Production Week 9
Week Ending 17th May
We come to the close with our final feedback session and submission deadline. Over these past 12-13 weeks the team has worked hard to come up with a unique idea and bring the environment to life. It has been a real pleasure to work together and very surreal this is the last project for our BA in the Art of Video Games at Escape Studios! We have created such a beautiful environment and are all proud of what we have achieved. Well done team!
Viktor - Art Director
Last week of production, Last blog update.
I'd like to say thank you for every member of this team who worked hard and really put their focus into this project. What we have achieved is really outstanding and we have tackled a Covid-19 lock-down on top!
Very impressed.
We only had to do some minor final tweaks in the scene this time.
I've helped Adrian and Shay with a Zelige tile pattern that has been used around the fountain.
After feedback, we have experimented with the door trim on the first floor. I've used Adrian's mesh and Shay's texture, so all I had to do is play with the UVs to get the desired result. After 3 or 4 iterations, there it is.
I've helped a little bit of set dressing last minute, which helps tell some stories better. Simple 5 min fix.
Last, The corner piece has given us a lot of headache through the whole project, so as a last resort I've gone and redone the whole piece. Took longer than expected, but done just before the deadline. Subtle change, but makes a difference.
Willow - Lighting Artist + Producer
This was the final week of production for the whole team and I am extremely proud to say we have
come a long long way. As this was the last week the focus was on the final polish in response to the feedback from the tutors. I personally just worked on very small tweaks like getting the reflection capture correct on the lake water I had made and fixing light shafts to sit at the right angle. Besides that it was just some tweaks to reflection captures and shadow values to make sure all assets sat in the environment felt right. I also took sometime to re-visit the asset list one more time to continue to review if we reached the completion of the assets we wanted for the project, which we very much have done. After this was completed I took some time like the rest of the team to create a list of my completed assets to hand in.
Shay - Material Artist
This week is the final week we have to work on the project. I spent most of this week listening to the feedback Simon was giving me for the tiles on the fountain. Adrian,Hannah and Viktor helped me out, improving the overall look of the pattern and making sure the grouting was correct. Worked on the trim sheet more also making sure the grouting was correct and had the same quality to the back tiles. Also took a screen shot of all the things that I've done for this project.
Urim - Prop and Cinematic Artist
This week was the final week of production and cleaning up. Really proud of the team that put a lot of effort into this project and it turned out really beautiful. As of this week, I had to clean up some meshes that we were given feedback from the week before and making sure those were done in the early stages. I then made a stone rubble decal to make it seem more realistic as if they've been working on the statues. With this week's feedback, I just had to adjust the gate and remove some poles and open the door, which was an easy fix. Then went through my assets and put everything together on the showcase level to see what I've worked on this project. Finally, the last thing is the sequencer. I managed to get that done on time for the final submission the following Monday.
Adrian - Prop and Environment Artist
Final Week of Production!
This week was about finishing, tweaking and polishing assets that had been neglected due to the creation of other assets, based on feedback from the tutors and the team.
My work for this week included the following;
1) Made a new texture for the big stone, to include more surface roughness variation as requested.
2) Made second texture for Window Blind (So left and right were not the same texture).
3) Made second texture for door handles (So left and right were not the same texture).
4) Re-aligned Door and handles - on the 1st floor to match new wall. Workshop Door, fixed a hole where it meets the wall.
5) Go through content browser, check naming conventions, reduce texture sizes where appropriate for the assets I created.
6) Made a new Artist Stool.
7) Compose a showcase screen shot of all the assets I produced for the project, help the team/tutors/industry people grade the work.
I would just like to thank all of my team members for a really enjoyable final project experience and a lovely way to finish the final year of the degree. My biggest regret of this project is not getting the time to learn new skills from each member, working from home and looking at daily posts/screenshots is no substitute for sitting next to some one and watching their workflow, the processes/techniques they use to create art. I feel like the Covid-19 virus has cheated us of this invaluable learning/growing method, maybe some day in the not to distance future we can collaborated on another project in a different context.
Until then it has been my pleasure and honour working with you all!
Josef - Prop Artist
This week was the final week of production. I'm seriously proud of the team and the sheer effort put into this project. the final tweaks needed were simple positional adjustments to the scene that I had to change. also the final piece of work i completed was the storage cupboard. The showcase level was constructed to display what I've completed this project. all in all well done team. Great work!
Hannah - Foliage Artist
The final week I spent a fair bit of time tweaking and fine tuning my trees. I finally figured out why my oranges were not baking light well and I got further feedback on my vertex normals not being correct on my trees. Rookie mistake! After a lot of faffing about with speedtree and exporting from here and trying to fix it I had to export from unreal to maya to fix them. (Literally everything including materials and UVs broke otherwise!) This meant we no longer have a really subtle wind effect on the trees.
After a production quality bake some of my clematis leaves also turned black, I figured this was another normals issue and tweaked this again. Now they seem to read ok! I also added a little spin on my leaf VFX so they read more natural as they fall.
There was a tree in the shadow that was not reading very well in the scene and it was bugging me a lot. I troubleshooted this with our studio assistant Cat and Willow and together we were able to fix it with some handy tricks from Willow and me bumping up the SSS of the leaves just a tad. Thank you guys for helping me figure this one out!
After that it's been lots of little admin jobs to prep our project for submission. It is very strange that we have now come to the end. Wishing everyone the best of luck in the future! You have been awesome to work with!
We come to the close with our final feedback session and submission deadline. Over these past 12-13 weeks the team has worked hard to come up with a unique idea and bring the environment to life. It has been a real pleasure to work together and very surreal this is the last project for our BA in the Art of Video Games at Escape Studios! We have created such a beautiful environment and are all proud of what we have achieved. Well done team!
