Personal Portfolio Development - Project 3, Week 1

Since completing my previous project last week, I've finished the first week of work on my third (and possibly final, depending on how things shake out) project for the semester.  As I was alluding to, I've decided to make yet another room in Spongebob's house.  I can't help it - the designs of all the weird scavenged nautical furniture are just so charming that I can't resist making more of them, and I want my projects to be something that excite me so I can stay motivated.  This time around, I've chosen to make the kitchen, which has a large variety of interesting props.  Altogether, there are 15 objects that needed to be made - a kitchen door, refrigerator, stove, two counters, a sink, a shelf, a hanging spatula, two barrels, a crate, a kitchen table, a chair, a curtained window, and hanging salt and pepper shakers.  At the end of the first week of work, the game resolution models are now well underway.  To be more specific, they have their final appearance - this is about how they ought to look - but the models aren't ready to go yet.  I'll be spending the next week of work cleaning up the geometry and creating UVs, with the goal of having the final game resolution models ready to go by the end.  In any case, let's see how they're looking.

Personal Portfolio Development - Project 2, Week 4

 Well, it's the final week of the project, so that means it's time for the final update on the Spongebob's Bedroom personal project.  I've got all of the textured models brought together, looking good in the Unreal engine.  I wanted to experiment a bit with the lighting - the flat cartoony look from the last project was nice, but it wasn't really working with this one, so I decided to bring the shadows back.  It still looks good, but I'm still not sure if I'm totally satisfied with the way it looks - lighting in Unreal is definitely one of my major week points, particularly when it comes to complicated scenes like this.  Still, I feel like it's a decent enough show off of the work I've done, and I can always go back and re-create the scene later before I formally slot this away in my portfolio.  Otherwise, not much else to report on this, and I think the images speak for themselves.  Next up, I need to figure out what the next project will be.  I might go three for three and make yet another room in Spongebob's house, probably the kitchen.  It's certainly been fun so far, working on this, so I'll have to consider it.

Personal Portfolio Development - Project 2, Week 3

 So, I've made it over the hump of this four week project, and since I no longer have hurricane fallout as an excuse, this time, I've managed to actually post before my self-appointed Monday deadline.  Which is nice.  Anyway, as I've established, this week's task was focused on texturing up every asset I'd made over the course of the week.  I used the previous project as reference for the sort of color palate and level of detail to shoot for, in the name of faithfully adapting the look of the cartoon to the aesthetic I've established.  I also set out to make another tiling texture for the bedroom wall, too.  I'd say I succeeded pretty well on that account, and I'm satisfied with the ways that it's all turned out.  You can see the fruits of my labors below.  Next week, my main goal is to bring all this stuff together into unreal and create a final lit scene, just like I did with the last project.  There is also a final thing that needs creation - I need to create a card system for the little frayed bamboo bits at at the top of the bedposts, near the candles, which shouldn't be too much of an issue.  If I find myself with extra time to do things besides that, I might indulge in trying to create a few miscellaneous extra things for the scene, like trying to find a way to implement the blanket on the bed.  In any case, this project will be wrapped up next week, so let's move on to see what I accomplished this time.

Personal Portfolio Development - Project 2, Week 2

 Again, I'm posting a little later than I'd like, on account of still recovering from the ways that the hurricane disrupted my work schedule.  I was nearly done last night, but it still needed a bit more tweaking, so I held off until today to declare it done for real.  Anyway, enough excuses.  As promised, here at the week 2 milestone, I have the completed game resolution models for all of the assets I'll need for the Spongebob bedroom project.  Now that these models are ready to go, the next week of work will be focusing on texturing them, much like I did with the previous project.  This will include making new tiling textures for the walls.  On the subject of the walls, I needed to make a special curved back wall, because I couldn't handle that one in-engine, which works for me, because it will help me scale things out.  These models were still pretty fun to work with, though most of them were more work in general because they were much more complicated than the ones from the living room.  The alarm clock, diving board, and caged scallop in particular took a ton of work to get them looking right.  Still, though, I'm feeling optimistic about the work ahead, and I'm feeling good about what I've been able to accomplish so far.  In any case, here's what I've got to show for myself this week.

Personal Portfolio Development - Project 2, Week 1

 As I said in the last post, for this project, I'm going to be continuing the theme I had with the previous one by making another room in Spongebob's house.  This time, I'll be doing the bedroom, and I've spent the last week working on laying the groundwork for those models.  I managed to get rough work in progress versions of all the models that I'm going to need for the scene to give a sense of scope for the project.  I'll also need to make some new wall textures, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue.  Of course, these models still need quite a bit of refining before they're finished - because of the hurricane, I didn't get as much time to work on these as I would have liked, but I do feel like I've got them in a good place for now.  The game resolution models should be completed by new week.  I don't really have any further comments, so let's move on to see what I've got.