Blog Task: 2

Real-time vs Pre-rendered

For our second blog task, we are assigned to understand the use of tri counts and texture budgets in rendering.

What is pre-rendering?

Pre-rendering allows users to create extremely high-quality graphics that are as near to reality as possible. By using high poly modelling, surfaces, textures, materials, light and shadow, visual effects and other elements to build realistic objects and scenes. However, the content is not interactive because everything is computed in advance by a computer and takes a long time to render.

Many games pre-rendered their cutscenes as well, in order to improve the presentation of the storey and the player's interest in the story. Pre-rendering is also often used in movies with CGI effects.

What is real-time rendering?

Real-time rendering is used to render interactive scenes, such as in 3D computer games, and each frame must normally be generated in a few milliseconds. Unreal and Unity are two examples of typical examples of real-time rendering. Because of the need to render things quickly, the graphic quality isn't quite as high as pre-rendered models.

Example: Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

Prerendered trailer and cutscenes: 

Actual in-game model/ real-time rendering:

References:

https://unity.com/how-to/real-time-rendering-3d

https://light-and-shadows.com/real-time-and-offline-3d-rendering-what-are-the-differences/

https://www.foxrenderfarm.com/share/what-is-the-difference-between-pre-rendering-and-real-time-rendering

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/assassins-creed-valhalla-how-to-get-the-best-performance-on-pc

House/Shop Project : Tiling texture

Before I start making the texture of the shop, I took a screenshot and put them in photoshop to paint over to see which colour scheme would fit. I use overlay mode as the main effect of the paint over with the help of gradient maps. 

Colour palette test

Roof Process

Sketches

I first start with the roof. I aimed for circular shapes at first before thinking it would take up too much tris to do it and so I changed to a more brick-like tile.

Tiling test

I made this tilting test the same method as I did for the tree bark exercise.

Which is by going to Edit->Define Pattern ->Layer->New Fill Layer->PatternI find stones are very tricky to get the shapes and texture right. If it looks too messy the tilting would look weird. If it is too symmetrical and neat it will also look weird. I later find references to clock out the shapes and start on the painting.

Painting 1

Painting 2 + adding highlight

Gradient mapping

Final

Roof tiling texture

Stonewall Process

I find stones are very tricky to get the shapes and texture right. If it looks too messy the tilting would look weird. If it is too symmetrical and neat it will also look weird. I later find references to clock out the shapes and start on the painting.

Sketches

Shading and adding highlights to the stones with soft brush

Offset test

fixing up the seams and adding colour gradient

Final

Stone tiling texture

Plaster wall Process

For the plaster wall process, it is quite easy as I only use textured brushes and spray tool. Then I used the offset and fix it by blurring the seams with blur brush.

Textured brush used

Tiling test

Final

Plaster tiling texture

Final Tiling

I am very satisfied with the final texture and it really suits the fairy sweet bakery and flower shop I aimed for. I would love to make it more detailed and improve myself on painting if I have the chance to fix it with more time on it.

Tilting texture on the shop

Ellipses and Symmetry

This week's task was to create a still life using ellipses. The technique I use was similar to how I did in the Measured Constructive Drawing task and X-Y-Z Section Drawing mixing in together. This task was not as hard as other tasks for me.

Thumbnail Sketch

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

 

Sketching process during class 1

Blocking out the location of each object

Blocking out the location of each object - add perspective

Prefinal sketch and adding weight lines

Final Piece

Tool used: 2B - 5B pencil and putty eraser on A3

I am satisfied with the work and how clean the lines are.  However, I got feedback that my forced perspective was a little too much but I can keep doing my work. There were some smudges within the drawing that I can not erase or else it will erase the drawing too and tried my best to clean up. Photographing this is very hard due to how light my pencil pressure is.

Cube World: Characters and Thumbnails

Characters

The characters are probably the most fun I have with this project as I like to doodle small creatures and characters. I immediately start my work by drawing the main protagonist that will be visiting the island.

Full page character sheet

I planned out the colour since the start during the mood board process so it was quite quick to do while the design of the character have to be kept as minimal as possible while looking cute. 

The boy

The main ideas for the boy were for him to have rain boots and a bucket hat to explain how he is ready to go on an adventure as kids do. The colour scheme is kept as soft pastel with a cool tone as the main focus with bright warm essence as a contrast. As the overall jeans are the biggest piece in there I keep it in a cool tone. The rest of the character is in a warmer tone so he would be in contrast to the whale which will have a blue palette.

