Building Alliance - Week 10:

In this blog we will be looking at using unreal engine and the basics of using it such as moving around and importing 3D models.

Basic Controls:

- WASD keys to move around the space 
- Hold right click to control where the camera moves 
- Click the play button in the bar above the screen 
- Escape button to close the play section

Shift 7 edit mode
Shift 1 to go back to select mode

Ctrl Click will allow more than one vertex to be selected at one time




Ctrl + C & Ctrl + V copy and pastes objects that are selected 

or

Ctrl + D Duplicates the objects 

When putting materials onto a model in unreal engine if you only select one face you need to make sure to click the button that says 'Select all adjacent surfaces' before you add the materials to the model.


When adding different items to a scene make sure that the scene isn't running as it wont let you add geometry into the scene if it is running.


When adding lights you can change the colour and intensity and other options to be able to modify the light that you require. 

You can also make the lights turn on and off when a character clicks a switch or walks into a certain area.

The nodes are used to create textures and are able to be used to edit different settings. 

In Maya to make sure that the model that you create is the right scale when you import into Unreal Engine you need to change the grid scale by going to Display > Grid > Grid Settings > 1000 x 1000 x 5

Working on cel-shading:

With the look we were aiming for with our game we were looking at whether we wanted to use cel-shading for our game or just an outline for our models. I offered to work on it as I already had experience with working in Unreal Engine so I thought I would be able to create it quicker as the others were just learning the basics of Unreal Engine. I decided to follow a tutorial to be able to make the cel-shaded look as I hadn't made a material like that for a while.

How To Create Cel-Shading In Unreal Engine 4/5 (Tutorial), 2022. [Youtube] Matt Aspland, 17 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwZH4jCO4ZM [Accessed: 28 November 2024].


I was able to get it to look how I wanted with the example image of what the shader would look like however when I was looking at it through the actual workspace I couldn't get it to work properly as it was making the sky black however the block that I was testing it on worked. I decided that I would try again when next in class so that I could work out how to fix the sky going black.


To be able to make the shader I needed to use a Post Process Volume which I hadn't used before so I had to replay the tutorial a few times to understand what it was used for and why I needed to use it when I wanted the shader to always be visible instead of only being able to see the shader on the block when the player / camera was inside the Post Process Volume.