Games Development
Year Two
Unit 9
PROJECT AIM: You are tasked with creating an asset pack that contains at least four different assets, the choice of theme and asset whether it is going to be a “kitbash” for an environment or individual prop assets is up to you.
The pack must relate to a theme of your choice and demonstrate the key characteristics of the theme. This will require defined research & reference gathering to ensure that the assets meet the context of the work.
Along with this you are to create the promotional materials for the pack which should include:
- Asset Pack Turntable Animation / Final Key Shot.
- Final Product Images.
- Branding.
- Storefront Page
For this project you will be going through techniques and process that are used by 3D artists within the industry, which will give you insight into the various stages of development an asset can go through before being finalised. This is also your chance to try out some brand-new techniques, processes and software
Maya Refresher
This mind map was created to help with modelling a TV, The mind map itself was created with the intent that I was now working for a company as a freelance modelling artist and that that I needed to give out questions and pointers on what the final rendition should look like, the questions being what Style, Genre, Meaning and Perspective.
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I have these questions specifically because they are important to any freelance artist, without these specific questions, I'm not given any directives on how to work, nor do the company know if I am actually working on what they want me to create in their minds compared to my own.
Modelling A TV in MAYA
In this quick 1 week refresher, we were tasked with creating a Television from whatever era and whatever genre we wanted, whether it be sci-fi flat screen and horror, or early-to-mid 2000's box tv and action adventure based
Reference Images
When deciding to model a TV, I chose to search up different types and go through with an elimination method, seeing which TV type would be the hardest to model over a quick week period, those being to hard, getting eliminated to give myself a chance at modelling something quick, and easy, as this is just only a MAYA technical test refresher
First TV/Monitor
This image has both a CCTV camera television and an news caster TV, both of these were meant to be for a pack I was working on, with the rest of the models being within a different MAYA file, sadly these files were on a memory stick that I have now lost to water damage, but that gave e a great opportunity to start working on a different model pack that will look better and not as rough as the ones are within the pack I have lost.
Second TV/Monitor
This model was the first I created when going through the process of modelling in MAYA, this model of TV/Monitor giving me the quick technical recall test of knowing how I can warp shapes and extrude, Extruding a base shape such as a box allows for the box to be given an angular slope of the creators desired angle, Extrude also allows for the designer of the shape to be able to move a smaller box within the original shape itself in, or out, this can give the effect of the screen being sunken in, or the stand of the pc to stand out without having to outright use a new shape and attach it via a modification to shape menu
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This Monitor I decided to give a modern day look, and had based it off of a real PC monitor which the Wiltshire College Salisbury Campus use, that being a IIYAMA ProLite X2483HSU-B3 24" Full HD Monitor
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This model is also a clear definer in how much better my modelling has gotten and will serve as a good baseline for what I can achieve if I put my mind to it and put the effort in.
Researching Outsource Studios
In this section of UNIT 9 I will be going over a few outsourcing studios, masters of modelling, asset packs, animation and even character design, each studio having its own strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. I will also be touching into the founders, how they work, their clientele and who works for the outsourcing studios.
DEKOGON STUDIOS
DEKOGON STUDIOS are an outsourcing studio who typically specialise in props in a mass creation scale, most of the props being to scale to a human, able to fit into the palm of a characters hand, or have the character be around examples I have specifically pulled are the props from Returnal and from a medical kit-bash created by the studio to allow realistic AAA visuals
Examples of DEKOGON STUDIOS Work
Medical Props Gallery
Medical Instruments, pill bottles, carts & sanitary bins
Escape doors, bins, first responder equipment & body bag
Hospital A&E curtains, various drawers & computers
Medical Instruments, pill bottles, carts & sanitary bins
Returnal Props Gallery
Vibrant octopus plushy
Cold metal radiator
Pills in containers / packaging
Vibrant octopus plushy
Who Founded DEKOGON
Clinton Crumpler, the Founder of DEKOGON Studios created his studio in a gap between August and December 2016, this date is speculated as in an interview with 80.LV he goes on to say that whilst he was working at the Coalition Of Gears within the dates listed, he plotted his initial ideas for his own studio, this is also backed up with his website resume, as in August 2016, he is written down as the studio head of DEKOGON.
