The Modular Level Kit

Before the semester break, I already had a rough idea of what the modular level kit should have. I had a start, too. Simple tiles and stairs were built for the prototype (which went well, albeit a little buggy).

Over the holidays, and after much procrastination, I managed to get things going again. It started with some simple sketches.

It was very important to make sure these concepts would scale together nicely when modeled. Thus, I added a scale - the tile! I had to make some impromptu changes here and there, but the end result definitely resembled my concepts very closely.

Ta-da! As you can see, I added a couple of stuff like the terminal, TVs, a 3rd type of pipe set, doors, a door frame and the input nodes.

Lets take a look at my favourite part of the Kit; the Creep!

Awww yeaaa. I loved making these things. Tedious as hell, but the result was so satisfying.

"Holy shit look at the amount of polys you have! Thats gonna cause maya to explode!"

Well, no, it isn't. Truth is, its mesh looks like this!

I used normal maps to keep the number of faces down. Yes, i still had to sculpt every damn bit.

Here's a little comparison:

Without normal maps (Level 7 Subdivision)

With normal maps (Level 0 Subdivision)

You can tell that the depth is faked from extreme angles like this. But from a regular angle, you cant tell the difference.

After all that, I start painting!

It just doesn't work well without the normal maps, though.

Just textures, no normal maps

Here's the same process, but for the creep tree.

This is the ambient occlusion pass, also baked into the final texture.

Finally, heres the Modular Development Kit in action with a simple render. Perhaps I will post a rendering tutorial sometime soon.

Shafi out!