Imagine Worlds – Remaking Stove & Other Cabin Assets

A few weeks ago I had modelled and oven and a stove that would go into the kitchen within our image worlds project, however when returning to the asset I had found some assets, due to this I remade the oven however I did not re do the stove. Due to this I have revisited the stove so that I can finally texture it. However I also decided that I did not like the look of the stove as it looked like something from a low poly environment and it was not very realistic in shape. The image below shows the original stove.

Due to me not liking the asset I decided to recreate this pretty much from scratch. I only kept the base mesh and also slightly changed the knobs. I changed the look of where the hob itself to me more round and realistic looking and I also added some bars to go over the top as older looking cookers would have these. However when creating these bars I had not thought ahead which shows I must do more planning for assets like this in the future. The problem I encountered was the poly count of the bars being ridiculously high. In total it came to over 5000 tris not including the cross bars I needed to add.

I fixed this problem by simply using a cube shape to start rather than a cylinder. There was still a moderately high amount of tris (2000) however this is substantially lower than the previous model. 

Once I was happy with the mesh I tried my best to unfold and layout my UVs correctly and in a tidy manner. I think I did a good job with this. 

I added the checkers to make sure everything was proportionate and that there would be no distortion in the texture.

When texturing I made sure to go off the exact colour scheme of the oven so that they would fit nicely together and one would not look out of place compare to the other. Due to this being a cooking surface I added a lot more mold to this object as I thought this would be a little more realistic for this environment.

Cooker Stove by folly on Sketchfab

Before I created the stove asset I worked on some more cabin components as it was not quite complete. One major asset that was required was the fence for the decking which will go around the outside of the decking as it would in real life. This asset was not on the original asset list and was added later due to my group not having thought of this before hand which shows our pre-production research could have been a little better.

My main priority for this project was to create the cabin itself. The assets have not exactly been the most difficult to create however one major difficulty was working out the correct measurements for all of the different assets so that everything fits together correctly. I believe that I have done a good job with this as so far all of the cabin pieces within unreal are sticking together nicely.

I was also very happy with my UV unwrap of this object.

To make sure that the fence would fit with the rest of the cabin I made sure it was the same type of wood except I used a different material for the normal so that it was not exactly the same just along the correct colour scheme.

Imaging Worlds – Wall Light

Another item that has been missing from the cabin was some sort of light, the light will not necessarily actually be used as lighting within the scene as it is supposed to look old and somewhat abandoned. For this light I was originally going to create a standard ceiling light however to make it more interesting I chose to create a light that could be attached to the wall. This asset could also be duplicated and put in multiple places as this is how they would be used in a real world scenario in a large room.

I had some trouble early on as I was not 100% sure how I would model this object. Especially the part that holds up the bulb due to its hooked shape. I eventually chose to do this using the CV Curve tool and I extruded a cube and added some divisions to create a rounded shape. The rest of the object was pretty simple to model as the shape was simple and I added some bevels to many of the edges so that it was more rounded.

UV unwrapping also took a bit of a long time due to the strange shapes and I wanted them to be connected as possible so that the texture would go onto it nicely and look flush.

When it came to texturing I wanted it to stick with the overall style so I made it look old by using a dark copper colour and I also made the glass a stained yellow. I used a couple of different reference images and combined different components of each. 

 

Old Wall Light by folly on Sketchfab

Imagine Worlds – Modelling a Chopping Board & Importing it into the Scene

This is an object that took little to no time at all to model however the texture did take a little longer just so I could get that added detail due to the chopping board being so simple in shape. Within the cabin itself we now have many of the larger items that were required however one thing we had concluded was that we did not have many of the smaller details. We had imported Kurtis’ knife into the scene however it felt like something was missing, due to this I created a chopping board that could accompany the knife. Ben also chose to create some crates that could be used to fill up the outside to add some more detail to that area.

Imagine Worlds – Adding Night Sky and Optimizing the Character Movement

Today we began to continue the development of our level. Today was a lot of trial and error and different tutorials said different things, due to this me and Ben did some different research into how we could change the character movement. Originally we tried by inserting a node into the First Person Character blueprints that would allow us to set a maximum speed of movement however this fix did work but it did not feel correct. We eventually found that there is some hidden settings that can be shown in the blue print window. This brought up the character details and from here we could make the character walk slower as well as restricting the jumping. As it is a horror scene the character is forced to move slowly and is not able to run so that the fear element would be much higher. Other than this the jumping mechanic was restricted completely as we chose that jumping would ruin the immersion, as it would not fit with the theme of the level.

Other than the character movement we also had to go into the player blueprints and add two new nodes between the Input Axis and the controller. These two nodes allowed us to change the turning speed so that the mouse sensitivity was much lower to fit with the slow movement of the character.

Next I added the BP_Sky_Sphere to the scene which was in the Engine folder that was within the unreal project however this was originally hidden and we had to show this by going into the view settings of the project folders. Through this we could import the BP_Sky_Sphere to add the realistic sky box. To make the scene night time we had to change the “Sun Height” to negative so that it would be night time. We chose to put it at -9 as this was the best setting for the time of day we were going for as -1 was still too bright and -10 the sun begins to show again.

