Simple Crate and Barrel Part 3

 

Hand-painting and Setting Materials in UE

1. Unreal Render:

2. Maya Render + Wireframe(Left is low poly, right is low poly with baked texture):

3. Substance Painter (baked high-poly mesh to game-ready mesh + hand-painting with the help of vertex color IDs (Maya)):

4. UVs

5. Reference:

Simple Crate and Barrel Part 2

 

Baking High-Res Mesh to Game Mesh

1. Sculpted in ZBrush and decimated a high-resolution mesh, then imported it to Maya. Rendered with Arnold:

2. Low-Poly Model (Decimated in ZBrush because of PC crash/lack of time, thankfully it worked enough for the bake!) ):

2. Baked High-Poly Information to Low-Poly in Substance Painter:

3. Camera match with reference:

Simple Crate and Barrel Part 1

Proxy Barrel

1. Beauty shot rendered in Maya's Arnold:

2. Establishing scale in Maya and importing the first iteration proxy to my Unreal Engine project:

3. Creating an image plane within a camera to ensure the correct proportions with reference. I modeled the proxy barrel with relatively low poly, as my reference is very stylized. I kept some of the edges using the crease tool, and later, I plan to smooth them down in ZBrush.

 

4. Reimported the finished proxy mesh into Unreal Engine and applied a basic gray material to the mesh.

Barrel Reference Comparison:

Modular Environment in Unreal Engine - Part Three

 

Sculpting and Render Sequence

Stones Reference:

ZBrush Render:

Importing from Zbrush to Unreal (Nanites):

Adding Complexity to the sequencer (animated location, focal length, and focal distance):

Movie Render Queue Set Up:

(I don't know why the diamond is spinning so fast; it looks normal in the level. It might be the frame rate, and I'll have to change the speed in the blueprint to fix it.)

High Quality Screenshots:

Modular Environment in Unreal Engine - Part Two

 

Refining

For the next part of the modular environment project in Unreal Engine, we are focusing on refining the scene by adding more details to our meshes, creating new lights, and developing new materials. We are also utilizing the UE Blueprints to create a custom character controller, as well as a level and a universal game controller blueprint to easily pause and exit mode and create nodes to quickly execute commands (high-resolution screenshots). 

Using Boolean and multicuts to add 'wear and tear" to the meshes also added more meshes:

Created an emissive material for my torch:

Adding Simple Rotation Blueprint:

RotationMovement Node:

Timeline Node (to rotate multiple objects at once, in different axes/speeds):

Creating a Level Blueprint:

Creating a Universal Blueprint:

Setting Character Movement (Walk Speed and Jump Height):

Setting Lighting and Environment:

Taking True Full-Screen Screenshots:

Modular Environment in Unreal Engine - Part One

Proxy Blockout

Our assignment was to create a modular, stone-carved block for the environment in Unreal Engine. To begin, we needed to establish the correct scale relative to the Unreal Engine mannequin. I exported the mannequin into Maya and modeled a simple cube with dimensions of 100 x 100 x 100 to compare its proportions with those of the mannequin. Once the scale was confirmed, I proceeded to build the proxy meshes in Maya.

In Unreal Engine, I used the proxy meshes to block out a doorway structure and applied a material that could be instanced across the meshes. This setup will make it easy to replace the placeholder material with another, more polished one later in the process.

Once I was satisfied with the blockout, I made a prefab by creating a blueprint for the structure. This serves as the reusable element of the modular environment, allowing me to make adjustments within the blueprint that automatically update all components tied to that template. I also created a separate blueprint for the pillars I planned to use to connect the doorways.

After finalizing the proxy version, I returned to Maya to bevel the edges of the geometry. When I re-imported the meshes into Unreal, the consistent naming conventions allowed the assets in the level to automatically update and replace with the beveled versions.

Finally, after making minor adjustments to the structure with the updated model, I refined the scene with some light adjustments. 

Below are the final proxy blockouts of my structure, presented in high-quality screenshots: