DaAce Steampunk Bar
From Concept to Cinematic
We were provided concept art.
Project Duration: Around 3 months.
Grade: A
Thanks Prof. Kuehn! (pronounced: “Key-n”)
In my ANIM-709 course we were tasked with taking a piece of concept art and fully recreating it. On top of this we were asked to animate a few props within the scene to make it feel alive.
I foolishly took on one of the largest environments while repeating to myself, “beast mode, beast mode-” (This course was taking place at the same time as my ITGM-720 Hazard Harry course). There were a few times I found myself struggling to complete work for this course. Let’s talk about how I managed!
We were instructed to create the environment in 3 portions.
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary.
This helped us separate our environment into understandable chunks. I miss-understood a bit and put some static props into my tertiary portion when I should have been focusing solely on the larger environment pieces.
I gathered a bunch of references from games like WoW and Ruined King. I thought that by matching the shapes from those games I could achieve the style, but now as a more mature artist I know it is a combination of shape and textures which achieve style.
We delivered wireframes and still image renders
Final Render
Final Render (lamps on)
Unlit View
UE5 Wireframe (quads are converted to tris)
Detail Lighting
Still Lights Only
Not Just an Animation Project
As a game student it’s my job to represent my interests. The original goal was to render through Maya’s Arnold render, but I felt it was more appropriate to render in UE5.
Not only that, but I created an entire realtime-cinematic. All shots, transitions, and sound effects were done through unreal engine. I love using sequencer so my final video begins with an “Introductory Cinematic” that’s followed up by a few beauty shots.
A Finished Product
Despite my material blunders I believe that the style I ended up following was consistent through the project. Nowadays I understand substance painter much better and am able to build original and customizable smart materials. That’s all thanks to my frustration when making this project!
If you made it this far, thankyou- and drinks on me.