This has got to be my favorite project here in FIEA. Doesn't mean I'll change to a character Artist but I got to learn all these different techniques for the past few weeks on something new for me. It was a pain trying to get the UVs and pose the character into different poses. With the help of Mixamo, I got the poses and froze the mesh in Maya so that it could be a static mesh and not have a skeleton since that's not allowed as Nanite. This was very challenging but well worth it.
Since I am following the Nanite workflow, this week has been a little difficult since I am using a different approach to a character. This meant that I had to watch a ton of tutorials from both nanite and ZBrush pipelines and trying to combine the two. I managed to get the high res done. I am currently working on UVs since its taking a while to unfold them. I also tested the character mesh on Mixamo but it didn't work. I am going to try auto-rig in Maya (As suggested for a static mesh by Tech Artists).
Schedule:
Week 1: Proxy Sculpt
Week 2: Proxy Sculpt/UVs
Week 3 Tues: High Res/UVs/Practice Rigging Techniques
Week 3 Thurs: Fully Textured with UVs and Posed for Final Display
UPDATE: File got corrupt while copying UVs and the last file I can access is from 2 hours before the incident 😓
I've decided to stick to one project since the time we have is shorter than usual. So I'm sticking with the character, Mirage from Apex Legends. Not only is this my first time making a character, but I have to follow a different workflow to convert it to nanite.
I have to get the base mesh first, UVs, detail, texture. Since this is new to me, I'm trying to do as much research as I can to make Mirage using good techniques. This is taking A LOT longer than expected however. I haven't gotten the UVs done because I'm still doing my best to get base meshes on his body before continuing.
Putting most of my focus on the head was probably my biggest mistake. I tried to make it match as best I could but got a little too carried away.
New Schedule:
Week 1: Proxy Sculpt
Week 2: Proxy Sculpt / UVs
Week 3 Tues: High Res/UVs/Practice Posing
Week 3 Thurs: Fully Textured and Posed for Final Display
This sprint, I've done:
Pannable Conveyor Belt + New Conveyor Textures
Improved Radio (Won't fall apart + new mat)
Materials for the Monitors and Assembly Machine
Since the 3D Research assignment was due this week, I focused more on that than I did for this week's project. It was tough making the clothes for the character. Since it was really my first time making one, and spending most the time in ZBrush, I had to research videos on ZBrush to familiarize myself with it. Maybe it would've been better to stick with a character rather than over scope myself and do both an environment and character. 😅
Week 1 - Block Out Level / Proxy Sculpt / Character UVs
Week 2 - High res character / Character UVs / Proxy Environment
Week 3 - Game Res Environment / Textures for Both
Week 4 - Final Textures / Lighting Passes / Final Display of Work
It's no different than how anyone currently works in Unreal Engine. All you have to do is enable Nanite when importing any static meshes that do not deform. Anything else, such as skeletal meshes or anything with world position offset cannot be Nanite.
When imported into Unreal Engine 5, the mesh is analyzed and its tris are put into groups called clusters. The maximum threshold is 128 tris per cluster. But those clusters can swap depending on what is being rendered.
The method used is called culling. So wherever the camera is placed and what its looking at, will change the cluster groups.
For example:
When it is CLOSER to the Nanite mesh, there will be SMALLER clusters (High LODS).
*Think of each cluster as its own LOD
So the camera renders what it needs to and culls everything else. Clusters give more controls on what exactly gets rendered.
How to Texture props for Nanite - https://youtu.be/lrvPduSC4c8
UE5 Tutorial – Nanite - https://youtu.be/ADIldob0Sxg
Nanite in UE5: The End of Polycounts? - https://youtu.be/xUUSsXswyZM
Absolute Beginners guide to UE5 | Nanite - https://youtu.be/9NgDle3J9lo
How to make Nanite Meshes for Unreal Engine 5 in ZBrush and
Substance Painter! - https://youtu.be/uxTteEHDhtA
