Thursday 10 December 2015

Texturing C4 easter-egg





Fully Hand Drawn textures for C4 Easter-egg from Counter Strike (inspiration for the map aesthetics and design)







I started of by putting "coats" of layers on the bottom and gradually adding more and more tones to then add details. I used an image for reference of the original C4 used in iconic shooter Counter Strike.



using a palate I was able to save most important tones and reuse them for different Faces I had to texture.


to make the texture I was using special rendering brushes and adjusting the layer settings to create different effects and slowly bringing depth into the object.




Image of the UV editor in Maya 2016





Using a different, sharper brush I was adding more detail in the 4th coat (coat being a folder with layers) using the smudge tool I'd blend the texture to create depth.





















I would preview the progress in the engine I'd find imperfections to fix and to see if the whole thing is coming up well.





















using less layer opacity and harder brushes and darker tones I'd add details to folding and edges.



Complete texture in Photoshop, exported as simple JPEG and added to the 3 C4 assets hidden around the map.
























final texture on the asset on the Battle Arena.










































































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References






Walking Simulator- Dream:Maze Sequence

Dream

the maze sequence




Dream is a bizarre game that puts player in different dream inspired locations where they have to pass through to progress, the game's genre changes as rapidly as a dream can, from a puzzler turning into a horror experience. Players must find and jump though worm holes in order to get though different sequences in order to finally wake up, with a plot twisting ending.

Maze features animated levers with sounds when activated
triggered events
easter-egg
Collision sounds with the hedges
and other animated events that work as game mechanics such as simple mushrooms shrinking when walked by to show locations player already passed through.

the game also has spaceships, yes.





Making BattleArena buildings and props









Texturing my Battle Arena

here are some screenshots of the texturing progress which brought the boring greybox to life.


UV Editor

Using UV editor I was able to position all the Shells (faces) of the object the way I wanted so they are easier to texture, for example placing walls that will have same colour texture next to each other.
after I had all the faces positioned in the right order I could bake the texture and the ambient for high quality textures and import them into Photoshop.

Texturing





















After setting all the images in my preferred layout, low opacity UV_Snap on top, Ambient texture under and the texture images in separate folder where I could duplicate them in to my working folder where I'd often use stump tool to mix textures and make unique variations of each walls so they all look different.



I textured every part of every building by hand using brushes and stump tool as well as cutting up textures, re-sizing them and adjusting different layer settings to make new details.




This is an example of half finished texture that I'd apply to a model in Unity engine to check if all walls and details looked right, when I saw that it needed adjustments I'd edit it more, else I'd proceed to add details like graffiti and dirt marks.






Finished texture on a model rendered in Unity engine.


Many textures were drawn by hand using brush tools, for example this window texture has the glass section drawn by hand on multiple layers to make a illusion of depth and glass gloss and dirt.
(I made multiple textures for this objects to add variety, some included curtains and more dirt)


this is an example of the dirt effect effect which I made using 3 layers set to 20% opacity and a special rendering brush which I also adjusted to suite my needs.



Some textures like the main building being a Mosque or some type of Historical architecture where created using many different textures applied on top of each other and adjusted with stump tool and other colour adjustment tools to create unique patterns that'd fit the style of the building.




Texture for the front of the "Mosque" (half finished)









Texture of the back part of the building. (also not finished, used to test when previewing the texture in Unity to see imperfections)

showcase

Mosque

Market
Van (without normal map)











View from ramp













This is my first ever map created in 3D as well as first ever experience with texturing and modeling; but also using a Game Engine.















Monday 7 December 2015

Column

Column made by mirroring geometry (images missing).
Column was made by manipulating vertices and extruding the shape to form the shape half way. After applying mirror geometry function and setting up the Axis  the column was complete and ready to texture.

OneSheet for DREAM


BattleArena Greybox

The original design of the Battle Arena that didn't change much. The design was adjusted to suit gameplay needs but majority of aspects stayed the same like in the design below.
Flat map design for BattleArena

Greybox




Graybox showing the layout of the maze in the background and a 3D perspective of the maze in the foreground. The greybox also includes locations of the levers and doors around the map and some scripted events locations.
flat top-down map of the maze with lever functions.

