This week was mostly working on environment props in which to populate the environment,
I’ve been modelling some reusable stall assets, with which we can tile and repeat easily and efficiently. Being able to mitigate and squeeze the most out of textures sizes is taking priority over the poly count for this project, so working on an interesting silhouette and reuse as much texture as possible is the focus.
An early style test for market stalls. We found out it looked too ordinary from a distance…
As we added our assets into the engine, it became evident that a lot of the environment props and animation still looked far too ordinary, and thus further exaggeration was required. To push our theme further into the increasingly cartoon aesthetic, we needed to make every shape much more short, squat, and rounder. I also preferred to add some curves to the shapes, as I wanted to avoid straight lines as much as possible.
… So some stylistic overhauling was required.
It’s been a while since I’ve attempted to create an environment, so I am finding myself a bit rusty in my practices and habits. Keeping factors in mind such as sharing UV space, as well as tiling textures is causing me to work a bit slower than I expect to, but overall it’s been great to finally have a larger role in asset creation.
Matching style is also a potential issue, as my fellow environment artist specialises in a particularly realistic style, whereas I prefer to abstract and simplify shapes and forms. Constant cross-referencing and consulting seems to be the most consistent way of solving this.
Next we’ll see the props in-engine and just about ready to go!