3D Model Portfolio for Games

Warehouse Office - Resident Evil 3

For this project, I attempted to remake a small area from the original game 'Resident Evil 3: Nemesis', in the same vein that Resident Evil 2 was recently remade. I wanted to do this as a comparison test of my own skills, since I knew Resident Evil 3 was also being remade, and so I wanted to compare my efforts when compared to what Capcom would do. This ended up not being possible, as this area didn't make it into the remake, but regardless I am extremely proud of what I was able to achieve with this project.

This is a comparison between some HD images from the original Resident Evil 3:Nemesis (left) and my finished scene made in Unreal Engine 4 (right).

I first blocked out the scene in Maya, and then proceeded to create the models one by one. After completing a small chunk of the objects, I would import them into Unreal Engine, slowly re-creating the blocked scene, but adjusting spacing as needed, taking into account how much space the player would need to walk around. 

I have detailed my process of creating the models using entries below.

Game Ready Prop - Lexington Typewriter

For this model, I used the Royal 10 Typewriter as a reference (images below), but branded it with the 'Lexington' name, so that it fit with the canon of the Resident Evil typewriters that are used as save points. 

Firstly, I make the model using Maya, as well as doing the UV mapping. Since this model has lots of small pieces, and for it's purpose of being used as a save point, I knew that I didn't need to go into incredible details with the mechanics, but I did my best to get as close to my reference images as possible. The main focus was to make the main body of the Typewriter look good under scrutiny, and for the logo's and branding to have enough space to be shown brightly and clearly.

Secondly, I texture it in Substance Painter. For complex models, I tend to use a single, or in some cases multiple 2K texture maps. I know that this is not ideal for optimisation, but my laptop that I work from struggles to create 4K texture maps unless I'm extremely careful, so I sometimes have to use multiple 2K maps in order to keep the same amount of quality.

If I am needing to add extra, more specific details to the textures, then I will take a UV snapshot into Photoshop so that I can add the details, as well as add logo's and other forms of branding that I have designed for the model. I can then create a fill layer with and alpha, so that I can add it back into Substance Painter later.

Lastly, I bring it in to Unreal 4, and clear up any issues that may occur with the transfer. In this case, I had a problem with the lightmass UV's, as the multiple UV maps that I had made had some overlap that I didn't catch. This is a problem that I have learned from since, and have made sure to spend more time making sure my UV's are as optimised as possible.

Robot Dog - Ghost in the Shell

The goal for this project was to create a non-humanoid character that could be animated and used as an actor in game. I also wanted to learn to tell a story with the texture work and positioning of the character. 

This character is from Season 1 Episode 14 of Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex. The only reference images I could get are from what I could photo myself whilst watching it on my television.

I modelled the character in Maya, but made sure to keep the individual sections of the Dog separate, so that they could be animated later, but in a way that also makes sense for how the dog will move. I also tried to organise the Texel Density of my UV's, so that I could make it as high quality as possible, despite only having a single 2K texture map.

I made the textures in Substance Painter, creating the clean model first, and then the damaged/bloodied version afterwards. The time I took to optimise the UV's whilst trying to avoid overlapping and repeated shells, meant that I could fully customise the look of the damage that the dog had suffered from. I tried to do this by only adding blood around the mouth and paws, dirt only on the front and lower sides of the limbs, etc...

All of the previous work allowed me to model, texture, and position the dog into two very different styles.

Game Ready Object - Portable Drill

For this project, I wanted to make a set of completely original sci-fi machinery. This drill is my favourite example of what I have made so far. The setting that the equipment has been made for, is that of an underwater diver, whom is tasked with collecting a liquid resource from underneath bedrock, all taking place on a hostile alien planet. So the equipment needed to be as compact as possible, be designed to serve multiple uses, and as if it has been made for ease of use.

For the design, I only took slight inspiration from real life portable drills, but instead mainly looked at machine operated heavy duty drills, as they will soon become the portable drills of the future. This lead to me using a bulky design, with plenty of handles and a shoulder stock so that the diver can handle it with some comfort. The drill itself is reinforced, with locks and levers put in place for extra safety when used.

I also added an adjustable tripod feature so that the drill can be placed down comfortably, whilst using the liquid intake operation of the drill. This drill is designed to be connected to a fuel tank, in which the liquid travels through into, but unfortunately I was unable to finish that in time for this entry, but the level of intake can still be seen in the yellow line along the side of the drill.

This was the first time I used a 4K texture for a model, which ultimately lead to a much better result with the model, however I had to leave some of the smaller parts of the model with very basic textures, as my laptop was really starting to struggle with the number of detail and layers I was adding to the model in order to make it look worn down, dirty and old. 

I also created some extra details using Photoshop, including the name and logo for the fake company that the diver works for, known as 'Pentastar Monarch', and I also made the heads up display for the screen on the drill. The idea for that would be that this would detail the current information of the drill's condition for the player, e.g. FU = Fuel, ST = Storage, etc...

I wanted to add more demonstrations of the different animations that could be used for this device, but unfortunately animation is not one of my main skills, and so only had the time to make this one example. This demonstrates the adjustable handle so that right and left handed users can handle the drill, and the drill in action, (albeit more slowly than intended). 

Thank you again for looking through my entry! Any feedback or criticisms of my workflow would be greatly appreciated. As I said, I am entirely self-taught, and I want to be the best I can be.