Final Assignment Journal

Final Asset List:

• 19 Albedo Maps (All Albedos and Normal Maps from Quixel) 
• 10 Borrowed Assets From Quixel
• 1 Particle Effect
• 34 original meshes
• 3 decals (unused)

Images showing the Quixel files downloaded for this environment:

Updated Walkthrough:

The player begins at the top the entranceway leading down to the next room below.

The next room that players enter is full of mining equipment, and the walls are decorated with industrial features. 

The drills seen here were gathered from one of my 3d modelling assignments last trimester. I also modelled barrels and pipes which are scattered around the room.

This is another angle of the room that shows of the rail tracks and minecarts. The minecarts were borrowed assets from Quixsel. This shot also shows off some of the light fixtures  I made for this room. 

This tunnel is similar to the entrance way, however this one has minecarts and tracks as well as an elevator at the end.

The cargo elevator was left rather minimal due to a lack of time. However it does have rails for transporting minecarts up and down.

The elevator runs through an extended passage along a conveyer belt. Which to the final tunnel before the end cave. 

Upon entering players are greeted with a large cave with rocks, with an interesting crystal chunk at the far end. The room is illuminated by two light towers while there is also a mining drill knocked over to the side.

The final cave used a variety of different rock assets borrowed from Quixsel. There were also bags of rocks and the minecarts that were also borrowed. 

Reflection:

I found using the the borrowed 3D assets from Quixel to be very useful for filling empty space and finishing a scene quickly. I used them more predominantly later in my scene due to a lack of time. 

There are lots of things I would have liked to have fixed for my environment that would have made it look so much better in quality. 

Firstly texturing, I used Quixel textures for all of my models and applied those textures through Maya. While this method was useful for the short amount of time that I had, I could have achieved a much better result by using a different texturing software such as substance painter. Doing this would have allowed me to gain a much greater detail and depth than what is currently present in my environment. 

Had I managed my time better it would have been nice to add a greater level of detail to my original assets. Most of them seem to be low poly which was primarily done as a time saving measure however contributing more time to the quality of the meshes would have made the environment feel more realistic and smoother. 

Once again due to a lack of time I didn't get to add more features such as particle effects and volumetric lighting. As such there are lots of deep shadows present in the scene which ruin the overall atmosphere and stand out. Adding more interesting particle effects such as sparks from cables or haze in the air would have contributed greatly to the atmosphere in the mine. 

Overall my main improvement that needs to be made is managing my time properly to help complete better complete the final versions of my future projects to ever greater heights.