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3D Low-Poly Stylised Food Assets
Get Well Soup is a game concept featuring two twin siblings chop-chop and noodle who own a soup shop on an island with magical healing properties.
The game is part restaurant mayhem and part 3D platformer with the option to play co-op with a friend.
The levels are packed with standard ingredients as well as one special ingredient at the end of the level that can be used to create a brand new type of soup (e.g. the volcano tomato).
Initial Research
Initial Research
Our finest selection of cultural appetizers from across the internet.
Potential Project Proposals
Fruity Kart ~Reprise~
Last year I pitched a kart-racing game featuring a cast of diverse LGBTQIA+ “fruity” characters I called “Fruity Kart”. After researching racing games and realising a lack of representation within the genre; I wanted to create this concept in order to represent a strong cast of queer and female characters. My pitch is to revisit that concept with a broader vision of what I want to create, possibly a playable game, as well as making use of new skills I have acquired throughout year 2.
Idea Strengths: continuation from last year’s project, strong political message, concept within my comfort zone, 2 years worth of my own assets I can use
Idea Weaknesses: by continuing my previous unit I am not being as creative
Idea Opportunities: learning new skills, positive representation of transgender and non-binary characters, creation of more cute assets/characters
Idea Threats: could recieve hateful feedback from certain communities, could run out of time, would have to fit in more time to learn new skills
Lamp Girl - PICO-8 Edition
Lamp girl is a character I created at the start of the course back in September 2021 after being inspired in a conversation I had with one of my close friends when we came up with the idea. My original concept was “a platform videogame featuring a small lamp child with a limited light source traversing large expansive levels”. Back at this point in time I was unable to fully realise this vision as I had not even started the course; my pitch would be to create the world of Lamp Girl using tools such as the PICO-8 and Aseprite.
Idea Strengths: very creative and ambitious concept with lots of potential for world-building
Idea Weaknesses: project may be too ambitious for me to pull off, I would not have support from my tutors for using tools outside of the course
Idea Opportunities: further developing my pixel art skills, learning how to code with lua, creating a narrative where I can choose to include a political message behind my game
Idea Threats: potential poor execution of concept, getting stuck
Feedback on idea - "I love this idea; you have a really strong concept for it and I'd love to see it developed. I'd also be really interested to see the process for a PICO-8 game and it would be rewarding to have a playable game by the end of the course. The only downside is this seems very complex and you would have to learn all the skills involved in game creation which may be restrictive considering the time limitations. It could be a good option to simply work on the concept side of everything, producing more pixel art and level planning, however I feel this is similar to work that you've already done." - Sam 2023
Get Well Soup!!
The idea for Get well soup came to me in another conversation with my friend pretty much exactly a year after lamp girl (spooky I know). Before this I already knew I wanted to create some sort of collect-a-thon 3D platformer and I had already created various noodle characters but I had not brought those ideas together until that point. For this project I would not create a game - instead I would model various assets that would appear throughout the game and assemble them in one huge island scene. I could also work with my friend Sam as part of a group project since one of his proposals was to make a messy kitchen scene.
Idea Strengths: an original idea within my comfort zone, plenty of potential to create cute assets, creating 3D models would be a good use of time and I would have plenty of time to refine and polish
Idea Weaknesses: little to no new skills will be learnt
Idea Opportunities: working with a friend, project could help to fully realise a future game
Idea Threats: it can be challenging to work with somebody else, less opportunities to insert a political message
Since I have been considering going through with centering my final major project around Lamp Girl I decided to expand my initial research through data collection with google forms and writing a short essay influenced from my conclusions.
I chose the question, "Are Pixel/8-bit game still fun?" because I felt like it was a relevant topic among my peers and the older generation of gamers such as our parents and tutors.
Furthermore I wanted to know how my project would be received by my class and friends as they would be my target audience for this.
Are Pixel Art games still fun_.docx
Interestingly most people reported that they found 8-bit games could be just as fun as modern ones which came as a surprise to me given how 8-bit games do not tend to fare as well in the market as their modern counterparts.
Summary
I particularly like all three of my ideas and it is hard for me to choose just one to execute as my final major project. I have a sense of desire to revisit Fruity Kart as it was my project last year and I believe I could do a much better job with the new set of skills I have learned to do it some more justice. However I also have a soft spot for Lamp Girl as she has been an important character to me throughout the course and she has evolved with it just as I have - furthermore if I was to produce something starring her it would encourage me to learn new skills working with the Pico-8.
There is one aspect unique to one of my three projects that I have wanted to try for a while though now and that is to work with a friend as part of a group project. I love the concept of "Get Well Soup!!" and I am not the only one; my friend Sam is also a big fan of this concept - one of his concepts was to do a messy kitchen scene and this could easily combine really well with "Get Well Soup!!" - I believe that by working together with him we could collaborate to create something amazing. This is why I am choosing to write my project proposal for "Get Well Soup!!"
Videogame Research
It Takes Two
Synopsis
It Takes Two is a revolutionary 2-player co-op game featuring fun puzzles, action-filled gameplay, and a developed storyline. The game was released on multiple platforms and was well received by a multitude of audiences. In fact it was awarded with "Game of the Year 2021" alongside other notable awards.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat
Synopsis
Overcooked! All You Can Eat is a stylised multiplayer-mayhem cooking simulator that's jam-packed with content since it features both the first two games along with their respective paid downloadable content.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch and in the Mario Kart franchise. The game is a follow-up to the original Mario Kart 8 game released on the Wii U featuring new characters, courses, brand new battle mode, and not to mention including all of Mario Kart 8's previous DLC.
The Kart racing game features an iconic cast of characters and locations from across the Mario franchise and beyond! The game is still getting updated to this day despite it being almost 10 years old!
Proposal Document
Proposal Document
A crispy aromatic non-shredded Duck-ument served with mixed ideas (vegetarian option available).
Rationale
I am most comfortable working with Maya for my Final Major Project since it is the software that I am most familiar with. I strongly want to incorporate a sense of world-building into my project and I believe that I am able to do this through using Maya to create a scene with various models. Furthermore, in addition to Maya I will use use other programs and resources such as Adobe Substance Painter and Photoshop to create and add textures to my models; Aseprite to create pixel art for some of my concepts; Google programs (e.g. Slides, Docs, and Forms) to build a narrative for my project as well as receive ongoing feedback from my peers.
As a result of working on this project I am hoping to develop my existing skills as well as learning new ones in order to prepare myself for a future career in the Game industry or to work as an independent developer creating and fleshing out further concepts for games.
Project Concept
“Get Well Soup!!” is a game concept featuring two twin siblings chop-chop and noodle who own a soup shop on an island with magical healing properties. The game is part restaurant mayhem and part 3D platformer with the option to play co-op with a friend. The levels are packed with standard ingredients as well as one special ingredient at the end of the level that can be used to create a brand new type of soup (e.g. the volcano tomato).
For my project I am planning to use Maya as well as other programs to create a large quantity of 3-dimensional assets that I can place into a new low-poly scene. Additionally a large part of my project will consist of world-building for my 3D environment, I would like to create some non-3D material to go alongside my project such as a potential narrative, some character designs, and experiment with other mediums to bring my world together such as pixel art. I believe that this will demonstrate my skills in fine art, storytelling, and character creation as well as 3D modeling, texturing, and UV mapping in Maya.
My plan is to upload my final scene which will be a low-poly island restaurant diorama onto sketchfab in order to gauge the attention of a potential audience for my game concept and possibly grow a larger following because of it.
Evaluation
To evaluate my project I will continue to conduct research throughout the process such as investigation into topics from the real world as well as video games that may be linked to my project such as non-western culture and how I can avoid cultural appropriation in my project and in future projects.
Some of the research I will conduct will be in the form of gathering data and feedback directly from my peers which I can use to help influence my project as I am creating it and write case studies on other video games and/or other media forms such as similar co-op video game titles (e.g. Overcooked, It Takes Two).
2023 FMP proposal document.pdfProposed Research Sources
Artstation
ArtStation - The Dwarven Cook's Essentials, Bryan van der Linden
ArtStation - Stylized sand texture, Marc Roger
ArtStation - Isle, Libor Popovič
Sketchfab
Noodle Bar - 3D model by Robin Lingmerth
The Kingdom of Cats | House - 3D model by leafturtle
Video Games
Discover It Takes Two, the Award-Winning Title from Hazelight – Electronic Arts.
