Meerkats is a study of the realistic development of a modern, urban, indoor environment. It emphasized best practices for developing hard-surface models with computationally sound topology, as well as strong compositional aesthetics through the use of texturing and staging. The most influential practices involved in the creation of this environment includes modeling, UV unwrapping, texture painting, post-process effects, rendering, and project management. Narratively, Meetkats explores the night after a high-school dance. It is up to the viewer to decipher echoes of worldbuilding through the nature of the objects, textures, and mood.
About the Process
Meerkats began with preliminary digital blueprints of the building layout, following more detailed sketches and algamation of real-life references photos of the various objects that would occupy the space. In most cases, objects would be replicated from photos as realistically as possible while remaining under a reasonable number of polygons. In order to clutter the space and add a narrative and abstract interest, there are some scattered objects that were created completely from hand-drawn designs.
This project was builts upon six major milestones for Fourth-year Game Studio. Each milestone was outlined based on my own personal goals and vision for what I could achieve within the given timeline. By the end of the semester, I had consistenly hit every milestone deliverable with an extra few days remaining for iterations or additional work.
After an initial greyboxing of the scene in Unreal Engine 5, The first half of the semester involved develping the foundations of the building. For the purpose of the indoor scene, this involved creating interior walls, ceilings, doors, and windows. The next set of models due were dedicated to the hero assets, or the framing furniture and narrative pieces that would frame the inside of the space. Lastly, smaller and less significant objects were included for the purpose of cluttering and worldbuilding.
Texturing was an important aspect of this project, as I aimed to add hand-painted details to every object in some way. Some models have small, painted highlights or shadows, while other objects are completely and abstractly given a painted base.
Finally, I practiced post-processing effects such as camera animation, lighting, particle effects, and shaders in order to bring the scene to life for a final render.
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