Company Research: Hello Games

Hello Games is a small indie Games Studio based in Guildford. With their hugely successful series of Joe Danger the company have managed to create a range of different versions of Joe Danger and release them on mulitplatforms ensuring they reach out to their audience. 

I would Love to have the opportunity to work for hello games as an Environment Artist, Working on their latest title in development No Man's Sky being able to work on a stylised game would be a great experience as I have of yet not done any stylised textures or artwork. 

Joe Danger to me looks stunning and crazy with nice bright colours that are aesthetically pleasing. The style of the game is what makes it stand out and unique on the market. 

This is a video of the latest title in the works known as No Man's Sky, My personal feeling about the video is WOW, keeping with the stylised theme they have with Joe Danger but adding a slight realism feel to the world works. I am very much looking forward to seeing more about this game.

  

Major Project Production #Environment Trees

For the Environment I started off with the most important assets and then worked down to the least. For this the trees was the first asset on the list for me to create. by using my research gathered in preproduction and also looking at a range of tutorials like the 3d motive creating foliage for UDK and a YouTube person known as Tales of Nalstone. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHB7HsZDwuI

To start off with I create a cylinder and at the top connect all the verts to form a point, this was so that it didn't look odd and out of place when the branches and leaves go on.

I then created various branches from splines using them as paths for objects to follow. I made sure they went to a point by tweaking the verts and combining them. 

The next stage was to create the full grown branches which will include leaves for this I create a few planes and scaled them to fit the object this was done by eye as well as using the texture created applied to the mesh to get a better feel for the final outcome.

From that design I took the elements and create another tree this one would be slightly smaller and there for have branches lower down the trunk.

For the final one I did exactly the same process making a more busher looking tree.

This image shows all three designs in mesh form.

I then created the material ID's for the trees's and also created the dummies which attached to the trees fitting to the dimensions of the individual tree designs. By using the CryEngine Exporter I then exported them to the Objects file within the Game SDK folder, But before doing so I saved the 3ds Max File within the same location. 

This image shows all three trees in the test scene within the engine.

This image shows the texture set-up for the trees using the material ID's I can create a single material in engine which can have multiple texture set to it. Meaning one for the bark and the other for the leaves. Sometimes the editor glitches out showing black instead of the texture itself.

This image shows the set-up of the leaves texture

Major Project Production #Rider Rig

As I am using the CryEngine for my game concept, I needed to ensure that I could get my character into the engine itself. For this I came up with the idea of my animator creating a rig for their personal use and then exporting the animation as a file. Then for me to create the in game rig using the CryEngine developer file.

This image shows the default biped rig on the left with other rig attachments, and then a physics mesh on the right, This mesh is used for engine purposes to do with collision etc.

I then Imported my character to the file and added the cry skin modifier to the mesh, This was done in sections though creating to different meshes one for the head and neck, while the other section consisted of the remaining body.

By using the skin modifier I was also able to edit the envelops of the bipeds bones.

After this process I still needed to tweak some areas around the section bones for this I used the weight tools allow me to pick out verts and give them a value to a certain bone.

From that I managed to export the mesh and bones from 3DS Max to the CryEngine, However this was a simple task I came across many issues when importing the character to the character editor. Examples being the character being offset. The worst problem I had was not able to save the character once in the editor this was the Engines fault but was fixed in the latest version. But yet again came across another issue getting animation to link with the character, this was done to again the engine version and the script I was using. As the script was provided by CryTek themselves but yet due to the change in how the character system works in 3.5.8 the script no longer works.

A link to my CryDev post explains more with comments made by a highly trained game designer. 

http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?t=122055

Major Project Production Bike Parts #Final Models

These images are some renders taken in marmoset 2.

Shaded version, Low Poly (Left) and High Poly (Right)

Wireframe version, Low Poly (Left) and High Poly (Right)

Major Project Production Bike Parts #Bike Unwraps

The next stage after finishing unwrapping the low poly bike model was to unwrap it. This was tricky for me as I didn't know what I want to unwrap as I will be using shaders for some of the objects. This lead to unwrapping the majority of the model to play it safe.