Abstract Expressionism


Abstract Expressionism


by Oskar Wadowski


Originated in New York, 1940, Abstract Expressionism is a form of art which expresses the mental and emotional feelings of the artist. The movement has developed post World War 2 in city of New York where artists wanted to present something more than average common art.



Abstract Expressionism is a form of art that can not be duplicated and copied to perfection because the fundamental characteristics of the Art are the "raging" paint strokes creating a unique abstract. The work can reflect the mental and emotional side of the artists, with use of different colours, painting patters and use of techniques to apply the paint on to the surface, the artist can express their feelings on material.

This Art Form is very personal and would only relate to artist's state of mind, whether they are feeling sad, depressed, happy, in love or simply creative; enough to inspire viewers and people around them who'd take their time to admire the work and try to understand it.
A very Famous artist such as Jackson Pollock practiced Abstract Expressionism among other talented artists such as Willem de Kooning who is also mentioned couple of times when looking at the Art of similar nature.

Jackson Pollock was one of the finest and most influential artists of 1940s and 50s who practiced and created abstracts that would reflects his inner emotions and throw them out in form of randomised paint strokes often "thrown" at the material the artist would paint on by flicking the paint brush or any other instrument they might have used to express their emotions.
The main reason the Art is so respected and admired is not all because the way the lines and colours correspond but mainly the emotions behind each part of the painting's process.

Only paintings belonging to individual, and exceptional artists will become successful because they represent their mind and past that the artist when though.

The image above is Jackson Pollock's painting named "No. 5 1948" where the artist used oil paints to create the patters and different stroke variations, this painting belongs to his private collection.




Willem De Kooning, 'The Visit' 1966-7
Willem De Kooning

The painting above is another example of Abstract Expressionism this time drawn by Willem De Kooning between 1966 and 1967, the painting is unclear at first but the viewer can uncover different aspects of the painting that can show the emotions of the artist at the time of painting it. The painting even if interoperated as an abstract expressionism piece also includes some figures that relate to a woman and any other possible characters that would be purely relatable to the artist either form their past or present experiences or simply emotional factors and imagination.



Jackson Pollock, 'Yellow Islands' 1952
Jackson Pollock
second example of Jackson's work, the "Yellow Islands" created in 1952 when the Art form was still very new and fresh form of Modern Art. The abstract uses different techniques of poring the paint and manipulating its spreading using gravity and different physical motions to get the paint to move about and form a completely unique work. The painting mostly reflects on the artist's mind state where he becomes completely driven into the state of meditation, meaning the work reflected the artist's clear mind.

Conclusion


Abstract Expressionism is very contradicting form of modern art and art in particular, but what made the work shown above was that those were some of the original pieces of work that shaped todays way people look at modern art. If similar painting was created by an unknown artist today it will most likely not grab as much attention simply because this form of abstracts has been done before, showing that Abstract Expressionism was mostly related to fashion than anything else. But the fact that it placed its mark on the way we perceive modern art is very significant.











Mushroom


First I created a model of a Mushroom.

I then proceeded to edit the UV for texturing in Maya's UV editor

By Sawing edges together I separated different parts of the Mushroom and placed them around so they are easier to texture.
After getting the UV snapshot I added a material to the Mushroom that is easy to see, I then took a render of UV editor using TURTLE plugin in Maya. as well as an ambient to add realism to the model's textures.
I imported the UV Snapshot, texture render and ambient to Photoshop where I changed the texture and ambient render to Multiply and positioned them in right order, changed the opacity of the UV Snap and placed it on top so see all the faces.



After finding some textures for the root of the mushroom I had to use the brush tool and pre-downloaded and set up rendering brushes to draw the top as well as add details.

To make sure I was doing everything right I saved the Photoshop file and uploaded it on the model in Maya using the Hypershade..


I could see that one of the textures was placed at wrong angle and I was able to quickly overwrite the file and fix the problem.

Texture file

This is a Mushroom Model imported into a Unity Project with full textures, with the engine's lighting effects and render the model has gained a lot of detail