This first entry will be a summary of what we did as a team during the pre-production last semester.
First of all, here is the final product of the semester, we had to make a trailer for our game:
Since I am the character modeler of the team, I was in charge of making concepts and early versions of the models. I first started by doing explorations:
I was mainly trying to get a good idea on the artistic direction:
I then started blocking out the doll's base mesh:
I then had to start working on the Creator's head so the animators could start working. I worked from a base mesh with good topology and modified it to get the disgusting Creator that we love to hate:
I hand sculpted the eyes and made sure the pupil was riggable. I textured everything myself.
I then only retopologized the doll's arms and put simple textures on them because we were running out of time by the end of the semester:
And I also started learning the logic behind hair cards with the help of my mentor.
By the end of the semester, we were really proud of our teamwork and what we had to show to everyone.
We are excited for what was coming next!
End of Entry 1.
Welcome to the second entry. This week was BUSY. Since I’m at the beginning of the pipeline, I had a lot to do so my teammates could have assets to start working with.
I had to quickly model the Creator’s arm so the rig artist could rig it, the animators could animate it, and the programmer could implement it in-game:
I also had to complete the retopology of the arm during the same week to make it usable in the pipeline.
After finishing the arm, I moved on to reworking the doll’s base model high poly:
I then fully did the retopology of the doll. I had to rework the arms since they were too high in polycount. I managed to bring the character down to around 16,000 polygons, which is a decent result.
This was quite an intense workload in such a short amount of time, but with the support of the rig artist, the retopology process went smoothly.
End of Entry 2.
Welcome to the third entry. This week was also very busy. I spent a lot of time in meetings trying to clarify things. I did some more concepts, but they were not fitting the vibes we were looking for:
I had to do a lot of exploration to find the right one. We eventually ended up with this design:
We loved the cage crinoline and the rough handmade feel of the dress. We wanted to make sure she still looked newer compared to the other broken dolls in the environment, but we also wanted her to feel like she was made by the Creator — so she couldn’t look brand new.
After being done with the concepts, the animators asked me if I could make a blocking of the crinoline with a cloth piece so they could use it in their animation. This was a bit challenging because I had to make something close enough to the final result while still learning Marvelous Designer.
I watched a few hours of tutorials on Marvelous Designer to understand the basics. It was complicated, but fun. I managed to model the doll’s bloomer and skirt:
I then had to model the crinoline and make sure the topology was workable, without spending too many hours on it since people were waiting after me.
Unfortunetly, on friday my electricity went out and i hadn't saved in a while... I ended up losing a few hours of work and wasn't able to work for a few hours. I lost a bunch of time and process and had to get back to work asap (while being extremely salty).
I did learn efficient ways to save polygons in the process. I learned that i could use alphas with transparency to do smaller details, isntead of modeling them and raising the polycount for nothing.
After being done with all of that, I also had to learn HTML to make my own website to document my production process. That was horribly hard and time-consuming — my brain is not made for coding, which is why I studied in the art field… Anyway, it was actually pretty fun (if we ignore all the times it didn’t work), and I ended up being pretty satisfied with the result!
End of Entry 3.
This week was a lot slower. The rush of doing everything at a base level so the others could work was over. Now I needed to take the time to learn Marvelous Designer.
This week was also harder on my mental. It was overwhelming to work on anything because there was so much to do, and I had trouble pinpointing what was most urgent. To help me, I did a Trello board.
I’ve done a few in the past when I was feeling overwhelmed and needed a guideline with weekly objectives, and it helped me a lot. Hopefully this time it is useful to me again! Basically, I put all the tasks I have to do by subject and put them into checklists. It helps me visualize all my goals, but it also explicitly shows me everything I’ve accomplished in the past weeks. It helps me put into perspective all the work I’ve done when I’m feeling down, and it helps me stay motivated in hard times.
This week I tried to be gentler on myself, because when I get into these anxious states, I lowkey enter a vicious cycle where I don’t work because I’m anxious, but I feel horrible about not working, which makes me more anxious. In times like these, I try to take it slower, one thing at a time. Doing the easiest tasks first and slowly getting back to a flow state where I can work normally again.
It’s kind of ironic, because the best way to make me work is the fear of disappointing my teammates more than my fear of learning new stuff. I’ve been known for my performance anxiety, and it’s something I’m still working on.
Anyway, enough about my pity party. This week I watched A LOT of YouTube tutorials on Marvelous Designer. I think in total I’ve watched over 10 hours of content. I saved the most interesting ones that would help me during production.
I got scared to try them in the software, but that will be my goal for next week. They were really interesting and I’m excited to try. I’m just terrified of failing miserably… but that’s highkey just in my head, and even if I flop, it’s truly not that serious and I can just start over. Falling is part of the learning journey, and that has always been something I’ve had trouble with.
I’ve also done my bake tests on the doll and the Creator’s arm. I encountered some minor baking issues that were easily fixable, like this:
In this image, you can see that the UV sheet exploded. That is because in Maya, the model had many UV sets and Substance did not know which one to use. The fix was easy: I just had to go back to Maya and delete every UV set that was useless and/or problematic. I rebaked everything and the issue was fixed.
I will rework the legs a bit to get them closer to the concept, but that will be for later.
The other problem I encountered was with the Creator’s arm:
The issue was that the high poly wasn’t aligned with the latest version of the arm. That was a simple fix: I just had to align it in Maya and re-export it.
