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starboltmodels · 4 years

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FEZ - Industrial Area Remix

A Hybrid environment, based on the industrial hub area from Polytron's FEZ. My second go at producing an environment. This was made for Msc Advanced Environment Design and Research.

Down below this is a little look into how it's been built.

I don't pretend to know of any principles of stylisation. The aesthetic and workflow was paved as I translated the voxel environment. So for example, all of the repeatable geometry is built to fit inside a 1mx1m space, because that's how I translated the pixel tiles to 3D space. I used snap settings appropriate to those units too. Later down the line, when the outliner grew crowded, I also built actor blueprints for clustered meshes such as the cables, the piping and other portions of the structure.

All of the materials derive their Normal maps and Ambient Occlusion either from trim sheets or combined UV maps, and they derive their colours and PBR from 3Vectors and Scalar paramaters rather than baked albedo/roughness/metalness. The details were grouped together based on their repetition in the level. The first trim sheet can be applied to over 70% of the level assets without changing anything except for colour or other scalar values. The final component in the master material is a mask, which gets used with linear interpolation to allow for a secondary set of values.

Masks play a key role in the whole aesthetic. The pixel style uses very spartan colour scheming; gradients, blending and grunge barely exist, but almost all of the tiles have an apparant primary and secondary material, which the masks are built as such to emulate. They denote differing areas of colour, opacity, emissiveness, roughness, metalness, even wear to apply additional normal data etc. The blueprint is simple but very easy to iterate with.

The resulting Material Instance is incredibly flexible. Every object in this environment, except for vegetation employs this master material in instanced capacities. It's also given me the chance to play around with making my own material functions. Amongst what I've made are -

Functionality to manually adjust texture coordinates in the Instances

Functionality which handles the masking of the 3Vectors outside to the master material, streamlining the main workspace.

Functionality to adjust the intensity of normal maps, using a scalar parameter in the instance

My own Crevice shader, which uses the ambient occlusion to darken or lighten crevices.

None of this is made using a borrowed workflow available online, mind you, although it does use certain techniques. I'd never used Unreal Engine 4 in an art-based capacity before this. I hadn't even built a working environment, period. The assets, blueprints and materials have all been built with the level they're being used for in mind. The foliage, the decals, the clouds, the sky sphere, the masks, the snapping units. All of it was new to me before I made it.

I was almost tempted not to upload this, since it's a very dubious piece when placed in the wider spectrum of industry. It could be a diorama as much as an environment, and it doesn't follow any of the conventional rules. There's no mind paid to texel density, or draw calls, or the player's path, since I was already learning about blocking out, lightmaps, trim sheets, decals, foliage, scene lighting, the spawning functionality which makes the clouds, and all of that jazz as I went. It follows no established workflow, nor is it 'game ready', either visually or technically.

I also think, in hindsight its a bastardisation the original level. FEZ, a game which I have no limit of respect for, maximises the ability to play and manipulate the conventions of 2D pixel graphics and isometric camera, so creating a 3D environment with a perspective camera is disservicing the original. Phil Phish, if ever you see this, I apologise for what this is doing.

However, this environement also represents a great deal of progress in my own skills. And as a piece to look at, and pan around as I've edited, I still think it's pretty gorgeous. I think I'd want to just take a nap here, then maybe see what was behind those doors.

This placed 13th in its category for the Staffordshire Unversity Final Year Students Showcase

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#fez #industrial area #environment #UnrealEngine #sam thompson #starboltprojects #project #blueprints #adaptation #fanart

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starboltmodels · 4 years

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The final submission for half of another Master's Project, but more importantly, the first piece of a new series of models, which, when finished, will create a much grander piece that I can't wait to share. This is the Red Lion Zord, the power animal of Cole Evans, the Red Ranger of Power Rangers Wild Force.

Historically the longest I've ever spent on a texture for any of my models has been one to two days. This, however, has been given a week, for me to try and chisel in as much detail as my observational judgement and my knowledge of Substance Painter can muster.

There are already more marks of use painted into these than I have any right to be a qualitative judge over, certainly compared to the textures I've developed previously. But I've done my best in my inexperience to place them where I would imagine the marks to be, and drawn some inspiration from a few places. I'm very pleased with the distance I've managed to climb from my previous runs at a hard-surface model material.

3DSMAX & SUBSTANCE PAINTER

This is a piece of fan art for Power Rangers and Super Sentai, and a recreation of a character from the show. The design isn’t mine, but the model and maps are all my own work.

