This update will include the last two weeks of work spent on the Academia project. Basically, shaders, shaders, shaders and a bit of lighting and re-rig/skin the recently finished hi-res characters.
For the shading part, we discovered that in order to get the Polygon Art and vectorized cartoonish look we were looking for, we basically needed to get rid of the standard Diffuse + NormalMap workflow we have been used to work with alltogether. The more detail we add to surfaces, the less geometry plays a role in revealing large volumes and atract the eyes where it matters. Below is a comparison example of the two methods.
For the shading part, we discovered that in order to get the Polygon Art and vectorized cartoonish look we were looking for, we basically needed to get rid of the standard Diffuse + NormalMap workflow we have been used to work with alltogether. The more detail we add to surfaces, the less geometry plays a role in revealing large volumes and atract the eyes where it matters. Below is a comparison example of the two methods.
Part of the map with diffuse and normal maps: | Part of the map with default shader: |
A lot of hours was spent trying to get the master shader to work, especially for future vertex painting. I had to contact Joachime Holmér, the Shaderforge developper, to ask him out for help on my shader not compiling on certain must have configurations. Suspitions were placed on maximum texture samplers (Unity allows 16, Shaderforge, 13 in lit mode), DX11 renderer, or node parameters naming conventions. Eventually when doing everything from scratch, I found out it was a simple checkbox in shaderforge rendering parameters that was enabling a buggy OpenGL renderer.
Here is the shader tree for custom lighting vertex painting. I will probably create a simplified version it since we won't need a lot of normal details for most props in game. This shader also allows the artist to add 2 more colors on top of the diffuse (blended from darks / highlights) to control the in-game look without going back and forth to Photoshop.
Here is the shader tree for custom lighting vertex painting. I will probably create a simplified version it since we won't need a lot of normal details for most props in game. This shader also allows the artist to add 2 more colors on top of the diffuse (blended from darks / highlights) to control the in-game look without going back and forth to Photoshop.
There are 10 other master shaders for basic materials, crystals, particles, terrain, skydome, post-process and soon to be characters.
Once the shaders bases were fortified, we needed to quickly light the scene as it was time to start some level dressing with the new environment assets. After last week's comments from outside, it was time to hit a nice daytime contrasted look. A little tweaking on the shaders and main directional light and voilà! Also, I did a skydome (with temporary texture) that can be blended with the environment fog in the shader.
Once the shaders bases were fortified, we needed to quickly light the scene as it was time to start some level dressing with the new environment assets. After last week's comments from outside, it was time to hit a nice daytime contrasted look. A little tweaking on the shaders and main directional light and voilà! Also, I did a skydome (with temporary texture) that can be blended with the environment fog in the shader.
Overall map new look:
Most comments we recived for this new look was that it is now hard to see where the players must go and if they can stand out, if at all, from lit areas. We were planning to have objectives and players have self-iluminated texture elements but its hard to see in complete daylight. We will need to compromise visual art VS gameplay this week to find a solution. Post-process shader will probably help in deciding what to do (Re-vectorize everything maybe?)
Finally, I had time to rig and skin the two new hi-res characters and implement them in the engine with their old animations. Speaking of, they will probably need some more polishing until the class Constraint#1 hand out in two weeks. But seeing how fast time is flying by, the shaders and particle effects are going to be a top priority. Our game designer having done the characters, we will officially be 3 artists working on what we do best.
So for next week's task list (definately won't have time for all of that!):
- Tweaking Shaders for better Polyart direction (Must)
- More Shaders for Characters / Particles (Must)
- Some corrective lighting (maybe)
- Debugging and gameplay functionnality (very likely)
- Anim polish (unlikely)
- Environment mood / post (likely)
Till next time!
Finally, I had time to rig and skin the two new hi-res characters and implement them in the engine with their old animations. Speaking of, they will probably need some more polishing until the class Constraint#1 hand out in two weeks. But seeing how fast time is flying by, the shaders and particle effects are going to be a top priority. Our game designer having done the characters, we will officially be 3 artists working on what we do best.
So for next week's task list (definately won't have time for all of that!):
- Tweaking Shaders for better Polyart direction (Must)
- More Shaders for Characters / Particles (Must)
- Some corrective lighting (maybe)
- Debugging and gameplay functionnality (very likely)
- Anim polish (unlikely)
- Environment mood / post (likely)
Till next time!