Physics drop

Taking a break from the stairs (Bad decision making!), I decided to try out the physics drop for the books from the feedback I received from the visiting alumni. I had done something similar in Maya before as I have played around with NCloth and I assumed it would be the same sort of thing.

I got 2 different books modelled and could be scaled for differentiation. It was then just a case of duplicating them around and placing them above the table and adding an active rigid body to the books and a passive rigid body to the table and plane I created to add a bit of tumble to the books.






I repeated the drop a few times so I could get varied piles for the table tops.

I then stacked some books and made about 3 different variations to place around the shop.

Using the bookcase models, I began making the book variations to go on the many shelves.

In total I made 11 different book sets which I feel was enough, especially as I can change the material of each book individually to break up the repeats.
















After getting the 2 uvs for the books, I went through the sets and assigned different textures so when I export them as fbx's but keep them separate, I can apply different materials to each book. I made 5 different colours (red, blue, green, purple and brown) and then 5 more for the books that had the metal on the bindings.

For alpha I didn't make the metalness map, I just did a yellow albedo for that part.

Week 4

Continuing from making the arches for the bannister, I realised the way I initially made the arch, it would be difficult to mirror/repeat the mesh due to the pole going down. So I used that as the centre point and branched out the arch so it could be mirrored and uv'd it.

It was then a case of making some pillars for the end of the bannister. The short ones go near the stairs and the taller one is at the four outer corners

In the real shop, there are lanterns hanging from the tall pillars. I made the lantern but am yet to decide whether I want it there or not. The real lantern is suspended on a really intricate swirl made from iron and I don't really like it that much. An idea I had was to have the lanterns floating with the lights in and make them bob slightly with matinee to give the scene some dynamic aspect.

Lantern

Here is one of the bannisters assembled and the same is on the other side.

After the bannisters, next on the plan was to begin with the stairs. The stairs are pretty daunting and I felt that my skills just wouldn't do them justice so I found something else to model in the mean time.


There are some metal swirls on the top of the posts attached to the bannister that hold the lanterns. I had a quick go at modelling these, the one of the left is with the create polygon tool and the one on the right was with curves. I later decided that it might look more the part if the lanterns were floating all around the shop rather than just stationary upstairs.




Next up, I created the table for the books to rest on. Looking at some gothic detailing, I decided this would have to be a high poly model which I could bake down.

I began by using the create polygon to create a gothic cross shape and then using booleans to cut out the shape in to a table. I only created one corner so the rest of the table would be symmetrical, it was then a case of mirroring it around.











Here is a quick shot of the Ao bake and how it make the low poly version of the table look in engine, which I think came out really well.






After this slight de-tour I now began starting on the stairs. I had no idea where to actually start or how to break it up. So using a top down image from my reference, I managed to break down the top part of the stairs, which was the most daunting part. Then using the awful block out ramp, image ref to count the number of stairs and  the scale, I began the construction of the bottom part of the stairs.




                             

Week 3

The general feedback I received was that the block out was 'too blocky'. Which I guess I misunderstood what block out meant.

I need to improve on cameras which I will do once everything is in Engine and I can see where the focus needs to be.

I also had some feed back from some course Alumni. They said I should try and cut down on the details so it doesn't become too noisy from a distance which was something I was initially worried about, so I was glad they made this suggestion. It was also suggested to me that I switch the way the windows were on the bottom floor so there could be some kind of 'halo' effect surrounding the stairs from behind and that I should consider having the time of day at night to have some moon glow. One other suggestion was that I used a physics drop to make the book piles look less placed.

I thought the moon glow would make the scene look really awesome so I had a quick go at trying to work out how to change the sky dome. I assumed it would be a bit like in UDK which was simple but I couldn't seem to find anything on it, which was confusing. I managed to get this eerie green glow going on but I couldn't get it light enough whilst still having the effect. I didn't want it to be this dark and I also thought the glow gave off the wrong feel I wanted to shop to have.

I made a bit of a mess whilst trying to create the sky above so I had a go in a new project quickly. I eventually found that if you rotate the sun upwards, it makes moonlight. Who knew?! But as this was a new map and such, I would have to just re-make everything which I didn't really have time to do. I thought it would be better to have the map in daylight as I assumed I'd have a lot of darkness in the lower level as it is, never mind having it at night. I can always have the halo effect with sunlight rather than moonlight anyway.

1

So I began the modelling stage by following my plan and modelled he bookcases first. Using a few selected images like [1], I estimated the height of the bookcases and used the scale model to make them the right height and width.

I chose to UV models as I went so after they were uv'd, I exported them and replaced the other bookcases in engine.

The next task was to create the top floor. After exporting the BSP from Unreal, it was just a case of making the top floor, bottom ceiling and the skirting separate.

2

Using image 2, I began creating the arches for the bannister beams.

1 - http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/42103252.jpg
2 - http://www.miragebookmark.ch/images/lello-bookstore-interieur.jpg

Block out

Week three is blockout and presentations! (Joy)

Using the reference images and the plan I made, I used a scale model (curtsy of Kyle Horwood) to build the blockout in UE4, to make it easier to walk around the level and test out the size of things. I made a few basic models in Maya, such as the stairs/ramp and the bookcases.

As I didn't have an official floor plan and had to use my own, it seems like the shop could be a bit too wide, but just for block out I decided not to worry about it too much and would concentrate on it later.

For lighting, I just planned on using the default light as with previous projects, areas seemed to be too dark and I didn't want that problem again with this one.

Here is the video:

I know this can't be seen very well so I've cropped out the asset list (below). I've included this image so you can just get a general idea of the plan as a whole. 

 I tried to bulk out my scene with as many assets I deemed appropriate and then listed them by importance.  I thought about what sort of approach to take with this project.

I know how my attention can easily waver with long projects and I had enough of a hard time trying to turn this in to a project I could take an interest in, so I thought it would be beneficial to split up the longer modelling tasks with little quick assets just to keep my workflow going.

I still had to think about which assets would be needed first so the bookcases, floor and balcony came first. I knew the stairs would take a lot of time so I tried to keep it near the top.

I tried to judge how long it would take me to model things and then added a few more hours to it. When originally planning out the Gantt chart, I was estimating it on a 15 hour day, but then I realised that's unrealistic.  I stripped it down to 12 and to also work weekends because I come to uni on those days anyway. Once all the hours had been divided, plus texturing, I had about 3 weeks contingency to work with. Seeing how much time I had left, I decided to keep the 12 hours a day so if I didn't complete it on a few days, I'd still have plenty of time to make it up.

Week Two Cont. Floor Plan

I searched to try and find some sort of architect plans to help with the block out and general planning of the shop. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything. The best I came to was a panorama of the shop, but the large staircase blocks the back of the shop.

1

Luckily, this place seems to be an incredibly popular tourist spot so there are plenty of photos. Using the panorama and various other images, I managed to get a very good idea of the layout and created a floor plan.

I managed to count how many book shelves there were between each pillar, how many pillars and where they were compared to the stairs. 

References:
1 - http://markgsmusings.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/great-new-short-film.html