Battle arena- Egyptian concept

For our next digital project I will be rendering a boss arena and boss based on an original concept that I will be developing. This project will use a range of photo bashing, rending and 3D draw overs to constrict a clean and accurate final piece from different view points that 3d modellers could use to make into a finished game ready piece. I already have some ideas for this as I have wanted to do something in an Egyptian theme since I started the course as it is a personal point of interest for me. I may consider incorporating elements of horror and gore into it to made the concept a little more unique this is something I will research in my upcoming mood boards and concepting. 

I started off this project by collecting some various images of  things related to ancient Egypt including real life references of historical artefacts such as tombs and Egyptian artwork. I want to get clear understanding of my theme before I start coming up with concepts so that I can establish a convincing and accurate piece of finished work. I really like the level of vertically that is presented in a lot of my images as this can be reflected in my battle arena to create a sense of massiveness and effective composition. My colour pallet is already quite well established within this board as it is clear that I will be suing very warmed toned colours and golden lighting. However when I come to researching further into the possible aspect I can play around with this. 

To progress with my ideas I collected some more secondary refence images to give myself a better idea of the general finished loom and composition I wanted to aim for. I also quickly sketched out a possible concept idea that I can move forward and develop or change. I wanted to give myself quite a clear starting point as I feel like my concept has some already established clear elements to it. I listed down some of the key elements I want to establish in my future concepts. I thought careful about the shape language involved in this piece and what kind of silhouettes I will need to be including in my developments. There are some parts of this is like which I will be taking forward such as the circular floor as I think this suggests the idea of an arena well and reads very clearly. It also gives me the opportunity to involve some of the previous research I did well. I will be doing some top down sketches to show floor plans and general layouts of the arena. 

I decided to sketch out some different objects which I could use in my composition. based on some good refences I found online. I also collected some further more specified pieces from online just so that I could progress into using them in concepts. As my idea is based off historical real things I need a lot of the elements to be some what accurate and relate back to the real thing. I want my arena to nicely reflect the Egyptian era with a twist of action and playability. Some of the landscapes I collected will help me come up with a setting for the arena. I want to develop the actual context of this project well so that it makes sense and everything links together. I think the obelisk will be a particularly effective main feature due to its prominent shape language which clear links back to Egyptian history whilst also giving a sense of verticality. These main assets I have chosen all have interesting shape language which will contribute nicely to the overall quality of my ideas. There is a lot of refence for this theme therefore I will make sure to collect a range of imagery to help support my ideas. 

I started adding my sketches into some more detailed compositions and playing around with a few different layouts. The first one I did was my favourite as I really liked the levels I incorporated into the concept. It gives this idea more of a narrative and sense of flow. However I am a little concerned about the complexity of it and how it may take a long time for me to finish keeping in mind the set time frame. The second idea I sketched out was more of a simplistic version which is set on the top of a pyramid. The idea that I had for all the concepts was that my boss character would fly out of the eye in the centre of the floor which would be a hole. I took this idea through into each one. I think the second idea has a more generic silhouette and dsont make use of as many assets as I would have liked. However I can develop this further if I need to do so. The third idea focuses more on vertically and height linking in with the first one I used the Tutankhamun illustration and created a 2 tier arena which again suggests more player intractability and interest in comparison to the second one. The 3rd also has water around the bottom and some bridges which I do particularly like the idea of having as it will add in another interactive part. I am really happy with my first design as it incorporates a lot of interesting assets. I would like to make a 3d blockout of this just to see how the composition would work on a more realistically lit level. 

Here is the block out I made in 3DSmax for the first idea I had I am very pleased with how it looks. I tried make it relatively detailed so that I could photo bash and texture over it If I choose to use this idea. The weird blobby thing represents my tutankhamj statue. After some feedback I made it considerably bigger as I wanted to make it the main feature of the piece and in composition to a person I wanted it too be extremely big. I may take this into Zbrush and sculpt onto it a bit so I can get some more definition onto the surfaces. I will also be taking this into unreal so that I can light it and get an idea for some interesting set ups. 

I imported my model into an unreal engine scene and added some lights. This is quite a basic setup however I used some post processing to change levels and colours. I used brighter lights for where I wanted to draw attention to certain key points in the arena. Such as where the boss/ player comes out, the coffin under the statue, and the exit gate. I will make sure to add some details into the scene which prompt where the player needs to move to. For where my arena will be set up I have an idea which I will be incorporating into my next step as currently the background looks very plain. As I previously mentioned in my research I think it is important for the arena that I establish some kind of situational context to it.

I really liked the idea of having my arena in a big bird cage like the cage for the pterodactyl in Jurassic park. Personally I find this idea really freaky and interesting, this will give another element of narrative to my idea. Since my boss will be able to fly I thought that this worked really nicely tying in the boss to the context of the arena. In max I sculpted a basic cage structure and imported it into 3ds. I like how it created a dark silllohuete like the one in Jurassic park. Its very contrasting in comparison to the very light and warm arena. it also creates very dynamic shape language whilst lending itself nicely to the background. I am going to further mess around with the lighting as I am still not happy with it. I like the design a lot however I am still concerned that this level of complexity will not be viable for me to make in the time frame I need to work with.

