Game Assets

Game Scene Final Project Post

    The goal of this project was to recreate a scene from the game It Takes Two. Our team chose to work on the Cutie’s Castle scene. We felt this scene would be able to be recreated within the time frame of the project. While Cutie’s Castle ends up being a very somber scene we decided to try and create a scene that is fun and lively. Our team decided we wanted to have the Castle be close to the original but we didn’t want to create a one for one reproduction. We decided to take some elements that are found in various sections of the game and include them in this scene to add more mechanics for the player. My portion of the scene was to texture the objects around the castle as closely to the original as possible. I also worked on replicating the castle using the models my team made as closely as I could to the original.

    My tasks involved texturing the models my team created. I began by grouping the various objects so that I could create one UV layout for the objects. I tried to group objects that had similar materials so that it would be an easier texturing process in Substance Painter. The objects I received were UV’d but in order to recreate the look of the objects from the game scene I would alter the UVs so I could match the texturing.

    The first set of UVs involved many of the wood objects from the game scene including the castle walls, castle turret and train. Initially I made the UV maps for the wood section the same. But when I brought all the objects into Substance Painter I found that the wood grain for some of the objects would orient the wrong way. To fix this issue I brought the objects back into Maya and ID the objects differently so that I would be able to fix the wood grain. I also tried to make my own textures in Substance Designer. I was able to create a texture that would allow me to change the parameters so that I could create a variety of different types of wood textures. The texture I created had varying degrees of success depending on what I applied the material too. I used a mix of preexisting materials and my Designer material to create the look of the wooden pieces.

    After I finished texturing all the objects my team made for the project I began working on the various stickers that can be found around Cutie’s Castle. As the scene was not a one for one recreation I created some of my own stickers I thought would be fun to have in the scene. I used Adobe Photoshop to create all the textures we used around the castle. I used a mix of the pin tool and brush tool to try to recreate the stickers to match how they looked from the game scene. The most important sticker I worked on was the sticker that has a picture of Cutie on one of the major set pieces. As the player enters the scene there is a large cardboard wall that has a sticker of Cutie with the text her majesty. I took many screenshots from the scene and used the brush tool to draw it in an attempt to recreate it. I used the pen tool to make the banner underneath and the text tool to write her majesty. The hardest part of all the stickers was trying to recreate the white border found around all of them. I often had to create an outer glow and used the eraser tool to try and smooth it out to keep the silhouette.

    Finally I went into Unity and began the process of blocking out the castle. During this project I watched the scene from the game many times to try and understand the shape of the castle. Overall it was hard to understand because the scene is filled with many cut scenes. I was able to find one aerial shot of the level as Cuties tries to escape in a rocket. I used this one shot to begin the blockout process for our level. Once the level was completed I started to bring in the various props that are found around the castle. The castle has the props grouped up, near where the players encounter Cutie there are many sweets and snacks. Around the rest of the castle there are various sewing items like pincushions and yarn. Overall I think my team was able to create a pretty accurate scene of the castle while also adding some elements to make it our own.

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Week 5

    This sprint I took all the objects that have been modeled and began the process of organizing and preparing them for texturing. I began by grouping objects that I felt would share materials once they are imported into Substance Painter. With the objects grouped I began the process of creating ID maps. During the process of creating ID maps I would adjust the UV’s my team created so that as I began texturing I would be able to match the source material as closely as possible. Finally I would re-layout all the UV’s because I would often regroup the objects.

    

    Once my UV sheets were completed I created a low and assigned a lambert to all the objects. I exported both my low and ID of the groups and then brought them into Substance Painter. With my objects in Substance Painter I imported my low and baked on the ID map.

    Once all the objects were textured I would export my textures and create new groups for the objects in Maya. Once the groups were created I would bring the objects to the center of the scene, freeze transforms, delete history and set the pivot point to where I would want it in Unity.

    I also began creating various stickers that are found in the source scene. I grabbed screenshots of the stickers from the game and brought them into photoshop to recreate them. I also created some stickers that we can place as easter eggs for our team.

