Environment Sword I opted to create the model in separate parts so that I could add in separate textures to add details later. Cross-guard Handle Blade
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Before I started working on the environment, I first needed a reference 3D model of a character to know the correct size of the doorways. I felt this was necessary because most of the buildings are skyscrapers and I thought a reference would be best in order to create accurate scaling when put in engine. I later added more details to the building by adding divisions into it, this will make it easier for me to create the glow effect from the Tron movies. After placing the character into the environment and laying the foundations for the building, I then used a Boolean tool to create the doorway and make sure it was the right scale. Once I made sure the scale was correct I stretched out the cube so that I could create the archway for the building. Once the cube had stretched to the point where both ends went through the building all that I had to do was use the Boolean tool, using the legacy algorithm. Finally, I extruded the divisions I added earlier so that I could later apply the glow texture to it once it was in engine. Finally, I optimised the model by removing some of the edge loops. All that was left to do at this point was to add the other buildings that I had created earlier. After this, I used automatic UV for all of the buildings separately and textured them in Unreal Engine. I chose this because Unreal has a stock chrome texture that I could paste over it and creating an emissive material isn't too difficult to do.
For my environment I decided to create a city plaza based on Tron Legacy. To do this I had to extrude the edges of my buildings and then apply a separate material to the edges. Once in engine, I created a glow map for the buildings and replaced the default lambert texture with the chrome one found in the starter pack. These combined created the look of Tron very nicely. Once I had finished this, I replaced the sky with a black one to further match the movie's look.
I have created a sword inspired on Corvo's sword from the game "Dishonored". I have made it fully animated so that it collapses into the handle, just like it does in the game.
What can 3D modelling be used for? 3D modelling can be used for many different things including architecture, movies, games and even prosthetic limbs due to recent technological advancements in the industry. Movies have used 3D models in movie making since the early 80's where it slowly became a more mainstream thing and slowly replaced practical effects due to 3D modelling making it easier to create props for action scenes and such. Movies like Tron are made almost entirely from 3D models, whereas the Star Wars series started off using models and practical effects but many of those effects were replaced with CGI as the movies went on, and further replaced when the Special Editions were released. Since the early 1990's games have been the preliminary use of 3D modelling for games such as Tomb Raider, which was released in 1996 alongside the first PlayStation, despite it being basic blocks it was a revelation as to what the future will hold for real time 3D graphics and gaming in general, however the levels were very linear and barren due to lack of hardware resources. What are Polygons? Polygons are the triangles that make up 3D models, they are essential to the creation of models. Vertices are the points at the sides of the edges which are used to move specific corners instead of the whole edge. Polygons create the faces of 3D models, the faces then have textures placed on them and can be given detail by programs such as Photoshop, substance painter, zBrush, or in the game engine itself. Polygons are also used to determine how many triangles a game is currently using, with this information it is possible for the game to be optimised to only use as many Polygons as it needs to have as opposed to the in-optimised model. What are ways of displaying models? There are many ways to display models, either through a renderer like Directx or Vulkan, or with an editor such as Maya and 3DS max. Depending on the software used, models can appear different or possibly corrupted if the model is incompatible. To make sure your model is compatible with the software you wish it to work with, you have to read up on what model formats are supported and which are not. You can usually display models in game editors too, so long as they have the functionality for it, which most do. For instance, in the Fallout 3 and New Vegas Editor, the GECK, you can see all of the models and animations in the game, so you know exactly what you're editing as you do it. What are N-gons and why shouldn't they be used? While N-gons have their uses, you should not try and use them to make transparent objects or something similar as this isn't an optimal way of creating the transparent effect. N-gons should be used however when you're optimising parts of a model, such as for a game where the player won't normally see the N-gons, such as the backs of interior models or the floors of buildings. It can be sometimes important to use N-gons in order to optimise a game to its best possible performance, however you have to take care when doing so and make sure the N-gons are in places that are not viewable from any angle whatsoever. For instance if you were making a racing game, you'd only want to use Ngons on parts of the interior that are never going to be in view such as the interior of the cars boot. Another thing to take note of is that not every format/program likes N-gons and will break the model if they are used or in some cases simply crash the software trying to use them, depending on how its coded. Geometric theory and how models are constructed Models are constructed through either Maya, 3DS Max or Blender. They have to be built specifically for the shape and size of the object you are building, therefore it helps to have multiple visual references and a scale of the item if possible. It is also important to know the sense of scale between interior and exterior levels, you don't want to walk into a small shack and have it be the size of a house on the inside, for example as that wouldn't make sense for the geometry. Importance of Polygon budget in Unreal Engine 4? Polygon count is important for many things, especially on weaker hardware because you want to optimise your game to run on as many systems as you possibly can. Without proper budgeting and optimising it will cause the engine to lag, or in extreme cases, crash entirely depending on the system and video RAM available. It is also worth noting that too many polygons at once can also cause system instability and cause the objects loaded into RAM to not unload and then slow down the entire PC until rebooted. On top of this you have to be careful that it doesn't completely overload the hardware to the point where it can cause your system to blue screen or your graphics drivers to fail. Thankfully, Unreal Engine 4 has a good quality LOD (level of detail) system, which automatically makes models further in the distance render at a lower quality to save on memory, GPU load, CPU load and Polygon budget. |
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