Yuk Tin Yau's Adventure through 3rd year!

For my final year project, I wanted to make a weapon configurator. I chose to make and use the Heckler & Koch G36c assault rifle as the base of the configurator. It was quite hard finding the right attachments that would fit, as well as attachments I felt I could achieve.

The whole process was quite challenging because I was trying out a new workflow (The Proboolean + Dynamesh workflow) as well as stepping into the tech side of UE4. The workflow was very good at creating quick and complicated high-low poly assets so it made certain pieces less time consuming to make. Even though it was hard at the start I felt I was able to learn the workflow and even work in a different way to that workflow to suit my specific needs. It was interesting diving into the tech side. I felt smart when creating a successful blueprint and implementing it.

For one of my modules, I had to complete 2 art tests. One of the tests was to create a Sonic Team Racing car for a sega character that wasn't already in it. I chose AiAi's Blazing Banana car. The car was supposed to be PBR textured, be no more than 45000 triangles and have an exterior and interior.

I enjoyed making AIAI's car, as it was stylised and didn't need to be accurate to real-world reference, so there was a lot of freedom. I did use some small cars to help make the wheelbase normal, but other than that I was able to create my own representation of AIAI's car, and just have fun with it. Though being a form perfectionist I wanted to match the positioning and silhouette the best I could, so that part took a while. 

For the other art test, I had to make  4 handheld melee weapons for Darksiders 3. I wanted to choose weapons that were new and unique but still looked easy enough to understand. So, I chose a Sword, Battle Axe, Shield and Chakram. The chakram can be used as both a throwing weapon or handheld. You could create your own designs or work from an existing concept. I chose to work from existing concepts as I could focus solely on bringing that drawing into 3D. So any of the weapon drawings were not my own.

Because of how stylised darksiders is, I spent a lot of time exaggerating sculpting the skull heads and the weapon wear. It was hard but I quite enjoyed sculpting as it was fairly straightforward, I didn't need to use lots of macros/scripts or switch between loads of software. It just drawing on a 3D model. The textures were quite hard to get right, especially with the concept I was following. So I had to check the game's weapons and combine other images.

I did a module specialing in hard surface modelling. For the 1st semester, I had to design, create and make promotional media of a sci-fi flyer from scratch. We had to texture it all using tiling textures and trim sheets for details. The flyer also had to be animated and mechanically, had to make sense.

The designing process was quite enjoyable as they didn't really set any restrictions as long as it was sci-fi and things. I wanted to make a ship that stood out and would make people say "Woah". So, as everyone else went futuristic I went more steam/dieselpunk since it had more mechanical moving parts, and I made mine massive to make it stand out more. Figuring out the ship's looks, purpose, features and how it functioned was fun yet challenging. Such as the side flippers, and how I researched different methods they would move.

There were a lot of hard challenges along the way, from designing to creating promoting videos and such. I went through loads of iterations and lots of problems, both at the start during the research leading all the way to the end when making the promotions media, but I enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot along the way. Some stuff I hope I can still remember at the end of the year and put to good use on other projects.

I've always been curious about things and how they work/could be improved. Within games, looking at the weapons/vehicles and seeing all the cool features makes me want to show off to friends, but if it's too plain I want to make it more interesting. But before doing any of that I need to improve/refine my skills so that I'm able to translate my thoughts into my art.

I'm graduating from 3 years of university this year, but I think I'm going to go into post-grad education to further improve my skills, and gather more about what I actually want to specialise in. I want to do hard surface modelling, such as weapons, vehicles and props, etc, but I still think I'm too spread out. I like making lots of different types of things and mixing things up. So, if I can work like that in the future then great, but if specialing is where I need to head then I need to figure that out. I don't really have a specific goal to strive for so perhaps that is also another thing I need first before continuing forward.

Thanks for reading/checking everything out. Any feedback is appreciated.