The Chest

This is the low poly model of the chest. I will make a high poly version with a few more chips, and with that model I will bake the detail onto the low poly model. This has a poly-count of 2500 which is what I estimate to be a reasonable poly-count for the chest in comparison to the workbench which is around 4500, but is also more complex and is larger.

bevels, chips n' nicks.

When looking at the reference assets, i noticed that a lot of the poly count was taken up by nicks chips and the large amount of bevelling. This is my take on that style with the chests key lock mechanism.

SkySaga Art Test

Skysaga: Infinite Isles Unveiled Art Test ­ 3D Art Test Your task is to create the ‘Loot Chest’ asset. Utilize the ‘Loot Chest’ concept art and example assets provided as a guide to produce your art piece The example assets folder contains two game resolution assets to assist you. They are representative of both model/texture construction and usage as well visual style and quality. The concept piece they were based upon is also provided for your reference. Good Luck.

THE ART TEST


I've been looking at some game play, assets and concept art of the game and very quickly it is apparent that the game is very SQUARE orientated. It's a voxel in the same vein as mine-craft, but it has much higher polygon assets. The environment is built up with square blocks, and the assets in game are high polygon assets with very appealing and friendly square features.

From looking at their loom and workbench assets I've determined these guidelines:

Texture Resolution: 1024 (Colour/Normal/Specular) - Painted Texture

Polycount: between 4000 and 6000 polygons

Shader: "UberShader"

Design: Soft angular shapes, square and cartoon appearance. (Strong bevelled edges)

Colour: Strong contrasting and basic block colouring

Mesh: Asset is comprised with between 5-7 meshes that have been combined
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I'm estimating I'm going make a roughly 5000 polygon asset due to the simple nature of a loot crate. This is going to one of the first times i've made a truly 100% hand drawn/painted texture for an asset. I'm most likely  going to bake normal maps where needed for a nice finish to the assets aesthetic.

The models have lots of very simple and visible chips and nicks built into them. It gives the model a sense of age, yet the textures remain very clean and "new" looking. There are no sharp features to the models, everything is nicely rounded.

Using floating geometry

I had already finished my assets before I learned about how to bake normals via high poly assets. So i had to apply the UVs to my existing normal made with crazy bump. I made one screw and duplicated it over my CB Normals texture. I'm going to try add more things like this to my asset.

Assets in UDK

This is a screenshot of a UDK scene with my assets. I mocked up some shapes and new assets to fill out the scene.

The ideas and concepts I've applied to my assets.

The assets are a remake of assets within the distressed black mesa facility after its abandonment and evident destruction. Something I took note of when beginning the assets was that they needed to be very detailed at a head height level because they are going into a FPS game. I knew there were limitations in terms of the poly count, so I would have to use normal maps to add geometric detail to flat low poly assets.

The game that the assets would be situated in is a half life game. half life games don't really have an art style, instead they focus on making very realistic looking worlds. Each Half Life released by valve has been a leading example of graphical fidelity within the gaming industry. The textures within the games have mostly been photo textures (with exception to the combine and Xen textures). With this in mind, I have actively made sure to use a lot of photo textures in my work to make the materials appear realistic.

As the Brief describes, the third game would be 30 years after Half Life 2, which is 20 years after the events of Half Life 1, that makes the black mesa that the player is returning to at least 50-60 years old. So it's very important to make sure everything looks aged and worn down. Before I got to work, I established a setting, and a likely environment to which the assets would be located in. In the original Half Life (50-60 years ago) the setting already felt old, so I knew it would have to look much more worse for wear in my recreations. Also since the first game there has been an atomic explosion just above on the surface, and likely a massive Xen invasion within the facility, Along with probably 50 or so years of nothing. With this knowledge I assumed it was safe to say the power was defiantly out for the count, and that there has probably structural damage to some of the equipment. Some of the damage i've applied to the assets include a overheating explosion to the main cooling vent attached to the transformer, and various cracks and wire damage to the control panel.

I kept the colours consistent with both assets. From looking at a lot of assets within Half Life I noticed that there was a vast amount of military hardware and equipment, the main colours where dark greens and blacks. Also much of the lab equipment used the same colours. Most of the text is dark orange and yellow, on green and black panels and walls.

Along with all of this, much of the old underground facilities had a really rustic feel. So it was important to add rust, scratches and possible damage to some instruments.

IN UDK