Around the bottom of the cube it is still pretty bright however this will be hidden by the trees and other forest features.

We have my roof imported however we have chosen not to put this onto the cabin until all of the assets completed and placed into the scene. I did test to see if the roof fit correctly to make sure it would work. 

One thing that we did not do from the beginning was keep all of the assets that were imported into the scene in an organised manner. For the project folder itself the FBX files and the exported textures to go along with them were all put in designated folders to avoid confusion. However once these objects were placed into the scene the level folders began to become a little bit hectic. Due to this we spent a little time grouping all of the objects together and putting them in designated folders so that it was far more organised. This also allows us to find the objects we need much faster.

Sounds Influence on an Imagined World & Feedback

When creating games one of the most crucial elements that is required is the audio that is used. Playing a game in silence would completely ruin the immersion and it also adds to the effect that the game has on the user. Sound can add extra depth and detail into levels and the overall way a game plays. Simple sounds such as a gun firing add the extra level to a gun as different guns may have different sounds which makes them more unique. Other more simple audio clips such as footsteps can be used so that the player knows what sort of surface they are standing on. If a player is in a building with a wood floor then heavy footsteps and creaking sounds may be used; whereas if the player is outdoors in a forest, trees branches snapping and bristling sounds will be used. Sound can change the overall feeling of a game or movie.

Within both games and movies there are two types of sound that are used; diegetic and Non-diegetic.  Diegetic Sound is audio which is implied to be present by the action of a character. In terms of games design these audio clips will be sounds such as the voice of the character or the noises that have been made by an object that has been interacted with. Diegetic sound can be on screen or off screen, it depends on the source of the audio, if it is present within the environment then it is diegetic. Non-diegetic sound is where the source is neither visible on screen or present within the scene. Within a games design non-diegetic sounds will be used just as much as diegetic sounds. An example of a non-diegetic sounds that may be used is a narrator talking or the music that is used to set the mood. This audio may be present within the game however the source is not within the environment or scene. An example is that Scary Ambient music may be used to set the overall mood in a horror game but the music is just played in the background and does not come from a source within the scene; this is non-diegetic. However the footsteps that are used will be diegetic as the player knows that the source of that audio is the player walking over a surface. Another way to look at this is that diegetic sound can be heard by the character and the watcher/player but non-diegetic sound can only be heard by the watcher/player.

Other than just sound effects another crucial piece of audio is the music that is used. Music can also help set the overall mood on an environment or scene. In many games and movies if a character is to die then a sad score would be put in place so that the player/watcher would feel more emotion than what they were already feeling. This is not always the case as sometimes pin drop silence may be used but this another example of how sound is effective as sometimes no sound at all is the best use in a certain scenario. Songs can be played to project the players emotion and they can also be used to project the vibe of a certain environment. There are different types of songs that can be used, some may be created for the intention of being used in that scene whereas other songs may already be around but chosen to be used because they fit the tone of that scene. One of my favorite scores from any film is by Hans Zimmer and this was from Interstellar.

This example is not from a game however the same practice is used. Just from the song I can feel the emotion of the scene. However this song would not work in something like Mario, this because this is an upbeat game with bright and vibrant colors so a very dark song would not fit this theme. Mario uses very upbeat music throughout the game to fit with the theme and also add emphasis to this.

For me both of these songs are Iconic but in different ways, when I think of the specific titles I think of these songs.

The overall task was to research into how sound can influence direction. Due to this I received a task to listen to the song Carouselambara by Led Zeppelin. Using this song I had to draw and imagine a world that came to my mind when listening to this. The first thing I thought was how it made me think of an iconic 80s scene and as I began to listen further Miami popped into my head. Due to this the world I imagined was a Retro 80’s Miami at night. This was my composition.

After completing this image I got some feedback from my peers so that for future projects I could take this into consideration so that my work can continue to improve and not plateau. As other than practice using feedback can also help improve the overall quality of work.

“The colour scheme and simple sketch drawings of a Miami beach match the tone of the song well and from this scene clearly see how the music inspired this setting. The colour tone blends well to creates a calming sunset vibe on the beach which does resemble the vice city art style. Maybe adding more people and benches to fill up the beach would help bring more life to the scene. Also adding more basic detail to the building might help make the piece more eye catching while still keeping the simple look to the scene.”

From this feedback I have a more confident in my choice of colour scheme as I believed it fit with the tone of the song. I was going for a minimalist style for this drawing however I could make my next project a little more busy as the buildings do not have much detail and there is not much going on in front of the buildings.

 

Imagine Worlds – Darkening the Scene, Fixing some Assets & Adding Flashlight

Me and began began to further develop our scene today. We started by adding in some more of our models. Two of these models were the door and windows that were created by Ben. As these assets have now been imported the cabin is looking a lot more closer to completion. I had created the window panel and Ben made the window frame itself. As I created the panel itself it had the same texture as the normal wall piece so it all fits nicely together. When we imported the window it was originally not transparent and it did not reflect light like a normal window would. Because of this we had to go into the shader editor and change the shading mode to translucent. I then had to add a Scalar Parameter and plug this into the Opacity node on the shader. The value of the Scalar Parameter is determines how transparent the shader would be and this can be changed at any time. I also did these steps to the glass of the photo frame. To make the glass reflective we had to add two more scalar parameters and plug these into the roughness and metallic areas of the shader. The roughness is set to low and the metallic is turned up.

