A modular set of a Japanese style gate.  3000 polygons separated into 4 modular pieces. Each piece is using 1-512 texture with 4 component textures (Normal, Specular, Reflection, and Parallax).

The images shows the gate in a quick simple map with flat gray wall pieces.  I wanted to compare my texture style to Unreal Tournament, so the last few images shows the gate in the UT ShangriLa map.

Process:

The method for creation was quite simple. Breaking the structure down into smaller pieces always helps speed up production, as well as relieve some of the stress of so many details. I always start with the reference/concept image and break it down with a simple block method in Photoshop. Deconstruction of the main shape helps figure out the best way to build it in 3D. As I am modeling, I also think about how the unwrap will be setup…paying close attention to any use of symmetry that will be helpful along the way. I always love to set my view port fov to 60 or even 70 degrees, sometimes it helps to simulate the camera that your artwork will be viewed at. Fist things first, for me…silhouette sells. Looking at the ref image, I find out what the main shape of the asset is, which is what the player will fist notice on the approach. Unwrapping the assets can be one of the most tedious and time consuming events. Sometimes I’ll unwrap as I go, setting most of the pixel density aside for objects that are closer to the players height.
Everything is hand painted, one of the things that I always try to do, is paint enough detail and depth into the diffuse texture, so even fallback materials that may drop the normal, look good. I think of a normal as an accent for shape, in harmony with lighting. To me, solely relying on a normal map to bring out details, will hurt you in the long run.

Work In Progress

 

This is part of a work in progress…currently off and on for a couple weeks.  ZBrushed everything, using Decimation Master to bring the high poly models into Max for baking AO and normals.

Adding wings to the Cherub.  I am playing around with the idea of adding a “good and evil” complexity to the piece.  One side of the statue will be a normal Cherub, and the other will be an evil Cherub.  Evil wont be defined by its facial expression, but by its demented and deformed body.  Should be really cool so stay connected for updates.

Fleshing out more of the set pieces. The reference for this image was black and white, so it should be fun experimenting with materials.

I’ve started to jump into the bronze materials for this piece.  It may change though, but for now its a good start.  My base texture will be 1-2048 diffuse and normal, with an RGB mask for specular highlights.

 

Props created in 3D Studio Max, Textured in Photoshop, and exported into Unreal Engine 3.

Final lighting solutions for a couple worlds on Stargate.  More coming soon!

 

Random Texture Examples

 

 

Various Illustrations over the years.  Some are for books, and Collectible Card Games, and others are just for fun.

SGW Skies

 

A bunch of skies I created for Stargate Worlds.  Each sky has a base cloud pattern rendered from Vue xStream, and taken into Photoshop where I painted a higher level of detail and style.  The skydomes consist of various texture layers, compiled in Unreal 3 and layered with animation layers and depth textures.  Cloud animation and special effects are also added into the Material Shader.

More to come…

 

Here is a simple tombstone prop that I did in about 8 hours.

Uses 1-1024 diffuse and normal map, with a masked specularity map. 324 Polygons and 305 verts.

 

ZBrush was used to create the high poly mesh, compiled and baked normals in 3D Studio Max, and Photoshop was used to create the texture.  This prop uses 1-1024 diffuse, normal, and a 1-512 RGB mask for different specular highlights.