Overcooked | Cooking Video Game | Team17
Mario Kart™ 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch™ – Official Site
YouTube
Project Pitch
Project Pitch
Steamed info dump-lings filled with juicy details.
For my Final Major Project I will be enlisting the help of and working together with my close friend Sam to create a Stylised Kitchen & Restaurant Scene complete with appropriate stylised food assets drawing inspiration from both Eastern and Western cultures.
Both Sam and I will be challenging ourselves by working on separate areas of the final scene. I will be responsible for creating organically shaped stylised food whilst Sam will create the interior our the restaurant including tables, chairs, and decorative items.
Problem
There is a distinct lack of material to give insight into my game concept, "Get Well Soup!!"
Vision
Until now I was planning on creating assets for a low-poly Island Scene, instead I have decided
Benefits
A broader insight into my game world and characters as well as tangible feedback from my friends, family, and other sketchfab users
Deliverables
A series of low-poly assets that correspond to the world I have in mind for my game concept
Success Criteria
Multiple food assets which fill a kitchen scene
Deadlines/Plan/Approach
Deadline: 12th of May 2023
Resources
Provided by Midkent College:
Maya, Mudbox, Photoshop, Substance Painter, Sketchfab, ArtStation
Project Planning
Project Planning
What more do we have satay? This item will put your appetite into gear (does not contain nuts).
Most planning for our project took place in private conversations and text messages between Sam and myself. The vast majority of this was not recorded as we were speaking as friends and we didn't see it as necessary to allocate our time out of what we had to specifically record our project planning.
In short we decided that:
I would work on food assets and variations
he would work on the restaurant interior and furniture
Project Management
Project Management
Our hopefully soon-to-be famous main dish and it's full of noodles!
Number of the Week
Date week beginning
Activity/what you intend to do - including independent study
Resources/what you will need to do - including access to resources
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
27 Feb
6 Mar
13 March
20th Mar
27 Mar
3 Apr
10 Apr
17 Apr
24 Apr
1 May
8th May
Context: Idea Generation
Proposal Document
Identifying potential research sources
In-depth analysis and discussion on key topics
Practical - silhouettes and thumbnails
Practical - Rough sketches/block models
Practical - Start final artwork
Practical - Get feedback / final artwork
Practical - Apply feedback / finish artwork
Evaluation
Evaluation
1 browser/research
2 docs/research
3 videogames/research/youtube
4 articles/reviews/youtube/slides/docs
5 photoshop/aseprite
6 photoshop/maya
7 photoshop/maya
8 photoshop/maya/forms
9 photoshop/maya/forms
10 docs/forms
11 docs/forms
Further Research
Further Research
Special fried rice-search with more mixed ideas.
Target Audience
As I am moving further along in this project I want to consider what target audience I am trying to grab the attention of. This is an important part of my project because audience is what effects the popularity and feedback you get from your project.
Throughout the project so far I have been uploading models from my coursework onto Sketchfab, a site for sharing 3D models online, and it has been a good source of receiving feedback from my class as well as other Sketchfab users. This has made me realise that Sketchfab is the perfect platform to share my final project with since I could use the feedback I gather from it to write my evaluation.
Additionally I will be seeking feedback from people my age, generation z, as well as my friends and family since these are the people that I would want for my hypothetical game to appeal to so their feedback will be especially valuable to me.
Generation z are a particularly technological generation as they have grown up with videogames and the internet but compared to other generations such as millennials they do not tend to possess much of an income so it can be difficult for them to afford games let-alone expensive hardware which can run them. For this reason I believe it would be better for my project to be able to run be rendered on low-end PCs and mobile devices.
My choice to showcase my final works on SketchFab also comes part in parcel with the new knowledge that the gaming industry behemoth - Epic Games - have purchased the brand and will be expanding it. I have good faith that SketchFab is going places and I want to be there for that which is why I want to contribute my efforts into the platform.
