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Introduction
My name is Kostas Chatzaropoulos, but people know me as KC. I am a former GM in 5-star and Michelin Star Hospitality, but I left my career to pursue my true passion, 3D game art. I enrolled and finished the MA Game Arts course in Escape Studios with distinction and I am now in the process of looking for a position within the industry.
I was the producer, prop and texture artist, and presenter for our MA team project, the Bioshock Infinite: London concept that was featured a while ago in 80 Level. I also contributed to set dressing, optimization, and final testing of the level itself, while also holding daily and weekly meetings, production notes, and deadlines.
My other personal projects are the "Jenova, a tribute to FFVII" scene and the "HALO, Passage to Infinite" scene which I created during my studies.
介绍
我的名字是Kostas Chatzaropoulos，但人们知道我是KC。我是五星级和米其林星级酒店业的前总经理，但我离开了我的职业生涯，追求我真正的激情，3D游戏艺术。我以优异的成绩注册并完成了Escape Studios的MA Game Arts课程，我现在正在行业内寻找一个职位。
我是MA团队项目的制作人，道具和纹理艺术家，以及主持人，生化奇兵无限：伦敦概念，不久前在80 Level中出现。我还为关卡本身的设置、优化和最终测试做出了贡献，同时还举行了每日和每周的会议、制作笔记和截止日期。
我的其他个人项目是“Jenova，向FFVII致敬”场景和我在学习期间创作的“HALO，通往无限”场景。
Getting Started
This was my final MA project, and the duration was roughly 16 weeks. Although I did have a final version, I continued to work on it after the MA deadline because I wanted to expand on my study and workflow knowledge.
The scene is based on my main personal D&D Character, an Evil Bard Tiefling named Emeritus. The thought of bringing to life the character's study room was especially intriguing and made it a passion project of mine.
I took various concepts from games such as Baldur's Gate III, Neverwinter Nights, TES: Skyrim, and many more from various artists around ArtStation, however, there was not a single one that I emulated or referred to. Thus, the layout and set dressing are mostly my own version, with a lot of trial and error.
开始
这是我的最后一个硕士项目，持续时间大约是16周。虽然我确实有一个最终版本，但我在MA截止日期之后继续研究它，因为我想扩展我的学习和工作流程知识。
这个场景是基于我的主要个人D&D角色，一个名叫Emeritus的邪恶吟游诗人Tiefling。将角色的书房带入生活的想法特别有趣，并使其成为我的一个激情项目。
我从Baldur's Gate III，Neverwinter Nights，TES：Skyrim等游戏中获得了各种概念，以及ArtStation周围各种艺术家的更多概念，但是，我没有模仿或引用过一个。因此，布局和布景敷料大多是我自己的版本，需要大量的反复试验。
For all my props and hero assets, I used various fantasy references: the books come straight from ideas in Baldur's Gate III, and the Double Axe guitar named Amarth (a tribute to the band and Tolkien) is a concept that existed online but was expanded by me, the banners are paying homage to my favorite game of all time, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. My references were organized in PureRef.
对于我所有的道具和英雄资产，我使用了各种幻想参考：这些书直接来自Baldur's Gate III中的想法，而名为Amarth的Double Axe吉他（向乐队和托尔金致敬）是一个在线存在但由我扩展的概念，横幅是向我有史以来最喜欢的游戏致敬， 巴尔德之门II：巴尔的宝座。我的参考文献是在PureRef中组织的。
Modeling
The main project target was to learn ZBrush. I started completely "green", knowing next to nothing in terms of the software, sculpting, or workflow. That required significant time learning, mainly by following the amazing tutorials from Dannie Carlone and Ivanna Liittschwager on how to sculpt realistic wood, metal, and stone surfaces.
About 90% of the assets in the scene are high-to-low poly models. I used Maya to blockout the meshes, then exported them to ZBrush for sculpting. I found out pretty quickly that the use of good alphas with the combination of different brushes (such as Dam Standard, Trim Smooth Normal, and Trim Dynamic) give the best-looking results. I started with dragging alphas and then reworked the assets, giving them a look that would be as unique as possible.
