Vehicles

Renegade-X C130

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop, Mudbox, Crazybump

Renegade-X is currently working on a single-player map that will showcase our advances since switching to the UDK from UT3. This C-130 Hercules (H model, manufactured from 1964 to 1996) is featured in a crash cinematic (which can be seen in my video reel), animated by one of our team members in Canada. It will eventually be used to deliver combat vehicles to players via parachute using a touch-and-go method known as the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES). It features separate flaps, ailerons, rudder, and landing gear that will be animated during the drop sequence and allow for it to be used as a stationary prop on the ground.

A Path Beyond M24

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop, Mudbox

This tank, based on the M24 Chaffee, is a work-in-progress for A Path Beyond. It went through two other artists before being passed onto me after they both left the project.

When I received the model most of the turret and supporting equipment was triangulated and some of the equipment meshes were clipping or floating. I cleaned up the model and did some optimization while both reducing the triangle count and adding extra supporting detail in the suspension and the front of the glacis plate. This process also involved some retopology in a few places (primarily the turret face where it interfaces with the gun mantlet) and reproportioning to more closely match the actual M24 (thanks to some nifty Internet blueprints).

The game engine for this mod is old--circa 2002--and doesn't have support for modern normal or specular texture maps. That has made this a good study in working purely with the diffuse map and baked/painted lighting and detail. I did 100% of the unwrapping and texturing. There are four texture variants to match APB's map categories of Forest, Urban, Desert, or Snow environments.

Left on the to-do list is fine-tuning the grunge and wear and tear, as well as adding a few missing supporting details like welds, bolts, serial numbers, and paneling. Currently all 4 textures share the same camo pattern but a near-future goal is to give each variation a unique pattern in one of our upcoming content patches.

Weapons

M-208 Arrow

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop, Mudbox, Crazybump.

The M-208 Arrow is a unique man-portable rocket/missile launcher of my own design that takes influence from the real-life M141-SMAW, M202-FLASH, FIM-92 Stinger, AT4, and other real-world weapons systems. Like the real-life M141-SMAW, I designed the M208-Arrow to be reloadable with rocket or missile cartridges. All five of these types of rounds are based on real-world rocket types.

It was originally designed for C&C Reborn, a mod for C&C Renegade. This is my own take on the design. The fold-out screen shows targeting information. C&C Reborn's coders implemented a render-to-texture system that allowed a camera under the handle to display directly on the texture. Text information like range to target could also be displayed. The tank in this image is for illustration of concept and does not represent in-game visuals.

Environments

Sector 18 Experimental Reactor

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop, Crazybump, UDK.

Sector 18 is an underground military complex centered around an experimental power source in the not-too-distant future. The result of two different class projects merged together, all assets were created entirely by myself and can be seen above running real-time in the Unreal Development Kit. This environment was designed with extreme modularity in mind, and many meshes are instanced in various locations around the map.

In the main hallways, all the floor, wall, and ceiling meshes share a single 2048 map. With a little bit of work with the UVs, I managed to create three different types of corridor shapes with only the one texture map.

Abandoned Barnyard

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop.

This Maya conceptualization was envisioned as an open area for infantry and vehicular combat in a modern-warfare first/third-person shooter in a vein similar to the Battlefield, Tom Clancy, or Call of Duty franchises. This would be a focal area of combat in the center of the environment as the terrain, structures, and objects provide cover and a defendable position. Encampments of opposing factions would be present at either end of the environment.

Concrete grain silos with climbable ladders present high, but somewhat exposed, vantage points for sniping. The interior of the barn would provide cover and multiple firing positions both to the outside as well as inside for close combat. The desert trees are based on reference photos of a desert shrub in Golden Gate Park. Several of the textures were created from my own photos.

Office Space

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop.

An office space made with triangle and texture limitations similar to Playstation 2 or mobile specifications. The scene is lit using only vertex lighting and polygon planes with an alpha shadow map texture. The entire scene, including shadow alpha planes, is only 3,367 triangles.

Props

Time Fighters Buildings

Technology used: Maya, Photoshop, Unity3D.

For my senior project class, our team had 9 months to prototype a simple game. We came up with an arcade-style-beat-em-up powered by the Unity engine called Time Fighters. Our premise is that aliens are messing with the timeline which results in people and objects being sucked through portals to different eras in time. This set of modern-era buildings are scenery objects sucked through time and dropped into ancient Egypt. They tie in to the previous level which is set in the modern era and add a nice parallax effect to the level.

Near the beginning of the Egypt level the modern structures are actively being dropped from time portals into the background and foreground. As the Egypt level progresses the modern-era buildings become more scarce, more Egyptian architecture is seen, and finally an increasing number of Scandinavian objects are dropped in to tie into the next level of Scandinavia.

The two leftmost buildings share one 512 map. The next one is a foreground object so it gets its own 512 map. The next two share one 512 map, and the fast food joint gets its own 512 map because it is also a foreground object. The Yummy Burger received the most detail of all the modern-era buildings in Time Fighters.