Who Are DEKOGONS Clients
DEKOGON as a studio has had many clients, ranging from survival shooters such as TARKOV, Predator Hunting grounds, Gears Of War & Robo Recall to psychological horrors such as The Park, The Lighthouse & Hide and Shriek. The clients that DEKOGON chooses to work with can be either AAA or even Indie, they don't discriminate when it comes to creating assets for teams of either variety, working alongside companies behind todays biggest games on the market such as Valve, Remedy, MIDWINTER, Cyanide Studios, BOSSFIGHT and even Thinktank training centre
Who Works For DEKOGON
Christopher Flynn is a Lead 3D Artist and a 3D Modelling mentor at DEKOGON Studios, his works range from working on games such as Returnal, Enemy On Board & Scavengers to kitbashes such as "Sports and Gym" & "Shopping and Market"
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Ilya Danilenko is a 3D Artist that specialises in medieval times ware, armour and weapons. they have worked on games such as GreedFall and created assets for chivalry II
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Nick Kipshidze is a 3D Weapons and Prop Artist within DEKOGON Studios that specialises on the realistic texturing and creation of weapons and small props such as the FN FAL, the Glock 19 or just rudimentary items such as a pair of glasses, a stack of plates & even a DVD player
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Mauro Avalos is another artist at the studio who is brought by contract and also has a main job at Globant as a Junior 3D Artist, he has worked with DEKOGON on seemingly one occasion according to ArtStation to design and underground military training facility as a part of a kitbash.
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Taylor Brown has been an Environment Artist at Lost Boys Interactive for approximately 1 month and has before and is still within DEKOGON Studios, his work ranges from working on games such as GODFALL, SCAVENGERS and GO BIG! to kitbashes such as the medical kitbash, underground military training facility and even an oriental kitbash use within games such as ghost of Tsushima.
RocketBrush
RocketBrush Studios are primarily a game art outsourcing studio which hold themselves in high regard as they create concept, 2D, 3D art and assets for game developers worldwide and have contributed to the development of games created by Paradox Interactive, Supercell and MajorMega amongst other games companies.
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Rocket Brush are also behind the art of "Kingdoms at war", "Bingo Story" and various other mobile based games, their expertise range from casual 2D background art to Animated slot symbols and Game UI.
Examples of RocketBrush Studios Work
RocketBrush 2D/3D art
Who Founded RocketBrush
RocketBrush 2D Illustrations
Freefall
Red Carpet
Mystery Mansion
Freefall
Who Works For RocketBrush
When looking into who founded RocketBrush Studios, only 31 people turn up as possible founders and or artists of the studio, all of the names listed do not mention nor do they accurately hold ties to the studio be it by employment statuses or about pages. currently as of researching into the studio itself, all that is known are the clientele and the fact that art and a website has been created to showcase themselves.
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My final thoughts on the studio is that is has either shutdown, no longer operates under the same name or currently lays dormant without work, so that has forced artists to look into different work opportunities. which personally i find as a shame as this studio looks like a powerful player in terms of workflow and creation
Researching Asset Packs
This part of the research will touch upon what asset packs are and how they are used in the AAA and Indie games sector, as well as who creates them, who can use them and what they can do in terms of making a scene stand out amongst many others.
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Asset packs can vary from genre to genre, and from unit to unit in the sense of how many models within the pack there are and if they are low poly, or high poly.
What are Asset Packs
Asset Packs are what go into a game to make it a game, these can be character models, weapons, foliage, paths, specific materials and even UI. My understanding of Asset Packs are sets of things that can be bought, sold put for free download and added to Unity, Unreal 4&5, re-manipulated in MAYA or even 3DS,Max. these software's allow for animations of an asset or just positioning of said asset in the game world where you would want it to be placed. a great example of an asset pack that I would heavily seek to use outside of the games creation course would be a high-poly Post Apocalypse collection pack all created by a development team called BigMediumSmall, this pack retailing for $250 as a bundle and varies from $100-$200 per pack specifically.
