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.

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

Time for another update, and this time I've got enough parts of the gun textured to actually show a half-decent look at the project as a whole. Please keep in mind all images are still WIP and not final. 

With about 20 individual parts to choose from so far, we have a decent amount of customisation options available, with each part falling into either the Classic wooden style, a Militia/Guerrilla loadout, A modern, familiar but lightweight version or a more tactical looking setup.  There are more pieces that I want to add to the project but for now I'm going to focus on the original 20 and then when they are all finished, look into the additional parts. 

I have pretty much finished the classic wooden parts, but I'm thinking that I should make a more worn and rougher texture for the metal to help fit the classic insurgent looking rifle that you'd see in all your favourite war films. The current metal texture is lightly worn with a few scuffs here and there, but since I made the texture versatile and easily modifiable, I should be able to quickly make a "rough/dirty" version of my Smart material. This will also likely be used with the Militia/Guerrila style as well to properly give that used, battle-worn look.

The Modern + Tactical variations are the last parts that need attention. I have finished the Tactical parts but the simpler, modern furniture still needs to be textured, but luckily that should be fairly simple with the Smart materials I set up a few weeks ago. I would like to make some sort of reflex/red dot sight to add to the modern variations, along with maybe a torch or laser to stick on the rails, but they currently sit in the list of extra parts that I will have to focus on after I've finished the core sets. I'm really loving this project so I have a feeling that I will get a little carried away with the extras, so at some point i'm going to have to slap myself on the wrist and put the mouse down. 

It's a really good feeling to finally see all of these parts coming together. This has been a dream project of mine for a while so getting closer to the end is rather exciting. Hopefully the next blog post will see the texturing completed along with some early renders if we're lucky :D

See ya in the next one!

Time for yet another well-overdue update on the project 😁

Since the last blog post I've made a decent amount of progress but not as quickly as I had hope. A bout of sickness and other priorities taking up my time have slowed my progress a bit but hopefully I should be getting back up to speed again now. I've mainly spent the time finishing up the unwrapping of the remaining pieces and making some smart materials for the project that can be used for this project along with any future guns that I will make.

These textures are still gonna need a lot of tweaking but I think I've got a solid base for my gunmetal texture (above) and the wood texture that I showed off in the previous post for the grips/stocks of a classic AK. The version shown here is the "clean" version, as if it was fresh out of the shop and giving off a modern AK feel, but I also plan on making a classic grey and very worn version that most people would associate with an AK-47 that they would have seen countless times in films and games. 

As you can also see at the top of the layer stack, I am also experimenting with making some camo variants that most people expect in modern shooters, but that's not going to be my main focus, so that will likely be looked into more after the main parts of the project has been completed. Hopefully over the next two weeks I'll be able to make better progress on the textures for several more parts of the gun and start being able to combine them into a marmoset project and the Unreal scene I'm also working on.

Until the next one,

Adam :D