Production

For the next part of my B1 project I will be showcasing how I have used my references and mood boards from the research, to produce a selection of models that will bring my island to life. I will be documenting my workflow routine using videos and I shall keep you posted on problem solving after every video. When problem solving I will discuss what went wrong and I will explain how I fixed the problem and made the further improvements necessary to achieve a nice piece of work. The first section will be all about how I made my Palm tree, this can be found below.

Modelling the Palm Tree

This section of the blog is going to be about how I created my palm tree using my references from the research. I will leave some videos below of my process and I will also talk about problem solving.

Palm Tree Trunk

This video below shows and discusses the process of how I made my Palm tree's Trunk in Blender:

Problem Solving

When modelling the trunk for the Palm tree everything work out as planned and I am happy with the outcome of the model. The simplicity of this model is good as it means the poly counts stays low but because of the use of Quixel textures it still looks very realistic. There was however a problem when using Quixel for textures, this was because the textures are actually mega scans

witch normally have a resolution like 8k which is way to much for a simple assets for the environment of a game. To fix this problem I took some time after making my model to adjust my export settings within Quixel, so that when I exported a texture into blender from the bridge it would instead load a resolution of only 2k which is similar to the resolution I would use if I made my own texture in Substance Painter. With this problem solved, I not only was able to texture this tree trunk effectively but the rest of the Palm tree as well.

Palm Tree Top

This video below shows and discusses the process of how I made my Palm Tree's Top in Blender:

Problem Solving

When modelling the top for the palm tree everything went smooth and worked well and I am happy with the result. Making the actual mesh for the top was easy as I had a simple process to follow. Where the problems accumulated was when I began using the particle system, a modifier that I have little experience with. Setting up the particle system was easy as all the settings are very easy to understand and painting on the weight was very simple. However when trying to set my hairs in the particle system as my leaf model , it would always spawn at the wrong rotation so my model looked really weird and distorted. To fix this issue I played around with the leaf model and using a armature I was able to flex and rotate my leaf to how I preferred based on the what was coming through on the particle system. Using this quick trick made my model so much more neat and the leaves on my tree began to look realistic.

Palm Tree Leaf

This video below shows and discusses the process of how I made my Palm Tree's Leaf in Blender:

Problem Solving

When modelling the palm leaf for my tree everything worked pretty well and I achieved a good quality result that I am happy with. Along the way I had one little issue regarding the modifier, UV project. The issue was that it displayed the materials on to my mesh but they were at a scale that didn't perfectly match the size of my plane but instead where small and came in multiple sets. To fix this issue I add a set of arrows that acted as a beacon to the UV map so that it knew what coordinates (X,Y,Z) to display the material at. The good thing about the arrows is that when moved or scaled they actually change how the UV map is projected, meaning that if I scaled the arrows to fit my models length it would match up in real time. With this fix my model looked loads better and I was able to successfully add it to the tree for a final Product.

Final Render For Tree

Below Is a final render of my palm tree that showcases what I have created over the course of the three videos above. I am very happy with the result of this first model as it meets my goal I set out for, which is making high quality realistic models. To further evaluate, I feel that this model was a huge success considering I have never made a realistic tree before, the techniques used and the methods I put in place will definitely stay with me as a progress further into my career. With the skills learnt from modelling this asset I am very exited to try this again for other models in the future and maybe even perfect them further. If I was to model this tree again I would definitely think about how I could reduce the poly count in the top of the tree as it is still higher than I would like. For example I would definitely re-mesh the top before I assigned it as a particle system that way I wouldn’t have to worry about going back and changing the model potentially causing mistakes and errors.

Modelling the Rocks

This section of the blog is going to be about how I created my rocks using my references from the research. I will leave some videos below of my process and I will also talk about problem solving.

High Poly Rock

This video below shows and discusses the process of how I made my Rocks High Poly model in Blender:

Problem Solving

When modelling the Rock asset everything went very well as I used some solid reference from my research to help me make a detailed high poly model. I am very happy with how my model turn out, I had no problems when making it. The reason for having no problems was purely because I had done my pre-problem solving in my research which made the production of this piece so easy and I am very happy because of this. The asset looks great and will be used after I bake it down into a low poly, which you can see in the next video below.

High Poly Rock to Low Poly Rock

This video below shows and discusses the process of how I made my Rocks Low Poly model in Blender:

Problem Solving

As you seen in the video I was able to make my own normal map for my model using a bake down process I learnt via a YouTube tutorial in my research. The tutorial was easy to follow and is very simple to understand, I simply had to apply the same logic but with my own models. I am very happy with the result as it means I can use my highly realistic and detailed models in games because they are now low poly but have all the amazing details still. This process took some time to get used to but after experimenting and solving some small problems I was able to achieve the result I was hoping for. To overcome my problems I simply referred back to the tutorial for help and I found that my problems got solved once I had gave the video another watch. Overall I am very happy with my results.

How Quixel Bridge Works

Below I will leave a small video on how I have used Quixel Bridge for my project:

Final Render For Rocks

Below Is a final render of my rocks that showcases what I have created over the course of the videos above. I am very happy with the result of this model as it meets my goal I set out for, which is making high quality realistic models. To further evaluate I feel strongly that this is one of my best assets I have ever made. The reason for this is because I used so many new techniques for the first time that I really got a long with and I deeply understood them. These techniques were things like sculpting and painting with alphas inside of blender as well as normal map baking and processing. All these awesome techniques learnt are all curtsy of my research as it is there where I found the awesome videos to learn these techniques. All the techniques used will forever help me as I try to make more models in the future, especially the baking process as that is what has allowed me to create such high poly work will retaining a suitable poly count. If I was to model these rocks again I would definitely look at baking a height map to further increase the realism of my rocks. With the height map I would be able to show my rocks cracks and splits better as I would have baked my own map so the texture would display the cracks so much better, this is something I look forward to learning in the future.

How to Render in Blender

Below I will leave a video all about how I rendered my models using blender and the process I took in order to achieve good lighting.

With all my assets made and their production and problem solving explained I have decide it is a good time to move on to the post production of the B1 project where I can finalize my island and evaluate the project before handing it in. I have covered every step I took for the production and with it all documented and finished I can honestly say that I am very proud of how my first high to low poly realistic models have turn out, the success achieved in these models make me excited to create more in the future and eventually make these assets as a professional.