Project R.O.U.T.E

It's been awhile since I've done any game art in my freetime so I'm starting up a new project I've had on my mind for a long time. I've been needing to get a better understanding of the PBR workflow and really push myself as an environment artist so this seemed perfect. I feel like I've fallen behind on my sci fi modeling/designing as a whole and want to really try to improve with this project.

SUMMARY:
I want to create a high fidelity environment using the PBR system and UE4. It's going to be a sci fi environment taking place on mars. I want to really touch on my flaws like material definition and design flow/design fundamentals. I want to create intricate, but well designed props and environments. Environments where the eye and player are led where I want them to be led using directional lines, lighting and calm spaces. I want to use my love for storytelling, movies and narrative to create a little "short film" with this environment. Nothing too big but just a little narrative that I think would be alot of fun to create. One of the things I love most about environment art is how we are capable of doing SO much as individuals. We literally create worlds so I'd love to just marry my love for film with my love for environment art.

STORY: It might change as the project progresses.
Many years in the future when independent contractors become the frontline of space exploration, a company called Orbital Industries births Project Route. Project Route is a "seed planting" set of missions made to create sustainable stations throughout our solar system to help house, refuel and repair any space exploration missions that pass through. These stations will be maintained by ROUTE drones to house astronauts for months at a time. A milestone in the technological advancement of robotics, ROUTE is a fully intelligent humanoid drone capable of personalities, decision making and emotional intelligence. They are preprogrammed with the blueprints for the stations and start building immediately on landing and spend their time exploring and mapping out the surface of planets.



ART DIRECTION:

Using design elements from existing space shuttles, rovers, and the space station I'm going to try to create what the technology might look a couple hundred years in the future with almost no monetary restrictions. Ideally I'd like it to be more science fiction, so the broad strokes and big shapes will be more sci fi, but keeping the details and functionality within the confines of the tech found on todays shuttles. I'm really trying to push my sense of design, materials and modeling within environment art. So there will be a vast list of materials such as that aluminum insulation found on alot of shuttles, chrome, rubber, painted metals, glass, sand and rock.

Finally finished this model!  After a year of layoffs, freelancing, job changes and moving I've finally finished!  The project isnt finished just yet though.  I need to find or film some nice footage to composite him in.  Modeled in 3ds max, textured in Mari, and rendered in Vray for Maya. 

Front Lights

Finished the front lights.

Bulldozer WIP

Spent alot of time on this guy this weekend.  In the home stretch! I have to finish up the two front lights that are currently hidden, and the treads.  After that I'll find a nice little spot around my apartment to film some footage, do a little panning shot and comp this guy in! 

Getting there

Trying to find time to pick away at this guy. 

Updated texture no the bulldozer project.

Also an update on my R.O.U.T.E project.  I fleshed out some designs on his little one man rover. 

Bulldozer texturing progress

Finally getting around to learning Mari and running this guy through the production model pipeline.  I took the last couple of weeks to learn Mari and how it talks to vray and it's shaders.  I really love Mari and will never be texturing in photoshop again ha. 

Anyways this is the WIP, I'm basically just creating the paint to rust mask right now, and no real texture work on the paint has been done yet. 

I've been house sitting my girlfriends parents house this week and since I only had my laptop on me and can't model I decided to draw out an idea I had for a possible model.  A construction drone with extending arms for lifting. 

Probably the last concept for awhile going to try to focus on my production modeling/texturing.

Construction Vessel

I found time last night to finish this construction vessel concept.  I've been pretty obsessed with construction vehicles lately.  I think it would be a really cool piece to see a science fiction construction site with vaguely familiar yellow and orange construction colors, cones and vehicles but really push them 70% more into science fiction with droid construction workers and such.  I'll decide after the bulldozer model if I want to work on this guy next, or the Nasa robot.

Back side

Bulldozer Project: Model complete!!

So I finally wrapped up the modeling on this bulldozer project and brought it into vray for some portfolio shots.  This is just the first render, I'll be updating with more renders as they come online.

Still going to texture it, so there's a ways to go.

Enjoy!

Going to call this concept done!  There are still alot of things I'll be changing when I get to the model but for now I'm happy with this as the concept. 

Enjoy! 

Here's some progess on my current modeling project.  I'm doing a production model of a big D9 Caterpillar bulldozer.  I'm going to be learning Mari and Nuke for this project and using Vray for rendering.  I'll be putting it in a full CG environment to make it as photo real as I can!

The modeling is allllmost finished!

I've been putting together an idea for a single shot short  that I make from concept to completion.  I wanted to take on a pretty huge task in an attempt to make something amazing, or atleast try.  I want this project to show my ability to concept, design, model, texture, create shaders, visualize and composite.  It'll be a fully CG prerendered short less than 1 minute long.  The only thing I won't be doing is rigging and animating the character. 

The short will feature this fellah.  He's a NASA scouting drone.  He's nameless right now and just in the concepting phase.  The short will basically be a single shot of him driving up over a martian landscape, coming to a stop, climbing out of the vehicle and walking towards the camera where he comes to a stop, pushes buttons on his forearm device, looks around and then continues on off camera.  Simple but I want this little clip to have alot of quality packed into a tight amount of time.

Anyways hope you enjoy!