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COMPLETED SPRING 2021
Create a scene featuring 3D models of manufactured objects to surface and texture. All textures and materials must be original photography or procedurals. The scenes should feature at least 6 different materials with new and old/changed versions. The scene will be rendered using 6 camera moves within Unreal Engine sequencer based on traditional cinematography.
PROJECT BRIEF
"VIKING MYSTERY"
Viking culture is intriguing despite having a rather bloody and violent history as well as a society unkind for women according to Christian accounts. The aesthetics of the culture is close to the Earth or rather Midgard and their Gods and mythology did not relate to Greek and Roman. The Viking age lasting about 400 years (8th- 11th Century) was a short history but had a lasting impression full of mystery.
In this scene, I wanted the viewer to question "Why are these weapons in this cave rather than in a burial?" A vikingr (a viking who went out on expeditions), thier way of passing to the afterlife was to die in battle and be sent to Valhalla. They would be either buried with their belongings if possible or on rare occasions burned in a funeral pyre.
The scene I have created is inaccurate but I wanted to showcase the loose armor and weapons (unattached to a warrior's body).
How is it inaccurate?
Sturdy swords were hard to come by during the Viking Age due to various blacksmithing and resource reasons. There are two swords in the scene, a Scandinavian and Norway Style sword so they are not from the same region. A vikingr's common weapon a bearded axe as well as a shield.
Swords were somewhat rare so these swords may belong to higher positioned vikingrs or may have possibly belonged to a Jarl (Viking chief) and his men and they are trapped or lost. The interpretation is up to you.
Manufactured Materials:
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Polished wood- (decayed- chipped matte) swords, and axe longship
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Painted wood- (decayed- less paint, chipped, faded) shield
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Iron metal- (decayed- bumpy and rusty) swords and axe
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Bronze metal- (decayed- no luster, rusty) sword pommel and guard/ decorations
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Chain mail - (decayed- brown and rusty) helmet
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Gold- Sword Deco
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Rust
Why have rust if items are preserved in snow and ice? Rust is iron oxide when iron & oxygen combine. The presence of water accelerates the process of rusting. However, since needing oxygen, iron can rust in ice but at a slower rate. Therefore, it will rust in the open air before weathering with freezing and snow changes in the environment.
MATERIAL & MODEL REFERENCES
SOURCE: https://bavipower.com/blogs/bavipower-viking-blog/the-misleading-root-of-the-viking-horned-helmet
SOURCE: Simon Fowler, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/45669383699295319/
WORK IN PROGRESS
The first scene I created (TOP) did not allow enough dynamic camera movements as everything was on the ground and not elevated for height exploration. I restarted during week 5 which put more pressure to complete the environment as well as the main focus which is the manufactured materials. This new scene (BELOW) aligned more to the vision I had for this project and the story.
SUBSTANCE DESIGNER SEAMLESS MATERIALS
PAINTED WOOD
AXE WOOD
HELMET STEEL
LEATHER GRIP/BIND
GOLD DECO
CHAIMMAIL
I was running into problems with the chainmail with artifacts showing up in the rings themselves. Lines were showing in the normal map because of the gradients I had for the rings (to make them look like they are interlacing) as well as the Direction blur and Blur HQ before the normal output.
THE FIX: to this was simply fixing tweaking Surface Size and Height Depth within the "Height to Normal World Units" node as well as the parameters for the blurs themselves.
SUBSTANCE DESIGNER TO SUBSTANCE PAINTER
Substance designer is not the last step in the texturing processing. Because these are procedural materials they can be exported with parameters and brought in as smart materials in Substance Painter to fit onto the object's UVs as well as tweaking and painting intentional marks.
RENDERS THROUGH SUBSTANCE PAINTER
The renders from Substance Painter show the details that may be missed in compression issues as well as texture resolution exporting for Unreal optimization. These would be examples if I wanted to use the same assets and materials for an offline rendering test.
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