Design is not about put random object to scene; it is about showing the story behind the scene. Ahmad’s room not equal to Michael’s room because their lives are different. There could be a lot of difference between to room
- Cultures
- Climates
- Age of the persons
- Year: 1980, 2024, 3366
- life style
- health statu
- hobies
- …
We must to show these differences by details BUT too much detail is harder to read the scene. We should give some rest area for eyes of the viewer. Knowing the composition rules could be life saver.
Contrast & Conflict
I hate you … I love you. You’re beautiful … I’m ugly. We’re rich … they’re poor.
https://www.wordswords.com.au/2013/08/the-evil-truth-about-contrast-and-conflict-in-all-great-storytelling/
Story
The most important thing is story. We should telling story without words.
- Why there is such a place?
- What happened here?
- Why it is exist?
- How the character discover there?
- What is the purpose of the character?
- When? 1980, 3050? Winter, summer, spring?
- Where? In mars, underwater or desert?
- Characteristic of characters. Hobbies, life style …
- …
read: Robert Mckee – Story
Analysis character and environment and write it down, think! and spend some time on that topic.
Don’t make it dirty
Adding unnecessary dirt/corrosion/wear is not logical. Because in real life there is no way of taking damage from all sides. In general beginners use a lot of wear damage, or dirt in props this creates unrealistic results.
Avoiding tangents
Naming conventions
Use a proper naming convention for your all assets. (Especially in game engine).
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/game-ultimate-guide-asset-naming-conventions-video-christopher-mifsud
Use real world dimensions
Sometimes some individuals (even some companies) can use non-real world dimensions for their game. Scaling inside game engine is not a very good approach.
Use tillable texture for high fidelity environment
- Use decals and vertex painting for braking the uniform texture
- Be careful when choosing texture. 9 square grid could give a good inspect for it.
- Avoid strong NORMALS.
- Be careful about Texel Density.
- Avoid to use high detailed texture for all areas. Give some rest place for eyes
- Decrease opacity of decals.
- Avoid lines goes through same direction. Use some assets for brake
- Don’t try to create every single texture yourself. Because it takes too much time
Small details about rooms
- Spend some time to windows.
- Don’t forget light switches and similar small electrical and other components which completing room.
Props
- Use bevel but not too much
- Add details but not too much. Don’t forget to “you will see those props from far away inside game”
- Don’t over optimize cylinders and sphere. Circle is circle not a polygon
- Details are important dont be lazy
- A quick sculpt pass can enhanced your props
- Avoid baking errors
Texturing
- Use AO and curvature with multiply/overlay for enhance details
- Saturation and lightness give mask for logo (or similar things)
- Add some variation roughness (color, height, …) to surface. Don’t make them flat
- Add falloff to emissive materials. Lights are more powerful at the center of the surface.
- Use blur for smoothing hard edges
- Use filters (matfinish etc)
- Start from big details goes to small details
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