Whale guardian

The whale concept is to act as a guardian to the character that travels with it. With galaxy and stars themes which are associated with dreams and how the boy is in one of them. Dream whale is such a fun concept to think about and I wish I could make a more detailed version of it but sadly it wouldn’t fit the aesthetic of the island. 

Sea friends

Sea friends are side characters that I planned to decorate the island with. I started off with normal sea creatures like dolphins, flying fish and stingrays. Their concept is to mix sea with sky thus they got wings for them to swim in the clouds.

The ideas are soon dismissed as there are too many characters in the scenes. Instead, I made small bubble fishes to swim in the sky along with the whale guardians. I am very happy I made the decision and try changing things out.

Thumbnails Sketch

I took inspiration from the second week of the course task to draw thumbnails and decided to make one for this project. It was for fun at first then I was encouraged to make more, and so I did.

These thumbnail sketches are made so I can visualize how the island would look like from each view and each scenario that can possibly be used as the final sketch of the Dream island.

I really enjoy making these, especially the third one where the whale swims up to the figure. This practice also improves my understanding of death and grey value. 

Cube World: Game research

Apart from various research made, both putting in the mood board and further research from watching videos. I searched for which game would be a nice style I could use as a study to get the concept I wanted.

Picture from: https://en.abyssrium.com/

Tap Tap Fish - Abyssrium is a pleasant idle relaxing game that will relieve your stress. I used to play this during the start of my middle school years and was addicted to it for a while.

It is a game that makes the player create their own aquarium and by tabbing the screen, which is an Incremental games/clicker game, to gain currency used to buy fish to fill in the player’s tank.

Colour palette

The game also has a lighting system/time cycle that changes depending on the month and the current event. This is a fascinating feature that makes me want to experiment with the various colour tones in the illustration I'm working on. However, I will have to settle with only one colour tone in the end, but it is still a good source of inspiration.

Characters and Environment

Low poly, cute, minimal style shading and model is exactly what I aimed for. As mentioned before during mood board brainstorming, I wanted this project to look cute with a pastel palette to suit the concept of an innocent child’s dream.

The characters in Abyssrium are very cute and invite the players to collect all of them along with colourful corals. I will surely use these as secondary references along with real photo references.

Cite from: https://en.abyssrium.com/

X-Y-Z Section Drawing

 The task for this week was to produce an object drawing using orthographic perspectives, similar to the Orthographic Projection task but this task is to utilize the 3d perspective to the 2d of Orthographic Projection.

There are 2 objects that I draw in total and during the process, I find the concept easy to understand but struggle quite badly when actually doing it.

The warm-up sketches always look fine until the real piece

First thumbnail/Warm-up Sketch

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

I started off with a harder object for my first piece to feel that I have improved and understood the concept better than the last. I did not help and I struggled either way. What I have a problem with was the lining of the ellipses and making a straight line and maintaining the actual volume of the object in front of me.

First piece

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

Just like the second piece, I struggled with the latter half of my class and decided to fix it later.

Second thumbnail/Warm-up Sketch

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

Final Piece

Tool used: 2B pencil and putty eraser

The final piece was made during the last class before Christmas break. The tutor give us feedbacks and time to work on the unfinished piece and I decided to take another try on the jar with guides and feedbacks. From the picture, I can see so many improvements from the start of the course to the piece and I am very happy with how it turned out. It is not perfect but it shows how I grew in the past weeks.

Cube World: Initial ideas

For this task, we have to create an isometric world and it took me a little longer than I originally thought to start on the mood board and brainstorm for this project. I made a wall filled with sticky notes that leads to nowhere for days until a thought hits me at 3 am the next day.

Theme: Seaside/ Sky/ Dream/ Sea creature/ Small character

First mood board: art style ref and the main part of the world.

Second mood board: colour pallet, characters, and environment.

The idea I'm going for is a lovely blue sea and sky with sea creatures in the sky and a little character. Which is the reason why I choose to look further into the beach settings and sea creatures along with their colour pallet which I aim for blue pastel tone.

The concept is that this world is where a boy goes when his day is grey. With his small sketchbook and crayon in hand, he draws a bunch of sea creatures travelling the sky and he goes into this world he created filled with soft cute sea creatures guiding him through the cloud and floating seaside island.

It's a cute concept, but it also shows how kids don't want to be where they are; they want to get out, but they can't because they're in a situation where they can't, so they have to figure it out on their own through imagination.