Examples of the "Post Apocalypse" Asset Pack Created By BIgMediumSmall
Asset Pack Genre
Genre is an important factor when looking into asset packs because without the appropriate genre and research when going into asset creation, you can create / design the an asset that doesn't fit the prompt that has been given or even crate the asset and find that it fits towards a different style than the rest of the assets that have been created by different creators.
Examples of Different Genre Asset Packs
In this part of the Unit, I will be showcasing different Genres asset packs and detail on how they differ from one another, how they were created and what the purpose is of them within their games respective worlds. the purpose of this part is to allow myself in future research, that when I get stuck I can look back to here for inspiration and see what game I shall be focusing on when it gets to Unit 13 and FMP.
Action / Adventure Assets
Within this small photo gallery is the assets from a low poly outsource studio called Synity Studios, this studio deals in creating assets for games with a low poly aesthetic.
Role-Playing Game Assets,(RPG,ARPG,MMORPG)
This Gallery with RPG game assets has them already incorporated into a game ready environment as mainly UI Assets only. the pictures in the gallery being screenshots from testing environment.
First Person Shooter
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Third Person Shooter
First and Third person asset packs are asset packs that deal in fps/tps games items such as weapons, animations for the weapons and
Pipeline & Workflow
Pipeline
A pipeline in terms of a games creation is when the games director overlooks an entire games production, fitting the numerous different departments workflows together for an easy going pre-production stage all the way to evaluation stage after the game has been released.
Real Example of a Pipeline
Workflow
A workflow in terms of games creation is when a games department such as the lighting goes through a list of things that make their job specific to them this can be how exactly they go about their job or how they as a whole can merge with animators for a precise clear and visual animation that looks great.
Real Example of a Workflow
My Personal Pipeline and Workflow
When I go through my own Pipeline and Workflow, I like to start of with a blank or standardised checklist, adding in the basics of what I need to complete, before I finish for the day, things in the list will usually consist of what I either haven't managed to do yet and am behind on, or things that will need to be done quickly, those I would usually highlight in red with a background around the text that leaves it eye catching, this is to help me guide myself on what I need to do when I get behind on work.
Example of my Pipeline & Workflow
Pipeline / Workflow Checklist UNIT 09:
-Finish Pipeline & Workflow sub unit
-Gather images and upload them to WIX
-Get Links to any and all websites needing to be referenced
-Highlight and underline important applications, companies and or people
-Delete or Change BMS medieval paragraph, (no longer available)
Colour Checklist
I have different colours appointed to the severity of checklist items,
Blue is what needs to be constantly done,
Orange is anything that needs to be done to specific things such as references, people, etc.
Red is things that will need to be done ASAP and
Burgundy are points that I am behind on and that need to be completed first.
Green are for things that I have completed or need to go back and change at a later date with added references of when the change occurred
Marketplace Research
Marketplaces within the games development sector of media refers to more of an asset, prop or even material based shops, these places are available for all sorts of things, ranging from fully finished high-poly asset packs for foliage to low poly beginner items such as bikes or computers and character models.
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More known marketplaces for items to be found range from Epic Games Store, Unity Asset Store and ArtStation Market Place to lesser known ones such as GameDev Market, TurboSquid and Game Asset Market Place
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Notice: Most Logos self-created, internet was down.
Well Known MarketPlaces
Epic Games Store
the epic games Market Place deals more in games themselves and specific game assets such as weaponry and items, all solo items
Unity Asset Store
Unity Asset Store goes a bit further than Epic, adding in material packs as well as multi-asset, asset packs and is more for designing scenes than games, this Website is great for 3D scene builders and artists alike to get a pack, play around with it and then go ahead and build a scene with all genres available.
ArtStation Market
ArtStation's Market place is cheaper than both Epic Games & Unity, with most available things for sale being under £5 at the current date of writing (24/09/21). the market lace itself has almost everything for a game available to buy, this ranges from mostly Zbrush and Marmoset packages that upgrade the brushes in either application or Substance painter / designer materials that can be put into your own works.
