Physically-Based Shading in Unity 5

Finally sat down and explored the new PBR shader in Unity.  It's been a while since I've done a good old-fashioned still life, so I found a couple of random objects in the back yard and went to work.  After shooting some reference photos, I quickly free-modeled the assets in Blender so I could focus on the materials.  Unity 5 offers two material workflows for its Physically-Based Shading: Metallic and Specular.  For this first project, I used the Metallic workflow, since it more closely resembles the old material workflows I used for "Car Jumper".  Once I understood the difference between Metallic and Smoothness parameters, I was shocked by the quality of the results.  3d rendering packages have had this functionality for years, but to see it in a realtime environment is extremely cool.

Group Shot

Various Reference Photos

Hose Nozzle 1

Hose Nozzle 2

Spade

Unity 5

Took a break from "Car Jumper" last fall to learn the new GUI system that shipped with Unity 4.6, and inadvertently fell down a rabbit whole when I downloaded the "Survival Shooter" tutorial.  I started adding features, and now I have a fairly cool top-down shooter with lots of rag doll physics.  Everything broke when I opened a different project to research a decent player character animation system, and then everything broke again when I ported the project to Unity 5.  Finally got all of the big pieces working together again, and things are just far enough along to actually show off.

Currently, the system allows for location-based damage, with limb shots doing less damage than body shots, and head shots are kill shots.  There is a rough melee system in place, and enemy behaviors can be toggled between patrolling a designated area (with an attack behavior if the player gets too close), or blindly rushing the player.  The complete arsenal includes ray based (lasers, bullets), particle based (bullets, "energy" type projectiles, and flame throwers), and instantiated rigid bodies(rockets, arrows).

I managed to get a rough weapon-switching mechanism implemented, but it needs work.  The next video will show off the complete arsenal in action.  I need to spend some serious time with Unity 5 before I can do any art tests, as the potential for PBR and Global Illumination are making my mouth water.  More soon.

Getting down to Business Part 2

Finished the Intersection piece of the Downtown Business District for Car Jumper.  Feeling good about it: only 6 draw calls for the scene.  I still need to put together signage for the store fronts (which will cost another draw call), but for the moment my focus is going to move on to the "Industrial" district.

More... soonish.

View fullsize

Getting down to Business...

Work is progressing nicely on Car Jumper's "Business District".  A number of details and design issues I've been putting off have finally been addressed, and I should be completing the main tile and intersection pieces in the next day or so.  Below is an in-engine test of the dressed up tile piece, with the updated road texture (now with wear marks and gutters), and most of the background props visible.  More to come.

View fullsize

First Commission!

Well, THIS is cool: a friend of mine recently bought a 3d printer, and was approached by somebody requesting a custom-made pint glass with hops embossed on the outside.  I jumped at the opportunity, and went to work researching and drawing up designs.

I took detailed measurements of a pint glass before doing anything, then did some research drawings of the desired subject matter.

I tried to produce a diverse number of designs for the client, ranging from simple to complex.

After a bit of a wait, I was surprised to discover the client decided to go with one of my research drawings.  This ended up being a boon, as the design lent itself to a quick turn around time.  After finishing a model of the pint glass, I went to work on the brush I would use to produce the embossed design.

Sculpted in Blender

Once I finished the sculpt, I sent off screen shots to be evaluated by the client, and we received the greenlight to print it.  Now I'm just waiting to see the results of the print.  I'm gonna have to add another section to this site :-D.