Exterior

So I followed a quick tutorial to make so valley-esk terrain, this is just to give the level a sense of something greater.

I don't think ill have much time to do anything great however its already adding a bit of depth from the window view.

I also watched a few tutorials on vertex painting. At first I got quite stressed as it wasn't working the way it was described to work(following an eat3D tutorial) turns out the controls are different on my version of UDK compared to the tutorial, once I realised that it was rather simple. I am not sure if I've gone overboard with it though as now my scene looks more green and dingy than warm.

Matinee sequence

Soooo time to create a video walk through. I wont lie I am quite nervous? is that the word? I am timid about making this. I think that's a better word. other than the screens I copied from Leo to removed the hud I have never touched kismet or matinee before! so here goes! 

 So it took some time to get my head around like what buttons did what but its actually really simple! I don't know why I was as worried about it as I was. its like animating in 3D max with the keys which is handy :)

 There are still some issues with the render below, it was to test it actually works (which does once I realised you had to add a directors path!) instead of the camera staying put. I want to add a bob as if the camera is walking and examining the room, I also need to slow it down a bit particularly at the start, ill do this once I've created the terrain for the windows so it looks like its in an environment more than just a static room. I also need to include some maps (roof textures mainly). Enjoy my first render!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afsCPYPZxpM&feature=youtu.be

Textures, Textures, Textures!

Okay so its doing that stupid thing again where the normals create shadows along the seams

I created the normal for the fireplace and i think it looks okay am quite happy with how its looking :)

I tired adding a hight map onto the material, it looked great for the back of the fireplace however it made the bricks that had the variations in the modelling look really weird! I don't know if I should add the back wall onto a separate material ID to add the height map in. Still undecided as of yet.

So my computer fans been going nuts these past two days which has made me reluctant to work on my desktop. I've cleaned what I can but I think I need to take it apart and give it a good clean, However I don't have the time to do this with the deadline on Thursday (Friday but I want to hand in on Thursday)

So while I've been working on the laptop I've finished all the wall textures, the desk texture and created some normals for various textures. I also started on the chest of draws, The shells done, I still need to do the actual draws. I cant decide if I want to have them painted or not like the kitchen units. I created the quilt and the pillow texture after unwrapping and light mapping the quilt (its about time really!)

 At first I didn't quite know what colour to have the bedding set as, I wanted something to stand out against the wood as its looking very warm and quite brown. At first I was thinking blue like the kitchen units but with the lighting it looked green and out of place. from that I noticed the purple base of UDK. This helped make the decision for me. I added the flowers to give variety. I found the texture while searching for wallpaper designs. I changed the brown to purple, I was going to leave it but it blended an awful lot. I used Mudbox to apply the design as I don't think I would have been able to get it looking right in Photoshop alone. I like how it looks :) now to finish the draws and the upstairs is pretty much done, I've also started the texture for the roof although its not currently imported into UDK.

Textures and smaller asset placement

I added photos on the fireplace to give the room more meaning, to make it feel like a home. I think I am going to make some small paper planes and some decals to populate the scene more, Hopefully I should get the textures finished by the end of the week ready for small tweaks.

I decided it was about time I worked on the fireplace considering it is one of the main assets downstairs. I like how it looks. I combines a variety of cliff textures and grey scale paints using the layer properties. I had to go back into the asset and move some of the verts. I also kind of sorted the light map out, I combined some of the rocks that needed it as there was distinct lighting errors in UDK

I begun working on some of the textures I've yet to start.  These assets were textured within mudbox to get grain lines correct and to hide seams.

 Hopefully if I don't procrastinate I can get the rest of the textures done by Monday. then I can add in any secondary assets I can quickly make and texture. They wont be large as I still need to create a few decals which shouldn't take more than a day to make if I am wise with my time.

Lighting

I think this is the lighting I want, I had the lights emit shadows, I like the variety of light and dark in the scene, it helps give a natural feel but I think it still needs tweaking. Ill go back into this later on as I still need to work on textures with the deadline creeping up fast! Its next Friday and it going to come around so quickly!

More Textures and lighting

After talking to a friend I realised I can cut a bit of the memory down by using a material instance. This has worked very well for the photo frames and helped to reduce the package size.

I also did this for the wood textures as they pretty much use the same material. doing this cut down about 30mb just by converting the textures. I am sure this will soon get filled up once more texture maps are added. I also reduced the draws map for the kitchen area. Below is a comparison of the 1024 draws mesh(left) to the 2048 cupboard mesh (right). Personally I don't see much difference in the overall impact it will have on the scene so I think I will reduce them down to lower memory.

I also removed the warning HUD warning messages along the side. A friend shown me how as I haven't worked in kismet before. I probably should learn more about it as I imagine it will help an awful lot but for the time being that shall have to wait!

 I created normals for a few textures, I quite like how the stairs are looking :) 

I dabbled a bit in the lighting today. I was messing around with the light shafts. I ended up using a spot light to give me better control over where the rays are. Forgetting to build the lighting gives some interesting results haha. I am not entirely sure if I want to create a day time scene or a night time scene. I think I will be sticking with the day time scene as you will be able to see everything as its suppose to be. I may see what it looks like in a night time scene if I have time towards the end.

 As I was working within UDK I decided it was time to fix the collision that was stopping me from accessing the upper floor. I opened up each objects collision starting with the beams and stairs to figure out the problem, eventually after removing and reapplying collision to each object in the way of the stairs i found out the collision on the fireplace had somehow jumped to the side! stopping me from accessing the upper level. It was something so stupid, I don't even know how the collision jumped as it was completely off the mesh. Ah at least its fixed now though.

Last night I had downloaded some cobweb brushes and created a texture sheet to use within UDK. I thought this would help to create the feel of neglect and time passing. Not all of these have been placed within the scene yet as I feel there are more important things to be doing.

Back to texturing, I started on the roof logs that provide support as I haven't spent an awful lot of time on the second floor recently. After this I then went onto the downstairs beams. I then realised I hadn't made the beams look rough cut and added in some slight variations. Fortunately this didn't take long at all.

from the beams I realised I needed to get the stairs support finished and added the textures I had at the stage they were at. granted these are only half done (landings and stairs support) however its helping to grasp a feel to the area. I am thinking of making the supports quite dark and the landings either a lot lighter or darker. I haven't quite made my mind up on that one just yet.