A High-Resolution Box?! WHAAA-

 Hi everyone! 

I've been hard at work on this week's assignment! With a hurricane and some internet interruptions, it has been difficult to do, but I'm proud of myself for achieving my goal! 

So what did I make, you might ask?

Well, a BOX of course! Or, I guess you could say a FEW boxes, since I stacked them so nicely for my game-ready model?

And not just any box- a high-res, textured one! All handcrafted by yours truly!

So, I was having some problems with my proxy model from last week, as the UVs were not showing up properly, as my shapes were too thin. So, I rebuilt my model again. I actually built it twice over the Hurricane, as my bevels were not working properly in my initial alpha model.

So, the boxes you are seeing are TAKE TWO of my modelling process. And I actually like the way this turned out much better. I used the multi-cut tool and ZBrush to make the panels, which gives them a much more organic look than the previous iteration.

I also textured all of the panels, which was much easier to do with the UVs actually working properly. In my previous proxy, I was only able to use a material instance in Unreal, as my material was only able to show up on one of the six faces for some reason. In addition, my beveled edges were NOT a part of the UV, which was highly irritating. 

Thanks to my friend, the multi-cut tool, I was able to get the precision I wanted in my model, while also having none of the UV woes I previously experienced in the first pass. I believe this worked to my benefit, as it gave my box a clean look, without being too clean. 

In fact, that's where ZBrush came in, as it helped me make a high-res model that looks good from all angles without using too many polys. It's a box, so the poly count wasn't too too crazy to begin with, but you'd be surprised how much beveling and extruding faces can do. 

I also made sure that my model was only quads and triangles, which was made even simpler with ZBrush and the multi-cut tool. Thanks to the multi-cut tool, I was able to keep my shapes pretty even. 

My hope is that this lighting helps you see the details in the box model itself. I tried to show them stacked so that you get a good idea of the depth and the way they look in comparison to the rest of the world.

Also, Fun Fact Time! Did you know that my model was initially really, really, really tiny once I went to my first iteration? That's right, you probably didn't know, unless you happen to be my roommates, my cat Ori, or my family! 

Yes, you heard that right, my model was like, 1/100th the size of one of the little tiles in the Unreal World, so I had to scale it way, way up. I am definitely glad that I grouped all my objects in Maya.

And yes, these boxes do have collision and you CAN climb them! It's actually kind of fun- they make excellent platforms. I just need to learn how to use more blueprints in Unreal so I can make them breakable. Maybe I could put a coin or two inside a few weeks from now, huh?

I really like this angle because you can see some of the cracks I put in on ZBrush! I tried to make these boxes as crate-like as possible! I really think they look so much better than the original proxy from last week. I really hope my work pays off! I really am happy with how they turned out. I hope that Crash Bandicoot is proud! 

I like this shot because you can really see the texture I made. I lovingly painted this myself and even gave it a bit of a stressed wood look. Maybe in the next iteration, I can make some of them different from each other and give some of the textures a moldy or unstable look. I really like that idea! But due to time limits because of the storm and some personal things going on, that was a little out of scope for me in this round! 

I really like how the texture looks on the top, hence all of the angles facing the up-end of the box. I tried to make the planks look displaced (think of how long these boxes have been baking in the desert heat!) and I tried to extra-emphasize it in both the texture and in ZBrush.

So yeah, I've been staring at a lot of boxes this week, whether that be in reference form or in Unreal, Maya, ZBrush, and Substance. I hope you enjoyed looking at my submission this week! 

I hope everyone is able to get power and help their friends and family that were affected by the storm. I hope that everyone is able to do their best!

See you all soon! 

Best Wishes to everyone!