Venetian (Plagued) Corner WIP

Master Shader Update

I added a further layer to blend the various vertex painted layers together, making them feel more grounded by adding normal detail on the edges.

Water V2

I found out that the water shader model I was working with had a bug in my current version of Unreal that got updated in the next version.

I decided not to port the project to 5.1 both not to increase the risk of it getting corrupted and to allow for viewing in university to get feedback.

Post-Processing V2

I dedicated a lot of time to refining the postprocessing to make the scene appear less "cozy" and more cold and uninviting.

This ended up being more of a challenge then thought, as I naturally tend to create more inviting scenes.

I also added a slight fisheye effect to make the scene appear larger, while lowering the general color temperature and increasing contrast by making the lights more orange.

Fly Through Video

Lighting V2

Before initiating the texture painting, I had to have a more final version of the lighting

Texture Painting

I split my texture painting into 3 main passes. By first blocking out the main volumes, I could quickly make changes based on how much space they occupied within the scene. I then blended said volumes, and added mud to split up the volumes and the major blends.

Water Shader

I wanted to focus some time on the water shader for the project, as a large portion of the scene is the canal.

I started by creating ripples in Substance Designer, as I wanted them to look slightly stylized.

To tie in the shader with the rest of the environment, I used a "distance to nearest surface" node to create shore bands.

Seeing that I wasn't getting the level of results I wanted, I added in 3 separate Gerstner wave functions with completely different parameters to add in more realistic waves. The issue I had with implementing this function was that it was proceeding in one direction, clipping through the walls and breaking the cohesion with the rest of the scene.  

So I used the distance mask I created to isolate the shore to prevent the larger waves getting too near to the sides, tying in the entire shader more as it made the waves seem to bounce off the walls.

Modeling Adventure

For the past 2 weeks, I've concentrated on getting the textured 3D models within Unreal.
The modeling used modifiers to speed up development, with quicker creation and editing.

The trim sheet experience

All assets in game are textured via trim-sheet or with tiling textures in Unreal Engine.

This presented an opportunity to randomize the U axis of shells that were overlapping on the same trim, allowing for more variation within assets like the railings where the tiling could have been more visible.

Master Shader

I had been planning this master material since the beginning of the project, as I've always had a large interest in material blending.

There are 7 different fully developed materials blending within the shader, with the option to use uv coordinates or triplanar.

I'll use this wall image as an example.

The paint, concrete, gesso mud and bricks are blended together via vertex painting.

There's a secondary paint texture overlaid on the paint to add some color variation, but it can overlay other information as well.

A final dust layer ties the material together.

Height Blending

For height blending, I used different values of Bump Offset to give the illusion of different depths on the 7 different materials.

Update: Complex Materials

Finalized the other complex material I was working on while finishing a few other important materials and a trim sheet for the scene

Clams

Other Materials

Trim Sheet

I decided to create a trim sheet for most of the assets in the scene.

At the top, I have a trim that will serve both the top of the railings, and for indented metal detailing.

The second trim will be necessary for all the other metal shapes, with a beveled edge baked into the texture.

The third is a general purpose marble trim, for separating out trims when necessary, or for other details.

At the bottom, I placed the pavement for the bridge.

The Pitch

This is my favorite spot in Venice, close to my grandma's home and full of memories.

But I wanted to add a twisted difference: the Venice I wanted to make was with the plague. 

I searched for a LOT of reference both online and in person in Venice, focusing on materials and organized them in a messy and heavy pureRef (3.6 GB in this screenshot)

Blockout 1 and 2

Materials

I started what would become a major part of my work for this project: the materials. I started with the brick texture  to establish a feel, then added in the others.

I looked into color theory while creating my materials, deciding to add a bit of purple wherever I could with them, to add to the eeriness and contrast well with the green of the water and the warm sickly glow from the windows.

Complex Materials

I had a few materials in the scene that took a lot more time than others.

Complex Material 1: Seaweed

3 iterations on the seaweed stuck to the walls to get it to feel right