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Game Design Project : Entry 3 - Game Art

 Concept Sketches and 3D Modelling -The Chain Wrench

I don’t spend too much time in 2D concept sketches, as I have seen through experience that something that looks good on a flat sheet of paper may not look as good or as expected in 3D view. So I tend to work on both fronts simultaneously, once I have a few good concept arts done and have a clear picture of how to get started, I jump on to making the 3D model and in the middle of it I might come back and to the sketch and try out a few different variations of a specific part to see if it fits the overall aesthetic.

As a 3D artist my mind is never at rest, wherever I am, whatever I’m looking at, I’ll start wondering how I can reproduce that bevel or those curves in Maya. For as long as I can remember I have always been drawing on the back of my notebooks while in class, so I always have ready stock of rough illustrations to start a 3D model. So similarly this time as well I started with rough sketches of the wrench, I had a few different versions in my mind each at different progression level, meaning as the player progress they would be able to unlock a better version of the tool.

References


 So as I was designing I was also thinking of the gameplay and other interactions this game object would have. The Chain wrench is the final version of the wrench tool the player can unlock and hence is the best version of it. So from a gameplay perspective this is has to negate all the downfalls of the previous models. So I did some research on how chain wrenches are actually used in real life. I had to make a few exaggerations and gamify it a little, but the final design, both from an aesthetic and practical point of view came out great.

So, I finalized the 2D illustration of the Chain Wrench and opened up Maya.

Rough Concept Sketches

Took a good couple of hours for modelling it. I started experimenting with different handle shapes and deviated a bit from my initial illustration, but then I realized that this new handle that was an ill fit for the wrench would be great on the Axe (the next tool, which is still in the 2D design phase), so I cut off that part of the mesh and exported it out. After a few revisions and redesigns the wrench was ready to be textured. I find Blender’s Shading interface to be far more efficient than Maya’s, so I exported my wrench model as an OBJ file and opened it up in Blender and started the texturing.













Played around with different materials and textures to see which suited the overall Art direction I had in mind. This would take into account the basic colours, the surface textures and the material finish. Once the wrench was textured, I created a basic render setup with a camera and a few lights. The main light source was a Sun light and there were 2 small Pin lights near the Chain on top and by the grip at the bottom, as I felt that the rubber texture of the handle was not sufficiently lit, so when someone looks at it they may not be immediately able to tell that the material was rubber. Once all of this was setup I did a few test renders to see if the textures look the way I want in the Cycles render engine. I had a few final touch ups and once I was satisfied, I cranked up the render resolution for the Final export, and Voila !! 


Final Render with Cycles in Blender




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