It’s a major augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D content move in a time when gaming and productivity are increasingly moving towards three-dimensional spaces. That includes both games played on tw0-dimensional screens as well as games and experiences enabled in virtual and augmented reality glasses or headsets. All of these have a ravenous hunger for 3D objects to place in environments and gameplay, and Sketchfab is arguably the world’s largest repository and marketplace for AR and VR content. (Koetsier, 2021)
Production Log
Production Log
Our finest selection of cultural appetisers from across the internet.
Skill Development
Dabloon Coin
We made these coins in class as part of a tutorial to engrave our own 2D designs from photoshop onto our models from our professor, Ben!
Once we came up with our designs - I chose to depict cat paws using ancient magic - we exported them as a PNG.
With our PNGs we overlaid them on top of our blank coins as a stencil and sculpted the coin in order to engrave our design into them.
This resulted in a very high-poly model which we then had to reduce as it had a lot of unnecessary faces which could easily crash a game it was put into. We then were able to add more detail through substance painter.
Strawberry Cake
I made this strawberry birthday cake as a bit of practice to get back into modelling after not doing it for a while.
I took inspiration from Princess Peach's birthday cake from Mario Party hence the mass of pink icing, strawberries, and whipped cream.
Originally I was going to upload this model with the candles blown-out/unlit but as I was tinkering with the 3D settings I realised that I could add flames to the candles and use various settings in sketchfab to add a lighting effect to them.
Toon Sushi
I had a lot of fun modelling this toon sushi, it was relatively simple to make as well since I could just duplicate what I already had and make a slightly different variant of it.
To get the final effect I followed this tutorial for Creating a Cartoon Outline for Sketchfab.
It was very difficult to do this since I had to overlay another model over the top of my existing one and render its geometry from one side.
Overall I am very happy with the finished product and I may create more toon stylized models in the future!
Final Deliverables
Final Deliverables
Colourful and sweet 3D cakes served with additional screenshots.
Surprise! It's a Birthday Buffet!
Behold a stylised birthday buffet! This is how I chose to showcase my own assets because I felt like it would be important for my work to stand comfortably on its own in a different context without relying on Sam's side of the project to ensure my work's popularity.
I realised that my food assets that I already had, despite being modelled with a restaurant in mind, were very birthday-esque and that made me start to think what it might be like to present my models together as part of a piece for one lucky birthday-haver. Sam just so happened to have his upcoming 18th birthday to be taking place in the final week of our project so this scene is also dedicated to him and an acknowledgement of the fact he had to work hard on his special day.
There are two versions of this scene the one above with lighting and shadows and the one below which is shadeless and uses more pastel colours. I like this version of the project because the objects appear more tangible and like they could actually exist as part of a game.
Toon Version!
The creation of this toon version of the birthday buffet was the ultimate challenge for me to face. Up until this point implementing the cartoon outline had been an extremely difficult and gruesome task but I knew that if I could pull it off I would have achieved something great for my project and pushed one of the limits to my creative ability.
Despite the creative challenge I was a lot more capable of completing this feat than when I first started out experimenting with cartoon shading at the start of the project. For instance, I had made the discovery that I could reverse the outer faces of my geometry directly after I had made the extrusion without having to select them all manually; things like this paired with the "isolate selection" tool - which Sam had shown me how to use - greatly saved time for me and prevented various issues that I had already dealt with from reappearing. Essentially meaning I experienced less issues and those that I did experience were much quicker to fix.
In retrospect I am glad that I created the toon version and was surprised how popular it was among us (my friends). As well as the outline effect I took some other creative decisions such as using more pastel colours which still had a certain amount of pop to them. I am particularly fond of this version since it reminds me of a comic book but it is so cool how you can move it around and see that it is in fact a 3D image.
Collaboration w/ Sam
This is the result of our collaboration! A stylised restaurant filled with tasty stylised food. This scene tells several intertwining stories about the people working in and eating at the restaurant.
Once Sam had uploaded his empty restaurant scene onto sketchfab he sent me a copy of the maya file (guess that means I didn't have to pay teehee!) I got to work combining and re-sizing our assets together which took a surprisingly long amount of time but I still had a lot of fun doing it.
The version above was uploaded onto Sam's profile as an undownloadable scene.
Keeping it stylised
Sam's Original Furniture
When Sam and I were working together we quickly realised that our styles of modelling were inherently different and that we would have to settle on a process which kept our models looking in place with each other.
