Unreal Progress... Part 1 -

Yes! I've done it...

I've managed to put some of my Assets and Objects into the Unreal Development Kit... (UDK) I'm very proud of myself! That's right!! Woohoo... Come-On! :o)

I've done a few tests during this process. I started with one of my Helmets... 

This was my first attempt... I managed to get the Asset in but I didn't get the textures in yet.. but its a start.

Firstly, let me rewind a sec.. My first test was with a Box which was made in Maya and textured with the UV's setup within the grid correctly.. This was the result after I imported the box and then the texture for it.

This was the next thing I imported into the UDK... One of my Viking Helmets...

Tonight (a few hours ago), I decided to get one of my Viking Houses into it to see the results... I was thinking about it because I used 3 textures for the Viking House and I wanted to see if it was different and how UDK would setup the materials on the mesh.

This is one of my Viking Homes... It's in the UDK! At Last! Yes, I know that its inside a room but at this stage, it's the least of my worries... remember, this was a test.

Being able to run around this was awesome!!

I scaled it up so that it was the correct height when playing this level. There's no collision on this yet... I'll sort that out when I put this into my Viking Environment.

The sizs of this house looked really good when running up towards it.

All the correct textures were added for this. I'm happy!

Maya Progress... Final Stretch...

I've been totally, racking my brain...

Regarding rendering within Maya... I've looked at tutorials, books and more books. I know that I need to tweak a few settings within the render settings but there are some things that I really don't have a clue about what they do. 
This section can be a long process (if you don't know what your doing like me) but I will figure it out. I've had some good self learning sessions over the pass few weeks and I can say that I'm getting there in terms of what I want to do. The Viking Village section within Maya is 98% complete... all that's left is to set up some nice renders which will be one of the main parts of my work.

Playing around with Rendering...

I've done a few test renders to see what I can do and what I need to change.

For some reason it came out looking like this... With a Snowy effect... I think this looks cool... Even though this wasn't the "look" I intended it to be.

These looked ok but I its not right... so back to the drawing board...

Next Test Render...
This image below was my next test render using Mental-Ray and this shader was linked to a Enviroment Sky...

I also added the clouds to this scene but it still needs tweaking as you can see.. the clouds can be seen on the ground... if this area was water, then it would have worked out fine.. I really like the look of this though... I'll play around some more till I get it right! I'm gonna go with this setting I think.

I might even add some fire tourches to this... to give it that night feel... when fighting within the fight area. In fact... I'll run with that idea.

Forest Road using Paint Effects

Forest Road using Paint Effects

Link to use at some point...

Maya Part 4 Continued Progress

Continued Maya Progress... Part 3

I've just be adding...  

A few finishing touches to my models before they are placed within the scenes I've created. The proposal is to do two scenes and one in the Unreal Engine 3. I've had quite a few issues when it come to making terrain for the scenes and its only now I've found a way (which is comfortable) for me to do this. This is using the Soft Modification Tool...

I've used VARIOUS packages to try and get the results I want and yes, these packages are good but some of it was too complex for my scene and it was a challenge to shift thought all of these only to return to Maya and find the Soft-Mod-Tool. (after looking a various tutorials as well) but after all of that, I wouldn't really call it a waste of time because now I can use...  

Terragen... Vue 8... GeoControl... and LD3T... These are all very good terrain making software so now I can say that I've learned more packages. 

I now have basic knowledge of Crazybump (through my mentor) which is a package that helps to create realistic textures with the textures I already have...(won't get into it now but I'll post something at a later date...)

Anyhow, back to my workload, I've made a few adjustments on the plane surface to get the right terrain for my scene. It takes a good while to get it the way you'd like but this process is a long one.

Here's a few current progression images:

This is a quick texture test for the Viking Village scene...

Current Layout of Viking Village - 

This seems like a good start for the Shoreline scene (Well that's what I though after I got to this stage today).

This is the current scene which will have more of a hilly region in the background then a good backdrop for it... My aim is to complete this scene by Sunday!

I've created a fighting arena by placing a wooden fence around in a square setting.. I'll add some more weapons and shields around this section.

This Sword and Shield are placed within the Blacksmith structure. (Not sure if I've already posted this but it's a nice shot.

Another Prop...

I've made some good changes on my Viking Longboat and now it's FINISHED!

Longboat - Screen Grab 1

Longboat - Screen Grab 2 (Get On-board...!)

Longboat - Screen Grab 3 

Here I added some horns around the neck part so it could look a bit more menacing.

Longboat - Screen Grab 4

These scenes will be completed and rendered within the next two weeks, then it's onto the Ultimate Test... Unreal...

Maya Progression... Part 3... Struggling... But I Must Go On...

Today has been very mixed in terms of thoughts and modeling...

When you have a "great" idea... always think about it at least three times... As the saying goes (from a tailor I presume) "measure your cloth three times because you can only cut it once"

Today, I was thinking that I really want to do something else... something more "manageable" A character or something very "easy" to do. I'm not saying that character creation is easy... but it's one model with extras... like adding IK-bones etc... when creating an environment, there's so much to consider. So many things to go in i.e: Assets/Sky/Terrain/Lighting/Water/Particles etc... 

When you feel like you can do it, I'd say think about it some more. I guess I feel this way due to my lack of knowledge regarding some key skills in environment creation. I have done alright, so far but its very difficult when you can't find the right sources. It's difficult. 

I've searched for a few days on Terrain Creation, some of them look promising but the tutorials misses out key elements and then you become stuck. I have used various tutorials to get me this far but it seems like as I'm nearing the end of my course, the things I need to learn/know now are hard to come by in a tutorial. I've been busting my head today but I've had to "figure" this out for myself. Not knowing if its the right way is very frustrating, but I'm at a point now that I just want it done and dusted! The quality is good but it could have or still could be much better. Since time is against me I must do what I can with the knowledge I have.

Here's a few Renders of things done today.

I made some stones to go into my scene, I also made a "Terrain" using the "Sculpt Geometry Tool" and imported a Map to the shape. This could very well be the right thing but I want to make sue that it's "right" for what I'll be needing it for. 

I'm Creating two separate scenes in Maya. One will be the Viking Village and the other one will be the Shoreline area. 

Stones - Render 1 

After using another tutorial for creating stones/rocks, these are some of the rocks I made. Some of them still need textures on them but at least it adds something to the scene. These can be time consuming to texture though... but what isn't?

Stones - Render 2

Stones - Render 3 - 

This shot is taken from my Shoreline Scene. I've added a Rock/Grass texture to the plane and a Stone texture to the other plane. Doesn't look bad but needs touching up.

Shoreline Scene...

Here are a few progression renders of the shoreline scene...

Shoreline Render 1

 

 Shoreline Render 2

Shoreline Render 3

Shoreline Render 4 - Rock Shot.

Viking Village Scene...

Viking Village Render 1

Viking Village Texture Test... 

Not sure if I'll use this texture but who knows... It's not bad but I would love a professional opinion.

Anyhow, ANY COMMENTS would be appreciated! Until my next update... (shouldn't be too long now) Many Thanks!

Continued Maya Progress... Part 2 (continuation)

Continued from earlier post...












Village Layout - Render 4 -

Broken Longboat Render 1 - (which will be set just off shore)

Render 2

Render 3

Render 4

New Barn Texture Render 1 -

New Barn Texture Render 2 -