For week 3 I started getting a first lighting pass in, as well as some materials! So right now I have steel and rust in. Those are then blended through masks using a secondary UV workflow to make sure that I can keep the texel density and detail while still using tilable textures. It's all still an early pipeline test, but so far everything checks out!

I've also gotten the opportunity to play around a bit more with Houdini, this time for rubble! There's still a few quirks to fix in the graph, but at least I've gotten it to bake down to a tilable height map which I can use in Designer!

Next week I'm gonna keep working on materials! The priority is gonna get my concrete in, so looking forward to that! If all goes well I'll also get to work on the proper modules! See you then!

So! Weekend has come and thus it's time for a new project update! Since last week I've been busy making tools and wrapping up my blockout! Thanks to a workshop with Simon Verstraete and some SideFX tutorials I've gotten started in Houdini, resulting in a pipe tool and a cable tool. During this process I've learned a ton about how Houdini can speed up my workflow. It's also been quite a playful week as I've been spending a lot of time resimming my cables in the environment. In short: quick yet playful iterations! Next week I plan on getting a base lighting pass in, along with working on some tilable materials and trim sheets!

In other news I decided to move the project to Unreal Engine 4 instead of 5. This due to Houdini not yet being supported by Unreal 5, as well as loosing compability with other plugins and packs I can use to speed up the workflow. I simply didn't think the tradeoff to loose those factors and gain Lumen was worth it at this point :) A good reflection and choice that I believe I will gain from moving forward.

To summarize: Moved the project to UE4, finished the blockout, making materials next week! See you then!

Hello Artstation! It's been a while :) I'm currently wrapping up final renders of the last project and have begun working on my next one. This time it's an outdoor environment based on a concept by Sergey Vasnev. The past week has been all planning, setting everything up in Notion. This includes an asset list, scrumboard, and documentation for workflows I'll need :)

Right now I'm in the process of blocking out things, this time trying out UE5! I'm looking forward to exploring its quirks, along with its pros and cons over the next 6 weeks. Something else I want to try out this project is Houdini! Making some tools for pipes, cables and the like. I'm leaving you all with a first shot of my blockout, as well as the original concept. That's it for now, see you all in a week!

So this update has taken a while to get here. But a lot of work has been done since! I've completed another prop, the desk. There was quite a bit of back and forth with baking and UVs but at long last, it is complete!

Furthermore the scene has also progressed with adding placeholder materials and colors. A great tip I got from Jeremy Estrellado to get a better feeling early on for the colors and making me able to work with the lighting even more. Should've done this earlier but you live as you learn! Next up I hope to finish the remaining furniture so that I can start working on the smaller stuff. Can't wait for that! See you in the next update!

(As a special treat, here's also a collection of details from the desk's highpoly and a final closeup)

Once again a quite productive week! Not as productive as preferred but productive nonetheless! I've played around with camera angles, and made the first out of two cupboards! A bit of a simpler prop, but nonetheless one that adds to the diorama!

I also went through the cupboard and cabinet, opening them up a bit to add some storytelling!

I feel like it's all really starting to take shape now! Also managed to get some slight Parallax Occlusion in for the floor. It's quite subtle but does its job! Next week is planned for the second cupboard, as well as at least one bookshelf! Loads to do, so little time. See you next time!

Progress, progress, progress! For the past few days I've focused on finishing the cabinet textures! For about 12h of work I'm feeling pretty happy with it! Now that I also have a good smart material to reuse for the other furniture it's full speed ahead! Next up is probably to make the other large furniture pieces. Then it's on to the fun stuff!

Furthermore, I keep playing with the lighting. It's hard to get that perfect mix of storytelling together with good readability, but I'll get there in the end! Especially as more and more assets end up in engine as I'm doing baked lighting the bounces will come in handy and help a lot. At the very least I'm finding myself with a mood I like now!

That's it for now, see you all in the next update!

Hello there, it's been a while! Lately I've been recovering from quite a nasty cold, hence the delay in updates. Now that I'm back on track I've prepped all my meshes for ZBrush, made a highpoly for the cabinet in ZBrush and done quite a bit of lighting work. Although I'm still a fair bit away from where I want it I'm certainly getting closer! I also want to extend a big thank you to Timothy Dries and the Beyond Extent community for some awesome feedback which has helped me a ton, and still keeps helping! :)

In the next update I hope to be able to share some more highpolys and texturing work! Until then I leave you with the cabinet highpoly in ZBrush. Bye!

Last week was a bit quiet, but I've been busy working away on a floor material for the scene! Quite fun doing a material using ZBrush for a base height sculpt. I'm looking forward to exploring that workflow more during the project :) The material itself is now finished and implemented to my diorama.

The diorama blockout is also now complete and I've made the cabinet into a basemesh ready to take into ZBrush. So the plan for the next week is to get all meshes ZBrush-ready and maybe get some sculpting started!

The past week went by pretty slow in terms of progress. Loads of stuff keeping me pre-occupied regarding school and what not (more on the "what not" in another post). However, some progress was made. I rearranged some minor things (like the angle of the rotating table) and also moved from a single "blockout" mesh into splitting the props up into separate assets.

Furthermore I also blocked out the anesthesia machine, something which would be the final large prop. The ones now remaining to block out are some books, jars, vials and dentist tools.

In other news, we started with deep dive projects at The Game Assembly! So for the next two weeks I'll be focusing on a plank floor material made with a ZBrush to Substance workflow. Here's a quick wip shot of a first test trying out brushes. It's still at its early stages, but so far I'm having a blast! Material studies are fun...in 3D ;) The plan is to by the end of the process have a floor material for the dentist diorama, so keeping my fingers crossed for it all working out in the end!

This week has been all about blockout. I've finished all the major shapes to a point where I'm happy with them, as well as added a bit more structure to the room itself with wall placement.

I've also added basic lighting to the scene. And while it still needs tons of work, I've at least started getting an idea of what I want. Next up would be to add the smaller props and start on the next pass for the large props (the blockest still need doors and whatnot so the smaller props can be visible). I'd also love to get in a more refined lighting pass (especially get a mask in for the lights to resemble shutters). Posting the new lighting inspo below. See you all in the next update!