Since Sam was used to creating more realistic-looking assets that's what he defaulted to at the start of our project. This did not fit in with our initial pitch of making our project stylised so I recommended ways that he could make his work look more stylised.
For example I suggested that he could make his models look more cute by using abstract rough geometry and exaggerating the features left by thickening and amplifying them. I also encouraged him to look at examples of stylised furniture on ArtStation and Sketchfab so that he could see what worked and what didn't hands on.
This resulted in an amazing end product of cute stylised furniture that I absolutely adore. Sam said he appreciated my advise and was really pleased with the final look.
New Stylised Furniture
This is a newer version of the project that I uploaded onto Sketchfab after fixing several issues and adding new colours and lighting effects
Problem solving
Some examples of the issues solved were:
- saturating some of the washed out colours
- merging appropriate materials (e.g. olive/nori)
- fixing an issue where several glasses were floating off of the table
- differentiating merged materials
- adding emission to the candles and heat lamps so they would glow
Old Restaurant
New Restaurant
Shenanigans with merged materials
Merged materials were a particular problem for us since together our scenes had well over 100+ materials which exceeded the sketchfab limit. We initially fixed this by changing the material to one colour which could work in concept for the scene - for example the oven door, hood, and door had all merged so Sam half-fixed the issue by choosing a brown colour which could work for all three of them.
We were lucky enough to be left with extra time after finishing our practical work so we went back into the maya file and coordinatied which materials could be cut out and/or merged with others. Both Sam and I were working together on this at the exact same time with him refering to the model on sketchfab and me altering the materials through the inspection menu.
Merged
Non-merged
Adding emission and lighting effects to the cake was a definate glow-up (haha get it?) which in my eyes brought our project a step up. When we were comparing the screenshots we were very happy with the changes.
Added effects
No effects
Evaluation
Evaluation
This Dessert will truly summarise your experience.
Sam's work
My work
How does it meet the brief?
My original aim for my final major project was to create a low-poly island scene for my game world to take shape similar to my final project - Butterfly Circuit - from last year. Instead I decided to uptake the more challenging approach of modelling food assets for my game which up until this point was something that I had only attempted once a few months before the project with my low-poly cupcake which I consider to be one of my more underrated models.
Once I had decided that I wanted to focus on stylised food I realised I would need a way to present my projects and this resulted in the creation of the birthday buffet scene; I felt like it would be important for my work to stand comfortably on its own in a different context without relying on Sam's side of the project to ensure my work's popularity.
The final result met my original plan because not only did Sam and I get to work together on our project but also we were able to present our work independently from one another and this is something we valued as important since we knew that we wouldn't be having to wait for each other on things
Feedback & Game testing
Feedback from my peers
Sky - "I don't even like sushi, but this sushi is really making me consider my life choices. I absolutely love how everything is arranged, the colour, the aesthetc and everything else works extremely well together to create a well-thought out model. Amazing job!"
I love Sky's positive feedback and I am thrilled that she has noticed and pointed out the colours and aesthetic that I incorporated into my project. With the sushi I especially wanted to capture the ornate and artistic presentation of the food while still giving it a stylised and "cartoony" feel which I believe I have achieved.
Sam - "super cool!! I really love that you've experimented with the toon shaders and I feel like it is very effective. You have a great range of items, all with a consistent style. I love the whole concept of a food asset back and it's turned out great!"
For me experimenting with toon shading has been one of the most difficult aspects of the practical side to my project but am so glad that I gave it a shot and got to learn new things.
Cat - "tis pretty good"
Thanks Cat :>
Jamie C. - "A lot of the food has a nice level of organic placement to it, such as the icing being uneven or pizzas not being perfectly symmetrical. other details such as party hats also give a nice bit of context to the scene. while the low poly aesthetic does work well here, some round surfaces have clear edges such as inside the party hats or the edge of the cake"
I'm glad that Jamie, as a fellow games' design student, has noticed the purposeful asymmetry I incorporated into my project in order to create a sense of organic placement. It was also very fun and easy relative to the rest of my project to add the additional little extra details such as the confetti and party hats to make the scene feel more celebratory.