建 模
主要项目目标是学习ZBrush。我开始完全“绿色”，在软件，雕刻或工作流程方面几乎一无所知。这需要大量的学习时间，主要是通过遵循Dannie Carlone和Ivanna Liittschwager关于如何雕刻逼真的木材，金属和石头表面的惊人教程。
场景中大约90%的资产是高到低的多边形模型。我使用Maya来遮挡网格，然后将它们导出到ZBrush进行雕刻。我很快发现，使用良好的 Alpha 搭配不同的画笔（如 Dam Standard、Trim Smooth Normal 和 Trim Dynamic）的组合，可以获得最佳效果。我从拖动 Alpha 开始，然后重新设计资源，让它们看起来尽可能独特。
I then exported the ultra-high model on its own, decimated the mesh to about 30k polys, and exported it again as a mid poly mesh. That was done because Maya 2020 is not ideal for handling ultra-high poly meshes, even with a top-of-the-line workstation. So I did the retopology process on the mid poly meshes, something that speeded up my workflow in a very significant way.
Although I fined the tool, I found that the quad draws in Maya had some drawbacks even with Live Surface, such as verts were going underneath the high poly mesh or dropping orientation. So the way I retopo was manually starting with a simple plane and extruding the edge according to the mid poly mesh. This way, I could control both my poly flow and the orientation of the edges.
然后，我自行导出超高模型，将网格减少到大约30k多边形，然后将其再次导出为中多边形网格。这样做是因为Maya 2020对于处理超高多边形网格并不理想，即使使用顶级工作站也是如此。因此，我在中间多边形网格上进行了重新拓扑化过程，这在很大程度上加快了我的工作流程。
虽然我对该工具进行了罚款，但我发现即使在Live Surface中，Maya中的四边形绘制也存在一些缺点，例如垂直线位于高多边形网格下方或方向下降。因此，我重新定位的方式是从一个简单的平面开始，根据中间的多边形网格挤压边缘。通过这种方式，我可以控制我的多边形流和边缘的方向。
The first asset I created was my Hero Weapon (you can find my complete process in this post) and then I focused on the architecture side of things. I sculpted the wooden pillars, then created a trim sheet for my metal and wood trims in the scene. I finished off with the rest of my big meshes, such as the altar, shield, door, crate, and bookcase, which I am breaking down in detail here.
我创建的第一个资产是我的英雄武器（你可以在这篇文章中找到我的完整过程），然后我专注于建筑方面的事情。我雕刻了木柱，然后在场景中为我的金属和木饰件创建了一个装饰板。我完成了其余的大网格，例如祭坛，盾牌，门，板条箱和书柜，我在这里详细分解。
For the books, I used a modular workflow, creating individual pieces and then making combinations of them in order to have a variety of meshes in the scene. I analyze this workflow in detail here.
The same was applied to the desk, creating just the individual parts and combining them in Maya. There was a little bit of sculpting, but nothing major for this asset.
I then created all the complimentary meshes, such as the candle cap, hourglass, chair, and map frame.
As a final touch, I wanted to learn a bit more about cloth simulation in Maya and ZBrush. I created the "Bhaal" Banner and leather "Avernus" map by utilizing Maya's cloth simulation tools (such as gravity and shredding tools).
对于这些书，我使用了一个模块化的工作流程，创建单独的部分，然后将它们组合在一起，以便在场景中具有各种网格。我在这里详细分析了这个工作流程。
这同样适用于办公桌，仅创建各个部分并在Maya中组合它们。有一点点雕刻，但对于这个资产来说没什么大不了的。
然后，我创建了所有免费的网格，例如蜡烛帽，沙漏，椅子和地图框。
作为最后的润色，我想更多地了解Maya和ZBrush中的布料模拟。我利用Maya的布料模拟工具（如重力和切碎工具）创建了“Bhaal”横幅和皮革“Avernus”地图。
The rug was the last complimentary piece of the scene and was created using ZBrush via cloth simulation. I played around with various cloth brushes and used my tiling floor as the main collider. This created a nice, organic result which I pushed further in texturing, by painting opacity in the Alpha channel of my Base Color Texture, thus creating a tarnished, weathered look on the mesh.
