Starting with concept art, I was using Photoshop to not only create the basis of my vehicles and project but fabricate definitive and unique proposals. In order to work to such a high standard as stated and demonstrative in my previous segments above, I had to take into consideration how the software content is organised and kept to a clean, professional standard. Starting with Photoshop, it is especially crucial to have an organised work space. How I went around organising asset files was as follows, I started to separate and identify different file types that I would be using and creating separate sub-folders to differentiate items such as any custom brushes, fonts or visual assets. Once these folders were established, I went around creating folders for each model, thumbnail/s and took into consideration what software was being used for that certain asset/artwork. As an example, for my main character's racing vehicle, I had to consider where to assign all the Maya files, potential renders, texture maps, Fbx files and anything related to artwork, such as photoshop files, etc. Therefore I broke it all down from one parent folder named after the asset, then sub folders with their branching, organised contents.

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Regarding to my brief however, I was tasked just to simply "create a race vehicle and 2+ background assets or concepts that made players think about the environment". I personally feel I have achieved this and put in the extra effort to confidently and solidly say I have met my brief. This is apparent in my thorough model designs, including attributes such as, advanced topology structure, multiple references to the 3D production pipeline, correct use of sophisticated modelling tools (bevels, extrusions, 3 booleans, preparing and setting up UV's for different texturing software and organising custom materials with the correct naming used in the industry. After everything was finalised within Maya, most of my models would go into a Texturing software called Substance 3D Painter, this stage on it's own was more than that was said of the brief, during this stage I generated and manually designed textures and materials that would apply onto my model.

 

A main example of this would be for my main vehicle, I added multiple, organised layers and manually painted on things like imperfections, decals and essentially made it fit to the environment it was going in. I also researched about adding certain types of wear and that similar of rust on metallic surfaces or flaking away of paint. This was called "Edge-Wear" which was added using Substance and was applied to all texture maps/materials, a notable mention would be how crucial normal mapping/bump mapping is. As this made a 2d, drawn effect come to life in 3D which added deteriorative states within certain assets. Building on extra things I did, I also put all my 3d assets onto sketchfab, an online 3d viewing experience, and would serve as a portfolio, not only did I have to correctly organise my texture maps and export them properly, but assign the Fbx, texture maps, configure lighting, camera views and document the asset keeping it as professional as possible. Not only this, but for some assets I wanted to illustrate them in a professional course of action, this was when I used marmoset toolbag, very similar to substance but is a real-time rendering toolkit.

 

To set this up I imported the asset I wanted to render, then added each relative texture map within the model's properties. Then proceeded to add things such as post processing FX, these include: Anti-Aliasing, Bloom, Color Grading, Lens Flares, Reflections, Vignette and Grain. In regards to camera settings and how the scene will look itself there were multiple settings I customised, in order to fit each asset differently, and setup each environment differently, depending on what asset it would be, as I can tie things like colour theory in. These settings were as follows: Depth Of Field (altering fov, focal points, near/far planes), distortion, Ray Tracing +Caustics (altering noise levels such as diffuse, radiance and reflection, plus changing rays per pixel samples), shadows, occlusion - Ambient and finally, the reflection. With all these setup for each asset, I proceeded to render them as a turntable which would leave me with a short clip resembling a professional showcase. 

 

Regarding the unreal side of things, excluding the design and finalisation of assets. I strived to create an environment that would resemble a more dystopian and contain that "run down" appearance as quoted from my research. Starting with the map, I sculpted a landscape containing references from my research and produced a technical topography, these were the features that I incorporated to produce this:
 

-Modelling Foliage models within Maya and UV mapping each.

-Exporting multiple .FBX files and importing into the engine 

-Utilising Unreal's built in sculpting/painting toolset, but also importing custom Alpha brushes to work around the engine's limitations.
-Developing materials, Paint layers, utilising CineCameraActors, postprocessing/rendering scene views.
-Building And Exporting Lightmaps in a finalised scene.