The data
Overall it is clear that my project has been well received by my peers, probably because it looks so tasty!!
For a fun little bit of data collection I asked my friends via google forms which items looked the most appetising from the scene and humourlessly included "the table" and an option for "other". Since my friends also share the same (arguably broken) sense of humour as I do; my data appears to convey that the table alongside the birthday cake are my most appetising items among my assets.
This however- the table being rated as the most appetising item - is an anomaly since I have confirmation and good reason to believe that my friends do not actually experience a desire to eat or partake in the consumption of tables, despite what they might say.
Which is better, toon or stylised?
[] Toon / [] Stylised
After some time had passed I got some more data for my summary and I'm now very glad that my birthday cake has overtaken the table. It is a little disappointing that the onigiri and ramen haven't gotten a single vote, this could possibly be because the groups I have gathered data from are members of my class and friends that have not had the oppurtunity to try these foods before.
"jellly filled doughnuts" is also a joke which I am considering to be an anomaly referencing a scene in the American dub of the Pokémon anime where they refer to onigiri as "[jelly filled] doughnuts" to appeal to Western kids. This is also regarded as a well-known and hilarious example of cultural appropriation which is why it is still jokingly referenced by people up to this
Professionalism
Learning from my previous project
My project last year involved modelling many non-organic assets and this resulted in me seeking perfectionism within my geometry. I stuck to exact and precise measurements as well as keeping them symmetrical which is not actually a good quality in 3D models as geometry in the real world is not exact, everything has natural imperfections which our eyes are used to seeing.
This was particularly important for me to consider for this year's project since I was modelling organic geometry which has considerably more imperfections, especially in stylised assets where they can be exaggerated.
I used quad modelling which keeps the topology clean ald allows other artists to edit it if they were to buy this work. Triangles and n-gnons (5+sided shape) do not allow edge loops through them. So I made sure to keep to 4.
Stylisation:
I always been a stylisation student - as reaffirmed earlier by my tutor, Ben. This year I took a deep delve into what makes stylised objects cute so that I could further develop my understanding and implementation of stylisation in my models. I found that other people as well as myself perceive stylised artwork as super cute and this is likely because the exaggerated features of stylised objects have similar proportions compared to their real world influences as babies do to adult humans (essentially saying that my stylised cupcakes are the equivalent of a giant baby cupcake) and this somehow registers in our brains as cuteness.
Collaboration with Sam
Sam has been amazing to work with all throughout the project and I have greatly appreciated having him with me to evaluate my work and plan our collaborative scene together. Initially we were both going to work on the restaurant with him creating the interior and I creating the exterior, however ultimately we decided it would be better for us to work on and assemble one scene which could be split into two so that we could receive feedback both separately and together; this is why I created a variety of food assets since they could be used to populate Sam's scene and also to create a scene of my own to showcase all of the assets individually.
Applying my new Stylisation Philosophy
After learning more about stylisation and discovering what I personally liked about it I revisited some of my old models (which granted at the time I had already modelled with stylisation in mind) to apply what I had learned.
The significant difference between realism and stylized is that with realism you are restricted to making things look ‘real’ while enhancing their visual language. With stylized you are free to play with the shapes and colors, exaggerate or remove details to enhance the look and feel in any direction. Doing so with realism would break the illusion of reality as it wouldn’t be viewed as what we perceive to be as ‘realistic’, it would not belong in our world. (Kim Aava, 2019)
Two models that particularly benefitted from this were my old cupcake and pizza which before were missing an important feature being the exaggeration in size of their key features (e.g. sprinkles, pizza toppings) which I solved by extruding the existing faces in order to create a thicker appearance for example making the sprinkles on my cupcake look closer to looking like "jellybeans" as described by Sam.
I realised that initially I was trying too hard to maintain a sense of realism with my modelsthat had long been thrown out of the window. By making elements of my designs comparable to their real world counterparts I was breaking apart the full picture. It wasn't until I fully embraced the wacky and exaggerated nature of what makes a stylised piece that I truly liked my models.
New Stylised Cupcake
New Stylised Pizza
Original Cupcake
Original Pizza
Comparing my work to the professionals'
Before and after the creation of my assets I looked at examples of popular models made by highly-skilled professionals relevant to my project.
