Assignment 1 – Vertical Slice Group Project: Week 5-6

This week we had a group meeting and put together a large asset list using Excel.  We then each went down the list and chose the models we would work on during the week.  Our feedback from last week had been quite negative, as we were behind and needed to work on filling out our game with lots of models and aiming to have recorded gameplay for week 7.

I chose to model the lamp, wardrobe, shelf, mirror and toilet over these two weeks.  After creating each asset, I would send it to my group via discord to show them and get feedback.

 

To make the base of the lamp, I added two cubes, one with reduced height to form a square stand, and the other to place on top to create the connection between the base and stand.  This was done by narrowing the top edges of the cube, adding an edge loop in the center and bevelling until it creating a gradual slope shape.

I made sure to remove the extra faces and then connected the edges to make it one object.

I added a small cube on top, again removing unnecessary faces.

To create the stand, I once again brought in the top edges of a cube to the height I was happy with and added an edge loop near the bottom so that there was a small straight section before it began narrowing in.

I then mirrored this to form the top half of the stand and bevelled the harsh edge that joined them.

The lamp shade was formed by removing the bottom face and bringing out the surrounding edges.

I once again mirrored the stand to form the rest which connected to the top of the lamp shade.  To see better, I used wireframe and the front and side facing view to make sure it was centered correctly.

After UV mapping, I brought it into Substance Painter where I played around with a few different ideas.  Originally, I wanted the lamp to have a glass shade, however this wouldn’t have fit in a Swedish haunted cabin too well, so this was changed.

I think a cream fabric shade worked well with the nickel stand.  Once I had exported the final texture, I tested the model in Unreal to make sure everything looked ok before putting it in our game.

 

Using the Unreal Mannequin for scale reference, I formed the base shape of the wardrobe.

I then added edge loops around the outside of the shape and extruded the middle face in to hollow out the wardrobe.  Modelling the first leg from a cube, I then duplicated them around the bottom using top view to make sure they were evenly spaced.

Selecting the inner back face of the wardrobe, I detached it from the rest of the model, duplicated it and merged again.  With the duplicate, I extruded it to add some thickness and split it down the middle to form the two doors.

To create the door handles, I used a cylinder and a stretched sphere.  Once finished, I merged everything except the two doors so that they could be opened in game and used as a hiding spot for the player.

 

After UV mapping, I brought it into Substance Painter to add texture.  I used wood shop hull for the wardrobe and steel stained for the door handles

I then brought it into Unreal to test the model before putting it in our shared project.

However, upon placing the model in our scene, the doors wouldn’t disconnect.  Brandon then asked me to add them in as separate models.  I also wanted to fix the doors so that they opened straight instead of at an angle due to their shape as well as fixing the pivot point to make it easier to open and close them neatly.  Once these issues had been fixed, I brought the model back in and it worked much better.

 

The shelves were made using a cube and scaling it with help from the lamp I had created previously.  I wanted to make sure it would be wide enough to be useful within the scene.

For the brackets, I sized the first section which would be connected to the wall, added an edge loop near the top and extruded the face pointing out from the wall to create a 90° angle.  I made sure to remove the faces that wouldn’t be seen.

For the diagonal section of the bracket, I wanted it to remain the same width to make sure it fit nicely.  To do this, I duplicated and detached the bracket and removed the faces I didn’t need.

I then used side facing view to angle the shape in place and moved the vertices to make it fit neatly.

To create the screws, I deleted all but the top few faces of a sphere and used soft select to form a dip inwards.  I then placed these similarly to my reference image.

Once UV mapped, I duplicated it and deformed it slightly by bringing out a corner of the shelf.  This was to better fit the style we are going for and to give more options/variation when putting the scene together.

In Substance Painter, I used wood ship hull for the plank and steel base with a layer of dirt for the brackets.  For the screws, I used steel stained as it made them stand out which I liked.

I then checked to make sure they looked well in Unreal too before putting them into the shared project.

 

To create the mirror, I started by making one side of the frame, adding an edge loop and extruding similarly to the brackets for the shelf.  I repeated this until I completed the frame and then added a plane in the center for the mirror.

Once UV mapped, I brought the frame and mirror into Substance Painter, adding wood ship hull to the frame.  I applied the ‘glass film dirty mirror’ texture to the plane and added a dirt layer with a black mask, painting in the areas of the mirror I wanted the dirt to show.  I also added a cracked effect using a particle brush which I think looks very good and will fit in with our theme well.

Although I am happy with the mirror, I should have just added edge loops and removed the middle face to create it instead of the awkward method I used.  At least I know for next time I try something like this.

 

I chose to work on the toilet model as it’s unlike anything I’ve tried before and I thought it would be challenging.  For reference, I kept looking back upon this video for some guidance:

It was helpful for knowing where to start first as that’s often something I struggle with, and it also reminded me of the ‘reverse normals’ tool which I had forgotten about.

My first attempt before watching this video was poor: I tried modelling the toilet bowl using a cylinder which I then added an edge loop to at the top and removed the middle faces.

 

This was making it too complicated and it quickly started to get messy, so I decided to start over.

