Modeling/Sculpting Stage

The first stage in my pipeline is the Modelling and sculpting stage. My initial research tested some modelling techniques, but as per my feedback, I looked at modelling a small asset to determine the order in which I would geometry model, and sculpt.

Because I chose, also, to reevaluate the Software I used for Sculpting, I have tested a few assets, rather than just one asset, to get an idea for the advantages and disadvantages of sculpting certain things. For example, Hard Surface Modelling in 3DS Max can require a lot of polys to avoid the default "sharp" edges, but is generally easier to accomplish compared to sculpting flat surfaces in ZBrush.

Softer Edges in 3DS Max using Turbosmooth

Kukri Knife modelled in 3DS Max to test Hard Surface Modelling Techniques 

Sculpt of Mountain in ZBrush, ready for retopology

Pillar 3D Modelled in 3DS Max, then sculpted in ZBrush, and textured and baked in Substance Painter

My tests aimed to:

• Determine which methods in the modelling stage would be the most efficient
• Which methods would also allow me to produce a quality of work that is portfolio-ready. 

The Kukri Knife took significantly longer to model in 3DS Max, but produced a model that needed no retopology and came in at a lower poly count than any of the ZBrush sculpts I produced.

The mountain used ZBrush entirely to model, handling retopology after the sculpting process. I found this process the most time consuming, but could understand the necessity of it for sculpting organic modelling in a short amount of time.

The method used for the pillar involved geometry modelling in 3DS Max, then sculpting onto this primitive mesh in ZBrush. The high poly model was then baked onto the original, low poly mesh using Substance Painter, reducing the poly count to under 1000 polys.

This method ensured that the geometry was never dramatically warped during the sculpting stage, but it would depend on the complexity of the geometry being produced in the final product.

Next Step

These tests helped me to determine a workflow for this stage of the pipeline, so I would, therefore, like to stress test it. I have found that sculpting from scratch in ZBrush is not advisable with my current level of skill, and so these further tests will focus primarily on the Geometry modeling (3DS Max ) >Sculpting (ZBrush) > Baking/Retopology (Substance Painter)

There are also different methods of retopology, using different software, which I feel i can test in more depth, dedicating a post to just the findings from that.

Poly Count for buildings

While trying to determine the poly count for the project I am undertaking, I considered how the entire project would need to be optimised to run in engine. The same thing would need to be considered if working in a AAA studio, and is cited as a requirement in most of the job advertisments I looked at.

Having decided on making a building using PBR texturing methods and utilising Polygon-sculpting methods, I looked at similar games. Considering I had looked at job adverts from Rockstar, I researched into the polygon counts seen in games like Grand Theft Auto V, Infamous Second Son. Games that use cities as their environment.

Another source I found is the Unreal Marketplace which, as the engine I am wanting to render the assets in, is useful in providing professional constraints for the work and also provides me with the means to sell my assets if I wanted to. This is a standard which ensures that assets are on par with the standards that are expected of the engine, and run in an optimised manner.

Finally, forums like PolyCount and 3D media companies like Turbosquid give some indications of the kind of poly count that is typical of certain games.

The spreadsheet below details an artist at Turbosquid's experiences with real-time poly counts. While a lot of the assets on Turbosquid reach exponential amounts of detail, the 'real time' assets represent a significantly downscaled version of what is normally offered, while still maintaining a lot of detail.

For my work, as I have decided on a modular building approach, I need to consider how much the count is going to increase, just from modularity alone. From the spreadsheet, it looks like I should be aiming for around 100k per asset, which also depends on the type of asset, and its position in the world in terms of importance, and likelihood of being seen and scrutinised by the player.


Sources
Google Docs. (2017). Poly Budgets 2017. [online] Available at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xJmSuBZbdMOlIcdXmO9hu46GJ7-wIiWCclJwimIOJa4/edit#gid=0 [Accessed 16 Dec. 2017].

Epic Games. (2017). Marketplace Submission Guidelines[online] Available at: http://help.epicgames.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2592186-marketplace-submission-guidelines-preparing-your-assets#Submission Requirements [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].

Nelva, G. (2014). inFAMOUS: Second Son's Characters are 120,000 Polygons; 11 Million Rendered Regularly by the Engine. [online] DualShockers. Available at: https://www.dualshockers.com/infamous-second-sons-characters-are-120000-polygons-11-million-rendered-regularly-by-the-engine/ [Accessed 24 Nov. 2017].

Update on Concepts and Level Design

Originally I wanted to outsource any level design so that I didn't have to spend necessary time on planning and greyboxing a level.

While I have been able to find different concept art that would benefit my project, I was unable to find any premade levels. However, I was able to find a lot of pre-prepared level maps that I could use use and change to fit with my desired scope and still keep in mind my stretch goal.

Using an existing layout of a city block, I was able to block out the geometry of the level using Unreal Engine 4 and while it is an extremely large project, it allowed me to tweak specific sections and view them 'in-game' 

The biggest problem I face with using real-world maps and measurements is that, when viewed from either a third person person perspective, or first person perspective, the scale appears too small. This was a problem highlighted by Luke Ahearn in 3D Game Environments, where he makes reference to how racing games intentionally use massively wide roads to combat the limitation of racing in a two lane road.

In terms of concepts, I have gathered a variety of photo references, which I hope to reproduce using textures and modular construction and combining the two methods into a hybrid of modular assets and modular textures.

City layout taken from Akihabara. Overall, it is a lot to individually 3D Model, but may be possible as a stretch goal, using modular assets.

High Poly Sculpting

Like the pbr texture test, Job searches led me to explore high poly sculpting. Whether these can be used in my final project is still to be determined, but I found that it took longer to render, and impacted on runtime when exported into engines, so might not be an efficient method if this pipeline is one I follow.

However, this method is still viable to produce photo-realistic textures, if the high poly models were baked to a low poly model. This reduces the impact on runtime but maintains the detail that high poly sculpts would bring to the model.

PBR Shader

PBR

Today I experimented with PBR in Substance Painter.

Exploring different ways of achieving a photo realistic look, I explored PBR (Physically Based Rendering) and the different engines that can render this. Unity 5 and Unreal Engine 4 are two of the engines that are available to me to use, and can also use PBR shading, so it makes sense that these are two of the engines that I may consider if I need to use my assets in a game engine, or showcase them as such. 

These engines are also industry standard, being requirements in some of the job listings I looked at to know about, and having researched Indie games and Triple A titles, it is clear that these are two engines that are heavily customised within the companies, and are used a lot.

Below is a product of following a tutorial. I feel that the texturing is very different to working on textures in 3ds Max and Photoshop. A lot of the UV mapping can be left to the program to remap and I found it handy that the painting and texturing bakes in real time to new normal maps.

Product of a tutorial in texturing a 3D asset in Substance Painter using PBR shading

Sources:

Allegorithmic. (2017). Substance Painter: Texturing an asset from start to finish. [Online Video]. 16 June 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk_YRkDsJrQ. [Accessed: 9 September 2017]