FMP 016 – Build Up

(Modular Vents + document assets (table) + lighting + population - sputnik scene)

Spending more time on the basement this week, it became really obvious that something needed to be placed on the celling. Excluding the hanging lights, the celling looked quiet bare. I had to decide this week what I could model and place to fill in the blank spaces while still making sense of the environment. So I went with a modular vent system, the easy (it actually worked really well) option. Also this week I modelled several more story assets in the form of documentation to populate the table in the middle of the room. Another round of asset place was also on the list this week.

The modular vent system was quite easy to work on as they are essentially just boxes. Looking at what I had to work with in regards to the basement celling, I modelled one length pieces, a left/right bend, an up/down bend, a cross section and several smaller attachments. I got this work done quite quickly, so I decided to also model a ‘tube’ variation of the vent to run alongside it in the engine file. After the, modelling was completed I unwrapped it, packed and textured it in substance painter similar to any prop I would work on. The next stage to the vents was simply applying the textures in engine and snapping them together to fit the basement. The only problem I faced with this stage was that the pieces imported slightly smaller than I wanted, I just had to change the size and re-import to fix this. Easy assets, but it makes a world of difference to the overall environment.

Next on the prop list I completed this week were a dozen pieces of documents, passports, money that I could place on the table found in the middle of the room. With these assets, the models were simple planes with the edges lifted up to look like folded paper. The main focus on these assets were the textures. I found several documents on the internet that look appropriate and also real life documents that I scanned it, a little bit of editing in photoshop to make it relevant to the environment and it’s done. As a finishing touch I imported the planes into substance paint, overlaid a few generators to make it a little dirt and then applied a paper texture to get the right amount of roughness and normal map for the assets. This took slightly longer than I would have wanted, but putting in a few Easter eggs and jokes was fun to do.

Finally, once all these assets were completed and all imported in engine with the right textures I began to populate the level. I knew from the beginning I wanted the sputnik satellite to be the main focus, found on a table in the middle of the room. By going off the concept that Lewis drew for us, the last few days of this week were spent tweaking the placement of assets and lights. I had to use my own judgement to translate the 2d drawing of assets in the space to 3d.

Expect more of the same next week. Just under a month left on this project :s