The Grand Project - Entry 1

Today I began working on my 'Grand project.' This project is inspired by the Yakuza franchise. For this I am specifically recreating a cabaret club called 'The Grand' from 'Yakuza 0.' This club is run by one of the main protagonists, Goro Majima. The club is full of glitz and glamour and will enable me to enhance my skills at indoor environment scenes as well as lighting and new methods of texturing.

This is a project I started last month and due to being busy with things in life, I have only just returned to continue it. I have a large mood board filled to the brim of reference images that I took in the game itself to get much more accurate idea of how to create the scene.

Figure 1 - Mood board for reference images

I have recently given myself a rota to help organise myself and manage my 3D work accordingly, whilst still working my job, working personal life and also some well deserved downtime.

The overall goal of this project is to create a high resolution version of the scene with higher quality textures and lighting. Even when you walk around the scene you will be able to see the textures clear when close up. I want to do this since the game is optimised and the resolution drops when getting close to objects and textures. This area in the game I love, and I want the ability to create it in my own way, whilst still retaining the charm it has within the game.

Since I was continuing this project, I decided to pick up where I left off. I am currently in the block out stage and am structuring the scene together. I have put together some basic shapes and structures of the front stage and the entrance to the club followed by the sign that is on the main stage.

Here are screenshots of my current progress of this building:

Figure 2 - Centre Stage and chairs

Figure 3 - Entrance to the club with reference for guidance

The stage sign I have been putting more detail into the block out so far since I want to begin placing some parts as I go along into Unreal Engine to test some textures and place the block out in the engine to get a better feel for what I am going to achieve. I will continue to do this with other elements of the project, however here, I want to test some lighting and set up a scene to apply emissive shaders to the sign. 

The sign is still being blocked out, but is more accurate and detailed compared to the rest of the scene, even though it still needs tweaking and proper topology and adjustments, it is sufficient for the time being and will be worked on later such as the way the letters look.

Figure 4 - The Grand Stage sign block out 

My next step will be to add highlights to the rest of the letters of the word 'Grand' as you can see I have applied it to the G already. This will act as an extra colour for the letter based off of my references.

Figure 5 - References for the stage sign

Once the sign is set up, I will continue on the front of the stage and entrance sections, as well as beginning to plan out upper levels and the centre section of the club which contains a seating section and rows to walk down. I will also set up a scene in Unreal that will allow me to test out my models with shaders and begin adjusting lighting to suit the tone of the club. This will be tricky top do prior to having a block out of the interior, so I may have to wait a while before I can begin this. Lighting will come before I texture so I have a general idea.

To Do List:

• Continue front of stage
• Continue entrance
• Set up an Unreal scene
• Lighting and colour for the stage sign in Unreal (test solid colours)
• Plan the upper and centre section to expand from the entrance and stage (Will take a prolonged period of time to complete)