Tower Micro Scene

 

For this assignment we were assigned to create a base tower with 3 toppers. We created a high poly version of the model, and a low poly version as well. From there we learned how to use baked lighting in Painter, as well as how to use LOD in Unity.

For my scene, I decided to riff of the tower from the Studio Ghibli movie, The Cat Returns. This  tower, in the movie, is the exit from the Cat Kingdom, where the main protagonist Haru must exit through to get back to the human world and turn back into a human. Surrounding the base of the tower is a maze, which the characters must get through in order to get to the tower. One of my towers is a replication of that same tower shown in the movie, with a few adjustments to fit within the 1x1x2 space I have. For my other two toppers, I decided to make 2 different cat towers, as the original seems to be based off of a simple cat tower as well. Each tower is adjusted to fit within the 1x1x2 space, and are scaled so they fit on top of the base well.

One is a cat bed atop a post with hanging yarn ball toys, and the other is a cat head shaped bed on a basic cat tower. My props include a top hat and cane, which is a reference to one of the characters in the movie, Baron. I also have a basic ball of yarn, as well as a few maze pieces to construct the maze that surrounds the replica tower.

For LODs, two models are created at different poly counts so that it is easier to render them in real time in games. For example, these towers would be best suited for a game that requires multiples of towers like these, and zooms in and out a lot.  In a mobile environment, these would be good towers for a collection game, like Neko Atsume (if it was 3D) or Dragonvale (again, if it was 3D). LOD models would work especially well for games like Dragonvale, where you can zoom in and out of your area.

Painter view of tower base + toppers.

To texture these, I used Substance Painter. I used multiple stone/rock, fabric, fur, and rope materials to texture my pieces. Since we were learning how to use baked lighting, I used a baked lighting filter on top of the pieces, and adjusted the light to mock the lighting in the scene in the movie where she exits out of the top of the tower. To export, I just used the base color map and imported that into Unity. 

For Unity, I exported all of my models individually and imported them to Unity. I then used a material, with the base colors applied to it, to apply the texture to the models. Once that was done, I used the LOD tool and added my high and low poly models to two different LOD depths. My high went on LOD 0, and my low went on LOD 1. I then used Terrain Tools to add a terrain for my towers. I decided to go with a dirt and grass terrain, as it was heavily inspired by the movie and the Cat Kingdom, which is covered in grass (and cat tails, naturally!)

I definitely struggled with this project a little. My biggest problem was with modeling, however texturing and Unity went extremely smoothly. After my last assignment, I learned a lot about the programs and this assignment was much easier. As for modeling, I struggled with the tri count and creating a low poly version of some of the pieces, especially the ones made from spheres. I did find a good solution which was to delete a few edges that wouldn't be seen, and applied that to my pieces.

Base + Topper Base Color Map

Prop Base Color Map