Lauren Brady, Author at REALTIME

Testing Quixel in UE4

Our outstanding senior automotive artist Damian has been kind enough to share some of his process, testing Quixel in UE4 creating this beautiful image.

I created this scene as I wanted to try my hand at some environments after finding out that Quixel’s Megascans are now part of Unreal Engine. Also Inspired by my recent trip to Scotland, which was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, I really wanted to do a nice and realistic scenario similar to Isle of Skye from Scotland. So after realising that Megascans contains a really nice and realistic package of ‘Islandic’ mesh and material content, I decided to give it a go and try to replicate that mood which inspired me out in Scotland.

Using Megascans meshes and materials was really simple and user friendly, placing an object by one click, and adjusting them straight away In Unreal Engine as they are being created while exported from Quixel ‘Bridge’. The biggest challenge for me as an Automotive artist was to design the actual 3d background to create a nice and moody composition. But after all, everything was really quick and easy thanks to all of the Megascans assets and intuitive workflow which Unreal Engine 4 gives you.

First thing I realised was that if I wanted to make a really good looking scene I needed to Scale the assets at least 10-15 times to achieve effect I was looking for. So I created a simple terrain using plain objects from 3dsMax. I started adding assets to the scene and when it reached the level of detail i was looking for I added atmospheric fog to bring everything together.

Also I decided to keep making materials as simple as possible, I always tend to receive the best results when using simple properly matched materials.

The next step was to create some matching lighting for the car in this particular scene. After few different approaches, the best solution was to use just few spot lights and horizon from the sky HDRi. Again… simple equal best result!

When the car was lit and i’d chosen the body colour I wanted, I deceived to add some livery to the car. For that I simply used decals which gave me quick and best result I required.

Next I decided to do some more shots to show how powerful the Megascans assets looked.

You should always keep everything tidy and organised, doing that meant that every light scenario I created was packed into a separate level with cameras, this means have an instinctive workflow for later. Every level works like different camera view, plus different lighting setup. You can also see that even some objects have a separate level.

From the very beginning of this project I knew I would be using use real-time Ray Tracing feature called RTX which always works perfectly in UE4.

Without further ado, testing Quixel in UE4, the results!

tyFlow Test

Our hugely talented Artist Danilo Lombardo has been testing some new tools that have caught our attention, tyFlow in particular got an amazing result.

Lucky for us he’s done a lovely little write up… take it away Danilo!

This scene started as an experiment, with the mossy forest of Wistmans Wood , in Devon, England, as our main reference.
A scene like this relies on some little but crucial fundamentals.

The main objective was to create a scattering system that could be manipulated and art directed while creating an interesting chaos throughout the scene.
In doing this, it’s really beneficial to come up with a hierarchy of growth that can be repeated across, and that helps us define the visual pattern for the elements.

In our scene we defined some elements that would act as main surfaces while the rest would simply grow on top and dress it.
These elements were the terrain, rocks and trees.

The first area is the terrain, that was achieved using Gaea powerful node based system and then exported as geo. The terrain was then scattered with rocks and trees using forest pack to have a fast random distribution , keeping a low poly version of those elements that would later serve as scatter base for all the vegetation.

The base layout is quite simple.

Trees and rocks were sculpted using zbrush and textured using substance painter, following a pretty standard approach for this kind of objects, always having the gnarly dwarf oak trees
from Wistmans Wood as a goal.

Only 5 different variations of rocks and trees were sufficient for having enough visual noise in the scene. Some smartmaterials such as moss and tree bark were developed in substance to be easily instantiated on all elements. The vegetation in the scene is a mix of megascan assets plus some additional ones obtained using textures atlases from textures.com mapped on simple planes. Every final tree is then converted to a vrayproxy and placed in the scene.

[All the trees are sculpted in zbrush and then dressed with vines , plants and leaves using zbrush fibermesh and tyFlow. The plugin “ultimate painter” was used to place some of the objects manually.]