Less Known MarketPlaces
GameDev Market
TurboSquid
GameDev Market is a market place with a focus towards Indie developers and game creationists, the website itself has 2D, 3D, Audio & GUI elements readily available to buy, these ranging from $3.00 (£2.22) to prices such as $30.00 (£22.18)
TurboSquid Marketplace is designed to be more for both AAA and Indie games creators, a vast open market with a big range of low-poly objects all the way to big game industry standard and game ready rigged models, this site works in tandem with most modelling software's and can export items in zip files stored within them
Game Asset Market Place
Game Assets Marketplace is music and sound effect orientated with music and effects of different genres at the forefront of the store along with 2D, 3D, GUI and Game Scripts. the pricing of these differ from £15 to £45+
Planning For My Asset Pack
Within this part of the Unit, I will be planning to create a small asset pack with three to four models from an era or genre of my choice. This choice will have evidence of mood-boards, already existing models from AAA game or otherwise professional modelers, the hopes of this part of the unit is to strengthen my grasp on modelling as well as get an insight on how to texture and make a store ready pack, along with branding.
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The branding and creation of a brand I will personally own I will create within Photoshop and have as a basic account on ArtStation, where I will be uploading my final images on the models and completed keyshots
Planning Genre
Planning my prop and asset pack genre is no small feat as I will have to look into a few top genres that I personally find interesting and knock them down one-by-one, to help myself with the process I will need to create a mind-map and utilise that to give me a heading in genre, then after I have limited my genres down to just the one, start moving in the opposite direction, opening that specific genre up and choosing what part of the genre I want to focus in on.
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Genres That I have given to myself are Horror, Fantasy, Adventure, RPG, Medieval. These genres I will whittle down to just one and then open up the genre that I have chosen to give myself an idea about how I may be able to use that Genre to my advantage when going through and creating my asset pack and specific models.
Genres
Horror
The Horror Genre is a classic staple when creating an Asset Pack to me, because it has always been a safe bet when going into the modelling as well as mood board creation, there are loads of examples to choose from and personally I feel as if I have been too inclined to make this my option for when generating models, along with the horror genre, all I would really have to do is create broken, emptied or otherwise decrepit textures which I would find relatively boring and easier to do than most other genres. I am looking to give myself a light challenge
Examples of Horror Props / Asset Packs
Fantasy
Fantasy as a Genre pokes me as very well known but not much looked into in terms of Asset Pack creation, as most people chock it up to a mixture of Medieval and Mythology from folklore. Fantasy as it stands is actually well within its own genre as in the fantasy realm, you CAN take things from real life such as bars, campfires, bows and arrows, but you have the ability to beef it up a bit by having any and all of these set from distant realms to which the human race doesn't necessarily exist, and the objects and places listed above don't look like real life nor do they need to be within that universe in the first place.
I find the Fantasy Genre to be one I would like to have a go at, modelling and Asset Creation wise
Examples of Fantasy Props / Asset Packs
Adventure
Adventure game Asset Packs are usually found in co-occurrence to cartoony games as well as more animated action games, I personally believe that if I was to attempt making an asset pack with an adventure genre style to mind, I would veer of the path of the intended products design and move towards another genre such as action or Horror, especially with what I saw myself viewing within the image collection and evidence gathering side to the Sub-Unit
Examples of Adventure Props / Asset Packs
RPG
RPG(RolePlayGame) Asset Packs come usually in the form of UI and minis, UI is a completely different part to a game that is not a part of what I will be doing within this Sub-Unit, as it is not asked of me to do, though I will be looking into UI in a later unit, only then will it be appropriate to go through RPG games and that style of Genre Asset Packs.
Examples of RPG Props / Asset Packs
Medieval
Medieval Asset packs contain similar objects to that of a fantasy world would, but instead of a made up way of things being done and or used, the Medieval genre focuses on historical accuracy as well as the times between 5th Century and the 15th. Props and Asset Packs will focus towards more armour and weaponry and not really clothing or food from those times as they appeal more towards the Action Genre.