#power rangers #power rangers wild force #red lion #wild zord #zord #lion zord #hard-surface model #Sam Thompson #StarboltModels #3D Model #3ds max #substancepainter #fan art #megazord #wild force megazord #super sentai #gaoranger #gao lion

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starboltmodels · 4 years

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INFERNO Skell - Xenoblade Chronicles X

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Produced over a 16-week development cycle for a Masters module in 3D Game Design. Two years on from my previous attempt at a highly technical transforming robot, this one is inspired by the robots from Xenoblade Chronicles X, and is an attempt at recreating one of the Skell models from the game - the Inferno, within a current-generation games engine, along with some of his weapons.

I made the piece with the intention of improving everything I possibly could about the way I developed assets through the various stages of a hard-surface pipeline, particularly looking to produce excellent map bakes, versatile materials and a true lighting setup inside Unreal Engine, unlike the approach previously used where I relied on Sketchfab for presentation.

This model is capable of transforming into an armoured vehicle and has customisable paint and light colours on the armour and weapons. It's as close to how it appears in-game, both in constructionally and technically as I could get it within my allotted time and skills.

Monolith Soft, if you see this, forgive me for not asking first if I could use Takayuki Yanase's concepts and your designs, and if you're looking for an artist to bring on for future Xenoblade games, do please consider me!

#3dsmax #3d model #unrealengine #skell #mecha #xenoblade chronicles x #xenoblade x #fanart

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starboltmodels · 6 years

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sketchfab

Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

These iconic keyblades are the Oathkeeper and the Oblivion, wielded by Sora, and later Roxas.

#sora #roxas #keyblade #sketchfab #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels #3d model #animation #weapon #oathkeeper #oblivion #kingdom hearts

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

(via Optimus Prime (Transforming Model) by FabStarbolt - download 3D model)

3D Transformer Model of Optimus Prime, with working transformation animation and texture.

Participant of CGTrader Awards

#optimus prime #transformers #truck #humanoid #transformer #vehicle #character #3dmodel #animation #sketchfab #fabstarbolt #starboltmodels #Sam Thompson #photoshop #substance painter #3dsmax #maya

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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Simple renders of my university Final Year Project (my dissertation equivalent), featuring Optimus Prime, modeled after a Revenge of the Fallen Leader Class Optimus Prime figure which I own. This high detail model has roughly 2.5 million polygons, and took roughly the equivalent of 7 working weeks to complete, 22 weeks in real time. By the time the project is over I should have his optimized version animated in transformation as well.

#optimus prime #transformers #3d model #3dsmax #high detail #render #humanoid #StarboltModels #Sam Thompson

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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Untextured Transformation for Optimus Prime

#optimus prime #transformers #truck #vehicle #transformation #mechanical #3d model #animation

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

This arrowgun is one of a pair known as the Sharpshooters, armed by Xigbar of Organisation XIII.

#xigbar #sharpshooter #weapon #arrowgun #organisation xiii #kingdom hearts #3dmodel #animation #sketchfab #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

This is Graceful Dhalia; a scythe wielded by Marluxia of Organisation XIII.

#marluxia #graceful_dhalia #scythe #weapon #organisation xiii #kingdom hearts #sketchfab #3d model #animation #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

This is Frozen Pride; a shield wielded by Vexen of Organisation XIII.

#vexen #frozen pride #shield #weapon #organisation xiii #kingdom hearts #3d model #animation #sketchfab #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

This is Arpeggio; a sitar wielded by Demyx of Organisation XIII.

#demyx #sitar #arpeggio #weapon #instrument #organisation xiii #kingdom hearts #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels #sketchfab #3dmodel #animation

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

This Claymore is named Lunatic, and is wielded by Saix of Organisation XIII.

#lunatic #saix #organisation xiii #claymore #weapon #3dmodel #animation #kingdom hearts #sketchfab #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

Part of a modelling project as a homage to Kingdom Hearts.

This tome is known as the Book of Retribution, wielded by Zexion of Organisation XIII, which contains magic powerful to conjure physically damaging illusions.

#zexion #book of retribution #lexicon #3dmodel #animation #sketchfab #FabStarbolt #StarboltModels #kingdom hearts #organisation xiii

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab

#optimus prime #transformers #sketchfab #3d model #truck #StarboltModels #FabStarbolt

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starboltmodels · 7 years

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sketchfab