World Machine

Spent the morning getting World Machine set up, ironing out issues with WM-Unreal on a 1 to 1 ratio... and there were a few more issues now that I only have Standard version, instead of the Pro I had at work. The issues are in WM and I sent them an email. It will be very hard to work with it in this setting configuration as it stands now.

As for the why, I love WM! I like getting a natural base for a level with the procedural elements that makes designing around them actually fun.

Lighting & Materials Update

Messed with lighting, actually re-worked the materials again. I had some my metal mask not set to 100% metal (which was originally correct btw) anyway, re-studied PBS materials and got a new understanding of roughness ranges, and I continued to tweak. 

Still working on rigging. Getting a professional level workflow and pipelines from my friend but its a bit more of an ordeal to get running... so that's on-going behind the scenes. 

trying to remove tiling from water. Color tweaks, detail, depth and shore fx are still needed.

shadows too dark b/c of incorrect static lighting settings for vegetation. 

4.7.2 update, messed with veg shader... altho the simple part, the material, is easy. I think the trick will be lighting it. As you can see the static lighting isn't right on it as static baked.  I'm sure there's a doc that says I should have checked the box, don't use static lighting or something. 

Rigging Research

Well not as exciting an update b/c I spent a lot of time rigging, test animate, throw away everything start over. I've narrowed down what I'm going to use, and most likely its HumanIK with maya. Also looking at rigging tools like The Rigging Toolbox. I want simplicity, high quality, fast reproducible results. I also don't know what HumanIK as middleware is, or if that's an option... anyway... so rigging research.

Generic Character Proportion

We need a generic character to be all characters for gameplay scripting/coding, and testing. This is the generic character shape for humans/humanoid characters. I describe it as a smooth beveled head, with a "onesie" pajama body.

Heads will appear even bigger b/c most characters will have a helmet or hat on.

Producer Hat

I sort of re-read the last post with a producer hat. Here's how that went:

PRODUCER HAT
You doubt you'll have the character ready by Saturday AM? Why are you sculpting? We don't need that, we need a simple blocking character with anim.

ARTIST
I know, but I want to get the scale right before I rig and I need to see the details to know if that needs to be changed.

PRODUCER HAT
But you're close now aren't you? Can't you just make a simple low poly version that scale, rig and animate that?

ARTIST
I could.

PRODUCER HAT
And how long would that take?

ARTIST
Not long.

PRODUCER HAT
Then can we stop sculpting for now and get that asset to Andrew to remove his blocker?"

ARTIST
Yes *heavy sigh*

My artist side wants to do things that are not in the best interest of the game as a whole. I have to also be my own producer and stop that and keep me on task. I kinda hate that but it does keep my artistic energy up b/c I have all these things in mind that I can't wait to do. 

Hood

Did a few cloth sims to get a sense of size. Obviously it can't really be the right scale hood with a head this big.

Scaled it by 50% did a better, more natural shape for the hood and re-sim'ed it.

Lost some of the detail in the sculpt when I brought it in and messed with its shape and silhouette.

Still have more work to do, and its going to be tough with a house guest for the next few days. I'll see what I can squeeze in, but I doubt I'll have the character ready by Saturday AM. New goal is end of weekend.

Character Start

Have to switch gears to the character. Andrew, the Gameplay Programmer, will need something by this weekend to start getting the actual game part going. We'll definitely need him rigged and block in animation by Saturday AM.

I blocked out the character from the initial sketches, slapped a texture on him and placed him in engine.

Um no. Head too big, body doesn't have the right frequency of detail to match the environment. Quick Sketch to hash out ideas...

Better, but I also realized its going to be a sculpt > bake normals kinda workflow. Which is fine especially for characters. So started to sculpt him but have to go to work...

This is where I'm at WIP. I like his new hair and 20% smaller head, or is it 20% bigger body? The bigger change is going to be his clothes. I'm thinking Robin Hood with a mage cloak/cape sort of thing. Might add a hood, we'll see.