Castle Hall - Building Meshes

I have been working off and on without an update here so I thought I should change that.

Lighting is continually changing. Now that I've added blueprint sconces with fire particles and their own lighting with a flickering light function, its added some dynamic motion to the scene when viewed in real time.

I've been playing around with Apex cloth for the banners and add a slight breeze coming in from the windows. I've never worked with Apex cloth before so that is a process that I'm working on. In the picture they are just the base meshes for the cloth. Right now I can get it to import and blow around but there is way too much stretching. I'm using the Apex SDK to work on the cloth physics.

Castle Hall - Small Update

I've been traveling the last week or so and haven't been able to spend much time with the project. I'm back and wanted to jump on here for a quick update.

It was mentioned to me by my friend Rian that some things may be out of proportion. I think mainly the bench compared to the stair steps. I made the benches longer and slightly smaller and when I start working on the stairs I will make them larger cut down how many there are. Right now I have just added in a couple of textures and a little bit of modeling on the pillars. I can already see the need for another lighting pass.

Castle Hall - Blocking In The Middle

The medium sized shapes are blocked in now. I'm using Unreal 4's feature of turning BSP into static meshes, that way I can block in the general size and shape in Unreal (same I would do in a modeling program). When I import it into the 3d modeling program it's already the right size. Not to mention the computer can process static meshes better than BSP. When my computer started slowing down, converting my block outs helped optimized the scene back up to speed.

I also added some more lights into the scene. I want to blur out that light casted from the window in the ceiling but I'm not sure how to do that right now. Something I will be looking into.

The first shot will be my main shot but I figure the room should look good from multiple angles if I want someone to be able to run around in it. I'll need to make the second angle more interesting by adding something into the wings.

Start of the Castle Hall - Under the Belt

After the parties, surprise visitors and delicious but taxing feasts, it's time to get back to work. To get back in the groove of things I have chosen a simple and doable environment to get under the belt before moving on to more challenging scenes. You know, get the engines revved up and all.

This concept was made for Dragon Age Inquisition by Steve Klit. From what I understand he doesn't have a portfolio website online that I can link you to. What I like about it, for my purposes, is there is a lot of reuse here that I plan to capitalize on and stark difference in color between the two vertical halves of the painting. 

I do believe that it may look too symmetrical without characters. I may need to start thinking of a way to solve that problem. It's something that will be more apparent if it's an issue later on.

I have finished blocking out the large shapes in Unreal Engine 4 using basic BSP. 

I messed with the lighting briefly to achieve this look.

Next I plan to block in the medium sized shapes and continue playing with lighting. I'll see you then. 

And Then There Was One

Hello everyone. My goal for this blog is to keep a log of the projects I'm working on in the 3D and Game Art industries. I have a feeling that this will be updated more with content in between jobs and while freelancing of course because most professional work can not be shared through personal blogs.

I am a recent graduate of the Art Institute of California San Diego and kept a blog of my work updated occasional for school purposes here. My portfolio website for showcasing finished work can be found on my main website. You will most likely see some overlap between the two sites.

Thank you for joining me and please feel free to reach out and contact me for comments, feedback, questions and projects.

ryanmichaeljewell@gmail.com