地毯是场景中的最后一块免费部分，是通过布料模拟使用ZBrush创建的。我玩弄了各种布刷，并用我的瓷砖地板作为主要的对撞机。这创造了一个很好的有机效果，我通过在基色纹理的Alpha通道中绘制不透明度，从而在网格上创建一个玷污的风化外观，从而在纹理中进一步推动了这一效果。
Texturing
In order to speed up my workflow, I created a bunch of smart materials in Substance 3D Painter, mainly wood, hammered metal, and stone material. I based most of my sculpted meshes on these, while trying different variations, ideas and individual painted touches for different meshes. This created consistency within the project, but enough variation to make everything coherent but not strikingly different.
The biggest challenge was by far the Double Axe guitar. That's because it uses all the different materials in a single mesh while having unique details such as the chords, the magnets and pickups, the blades, and the ornament intrusions. It was a very fun but challenging asset to create, especially since it was my first ever unique, high-to-low hero asset.
纹理
为了加快我的工作流程，我在Substance 3D Painter中创建了一堆智能材料，主要是木材，锤击金属和石材。我的大部分雕刻网格都基于这些，同时尝试不同的变化，想法和针对不同网格的单独绘画触摸。这在项目内创造了一致性，但有足够的变化使一切连贯，但又没有显着的不同。
到目前为止，最大的挑战是双斧吉他。这是因为它在单个网格中使用所有不同的材料，同时具有独特的细节，例如和弦，磁铁和拾音器，刀片和装饰入侵。这是一个非常有趣但具有挑战性的资产，特别是因为它是我有史以来第一个独特的，从高到低的英雄资产。
For the books, I used alphas from the ArtStation marketplace and some fantasy spell pages I found on Pinterest and while searching online. Unfortunately, I am not that talented yet to create such unique details, but I tried to implement different texturing techniques in order to give them a distinct look, such as alpha blending and opacity painting. The use of anchor points and mask creation in Substance 3D Painter helped me a lot in this.
对于这些书，我使用了ArtStation市场上的alphas，以及我在Pinterest上和在线搜索时找到的一些幻想咒语页面。不幸的是，我还没有那么有天赋来创造如此独特的细节，但我试图实现不同的纹理技术，以赋予它们独特的外观，例如alpha混合和不透明度绘画。在Substance 3D Painter中使用锚点和蒙版创建在这方面给了我很多帮助。
The most difficult surface to create correctly was the tiling floor. I did not want to create just a flat texture and put it on a plane and call it a day. Instead, I wanted my floor to have depth, weight, and significance within the scene. Thus, I followed Dannie Carlone's tutorial and created a tiling sculpted mesh, spend a lot of time doing a correct retopo for all sides of the mesh, and finished off with a clean bake and using SP with masks I exported from ZBrush (grout and rocks). I used some rock textures from Quixel Bridge but expanded much more within SP, in terms of detailing, blending, and height and normals correction.
最难正确创建的表面是瓷砖地板。我不想只创造一个平坦的纹理，把它放在一架飞机上，然后称之为一天。相反，我希望我的地板在场景中具有深度，重量和意义。因此，我按照Dannie Carlone的教程创建了一个平铺雕刻网格，花了很多时间为网格的所有侧面做一个正确的retopo，并以干净的烘焙和使用SP以及我从ZBrush（水泥浆和岩石）导出的面具来完成。我使用了Quixel Bridge中的一些岩石纹理，但在SP中扩展了更多，包括细节，混合以及高度和法线校正。
Assembling the Scene
The composition was one of the main aspects that I wanted to become better at with this project. I've spent a lot of time in preproduction creating the blockout, utilizing leading lines and curves, and trying to focus on the main scene elements.
Since my scene is effectively two scenes in one (Weapon Altar and Study Desk), I set up four cameras in Unreal Engine: two of them framing the whole scene from a main and alternative angle and the other two focusing on the individual smaller scenes, showcasing the environment a bit better.
This allowed me to be able to focus on each individual aspect equally while creating a complete environment without having to spend too much time in trial and error in terms of angles, props placing, or tweaking. The whole process proved to be a huge time saver, so this is something I will be using a lot more in the future.
组装场景
构图是我想在这个项目中做得更好的主要方面之一。我花了很多时间在前期制作中创建块，利用前导线和曲线，并试图专注于主要场景元素。
由于我的场景实际上是两个场景合二为一（武器祭坛和学习台），所以我在虚幻引擎中设置了四个摄像头：其中两个从主要和替代角度构图整个场景，另外两个专注于单个较小的场景，更好地展示环境。
这使我能够在创建完整环境的同时平等地专注于每个方面，而不必花费太多时间在角度，道具放置或调整方面的反复试验。整个过程被证明是一个巨大的时间节省者，所以这是我将来会更多地使用的东西。
In terms of prop placing, I wanted to create little storytelling points, such as the magically floating weapon, the small dragon on the door, or the whole desk layout.
