I decided to give one of these Hard Surface/Organics a shot! I'm aiming to have it done within the next 2 days since I've been working only about an hour a day at a time for 3 days. Now with Family events out of the way I can devote more time to it~

Did some more practice after that rock material improved a great deal. Did Daniel Thiger's famous Sand Rocks tutorial! I didn't feel like it's worth posting in my portfolio though as it was more of an exercise that;s oversaturated on Artstation already. Still enjoy!

Been fooling around with Substance Designer all Summer and now I'm making some better materials. Here's one I've been working on!

Rocky ground with dirt.

Critique away!

Wow it's been a long time since this project started. Once work ended I felt like I got in a much better flow of the work that I needed to get done. Most things have been added so there are just a few small tweaks I need to make to this project.

I decided to get rid of the banner because I felt it was far too eye catching for the scene. The machines themselves are arranged so that they provide a nice line through the walls and The big piece of fabric felt very out of place to me in the scene. I also added and rearranged some machines and for the first time, a second glimpse at the level

I added a total of 6 machines. For the two angles I need for my camera shots, I felt that was enough without overpowering the machines.

Here's my current lighting setup. My first time using multiple sphere reflection captures. A skylight with a very light cubemap helps to get the blue tint I want on the sides of the walls and to keep objects from being blown out

And a pretty detail Lighting shot because who doesnt like those?

Next time people see this scene it will be up on Artstation!

Almost done with the scene. Starting to assemble some of the bigger assets into Model Sheets and Marmoset Renders. Update will come tomorrow or Monday with the big 7.0, the last pass before fine detailing!

Quick image drop because I've been fooling with a few things even though it hasnt been a week!

Made a brand new arcade machine to help keep the shapes less repetitive, and added some debris of Popcorn and Tickets on the floor! Also am fooling with the lighting and a few textures a bit more. The Frogger Machine looks too blown out so I'm gonna work on that. Assorted other small fixes include some color changes to the pipes, and a sticker on the register.

Started texturing the coin drop machine but have a lot more to do on that, and need to finish the banner. I've started fooling with Zbrush so I'll use that to help add more volume to the banner.

Also woah glass looks a bit more humid. Still not entirely happy with it but it's getting there.

Last thing was adjusted the camera a bit to make it more level with the human eye

Lots of progress was made yesterday. I sent the scene around to a few places to get some feedback, including friends and the Dinusty Empire server and came out with some new changes I'm going to move forward on.

Wow this place has changed a lot hasn't it?~ I added some more guys so I could triple check all of my model scales. Most of them are where I want them. But as you can see, the room layout has also changed a bit. I've moved a lot of the machines since the left side of the room was beginning to overpower the rest of the scene. I'll likely add some more trash and wrappers to the floor, similar to my old scene to help liven up the carpet. I've also changed the ceiling to panels and incorporated Splines into my workflow.

I've also added a banner which needs a bit more work. I used Ncloth in Maya to make a quick simulation but might go into Marvelous Designer if I feel I need something fancier. It's pretty flat right now, so I'll add some girth to it when I texture.

Nothing too fancy, but it allows me to fool with pipes and the ceiling guards without placing each model by hand, which saves a bit of time when I'm fooling with them. Wires from the machines are still required, so I'll use this BP to make more of them to help fill dead space.

Alongside the splines, the pipes and supports aren't the only things I've changed with the upper part. It has a brand new ceiling!

It's nothing super fancy, just a tile sampler with noises blended in for a tiny bit of variation. I used a directional Warp to help make sure each tile was more varied. Every little bit helps! Substance Designer is great for making these quick little textures.

The other thing I've done is start to figure out what I want the final lighting to look like. I did my first pass with the Post Process and came out with something like this

It definitely makes the colors pop a bit more. It's still prone to adjustment but for a first pass I'm satisfied.

On the new Arcade Machines and Coin Machine, it's more using textures I already have bases for, so after that it's just micro detailing. It's starting to come together in a way I like!

