For this assignment, we were tasked with getting into groups and creating a full 3D environment with real-time lighting in Unreal Engine, along with making a cinematic short film displaying said environment from various different and engaging angles.
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Pre-Production (Sept – Oct 2021)
When we came together as a team, we had already thought up of a couple of inspirations to research into further. This mainly included the Luigi’s Mansion series, which involves Luigi ending up in different haunted locations where he must face his fears and capture the ghosts that reside in those locations.
While looking specifically into Luigi’s Mansion 2, we were starting to recognise a few key features of the environment design that we all agreed that we wanted to include with our mansion design. One of the biggest traits we noted was how almost every object was askew to some degree; the intentional asymmetry of the silhouettes added a quirky charm that intentionally didn’t insight horror, but just more the idea that something in the area was off-kilter or odd.
Along with working on this concept art, we also started sketching out ideas for potential layouts along with how different models could be placed within the space. From this discussion, we would go on to create a Google Sheets where we would begin to list out all the potential models we would make (in order of large and small) and start assigning ourselves work.
We then continued to discuss the specifics of our style, planning to go into more detail about the story behind the mansion. Who used to live there? When did this take place? What atmosphere should we go for and how would we do it? These were questions that took us a while to figure out, but we eventually settled on the idea of the mansion belonging to a now deceased Taxidermist, and we would also be adding anatomical parts wherever we could within the designs of the models.
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Production (Oct – Dec 2021)
When designing the Picture Frame, I searched up different photos of antique Victorian-era picture frames as reference, where I noted details such as their generally boxy silhouettes with intricate carvings and patterns.
As I have been out of practice with 3D modelling after the Summer break, I was almost starting back from square one again with having to re-learn how to do simple tasks like divide quads and merge shapes. It took a few weeks before I got back into the swing of things, so when it came to the modelling of the Picture Frame, I feel I may have used a couple of convoluted methods to get my desired result.
The way I had intended to make the Picture Frame was by duplicating and mirroring the shapes so that I wouldn’t have to repeat the process of defining the unique silhouette on both sides, but as I was re-learning the basics, I was also becoming aware of how my intentions could work against me. In this particular case, I wasn’t originally aware that the vertices of the duplicated shape would just overlap loosely on the model, so I had to go out of my way to properly bind them together so that it wouldn’t affect the rest of the pipeline.
I was also out of practice with UV mapping, but with the aid of some automatic UVs, I was able to remind myself of the important facts. At the very least, the organisation of the UVs wasn’t as easy to forget, which made the process a bit more bearable!
When texturing the Picture Frame, I was mainly focused on two elements: add all the carved patterns with the height map and make sure to use the metallic map to add a golden shine to the final product. With the use of a drawing tablet to get very precise shapes, this section went by without any major issues.
When designing the Ink Pot & Pen, I was also taking reference from antique Victorian items. For the Ink Pot, I wanted to intentionally go for an angular silhouette as part of our final art style, though upon future reflection, I could’ve added more divisions to help with the lighting outcome in Unreal.
It took some time to refine the tip of the Pen, getting the exact shape used on calligraphy pens, but planning out the shape on a plane and then extruding to add three-dimensionality was a good foundation to work from.
The UVs here were also fairly simple to work out, especially since these were smaller props that didn’t need as much detail as some other bigger models did.
When designing the Bookshelf, I took in a mix of inspirations by referencing both antique Victorian bookshelves and the library seen in Luigi’s Mansion 2.
I started modelling the Bookshelf with very basic shapes, knowing that it would help to implement the wonky angles earlier on in the modelling process before any other embellishments were added.
I added a human model in with all of my Maya files to make sure I was keeping things in scale alongside it. After defining the main silhouette, I extruded certain faces to make the interior and started work on the doors.
Considering that we had finalised our Mansion as having belonged to a Taxidermist, we wanted to include many small allusions to this fact by adding animal-like details to the props (such as paws and bones).
There were a lot more UVs to organise with this bigger model, which was a bit of a test for me, but I worked it out in the end with some extra time and patience.
As for the texturing, this also took more time to finish compared to my other models, as I needed to add wood details in all the places that would generally be visible (which didn’t include the back).
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Post-Production (Dec 2021 – Jan 2022)
When starting with Unreal Engine, I wanted to get my layout sorted out first, which also gave me a chance to adjust to all the new elements that were present with the program. I wanted to make sure that the main room was of a large scale and very spacious to make all the walls and objects loom over the cameras and dominate the frame.
I quickly learned from our lectures that it would be more efficient to make instances of our texture materials, which would mean that the nodes were already set up in the material and you would only need to change the texture images for all the different instances used for the models.
Once my layout was sorted out, I got to work with importing all the models and textures, which wasn’t too difficult once I got into the swing of things, but just became a bit tedious as you would generally repeat the same steps over and over with only little variations for different material types.
For example, there needed to be a separate material for all of the candles, which used subsurface scattering to add warm details to the candle wax with lighting. From here, there would be multiple instances made to fit with each variation of candle and all of them would retain the subsurface colouring with no problems.
Another element that needed to be included was Decals for the paintings in the picture frames, where you need to make sure that, along with having the Decal face the direction you want it to appear on, that you also have the right texture settings for the images to show up as you intended them to.
When I moved on to the lighting, I knew that one of the main sections I needed to accentuate were the rooms that the two sets of stairs lead into. For the upstairs area, I used cool-toned spotlights to act like moonlight streaming down from above, and for the downstairs area, I wanted to use a harsh and unnatural red colour to imply that something dark and nefarious may have been happening in the basement.
As I was baking the lighting, I got a bit confused as the warmth and temperature from the lights in the left screenshot became washed out and white in the right screenshot. I tried recreating the lights themselves, but the same thing occurred, which left me to darken those lights so that the atmosphere I had intended wasn’t spoiled by off-putting lighting.
And finally, I came to the camera and composing section in Unreal, and I ended up having more fun with it than I was originally expecting. Messing around with the Focal Length and Focus was a lot of fun, along with composing interesting camera movement that would lead into striking final compositions and angles.
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Final Reflection
Considering the different odds that I has unwittingly stacked against me, I do have to admit that I’m still quite happy with how the final product turned out!
Not reflecting on my work from last year during the Summer break was my fault alone, and I came to understand that the hard way, as I feel like I was not able to help my team out as much as I could’ve with the creation of models. So that is one thing I wish to improve upon in the future, by continuing to work on small personal projects outside of Uni work and look over my past work on my blog to remember how I did things.
My teammates were nothing but kind and hardworking, and I am very glad to have been able to work with them and to have gotten to know them over this last semester!
I am also continuing to learn how to manage my time and not leave myself stressed out with work piling up on me. It was quite difficult this time, both because of the previous critique I mentioned, but also because of learning a completely new program like Unreal Engine, which is very large and complex-looking on the surface (much like other 3D programs when I first saw them XD). I put off learning about Unreal to a point that almost didn’t help me at all by the end, which is a habit I have to stay consistently aware of whenever I’m working with new things and regulate to the best of my abilities.
Again though, I am still quite happy with my final outcome, and once I did start understanding Unreal Engine, it actually became very nice to work on the lighting and cinematography elements near the end! I hope this can serve as an important learning opportunity for me, and that even with the continuous struggles, that I can continue to try get myself into better habits that can hopefully lead to good productivity!