A lot of this also comes from my Bard character's background story: he originally comes from Avernus (the first of the Nine Levels of Hell in the Forgotten Realms setting), his music and spell books, his love of red wine, his passion for hard music and guitar tone setting – all of it comes together on the study desk with individual props such as the goblet and pitcher, the books and the tuning fork. Even the crimson hourglass is something that tells a small story.
Finally, a lot of attention was given to the "heavy metal" feel of the scene. I created a Blueprint Spline for my chains that controls the tangents, just so I am able to control the spline mesh and create individuality without breaking the geometry.
在道具放置方面，我想创造一些讲故事的小点，比如神奇的漂浮武器，门上的小龙，或者整个办公桌的布局。
其中很多也来自我的吟游诗人角色的背景故事：他最初来自Avernus（被遗忘的领域设置中九层地狱中的第一个），他的音乐和咒语书，他对红酒的热爱，他对硬音乐和吉他音调设置的热情 - 所有这些都与个人道具（如高脚杯和投手）一起放在书桌上， 书本和音叉。即使是深红色的沙漏也是一个小故事。
最后，对现场的“重金属”感觉给予了很大的关注。我为我的链创建了一个控制切线的蓝图样条，这样我就能够在不破坏几何图形的情况下控制样条网格并创建个性。
Lighting
Lighting was one of the very first things I wanted to tackle through preproduction. I collected loads of references from games such as Diablo, Skyrim, Baldur's Gate III, and other dark fantasy projects and artwork, in order to be able to have the correct approach for the hazy, warm night feel I wanted for my scene.
One of the major decisions for the project was to use the RTXGI, NVIDIA Denoiser, and DLSS plugins for UE4.27, as I wanted to expand my understanding of ray tracing within a game engine environment.
My lighting setup went hand-in-hand with my composition, identifying the main light source (key light) which was the fire altar. The color palette of the scene is predominantly red, with a complimentary blue tone provided by the night light that's coming through the window. Finally, carefully placed candle lights finish off the environment with deep orange tones, giving attention and depth to individual parts of the scene, such as the books and the desk.
The God Ray material was borrowed from the famous "Infiltrator" UE4 demo and expanded upon with various tweaks in speed and color variation.
照明
照明是我想通过前期制作解决的第一件事。我从《暗黑破坏神》、《天际》、《Baldur's Gate III》以及其他黑暗奇幻项目和艺术品等游戏中收集了大量的参考资料，以便能够为我想要的场景带来的朦胧、温暖的夜晚感觉提供正确的方法。
该项目的主要决定之一是在UE4.27中使用RTXGI，NVIDIA降噪器和DLSS插件，因为我想在游戏引擎环境中扩展我对光线追踪的理解。
我的照明设置与我的构图齐头并进，确定了主光源（关键光源），即火祭坛。场景的调色板主要是红色，通过窗户的夜灯提供了免费的蓝色调。最后，精心放置的烛光以深橙色调结束环境，为场景的各个部分（例如书籍和书桌）提供注意力和深度。
God Ray材质是从著名的“渗透者”UE4演示中借用的，并在速度和颜色变化方面进行了各种调整。
Finally, post-processing played a huge role in setting the mood, with a light bloom effect covering the scene, along with a touch of chromatic aberration. I controlled the overall coloring by reducing the saturation to 0.9 and setting the contrast to 1.1, thus pushing the fantasy tone a bit more. The shadows have a touch of a blue tint, with my mid-tones getting a little bit of orange. Finally, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion is enabled in order to take advantage of the RTXGI.
A huge realization was the fact that correct PBR values are absolutely essential in order for the light to behave properly. One of the mistakes I did in the beginning was not taking into consideration the base materials and post-process for my scene lighting. Something that made me do a complete re-light of the scene mid-project. The help of my fellow classmate and friend Matthew Lamb proved invaluable, guiding me through ideas and tools that I will be able to use in future projects.
