Almost done!

Since my last update, I had the chance to work mostly on lighting the scene.

I consider that the lighting it is a big improvement since the last update. By concentrating on lighting I had the chance to also check if some of my base colours texture are respecting the PBR range and if I should change the base colour for some of the objects.

I had the chance to play in SpeedTree and add some palm trees outside so I can sell the idea that this house is on the beach and that the room has a straight view of the sea. For the clothing room, I decided to add like a door made out of blinds that instead of being pushed on the side needs to be pulled up. By doing that and increasing the intensity of the light I got some really interesting shadows coming from the blinds, which is an extra boost for the overall image.

Something which I noticed and it was also pointed out by other people is that I didn't really have a focal point in the last update. So I decide to make the bed the main focal point. To do so I added some extra light around it to make it pop out. Something that also helped to push the bed as a main focal point was the colours, as the overall room is full a warm colours while the bed mainly contains cold ones. The magazines on top were extra details which also helped to focus the attention on it.

I also changed the colours of the trims in the hallway and moved the roof up a bit to make the viewer fill welcomed and like he is in an open space (even if it is a hallway).

So, what is left to do now?!

That is a good question. What I need to do next is to create a night scenario for the room. This will also take a few weeks to get it looking good. After that, I need to create a video of the room, a showreel of it.

After that, I am kinda done. I will need to do some stuff for the final year exhibition (like printing and submitting everything), however, that will not take that much.

See you guys soon!


                     To check out my full portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artist/riprajanu

Almost there!

A lot has changed since the last update.

I changed the composition, started working on the lighting and improving on the materials a bit.
After receiving some feedback I decided to close the door since it was taking the attention from the overall room and redirecting it to the hallway and to the police tape.

Another decision was to chance the direction of the sun. If before the light was coming from the window that is near to the door, now the light source is coming through the window at the painting desk. By doing this, I got a nice shadow effect on the chest which I decided to keep.

Even if I closed the door I decide to keep the hallway, trying to work on it as it was his own thing. I started adding trims at the corners and cables so I can get away from the razor lines (even if it is not 100% possible).

I am still not 100% happy with the lighting, however, now I am kinda done with the overall composition and layout. So in the next weeks, I will work mainly on lighting, trying to get something that looks a bit better.



                     To check out my full portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artist/riprajanu

Small update.

Not much has changed since the last update.

I started changing some of the textures. Went in ZBrush and started modeling the wood planks and all the other object that I wanted to have some edge damage.

At the moment I am looking into:
-how to create a realistic flower bouquet to put in the vase on the chest.
-start creating the beach view.
-creating a better material/texture for the fabric on the pillows, bed, and sofa.
-changing the scale of some objects to make them feel more natural.
-getting rid of some of the razor lines.
-changing a bit the composition as the door that leads to the hallway is kinda taking the attention from the rest of the room. I am planning on closing that door, however, I will keep the hallway. It will just be done separately. Giving me the chance to work more on it.




As it can be seen, I have a lot to improve on the lighting. I am still looking into that, however, at the moment I am more concern on the objects in te room and on the composition. I will start working more on the lighting when everything is in its place and most of the objects are done.

New Update.

New update before the Alpha submission.

Since last time I modified the main desk and the chair. I did that so I can get them to a higher detail level, so that they will match the other objects in the room. By the end of this project I might modify some other objects as well.
What I also did was to play with the UE4 particle system. I created a flame for my candles and some 'light dust' in order to make the room feel more realistic.
I also added a light beam at the window, which helps with filling up that area, however I am not 100% happy with it and I will try and modify it for the next update.

The material on the wall is 100% proceduraly created using Substance Designer , however I will modify that one by the end update as well, since I think that is can be improved.


What is can be seen with the new chair is that it gives a more modern look to the room and it helps with the balance between the vintage objects and the new ones.


I still haven't created a material for the wood that is on top of the bed since it is not that important at the moment. I would not want the viewer to be admiring them.






As it can be seen, the beam of light is no great, however it works for now.



This is the end of this update.

Long time, no post.

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted for a while on this blog simply because of the fact that I was busy with my final project and dissertation; and now, I post most of my stuff on Artstation
( https://www.artstation.com/artist/riprajanu ).

So now I am back to record my progress with my final year university project.

As usual, I started by thinking of an idea that I would love to do and than go online to find some reference for it, also some inspiration.
The next 4 images will show my intent, reference and the current stage that I was after a month (if I remember correctly) into the project, when we had to do our presentations.









































As it can be seen, most of my video games reference are from the Uncharted 4 video game. This game is the reason why I choose to do a teenager's room. Especially after I saw Boon Cotter's lighting work that he has done for some of the rooms (https://www.artstation.com/artist/booncotter).
As for the style that I am going, I choose to do a normal modern room that contains a lot of vintage objects; and the main focus of the objects is to tell a story about the teenage girl (to describe her).















However, let's go back from the beginning of the project. I started by creating a simple block-out. I did this to get some ideas out and to see how the composition could work.
I had 5 different block-outs, however this is the one that had the most potential at that time. It is important to know that everything could change as I advance into the project.











Below is my progress, started from the block-out since the first scene in UE4.
I choose UE4 as the engine just because how friendly it is with the artists, because of what you are able to do in it and the high quality level that you can achieve.



The UE4 scene before I started texturing it.

The programs I used so far:
-The clothes, the bed covers, pillows and duvet were made in Marvelous Designer.
I followed these tutorials in order to understand and know how to work with MD:
http://viscorbel.com/bedding-tutorial-marvelous-designer/
-The rest of the projects in Maya 2016.

At this point I started thinking how I will do the textures maps, which object will share the same texture, which will be hero assets and which ones will have to do with tilling textures.

The current UE4 scene. 

As you can see I textured almost all of the objects. However, this is only the first set of textures. I will go back over them later when I will have a better composition (room layout) and when all the objects are textures.

What still needs to be done:

-The outside view. I want to add a sunny beach view.
-More object in the clothing room. At the moment it feels too empty.
-Rearranging some of the objects. Making sure that everything works together.
-Improving the fabric shader that I have on the pillows.






The texturing was done using ZBrush, Substance Painter and Substance Designer.
Lighting was done with the help of the UE4 documentation and with a lot of experimentation. However, I will change it for sure till the end of the project.
I solved some of my lighting problems, mostly the artifacts, thanks to the UE4 guys (the staff). You can see what problems I had and how I solved them if you fallow the link:
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/518146/something-strange-is-happening-at-1-of-the-corners.html

This is the stage that I am with my project after 2 months.
From now on I will try to post more often and to make the post a bit more detailed.

See you guys with the next post,

Raz.