Category: Introduction

This research and development blog includes all the background research, concept development, technical and artistic elements within the project, concluding with a reflection and bibliography. The purpose of the blog is to provide visual and written evidence of the progress and development of the Serenity project and understand the work behind the making of level design in Unreal.

The blog features a critical analysis of a project in relation to my skills and area. I will explain the impact of the artifact and how it inspires my work, as well as the technical and artistic points of view.  I have included relevant case studies which analyze various artists and their style and inspirations. I also explain how they inspire me. In addition to this, I provide various research resources such as software, video tutorials, courses, relevant assets, and articles which have impacted the learning of my skills for this project and helped my journey to the final product. Regarding the artistic research, I created a mood board to capture my creative intentions for the project and express visual aims and intentions for the scene.

To provide evidence of the technical and artistic development, I have incorporated videos to visualize any progress I have made on my project and added voice narration to add a personal touch and to support my thought process behind the project. I then included a write-up summary explaining what I learned, what I found challenging, and how I could improve on this in the future. I then finalized the development section with a software review.

Lastly, to complete my blog I included a written research and development conclusion, a project reflection where I focus on my strength and weaknesses and look back on the whole project and summarise my thoughts. I then added a glossary of terms and a bibliography to order all of my sources.

Aims and Intentions

My aims and intentions for this project are to:

• Challenge and push myself to adapt and learn new skills to produce ambitious content for my specific outcome, platform, and audience.
• Provide relevant research that supports my project in both technical and artistic views.
• Ensure my blog clearly identifies and expresses the work that has gone into every aspect of my final artifact.
• Maintain an industry approach in required software and artistic intentions.
• Reflect on my work, identifying my strengths and weaknesses, and where I can improve.
• Produce a high-quality cinematic sequence of a scene/ environment I have created using the Unreal game engine.
• Experiment and explore my creative and technical skills to create a unique level design.

I have chosen the Game Design Strand because I personally enjoy the process of creating a scene in Unreal and bringing it to life. I feel satisfaction and accomplishment when an idea in my head becomes a visual artifact for others to see. I also enjoy gaming as it creates an escape from reality, game design allows me to build and control a fantasy. An abstract of my concept would be to create a cinematic sequence of a scene I have created in Unreal using a mixture of pre-made assets and custom assets. I want the scene to represent serenity and create a digital space for meditation.  I am targeting possible employers in the gaming industry. Their needs and expectations are for me to demonstrate a high level of research and development skills, in partnership with technical skills and the willingness to experiment to create a high-quality artifact. As they will be looking for potential designers to add to their team. The platform I will be using is Unreal Engine 4, I will also use external software such as Blender and Substance Painter so I can build my own assets to add unique detail to the scene and learn new skills. My final form of output for the semester A project will be an MP4 video of my cinematic sequence, displaying my scene/ environment I created.

This concept will allow me to explore the endless possibilities within the Unreal game engine, allowing me to have creative flexibility within this process, as well as advancing my knowledge and technical skills within game level design. I can explore areas such as lighting, post-processing, 3D assets, and more.

Figure 1. Process of Japanese Shrine scene by Tomáš Březík

Figure 2. Japanese Shrine rendered image by Tomáš Březík

Figure 3. Screenshot from mood board by Paige Gregory

Figure 4. Screenshot from mood board by Paige Gregory

Figure 5. Italian Village post-processing by  James Brisnehan

Figure 6.  Operation Claymore render by Adam Rzatkowski

Figure 7. Scene render screenshot from Ghost of Tsushima

Figure 8. Scene render screenshot from Ghost of Tsushima

Figure 9. Scene render screenshot from Ghost of Tsushima

Figure 10. Scene render screenshot from Ghost of Tsushima

Figure 11. Screenshot from a scene in House of Flying Daggers

Figure 12. CG texturing workflow process

Figure 13. Screenshot of the LinkedIn Learning course

Figure 14. Certificate of Course Completion

Figure 15. Screenshot of Blender’s official tutorials on their website

Figure 16. Screenshot of the Procedural Nature Pack

Figure 17. Screenshot of the Animal Variety Pack

Figure 18. Screenshot of the Scanned Poplar and Aspen Forest with Seasons Pack

Figure 19. Screenshot of the Nature Package in Environments Pack

Figure 20. Screenshot of the Water Materials in Materials Pack

Figure 21. Screenshot of the Realistic Forest Pack

Figure 22. Screenshot of the Megascans Goddess Temple Pack

Figure 23. Screenshot of the Arch Vis Polish Pack #2

Figure 24. Screenshot of the Japanese shrine tower model

Figure 25. Screenshot of the Japanese Temple 3D model

Figure 26. Screenshot of the Japanese Torii Gate model

Figure 27. Screenshot of a Japanese Temple 3D model

Figure 28. Screenshot of the texture maps I did not use

Figure 29. Screenshot of the Temple 3D model in Unreal

Figure 30. Notebook Sketches

Figure 31. Notebook Sketches

Figure 32. Notebook Sketches

Figure 33. Lanterns inspiration

Figure 34. Temple inspiration

Figure 35. Japanese arch inspiration

Figure 36. Temple at night inspiration

Figure 37. Forest inspiration

Figure 38. Lantern inspiration

Figure 39. Hanging lantern sketch

Figure 40. Water lantern sketch

Figure 41. Floor lantern sketch

Figure 42. Floating lantern reference

Figure 43. Hanging lantern reference

Figure 44. Floor lantern reference

Figure 45. Screenshot of material nodes in Unreal

 

 

 

The purpose of this research and development blog is to reflect the process and quality development of my final product. Documenting all of my relevant and useful research and providing evidence supporting my skill development, this includes still renders, videos such as screen recordings, time lapse videos, blog posts and imagery for inspiration such as mood boards, in addition to written evidence.

The blog contains all relevant information on the project; Serenity: Complete workflow for an Unreal Engine scene. The aim of my artifact is to build a digital meditation space and create a sense of zen and relaxation.

It introduces the project by identifying the artistic and technical intentions. The blog also contains a list of all of the software required to build the finished artifact, in addition to the research in specific sectors and case studies, inspiring my project.

The blog contains full technical and artistic evidence of the creation of each section of the project such as concept development, 3D modeling, texturing and working in the Unreal Engine.

Lastly, it concludes with the finished artifact, an evaluation, reflection and the full list of references and a Glossary of Terms.