CAGD 470: Sprint 4
ePortfolio
Blog Post 4: Graphics
Publication - 10/25/26
The Goal
By the end of the semester, my team, Monkey Business, will be releasing to the world a shipped PC title called Banananauts. This time our team has creative freedom over its development as long as it follows the code of conduct that our major enforces. Monkey Business is comprised of six members in total: a lead designer, a producer, a programmer, a level designer, a dedicated 3D modeler, and a flex who does both modeling and animation. The production of this game will test each of our abilities in our application of agile development and iterative game design.
Vision Statement
Banananauts is a comedic first-person construction simulation game about a monkey building a spaceship to get to the Sun.
Game Summary
A goofy first-person monkey-to-the-sun simulator. Players scavenge junk to build a rocket, then attempt to survive a launch. Players will make chaos-inducing choices, refill rockets, put out fires, and climb around a failing ship to keep it moving.
The Role
Within Monkey Business, I am its dedicated 3D modeler, ensuring that all assets are created with accuracy and intent that is equivalent to what my lead is asking for. Over the past few sprints, a production pipeline has been established to ensure that the content is being made properly. My producer has helped greatly in these regards, with me being able to pick cards that I'd like to undertake with ease. Additionally, she added links to the reference art in the descriptions of each modeling card, saving me tons of time.
The Sprint
Compared to the start of Sprint 4, this sprint's start was smooth as butter. Our producer was back in good health, allowing for kickoff to occur without issue. Progress was smooth across the board, with cards being done consistently; however, I fell behind on my workload due to other classes that held my attention. This cultivated into a situation where I scrambled to get my tasks done before the end of this sprint. During this sprint, I worked on a few more props; however, my main focus during this sprint was finalizing some asset sets, with them being textured and sent to Unreal. I had a few instances of being blocked during texturing, but these were each resolved within minutes as my lead gave me the materials I needed to finish it.
Props
Banananauts continue to be very prop-oriented, with them being necessary to the construction of the rocketship. Within this sprint, I continued to follow my established production process of ensuring that each asset is easily identifiable, topologically optimized, and accurate to the references I'd been given. The assets that were assigned to me were once again of little correlation, but I knew what each one's purpose was, making my modeling job much easier this time around. With each asset, I continued my new mantra of high-fidelity modeling.
Prop Set 5
The first thing I ended up working on during this sprint was another prop set. Another random set of objects that were supposed to serve integral parts of our game. Starting off, we've got an industrial fan; not quite sure how it'll be used, but I've separated the blades so they can spin independently from the frame. Next to the fan itself is its grill; this will be textured using a technique that'll make it look like it's see-through while still having the familiar grill design. Besides that is a tennis ball launcher; this will be shooting a random array of items out of it towards the player. I made two safe versions: one is the type you'd find in a hotel, the other is where guns would be stored. Both are similar designs; however, the gun safe has the extra detail of a circular tumbler with three prongs. The final asset in this set was a painting, and its frame, when textured, will be for a monkey aristocrat.
This is the temporary UV layout for this set; the final version will be created during texturing. Textile density and its shells will be optimized for respective textures.
Prop Set 6
After the first prop set was done, I moved onto a smaller set of models, consisting of a series of medals that will be placed inside the trophy case that I made during the last sprint. These trophies were purely up to my creative will; I modeled the classic two-handle trophy and small goblet first, then I got more creative and dished out a dish-shaped plaque. The trophy I'm most proud of, however, is certainly the rocket trophy that shows a rocket shooting up into space. That trophy was done while in the flow, creating something truly unique. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and the fact that it fits the game's premise is a cherry on top.
This is also a temporary UV shell layout. The demonstration of this layout ensures that these UVs are ready to be used in the texturing pipeline.
Texturing
Texturing is an integral part of the 3D asset's production pipeline. Texturing an asset means the asset was properly modeled without N-gons or Tris and that it was UVed properly. Texturing is the step where the asset turns into its final form, with color, height, and roughness all combining into one, creating the asset's character. After an asset is textured, it's sent off to the engine where it should remain if it's truly finalized.
Throwable/Usable Set
After modeling, I continued my work with texturing assets that I had created in sprints past. This set here is the "Throwable/Usable Set"; within this are a series of consumables that will help assist in the building of the rocket. Texturing these things at first was difficult since I hadn't touched Adobe Substance Painter in months; however, I quickly relearned the workflow and soldiered on. Something that was new to me this time around was the application of stylization in textures. I had never used such methods to create the desired look the lead wanted. Thankfully, the team's flex was able to provide me with a tutorial to get me accustomed to the stylization that was desired. This made things much easier for me. Each of these assets was fun to texture and looked like industry-ready assets. Some of these assets feature labels created by my lead, and these just further sell the idea of these being genuine assets. My favorite assets of this set are definitely the gorilla snot, the nacho cheese, and the fire extinguisher.