最后，后期处理在设置情绪方面发挥了巨大作用，光绽放效果覆盖了场景，并带有一丝色差。我通过将饱和度降低到0.9并将对比度设置为1.1来控制整体着色，从而将幻想色调推得更多一些。阴影有一点蓝色，我的中间色调有点橙色。最后，启用了光线追踪环境光遮蔽，以便利用 RTXGI。
一个巨大的认识是，正确的PBR值对于光线正常运行是绝对必要的。我一开始犯的错误之一是没有考虑到场景照明的基本材质和后期处理。这让我在项目进行到一半时完全重新亮相。我的同学和朋友马修·兰姆（Matthew Lamb）的帮助被证明是无价的，指导我了解我在未来的项目中使用的想法和工具。
Main Challenges
The main challenge of the scene was learning ZBrush on the fly, along with composition and light setup. As this was an original project, not based on any particular concept, It was quite hard to make sure that everything worked and that the scene was a complete and detailed project.
Time was also a challenge. Although I did stretch the duration of the project due to various reasons, I wanted to make sure that I hit my main goals, something which I am glad I did. Learning ZBrush from scratch is a challenge itself, not to mention utilizing high-to-low workflows and making sure that everything was created in a performant, high-quality way.
However, with all the help and feedback I had from sources such as DiNusty Empire Discord, the Beyond Extend Community, and The Club Discord, along with various individual professionals and friends through Twitter, I managed to create a scene that I am fairly proud of.
主要挑战
该场景的主要挑战是在飞行中学习ZBrush，以及构图和灯光设置。由于这是一个原创项目，而不是基于任何特定概念，因此很难确保一切正常，并且场景是一个完整而详细的项目。
时间也是一个挑战。虽然由于各种原因，我确实延长了项目的持续时间，但我想确保我达到了我的主要目标，我很高兴我做到了。从头开始学习ZBrush本身就是一个挑战，更不用说利用从高到低的工作流程并确保以高性能，高质量的方式创建所有内容。
然而，通过DiNusty Empire Discord，Beyond Extend社区和The Club Discord等来源的所有帮助和反馈，以及通过Twitter的各种个人专业人士和朋友，我设法创造了一个我相当自豪的场景。
The main advice I can give to anyone that wants to follow this path is pretty simple: be hungry, be humble. Learning 3D for games is a monumental task that is constantly evolving. The most important aspect of this journey is goal setting and perseverance: consistency is absolutely key, even on a bad day. Make sure you set realistic goals, identify points of growth and strengths, follow your deadlines, and stay the course. I cannot tell you how many times I've thought to myself "You are not good enough", but that is fuel to the fire. Being a 3D artist is a passion first and foremost, and you have to be ready to do everything it takes to fulfill that passion.
And most of all, have fun! This is creativity at its finest, being able to put the work in to create an idea into a tangible, real result that people can look upon or play and immerse themselves into. It's the best feeling in the world!
我能给任何想走这条路的人的主要建议很简单：饿着肚子，要谦虚。学习游戏3D是一项不断发展的艰巨任务。这段旅程中最重要的方面是目标设定和毅力：即使在糟糕的一天，一致性也绝对是关键。确保你设定了切合实际的目标，确定了成长点和优势，遵循你的最后期限，并坚持到底。我不能告诉你有多少次我对自己说“你不够好”，但这是火上浇油。成为一名3D艺术家首先是一种激情，你必须准备好尽一切努力来实现这种激情。
最重要的是，玩得开心！这是最好的创造力，能够将工作投入其中，将想法转化为有形的，真实的结果，人们可以观看或玩耍并沉浸在其中。这是世界上最好的感觉！
As a final note, I want to thank the following people for helping me throughout my 3d journey: Chris Avigni (Escape Studios tutor) and Emanuele Celli (Double 11), Matt Lamb, Jeremy "DiNusty" Estrellado (Ubi Massive), Joe Hobbs (Ubi Annecy), Ioanna Oprisan, "Paulygonn", John Hannon and the rest of my Twitter artists and friends.
最后，我要感谢以下人员在我的3D旅程中帮助我：Chris Avigni（Escape Studios导师）和Emanuele Celli（Double 11），Matt Lamb，Jeremy “DiNusty” Estrellado（Ubi Massive），Joe Hobbs（Ubi Annecy），Ioanna Oprisan，“Paulygonn”，John Hannon以及我的其他Twitter艺术家和朋友。
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