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During designing the landscape itself and directing more towards technical features behind the scenes, I would always attempt to light up the scene as perfectly as I could, this included me taking into consideration the correct compositions of certain assets that would be used to direct the player's eyes. Employing this technique of fixating certain areas and keeping the fast paced tempo, combined with my implementations of post processing, animated and multiple, visually appealing background assets, various lighting techniques (directional, area, occlusion shadows, depth, motion/lens blur), this all came together to make my work look like a professional piece. Relating to organisation and perfectionism, the interactive Heads Up Display (HUD). I decided to go off brief  for this feature as I felt a racing game such as this one, requires a HUD that allows the player to instantly recognise what its trying to portray. It all started within Photoshop, once I researched all that I needed, I started creating something as simple as a health bar. Manually designing this, with references of course, I used Photoshops layer settings to add things such as Bevels&Emboss, Inner Shadow and Drop Shadow. After designing the inner filler this bar to change value, I designed the border and exported it as a PNG. After proceeding to use similar techniques for each interactive bar, then came the speedometer. Instead of using a traditional linear progress bar, I decided to go for a more circular design. This, in photoshop consisted of 4 layers, the background shadow, outline, center piece and the plate for the numerical values. These were assorted in order to allow things like outlines and shadows to function properly, the main reason for this however was to prepare for Unreal and it's calamities in regards to circular progress bars. Again, I exported each as a PNG and proceeded to import them in. 

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After I added a Hud Canvas and setup the simple progress bars, it was time to make a material that can be dynamically used and customised via blueprint and track object speed, then display it as a numerical value in a real life metric value of speed, which would then be displayed resembling a complex shape that has boundaries and doesn't overlap the gauge designed in photoshop... A pretty hard challenge, in which again was not required of the brief. I set out to research multiple ways I can achieve this, over 7 or so collective hours of research, trial and error, it left me with the plan of creating a parent material that generates a circle similar to what I want my progress filler to be, then creating dynamic, public values in a material instance that can be edited down to have starting/ending points. Once this was established after a day, I set out to actually make it functional and working relative to the speed. In the HUD graph I referenced the First person character movement and created a dynamic material instance that serves as the base of the interactivity. After referencing the velocity of the player and using some simple maths equations, I used the material parameter collection that I made subsequent to the material, to allow me to reference how full the bar is, the starting point and ending point of the circle. In the blueprint I used this collection to set the alpha value (the alpha value is how full the filler bar will be from a value of 0-1) as the fluctuating value, which will be the velocity. Not only this but I added a small numerical counter to also serve as a more accurate value. This stage was the most significant and difficult contribution to the project I have documented the issues in the next section. This especially shows my perfectionist attitude.

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Here was the informational showcase I designed to explain this more:

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The HUD alone was by far the most intense and extensive segment within my entire project. Its such a shame how unconvincing and simple the speedometer asset may be perceived to be by some people when looked at from a perspective. If something works as intended and doesn't serve much importance other than it's cosmetic attributes, to me I think it would be overlooked if I asked the player what they think took the longest to develop. This in turn has made me respect and enquire on professional work to a great extent when examining their work. Another area of my project which could sustain this elementary outlook is the main vehicle, it is the signature asset for the player to see, but can often be overlooked when compared to the flashy, fast-paced environment. Deep down, the topology and wireframe on their own, expresses how complicated the construction of the asset is. Combined with the hard work and hours of UV mapping and sending it to texturing software, manually painting and designing edge-wear/grunge, to then in the engine with vast amounts of hidden lighting, post processing and the colossal amounts of referencing to assets/materials/HUDs via blueprints is baffling.

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This project compared to actual certified professional work was serviced from Artstation and artist: 

 

 

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It will streamline the workflow.

it helps other designers to understand our design structure easily.

1. All designers involved with the file can do a revision, quickly and easily, if necessary.

2. This minimizes errors in the criss-cross production process.