Extended Practice Environment Creation: Modelling, UV Mapping, Texturing and Adding Animations

Modelling
Once the main character was finished I moved onto creating my environment which is going to be set in Egypt. The main level had already been planned out well and was ready to be made into a final level, this time I ensured that the rooms where all made out of cubes as well as the corridors so that it was easier to texture them later on.

Once the basic shape of the rooms had been laid out I added in the corridors, again trying to ensure that they are built out of cubes so that they can be textured easily, but still keeping a nice following shape to the level.

I then added the depth to the level, making the slopes down so that everything was a bit more interesting to look at, and it gives it a more larger appeal when there are different levels to the environment.

I added in all of the pathways down to the different levels ensuring that the ceilings where high enough for the character to get down them especially if I were to make them actual stairs at a later date.

I then moved onto adding in the details in the level, ensuring that the main room details where added but then also the smaller details in the corridors as well. I started by adding in the spike trap as this is one of the first things that Keith will face. I wanted to make them tall enough so that you can't jump over them when they are up, only when they are down, as they move in this manner in a timed fashion to make it more difficult.

I then placed them though out the environment in strategical places that I had already thought about previously in the planning of the level.

I then moved onto the individual rooms and went though each one logically, adding in the columns and panels that would be featured and also any torches or braziers that are going to be the light source in the level.

I moved through each room adding in the initial details that came to mind when first going through the level, and eventually made the lever which is going to feature in two different rooms in the level. I really like the overall design of these having the small  pyramid shape up the two sides and it links in well with the overall design of the level.

I then added in the falling sand into the area in the centre circular room. This is going to be created with an animated texture and will continuously fall down over and over so that it, again, looks like there is more to the level.

I then looked at adding in areas where there are falling platforms for the player to avoid. These do not fall instantly but will wobble slightly first before giving way to a dark hole below. These will be animated to fall when the player touches them but there is the opportunity to avoid them and move around them.

I then also added these swinging blades in. These are very typical to tombs and make a really nice addition to the level. There are a few, about 5, throughout and again these will swing at a certain pace so that the player has time to avoid them and maneuver around them with Keith's power up ability.

UV Mapping
Once all of the models where in, for now anyway, as more may be added later to fill up the environment later, I began the UV mapping process and this took a very long time to get right. I spent about 3 days on the whole environment getting everything to be as good as I could make it and ensuring that everything was the right size in relation to everything else. I used the checkered Lambert pattern to be able to get my UV maps looking correct, and this was possible because more of my objects where created from cubes to begin with.

I continued through ensuring that I was doing everything in a similar way to get the UV mapping look as good as I could make it as this is something I have never enjoyed doing particularly.

Texturing
Once all of the mapping was complete I moved onto texturing and this did become a difficult process due to my version of Photoshop that I was currently using. I started by creating two separate files for the stone flooring and walls that where a seamless texture in all axis so that it could be tiled correctly throughout the level, but found when putting it onto my UV maps they just came out looking very blurry. I tried to optimise them when in Photoshop but there where no visible changes. I believe this is down to using a very old version, CS2 and decided that it was best to wait to do the large corridors and rooms until I could get back into college and get assess to Photoshop CC which has a lot more features for downsizing images to reduce the file size without loosing quality.

Before I had access to a more up-to-date version of Photoshop I moved onto texturing the smaller assets and parts of my level that weren't the walls. I first looked at texturing the falling platform and this was one of the simplest parts to the level and very quite to design.

 I then moved onto looking at texturing the main door, at first I added the basic texture onto it, looking at designing the colour and getting that right first before adding in further detail as I wasn't sure how develop it at the moment.

 I then textured the lever that features in two different locations on the level and again this was fairly simple, making sure that I kept the colours and style true to my designs. I also wanted to make sure that I kept the same texture and stone like quality as the walls as well and keep the theme of the level running continuously.

I then added a little bit more detail into the doorways, and made them have more stone on them so that they looked more built up, then I added some Hiero's onto the top part where there was a gap making it look a little more interesting to look at.

I then did the same on the door, making each of the different parts look like they were built up from stone to create a strong base for the doorway as this is something that moved up and down when levers are pulled.

I then moved back to the first room and added in the texture onto the columns there, again I found they were a little blurry but this is something that I will look at later when back at college.

I then added everything into the second room on the left hand side at the beginning and I really like the end result here. I think it looks great and they really do look like pieces of stone that have been carved and detailed added.

I then added in the columns in the fifth room, and below then added detail onto them so that they looked a little bit more interesting. I kept them all the same as they would have been if they were in the same room.

 I then finished off the extra details in the sixth room, added in pretty much the same details that are in the second but with a few exceptions that have been altered as I went, and I can see the room really starting to take shape and look good.

Once I was back in college I was able to optimise my textures without vastly increasing the file size of the whole project. I wanted to ensure that the quality was good enough so that when you are walking through the level it doesn't have any blurring on it.

I continued to work my way through the level texturing everything in the same fashion to ensure that it all looked the same, I kept the walls and floors the same for now throughout so that in the future they can be changed really easily without any further problems with the texture quality.

Once I had finished texturing the entire level I went back and looked at the smaller details in the level to ensure that they were the same high quality as the rest of the level.

The quality of the textures that had previously been added didn't look as good as the rest of the level now so I went back through them all to ensure that they where of a higher quality and they did look a lot better in the end.

Once all of the texturing was finished I started to add in a few more little details to the level to fill up the empty rooms further and added in details that linked to Egypt further.

Once the level was complete I took it into Unity so that I could start to bring the level together and make it playable. I first went through added in lights to the scene so that I could get an idea about how dark the level was going to be. This was a very long process as I have far too many lights sources in my scene so I need to think about a way to bake the lights so that they do not effects the frame rate of the level, as when I was loading it up before it was running around 70fps and with the lights it was down to about 20fps.

I didn't worry too much about the lights for the mean time and moved onto doing the first proper walkthrough of the level so that I could see how well light it was and whether anything about the level needed to be changed. I also could see how good my texture quality was at this stage and how well the overall level was laid out.