Examples of RPG Props / Asset Packs
Creating my Asset Pack
With my Genre and Asset Pack type chosen, I believe that I have enough of an idea of how I can start modelling my pack within MAYA and have it exportable into Unreal, or substance painter where it can be fully finished off with materials and or effects needed to make it look realistic and also have it fit the aesthetic that the genre I have chosen. My goal personally is the be able to remember the different functions, I do not remember them myself I will go ahead on research on how to do them, then put them onto my WIX website.
Gathering References
When going through with creating my Asset Pack, I needed to get accurate Pre-Existing Assets from either real life or inspirational artworks for me to base my models off of, along with creating a general reference image with a few from any type of artwork based around the fantasy realms, I also wanted to give myself a deeper dive into the assets themselves, creating sub-divisions within the assets, in which those could give me a clearer idea on what I could do, if I wanted to go more towards a gothic vibe or keep it a happy-go-lucky "Dungeons & Dragons" bar type feel.
Reference Images
Overview Reference
Flag Reference
Grave Stone Reference
Bottles Reference
In this image I have pasted some of the cliché, most notable props that are found within fantasy worlds. With a limited knowledge of DnD myself, i decided that for this prop making project, that the Cliché's would be a great place to start off as there are plenty of examples to choose from and have as an image ref if I got stuck.
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Another good feature about having a generalist board of ref images for me personally is that I have an easy model and a hard model, therefore I know where I can start, (The Easy Model) and where, if I put effort in, get to (The Hard Model)
For my first model, I will be creating a flag, to do this I will be using a method I first found out in my first year of this course when I needed to create an animated flag pole complete with a waving flag. my objective this time is to have a small video of the animated flag waving in simulated winds.
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Texturing the Flag will be a new step for me as last time all I did was add in a photoshop image onto the top of the UV of the fag and the pole was edited within Unreal with one of the readily available materials, this time around i seek to change that.
Grave Stones are essentially a pillar within Fantasy games, and media as they will always show up, somewhere within that universe, and they will next to always show up with a gothic aesthetic. My plan for the grave stone is to attempt to defeat the gothic stereotype found in fantasy grave stones within the games design industry, and move towards a more angelic piece, attempting a polar opposite to the cliché
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With my goal set out to be a polar opposite to the "grimdark" and macabre, I will be styling my grave stone model with angel hands imprinted onto it with a small bowl and flower holder for water to fall into the bowl and for flowers to instead of be laid to rest, be placed on the side of the grave stone on a mourning fashion.
Glass Bottles within the Fantasy realm will most likely be the hardest set of assets that I will create because I will have to go through a rigorous cycle to get the glass effect, I have no doubts that this prop will take me a while to master when creating it.
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I will watch tutorials for creating this if there are any, and will leave the tutorial video below and detail which steps that i had followed directly and which steps i paused the video on the follow my own path in creation so that the glass bottle is personalised to myself
Making Models
Flag Pole & Flag Asset
Flag Quickie
In this series of images, I have evidenced what I had done in MAYA to create a quick blockout model full with the exact basic tools and semi-cartoony look I personally associated with the Fantasy Genre.
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Fantasy Flag Blockout
For the final version of the flag, I decided to use a wall Banner as a reference image, using this image, I wanted to make my final Blockout / low poly which is ready for high-poly and texturing.
Along with being able to high-poly and texture this version of my model, I will be able to use a variety of different versions of this model to discern different clans and family crests within the fantasy universe if I so wished to do so, but for the sake of limited time and the inability to spend as long as I feel I really need on this project, I will have to use a pre-created image created and designed by myself.
Message:
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I apologise for not being able to complete this unit, Having gone into hospital during the last two weeks of the assignment, I sadly missed around 2 weeks worth of work. My objective is to go back and complete this at a later date when I either have the time, or have the allotted time I unfortunately missed given back to me.
MagicaVoxel Work
Having been given time to quickly do some work with MagicaVoxel to end off Unit Nine, I will be making small Voxel models designed around the Genre that I had chosen to begin with as well as talk about how I went through with creating my Voxel Models all voxel-game ready.