On my second attempt, I did the opposite of this – I removed all but the top faces of the cylinder and sized it until I got the rough width and length I wanted for the toilet bowl.  Then I duplicated this, extruded it down and reversed the normals.

This would become the toilet seat and bowl.  To form the bowl, I added edge loops and expanded them until I was happy with the shape.

I narrowed the lowest loop to make the bowl more defined when I extruded it down further to reach the floor.  Then I added edge loops at the bottom to form the rim.

I extruded the center faces inside the bowl to create the hole.

I bevelled the surrounding edge of the bowl to remove the hard edge.

Placing the original plane back above the hole, I used a tool called ‘connect components’ which is very helpful and I’m surprised I hadn’t known about already.

I then extruded the plane to create the rim around the edge of the toilet seat and made sure it fit perfectly around the top of the bowl.

To create the back of the toilet, placed two cubes on top of one another and scaled them roughly to fit the proportions I wanted, then added edge loops so that I could move the vertices and create the arch at the back of the lower section.  I extruded to top of the bottom cube so that the top part would sit better (following my reference image).  Then I extruded a smaller section at the bottom to match the rim around the previously modelled section.  Once all the edges were bevelled, I duplicated the top box and placed it above, bringing out the top vertices to form the lid shape.

Opening the toilet lid, I then needed to add the connection between it and the toilet seat which was made with a cylinder.

For the lid bumpers, I used a similar method as for the shelf brackets – removing all but the top few faces of a sphere and bevelling it.

I then duplicated this over for the flush.  Hiding the rest of the toilet while modelling this made it a lot easier as otherwise it was slightly obscured by the lid.

At present, the hole in the bowl of the toilet isn’t deep enough.  To create better illusion, I used wireframe in side view and made the pipe bend and narrow until the end was out of sight from the top.

I removed any unnecessary faces and finally added a plan in the bowl which would be that water.

After creating the UVs, I brought it into Substance Painter.  I applied aluminium pure and changed the colour to a cream shade before moving on to the water which I just made slightly transparent and blue with a fill layer.

Once in Unreal, I decided the water texture wasn’t needed and instead set up a translucent blue material.

I’m happy with how this model turned out, it was fun to try something very different.

 

This was not on our asset list, but I thought it would be a good idea to have in our scene to make it feel less empty.  I used a plane as a temporary wall and plotted the shape I wanted out using the CV curve tool.  Then I used the top face of a cylinder and extruded too form the main pole.

Using another cylinder, I removed the bottom face to create the connection from the holder to the wall.

For the toilet roll, I removed the top and bottom faces of a cylinder and extruded the remaining faces out, modifying the center width until I thought it best resembled the roll shape.  To make it look more realistic, I added a plane hanging from the toilet roll, connecting it using the target wield tool.  As it looked too perfect and straight, I made a slight wave which I think really helped make it look a lot better.

When placing it on the holder, I needed to bring it further out, this is when I decided it would be interesting to add more detail to the piece which connects to the wall.  I opted for a deer head as I thought it would fit well in our cabin.  This was a lot of trial and error to get the shape of the head right.  I started using a sphere and moved the faces around with soft select on.

The ears were once again a lot of trial and error, trying to get them to look like believable ears rather than strange horns.  I started off with a cube and added a few edge loops to create the inside crease and smooth incline at the back of the ears.  Once I was happy with how the left ear looked, I mirrored it over and for the opposite ear.

I used the CV curve tool to draw out the shape I wanted the antlers to be, this was surprisingly easier than modelling the ears.  I played around with the shape for a while, trying to make them look organic without adding too many faces.  Again, I mirrored the left antler over the right side once I was happy with how it looked.

Then I connected it to the rest of the holder, making the deer look as though it was holding the bar in its mouth.

After creating the UVs for both the holder and toilet roll, I brought them into Substance Painter separately.  I thought the best/most realistic looking texture for the toilet roll was the fabric bamboo.  For the cardboard in the center, I used leather rough, painting it in through the use of a black mask.

For the deer head holder, I applied bronze armour and gold damaged with a black mask on the latter.  The mask was able to add scratches which made it look as though it was old and the original material was showing through the layer of dirt.

I then tested the model in Unreal before sending it to my group.

 

The plunger was another extra model that I thought would be a good addition and my group seemed to like.  I started with a cylinder and brought the top edge in.

I then added an edge loop in the middle at the top and extruded it up to create the part the stick would attach to.  I added a couple of edge loops so I could bevel the shape and make it more rounded.  I next extruded the bottom out to form the rim, and lastly added the stick.

I spent some time neatening it to make it look more similar to a plunger and then brought it into Substance Painter once I had created the UVs.

In Substance, I applied a plastic glossy pure texture and changed the colour to red.  For the stick, I used wood ship hull and again modified the colour slightly to suit.

I again tested this model in my own project before importing it into our shared game.

I’m really happy with the amount I got done over these two weeks and I think the models I created are of good quality.  The feedback I got from my group members and the lecturers was all positive.  I’m hoping to continue working at this pace over the next week.