SANM 560 - Week 6

Over the weekend we had a work session. I brought some snacks as well as my cat for moral support. We were able to go over what we found out during the load test and adjust. Some people had finished up their models and were looking for new tasks, so we assigned new ones for more specific models and textures. I took over lighting from Birdie, discussing interesting ways the god rays could come in with Connor. We also discussed where the cafe and other tunnels would be located. I tested those with the in-engine static mesh rays, and it looked pretty good. We realized we couldn't have the rays interacting with any of the objects as it would create a harsh looking line. I added a subtle spotlight over the door to draw emphasis towards it. I also created a fill light behind the camera to fill in the dark space on the right as we discussed that area needed more detail during the pre-load test. I also dabbled in Substance Painter myself, something I had never done before. I textured a turn-style and a sign as background rubble objects, learning quite a bit about the program along the way. Going into Tuesday's class we were able to show our progress to the whole class. We got a lot of good critique and input from the Nate the DP and the professor about which direction the god rays should come from, bounce light, and overall positioning of some of the elements. With most of the rubble and foliage put into the scene I will go ahead and start set dressing this week to get ready for the load test Thursday. When production design came in, the conversation between the teams was getting tricky so I stepped up to show a bunch of stuff on the big screen. I aided Nate in bringing up items and making sure the scene moved how he wanted it to in order to talk to the team. We realized towards the end that the scale of the virtual scene and the physical set were not aligned. With some back and forth and importing the dimensions into Unreal, we were able to line up with the plans with the set, add in the stage, the camera, the railings, and the columns properly. I replaced the cylindrical columns with rectangular ones to reflect the newer design and Nate and I also figured out the spacing between them and their translation from real world units into Unreal. Class had let out at this point but we were really on a roll so we kept going to make sure everything was in line with what production design had for their set so we wouldn't have to do this during the load test. We made sure all the proper adjustments were made and I transferred it over the Master Level and informed the team of the new layout changes.