The first Unwrap consists of the leather and rubber parts found on the bike and will be rescaled to the size of 512. (Seat, Tires, Fork Stoppers Grips)

The second sheet consists more of the matt like metals and small components. This will be rescaled to be 2k texture. (Frame,Handlebars, Stem, Brakes, Gear shifter, Crankarms, Pedals,Chain Guide.

Last of the unwraps was the glossy metal and plastic objects. (Forks, Shock, Rear mech, Rims, Spokes, Cassette, Chain, Chain Guide, , Seat post and clamp). 

Major Project Production Rider (Character) #Final Model

This is the Final model of the Rider character shaded and wire-frame. 

Major Project Production Rider (Character) #Character Unwrap

Once modelled it was the task of unwrapping the model pieces and grouping them together.

This unwrap consists of the jersey, shorts, gloves, knee pads and face, even though usually the face unwrap is much bigger than what I have it. I didn't feel that I was necessary for my character as the face will be covered up by the helmet and goggles.

The second unwrap consisted of more hard surface and rubber materials. Objects that were included in the unwrap was helmet, goggles and shoes.

Major Project Production Rider (Character) #Shoes

Finally making it down to the final aspect of the character the shoes.

For the shoe I gathered reference images from a range of angels. This one came in useful alot due to it being pretty much a perfect side view of the trainer.

However for me to get a better look and concentrate more on the shoe than the background I Photoshoped the image to form this.

This was another reference Image I used as it showed a range of angels, However I couldn't totally be committed to using this as the laces were pulled tight creating a different form than the one I wanted to create.

This is a rough blocked out stage of the shoe.

I then refined the shoe and added in the tongue of the show using a simple box.

This is how the final shoe turned out with a plane representing the laces. Also filled in the top due to Zbursh sculpting.

I was advised to create the different levels and material sections out of boxes and wrap them around the shoe. However this was to difficult. For this I should of used Topogun or 3d coat however didn't have the time to go back instead just going to extract them from the base mesh in Zbrush.

Major Project Production Rider (Character) #Knee Pads

Moving down the body I decided to create the knee pads next.

For this I selected some of the faces from the base mesh of the leg. I created a new object with the selected faces and the used the shell modifier to create a thicker object.

From that mesh I used the Turbosmooth, However this was way to high poly to be used in game and even for sculpting purposes.

This is the back view of the Turbosmoothed mesh.

From that mesh I then collapsed the mesh back into an editable poly, from which I went back and deleted the unwanted topology.

This is the back view of the redited 

Major Project Production Rider (Character) #Shorts

Moving onto the next major part of the character the shorts.

This mesh was again take from my second year project, As trousers I then cut away the lower part keeping what I needed.

I then removed the two front pocket sections of the mesh and filled in the gap. While also adding in topology around the top and lover parts to give the shorts some thickness.

However I soon came to a problem, With the adjustment I made around the pocket area it looked weird in the viewpoint like it had to different smoothing groups applied, however this was the case and when rendered looked fine. This did worry me and I though I need to get it fixed just in case it doesnt look right in Games Engine.

I came up with the simple fix by exporting the model out as an Obj into Zbrush and then back into Max, This fixed the issue some how and made the whole mesh look complete.

I then made the leg parts slightly wider and then the mesh was complete.

Major Project Production Rider (Character) #Jersey

The jersey was next on the list to model for the character.

For the jersey I started off with the top half of the base mesh.

I then separated the head and hands from the mesh, while also editing the topology at the neck area into a collar. 

Then added in edge loops at the wrist area and scaled them up to look like the are being push up from where the gloves will be. Also added in and edited the topology at the bottom of the jersey to make it look untucked from his shorts.

I did the same sort of effect at the back making it overhang the shorts slightly.

However this mesh soon came to cause problems when unwrapping as it wasn't clean enough around the top of the arms and for that reason I needed to retopologise the mesh. This was done by placing the original mesh in Zbrush and using the topology tool with Zremesher to get the out come seen in the image.

This image shows the back of the retopologised mesh. 

For the Glove I decided to recreate another hand from scratch keeping the topology really simple and clean, with this the mesh also includes the wrist part of the body.