Props Set 1
When it came time to texture "Prop Set 1," the process of getting started was much smoother; I had relearned the ins and outs of Painter by this point, and I had also firmly grasped the new stylization style we were going for. The texturing for this set was much simpler, as it consisted mainly of wooden crates and street signs. To create variation between the crates, I ensured each one had different grains, colors, and dirt levels. It was a rather annoying process, but I knew it'd be worth it since they'd all look unique in their own regard. The street signs were fun to do, with them being image overlays and the stylization filter being applied to them. The oil barrel was simple to do with a metal layer and rust generator. The tire, however, proved to be troublesome as I had issues aligning the tire tracks. Since these props were mainly environmental, I made sure to add varying levels of dirt so they fit in with the island theme.
Monkey Painting
The final asset creation-related task I did this sprint was the texturing of the painting I had created in "Prop Set 5". This was pretty straightforward, with the painting itself being made by my lead and the frame being ripped from a real picture frame. An issue that arose during this was the frame image not covering all of the model's frame. I roughly solved this by creating a metallic layer that was of similar hue, but the thing that saved it the most was the stylization filter; it completely blended the frame and the metallic layer. I'm very proud of how this asset turned out.
Unreal Importation
Similar to last sprint, I was asked again to import all current assets for the electronic playtest regardless of texture or not. Rather than fighting those 10% of props that didn't work properly last time, I imported only the ones that functioned correctly last time to speed up the build for this sprint. I'll be working on a solution to those in the coming sprint. I also had to set up texturing in-engine this time, which thankfully went smoothly. However, my programmer found issues with some of the models appearing weird due to a visual filter we added. So this will need to be investigated further. The current best solution seems to be adding bevels to those assets that are affected, since the filter runs off the assets' mesh lines.
The Wrap
This sprint flew by for me, partly due to my lack of progress in the first half, which led to a degree of crunch time for me to get my work done in time. Thankfully, I was able to get most of it done, maintaining my average card count while also ensuring the work met my expectations. I'm also very proud of my team as they continued their work ethic that led to this sprint once again being our best. Team synergy also continues to flourish, with our bonds becoming stronger, enabling better communication about issues. I ran into minor issues this sprint, thankfully; however, I need to ensure I don't neglect my work for this class, as I got lucky being able to get enough work in before the sprint ended.
The Path Ahead
Continuing on from this sprint, I'll finish texturing the remaining texture sets that I didn't get to this sprint. I'll also be fixing issues with my assets that recently arose in Unreal, currently I'm not sure how deep they run, but they'll be solved next sprint nevertheless. Once again, I'll continue to strive for an overall increase in my output of cards, and I'll ensure that I don't fall behind on them like I did this time. I'll make sure that my cards will be completed while maintaining a level of quality and completeness that continues to exceed my team's expectations.
The first thing I ended up working on during this sprint was another prop set. Another random set of objects that were supposed to serve integral parts of our game. Starting off, we've got an industrial fan; not quite sure how it'll be used, but I've separated the blades so they can spin independently from the frame. Next to the fan itself is its grill; this will be textured using a technique that'll make it look like it's see-through while still having the familiar grill design. Besides that is a tennis ball launcher; this will be shooting a random array of items out of it towards the player. I made two safe versions: one is the type you'd find in a hotel, the other is where guns would be stored. Both are similar designs; however, the gun safe has the extra detail of a circular tumbler with three prongs. The final asset in this set was a painting, and its frame, when textured, will be for a monkey aristocrat.
This is the temporary UV layout for this set; the final version will be created during texturing. Textile density and its shells will be optimized for respective textures.
After the first prop set was done, I moved onto a smaller set of models, consisting of a series of medals that will be placed inside the trophy case that I made during the last sprint. These trophies were purely up to my creative will; I modeled the classic two-handle trophy and small goblet first, then I got more creative and dished out a dish-shaped plaque. The trophy I'm most proud of, however, is certainly the rocket trophy that shows a rocket shooting up into space. That trophy was done while in the flow, creating something truly unique. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and the fact that it fits the game's premise is a cherry on top.
This is also a temporary UV shell layout. The demonstration of this layout ensures that these UVs are ready to be used in the texturing pipeline.
After modeling, I continued my work with texturing assets that I had created in sprints past. This set here is the "Throwable/Usable Set"; within this are a series of consumables that will help assist in the building of the rocket. Texturing these things at first was difficult since I hadn't touched Adobe Substance Painter in months; however, I quickly relearned the workflow and soldiered on. Something that was new to me this time around was the application of stylization in textures. I had never used such methods to create the desired look the lead wanted. Thankfully, the team's flex was able to provide me with a tutorial to get me accustomed to the stylization that was desired. This made things much easier for me. Each of these assets was fun to texture and looked like industry-ready assets. Some of these assets feature labels created by my lead, and these just further sell the idea of these being genuine assets. My favorite assets of this set are definitely the gorilla snot, the nacho cheese, and the fire extinguisher.
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