuts, and I feel I actually have earned the right to use them from all my learning.  This may involve using software in certain ways - like;

* Abusing other peoples brushes  - I have made many myself and know about creating and adapting them
* Using photo elements - Even if not my own images
* Stealing compositions & ideas
* Lots of rim-light, golden ratio and increasing contrast the nearer the object to the viewer
* Steer away from spending a lot of time creating original stuff - just rob it, nothing is truly original anyways
* Sculpt without consideration to texturing and game-engines - this takes ages
* Use as many shortcuts as possible

The main change to keep in mind is making art that appeals to more people - Even if I think they are dumb and tasteless.  The population are generally morons who Listen to Cold Play and watch Holly Oaks after a day at the mall in between posting memes on Facebook.

With this in mind I will endevour to post more regularly, and be less cynical if I'm lucky.  Nah, I'm going to be optimistic and embrace what is to come.  I felt old at university (being thirty while others are eighteen), but art will always be there for me, and I like to think that when I get to sixty years old I could be a total art-demon.  I just need to stick at it and go with the trends.

Here's a picture I drew today keeping the above in mind.  I think it is lacking in colour somewhat, and maybe in need of a few more detail/lighting passes

New Gauntlet UI

I've been playing the recent release of Gauntlet on Steam recently, and had a go a re-designing the user interface (UI).  I feel the current one is to imposing and not really easy to read while in the heat of battle.

Here is an in-game screenshot of a four player game in action.

To me this scene is quite hard to read - Can you spot all four of the players and the cursor?

Here is a list of floors
1) Takes up too much space - Players get lost behind it.
2) Displays a lot of useless or un-needed information - Greyed out does not need to be there, money total doesn't matter, players name could be displayed on pause/host/vote options screen.
3) Is a "Hard Read" - With only often only miliseconds to glimpse at information I quickly read what I need, this could be refined and made so you can actually read the information without directly looking.
4) Boring scoring.  "Kill Chain x1.30   220" - I am being rewarded with a maths challenge I dont even have time to read, unless is another players and I am dead.  Why not have a "good" (10kills+) or "Mega Kill" (25+Kills) which is totaled at the end of the round along with other bonuses?

With the above point being predominant I often have teammates die unexpectedly, with the sound of them screaming being the only/main sign of this happening.  I even lose my own character on the screen often, let alone the cursor.  Another problem arises when you change character often - the life-bar displays stay in the same place, but are so similar it may take a second or two to find and remember it.  Spacing them a little would help, but with the current layout it would make playing at the bottom of the screen impossible.

Here is a minimalised version design to be easier to read and increase play area space

Here I have replaced the generic bars with icons that represent the players main skill.

The Wizards would actually change icon to match the currently selected spell.

As the players take damage their life bar (filled with red, blue, green, or yellow) goes down.

When a player takes damage the Icon blinks/pulses along with the player (The Valkarie is blinking/being hurt in the above example).

The players main skill (Whirlwind for Warrior, Shield Throw for Valk, Spell for Wizard, Bomb for Elf) charge-state is represented by a glowing border around each Icon.  This will pulse when ready.

Above the warrior has a whirlwind ready, and the wizard has a spell half ready.

The relics display have been removed and is viewible on the pause/vote/screen.

There should be a quick-info screen when you hold back on the joypad or shift.  This overlays on the play screen, giving detailed information which is not already on screen - Skull Coin information, players names, money and kill score.

Potions and keys only display when picked up - and are semi-transparent.  Above the warrior icon (top-left) has two potions.  The Elf has one key and one potion.

Markers could be optional - changing how see-through they are, and making them toggle or appear briefly at the click of a button.

Here the players have markers under them - Making it a lot easier to read the location of the players

Dynamic emote is another idea - For when the "HELP" emote is used the player is marked automatically - with an exclimation mark instead of the standard "...".  An arrow for "this way".  It is unclear what the player is emoting when there is a lot going on, and could be clarified visually.

The last idea is a dynamic cursor - which will change according to the skill/player you have selected (a Firebolt icon or a bomb-arrow for example).  This would change and light up when your skill is ready, making you aware of this fact very clearly.

Anyways - Just ideas I thought I'd throw out there.

Polycount Projects - Rooftop

Yeah - A rooftop scene!  Made one a while ago as part of my degree.  This one is a lot more... better.

Here is the link to the relative forum

The supplied image is meant as concept art for us to create a 3D scene in a game engine.  UE4 is hands-down winning the New-Gen game engine battle, and my engine of choice.

Concept art created by Grey Shuko

What I have been doing with these projects is setting myself challenging goals to help push my skills a bit further and keep me keen.  For this project I imagined my own brief, giving the rooftop a game-genre, console platform, and resource limits.

Personal Brief
Game Type:
Point and click/adventure
Platform:
Desktop and Mobile
Limitations and challenges:
Two week time limit. Start from totally blank UE4 scene, 2048px Maps x 4 maximum.

Cool!  With these in mind I can really focus my attention.  My first aim is to match the asset placement in my block out.  In 3DS Max 2014 there is a great "Camera Match" function - this really helped to figure out the camera lens and field of view - Allow my to place objects as perfectly as you can (keeping in mind most concept art warps perspective).  I am looking forward to using camera match to present 3D sculpts in the near future.

This is my blockout - trying to strike a balance between what I see and what works in game engine.

Process Break points
1)  Block Out - match perspective, scale and lighting
2)  Low Poly - Create all assets needed, repeating and using modular assets as much as possible
3)  Into game engine - Unwrapping/UV'ing, finalising needed assets, finalizing material and asset groups.
4)  Texturing - Quite a long process, including baking high-poly versions of most assets
5)  Rendering - play a lot with lighting, materials and post processes.
6)  Extra Touches - short video with elements to emphasise the "Point n Click" idea

I am aiming to get up to 5) soon - compressing the project into about week (I started late, but at 3) already).  I plan on not doing any more major projects for a while and concentrate on personal projects and getting a decent job.  I do have a few other projects to polish off - three characters waiting to be rigged and put into UE4 with animations.  I was struggling to get the CAT rigs into UE4, but will fix up.

Anyways - Keep it real :D