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Week 4 

    During sprint four I continued working on texturing objects my teammates have created. I began by pulling all of the objects from different members into a single Maya project. Once I had all the items in one project I started to group them together so I could begin organizing the UV sheets. Most of the objects I was able to group together and use one UV sheet while creating an ID map for the various items. The toy spaceship, crayon, bottle rocket, packing peanut and button I was able to use one ID map. But when I began looking at the wooden toy block I felt it was going to need its own UV sheet and ID map. With all the UV sheets laid out and exported my lows and ID maps.

    Next I began working in Substance Painter to begin the texturing process. I applied a high gloss plastic material to the toy spaceship and changed the color on various sections to match the references for the toy. For the bottle rocket I needed a texture for the wrapper and didn't have a paper material so I used a leather material. I adjusted the settings to try and replicate the look of paper and feel like I was able to successfully create the look.

    

    When texturing the wooden block I started by adjusting the UVs so that I would be able to break up the color of the object. I wanted the edges to have different colors and created an ID map that reflected the colors that I would use in Substance Painter. With the wooden block in Substance Painter I began by applying a wood grain material to the entire object so that it would have a consistent grain across the entire object. I then applied the various colors I wanted to each section of the ID map for the wooden block.

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Week 3

    This sprint I spent some time making designer materials for objects in the game. In order to create the woodgrain texture the graph is broken into five main sections. The sections are composed of the wood knots, fine detail, small dirt, tiles and the albedo. Creating each section separately allows for adjustments to be made in different segments that will affect the overall material. Adjusting the parameter of the wood knots section adds more knots to the overall material. The fine detail adjusts the lights and darks of the material adding more normal data. Dirt adds a little dirt to the wood, looking at the source material there isn’t any dirt added to the scene because it’s inside a room but adding a little gives the wood more grit. The tiling section of the graph gives the material wooden planks. The scene we are emulating in It Takes Two doesn’t have a look of wooden tiles because of how small the scene is but I decided to add if I need planks in the future. The albedo section controls the color of the scene and allows me to create many different types of wood by using the gradient select. I can use a reference picture and select a range of colors from it to apply to the wood material.

    Once the wood grain texture was completed in Designer I began texturing the objects in Substance Painter. I grouped all the objects that primarily consisted of wood and created an ID map to vary up the wood types. Then I began applying the wood grain to my objects. There reference shows that there is a little bit of wood grain on the objects so I tired to create some wood grain without adding too much.

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Week 2

    The goal of this project is to recreate a game scene. The scene our team chose was Cutie’s Castle from the game It Takes Two. For this sprint I worked on recreating the background elements as close to the originals as possible. Cutie’s Castle is composed mostly of cardboard pieces cut up to make various parts of a castle. I took the bulk of the castle pieces and broke them up into modular pieces that can be put together in Unity. The first castle piece I focused on was making the castle turret. The castle turret is composed of six walls and a topper. I decided to begin with the castle wall and began modeling it in Maya. I began by creating a cube and subdividing it five times. I then shaped the cube to the correct width and thickness. Once the Cube was the correct shape I extruded every other face of the subdivision to replicate the walls. Finally I adjusted the height to make sure it matched the reference and finished by making UVs of the wall. To make sure it would work as a castle turret I duplicated the wall six times to make each face of the castle turret and make sure it matched the reference. Next I began working on making the castle turret topper. I started by making a cylinder and reducing the subdivisions down to six sides to match the amount of walls. I then selected the edge around the top and pulled it in and selected the edge around the bottom and pulled it wider. After I had the correct shape I adjusted the height and placed the object on top of the six walls I’d made earlier. With both objects completed I have the castle turret ready to be textured. 

  

    Once the castle turret was completed I then started working on the walls that will be in between the turrets. I decided to make this piece modularly as well so we can snap the walls together to adjust the length as needed. After modeling the castle turret I used the same process to make the wall piece. With two sections of the castle completed I began working on smaller objects that will be used in the scene. Although not in Cutie’s Castle there are earlier segments of the game that have Jenga towers. I modeled a quick Jenga piece I will texture multiple times to make a variety of pieces to make the Jenga tower. Finally because the castle is in a child’s room there are various parts of the castle walls that have stickers on them. I looked at some reference of the crown sticker from the game and recreated the sticker in photoshop that we can stick around the game scene. We plan to recreate the various stickers around the game scene and stick a couple of our own stickers in the game for fun.