These ideas may have some change in the future but I am very satisfied with the concept so far, I can't wait to start the work.

Art used:

- https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nAAVkF2lH/
- https://twitter.com/stkumachip/status/1054723214973136896
- https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DxGz90
- https://80.lv/talent/p/mikhail-badikov
- https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lRv5J
- https://www.behance.net/gallery/77890021/Sea-house-Game-art
- https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZMzI0MTMwMzY=.html
- https://twitter.com/tofublock/status/1328774226900291584
- http://k.sina.com.cn/article_1081167004_p40714c9c02700klpg.html?from=cul
- https://illustratosphere.tumblr.com/post/35848157607/%E6%BC%82%E7%9D%80%E6%BC%82%E7%9D%80%E5%B0%B1-by-lurenerlj/amp

House/Shop Project : modeling the house 2

I went back to the roof again to add more adjustment to it. Firstly, I created 2 layers of the roof to create more depth. Secondly, use ffd 4x4x4 to exaggerate the shape of the roof and make it more stylized and cartoony.

Created second layer of the roof

ffd 4x4x4

Comparison to the old roof shape

After shaping up the shop to make it feel more like a medieval house, I changed up the floor of the shop and added tri count to my tiny shop.

Final comparison

The next step of my work is to add tiling and assets

I am planning to add the assets first before doing any texture explore which colour palette would work with my variety of sweets and bread at the front of the shop.

At the moment I am already falling behind as my friends have already started on the tiling and texting the house. As much as I am panicking over my speed, I am happy with how my first shop turned out.

On a side notes that I am not good at designing a house, let alone drawing any sort of buildings. This project is to improve myself on that skill and figure out what modifier I could use.

I already encountered several problems during this work such as 3dsMax crashing, Accidentally locking my editor with the spacebar, Pivot point disappearing, glitches, and bugs in the program.

These problems are then solved after a lot of calling a friend and my tutor. I am very grateful.

Orthographic Projection

This week is an enhancement week so doing this at home without a tutor felt a little weird but I managed to pull it off. The task was for us to draw 2 sets of orthographic projections. 1 for Symmetrical orthographic and 1 for Asymmetrical orthographic. It is a technique for displaying three-dimensional objects using a set of two-dimensional drawings and could make me understand 3d objects better.

Thumbnail and warm up sketches

With warming up and trying to understand how the technique works, I selected 2 objects from my room. My cat plushie and scissors.

 Symmetrical orthographic

 Symmetrical orthographic of my cat plushie

I planned to draw the backside of the cat too but because of my spacing error, it can not fit another cat to the right side of the canvas. If I could try again I will try to measure the page better. The cat was quite round and easy to draw.

Asymmetrical orthographic

Asymmetrical orthographic drawing of a scissors

I was going to draw my lamp in the earlier idea but I realized later halfway that it was in fact symmetrical. I can't find a lot of Asymmetrical objects near me at the moment so I pick the closet one on the desk which is scissors. After this task, I also discovered that the scissors are curved. How did I just notice this?

This task was quite relaxing as there’s not a lot of shading going on but I would improve it by using a sharper pencil to draw and put more pressure into the lines as I scanned it and I can barely see anything. I have to take a photo instead.

House/Shop Project : modeling the house 1

After sketching out and now content with the shape of the shop, I import the picture into 3dsMax and place it on the plane to use as a reference while I block out the shop. 

Placing sketch on a plane to model the shop after

Block out process

The process of blocking out the entire shop took me the first week of starting this project as I was busy with other projects too. I wish I could do more details on my shop and take more time on this. However, with such little time exploring the 3d program after the chest project. I use all the knowledge I have to the basic structure.  

Change base colour to differentiate each part

After finishing the base of the shop, I decided the roof I did was not good enough, I deleted the old roof and created a new one. Using Shell Modifierhell, I try to give the roof more dimension and thickness rather than just a flat roof plane. 

Roof process

Window process

After that, I made the windows for my shop along with shelves for my bread.

I didn't forget to use other modifiers and make the shape more exaggerated shape and less of a box. It was, however, hard to remind myself that. Since everything could be made up with a simple box.

Shelf model and shaped with ffd 4x4x4

I am very happy with how this project is taking shape. Although, I did not time this project well at all and could not note a specific time when I finish each object as I change a few of the objects every week, adding new things only to replace them with another. The first phase of the work already seems to take me over two weeks. I am scared if I could make this in time.

It is only just the start, after all, I will keep myself hype for the next phase of my work!