Blacksmith Group Project

Deciding on a concept was quite quick as I had a image of the blacksmith concept in mind as soon as it was given, I prompted the idea to my team of “A soft hum of the flames and embers sitting amongst a pile of ashes as the dust and sparks glow over the forge”

This idea changed slightly with the concept including food and catering assets as though this blacksmith also runs a café or tavern. Once the concept was agreed upon we started into the buzzword faze taking inspiration from any source that made us think of blacksmith’s. It was at this point I decided on the rough layout using an octagon for the base of the blacksmiths and a rough rectangle put directly in front of the main wall. 

During the concepting discussion we decided the inspirations being mainly from MediEvil, Howl’s moving castle For the furnace design and Tim Burton/ Henry Selick’s films as we wanted to achieve the tilted and distorted feel (prominent in MediEvil and Tim Burton’s work).

Due to the varying levels of experience we discussed the asset/ prop list and who would take on some of the larger tasks as we were free to choose the assets from the list this helped to avoid alienating anyone from the task as no one had to work on anything they didn’t want to in the beginning. 

This list was rather extensive but was then narrowed down before being taken into Google Sheets by Conor. Google Sheets allowed everyone to access the document without needing to ask a specific member to update the list As we didn’t make a hard cap on the list anyone was free to add assets or remove them if they felt it wouldn’t add to the scene or was unachievable in some way. A colour key was implemented to allow this to be readable and clear what stage everyone was at (While some of the group was faster at updating the list than others it saved a lot of time chasing up updates on the development). 

 

Concepting the art of the scene was a major task for the theme that I achieved through the modelling stages instead of sketched up work and designs. Stork and Milo took the lead on initial designs for food and the Furnace as well as some fantasy inspired weapons. The designs and concepts were further taken by Alex (Who did join the project after the aforementioned concepts were already agreed upon). Alex thankfully was more than enthusiastic to go with this theme and started designing a plethora of concepts before taking their models into blender.

     

 

I designed the layout both in 3D and through a dungeon map builder that allowed me to place assets into the scene without prioritizing time to asset creation then because we chose to work in Meters to make the transition to Unreal Engine 5 easier I made a 3D diorama complete with measurements and scale. While we were aware our scenes would all be laid out differently this did help with the sizing our assets not only in comparison to a human but also the walls. 

While the plan from the dungeon map builder was the final layout I wanted to use (excluding some changes) it allowed most of the group a clearer idea of what to do to fill out spaces around the environment. 

Modelling:

I started off my modelling with tutorials such as: For the floors I followed a tutorial as they gave me some issues with clipping and texturing.

Then I moved onto the furnace as It was the asset I had the clearest idea for. The idea that came to mind was of an animal based furnace that would allow for some weird and otherwise uncommon shapes. I took inspiration for the shape from two main sources being Howl’s moving castle (Calcifers furnace) and Monster Hunter (Cat Furnace). I made the original design using primitive objects to get a consensus and make sure everyone agreed with the direction I was taking this model. Liking the design of the dishes on the side of Calcifiers furnace and the smoke eyes on the monster hunter furnace I combined the idea to make a sort of vents. 

 

I expanded on the ventilation by adding almost whiskers which I felt was more reminiscent of a cat Fish and therefore continued my referencing through that.  It was shortly after this stage that I felt I had taken the model as far as I could and asked for the assistance of Conor. Conor took the model to add his own personal touches which although lead to a much more concise build that was more in line with the concept material did deviate heavily from my original design with the only piece remaining being that of the grate for inside the furnace.

The introduction of unique weapons was suggested by Conor in an attempt to have a completely unique design that, although fit with the overall theme, was personalized to our unique art style and modelling approach. 

Conor creating the Shovel Blade from Shovel Knight 

Stork creating the Dark Chocolate Sword from Cookie Run

Milo Making the Silver Scale Spear from Breath Of the Wild

Alex designing the Zarok’s trident from MediEvil

And My own weapon being Zabuza’s Great Sword from Naruto

 

These choices really allowed us to work with the theme and show off how well we understood the design aspects while sticking within the limitations of it. 

The process of development for these models followed a similar path as I gathered at least 1 to 2 references and designed the models in Maya for the Anvil, Tongs and Hammers I designed it off of products by a blacksmith called Alec Steele.

The Grinding wheel was an original idea made through familiarity with the reference material. 

The doors were made to look like skulls for the iconography of the reference material being Dan Fortesque from MediEvil, the Torches and walls followed this as well.

Texturing process:

Texturing was a straightforward streamlined process thanks to Alex as he had made a selection of smart materials that he then shared amongst the entire team and meant we were keeping within the parameters of the theme while still being able to use them to our needs. These textures include assets like wood, metal, glass, ceramics, stone and gems etc. 

Unreal Engine:

I used the scene provided to me by conor with all the imported assets and began placing them within the walls to gradually fill out the scene as I had already done a floor plan this didnt take to long

Lighting: My lights posed an issue however as the backing caused an unnatural clipping issue throughout my scene which did make it into the final version of my render

Editing:

Editing was done in DaVinci Resolve which allowed for lots of freedom to change how the scene looked but also came with its own problems as the playback speed would not fully render which meant editing to a soundtrack rather difficult, I also had to export using different colour spaces to be able to achieve the full range of detail in my scenes which unfortunately meant some of the lights were over exposed and I did not have the time to fix them.

Final Textures of many of my models

Final Rendered Sequence

Reflection:

During the duration of this project I utilized many of the skills I have learned throughout my prior course experiences but in a completely new manner and premise, from the concept of the project to the scope as well as working with a much smaller team. Working through Unreal Engine 5 has shown me an entirely new way of rendering, editing and lighting, prior to this experience I had never used the software or any form of a game engine with my only render engine experience being from Maya’s Arnold Renderer.

 

Having had experience with hard surface modelling before and using Maya it made the design of each individual model quick and easy to put to paper but looking back I realize this mind set also halted my progress in some areas as it prevented me from looking at some tutorials when I hit a wall at some models. The biggest issue from this project was my own poor project planning as I halted the progress on the final room layout to a much longer degree necessary which although was due to technical issues meant the UV process and texturing on that model in particular was rushed and not up to a good enough standard for industry work in future which is noticeable on a closer look.

In conclusion though I am still happy I met my deadline and finished with a portfolio piece I am happy with sharing. While the outcome of my final cinematic is one I am particularly happy with, I now know there are a number of things I would change if given the opportunity to work on this project again.