This unit of work has tested my abilities in 3D asset
creation, photo realistic texture work and hand painted texture work, the second
of which is completely new to me. I was faced with two mini projects in BA5. The
first was to recreate assets from 1998’s Half-Life, a generator/transformer and
a control panel. Both of the assets where made with a realistic design due to
Half-Life being a realistic game with no apparent art style. Both assets had
photo textures. I had already created assets with this kind of texturing before,
but one difference with this project was that I included baked normal maps to
create a more realistic surface to the asset. An area where the baking was most
noticeable was on the bolts and screws that where dotted around both models. It
gave the impression of a higher amount of geometry. I was happy with the outcome of my Half-Life
models. I feel they had an aged look which suited the underground bases of
black mesa. I decided to use crazy bump for a lot of the normal mapping, and
used my texturing abilities to create the ridges and grooves on the metal
panels.
The second project in this two part unit of work was to make
a loot chest in the style of Radiant World’s SkySaga. I knew I wanted to do a
3D project again, and my choices came down to the one I chose and Sony
Cambridge’s project to create a trash compactor for Killzone on the Vita. The reason
I chose to do the loot chest was because it required hand painted textures, and
I had never done them before. The Killzone asset was similar to the assets I
had already created in the last sub assignment. We had 3 weeks on each project.
This meant that I had 3 weeks to create the half-life assets and 3 on the Loot
Chest. I really overestimated the amount of time it would take to create the
chest asset, as I allocated about 3 weeks to making it. I assumed due to the
hand painted textures, it would take far longer, but it in fact didn't take too
long to create the appearance I was after. Although I was happy with the Half
Life assets, I feel I could have dedicated more time to them had I known what
the Industry test was asking of me prior to the 3 week mark when we were
informed about project 2.
I have learned a lot from BA5, from high polygon baking
methods, to hand painted textures, all new things I've never done before.
Things that I will be experimenting and practising in the future will defiantly
be High poly baking due to it being one thing I had a lot of issues with. After
this project I am certain it will be 3D that I will be taking into the future
for BA6 and onwards. It’s an area I feel I'm comfortable in and one that I can
see myself developing my skills in.
