Container City Project Part 2

The container city project has really moved along since the last post with the last two weeks being composed of remaking our level design through numerous blockouts. Modelling the market stall and a couple of other props. Texture those props and make all the particle effects and dynamic lights. However most of my time was spend in engine on the blockouts and population of the level. I had to make sure that all the containers were in the right place the collisions were working, the level was playable and the lights worked correctly to make the level a visually interesting one and fun to play.

When making the market stall I used some of my fellow teammates initial concepts for a container stall and then developed them a little further in my sketchbook with some quick sketches to show what might be filling the stalls.

I was quite happy with the modelling on the stall, sacks, canopy, boxes and crates. I know the fish models could be improved however and on a redo I would put more effort into making them look like real fish. This could be helped by gathering more references. I also modeled the large keys for collection and I modeled a security camera for the shop as well.

Unwrapping was quite difficult for the stall because the organic shapes of the canopies wouldn't always fit very well with the boxes of the crate, table, barrels and sacks of rice. I do feel that I learnt a lot more about making an efficient unwrap from small items like sacks of rice fit better inside the unwrap.

The texturing phase was difficult for me because of my role in engine was increasing at this point in the project. This was part of the reason why I modeled very few assets. I made 1024x1024 albedo, roughness, metalness, normal and ambient occlusion maps for the stall. I used on 256x256 for both the camera and the keys. I was happy with the outcome of some of the props that populated the inside of the market stall.

Another part of the project that I made was all the particle effects. I made arc lightning, 3 types of bursting sparks of electricity, 3 types of steam effect (large, vented and pressure) as well as dust particles to really make the level come to life.

For the lighting I made the basic blockout before passing it one to josh for a day when he was populating his shop. I then made the final lighting pass, made the flashing dynamic lights that help add ambiance and made the post processing for the level so that the level had a warm lower level and a cold blue upper section while still keeping the artificial green shop.

I think that this project has taught me about making sure that people in a larger team have to be motivated constantly otherwise the work quality drops. I was happy with how our project turned out and while there are things with my textures that I would have changed if given the chance I think it has a high level of quality to with a good play design.