Textures, Techniques, and Teamwork

Week Three – Textures, Techniques, and Teamwork

This week, we continued our work in Maya and were introduced to using alpha cards for hair, rather than sculpting, for a more realistic approach. We referenced games like Uncharted (Naughty Dog) and Diablo to guide the art style of our adventure game.

A major milestone was starting Substance Painter. We learned how to efficiently use layers instead of multiple materials on an object to optimize texture density. Since we are limited to two 4K texture maps for both our character and weapon, proper texture management is crucial. My goal is to have a polished result by next week.

In my programming course, we focused on attack animations and implementing damage mechanics. We worked on binding the sword to a bone in the rig, ensuring that it properly moves with the character across different animations, including idle, walking, running, attacking, and even death animations. I ran into some challenges with this and reached out to a friend with more Unreal Engine experience for guidance.