This last week, I got some thinks sorted out in my level. Firstly, the blend layer material. I increased the amount of verts by turbo smoothing the model. Then, I repainted the vertex alpha. The floor I detached and painted as well. This is because the floor uses different textures, and you can only blend layer between two. I kept the pivot point the same so they could be easy slotted together in the engine.

Other changes I made was raising the upper cliffs and creating a pool for the water. Here's the result.

It needs more work, but it looks a lot better.

The major asset I made this week was the kapok tree. It's not finished, but adding trees to the level has made the lighting a lot more interesting. I sculpted the base, and retoppolised it in max. This was because originally I was going to give the base a normal map, but once it was made I did not think it was necessary. The rest of the tree was made by extruding the base to make the trunk, then the braches I made by using lines and the path deform modifier. Lastly, I added bunches of leaves. I'm going to add vine and other more interesting features.

One problem I did not anticipate was that the trees don't fit with their branches in the lower valley. I might make some smaller trees to go down there.

Something else I changed was the lighting. I changed the sun colour to make it more vibrant, and then added some fog. This was to give the effect of humidity, as rainforests have high humidity levels.

In the pool, I added a water volume. This means that area reacts like it is full of water. It needs a cube map, which I'm going to add this week. To surround the pool, I made a stone trim. For this, I sculpted one of those patterns I found in that book. I'm going to sculpt a lot of these and put them on the same texture. They're going to be used throughout the environment.

Cave entrance

The last couple of days, I've been working on the cave entrance. This was because I wanted to make a more complete area of my level, to give people an idea of how the finished level will look. I'm concentrating around this part, the lower level of the canyon near the cave entrance.

This is the concept I have been working from:

I then took my blockout piece and imported it into zbrush. This was to keep the same scale so the piece would fit back into the level. I sculpted in the details while looking at the concept. This took about a day. I changed some minor parts of the design after I got some crit, namely the eyes are pointed downwards and inwards to stare at the player. The original design did not look as threatening, an instead looked too cute, like a rabbits face, which was not the intention.

I then retopologized the model in 3dsmax and baked the textures. This took about another day. After that, I put the model back into cryengine. And this is the result.

I am happy to get an asset like this into the level, it feels like the project has really started now. I will most likely work on the texture some more in the future, but next I am going to work on some foliage. I've already got a fern in the scene to add a bit of greenery, but I think next I will make the large scale trees that are in the level.

So the fmp has finally started. I've been continuing to block out, and I've also sculpted some rocks. As well as that, I've also made a quick fern. This is just so I can get an idea of what the level will look like. Taking a screenshot, I painted over it. This is how this area of my level will look later on.

I also had a go at blend layer. I got it to work, but at the moment it is still a work in progress. This is how it looks at the minute. I also couldn't get it to work with multisub materials, so I've had to cut some of the level up to have different materials.

Finally, I baked a wall texture. I took this wall carving, then sculpted it in zbrush.

I then baked this to a plane. This is going to tile up the walls inside the cave, to add a bit of interest to the corridors. Here is how it looks in engine.

Next, I am going to work on a hero asset. This is so I can get an area of the level (the part I painted) looking a lot more complete.

Project Proposal

For my final major project, I will be making a environment based around ancient Balinese architecture. The style will be realistic, and will be built in cryengine 3.

Bali is a small island that is part of Indonesia. The art style is very distinctive, and features ornate carvings. These will be the main focus point of my project. The level will show off sculpting skills, and the project will make use of high poly modelling (using programs such as z-brush)

the geographical location of the level and the ecological The other secondary focus of the project is on foliage modelling. The foliage will be appropriate re to biome. 

The level will be for current generation consoles and pcs. This means that the technical specifications reflect that. The target triangle budget for the whole level without instances will be 150,000. For textures, the maximum texture size for an asset will be 1024 (for hero assets). These will be documented in an asset list. Secondary assets will be around 512. My aim is to have a pixel density of around 256 per meter.

In summary, here is what the project will aim to achieve:

1.       Ruined jungle temple environment based around Balinese carvings

2.       Current generation graphics

3.       Running on the university computers at an acceptable frame rate (no slow down, around 30 FPS)

4.       Made in cryengiene 3

5.       High quality sculptures as the main feature

6.       Suitable foliage as the secondary feature backed up by research

7.       Aim to be around 150,000 triangles (without instances)

8.       Texture pixel density around 256 per meter