The high poly modeling process requires the addition of supporting edges so that the model can be smoothed to give the distinct form and a high end cinematic appearance.

The first stage of the process is to build the model from reference imagery, in this case I was fortunate enough to be able to accurately reference against an existing plan, front and side elevation alongside guided tuition to create the advanced bodywork and machined parts that make up the form of the drone. It was a key requirement that we really explored the process the ‘AAA way’ and as a result this elongates the art pipeline by requiring two versions of the model to be prepared: the original which is a high poly smoothed version, and a second version which has a low enough poly count to be optimised for realtime rendering, with a high level of detailing baked into the object. The Drone Project was manifested to hands on learn the AAA game art pipeline for hard surface modeling from Autodesk Maya into Unreal Engine 4.26, carried out over a 6 week period with expert tuition from CG Spectrum 3D modeling mentor and veteran game artist Clinton Crumpler.

Material id marmoset toolbag