Texel Density

What is Texel Density?

Textures are represented by texels in the same way that pictures are represented by pixels. They are the smallest “puzzle piece” of a texture. Texels are not the same thing as pixels because a texel is a container for the pixels. So naturally, texel density is the amount of texture resolution on a mesh.

Some of the benefits of having good Texel Density are:

• To make all UVs applied to a mesh use approximately the same texel density for the texture size of their applied material.

• To apply a uniform level of texture detail across many assets which might share the same scene, allowing them to better visually fit together.

That’s all for modelling and Texel Density,

Matty OUT!

Creative and Technical!

Recently we have been tasked with creating a model in which we have to bake before we put it into Substance to texture it. We have 13 weeks to think, plan and create and texture the model but we can finish it before the deadline and work on the Imagined Worlds project if we wanted to. As I am not looking to specialize in 3D modelling I don’t want to model something too detailed or above my skill level. Just because I don’t want something too hard doesn’t mean I don’t want to push myself which is what I am doing with the thing I chose to model. After a while of thinking what I can model that will fit with the Imagined Worlds project I decided that I was going to model a Wolf Skull which will go on the hut for the hunters in our Imagined Worlds Project. Below is the concept art that I created for the planning of the Wolf Skull model.

Here is a PowerPoint presentation of my thought process going through ideas of what to model. Model Inspiration. Also, I have what I plan to bake onto the model in the PowerPoint too.

That’s all for now with Creative and Techincal,

Matty OUT!

Particle Effects – Fire Particle

The first particle I made for the Imagined Worlds project is a fire particle. This is to be used for various things around the island, for example, a campfire or a torch of sorts.

The style of game we are going for is a stylized one which is why I have used a cartoon fire as the material in the renderer tab. The main effects are given off through the renderer tab and the size over lifetime tab. The renderer tab makes the normal boring circle particle look like a fire because of the material you put on it. The size over lifetime tab is used to give the particle the effect and shape of a fire because it is set up to start wide and finish thin.

That’s all for now with Particle effects,

Matty OUT!

Topology and Re-topology

What is Topology?

Topology is the layout of a model, how the vertices and edges are placed to create the mesh surface. Good topology is essential if you want fast frame rates and good deformation.

What is Re-topology?

Re-topology is where you recreate an existing surface with a more optimal geometry. The most common use of re-topology is creating a clean mesh for animation or for any object that needs to be textured or animated.

Above is an example of re-topology and it clearly shows how important it is to have good, clean topology and if you don’t have clean topology you should retopologize your model. If the topology of a model is clean (like the one on the right of the picture) you will have a much easier time texturing and will not encounter and texture spreading across faces because the faces are all quads.

I will be using the method of re-topology when creating my model for the creative and technical project with Matt.

Until next time,

Matty OUT!

Imagined World Project!

Recently I have not posted to my blog enough over the past few weeks and I am going to fix that. I am, starting from today, going to make my blog up to date with all the work that I have done in the previous weeks just to catch up on not posted work.

First of all I will talk about the main project that will be worked on up until the Christmas Break. I was assigned the role of creating particle effects and some other things in Unity, with the secondary role of programming. My team is composed of 5 people: Me, Luke (Programming), Max (Animation/Programming), Bailey (Modelling) and Nath (Modelling).

Overall we are making great progress towards the Minimum Viable Product and we hope to get it done before half term. We have some good organisation as a team and through lists and overall management thanks to Max. Below are the Asset List, Production Plan and Trello.

We have been tasked with building a living, breathing game world where player interaction is a mere bonus. We have to plan, design and develop a digital world suitable for use as a region in a game like Zelda or Pokemon. We had to include scripted elements such as weather changes, timed events and AI which is exactly what we did with our game ‘Ye Olde Simulator’. The game is based in medieval times following a small village of people surviving off of each other and relying on each other. The miners rely on the farmers and hunters for food, the blacksmith relies on the miners for ores and the hunters rely on the blacksmith for tools to hunt animals and that is the chain of events that keep the village running but as soon as one link in the chain is broken the entire chain gets disrupted and people become angry and when people get too angry because they are getting no food because the hunters have no tools and the blacksmith has no ores they will leave the village and that is when the player will know that their village is failing.

I am very exited to continue working on this project and I look forward to sharing my work to my blog in the next week or so.

Until next time,

Matty OUT!