The real fun starts with the infinite possibilities that scattering brings to the table. Forest pack was used on the ground, from small grass to bigger plants, using textures to drive the distribution and using the powerful forest material to colourise those assets.

The rest of the scattering was handled by tyFlow in order to test its capability. Although being mainly a tool for FX artists, I was blown away by the possibilities for environment artists alike. I have always been a fan of using particle flow in max for certain tasks, and tyFlow have the amazing ability of scattering a crazy amount of points to any surface and gives artist a lot of freedom in what to do with those points.

I’ve been able to create a moss system that would just work on every asset in the scene, and can be reused even in future projects. Particles are being born on objects using a position object operator, which has now been improved to take in account objects normals, material IDs and textures to drive the density of those points. Points are then converted to moss , using a shape operator with the out of the box “grass clumps” 3D template present in the shape node.

[particles are scattered on the objects using the z-axis to drive their placement. Each particle is converted to a grass clump at render time.]

This simple setup was all I needed to literally cover the entire scene in moss, with a display node set as “sprite” that kept the viewport extremely fast.
tyFlow was used to scatter all the moss plus many other smaller items like twigs on the rocks etc. and it proved to be a trustful help when it comes to scatter and art direct a huge number of points in the scene, without ever leaving max.

I was able to texture my moss using different custom V-Ray materials assigned to particle ID groups. A mesh operator then told V-Ray to treat each strand of moss a V-Ray instance.
tyFlow is fully compatible with V-Ray and is also able to output V-Ray proxies. Final lighting and fog were handled in V-Ray.

The final scene is quite light considering the amount of details involved. Different colours were used for different tyFlows.

Scattering and dealing with huge number of points is vital in 3D environments production, from creating garbage on the ground and piling of objects in a natural fashion,to parametrically dress a shelf full of items without having to do it manually to creating more complex setups with destruction in order to model decaying structures, the possibilities are endless.

I’m really excited about tyFlow and the power it brings to 3dsMax.

Here’s a little breakdown showing different stages of growth.

We have lots of lots of top tips in our insights take a look!

What can we expect from the next generation of consoles?

We are fast approaching the end of the current generation of consoles. Next year, we will most likely see the gaming landscape move into a new era. Both Microsoft and Sony will reveal and potentially release their newest offerings, and with Google releasing Stadia, the next generation could be less of a ‘war of the consoles’ and more a ‘battle of the streaming services’.

We don’t know what the future of gaming will look like but we can make some assumptions based on the trajectory of the market at the moment. So let’s don our hypothetical hats and delve into the potential future of the games industry.

Console wars

When it comes to the next generation of consoles, we’ll no doubt see the same game of Top Trumps we’ve seen before. Each will claim to have bleeding-edge graphics, unbeatable processing power, and a tantalising frame count. There are plenty of buzzwords already floating around in relation to the new consoles – ray tracing and SSD drives were particular highlights of Microsoft’s E3 wink-and-a-nod reveal of what they are currently calling ‘Project Scarlett’.

But what will the games be like? We’re already seeing a shift towards a ‘games as a service’ model with ongoing support planned for future releases like Square-Enix’s ‘Avengers’ game. Coming so late in the current cycle’s life, we may we see it become a cross-gen release. Will the next generation have fewer sequels, instead choosing to focus on advancing just one game? Or will a game continue to be relevant up until the point the sequel releases, meaning players have no downtime from said game?

It will also be interesting to see where VR fits into the landscape, which was, at one point, all the rage but has since taken a backseat. PlayStation hasn’t said much about their VR unit in recent months, though that may only be a feeling exacerbated by their no-show at this year’s E3. Of course, will consoles even stay relevant?

Enter Google

In Google’s own words, “the future of gaming is not a box; it’s a place”. While we have yet to see the long-term effects of Google’s efforts, you can’t deny they have the power behind them. What separates them from previous attempts to bring game streaming to the masses is their sheer size. The future of gaming could move from Microsoft vs Sony to consoles vs streaming.

