Somnus | jaewookim

Somnus - 2016 (E3 Finalist)

Summary

Somnus is a student project made by game students at DigiPen Institute of Technology. Our team includes students working towards degrees in computer science, digital arts, sound design, and game design.

In Somnus you play Melanie, a young shutterbug who wakes up in the middle of the night to find her two favorite stuffed animals have ventured into a mysterious dreamscape in her wardrobe. As Melanie you must help your stuffed companions make their way through the world using your magical camera to solve unique perspective illusions.

Art Design Process(Artdirector, Lighting, Texturing, Concept)

We had a game design that utilizes perspective illusions to manipulate the environment.

Since the game machanic uses perspective illusion to solve the puzzles, I thought it would be nice to have a wonder land inspired world to support the game Idea.

Urgent things to figure out :

1. I had to figure out how to make perspective illusion in UE4.

2. Defining what makes something wonderland feeling.

3. Concept & Theme of the Game.

What I Figured out :

1. Our perspective illusion puzzle heavily depends on where players are standing and what POV the charater has, so we determined where player will be at when they solve the puzzle and what angle they have to look at the image to solve the puzzle. I placed the camera where the player will be at and take a screen shot of the puzzle area. I imported the camera and images in Maya to tweak the scene and I exported those assets (including camera) to Mudbox to create a illusion puzzle.

2. For the project, I've researched about weird and strange objects to make this world feel like wonderland. I had to answer questions like 'Why do people think these things are strange'.

I found that, for example, a mushroom size is usually very small, but if it gets much larger, it becomes fantastical. So, our perception of some objects are already carved in our brain, but if it goes outside of what we consider 'normal', it becomes fantasy.

3. Without defining theme in the level, it is difficult to come up with concept ideas. So, we decided on two level themes, a fantasy garden with glowing plants and giant mushrooms, and a waterfall with sea creatures and level elements trapped in bubbles.

First(Concept art)

I have drawn concept art to give visual direction to the game.

Concept art

Click images below to see large image

Second(Modeling & Texturing)

We created base objects to see how it looks in game.

We tried to keep them modular to use them throughout the game.

We would share texture sheets between models to help with engine performance.

Leaf Texture

Plane cards

Some assets that are created in early stage

Plan cards + Alpha

Plan cards + Alpha + Diffuse

More assets

Third(Lighting, Postprocess & Placement of Objects)

Base setup

Early stage:

I made base terrain shapes and forms based on level design and created 3 different terrain textures that blend into each other. I placed bushes, walls and rocks in a way that can guide player where they have to go.

I utilized a lot of arch shapes to give players a clear idea of where they need to go.

To hide the area where terrain and objects intersect, I placed grass and other props.

End stage:

I wanted the environment to feel more alive, so I put flowers on

specific meshes in a way that they would subtlety look like eyes.

PostProcess

Early stage:

I disabled the 'eye adaption' fuction to not get distracted when I am experimenting with lights.

I also set 'bloom' to 0 for the same purpose.

End stage:

1. I turned on Bloom and adjust different amounts depending on location.

2. I adjusted 'Color correction' to make the area feel more to theme of the level.