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Transparency/

Before adding the flashlight we had to darken the scene so that the flashlight would actually have some use and this also allowed us to make sure it would work. Currently there is no sky box so the sky is currently just black, this is something we will have to do tomorrow.

Once the new objects had been imported correctly and some of the older models had been fixed Ben began to work on the flashlight that the character will hold. This is because the scene is made to be extremely dark to add to the creepiness so the flashlight is a way the player can see.

We also had some other object such as the Kitchen cupboards which had been exported to be extremely shiny, we fixed this by removing the plug in for roughness and adding in a scalar parameter and setting the value accordingly. 

One problem that we encountered today was that we tried to import a tree from an unreal package however this crashed the program. We had been saving the current level every few minutes and after every major task however our mistake was that we did not save the whole project file. This meant that the crash actually caused us to lose about 30 minutes worth of work as unreal could not recover all of the missing files. Due to this we are going to make sure to save the whole project file every few minutes.

Imagine Worlds – Adding my Assets to Sketchfab

Some of my assets that I have created have not been added to sketchfab, due to this I spent some time exporting some of my models to sketchfab so that this can be used on a later date when it comes to presenting them.

Satanic Book by folly on Sketchfab

Old Telephone by folly on Sketchfab

Abandoned Cooker by folly on Sketchfab

Old Photoframe by folly on Sketchfab

Trap Door by folly on Sketchfab

Frying Pan by folly on Sketchfab

 

 

Imagine Worlds – Photo Frame Renders & Sketchfab

Yesterday I had not imported all of my textures into Substance as I had forgotten how to make a material transparent and I had also forgotten how to add images into substance. Today I spent some time researching into this so that I could create some nicer exported textures as well as some renders. The first thing I had to do was change the shader mode in substance to PBR metal with alpha blending. As without blending set up the object is either clear or solid. Another thing that I added into the substance file was the image that would go inside the frame. I did this by simply importing the image as a texture and applying this to a fill layer.

Old Photoframe by folly on Sketchfab

Imagine Worlds – Picture Frame

This was not one of the more complicated models I have created and textured however the complication for this model comes in once it has been imported into the engine due to transparency needing to be used and I was not sure how to do this. The first thing that I did was create a mesh that was in the shape of a basic picture frame. Once this was done I unwrapped it and added the correct shaders. For the face on the inner part of the picture frame I added a unique shader so that I could add an image to this later on that could be easily changed at any time if necessary. The picture frame was made up of two different meshes as I needed to create a different object that would act as glass that I could add opacity to.

When it came to texturing this photo frame I chose against making it wooden as many of the objects within the scene are already made of wood and I wanted this to contrast with that. However I still needed it to fit with the overall old theme so I decided to add a bronze metal as the base material. I then added the dust and other details to the texture.

As for the glass material I had to change the blending mode within unreal so that I could add an opacity parameter to the material. When I export this into the actual scene I will be doing some extra steps to this materiel so that it will reflect light to add to the immersion of the scene.

For the photo itself I simply exported the UVs from Maya and opened them up in Photoshop and sourced an old looking photo that would be appropriate for the scene. Currently I am not 100% sure on the photo I have chosen and I will get some feedback from my group as this can be easily changed at any time.

One thing that I would like to do in my free time is to start looking into sculpting software as I believe this photo frame would have looked nicer with some extra normal map details such as a carved out pattern to make it look even older.

 

Imagine Worlds – Roof Creation

I had began the production of the body of the cabin at the early stages of this project, however one thing I had not created was the roof. This was due to it not being an urgency at the beginning of the project as the roof is one of the final assets that needed to be added to the scene due to us not being able to put the roof on until the inside of the cabin had been completed. Due to us coming close to the end of the project it became a necessity to get this done as soon as possible as this is one of the key components of our minimal viable products.

This was the sort of roof I was aiming to add to the cabin due to its older look however as I chose to make it not as steep and a bit smaller so it would fit in with the cramped old feel.

The creation of the roof took a couple different attempts as I was not 100% sure how I could create this at first, originally I tried to do it as one solid mesh however this did not look too great. Due to this I ended up making it 4 different objects. The main panel, the skirt along the side, the wall panel that connects the roof and the divider between the roof and the wall.

I had created the roof panel using the correct dimensions so that it would perfectly on top of the cabin. This also allowed it to be easily placed on top and also lifted off easily.

When it came to texturing the roof I made sure to use the same wooden texture as the walls and the posts so that it would fit with the overall design and style and not just randomly have a completely different coloured wood. For the tiling of the roof I had sourced a nice material from Substance share and used that.

The only components of the cabin that I have left to model are the ceiling which should not take me too long as well as the windows.