TWahl
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Blog Comments posted by TWahl
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7 hours ago, Marcousik said:I'm curious, did you manage to sell some your textures, your work yet ?
Hey no problem - I have not done so yet although I am getting closer to finishing up. I'm hoping I can start selling my models and textures sooner than later. It's been quite an arduous process so far. Although I'd say 99% of the work involved with this has been condensed into the past year or so I still can't believe this sprouted into a multi-year long ordeal sometimes. I'm 25 now and I started this when I was 21-22...
For me a big obstacle since I have started has been balancing my schedule (work/social) and avoiding burnout. There are a few times I've told myself I'd take a week off in the past and then I'd end up decompressing for a month to regain focus. I have a very active lifestyle also (physical fitness) so I have to find time to do weightlifting too. And recently I started volunteering as a COVID vaccine distribution helper in my city (USA) on top of all of that
But I think taking those breaks like that has been a benefit since it has forced me to stop, think and take a fresh look at things before returning, which allows me to more easily see areas that need improvement. I won't lie - there were points where I seriously questioned why I decided to make so many textures haha.
But at the same time I've always dreamed of making a pack like this, and I think it is cool because I was able to re-use or re-imagine a lot of very old artwork I made as an early teenager to when I was in high school.
Feel free to ask me any more questions!
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9 hours ago, Josh said:
I like that you are designing it for a specific environment. What are the characteristics of a sci-fi reactor? A nuclear reactor is the closest thing we can base this on.
When the textures guide and suggest the level geometry, that is when the level design magic starts.
Yes that is actually a lot like how I envision this particular texture to be used, maybe in some sort of core room where the player has to go in and destroy some critical equipment or machinery. I keep thinking of some top-secret technology that is used as well.
Pipes and wires will all be modular assets that I will work on eventually as well. Super easy to model and I will probably start on those first after the corridor pieces I plan on creating using a trim sheet workflow (commonly used by a lot of studios these days and has been around forever).
QuoteSince there is probably a lot of vertical space, you might think about what texture should go on top of your texture above? What should be below it? Can they be mixed and matched to make interesting patterns? Will the floor the rest on have any curved walkways? Are there pipes and supports coming out of the wall?
Believe me that due to the sheer amount of materials that I modeled and baked out, this probably will not be an issue haha. There are so many different types of floor and ceiling textures that it is sometimes hard to even comprehend. I made so many that I forgot what a few even look like!
In terms of level design though, most of the more complex shapes I intend to carry accross using modular assets or purpose built pieces that will create more interesting corridor or room shapes beyond just square rooms or grid-like spaces. Buttresses, trusses, consoles, large vents and animated fans all come to mind:
Below is one of the concept arts which I grabbed from the internet somewhere a long time ago which might give an idea of the setting and different types of assets I am trying to create. No idea who the original artist was but I guess if they see it here then I will give them their credit!
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Next timelapse will involve texture painting, when I get to that stage (very soon).
Thanks for the support!
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1 hour ago, JMichaelK said:
There is a bit of confusion in the lighting. Am I looking at a specular reflection from a scene light, or is the little light on the wall illuminating the wall itself?
I set up a dim omni light in the middle of the scene as well as a series of white-ish omni lights on the walls.
(FYI Omni lights are also the same as conventional point lights in Max, in case you were wondering).
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18 hours ago, JMichaelK said:
Your process is very well organized. How do you make decisions? Why 30 more? Why not 50 or 20? How do you structure things and come up with a final plan when the nature of creative work is completely open-ended?
Back in 2017 I had initially created hand-drawn heightmaps, I chose to remodel them all in 3d for baking/texturing (not to mention higher visual quality). I figured that I might as well try to replicate them all since I had put in all the work to create them when I started. In total there were 50 plus for floors, walls, and trims. Most of these hand drawn heightmaps were based completely or at least partly on work I did back when I was younger (2010-onward), so there was some sentimental value on re-imagining past work from when I was still learning I guess. Makes no sense to not use whatever reference material I already had available as inspiration.
The other reason is that I am trying really hard to give the end-user the most amount of art variation possible. Too many times I have bought asset packs in the past where the visuals got irritably repetitive very quickly because you only had a small selection of assets to choose from. I would like the end-user to have no two rooms look visually the same, hence the sheer amount of content.
As far as structure goes, I am taking this project in phases. Right now is the modeling/baking phase. Then will be the texturing phase, environment modeling phase, prop modeling phase, product/marketing/research finalization phase, and so on. In between these phases I exercise open-ended creativity as much as possible, but the advantage of taking an organized approach like this (where I track what is or is not completed) allows me to:
- See the amount of work I am completing more visually in real time, and also what I have remaining to do without hunting and pecking for files.
- Plan ahead for the amount of content I intend on including, relative to what I have already available or completed.
- Ensure that quality remains consistent and that I am devoting my full effort into a single step of the asset creation process before moving onto the next. I wont have some items finished while others are half way done, for example. This also prevents burnout.
- Have a better idea of what exactly the next steps in the plan will be, and ensure that I am fully prepared/have all materials ready to move onward (i.e., having all maps and models baked out for substance painter).
I say 30 or so more wall textures, simply because I started with 57 hand-drawn height map images, and have updated my excel tracker for the ones that I have already completed. I could easily add more content if I would like, and in that case I would simply add more entries into my tracker.
It is also worth mentioning that I work as an engineer in the automotive industry during my day job, so for our projects we tend to use similar forms of tracking (open issues lists for meetings, project milestones, assessment checklists, deliverable checklists, project trackers/forms, etc). I applied the same methodologies here, albeit on a relativelt smaller scale.
I hope that clarifies things a little bit - I might not have explained everything entirely clearly since I am pretty tired tonight but I might take a look at this tomorrow and see if there is anything that I am leaving out that I can elaborate on.
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3 hours ago, tumira said:
Thank you! Are we allowed to use this in other game engines or only in Leadwerks ?
No problem!
You can use them in any game engine you choose - completely up to you.
I have a couple more I made as tests that I may end up giving away as well.
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Scifi Trim Texture Preview
in Work in Progress - Scifi PBR Media
A blog by TWahl in General
Posted
Yeah no problem! I agree with your points about recovery.
Oh well I sort of meant the whole so many textures thing as a bit of a joke. It's just a lot of work haha, but that does not mean I don't enjoy doing it. If anything I think it will end up being a good selling point. I have bought 3d asset packs many times in the past and while some of them contain a fair variety of assets I always wound up being fairly limited in that you could only create the same types of environments over and over again. That is something I want to address with this and give more creativity to the end user. In the end I don't feel the need to justify the size of the project to anyone - it's just the path that I chose and I am happy with it.
I think in the end with the way I plan on distributing everything there should be no issues regarding this either as I will be giving the option for individuals to purchase singular textures if they only need a few for their projects. I.e. I will be uploading each one individually for download/purchase.