MA Games Design Blog - Lance Muir

 Tavern Scene - Unreal Engine Experimentation After a discussion and feedback from my lecturers we decided that I would try something a little different with the scene instead of just having it as static objects I would try to add in some slow motion style animation into the scene and the characters. Since I have no experience with animation previously as well as other elements we discussed adding such as flowing liquid from the tankards and bowls, I feel it was very ambitious a task to take on.  I first spent some time trying to look up Youtube tutorials on how to work with Niagra systems in Unreal in order to do the liquid, however the results turned out very less than ideal due to my lack of knowledge for such a complex system. I did however get a basic grasp of using Unreal Engines Control rig system in order to fine tune the poses for the characters, I believe I can also add some basic animation sequences using this method for the characters themselves. But due to it bein...

 Tavern Scene - Sword and Axe Textures After completing the texturing for the staff and dagger I moved onto the remaining weapons. At this point I was also unhappy with the shield I had modelled so I intend to redesign it and texture it at a later date. Since traditionally most swords at this time would have been made out of iron or steel for the most part depending on how expensive they were I opted for this steel grey colour for the blade. As I said this is a more dwarven design with everything being quite chunky and blocky, the shape of the blade included, very straight edges with a sharp angular curve, it could be seen as more akin to a cleaver of sorts in terms of it's shape. I also decided that since the dwarves in fantasy media are seen as master blacksmiths that most of the sword would be made out of metal, so from the handguard down it is made up of bronze instead just to break up the colour profile a little and add in another element to the weapon. There is a thin leather...

 Tavern Scene - Staff and Dagger Textures After I was happy with the scene render for now I decided to move onto the texturing process for the weapons. These are the unique items to each character and really are the only visual information the viewer will immediately see and so I wanted to texture them in ways that fit in my mind the characters. With the wizard's staff I was aiming for making the crescent shape to be some kind of gemstone or precious rock effect to show that it's foundation is a natural material that may conduct or amplify magic, so using a marbled style effect to give a smooth polished look to it, showing the time and effort that has gone into making this headpiece for the staff. I was playing around with the colouring and decided on this for now to give that "magic" feel to it, since it is fantasy the colour of the material doesn't have to be realistic especially paired with the more stylistic texturing process and the veins within the stone its...

 Tavern Scene - Second Render Pass After showing my work to a friend of mine he suggested maybe adding a wall into the backdrop and some extra objects into the scene just to bring it all together and build it up a little further. He suggested adding in a chandelier and items such as a rug or floor covering as well as dressing up the seats with some cushions. After I had modelled these items and went in to texture the, I decided to alter some of the textures mainly the seats themselves as the scene was still made up of a lot of wood materials and I wanted to break it up visually and add some other colours into the mix. So I decided the majority of the seat should be made up of metal which still keeps in with the idea they were more expensive to craft, as materials in this time would be more expensive and the crafting process is a lot more intensive so the labour would cost a lot too.  Again I was conscious of the objects I was adding in as I was trying to ensure they added to t...

 Tavern Scene - First Render Pass So moving on to the texturing process I decided to try the first render pass out on the scene and objects. My focus again was to try a new more stylised style and play around with materials within substance instead of trying to render out everything realistically as I was aiming for a new approach to how I build a scene visually. The focus of this was to break up the scene into specific materials to give a bit more visual information and context to the environment. With the tavern being based on The Yawning Portal I decided that while it had to look medieval or fantasy I didn't want it to look as if the Tavern was just a shady watering hole for adventurer's that couldn't afford a more luxurious place to rest at.  The yawning portal has an influx of adventurer's who all attempt to enter the dungeon that is in the centre of the tavern and they bring back exotic goods and treasure to trade and display as trophies so in my mind this would m...