I decided to change my design a little bit as I think the balance was off with the giant king tut head at the side, plus I was very worried about the time that I had left to my arena as I had to do my boss as well. I added some more needles and moved some things around. I actually like this a lot more even thought it is less complicated. The screenshot above was taken in Zbrush as I decided that I was going to start adding some basic textures on substance painter using some alphas which I will edit in photoshop. I used a previous sculpt of a Japanese lion statue and stretched it in order to get a the basic shape of a sphynx. I will then draw over this take make it look more like an Egyptian sphynx. I then used UV master and exported the model as an fbx so that I could texture it in substance. The uvs weren't the best as they were generated however it was good enough for me to get some basic values and textures on. I want to import the textures in unreal and really push to make a pretty lighting setup before I bring the piece into photoshop. 

This is what my arena looks like in zbrush. As you can see I used some fill alpha grunge layers to build up some textures. I changed a lot of the projection settings to 'Tri planar' as this allowed me to be able to nicely wrap the textures around the objects in an accurate manner. I will be painting over this quite a lot in photoshop as it wont be perfect. Once I import the maps into unreal and add some lighting they will react with the environment and look more dynamic. I referred back to my moodboards for refences on colours and textures. Along with using  workflow that was consistently reimporting into unreal to be able to tweak the textures in painter once I know what they look like. There will be a blue plane in the middle were I will add water but this will be done in unreal and then textured in photoshop. Later on I will upload a sheet with all the alphas I made and used in order to texture this. I found them online an then edited them on photoshop before using. I found it quite awkward to get a nice shade of yellow for the sandstone as I wanted it to feel very golden. I had to refer to some colour charts online to eventually come to a nice shade. In some places the textures didn't apply perfectly due to the questionable unwrap. If I had more time I would have liked to unwrap this myself so it was perfect. 

The image above shows one of the earlier stages in Unreal engine. Currently it is not lit nicely and therefore looks very bland. After some feedbck and tried to make the textures where the player will be able to go a different colour in order to create a clear difference in playable and unplayable areas. Like I had previously mentioned about my design I wanted it to have several different layers to make it more interesting and dynamic to look at and play on. I will also be lighting significant areas and areas I want to draw attention to. 

This was a previous stage of my texturing progress as you can see I worked consistently in unreal side by side with painter for this. 

This is what my arena looked like in unreal before i brought it into photoshop. I added lighting on the tips of the needles as I thought it added a sense of verticality and drew attention to them. I also lit the cages and the base from below. I will be adding some smaller detailed signs on photoshop as my they weren't picking up on the model very well due to the poor unwrap. 

In Photoshop I edited the level of the piece to make it pop a bit more and look more dynamic. I think this made a huge difference to the atmosphere of my arena and I am pleased with the results. I will now go on to adding some further painted refinements and detailing that I wasn't able to get into the painter file.

Here is a sheet of images I used as refence and for photo bashing after I had taken my work into photoshop. The images which are black and white I had edited and turned into alphas to import into the painter file. I stamped these onto the model to create the circle effects you see on the platforms. I could have done this step in photoshop however I wanted to add a golden sheen on them as if it was embossed so it was easy to make a material for it in painter. I tried to make the most of using max, zbrush, painter, unreal and photoshop. For my lighting setup I wanted to have a really warm and yellowish light as I took from these refences of how Egyptian architecture was lit at night. I really loved the effect that was created especially when they were lit from the bottom. I reaccreted this in some of the assets in my scene. including the bases of the main circular structures. I chose however to light the needles form above as I thought this would add a little more interesting and create some variation within the lighting scene. I really like how they turned out. The hieroglyphics were edited and photo bashed onto the needles as the texture wasn't high enough quality to pick them up in substance. I have to add some finishing touches in the final stage of my arena project. 

Final Renders

Here is the final render of my battle arena from photoshop. I played around more with the background and added some better lighting to it with curves and levels. just to dim it down a bit as not to detract from the foreground arena. I painted over it quite a bit in photoshop to define some of the edges which had got lost through the process. I added some further light and shadows to it to make sure everything was tied in nicely. The sphynx was photo bashed onto the sculpted base that I had made and I heavily edited it so as not to plagiarise the original statue. I trimmed down some of the features and used some setting in photoshop. I recoloured it (it was originally grey stone) using the colour match tool and my original layer from unreal and then messed with levels and curves along with hand painting. It was quite hard to get it to fit nicely into the scene with out it looking uncanny. I spent quite awhile on this. I will showcase some other viewpoints on the following posts.

Viewpoint 2

I did another perspective of my arena which is from more of a player point of view. Even though in my first view you can see quite a lot of the design I wanted to do a perspective that was a bit more subversive so that anyone making the actual arena could get a good idea of the kind of atmosphere I wanted to create with this idea. I did this using the same method as the previous render where I used an unreal render with some basic lighting and photo bashed it and then painted over it in photoshop. I like this method of working as it is very free and non destructive so if I decide I don't like an element or the view I can easily go back and change it before I have spent too long rendering it. I am overall really pleased with how this project has turned out. I really enjoying being able to do an Egyptian themed concept as I love the colour pallets that could be used in this and the interesting textures and symbolism I could create. I did have to simplify my design a bit from the start however I still think the ideas and shape language work well alongside the Egyptian themes. To improve if I was to do this task again I would include more of a range of hero props into the concept just to give it some further supporting narrative. I did run out of time to start adding these this time around so that is something I will have to work on.  I think what has worked the most successfully on this project is the workflow in which I used as mentioned I did have to simplify however due to the nature of the workflow any mishaps in the designing process were easily fixable. Please see the image below for the top down view!

Finished a presented