How they fight that remains to be seen. Microsoft is planning their own streaming service; Sony already has one in the form of PlayStation Now. The alternative might be a ‘games-on-demand’ sort of service. Microsoft has Xbox Game Pass and if their E3 presentation is anything to go by, it will play an integral role in their future plans. They aren’t alone; EA has EA Access, Ubisoft will have Uplay+, and PlayStation Now allows you to download PS4 games to your console for offline play.

It all depends if Stadia can be truly stable. It’s biggest mountain to climb will be delivering a seamless, lag-free experience. If it can’t accomplish that for the majority of people, they may well stick with something that lets them avoid that issue. Stadia also doesn’t have the Netflix-esque subscription model other services have. In this age of binging, could a service that delivers hundreds of games at the touch of a button win out?

The future is bright

Regardless of which way the games industry goes, it’s good news for the consumer. Having multiple options is never a bad thing.

Whatever happens, there will always be new games. Traditional releases, games as a service, free to play – there’s something for everyone. What won’t change is the need for a quality trailer. With more options comes more competition, so you need to think now about how you will separate yourself from the pack. A quality trailer is your way of making your game known to the masses and could be the big difference between a successful launch and a damp squib.

At Realtime, we have worked with many great developers and helped them deliver a quality trailer befitting of their game. If you have an upcoming project and want to discuss it, get in touch with me at [email protected].

The art of recreating a car in CGI

Recreating a car in CGI: Cars are a work of art. From the body lines to the composition of the headlight, every section has been meticulously crafted and thought through to a level Picasso would be proud of. But this isn’t a one-off artwork, these are marketable products, open to being altered by a customer. So no matter what, you need to ensure the designer’s vision is still represented accurately.

If you work with an external company to develop CGI assets – be they for adverts or a configurator – you want someone who can represent that vision. Anyone can take the CAD data to recreate the car, but if you want the feel to be correct, you need to recreate the passion of the designer.

The bigger picture

That CAD data is the start of the journey. With it, a CG production company can accurately recreate every minute detail.

Understanding how best to represent goes beyond its form. It is about understanding the car, the brand, how best to show the lines, the details, the blood, sweat, and tears gone into creating the beauty that stands before you. What separates the good from the great is their dedication to realising the why of the car.

The audience. The market. The picture. To deliver the best, they have to become an extension of your id. In the case of the configurator, they might have to integrate with your wider system, capable of being a sales platform that can easily translate the buyer’s preferences in a way that still instils the emotional connection. They aren’t just modelling the car; they are digitally recreating the entire process, down to the individual stitch.

The smaller details

And you know what they say about that: the devil’s in the detail. Using just the CAD data would give you a pristine CG model. That isn’t necessarily a good thing. Part of creating the best CG assets is making something that looks real. During the buying process, you don’t want consumers to spend their time questioning whether or not what they are seeing is real.

Translating the car into a CG model means making it look real in the most literal sense. It means recreating the exact stitching on the seats, to the point where you can see the leather stretch. It means taking the texture of the fabric and materials and demonstrating the feel of it. Hours of craftsmanship go into the real-world models, sometimes in areas you might never see, such as the texture on the back of the paddles affixed to the steering wheel. Let’s use this medium to enlighten the customer on exactly what they are about to receive.

The attention to detail should carry over to every area. For instance, the paint shouldn’t just show that it has metallic flakes in it that give it that lustrous shine. In reality, the flakes can be of varying sizes and shapes, influenced to lie a particular way. The top coat can be candied to enhance the lustrousness, all of which is more than just a pretty wet line. The realisation of these elements goes towards turning some metal into that aforementioned work of art.

Done right, by the end you’ll have more CG assets than a movie has frames. The entire process is reminiscent of the attention to detail you’d find in a multi-million dollar Hollywood production.

