Fujinomiya Outskirts: Forgotten Lands (Asset Pack)

Final Showcase

In-Depth: Process Through the Semester

Assignment 1: Environmental Prop Creation

This was my very first experience with 3D modeling, texturing and engine usage. The first image depicted marks my first ZBrush asset. While I appreciate the workhorse under ZBrush's hood, its UI struck me as abhorrent; orienting the asset versus actually rotating it felt beyond counterintuitive. Locating the various features within the program would have been impossible had I not been provided with tutorials. Nevertheless, I prevailed and generated a window that tiled with itself to make larger buildings. 

I exported my ZBrush creation into Maya 2022 in order to unwrap the UV. Previously unfamiliar with UVs, I learned the process fairly quickly. Cutting seams became therapeutic, though orienting shells grew more and more monotonous with time. In Adobe Substance Painter 3D, I baked the mesh maps via my high-res and fell in love with the texturing process. Adding environmental effects to assets is beyond simple with masking and generators. Thus, adding layers of paint and chronological dilapidation caused no issues. 

However, holes appeared in my mesh in Unreal Engine 4 upon import. Back in Maya, I merged the vertices and the problem was resolved. 

In the second image, you can see that I altered the aesthetic drastically. I sensed that my creation looked too similar to the instructor's, and so I altered the texturing and juxtaposition of the assets. 

Assignment 2: Wall Frame

In Assignment 2, I once again worked in ZBrush. I took advantage of the inset tool in Z-modeler to create the diamond-shaped indentions. The ability to paint onto the high-res to create more abstract, organic embellishments took me by surprise. Again, orienting the asset without changing its absolute positioning proved a pain and my UI woes failed to wane. Nevertheless, I was able to reach the next stage of the process. Unwrapping UVs in Maya was much easier this time as there fewer shells to distinguish from one another for texturing purposes. 

In Substance, I took advantage of the dirt generator to add shading to the indentions to draw further attention to the three-dimensionality of the asset. As mentioned before, I changed the arrangement of the assets to make a building completely different from the instructor's warehouse. Thankfully, holes did not appear in UE4 upon import.

Assignment 3: Modular Environmental Assets

In Assignment 3, I generated a shingled roof in Maya that I would unfortunately later scrap. This is not to say that this was not a learning experience. In fact, I went on to create a roof that used significantly less polygons and harmonized with the other assets better. The first roof saw me taking advantage of the shift+D command in Maya in order to duplicate shapes in a given trajectory. UV unwrapping was a miserable affair considering I was new to multi-object assets and mesh combining. You can see in the first roof that there was texture stretching on the sides. 

The second roof utilized a Quixel Bridge shingles texture that I imported into Substance. I still modeled some dimensions and details into the roof, but relied more on the illusion of 3D shingles in the texture. This design also allotted space for a roof base in a way that was unfeasible with the initial layout. Importing into UE4 succeeded without error each time.

In terms of the sign and the corner piece, I would forego the former and add material nodes to the latter. The material nodes depicted above allowed me to vertically stretch the corner caps as necessary without visible textural distortion. As for removing the sign, it proved overkill in the end. My final environment had a crosswalk and crosswalk sign, therefore a Japanese stop sign would be redundant. I will note that the texture was custom-made in Adobe Illustrator.

The sidewalk assets made use of Material Instances in order to break up their otherwise repetitive look adjacent to one another. Using color and noise, among other nodes, I made a number of instances to create a more diverse line-up of weathered sidewalk sections. 

Assignment 4: Another Environmental Modular Asset (Building Decor)

In Assignment 4, I created an overly-detailed chain-link fence that I would redo for similar reasons as the roof shingles. I also created Japanese-style balcony barriers that I would not need later in the process.

As an interjection, despite constantly redoing and deleting assets, my final environment went on to benefit from the creative revisions.

To resume, I individually modeled each and every chain link in the fence. I again utilized the shift+D command in Maya. This, of course, used a disturbing amount of polygons. Granted, I could have opted for retopologizing, but I deemed this unnecessary. I would, instead, utilize a 2D png file of a chain-link fence and make use of the alpha channel to make it transparent in Substance. Due to data corruption, I had to redesign the support poles of the fence. Neither time did I enjoy UV unwrapping cylindrical shapes, though I realize now that I had been overcomplicating the process tenfold.

I struggled to make the rice paper inside of the balcony barrier transparent in Substance, but I did not realize until later that I did not update the shader I was using. I went on to scrap this asset entirely, anyways. 

While the later version of the fence is notably simpler, it is more believable given the context of the scene (albeit this is subjective).

For a truss-like structure, I modeled a streetlamp. Here, I took advantage of the bridge tool in Maya to connect diagonal poles between each segment. UV unwrapping this was miserable, I admit, but I suppose it was worth it. Holes did appear in the mesh in UE4, but I resolved most of them merging vertices in Maya. Some still remain, but this may, in fact, be a bug in Maya's current version. 

I went on to design a completely separate structure. I primarily wanted to make use of Maya's 3D text tool to make a sign. In katakana, the text reads sūpābōi, or Super Boy. I struggled vaguely with adding small posts to make the text appear mounted rather than magically levitating. This convenience store is known as a conbini in Japan.

Assignment 5: Multi-Object Floor with Texture Variations

In Assignment 5, my first iteration of the wood plank floor did not tile very neatly. The texture variations I had created looked all too similar to one another and defeated the purpose of having texture variations in the first place.

In the second iteration, I opted for more water-damaged, weathered floors. I added physical idiosyncrasies to create cracks in the floor for lighting purposes. The newer planks, coupled with better end caps, fit into the final house better both aesthetically and literally.

