Starting into Maya
The first thing that I started into upon taking my generalist role was asset development, it had been some time since I had last used Maya so I went into this feeling slightly uneasy as I was worried I might have been slightly rusty when it came to 3D modelling. I am also going to only go into detail on specific models as the list of assets that I have made is 30+ and we would be be here all day If I went over each one specifically.
Before I started I wanted to ask Karl our current asset developer for a list of what he would like me to tackle, Karl however was more lax and gave me free reign on what models I could create whatever was still left in the backlog.
Pedestal and Interactable buttons
Looking at the asset development backlog there was still much to do, but I decided to start on the first area of the project I had worked on for the XD documentation and my first model that I decided to create was the pedestal along with the button that would be used to start the game.
Overall when I was making this model I wanted to take what I had learned during our Asset development module and improve by adding in some subtle details that would bring the model together, I decided to do this by focusing on adding in edge detail to a lot of my models. The pedestal for instance, I wanted to have a very rough look to it almost as if it had been worn down by time or crudely craved from stone.
Working off of the pre existing concept art I had created eased the modelling process on this particular piece as I already had a vague idea for how it should look, so this really helped me get eased back into Maya.
Temple Assets
One of the next things that I wanted to do for the team and for John our level designer in particular was to have some modular assets that he could use when he is building the temple level and to do this I planned out that he would need a few variations of walls and pillars so that he could get through building the temple quickly and more efficiently.
Temple Pillars
The pillars were the first model that I decided to work on for the modular asset pack that I was making John. When it came to looking for inspiration for the pillars I looked at multiple different already existing asset packs (Seen below) and based my general shape and structure off of those models.
However, I wanted to create a few different variations so that the temple wouldn't become as visually fatiguing. So I decided to have four pillars at different stages of destruction, These would give John a bit more control and the ability to create some visual difference throughout the temple.
Temple Walls
I had similar thoughts when making the walls for the temple as when I was making the walls, I had stuck to try and keep them visually similar and keep the polycount close I also made a few different variations to give John more options, I also tried to create walls that could meld well when placed beside one another so I gave some height variations as well as a curved wall for some extra visual difference.
Assets For Temple Puzzles
When I was talking to John and asking for what models he could need for his temple level, one of the things we had discussed was that he needed some models for some of the puzzles that he had designed for the temple. These being a pressure plate, spear, drawbridge and a torch.
I had a sit down with John and he explained how the puzzle itself worked and gave me a brief as to how he would like the models to look and how they would be used throughout the puzzle. This gave me a good starting point when it came to modelling.
I tried my best overall to keep the models as low in poly count as possible as I was always was conscious of being on VR and running natively on the quest we would have to be careful as to not affect performance.
The unused models
I wanted to draw particular attention to some of the models that I had made that for one reason or another did not make it into the final cut of the game or were lost.
The Village House
The first of which is a village house, During the stage where our village level was transitioning from a block out to its final version.
The team needed a house model to populate some of the environment however due to miscommunication within the team, both myself and Karl created a model for the house within Maya and the team only really needed one for the village so I took the blow and let Karl put his model into the village as I didn't want to step on any toes during development. However, I still wanted to show it off and I was pleased with it and I would have loved to have seen it brought into substance painter.
The Lost lion
This one hurts to write about... When I was making the temple assets, I wanted to have some form of statue to place just outside the temple as a nice environment asset. So I spent a day creating this Lion statue. Only to find out when I was looking in a project file that he had disappeared. After going through the 5 stages of grief over the course of a two hour session where I tried to resurrect this lost model I had to admit defeat and come to the reality that i had accidentally deleted him when multi selecting.
I can only be thankful that I had got a model of him before I lost him, Its a hard lesson to learn but now I know to be more careful within Maya and not keep all my models in one project.
His Spot will always remain empty... so long.
Wizard Tower
The wizard tower was something that came later into development and I have to say it was a blast to model, The mage tower was needed for a specific level as a large weenie, So I researched into some concept art to get some inspiration for how it might look as for quite some time I had to put off the wizard tower as I couldn't get the right shape and I constantly found myself deleting and remaking models of the tower when I wasn't happy with them.
After finding the concept art however I had a better idea of how it should look and what you see above is the culmination of a few hours spend in Maya. To be really self critical there are a few areas that generally speaking could be much cleaner and are slightly higher in topology than I would have liked. However due to not wanting to be stuck on one particular asset for too long I had to make do. But I feel the silhouette of the model looks great and is instantly distinguishable from other structures within the world.
Mana & Health potions
The mana and health potions I had made were requested by the programming team as at this point in development we had been using debugging tools and placeholder pickups for the players health and mana to return after expenditure. So I got to work on trying to make some models that we could use to replace the placeholders.
My thought process behind both models was that each had to be not just different in colour but also have easily identifiable silhouettes. The health potion I decided to make much thicker and shorter as it is a common trope in games for a health potion in a fantasy setting to be a slightly thicker container, while the mana be slightly thinner. I also tried to keep the visual style consistent to where if the player seen them both in the game world they would instantly think that they were related in some way.
To be honest I was really happy with how these both turned out as I feel that I was able to achieve all my goals I had set out prior to actually making the models (Having distinct silhouettes, being recognisable as being related in some way) they also worked well as the new magic system for crushiing the crystal to absorb the power from it transferred nicely to these models as we could apply the same logic to the elixirs as we did to the crystals.
Training Dummy:
Lastly I just want to talk about the training dummy model that I had made in preparation for the tutorial that the player would enter at the beginning of the game. The model itself I tried my best to make it look worn and tattered while keeping to the low poly style, which proved to be quite difficult at times but I did my best and tried to add some detail with tufts of straw protruding out of the belly and upper body of the model in order to show it as well used and sell it within the game environment.
I think this model looks terrifying as I was trying to emulate what a human in our game world would crudely make an orc to look like as a training dummy, and I'm still not to sure on how well it turned out however, it does the job it should and just added to having another model done off the list.
UV's
Something I have to openly critical about when it came to my models was that, I procrastinated so bad from completing the UV's for my models and left them to the last stage in development just before I went into substance painter, This was something that i really shouldn't have done and suffered for it in that when it came to finally completing the models and importing them to substance I had to do the vast majority of them at once and this led to a lot of crunch for myself which could have been easily avoided had I been less lazy.
The models themselves though began tough to UV but as I made my through each one became easier than the last, and I actually began to see an improvement in the amount of time it was taking mew to complete each UV for each model. Compared to myself last year I feel far more confident in UV's now and know that when the time comes to make another model I will not make the same mistake I had made in this project and leave them all to last minute.
Substance Painter
Substance Painter was something I honestly had zero experience or knowledge in at the beginning of the year, When I attended the class workshop on substance painter I didn't think I would have to be using it because at the time I was still just a UI/UX developer, and because of this I didn't continue the research into Substance after that particular workshop, which then proceeded to backfire on me come time to finalize the models.
When I first began Substance I didn't know where to start so Karl took me through the basics of what he knew and that gave me a good starting point to work on, From there I watched a few tutorials on YouTube on beginners basics in Substance, but eventually found myself looking at tutorials for how to create stylized materials and that's when I found a video that taught me how to create a very simplistic stylized shader and with all of this it then alloed me to start importing into substance.
Below are just some of the models after they had been put into substance painter.
Each model was actually not to hard to substance, and I feel like I have a decent grasp of the basics of substance painter now, Its been extremely fun to learn and I can't tell if its because it actually is or its what I got to look forward to after doing UV's either way it's another skill to add to the toolbelt that I'm sure will come in hand in the near future.
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