CAGD 420 - LIGHTING AND TEXTURING

WEEK 1 - CONCEPT IDEAS

For my semester lighting and texture project, I want to compose a horror scene. I have two ideas that I'd like to explore for this: a Japanese themed forest scene with traditional Shinto temple architecture and an inspired recreation of the television scene from the Poltergeist. For either of these scenes, I want to accomplish an unsettling atmosphere through the use of lighting and the environmental design of both scenes. To do this, I gathered references to baroque lighting in paintings, which focus on a high contrast of light and shadows to create a focus on a single subject. 

In the case of the Japanese scene, I'd like to walk the camera through a mossy path lined with stone statues and create interest by either creating floating lights along the edge of the forest, to allude to wandering yokai (spirits), and a faint light at the end of the path where the torii would be standing. From the references I gathered, the atmosphere of a much more unsettling vibe would include some fog, or very limited light sources, especially in a dense mossy forest.

For the second idea, I wanted to recreate the iconic scene from the Poltergeist where Carol-Anne, the little girl, is in front of a static television in the living room and the hand pressing on the screen. My idea for this, however, removes the little girl and instead has the camera entering from a side or around the corner and entering into a dark, perhaps 80s or 90s inspired, living room where the large box tv is the only light source coming from the static. After the first once over the room when the camera moves back to look around I would like to lift the furniture and once all the furniture is up have the camera suddenly look at the camera and have the hand appear.

WEEK 2/3 - GREYBOX

Of the two choices I mentioned last week, I decided to go with the Japanese shrine in a thick forest just because, for the atmosphere I want to create, the setting is almost made for it. From there I went ahead and started blocking out the scene from my head, even downloading some of the LP models I wanted to use for my scene from bridge. For this, I wanted to create a more upward slope, similar to how many of the references I found and blocked out the main scene composed of the small shrine and dog statues. From there I quickly blocked out the torii gates I wanted, modeled the light statues, and then inserted variations of trees and steps to create a more dilapidated or forgotten scene. 

WEEK 4 & 5 - IMPORT TO UE4

    Having finished the initial greybox in Maya, I have moved on to importing the model into Unreal Engine. This was relatively easy and after a bit of time reassembling my scene as I had it in Maya, I was able to create a simple collision on the ground and objects around the scene and play test it out. 

    The play test went relatively easy. The first issue I encountered was in the height of the torii gates which can impede the player’s movement since the incline is so steep. Adjusting the height of the torii allows for easier movement up the slope, though the height of the character will hardly be a concern for this project as it will be in first person rather than third person. 

    After the few necessary adjustments, I was able to start importing the actual assets I want for my scene from the megascan library and start to construct which pieces would go where. The megascan library has most of the key elements of my scene that I wanted, the stone lanterns, the dog statues, the ground, the broken steps, and the foliage, but the two most important elements I’ve yet to decide whether or not to model myself or buy online. The torii gates and the final shrine are the two pieces I’m left missing, still browsing around to find out where exactly I can find ones that will not only match the realistic setting I’m going to create but also fit the more worn down vibe that my scene is composed of.

 

    Once I’ve finished importing the necessary components to my project, my next plan is to adjust the lighting and create the amount of atmospheric fog I want. My plan is to use floating-point lights along the edge of the scene to create will-o-wisp like creatures that will follow the camera movements up the steps and maybe use them for the lanterns along the path as well. I plan on using a skylight to create more of a moon lit effect, perhaps play with some direction lighting as well to create moonbeams through the dense trees, unless Unreal has light beams I can simply add. Overall lighting-wise, I want to create a darker scene that has elements of more natural lighting with noticeable supernatural lighting which guides the camera and I think to achieve this I might play around with light colours to achieve a mix of natural and supernatural lighting.

WEEK 6

     This week I spent time importing in assets and replacing the initial blockout pieces with the megascans. Still figuring out how I want to tackle the issue of the gates and shrine, I moved on to adding what I know I want and where I want it. I also began to play around with megascanned stairs which are more rigid than I had originally designed but have an added touch too. I have not started on the foliage only because I am concerned about whether or not I should expand the ground plane I have for the scene to allow for cleaner vertex painting and for extending the forest for some of the shots. Placing cameras and starting to play around with lighting, I worked on making the lights for the lanterns that line the path and shrine and creating a matching night sky and moon.