I've been a bit quiet in regards to keeping this project updated. I took some time for myself, and started several other new things that were exciting at the time, but I've been coming back to add little bits and bobs to this scene when the mood strikes.

It's almost there, but it just needs a bit more character I think, so I'm working on some additional props to give it some life. I'm still playing around with the mood of the scene so I'm not sure if it'll remain quite as dark as it is now. I think I need to also make the station name pop more, so I may make that into a larger, logo sort of sign akin to those in the London Underground. UE5 is a powerhouse with some great features, it's been fun so far learning some new methods on how to push my work further. 

Hoping to wrap it up before the end of the year along with another small project, but only time will tell if I can get both finished. 

By now, it might be clear that I like to change up what I'm working on... A LOT. 

The pedestrian underpass idea went through a few design changes and shifted towards a more open subway station sort of scene, and then I decided to push that fully into a metro station environment, as that's just how things started shaping up. 

I'm reusing parts of the old scene(s) that I liked in this new one, but for the most part it's completely different to how it started off earlier this year.

I've also rebuilt the project in UE5, which is absolutely amazing so far. I've not done much within the new version but I'm learning as I go.

Slowly but surely progress is being made, but life always finds a way of taking my time with other stuff.  I'm trying to bump up the time I spend on it weekly though to get out of this groove, so hopefully we'll be seeing more of this scene soon. Once I start getting a few more props finished and the odd megascans asset placed, I'm hoping the place will come alive.

So I wrapped up my Dungeon environment a few weeks ago and I immediately began working on a new project that I've had sat at the back of my mind for a while - A pedestrian underpass!

Whilst that doesn't really sound all too exciting or anything, the image that I've got in my mind should hopefully turn out to be a really beautiful scene. I'll be playing with different lighting to make it pop, I'll be using megascans assets for some debris and decals alongside my own, and I'll also be incorporating a new substance designer tutorial that is currently teaching me how to make beautiful mosaics that I plan to have running the length of the tunnel.

Progress so far (tunnel textures are temporary):

On a sadder note, my grandmother passed away last week and I wanted to include a little memorial to her in some way in this, so below you can see the beginnings of a memorial spot for her, to give back for all of the support and love she gave me for my work, even though none of it made sense to her XD 

Hey!

It's been a little while since the last update but I have been chipping away at this project, and you can see a little preview of where it's at right now.

I think I will change up the wall and floor textures a little bit to make them a bit grimier and blend better together, and maybe make the ceiling a little more interesting as I think it's a little plain to look at currently.

I've implemented all of my main props so after that I'm just looking at finishing off the lighting and setting the mood for the final renders. I've got a few camera angles lined up, including the one above that is from the view of the CCTV camera so I'm gonna be messing with some post process effects for that one for a bit of extra flavour.

That's all for now but hopefully there will only be a short wait until the thing is finished and I can move onto one of the other 20 projects I've got bouncing around in my brain (or actually finish that motel scene).

Hey!

Thought I'd provide a little update on the dungeon environment. I've been chipping away at various assets this past week and the thing is slowly coming together as I had envisioned. 

Here was the rough concept I drafted for the scene:

And here is the current state: 

So far I've stayed fairly true to the original plan. A few things so far are different but the main vision I wanted has been achieved. Still plenty of more set dressing props to complete but I'm happy with what's been achieved so far. The door appears too dark to pick out any real detail currently, but that is an easy fix. I'm not 100% set on the lighting so I may be able to show it off some more, but I'm liking the dimly lit vibe. 

I'm not sure about the standing mirror, It may need some tweaking or being (re)moved to make way for the table that I have in the concept.  I'm also going to try my hand at scanning an old chair that we have to implement into the scene, so we'll see how that goes. 

That's all for now, I'll see you in the next one :D 

Adam

Happy New Year!

After a quiet end to 2020 due to moving house, I'm getting back into the groove with my work once more and trying to pump out some environments. 

The motel environment from my last post has been chipped away at every now and again and is now close to completion, I'm just trying to set up some nice lighting for the final shots. 

I've also started an interior environment that I'm using to test out some RTX features for the first time in UE4, aiming to create a sinister (yet shiny) looking dungeon. It's far from done as I only started it last week but here is a cheeky pic of where it's at so far. 

I'm looking to hopefully finish both of these over the next month or two, so watch this space. :D 

Over the past few weeks I've been working on a modular motel environment in UE4. The aim is to create a realistic exterior of the motel using a collection of reusable assets and so far I have got all of the core assets implemented, i'm just left with the creation of decorative props and then backdrop scenery, before moving onto the lighting and presentation phase. 

I've updated some previous assets from my Alleyway asset pack/project, optimizing and re-texturing them to fit this new environment, which has saved some time and also highlighted previous errors in my workflow, so it's been a good learning experience.

Next update should showcase the final layout and general feel of the finished environment.

Hey!

So this project kinda came out of nowhere and was done in the space of a week, hence the lack of blog posts about it, but here is a summary of the whole thing. 

Last weekend a group of colleagues and myself decided to do a little modelling challenge, using the prompt of "retro" to make a prop in the long weekend that we all had off, so I decided to go down the 50's diner route and make a classic booth. I managed to complete that fairly quickly and it looked kinda bare on it's own, so I pushed it a bit further and created a table and some little decorations to make it look a little more special (see below)

That was all done by the end of the long weekend, but I just had something niggling at me to push it even further, so I made the rest of the diner, as you would. I smashed out a few props every evening after work finished, which was pretty easy since i'm currently working from home so I just kept the productivity juices flowing after 5:30pm and eventually I ended up with a small but fleshed out diner scene that I'm quite happy with. More can be seen on the main portfolio page.

For something done in the space of just over a week, I'm really proud of how it turned out. I find that sometimes I'll spend weeks and weeks on the same thing and I'll eventually get sick of looking at that project, but this short turnaround has been a real nice change and I think I may try and do more little projects like this that I can move on from pretty quickly. 

Until next time :D 

Adam

Happy new year to anyone who reads this :) 

As you can see from the image below, this doesn't look like the shack scene that I was working on previously. That project has been put on hold for now as my desire to work on a different project took over. I decided that I wanted to make a firing range/gun workshop scene that I could incorporate my last project, the AK-47, in a game engine, namely UE4 again. 

I've made lots of progress over the Christmas break and have finished a decent amount of the decorative props for this environment, including the tools below. These tools were a good little start to the project, using real-life references to try and make the tools look as close to reality as possible without going overboard on the polycount, and I'm quite proud about how they have turned out. 

 I might put these up for sale (after changing the branding of course) for people to use in their projects at they are nicely optimised for a first person game at 1907 Polys across all 3 objects, with one texture set. 

Plenty more posts to come on this in the future.

Adam

So the time has come to publish the final post for this project. It's been a few months since I started this project, chipping away at it most evenings after work, but now I can finally say this is finished and can be put into the gunsmith system that it was created for.

A week or so ago I finished and uploaded the modern variations of the AK and today I have uploaded the classic, battleworn variations, and it feels good to be able to see the final products side by side on my website. I learned a load of new techniques during this, created some cool and reusable smart materials and have come out of it with the project that I dreamed about at university. 10/10, would do it all again.

As for what comes next, I think I'll move onto an environment as I've been having a few cool ideas lately, however I loved creating all of the individual components and attachments for this, and guns are my JAM, so I will no doubt circle back to this project with some more additions one day. 

Thanks for reading, see you in the next one :D 

Adam