Voxel Flag & Flagpole
This was the end goal for my Fantasy flag and flag pole, the flagpole had a uniform state with a cement fixture to its bottom where as at the top it had a brass top, both were just additions to make the flagpole more "rich" as it would be placed in areas where more wealthy people would have been.
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The flag itself is one of simple RBG spectrum with a black base as the fantasy game that I personally wanted it to be a part of is in the 8-bit style, I thought it'd be a cool nod to the limitations of colour expected in 8-bit games from back in the 80's-90's.
Grave Stones
Grave Stones are everywhere, no matter what genre, style or time in history, so I decided to give myself two f=different types of grave stone, determining two of the choices that would normally be available in the fantasy era.
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The first of the grave stones is adorned with a placement holder where pictures, flowers or candles from loved ones can be placed as well as a smaller placement holder so that notes or even a final goodbye from family members can be placed.
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The second of the two grave stones is in a faith backing, that being Christianity. I chose that faith as it in my eyes is the most universally recognised along with some traditional tribal markings, those being the circle with the cross within a cross.
Potion Bottles
The Potion Bottles are a little different, I had made the outer layer of blocks a foggy-ish glass texture so that you can see the colour inside along with changing a few of the blocks within the bottles themselves so that they have a fizzy look and not just a plain "water" or "blood" type liquid texture.
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The left bottle is also vastly different to the right in looks as it features a baby bottle lid / cap the liquid inside being any combination of things a baby can have
Unit Evaluation
When I started the Unit, I felt a little at a loss as I was having to in a sense re-learn MAYA and also go through with making models all at the same time. Trying to re-learn a software from a beginner standpoint felt impossible especially as I had to not only learn on the fly, but also remember the mechanics of the software and put the techniques I had just learnt into practice along with making it look semi-professional.
Creating the T.V's as the starter task was surprisingly intermediate as a difficulty, to actually complete this was pretty nice to see, giving myself a confidence boost. As even with my limited knowledge of the programme as well as having to practically go through it on the fly, I knew that I was learning a valuable skill for the industry at large and a possible work placement freelance-wise at minimum.
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Researching and brushing up on Outsourcing studios gave me a great insight into freelance work, looking into two separate modelling and art companies getting hired by both Indie & AAA for their skills in fields that the companies either didn't have time for or needed help with.
I'd say that looking into both DEKOGON and BigMediumSmall freelancing studios helped me in the fact that you will always have work, no matter what type of person within the games design community you become, be it in-house developer or freelance artist, as there are always people looking for your skillset for projects. Not only that but also, as I am a student, both studios have helped me in who I could potentially work for.
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Looking at my own Pipeline and Workflow, I can spot that it is indeed pretty basic.. that also being an understatement in its own right. In future I will need to give myself a better pipeline and workflow along with a better explanation of how I go through both of them. But as it stands at this current time that is the only way I can explain it, which is bad as I know this needs to be changed and rectified if I want a job within the industry as the job titles I am going after.
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When I knew I was headed into Asset pack research and what genre of asset pack I was wanting to create, I gave myself the opportunity to look into four different genres and to look at the current need for all of them, tying myself into it I had already done some genres in previous years. Knowing that I had done some of the genres in the list and looking at other factors, I had found which style and genre that I was going to create. That being Fantasy as the genre and Cartoony 8-bit as the style.
Starting out with moodboards of the specific models that I wanted to create I originally was going to use MAYA as the modelling centre then at first upscale the graphics after finishing the blockouts of all the models then do a downscaling of the number of vertices, this would be making it look like a classic 8-bit yet modernised game.
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As I was about to go into my third blockout and then upscale the finished variants of the models that I had created , I was put into hospital for two weeks with ill health, and stress related issues.
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Coming back out of hospital and being overdue for the Unit, I fell back onto my "Plan B" of sorts, resorting to MagicaVoxel as a way to complete my Asset Pack Models. Using the software in spare time, utilising what I already knew about the software i quickly went in and completed the Project along with the models, also creating two types of the same model for the Asset Pack.