I've been working on the Portfolio and updated Kindled Dreams and my Metra Train projects. Arcade has been delayed since I was helping a close family member move and working on some stuff in Substance Designer. I'll have a post before the week is out.

Hey I actually got a Blog Post out on time! Things are going pretty swimmingly on this project. I think I'm starting to figure out an endpoint for the product now that I've got most of the larger meshes complete. As of right now, the only two big things left to texture are the Coin Machine and the final Arcade Machine.

But first, big changes have happened since last time.

 While the lighting isn't final, I've spent most of the week refining the upper and lefthand sections of the scene. I've added a completely new counter and have begun to start populating it with small props. I'm much happier with the first pass at it as it helps to make the lefthand side of the screen more interesting. I was considering adding some more big props to the floor but once I add more posters, I'll want a centralized spot for the viewer's eyes to rest.

Lets go over some of the new changes made to the scene.

The first big change I made was to the counter itself, and added some smudging to the glass. The side by side below shows the difference along with the changed assets. I thought the register was in a bit of a strange spot before with it's angle, so I moved it to a different part of the counter to make it less cluttered. The Popcorn Boxes were just opacity masks in designer, a very quick one two punch node setup. The cooler with the sodas was provided to help fill the new counter spaces.

In addition, I never really liked my new light fixtures, so I decided to go back to the old similar lights I had in my old scene. I think the interesting wavy shapes and the brighter colors make for a more interesting visual. Since the colors I used before were pink green and blue, they help to form a white light and can provide emissive color without overpowering the other palettes. Note to self, don't go insane with Bloom this time, as a primary problem with the Post Process in the last scene was I was far too heavy handed with it.

One asset that's gotten a bit lost is the ticket machine, I'll be doing some light cleanup once we near the end of the scene. With only a few more assets like left to clean up the place, It won't be long till we're onto lighting and then finishing the exterior of the scene. I've added some smudging to the windows but I'll have to move it around a bit and make it a bit more prominent.

Thats all for this update! Next update the goal is all the textures and models being done!

Wowee it's been a while hasn't it? Well I've been busy with iD Tech but FINALLY camp is over! Since then I've been combing over the scene and getting feedback from some friends about little changes and things to go over when I'm adjusting the scene.

The first thing I've done that is incredibly notable is scrap the previous concrete wall texture for something with a little more volume. I decided after looking through some images and being out at Chinese food one day that Bricks would be a better alternative since they are darker, have texture breakup, and are overall a bit less plain and should spice up the room without making it more distracting. Thanks a to a lovely tutorial from Josh Lynch that my friend Daniel Brown so graciously directed me to, I followed it along and then made many adjustments to make the bricks more my own for my own scene. Below is the finished wall product.

And the graph below, again the base of the tutorial was heavily modified to make them more my own.

First of all, the Unreal guy has been added into the scene to help me get a better sense of scale for the environment. I've been working primarily with him inside of Maya, but adding him to the scene itself gives a lot better sense of how big my objects need to be.

Second, the Popcorn Machine received another overhaul. I wasn't too happy with parts of it, so I got some feedback and was able to tweak it so it is more acceptable. I've also added some  new things to the counter, which I think as an asset I'm going to overhaul for the next update. I feel like it's too distracting and I can make it a bit fancier. I also added a register to the mix to go alongside the machine, helping to make the space look a bit more occupied. Fooling with the sizes a bit more, but that will likely be adjusted again by the next update with the new counter.

Speaking of the Counter, I did some work underneath and started filling the baskets with prizes. I made a special material in Substance Designer for them, with an Opacity Mask for holes. The graph is below

I ended up spending a day or so just refining things around this corner. I want to make sure it gets a nice bit of detail in it since there are a lot more small assets and since the camera angle lends it to being closer to the foreground. Once I have the entire counter section done, its time to move back onto the big machines for some more hearty textures.

Updates will be a lot more frequent now that work is done! So thank you to all who have read this and keep checking back for more!