I was inspired by the artwork above which was modelled and "handpainted" by Gustavo Banck. This particular scene has been awarded with the "Staff picked" badge which has added it into a library of high quality professional models from across the site.
This is an example of work that I would consider to be the next level up from what I consider to be my current ability.
My toon work
Issues
Practical Technicalities
Throughout my project I came across countless practical and troubleshooting issues which I either had to live with or fix.
By far the biggest issues arose when I tried to incorporate cartoon outlines (toon shading) to my work as this was a very difficult process which involved operations within Maya and Sketchfab which I had never used before which included but were not limited to:
reversing and flipping the normals of extruded geometry in Maya which resulted in several mishaps such as geometry phasing into itself and vertices jutting out into an endless void resulting in a very weird looking model
outlines appearing within geometry where they were not visible
undesired outlines being made from extrusions of combined geometry which manifested where they were not needed (this was a particular problem with my soda bottles that I had modelled last year and were made up from three separate objects since at the time this was the easiest method for me to create them)
Cultural Appropriation vs Appreciation
As well as troubleshooting and practical issues there was also the overbearing issue of cultural appropriation. The world of Get Well Soup is heavily inspired by Japanese and South-East Asian culture; as I am someone who is not related to these cultures entirely the possibility of me misrepresenting or appropriating these cultures is highly possible and something that I should be responsible for making a conscious effort to actively avoid. My hope is that my inspiration and appreciation for culture has resulted in a project that accurately represents authentic Japanese cuisine whilst still adding my own spin through my stylisation and interpretation of the art without removing or appropriating anything culturally significant as a result of my own ignorance.
Successes
Several things that I would commend myself on for my project would be:
stylisation of my assets
incorporating toon shading
overall presentation of my work
multiple 3D scenes featuring my work which can be viewed on any device via sketchfab
the collaboration with Sam
My project seems to be performing well on sketchfab just as last year's did which I am very pleased about, it's hard to say whether it will surpass the popularity of Butterfly Circuit but I do think that it has the potential.
Progress & Learning
I have learnt how to and developed my skills in:
stylisation of 3D objects
creating a cartoon outline effect by extruding and flipping normals of a 3D object
marketing myself on sketchfab
If I revisited this project I would want to further establish my game world of Get Well Soup, I am pleased with how my cartoony food assets turned out and this is something that I would want to further explore in a development of this project, particularly the stylisation and toon effect. Perhaps if I were to work on this some more I would have a go at creating my own characters and interpretation of the environments (similar to Sam's kitchen scene) they interact with.
Self Grading
Research/Planning
I am so glad that I went through with this project in the end. It took me some convincing from Sam as I was certainly leaning towards the development of Lamp Girl but given the time restraints and write up required for the Final Major Project I believe that going through with planning this project with Sam was the least stressful and best possible scenario for us to secure a distinction grade.
Product
Our final scene is stunning; Sam and I are both so pleased with the final result, particularly how well our assets have come together without seeming out of place; I attribute this to the fact that we both worked so closely together and were repeatedly and constantly reviewing each other's work whilst making a conscious effort to try and keep up to the same standard from the other's work such as incorporating the same stylisation philosophy.
Evaluation
It's been enjoyable for me reflecting upon this project and all of the things leading up towards it, from my initial mind maps all the way to seeing Sam upload our final collaborative scene on sketchfab. After thorough evaluation on both mine and Sam's work I would like to say that we are both worthy of a distinction grade.
Bibliography
Stephenson, C. (2023). Hogwarts Legacy Becomes Steam and PS5’s Best-Selling Game Weeks Before Release. [online] CBR. Available at: https://www.cbr.com/hogwarts-legacy-best-selling-game-steam-ps5/#:~:text=Hogwarts%20Legacy%20climbed%20the%20best
Koetsier, J. (2021). Fueling The Metaverse: Epic Games Buys Biggest 3D Model Platform Sketchfab. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2021/07/21/fueling-the-metaverse-epic-games-buys-biggest-3d-model-platform-sketchfab/
Kim Aava (2019). Realistic vs. Stylized: Technique Overview. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/realistic-vs-stylized-technique-overview/.
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