In Maya, I decided not to delete any faces as I could not foresee whether or not all sides of the planks would be visible in engine. I usually did this as to not waste UV space. I would also combine my end caps to make space for a staircase. The instructor created the staircase in-engine out of floor pieces, but I opted for modeling the staircase in Maya. 

I made my texture variations for the modular floor in Substance instead of in UE4 via material nodes. I did, however, make use of material instances to change the variations with ease. 

Assignment 6: Building Environments in UE4 Using Modular Assets

In Assignment 6, I humorously struggled with foliage (this was NOT funny in the moment). My experience with World Machine proved fun, however. I could have gone with the extremely hilly terrain that most generate, but the land around the base of Mount Fuji is quite flat (the only time I have left the country was to visit this mountain). Thus, I decided on a moderately hilly space with a massive volcanic mountain. I would add a panoramic cylinder to the map for greater detail on the horizon line.

The first image shows the foliage sitting on a hidden cube beneath the terrain. For a reason that remains unbeknownst to me, I could not paint foliage onto the terrain. Oddly enough, the problem was solved when I switched to a different asset pack from the Marketplace on the Epic Games platform. 

In UE4, I had no qualms with the sky atmosphere, volumetric clouds, fog, directional lighting and the like. Setting up the materials for the terrain was tedious (and convoluted, I would argue), but successful.

Assignment 7: Environment Asset (Student's Choice)

In Assignment 7, I created a sign to accompany a crosswalk I would add later. I custom-designed the texture in Adobe Illustrator. I redesigned the final version for visibility purposes (the colors were not complementing the lighting and location). 

I made use of the beveling tool in Maya extensively. However, this led to my battle against ngons. I resolved this via triangulation, but for the longest time, I did not realize that it was the beveling that was causing the ngons. After overthinking for what felt like a millennia, I triangulated the front and back of the sign. UV unwrapping was easy as I was better at laying out my UV shells at this point in time, as well as working with multi-object assets. 

I then added a small pond-side Japanese temple that I designed using traditional notes. Rice paper walls, alternating geometric fencing, tubular shingles and roof flairs that angle to the zenith mark the historically-Japanese architecture. I also included tatami mats for the floor. I did struggle with selecting a material for rice paper, but I settled on a beige fabric in Substance.

Assignment 8: Creating Environments (Pt. II)

In Assignment 8, I would have to redo the pond due to the corrupted file issue from earlier. Thankfully, this was quite simple to create. I placed rocks around the pond using the foliage tool. I then placed a plane in the pond that I set to be invisible in order to place lily pads and water cabbages. Given the apocalyptic nature of the scene, I figured no humans would have been present to tend to any overgrowth.

Unfortunately, I never figured out how to change the water's color successfully. I had set it to be a darker green to mimic algal blooms, but this always resulted in a saving error. Scouring all of the troubleshooting forum threads in the world did nothing against this behemoth of an annoyance.

In Maya, I utilized the soft selection tool in order to raise and lower vertices of a multi-edgeloop plane. This was a means of constructing background terrain pieces on which to place trees. Such an asset augmented the illusion of a diverse, filled space despite its truly vacant nature. Textures from textures.com contributed to this asset. 

I also created a panorama background card in Maya. By reversing the normals of a shallow cylinder, I was able to add a mountainous background with a transparent sky. Due to a visible seam, I used the offset tool and a mask in Photoshop to hide it.

Assignment 9: Environment Asset with Animated Effects

In Assignment 9, I created a barrel with burning debris inside. Using a panner node, lights and particle effects, I created fire and smoke. However, I found the visual far from convincing. Not only that, a burning barrel would imply the presence of human beings, defying the abandoned theme of the scene. Thus, I decided to create plumes of smoke exiting the conbini (Japanese convenience store); this was to simulate a furnace combusting the very last of its fuel following the abrupt abandonment. In hindsight, the barrel would not have proved too offensive to the scene's "lore" after all, but I preferred these visuals nevertheless. 

I also created a construction barrier with alternating flashing lights. This was a surprisingly complicated effect to create, at least for an amateur (it did make me reminisce about the simplicity of logic gates in the LittleBigPlanet franchise). I included an image of the nodes behind it. I made use of emissive color to create the glowing look. The hardest part had to have been making the flashes instantaneous rather than soft and gradual due to using a sine wave. 

Assignment 10: Final Real-Time Environment (Camera Fly-Through)

In Assignment 10, I created a camera fly-through in my scene. Using keyframes and the "Transform" section of the Sequencer caused me little to no difficulties. I used the same tools to manipulate the movement of the conbini door. Adding fades and camera cuts also proved easier than expected. 

I performed all of the sound design in Logic Pro X. I used a sound byte of Japanese cicadas (notably different, believe it or not) as well as a sample of both a mechanical door servo and a "welcome" tone. As for the song that plays inside the store, this is a piece I composed in the style of 80s Japanese city pop. City pop is a uniquely-Japanese fusion of Western soul, funk, disco, jazz and rock that boomed during the height of the nation's bubble economy. I added a simulation-tier reverberation to the song that mimics the acoustics of a tiled room, of which my convenience store is without a doubt. I then automated the volume of the cicadas to be lower when the camera was inside of a building. 

I embedded the audio into the video via Final Cut Pro. 

Overall, learning all of the aforementioned proved strenuous but greatly rewarding. I now possess the skillset to assist my colleagues with their game development and asset texturing; I can now make room in my tool belt for such skills alongside my ability to compose, mix and master musical arrangements and environmental sound designs.