Week 1:
In this week I worked on researching what an environment artist does. I found that an environmental artist creates blockouts for the environment and the environment itself. I researched what an environment artist does because in this project I’m going to be taking on the role of an environment artist. I also created mood boards for the different themes I could do for my environment. I found it difficult to find pictures for my mood boards that worked with what I was thinking about my environment. But I went on art station and found pictures that worked with my style. I enjoyed looking at different environments people created. Next week I will be developing my unreal skills and will be researching the theme for my game.
Week 2:
In this week I worked on researching the theme I could use in my environment. I developed my skills in unreal engine 4 and 3ds max. I also looked at different level design types and decided which one to use in my game. For the theme of my game, I choose a sci-fi theme because I think that I can create an interesting environment in the time I have. In Unreal I started to create a test environment that I could use to learn how to use Unreal. This is important as I have never used it before so I will have to get used to it to be able to use it effectively. Researching the style for my environment went well for me as I had a good idea of what I wanted in my environment. I also looked at the different level types in games and which one I could use for my environment. I decided to base my game off a hub world game on a smaller scale. I also decided to create some mood boards for my research to show what I was writing about and to show what I was talking about. Next week I will create a test environment that I can use to learn Unreal and I will continue to research my environment.
Week 3:
In this week I continued to develop my unreal engine skills and research my environment. In unreal I worked on adding functionality to the door I created to help me get used to visual codding. I did struggle with visual coding as I have only used unity in the past. I did manage to create a functioning door that would open on their own when the player approached and one where the player would use a key. I did also struggle with creating a lever door system as Its slightly different to a normal door system so it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. A lever door system would be when the play presses a key on the lever the door would open or close. With some more practice at visual coding, I could definitely improve. I could use these door systems when I create my environment so that the player can open the door themselves. Overall, even though I struggled with the Unreal I did enjoy adding the functionality to my door.
Week 4
In this week I started to create the blockout for my environment. I also created draw overs of my blockout for my environment. Creating a draw over is when you take a screenshot of your basic blockout and draw over it in Photoshop to see where I would put everything. Initially, I found creating my blockout difficult as I rushed into it and then I realised large parts of my environment were out of scale. To fix this I redid my blockout and used whole numbers to scale my rooms and made things fit better. Although I found the scaling of my blockout difficult initially I did enjoy creating the basic rooms for my environment. I tried to keep to my plan the best I could but I had to change a couple of things in my plan. Some of my rooms were a little too empty so I added some barrels and crates. I’m not quite finished creating my blockout this week but I have created the basic layout for it which is the most important step. Next week I can then start adding the blockouts of my assets into the rooms.
Week 5
This week I continued to create by blockout and I added details to each of the rooms to my environment. This is my blockout so like the rooms I just used blocks to see where I would put things and how big would it be. I did this so that when I create my assets I can simply just replace the blocks with my assets. Like last week I had problems with scaling my objects in my environment. I struggled because I made my smaller assets too large in relation to the player. To fix this I just made some of my assets smaller to help me I used the real-life scale of some assets in relation to a person. I decided to change the positioning of some things in my environment compared to my drawing. I did this because some areas were empty which made areas of my environment feel boring.I found that I could do better than my original design and it was too basic at some points. I did enjoy further improving my design and adding more detail to my environment. Now that I have finished the details in my environment next week I can add lighting to my environment.
Week 6
This week I added lighting to my environment and started creating assets from environments. To add lighting to my environment I used point light and turned them on to static. I found that adding lighting to my environment was harder than I expected because it was hard to get the intensity of the lights right. I had to keep trying to get the intensity right but when I did It became relatively easy to do. I could then copy and pate each light around my environment this allowed me to light up my environment quickly. After finishing the lighting for my environment I then started creating assets for my environment. The most difficult part of this was using the scale correctly but I managed to figure it out quickly. I had some reference images to help me with my designs and helped me to improve them.
Week 7
In this week I continued to create assets for my environment. I first began by creating essential parts of my level like the wall, floor, and door. Then once I have created all of my important assets I can then focus on my less important So I first created essential parts of my environments. I found that creating my assets without causing problems, later on, was harder than I expected. Although I found it difficult to create some assets I did enjoy creating them. As each polygon can only have four or fewer sides because it doesn’t texture assets properly otherwise. I found that my blueprints and my other research have helped me a lot when creating my assets. Next week I will continue to work on assets from my environment.
Week 8
In this week I have started to create the less important assets that I will use to add detail to my environment. I also continued to update my blog and use it to help me create assets. I found these assets a lot more difficult as they were more complex assets that took a lot more time. So I have spent more time than I expected but I have found new ways to create assets and shortcuts that will help me in the future. Even though I struggled to create these assets I still enjoyed finding these tricks and getting better at 3DS Max. Next week I will continue to create less important assets for my environment after I have created the assets I need I can then begin to texture them.
Week 9
In this week I continued to create assets and learned how to unwrap objects to properly texture them. Learning how to unwrap objects is important for my more complex assets as I cant texture how I normally would. I found unwrapping quite hard to do as it was the first time I had experience in doing it. I also continued to create assets for my environment. I continued to create background assets for my environment so that next week I can next week start texturing. I have found creating my background assets took longer to do as they were more complicated compared to what I have done in previous weeks.
Week 10
This week I started unwrapping and texturing my objects so that next week I can start to put them in my environment. I struggled to unwrap some of my assets as I had some unnecessary polygons that made it hard to unwrap. So I had to edit some of my models so that I could properly unwrap and texture them. This was a lot harder than I expected it to be and a lot more time-consuming. Especially because I spent a lot of time creating more complicated models. Next week I will finish off unwrapping my models and start to put them in my environment.
Week 11
This week I added some of the important assets to my environment and continued to unwrap objects. I had a couple of problems when adding these objects to my environment because Some of them were out of scale. This was quite easy to fix as all I need to do is to scale it up slightly. I started to run out of time so I had to cut my engine room so I could have enough time to add detail to my environment. It was unfortunate that I had cut it for a time but I think my environment will look a lot better if I had less thing at a higher quality. Next week I can do my final evaluation and add some finishing touches to my environment.
Week 12
This week I added the finishing touches to my environment and completed my final evaluation. I changed some parts of the lighting and I added a couple more assets to add some more details. My environment looks great with the detail that I added to it. Some of the bonus assets that I took some extra time to unwrapped really added some much-needed detail.
Games Design 