Learning Environments - The Bootcamp
- Savannah Edwards
- Nov 27, 2018
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2018
3D environment creation, something I hadn't yet dabbled in until now. My affinity for creating backgrounds and environments (even in 2D - my forte) is not exactly stellar, I often avoid drawing backgrounds for fear of them. Classes in previous trimesters have helped my confidence, but I'm still not so confident in my background stills across all media in general. Though, I do wish to be able to create them well, in both 2D and 3D and I require a lot of practice to do so.
Weekly WorkSo last week (week 1) we kicked off the trimester with the introduction of the 'Aftermath Boot-camp Project' to which I was both excited and dreaded to begin. I was keen to get my head around some the major tools needed for projects in future, ie: Unreal Engine. I felt rather intimidated and excited about the capabilities and tools that this program contained. After looking at a number of resources and articles from 80.lv I felt a little more confident and planned out a small Egyptian tomb inspired environment. Shortly after I modelled my assets. However, my plans to complete the project over the weekend were foiled and it became a bit of a project on the back burner.
Fast forward to week 13....
Week 13 I finally revisited the project after a little more experience in Unreal. It felt like closure to what I've learned about the program in the trimester to go back to finish this project. I kept with my Egyptian theme and instead of keeping it indoors I decided to have it exposed to the desert and have a few pillars buried in the sand. . Pictured and listed below are the modular assets created in 3Ds Max then textured in Substance Painter .
After working on the Aftermath project, it was certainly drilled into my head of the importance of working efficiently and a modular workflow is a way of working which has you doing this. Though at first you may feel your small modular kit won't fill your scene, it is more than enough. One asset can be used many times and in various ways, saving time and effort. For example, rather than making separate large pillars to the one in the structure in my bootcamp scene I just scaled them up and wam bam there's a brand new asset.
The steps I took in making the environment went along the lines of:
Research - looking at other environments, finding references and inspiration, reading articles and familiarising myself with techniques.
Planning - I scribbled a few designs and drawings of what assets I'd need to execute the scene and did a few iterations to make sure things seemed consistent.
Proxy - Here I made drafts of the assets and shifted things around in 3DS Max to see what would look good and so on. I ended up deleting the walls as it felt super super closed in and I didn't like that feeling. I also made sure the settings in 3DS Max matched those of which in Unreal so things would snap to the Unreal grid without much hassle.
Texturing and Finalising Assets - Here I just unwrapped the assets without much trouble seeing that they were rather simple, I then exported them as FBX files and textured them in Substance Painter .
Placing and Arranging - After all the assets were finalised I imported them and the materials into Unreal and arranged them to my liking, as well as creating creating the environment around the main scene with the land sculpting tools.
Adding additional features (eg: triggers, particles, lighting etc.) - Here we have the icing and decorations on the cake to bring the scene together. I added some warm lighting, dust (which I would have liked to have moved more but I was a little strapped for time), fire and an interactive trigger. Personally I think that doing the lighting is one of the best parts as it unifies the whole scene together which feels almost triumphant after building it.
Below are some short videos from the scene in Unreal :
Interactive Trigger:
On another note, what the heck is a trim sheet and texture atlas?
Trim Sheet: In a nutshell, a trim sheet is a material that can be applied to various assets. This is of course a time saver and speeds up your work rather efficiently, as Alex Senschal in his article states, "...they give you ... flexibility to add a lot of high texel density and detail to an environment without requiring unique bakes thus not wasting time and memory." (2017)
There are 2 standard methods to making a trim sheet, a floater style system, or standard tiling trims, each having their own pros and cons. To the right there are some examples of what trim sheets can look like.
Texture Atlas: In simplest terms, a texture atlas one big texture made up of a collection of other seperate textures. It's like a wardrobe, it contains lots of different kinds of clothes for different occasions. Only a portion of the texture atlas is used for one object, speeding up render time for say a game. Ivan-Assen Ivanov explains that "...texture atlases greatly reduce the importance of different object textures as a factor in batching and sorting the scene." (2006).
Another neat thing about texture atlases is that they also can greatly reduce wasted texture space in a map as a result of efficient packing. Contrary to trim sheets, tiling textures is virtually impossible, they also are not the ideal method when streaming.
Resources
https://80.lv/articles/building-an-ice-cave-in-ue4 - "Building an Ice Cave in UE4", Jamir Blanco
The first article I read about modular workflow. It was really emphasised here how much just slightly altering the scale or rotation of an object can make it look like a new asset. He also talks about how an environment should look good from all angles. Moreover, he goes on to talk about compiling lots of references to get the mood and look accurate to what he was envisioning.
https://80.lv/articles/andres-rodriguez-environment-art-interview/ - "Making The Game World Come Alive", Andres Rodriguez (Naughty Dog) 2016
Just a really good low down on modular work flow, as well as including some tips for making the environment look especially pretty whilst helping convey the narrative of the environment.
https://80.lv/articles/environment-design-style-over-function/ - "Environment Design: Making Things Look Cool", Robert Hodri 2016
Another low down on modular workflow in environments and its importance. I was reading a lot of these to get a more firm grasp on how things should go. He also talks about problems encountered after building the environment (ie: collisions, gaps in meshes, etc) and so forth.
https://80.lv/articles/tiling-textures-in-game-environments/ - "Tiling Textures in Game Environments", Alex Senechal 2017
This was the article that gave me the low down on how important trim sheets are in tiling your textures for an environment. It's pretty neat how much variety and flexibility they offer in adding a lot of detail to the environments without needing "...unique bakes thus not wasting time and memory.".
https://80.lv/articles/intro-to-designing-a-modular-environment-masterclass/ - "Intro to Designing a Modular Environment Masterclass", Brian Recktenwald 2018
A neat small blurb about modular workflow, including a few notes on the benefits and parts in the workflow.
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130940/practical_texture_atlases.php?page=1 - "Practical Texture Atlases", Iven-Assen Ivanov 2006
Probably the easiest explanation of what texture atlases to read that I came across.
https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/using-texture-atlas-in-order-to-optimize-your-game--cms-26783 - "Using a Texture Atlas to Optimize Your Game", Matteo Sciutteri 2016
Another really really great and updated explanation about texture atlases. It covers a lot in a concise and easy to understand manner, from what they are to what programs are typically used to create them.
Cheers,
Grassland
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