MSc Animation & VFX
Final Project Blog
Some of the topics covered in this blog:
Character Development
Environment Process
Compiling
Everything created is my own work except the chair and canisters in the cinematic and the rocks in the background of the HDRI, they were downloaded for reference.
In this project I have used software such as:
Unreal engine 5
Substance Painter 3D
Blender 4.0+
Adobe Photoshop 2024
Maya 2025
TopoGun 3
Adobe After Effects 2024
Adobe Premiere Pro 2024
Below is a shortened version of the project process.
Please scroll past it to view the whole process.
Weapon concept designs.
Early character designs.
Refining leg design.
Second version of character design.
Continuation of the second character design.
Continuation of the second character design.
Lowpoly wireframe on top of the high poly character.
Lowpoly wireframe.
UVs and character textures.
Wireframe with textures in Blender.
Character concept.
Character in Blender.
Character in Unreal Engine 5.
Wireframe for the main building.
Wireframe and seams for the tree on the side of the building.
Highpoly for the tree on the side of the building.
Textures for the tree on the side of the building.
Lowpoly for a rubble pile.
Highpoly for a rubble pile.
Lowpoly for a rubble pile.
Highpoly for a rubble pile.
Scene that I created my own HDRI with.
Unblurred HDRI.
Full Project Rundown
December 2023 Progress
Focusing on project idea.
Initial ideas for the game and direction.
Brainstorming and idea development.
Key ideas.
Game idea development.
Story development. I really wanted to incorporate real life features as if it was a spin on a real catastrophic event.
January 2024 Progress
Overall development.
Very rough storyboard sketches for the animation idea.
Very rough storyboard sketches for the animation idea.
Very rough storyboard sketches for the animation idea.
I didn't like how my model was looking so decided to go back to the drawing board and redesign a couple elements. I liked the clothing I had sculpted yet the back muscles were too detailed for the style I was going for and I didn't want to continue with the leg design or thigh piece. The proportions didn't quite sit right either and she didn't look very lively it was very blocky and unflattering. I started from scratch again, blocking out the body and hands. I completed the first rough sculpt in a couple hours and was so much happier with the direction of the model already.I reused the character head I had created for my previous model and used that as a base. I added some facial details like eyeballs, eyebrows, eyelashes and fixed the way the lips look. Close up of the facial details, still had issues with they eyelid faces at this point but managed to clear that up.
January 2024 Progress
Settling on a game style.
March 2024 Progress
Overall progress.
This video also includes work I did for my team project assessment.
June 2024 Progress
Focusing on the main character development.
Low poly vs high poly of MC body.
MC retopo head close up.
MC retopo back close up.
MC retopo legs close up.
MC retopo hand close up.
First version of MC makeup and detail in Substance Painter.
MC vertex painted for Substance Painter.
Second version of MC makeup and detail in Substance Painter.
Final texture for MC in Substance Painter.
Final texture for MC in Substance Painter close up.
Learning hair cards.
Learning hair cards.
Photo bashed concept using the blender model.
First version of the main characters hair using hair cards.
First version of the main characters hair.
First version of the main characters hair full body.
First version of the main characters hair behind.
MC posed using rig.
Example of MC rig.
Hair opacity texture.
Hair colour texture.
I came to the realisation that the hair for my main character wasn’t going to work with the time frame and level of rigging experience I had. I decided to change the hair style on my character to a ponytail like style and instead of using hair cards, I use a retopologised solid hair style.
Close up retopo of new hair style.
Upper body retopo with new hair.
Full body retopo with new hair.
Face retopo with new hair.
Face textured wireframe with new hair.
Close up textured with new hair.
Updated baked hair in substance painter.
Updated textured hair.
MC Body - BaseColour
MC Body - Emissive
MC Body - Normal
MC Body - OcclusionRoughnessMetallic
MC Eyes - BaseColour
MC Eyes - Emissive
MC Eyes - Normal
MC Eyes - OcclusionRoughnessMetallic
MC Hair - BaseColour
MC Hair - Emissive
MC Hair - Normal
MC Hair - OcclusionRoughnessMetallic
July 2024 Progress
Focusing on the environment development.
Final block out for reference (Blender)
I wanted to create a trimsheet for my foliage but ended up preferring the 2d looking leaves and flowers.
Door model for the balcony using the previous wall trimsheet I had made.
Some tests with making roads but preferred the mist below the buildings to add atmosphere.
Textured balcony model in Blender.
Balcony model in Blender.
Wireframe balcony model in Blender.
Wireframe building damage model in Blender.
Building damage model in Blender.
Texture building damage model in Blender.
Textured building damage model in Unreal with other assets.
Wireframe brick model in Blender using cloth physics to give a more natural look.
Vertex painted brick model in Blender.
Brick model in Substance Painter using vertex painting.
Wireframe smaller brick model in Blender using cloth physics to give a more natural look and variation.
Vertex painted smaller brick model in Blender.
Smaller brick model in Substance Painter using vertex painting.
Tree root wireframe in Blender.
Tree root model in Blender.
Tree root textured in Substance Painter.
Platform wireframe in Blender.
Vertex painted platform in Blender.
Textured platform in Substance Painter.
Base colour texture made in Photoshop for the background buildings that only had 6 faces.
Metallic texture made in Photoshop for the background buildings that only had 6 faces.
I created a custom HDRI using Blender and Adobe After Effects for Unreal Engine 5.
Version 3 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 1 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 2 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 2 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 3 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 3 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 3 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 3 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
Version 3 - Environment (Unreal Engine 5)
August 2024 Progress
Finalising the project!
Tree high poly.
Tree high poly.
Tree low poly.
Tree ow poly seams and face direction.
Tree texture in Substance Painter.
Tree in Unreal Engine 5.
Enemy static model for final environment.
Example of enemy model in environment.
Another example of enemy model used in environment.
UI draft for final video.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Level final image.
Submission
Assessment video for Semester 3
I made this video that goes over the difficulties I had throughout this project and the positive lessons I learnt.
Level Walkthrough
My final submission for my Masters degree in VFX & Animation!