Anna Melidone's FMP Blog

Continuing from last week, I made more progress with the lounge, as I have been working on a TV and shelving unit. Here is a screenshot in 3DS max. I want to make some ornaments to go on the shelves if I have time and maybe some DVDs. I have spent the majority of the week working on the fish tank that is in the hallway round the back. I Have modelled some rocks and a base that will be pebbles to go it it. I've been struggling quite a bit with trying to get the water to look realistic but its definitely getting there. The main thing was, I didn't really know how I was going to approach it, but I've done it so that the water is a box that I made in 3DS max and I've made blue transparent material in UE4 to put on it.

Last week, I was advised by a tutor to start looking at getting a texture on the floor as it can help you to feel like you've made a lot of progress with your work and you can get more of a sense of what the space looks like. As the downstairs is going to have all wooden floor, I started with creating a wooden floor texture in substance Designer. It took me a while to get back to grips with using the programme again, its never been my strong point, but I feel like I have created a texture that I am reasonably happy with and fits the style of GTA. As there are no panels in the wood, I might go back and add some to it, but for now, I will leave it as it is, and focus on getting assets into the scene. Here are some screenshots of my scene in engine.  As I mostly spent time on the kitchen/ bar area last week, i decided to work on the other side of the house this week, being the lounge. Here is a sofa I'm currently working on in 3DS max. I'm going to take it into...

This week I made a bit of a change to the Roof windows as I wanted to put an extractor fan above the island which will have a hob on it as most high end houses tend to have the hobs in the middle. However I also knew I wanted the windows to stay in the same position as it creates really nice lighting and shadows. I did research to see if I could get any reference and inspiration, and I ended up creating a square in the middle of the windows for it (see below), which I think works really nicely as you still get that modern sleek look, whilst still keeping the natural lighting that comes through the roof. I did ask tutors also to see if it looked realistic and they seemed to be happy with it, however one suggested to make the windows a bit thinner, as before it looked like they were too big and heavy to be supported by the roof. I have also added some assets in the kitchen and bar area, whilst the bar counters don't need much more doing to them, the kitchen ones need a bit...

This week created some more parts of the modular kit, like some large ceiling to floor and roof windows. I have also made a door that the player in the future, will be able to open and close, and added some simple details on it. I will come back to the door and add some chamfers around the edge but I won't add too much more too it as its supposed to be modern so I don't want to over do it. I have added in some stairs and created a half wall for the balcony part. I created a floor tile as part of the modular kit, and had to play around with the measurements quite a bit so it feels like I haven't made much progress this week as I've mostly  been working on stuff that's not too visible. Down below are screenshots of my progress so far in engine. Overall, I am happy with how my house is coming along, I feel I have got the structure and placement of everything about right and in play mode, the character can wander around comfortably.

I decided to create the structure of the house with a modular kit as I think it will be the easiest way as I can import the pieces into UE4 and build it up straight in there. This week I made a basic plain wall, and one with a trim at the bottom like a skirting board. as my house will be in the style of GTA V, I looked at some of the modern high end houses that are in the game and tried to replicate the trim that seemed to appear in all of them. Here is a screenshot of the modular kit I have started. It is very basic for now, I wanted to mainly focus on getting everything placed in UE4 so I could get the scale right and to make sure that it fits together, so it doesn't look like I have done a lot during this week however, now I have the building blocks made, I should be able to make some decent progress next week.

I carried on with the block outs that I started last week and did one extra one. I feel like the 3rd one that I did is my strongest one in terms of composition and layout so I think I will go forward with that one. I think it has more potential as the space is created with some interesting shapes and angles and would be easier to place assets as the other two block outs are mostly square, making the space not as usable. Below is the 3rd blockout that I did. As I decided that I was going to go forward with this one, I added more detail to the block out, so put more furniture in place and experimented a bit more with windows and half walls. I have also started making an asset list which I will add to as I go along, I split it into the different rooms/areas of the house. With the asset list, it will help me to stay focused on the project and to help me see exactly what needs to be done and what assets should take priority in being done first.  Overall I am qui...

This week is the first week Starting FMP! Over Christmas break I came up with a few proposal ideas for the project. I knew I wanted to do a house/interior so I explored a few ideas within that for e.g. I looked a doing a beach house, an apocalyptic house that would be broken and damaged, or a sleek modern house in the style of GTA. I felt that the GTA house was the idea I liked best and seemed to appear the most interesting to me. As we were just waiting for our ideas to get green lit, I focused on doing some block outs of the layout of the house for the time being, and put some mood boards together. I explored what type of building  the place would be in for e.g. an apartment/flat or an actual house as it might impact the layout. Here are some screen shots of a couple of block outs that I made.                                       1) this one I did as an apartment so I kept it as a ...