1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 8

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 8

I've been making some good progress on my speakeasy environment project lately, steadily creating more and more models and doing at least an hours work each day. Over the past few days I've created some wooden beams, a stool model and a new floor for the room which includes a basic placeholder wood texture. I'm pretty happy with how its going.

This week I am planning to start developing the textures of the existing models and also to continue creating new models.

Here's how the scene is looking now.

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 7

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 7

This week, I've been working hard on my latest 3D models for my speakeasy scene which includes the tables and booths pictured in my blog post last week. 

Having suffered from a rather inconvenient lack of motivation and free time in recent weeks and months, my work on this scene has been very "stop-and-start", but I've knuckled down recently and have been doing at least 1 hour of 3D work every day for about the last 10 days, on top of my full time QA job. This has been tiring but feels very rewarding and my scene is starting to progress more and more.

My latest work includes the creation of a few furniture items for my scene which I have fully modelled in Maya, UV mapped, generated normal maps for and applied basic block-colour textures to. I have also imported them into the scene to see how it looks, and also to spur me on to keep up my momentum on this project - I find it motivates me to see my new 3D models in-situe by helping me envision the final product.

Next, I need to finish off a few architectural pieces such as the floor which is currently just a plane with a diffuse map. Once the architecture is done I can really begin to fill the scene with props. Here's some pictures of the current scene in UE4.

I'm in the credits of LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens! + some Speakeasy 3D Models

I'm very happy to announce that I am now an officially credited QA Tester! My name appears in the credits of LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens on all platforms. The game was released on June 28th and is the first game I worked on at Tt Fusion. I also got a free t-shirt and copy of the game which is awesome! Here's a screen grab of my name in the credits:

Meanwhile, in my (limited) free time I've also been trying to keep my 3D work going; here's a few models that I've made recently for my Speakeasy scene.

The scene is going okay but it's slow going as I work full-time so its difficult to find the time, but I hope to get the scene finished in the next couple of months. Mostly the aim is to keep myself familiar with the workflow and the use of Maya and UE4, which will come in handy soon considering my next piece of news...

...I have been accepted onto the MA Games Design course at UCLan and will be starting in September! This is a very exciting opportunity for me and I'm looking forward to going back to UCLan.

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 7

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 7

It's been a while since I've touched my 1920's speakeasy project because I've been pretty busy with my new job, but I've finally picked it back up this week! I've started on creating another essential prop for the theme, a stereotypical gangster trilby.

I've created the model, UV mapped it and started on the texture. I have done about 5 hours work in total. It's not much, but it does feel good to be back working on this project!

 

Over the next few days I will aim to finish this model up and get started on some other assets for the scene.

Meanwhile, my QA job at Traveller's Tales continues to be a very valuable experience and I'm learning more with every week that goes by. I have accepted an offer to have my contract extended until the end of August, turning what would have been a 6 week job into almost 5 months!

 

I have a job in the games industry! - QA Testing at Tt Fusion

I am excited to announce that this month, I started my first ever job in the games industry!

I am working at Tt Fusion in Wilmslow as a QA tester until the end of May. My first day was on Monday 18th April and was a day that was 22 years in the making - I've dreamed of working in games for as long as I can remember so getting my first job in the industry was amazing and my first day was a huge deal for me.

I've now been there for two weeks and its great, I've already learned so much. I've been giving it 110% and I have been soaking up as much knowledge as possible - it's proving to be a very valuable experience for me. I feel very lucky to be employed by such a successful and inventive games company and I am determined to make the most of the experience! I'm only just making this blog post now because I've been very busy and have totally immersed myself in my new job and have also moved to Wilmslow for the duration of my employment.

QA testing has always been something that I have been interested in doing and I think that I have taken well to it. The nature of the work allows me to put my Games Design degree, game design knowledge and love of gaming to good use while also learning a great deal about QA, development and design, and of course, interacting with like-minded games industry professionals and gaining a valuable insight into how things work in a games studio.

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 6

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 6

Another speakeasy update coming your way! Today I finished the Tommy Gun 3D model and its now fully PBR textured with diffuse, normal, roughness and metallic maps. I'm quite happy with how its turned out and I'm calling it finished for now, but I might tweak a few things further down the line.

Some info on the tommy gun: I originally planned on modelling it with the typical drum magazine as seen in many classic gangster films, but I wasn't happy with it so I decided to make a box magazine and was instantly happier with it so I stook with it. It's based on a 1928 Navy model which DID have the box magazines and top-mounted bolt and ejector port so it's still fairly accurate and viable for it to exist within the scene. I included some writing on the side that is based on real features of the 1928 model Thompson. I also made it so the serial number had been scratched off - implying this particular weapon was stolen from its original owner.

This was one of the most important models of the scene so it feels good to have it done. It is the 3rd gun I have fully modelled and textured. Here's some pictures:

My next step is to continue with the architectural pieces.... like I was doing before I got carried away with doing the tommy gun!

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 5

1920's Speakeasy Environment - Part 5

Part 5 of my project and I've decided to take a break from architectural modelling in order to get a head start on one of the most essential props of the scene: a Thompson submachine gun a.k.a the Tommy Gun.

I've been working on it for about 10 hours over two days and I'm very happy with how its going. I've finished the model and UV mapped it. The poly count is just under 4000, which is a little high, but I don't want to restrict myself with strict polycounts on this project.  

Here's some pics of the model!