IBY'S DEV DIARY

Prior to the previous blog post, I started researching and thinking of what to do. I now feel that making a dynamic water simulation is the best course as the main challenge seems to revolve around that. I am not dismissing the other ideas because Pivot Painter is really something I want to try and explore. However, to use Pivot Painter I first need to understand how to create a character using rigging and animation. Another reason is given by Mark Brown in one of his videos. This is that it might give me the opportunity to create something unique because I will be exploring and refining how a game character interacts with the world. Also I might come across new, complex challenges. One problem with this is that the process of making a character is not really pushing boundaries until i reach the actual animation and blueprinting stages. So I may need to approach this as a side project while putting my main focus on the dynamic water simulation.

It’s been a pretty busy Winter break especially with the fever i've had. I've been trying to push on with the work and decide what the next project should be about. Recap So far I have done: Created Pirate Cabin Scene - This was an experiment to see if my project idea is worthwhile. Customisable Block out material - Created a material aligned to the world (also known as Tri Planar mapping) and highly customizable, allowing changes to colour texture and other properties Rain and Snow Particles - Made particle systems including rain and snow in Niagara Particle System. Explosion Particle - Made by following Imbuefx tutorials and adapted to the Niagara particle system. Rain Material Function -  It was initially a material but decided to make it into a material function so it can be blended with another material for dynamic weather systems in games. Fluid simulation in bottles - I followed the concept from Simon Trumpler's Blog post and added my own changes. Nex...

Now that the first project has been completed I now have an idea of what I know and what I don't know. So far I have an understanding of the workflow of an Environment Artist but I feel I could enhance this environment a lot further by making things more dynamic. Looking back at the first blog post I can confirm that learning more about animation techniques is really something I would like to explore. By animation techniques, I mean exploring the different methods of making things move in games whether it's through the use of materials, VFX, rigging and animation, blueprints or other methods. However, I feel learning animation techniques is a massive subject to cover especially for one semester so I hope to split these animation techniques into smaller projects. These are the main animation techniques I have found so far: Complex Materials VFX Pivot Painter Rigging and Animation Blueprints Sequencer There are probably more techniques but I will try and mak...

The Past  I did a BA in Games Design, utilising software such as UE4, Maya, Substance and others. I mainly specialised as a 3D Environment Artist. In the past year, I was applying for jobs, going to interviews and got a bit of voluntary experience at team17. Studying and creating 3D Environment Art is great fun! However, I want to explore areas outside the 3D/Environment field to expand my knowledge. My Website: http://iby.webflow.io/ My Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/iby Interests  There are a lot of things I am interested in. Currently, I am really fascinated with Materials, VFX and Animations. Most of the time I create environments which are static. However, I would like to create more dynamic environments with things that are animated/move. I would like to create complex materials such as those created by awesome artists like Dan Atwell from Ninja Theory. Dan Atwell - Rock blending into the terrain Initial Idea to study...