#peterdimitrov

The Animal Shrine

Between 15.Oct - 03.Dec 2018, I had the pleasure (and stress, as it is with any big creative project) to work on my own game environment.

The theme is Feudal Japan, and was given by the Art Challenge for which I made the piece. The prompt was quite broad and everyone was allowed to pursue whatever genre they wished. I went more towards fantasy.

As rules of the challenge follow, I created everything from scratch for the 2 months deadline we were given. Every texture, every model, the layout and every but in the engine is my own design.

You can see the whole project over at my Artstation.

Making this was, well, quite the challenge. Deadline was super tight and this was the first project of this scale I do in 3D. My expertise was more limited just in painting before that.

You can see my page of my official development blog here.

Whilst making this, I made 16 blog updates, talking about how I am making the different bits and my decision making. I am going to post those 16 individual entries here on Tumblr now, and I hope that you enjoy it.

Software used is Unreal Engine 4, Maya, Substance Designer and Painter, Photoshop, World Machine an SpeedTree.

If you are interested in any of those, stick around, you wont regret it.

Pete.

(initial post from October 2018)

I've been greyboxing the concept for my level for a few hours now. I'm quite excited how its shaping already and wanted to update all of you with some screenshots.

A few days ago I did a sketch on paper looking at the level top-down. In that one, I made every single shape and the buildings square. Today, playing with the shapes in Unreal, I decided that I want to break up the level a bit more than that.

I wanted to be sure that there is variety in height too, and as such I elevated the whole place. I created wooden structures for each building to sit on. I still don't have the roofs, and I don't think its much worth it to even greybox them in Unreal. Making them to look like anything, even for illustrative purposes, will take far too long, and now that I have figured most of the measurements I can just dive into Maya and make them there.

The fencing around the whole place will be from stone. It will also have its own mini triangular roofing that is probably gonna be wooden (in the style of the rest of the buildings). For the square building to the right I have an interesting idea, but I will share it with you given that everything else goes according to plan the next few weeks.

Here are some progress GIFs:

It's kind of fun to see it get built like this in an animation, as if some invisible workers are putting it in place.

An angular shot for a better view:

And here is an aerial shot:

I'm imagining prolific and bulky (but smooth) triangular roofs that go on 2 or even 3 levels. I think they will compliment the squarish shapes underneath and create some interesting silhouettes.

Around the whole place I want to scatter lots of trees, as to make this whole place in a remote, tranquil location. In one of the reference books that I got, the author put it so nicely in words, that its quite the inspiration for me -- "...the plains would have formed a veritable sea of trees, their tips stretching into the distance like waves."

Well, given technical limitations on the number of trees I can have and also the fact that I've never done a serious foliage before, let alone a tree, we shall see if I manage to accomplish view worthy of that description. But that is something for the very end, and as such not worth any worry right now.

I hope that you like what you see and that your projects are coming along nicely guys! Until next time.

Pete.

Most of the prototypes and small games we create at University in Unreal, lack any sounds. It is more a matter of lack of time to explore that aspect, and focusing more on the level design and mechanics than anything else.

Well this time around, our brief calls for a special attention to sounds. We have to develop a level where we put sound at the center of attention.

I decided to create a puzzle game, focusing on simple aspects like colour, shapes and sounds. In fact, I combine all three of the aforementioned in one object. Multiple versions of those, differing in those 3 aspects, are scattered around the map. The player has to listen carefully, pick up the right ones, and retrieve them.

Most of the blueprints for my mechanics are already in, but I will pay more attention and explanation to that in the posts to follow.

For now, I am modelling some simple assets so I can give the whole place more of an interesting look.

The Making of “Drone of Clouds and Minds” - Time-lapse Painting

Here is a link to the video of the making of my last painting.

When I publish my paintings, I always feel the urge to write and explain how and why I went down the path I did with the creation process. Most social medias don’t give you that opportunity though. Also, sadly, most people run around and are so busy these days that I just cant see myself intriguing anyone to sit down and read a piece of writing. No matter if it takes just 5 or 10 minutes, sometimes even less.

Also, building a following is hard and I don’t know if this is the place where people are interested in the insights of a struggling artist. But anyways, here it goes (if you like what I say and would like to see it integrated in the video next time, do say so please).

The Making Process:

I had an University Drawing assignments calling for the creation of a character. Well no, this here is not the character that I created for Uni. What I handed in was a half-assed magician with a robe and very broad shoulders. But one of the initial ideas I had with him was: I wanted him to hold a magical fire. And I wanted it to be something interesting, something novel. So I said, why not follow some mathematical shapes? Maybe he is a wizard that knows every secret of the world? And he resides in a world, where, though predominantly fantastical, science still exists. Who knows, if they had a scientist good enough, he could probably formulate magic itself too.

That’s why I said - well, his fire will have a three dimensional shape that is a bit more unorthodox. He will be holding a fire that is an polyhedron. Maybe icosahedron? 20 faces. That didn’t matter at the time. I even wanted it more abstract.

Some polyhedrons can be seen above. I especially liked the one numbered 8.

This concept stuck with me, but I wanted to explore it in a personal painting, and not something related to University. Here came another idea, one that I had circling in my mind for the prior 4-5 months. A portrait of a woman looking directly into an abstract shape. And so this sketch was born:

You can see how it started loosing its mathematical concept and went more into an abstraction. The days that followed though, I had doubts whether I want to be exploring something as abstract or not.

In Diablo 3, the Wizard had some incredible held in off-hand sources and orbs. And although its been very long since I last played, I think that some of the electric colors and interesting shapes had an influence on me too.

One of the off-hands in Diablo 3. While painting I didn’t use any of this as a reference, but I believe tha game had left a mark on my mind.

Call me cynical, but a lot of art circles around and becomes famous for just being a tiny bit abstract but immensely pretty. There is nothing wrong with it, but I just think people are prone to easily liking stuff that is just pretty. Sometimes there even isn’t any deeper meaning into it. I wanted a beautiful painting (for a change in my ordinary monstrous portfolio) but I wanted more than that into it. So I started exploring the idea of a robot. Or a drone.

One of the first sketches of the drone. It ended up looking totally different, but you can see the starting points and similarities.

But all of that you can see in the video itself. Also, this blog post already stretched to be a bit too lengthy, so I will leave the rest of the insights for the video itself.

As always, you can follow my art at Artstation, Facebook, or follow me here and at Twitter.