Building and Exporting in 3DS Max

Today I started creating a new model for our game, a simple bedside table. I started by creating a simple box primitive, and increasing the number of segments in the width and height, to give me some control over extruding polygons.

Increasing the segmentation allows for more control over creating complex shapes

From here, I used the extrude tool on the middle set of polygons to create a recess in the box, giving it more of a table shape. 

Using the extrude tool to make a more complex shape

I then deleted the bottom face of the object, so that there wasn't an awkward edge sticking out from underneath. Because this object will be on the floor, it doesn't matter that there is no bottom face to the object, because the player will never see it.

I then used the extrude tool once again, this time to bring a section out from the shape, to represent a drawer.

Extruding to create a drawer.

When making models, it is important to maintain as low a poly count as possible. Whilst it is tempting to think that more polygons will equate to more detail, this isn't always the case, and simplicity is often key to great looking models. Moreover, a low poly count is an important aspect of optimization, as having models that have thousands of polygons each will slow your frame rate to a crawl.

This model contains 186 polygons, which is a good, low number.

Once the model is completed, it needs exporting for use in UE4. This is done by using the export function. From here, the model is saved as an Autodesk file (.FBX), so it can be imported into Unreal.

The model is exported and saved as an Autodesk file

Creating Basic Models in 3DS Max

Today I was creating some of the basic assets that will be found within our game. These assets included a bed, a side table, and a lamp. I google image searched for all of these objects, and found some images to use as reference material, to maintain a realistic look to the objects.

Making Changes To Production Schedule

After having the unexpected interruption of industry week, we were a week behind schedule through no fault of our own. This being followed by half term meant that after two weeks of our project, we had don barely any work, and left us a lot to do over the remaining four weeks. As a class, we asked if it would be possible to extend the deadline, and give us another week on the project, to which the answer was yes.

In response to this, I edited our production schedule to reflect the new dates that we were aiming to hit, and we are now back on schedule.

Decals in UE4

Today we looked at creating a scratches decal in Photoshop and importing it over to UE4. The first step was using the brush tool in Photoshop to simply create some lines, that when used with a transparent background would resemble scratches on any underlying textures. Then, importing these into Unreal Engine, and changing the material properties to 'deferred decal' allows us to paint the decal all over the level.

My scratches decal implemented in a UE4 level

The next thing we looked at was creating unique shapes using practical methods and translating those into the digital world. We used ink and sponges and created a number of interesting shapes using this method, then using the selection and fill tools in Photoshop, I created a slime looking decal for use all over the level.

A slimey splat decal

Workflow and Importing Textures

This was the first day where both myself and Mitchel were working together on the project, and part of this work would involve me creating and editing textures for him to import into UE4. To help our workflow, I created a shared folder in Google Drive for all of our files. This allows me to upload the textures to the folder and Mitchel to download them, whilst keeping a backup of all the files that is accessible to both of us at all times. This is a good solution to the problem of working on two different machines, and eliminates the need for the constant passing back and forth of USB drives and such.

This is a capture of the shared Google Doc

After I had created the textures, Mitchel imported them into UE4 and applied them to the relative surfaces. Some of the geometry in the level is particularly big, such as the main corridor walls, so for this we needed to use the 'Texture Coordinates' node in the material blueprint. This allows you to set a tiling rate for the texture, so that rather than stretching it across the wall, it tiles in a way which is consistent with the rest of the walls. We also have a carpet texture in our game, so we had to increase the roughness of that texture, so that the light didn't reflect off it and it didn't look shiny.

The main corridor, with textures applied to the surfaces

The blueprint view of the material, including the 'Texture Coordinates' node.

Creating a Door in 3DS Max

Today I created a door asset in 3DS Max for use in our project. Our game consists of a corridor connecting five different rooms, so naturally doors will be one of the first things that the player sees and interacts with. I started with a basic box primitive, shaping it in the form of a thin, tall door. I used the cylinder and sphere tools to create a doorknob also.

Extruding the sections of the door

I had the basic form, but wanted to make something a bit more interesting, so using the extrude tool, I indented the door in four places, as I saw was a common thing when searching for images of wooden doors.

A door asset created in 3DS Max

The last thing I did was find a wood texture and applied it to the door. I don't think the texture matches the door particularly well, but it serves a purpose as a placeholder as it gives a clear indication of what the object is.

Responsive Images and Layout Website

Today we were tasked with replicating a website from a choice of three, including the webpage having responsive images and layout. This is the website I chose to emulate.

The original website that I was aiming to recreate

The website I chose is full of images of different shapes and sizes, and it has a very sporadic layout, so I felt it posed a good challenge for me to test my skills. I created the layout first, using flexbox elements to have divs cascade horizontally and wrap onto the next line, as opposed to everything falling vertically one after the other. From here, the challenge was to make the site mobile friendly, and this means making all of the divs fall vertically one after the other, the exact thing I was trying to get away from. This has reaffirmed in my mind, the importance of design a website 'mobile first', where you create the website for the mobile experience and then adapt it for tablets, then laptops, and so on. To make the site fall vertically, I used a media query to take out all of the flexbox functionality, and set all of the divs' widths to 100%. This way, everything was vertical, a much more user friendly experience on mobile devices.

Here is a link to the site, hosted on Github.

Wall and Floor Textures

The first part of production for myself is to get textures for the walls and the floors. I started by finding some textures for wallpapers that were labelled for re-use and importing them into Photoshop. From here, I used various adjustments such as color balance, hue/saturation and brightness/contrast to change the colours on the image, making sure it was the right colour for what I wanted.

Once I had achieved the right look, I exported the images as PNG files at a resolution of 1024x1024px at 72ppi (pixels per inch), as this is the optimal texture size, and I chose PNG as the file format as it is lossless, meaning there will be compression and loss of quality over time, as would be experienced with JPEG.

Campo Santo - Creators of Firewatch

On February 9th 2016, Firewatch was released to the world. The first game from San Francisco based studio, Campo Santo, Firewatch is a first person adventure game, centered around the story of two characters, Henry and Delilah. After generating significant buzz from their E3 2015 reveal trailer, expectations were high and hopes even higher. The game released to a very good critical response, with the game sitting at an 80 on Metacritic averaged across the three main platforms. Success for the team, their first game is a hit, and a new indie darling studio is born. In hindsight, the quality of the game should never have been in question, if the pedigree of the developers is any sort of barometer.

Jake Rodkin - Creative Director

Past Work: The Walking Dead, Poker Night at the Inventory, Puzzle Agent, Tales of Monkey Island, Sam & Max.

Sean Vanaman - Writer

Past Work: The Walking Dead, Poker Night at the Inventory, Puzzle Agent, Tales of Monkey Island.

Jane Ng - Environment Artist

Past Work: The Cave, Stacking, Brutal Legend, Spore, The Godfather, The Return of the King.

Chris Remo - Developer, Composer

Past Work: Gone Home, Thirty Flights of Loving, The Cave, Battlefront Rogue One.

James Benson - Animator

Past Work: Ori and the Blind Forest, Fable 3, Project Milo.

Ben Burbank - Graphics Programmer

Past Work: Double Fine, EA Sports.

Aubrey Hesselgren - Gameplay Programmer

Past Work: Brink, Super Meat Boy Galaxy, The World is Flat.

Gabe McGill - Producer



Kathy McElwee - Accounting & Finance

Past Work: Telltale Games.