Feedback & actions taken:

 

- Feedback on what parts I could slightly modify to adhere to the brief helped me to make some decisions on subtle changes as well as a change to the front-side panels - these choices are reflected on the 'modifications' sheet at the top of this page.

 

- It was also suggested that I personalise the model in some way just so that it isn't the same as my peers'. I therefore added in some fluffy dice on a hook in the cabin of the roller.

 

- The tyre tread could be bent around the tyre using the FFD 4x4x4 - I had trouble getting the 'bulge' part of the tread on the side of the tyre. This technique was suggested by multiple tutors and I used it to create the finished product you see above.

 

- I was contemplating splitting the texture budget up into different maps to make it easier to manage. However, the feedback was that I shouldn't do this as in the engine, it would cause multiple draw calls for the different texture sheets/materials which is unneccessary for an FPS game.

 

Conclusion:

 

In terms of the positives, the overall project I felt was strong, the modelling aspect was fairly swift, and texturing was more enjoyable than I expected as I had never used Substance Painter before (The possibility of using a new program at this stage worried me). A few
technical problems here and there, but I found workarounds and got on with the task at hand.

 

For example, the smoothing groups of my model kept of re-setting if the geometry were to be altered in any way.
Therefore, as I was working, I split my model into separate elements and continued with the task. Another example is
that the RAM useage whilst I was unwrapping, made it so that 100% of memory was being used - resulting in a crash. This took a while to figure out the multi-sub material was causing the problem, so I simply didn't have any materials applied whilst unwrapping.

 

In terms of texturing, again there were a lot of crashes and texture-altering problems going on in substance painter, so
this was managed by just saving every few minutes (it isn't ideal, but was necessary towards the end as there were a lot
of layers & loading times).

 

Improvements for the future:

- Plan fully: Try and leave nothing to chance because chances are, they're not going to end up how I want. Half way
through whilst I was unwrapping, I thought I'd be clever and make a simple glass material in UE4 and ignored the
glass in the UVW map for extra UV space. It then occured to me that if I'd like to add dirt, I would need to UV map it - at this point, I'd
changed my mind about UE4 and was also forced to pack the glass into any tiny space I could find for it on the UV
map. This resulted in blurry dirt around the glass windows.

 

- Research (Leave no stone unturned): This referes to modelling to the realistic reference. I reluctantly had to make
something up for the interior control panel after I had ran out of tris and almost out of time to finish the project to the
standard I wanted. Next time, I would like to have gained reference or at least researched more in depth as to what the
HCV looked like from the inside of the cabin. 

 

- Take more time to figure out a problem: During this project, I felt as though I needed to speed through to get to the texturing stage. This was good to an extent, but when it came to a weaker area such as baking, I found myself producing several failed attempts at high-low poly bakes. I tried a few times but wasn't getting the results I was after, so I therefore made the decision to leave them out and hope that the chamfers will dismiss the need for baking high poly assets down. Luckily it turned out alright, however, if the budget was much lower, I doubt the edges would look very good without the chamfers there. Baking as a general area is a place to improve, but the lesson I've learnt is to stop and really think about why I might be getting inconsistent results.

 

- Analyse the textures I'm trying re-create even more: As part of one of my feedback sessions, I was informed that the scratched paint had more depth to it than I thought. I personally didn't realise that a reason why my scratched paint surface wasn't looking how I wanted it to, was because I didn't think about and analyse was the material actually is. If I applied this to all aspects of my textures, I could have even more realistic results instead of it just looking 'similar'. In this situation, I originally had just 'paint' and 'scratched steel'. When there was actually, 'Paint', 'white primer paint + scratches', 'deep scratches' and 'rusted deep scratches'. I unfortunately didn't get around to doing the final layer of rusted scratches. However, in the future I plan to analyse the material I wish to make in more depth to get a more polished result.