All of this can take time, though nowhere close to the manufacture of the real thing. But you need someone who can work with your schedule to deliver according to your roadmap. Whether you’re aiming for a car launch or a motor show, a brochure or a configurator, these CG assets need to play their part as an important cog in your marketing and sales campaign. Nothing can go wrong. And with the right people, it won’t.

At RealtimeUK, we know that recreating a car in CGI takes more than polygons. We have a history of delving into our clients’ wants and needs. We are an extension of your company. If you would like to discuss your upcoming project, get in touch with me at [email protected].

Making a CGI trailer for your video game

So you are developing a game. Years of passion are coming to fruition. Your heart and soul – your vulnerability – laid out for the world to see. The time to show your hard work to the general public draws near. It’s a moment you both dread and gleefully anticipate. It’s time for the marketing to begin as you only get one chance to impress.

Like anybody else, you want your game to sit on a pedestal for the world to see. But in a market rife with so much competition, it can be so easy to fade into obscurity. Kickstarting your campaign with a CGI trailer can be an ideal way to attract the attention your game deserves. But putting trust in someone else to deliver on your vision is a big leap. How does that process work?

The start of the journey

There is no paint-by-numbers roadmap that works for everyone. The first thing to understand is the journey is pretty much different for everyone. And that’s a good thing.

Producing a high-quality trailer is only half the battle. What separates the good from the bad is the level of dedication to accurately representing your IP and key USPs. This only comes from a company that cares about working collaboratively with you; as part of you.

You need a studio that maintains a constant line of contact. Whether this is through in-studio meetings or more convenient over-internet communication, what matters is they listen to you. Worried you don’t have your own in-house creative available? That shouldn’t get in the way; a good production company should mould to your situation and should be able to help with any script development and suggest creative solutions that won’t blow the budget.

The initial discussions should help outline the direction of the CG trailer. Working with you, the production company should pin down which characters or assets you’d like to feature in the trailer that can get across the USPs and distinctive brand of your game. If you have these ready to go then great. If not, then a good partner should be able to make these assets in-house, carefully updating you with their progress as the pre-production process begins.

Producing brilliance

The length of time a production may take will vary, depending on the scope of the piece. A typical pre-rendered trailer can often take several months, so planning on your side will be an essential element to the success of the piece. Even with this in mind, it is crucial to keep the studio up-to-date with your plans, allowing enough time for the studio to produce the trailer and apply the specialist resources to accommodate the project.

Also, be wary of when you want to enlist their service. In the run-up to any major industry event, such as E3, many studios will be fully booked up. With this in mind, you should look as far down the road ahead as possible to avoid disappointment. What matters most is that the final trailer is a creative testament to your game and an open line of communication can go a long way to help with this.

Collaboration

A consistent and collaborative attitude to communication throughout production will inevitably help you arrive at a CG trailer that all stakeholders are happy with. So having a permanent point of contact within the production company is key. The studio’s Head of Production should be your day-to-day contact who keeps you informed of any changes and respond to feedback.

Over the course of the production cycle, you should be privy to many milestones, initially beginning at the pre-production stage with concept art. Storyboards and rudimentary animatics are intended to give you insight into the direction of the trailer. These are created with the intention of providing your team with an opportunity for feedback. Over time, you should see the final product start to form, as the production company sculpts a work of art before your eyes.

If you have stayed communicative throughout, you should have a final product that trumps every expectation. A cinematic tour de force sure to capture the attention of any audience. Something that encapsulates your game with ease.

It seems like an almost impossible task; how can you find someone who can deliver on your expectations? How can a company ever truly understand your product? A specialist CG studio that understands games can – if you allow them.

RealtimeUK is that company. We aren’t just a production company; we are an extension of your studio. We work intimately with our clients from the start, working with a focus on open communication. If you would like to discuss your next project, get in touch with me at [email protected].