Spearhead - Sprint 2

For this sprint I was really proud of myself because I was able to complete over 25 cards, one of the highest numbers on my whole team! I feel that in the past I haven't been particularly notable for the amount of points I complete or how fast I work, so I feel like this is a mark of improvement for myself. My whole team has been working hard, and for the most part I've been working on creating models for the ruins and scaffolding.

The first models I worked on for this sprint were the roof edges, corners, and blanks. These pieces work together to form the tops of buildings with flat roofs. For the edges and corners, I wanted something tile-able that had a decent amount of detail and gave the appearance of structural support and stability, while maintaining a lower poly count. What I came up with was a mostly flat, multi-ridged block of material that had built-in support features carved in. This way, the majority of the object was easy to line up for modular use, and I could still put in some extra detail for the supports to make it look a little more interesting and complex.

For the roof blanks, it was super simple as I only needed to model the top and bottom faces. My designer wanted to have some interior ceiling extrusions to add some more detail, but that was easy to add into the mesh with some simple beveled surfaces. The top face is just a simple plane since the player won't really be needing to see much of it.

Once I was done with those roof pieces, I went on to make the more dilapidated variants of the ruin walls. I found a couple of reference images that I thought had interesting formation, and used those to make two progressively decaying walls. The first one was more simple, being a similar style to the first wall I made just with a slightly more complex shape. The second was a little more challenging, as I wanted it to look like the wall was wearing away to reveal the layers of its construction. I built with three separate layers in mind, which I think gave it a really cool added depth and interest. I also added a hole to one of the walls to make it more interesting on top of the usual chips and deformation.

After those, I went to work on the domed roof pieces. These were easy for the most part, I just had to make a corner piece and a straight piece of an ovular shaped dome in two different sizes. I based my design of the dome off of the cupola del duomo in Florence, Italy. I've always loved this building since I first played Assassin's Creed 2 as a kid and I was lucky enough to see it in person last year! I took the design as inspiration and built my dome with a supportive flat base to better fit my previously made roof edges. I then added a modified half-sphere and extruded some of its faces to create a bracing around the outside. I think it turned out pretty good and am happy with the result, especially for how low poly it is.

The last set of models I finished this sprint was the scaffolding. I created vertical panels, horizontal bridges supported by wooden poles, and overhangs. For the panels, I used a basic wooden pallet as reference as to where to place supports and how the planks sat across. I then distorted the planks to give it a more worn and varied look. After making the whole panel, I then removed planks and broke pieces off to create more worn and broken variants. I utilized these same pieces to make the bridges, though moved planks around and broke different areas to add variety. I then added some simple beveled supports. Lastly, I cut the bridges in half to create the walkable portion of the overhang and moved things around again for more unique pieces. Then, I added some simple supports that can be used to attach to scaffolding or to the side of buildings.

I got a ton of work done this sprint, and am continuing to work on more models as I type this! I look forward to continuing and can't wait to see where the game goes from here.