Portal
this was one of the four 3D scenes I made for my dissertation project. These four scenes are meant to show narrative through game environment.
Modelling (Portal):
To create the environment of this mesh, I first started with a basic block out of the main shape in and then I subdivided and sculpted it in Figure 61, focusing only on straight sculpts without moving side to side in order to preserve the integrity of the topology. I created Four low level of detail models to brainstorm the portal's shape, in which I attempted to blend both a futuristic and a more grounded aesthetic. These models were then combined into the model.
Preparing For Texturing:
For the main terrain, I UV mapped the environment through the technique of generating normal based UVs with cuts added later on, similarly to the previous scenes. I UV mapped the portal’s ‘s base, the main issue with this was the winged pieces on the side due to them being angled shapes making it hard to perfectly align them. After UV mapping the base, I UV mapped the main portal frame, where the main area of issue in this was the top piece in relation to the side pillar pieces, which led me to create an extrusion in some points to cover the seams that would be required for the map.
Initial Texturing:
For the portal’s cave itself, the same slate texture s the temple scene was used to show that they were in the same cave system. Inspired by the paper texture, an experiment was made with a wood texture where the values were modified in a way that would make the wood look like a rock with large, coloured highlights as opposed to wood. This was done in a way to show that the portal’s material doesn’t match the other materials in any other scene while at the same time fitting the theme.
Retexturing:
When retexturing the portal, as with the others I darkened the slate texture due to the issue with the unreal engine colour space. In terms of the texture of the portal itself, the same wood texture was used by the settings were changed drastically to create a completely different appearance. Additionally, the metal texture used in the first version was replaced with a purple variant of the customized portal frame texture. Once it was imported into unreal engine, three of the same orbs as the other scenes were added to their respective places inside the gears. For the chasm, I decided to add a simple plane with the same material as the orbs to aid in the continuity as to why the rocks were floating. For the sake of the test render the shader for the portal was relatively simple, only consisting of noise with an emissive colour, however for the refining stage it is planned to include some more interplay of colour.
