For gathering all the assets together we were introduced to a program called, 'Unreal' and receive a basic introduction on tools and importing files during class which helped us to get started with it.
One of the most satisfying things was applying the textures as you can see how it bring the objects to life. I personally found it easier to apply the textures on Unreal than Maya which made me favour this software a lot.
Plan for the layout:
We decided not to create a group layout since it's just optional so we could spend more time on our own. For my individual layout, I want it to feel dark, eerie and uninviting. In order to achieve that I plan to have it in the middle of a forest or at least have a few tall trees towering over the carnival. I intend to use the Open World demo collection package from unreal to quickly create those trees and grass etc. Like as mentioned before I also going to add fog/mist and rain to evoke the feeling of melancholy as they are usually associated with. The feeling of you rather be indoors in a warm comfy fireplace.
Below is the tutorial (by Dean Ashford) I intend to use for the rain:
Research:
For more information on laying out the environment, I search carnival maps which give many examples of carnival layouts. I didn't get much from it other than the rides are spaced far apart from one another; there wasn't any particular structure.
First of all, I want a centre focus asset where all the other assets are drawn towards. I decided to go with the carousel, not only because it's my main asset but its one of the most vibrant one due to its luminous lights. Also, the idea of no people are riding on them makes it feel extra empty and dark. I will set that in the centre and then have all the other big asset surrounding it in. I also intend to have the Ferris wheel in the background since it the biggest asset of them all and so from a Ferris wheel point of view, it can view everything.
Scale:
In order to achieve an accurate scale, I create a basic model to represent the average height of a normal adult person. Using that, it helped me keep the assets scale consistent all the way throughout.
Reading: https://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/ue4/ue4-guide-to-scale-dimensions.php -have a scale reference when scaling.
Composition:
I thought to have the Ferris wheel at the very back. However, it looked very isolated from the rest of the carnival. For that reason, I brought it in the radius of the other asset. I've also added some smaller assets in front of it to bring back that idea of its in the back.
As planned I had the carousel centre. I set the food stalls near the toilets and duplicate the trash and individual popcorn around the carnival to fill it with dirt. I had the helter-skelter and the ticket booth near the entrance as a way to introduce the carnival. I placed the funhouse on its own corner like the Ferris wheel and then just played around with the other assets.
Rain:
Appling the rain with the particle system was a success. I kept the amount low since if I intend to create heavy rain the asset won't look right since they are not wet and also I would need to create puddles etc. I also plan to have some rain sound effect to enhance its presence.
Light:
Our carnival is set at night therefore I just brought the sun down and brightening the stars. For the fog, I used exponential height fog which helped me achieve this gloomy effect which I love.
My night sky:
Creating a chiaroscuro effect for the smiley face balloon to provoke a creepy effect to add to the carnival dark theme.
The lighting is mostly lit by the assets' light bulbs itself as well as my string lights. I also added some spotlights as the bulbs weren't strong enough to lit the whole area up e.g. under the carousel, inside of the funhouse and so on. I didn't rely a lot on the string lights because it is an empty, abandoned and worn out carnival so you wouldn't expect there to be lit with lights all around the carnival.
Resource: A nice short night tutorial by, 'Underscore'.
Trees:
I mentioned before I wanted to have trees etc. around the carnival. I was going to use the foliage tool with the Open World collection package from Unreal. However, I couldn't use the package because its large file size and I was running out of storage so it kept crashing. After a couple more times and looking into other solutions such as migrating, I had to leave as it was time-consuming and the deadline is near. However, I intend to try it again later in the future.
Continuous problem:
I should've prepared beforehand by clearing out my laptop as I had to keep deleting files to attain more storage for the unreal project. My Unreal engine also continuously crash every couple of times a day which was not efficient as it was wasting valuable time. Although because of this problem I did frequently use the uni's mac it wasn't great as I had to keep transferring back and forward.
Camera:
For the camera work, I focus a lot on compositions such as the rule of thirds (e.g. the smiley face balloon on the right line) to try to make it pleasing to the eye. I also had some extreme low angles shots to create a feeling of being inferior. For the opening shot, I wanted to establish the carnival sign also I placed it in a low angle so the viewer can really see the sky and take in that it's set during the night.
My camera is mainly shot from a point of view from a wanderer who enters the abandoned carnival that is empty and full of trash and dirt. Therefore the movement is quite disorientated with the composition being diagonal (e.g. the helter-skelter and the candyfloss shot) to enhance the distorted eeriness. Then finally I zoom out in the ending shot to reveal where all the assets are positioned together.
Final piece:
Satisfied but I could've done a lot better especially if I had the trees and grass working to fill in those gaps. Although it didn't really matter much as it's an already made asset so it doesn't reflect much on my ability for this assignment. Also maybe more worn-out assets would be nice to fill the place. Also, some assets colours could've been set more closely to the colour palette to make it look more as a whole. Nonetheless, I was glad it looked old and worn out and I think I achieved the eerie atmosphere well with the help of the fog and rain. To bring it further I could've animated some elements of this carnival such as having the lights flickering and the carousel turn slowly in a creep way. Despite that, for this one, the rides are broken down and unused so it will be static.
Areas that aren't that noticable or did not made it to the final film:
Team:
My team worked really well together for this project. It was fun to discuss and share what we want for our environment. It was also lovely to see us relying on each when we were stuck in a particular area. This made our team work more efficiently which was great. Furthermore sharing each of our layouts was an eye-opener to see how we approached it differently.
Sharing the end result was much more satisfying and more treasurable as a group.
Reflection:
For this assignment, I was enthusiastic about getting into building an environment. It helped introduce me to Unreal which now is one of my favourite software to render assets. I was satisfied with the final piece. Our (team) assets complemented well with one another and it was a pleasant process deciding to where to place them.
However, looking back I was too shy with the dirt in Substance Painter because I didn't want it to look exaggeratedly unrealistic. But because of this from a far distance, you can't see the details. Therefore it didn't look as worn down as I hoped for. Furthermore, I need to be more strict on time management as we did set deadlines but we were too carefree. Some people weren't ready so I had to wait patiently for them to move on to the next area. Nonetheless, this gave me time to realise some minor details I need to fix which helped enhance the quality of my assets.
I learnt a lot in the presentation of an asset for it to tailor to its theme and year. I can see improvements in my skill level in Maya and Substance Painter e.g cleaner UV maps and more experimental textures. I hope to see myself continually improve in the future by practising more.