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| Check out our progress from blockout to finish! |
Viktor - Art Director
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| Check out all the work Viktor has done over the project! Creating not only key architecture but our central hero asset too! |
I'd like to say thank you for every member of this team who worked hard and really put their focus into this project. What we have achieved is really outstanding and we have tackled a Covid-19 lock-down on top!
Very impressed.
We only had to do some minor final tweaks in the scene this time.
I've helped Adrian and Shay with a Zelige tile pattern that has been used around the fountain.
After feedback, we have experimented with the door trim on the first floor. I've used Adrian's mesh and Shay's texture, so all I had to do is play with the UVs to get the desired result. After 3 or 4 iterations, there it is.
I've helped a little bit of set dressing last minute, which helps tell some stories better. Simple 5 min fix.
Last, The corner piece has given us a lot of headache through the whole project, so as a last resort I've gone and redone the whole piece. Took longer than expected, but done just before the deadline. Subtle change, but makes a difference.
Willow - Lighting Artist + Producer
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| Willow has made our scene truly beautiful with her excellent lighting skills! |
This was the final week of production for the whole team and I am extremely proud to say we have
come a long long way. As this was the last week the focus was on the final polish in response to the feedback from the tutors. I personally just worked on very small tweaks like getting the reflection capture correct on the lake water I had made and fixing light shafts to sit at the right angle. Besides that it was just some tweaks to reflection captures and shadow values to make sure all assets sat in the environment felt right. I also took sometime to re-visit the asset list one more time to continue to review if we reached the completion of the assets we wanted for the project, which we very much have done. After this was completed I took some time like the rest of the team to create a list of my completed assets to hand in.
Shay - Material Artist
 |
| Shay has knocked it out the park with her beautiful material work that we were all so reliant on! |
This week is the final week we have to work on the project. I spent most of this week listening to the feedback Simon was giving me for the tiles on the fountain. Adrian,Hannah and Viktor helped me out, improving the overall look of the pattern and making sure the grouting was correct. Worked on the trim sheet more also making sure the grouting was correct and had the same quality to the back tiles. Also took a screen shot of all the things that I've done for this project.
Urim - Prop and Cinematic Artist
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| Urim did an amazing job with a beautiful vista and not forgetting his stunning Cinematic! |
This week was the final week of production and cleaning up. Really proud of the team that put a lot of effort into this project and it turned out really beautiful. As of this week, I had to clean up some meshes that we were given feedback from the week before and making sure those were done in the early stages. I then made a stone rubble decal to make it seem more realistic as if they've been working on the statues. With this week's feedback, I just had to adjust the gate and remove some poles and open the door, which was an easy fix. Then went through my assets and put everything together on the showcase level to see what I've worked on this project. Finally, the last thing is the sequencer. I managed to get that done on time for the final submission the following Monday.
Adrian - Prop and Environment Artist
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| Adrian has done stellar work throughout and many iterations of certain assets! Thanks for being patient with us! |
Final Week of Production!
This week was about finishing, tweaking and polishing assets that had been neglected due to the creation of other assets, based on feedback from the tutors and the team.
My work for this week included the following;
1) Made a new texture for the big stone, to include more surface roughness variation as requested.
2) Made second texture for Window Blind (So left and right were not the same texture).
3) Made second texture for door handles (So left and right were not the same texture).
4) Re-aligned Door and handles - on the 1st floor to match new wall. Workshop Door, fixed a hole where it meets the wall.
5) Go through content browser, check naming conventions, reduce texture sizes where appropriate for the assets I created.
6) Made a new Artist Stool.
7) Compose a showcase screen shot of all the assets I produced for the project, help the team/tutors/industry people grade the work.
I would just like to thank all of my team members for a really enjoyable final project experience and a lovely way to finish the final year of the degree. My biggest regret of this project is not getting the time to learn new skills from each member, working from home and looking at daily posts/screenshots is no substitute for sitting next to some one and watching their workflow, the processes/techniques they use to create art. I feel like the Covid-19 virus has cheated us of this invaluable learning/growing method, maybe some day in the not to distance future we can collaborated on another project in a different context.
Until then it has been my pleasure and honour working with you all!
Josef - Prop Artist
 |
| Josef did an amazing job on the sculpted assets! They really helped set the tone of the environment! |
This week was the final week of production. I'm seriously proud of the team and the sheer effort put into this project. the final tweaks needed were simple positional adjustments to the scene that I had to change. also the final piece of work i completed was the storage cupboard. The showcase level was constructed to display what I've completed this project. all in all well done team. Great work!
Hannah - Foliage Artist
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| It doesn't look like much on its own but those 5 little clematis meshes really helped the scene look so lush! |
The final week I spent a fair bit of time tweaking and fine tuning my trees. I finally figured out why my oranges were not baking light well and I got further feedback on my vertex normals not being correct on my trees. Rookie mistake! After a lot of faffing about with speedtree and exporting from here and trying to fix it I had to export from unreal to maya to fix them. (Literally everything including materials and UVs broke otherwise!) This meant we no longer have a really subtle wind effect on the trees.
After a production quality bake some of my clematis leaves also turned black, I figured this was another normals issue and tweaked this again. Now they seem to read ok! I also added a little spin on my leaf VFX so they read more natural as they fall.
There was a tree in the shadow that was not reading very well in the scene and it was bugging me a lot. I troubleshooted this with our studio assistant Cat and Willow and together we were able to fix it with some handy tricks from Willow and me bumping up the SSS of the leaves just a tad. Thank you guys for helping me figure this one out!
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