Visual Progress - 01 | 01-31-2017

Here is some visual progress on the environment i have accomplished so far!
It features all the rooms, Hallway and hall, kitchen, living room and the bathroom as seen in the earlier post.

The hallway

 

Living Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Planning & Organization

 Here i will show some of the planning i got for the project and file structure for project organization.

I mainly use Trello.com as a planning platform where i categories the project in weekly milestones with tasks i want to complete each week. And what is the results i want each friday / planned every friday evenings.

Here is a link to my project board
https://trello.com/b/3mtqki6z/contemp-project

Here is my main project file structure, for UE4 project and workfiles.

Project file structure

<ContempProject>
                      Documents

                                            MS0_Project_Proposal
                                            MS1_Planning

                                            MS2_Progress

                                            MS3_FinalResult
                                            Other

                      Planning

                                            Organization
                                            Trello

                      Project

                                            UnrealEngine

                                                                 Unreal Engine Project files

                                                                 Game_Builds (deliveries)

                                            WorkFiles

                                                                 Assets

                                                                                       ”Asset_ …”

                                                                                                             Models

                                                                                                             Materials

                                                                                                             Delivery

                                                                 Effects

                                                                 Sounds

                                                                 2D_Art

All work files will be created and storaged in Google Drive.

Project back up using Google Drive and extra external harddrive

Level scenes Workflow

Here is some  breakdown from the bathroom on how my usual progress is when creating scenes for this environment.
I start with the room blockout from the whitebox, do some more detailed blockout with primitives for what props and assets i need for this scene.
I then proceed with a material pass for the modular parts, walls, floor and roof. I then add extra details here such as the tiled wall material added in the third image.
I then create the major assets that is needed for this scene, in this case a toilet, bath tub and sink.
After this i create placeholding lighting and sstart to add details and mood to this room.
I now can add extra assets such as more generic house items such as radiator and light switches, debrish and details to finalize the scene and then complete the lighting, bake the lighting and add some post process and effects for atmosphere.

Asset workflow

Here is my pipeline for creating most of the 3D assets in the game.

First i plan out what i want, for example here i want to create a couch so i blocked it out in my living room area to get a feel of size and placement. Next step i start to find references and do concepts (if necessary). With the references i block out the asset in Maya with primitives just to get the scale right and import the fbx to unreal engine to see that the model works and the propotions looks good. Then i further detail model it and then sculpt the high poly using Mudbox. I also use Mudbox to bake the details to normal and ambient occlusion 2048x2048px maps.
With the lowpoly model and normal maps i go further into substance painter where i first block out what material groups i will use, create mask groups for wood parts, leather parts and if there are some metal aswell. I then start to look at my references and use photoshop, substance designer and substance B2M as supplements for further materials and details.
With the textures done i import the asset and textures to unreal engine in the environment, then i look-develop it in a secondary scene with several HDRI and lighting situations.

When the asset is done i package it as final and optimize it some more and its finished!

Asset workflow

Asset example

Level creation workflow

My main workflow for the level base will be creating modular kits which i use to create rooms and spaces in Unreal Engine.
Under is a picture showing my main base modular pieces i used in the whitebox level but also to build my rooms. It consists of several wall pieces such as doorways and pillar but also a floor piece which is also used as roof.
I used Silent Hill P.T hallway as a prototype scene when i was creating the modular kit and trying it out in the game engine. If i could recreate that hallway using my modular pieces they will be a good base when building my current level.

Every wallpiece consists of two tileable materials, this way i can easily swap out the material on the wall, and the walls border details. The floor are also tileable materials only which can easily be swapped out for more variety.

Example, my main modular base kit.

With this workflow i can easily create rooms, redesign the rooms, and add rooms and hallways.

Level Design

Here is my level whitebox featuring the main rooms that i want to focus on. The environment starts out in the house main entrance which leads to a hallway. This hallway connects then to a big hall which features a high roof and a staircase connecting upwards. From here you can see up to the second floor railings. This is the main connection to all rooms in the environment such as kitchen, living room and a bathroom.

Click on images for larger picture.

Floorplan.

From the main entrance down the hallway.

Just entered the hallway, in front is the kitchen room and you can glimpse the second floor railings.

The hallway, here you see the staircase and the connections to the rest of the house.

Kitchen seen from entrance.

Looking up the staircase.

Bathroom.

Living room.

The living room and kitchen are also connected through a door between the rooms.
The second floor is restricted so far as i am focusing on the main floor. But i think the staircase, high ceiling and railings gives more depth to the level and interest that there is more.

Art references

 Here is my main reference board i use for style and artistic goals. There are some selected screenshots from mentioned games such as Silent Hill P.T and Allison Road but also some photographs of the grungy, abandoned mood i want to go for. The house in the middle represents what kind of environment i will working in.

Gameplay video links:
Silent Hill P.T - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrL8ybvDSkA&t=309s
Allison Road- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__i_LoRKhJ0&t=426s

Click on images for larger picture.

 

Here are some lighting references. I haven't decided fully on lighting, but i will have some light setup based on these references but in the playable level i might add a flashlight and let the house light be interactable instead.