The bake turned out perfect except for one artifact. In the UV sheet, the top of the shoulder goes outside the UV box. The fix is super simple: I just have to scale it down in Maya and re-export the low poly.
Also this week, Momo informed the team that he might need help with the programming part. Since he’s our only programmer and is also a full-time student, the workload was too intense on him. I contacted Luna, a super cool programmer I met at Ubisoft Game Lab last year. I felt like I vibed with her, and the project seemed like something she would enjoy working on.
She doesn’t have experience with Unreal and is also a full-time student, which could be a risk. But she’s motivated to learn, and from what I’ve noticed, she loves learning and has a problem-solving brain, which is a super nice quality to have in a project setting. We introduced her to the team, and the vibe was there, so YAY!
I also want to take the time to say how proud I am of the team. Everyone is doing such great work, and the game is slowly taking form. It’s so fun to see the collective work of everyone come together and create an experience to share. In times like these, I’m happy I chose such an amazing team that keeps me motivated to work harder and not give up.
I don’t work much in the engine yet, but I do snoop in a few times a week to see the progress. It always impresses me to see everyone’s specialty come to life. I show off our game to my friends all the time, and they are always so shook by the quality and eager to see what comes next!
And to wrap up this entry, this week we had a lot of work for our ethics class. We have a debate on AI use where we have to take Elon Musk’s side. Obviously, we do not agree with him on any stance — I would even go as far as saying we are probably the wokest team in the class. Which makes it 20 times funnier, because it’s lowkey roleplaying as the bad guys.
There was a lot of content to watch and read, so that took a lot of time. But since we are the first team to do a debate, that means we are going to be free for the rest of the semester. Which means when we reach crunch time, we won’t have to prep a debate. 200 IQ move, trust.
That was it for this week, hopefully next week is better!
End of Entry 4.
Welcome back! This week's entry is pretty fun!
I’ve had a bit of trouble working on the project recently because I was scared to mess up... BUT I pushed myself to just start. Starting is always the hardest and scariest part.
I had to use Marvelous to create a base for my layered skirt. The one I did previously was quickly made for the rig artist but was far from what we wanted. I felt like the fabric was too silky, and it felt weird to have so many folds, especially on such a small-scale character. I found an option called Strengthen in Marvelous that really helped reduce the amount of deformation and create stronger shapes. It was perfect for what I needed.
I then tried to start doing my corset in Marvelous but it was kinda... ehhhh... So instead I imported my model into ZBrush to slowly block out my shapes.
It was slowly taking shape and I was gaining more and more confidence. After working for a while, it was starting to look closer to my concept, which felt really rewarding.
I also got super tired of seeing her bald. The more I looked at her big head, the more I felt it looked off... but it was just in my head. So I decided to block out her hair.
I spent a bit of time on it because it was really fun. I didn’t really need to, since it was just to get an idea of what the final result would look like in 3D, as I will have to remake it later with customized hair cards. I also gave her some eyelashes and a beauty mark for fun. She was looking prettier and prettier by the hour and it felt super rewarding.
I was super proud of the updates I’d done! I felt like something was wrong though, so I decided to do tests in the engine to see what she looked like and to my surprise... well, the camera was much further than I thought...
We lost A LOT of detail and I got a bit worried that I was doing a lot of work for nothing. But my teammates reassured me that there would be moments in the gameplay where we would zoom in on her. Still, it was a reminder not to focus too much on tiny details and instead focus on a strong silhouette.
I also wrote down all my remaining tasks for the rest of the semester. There’s quite a few... but it helps to have them in front of me! I marked them on my Trello with weekly objectives to keep me on track and motivated. I feel like right now I’m really good on time and that, if needed, I have spare time in case a big OOPSY happens... BUT LET’S NOT JINX IT!!!! Manifesting a good and easy production for me and my teammates!
WE GOT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
End of Entry 5.
Hello again, this week was pretty chill. I was taking my time working on the corset on the doll and polishing my clothing blocking. It went pretty smoothly, no real problems encountered.
I enhanced the tight feeling of the corset by giving her an even smaller waist than before to really give the feeling of restraint and discomfort, like she can barely breathe. I modeled the lace parts and even added a bow that will have physics later. I talked with our rig artist and she said it should be fine, easily doable, and good for her portfolio, so I’m all in! I did the same with the neck piece. In my opinion, it made the silhouette much more interesting.
I also had my meeting with my mentor and told them about what I planned next. I explained how I thought I had to proceed with my dress and the method I was going to use, and asked for their advice.
Turns out I was super wrong and complicating everything for nothing... Basically, I thought I had to model the rips in my dress, but in reality it was much MUCH simpler. All I had to do was make sure my dress was clean, as if it was brand new (in my case), and then do all the rip details in Substance with opacity masks.
I learned that Substance Painter has an amazing tool for opacity and transparency that I didn’t know about. It will be super useful for the textures of my doll, but also just in general! I’m glad I learned that this option existed.
I also learned a new tool in Marvelous Designer, the elastic tool. I was struggling with my top piece under the corset — I made a nothingburger in Marvelous last week to block it out — but there was a tool called Elastic that would’ve been super helpful.
Basically, it mimics elastic and cinches the fabric. It’s great to give hold to fabric on your model and to create more dynamic folds at the seams. I’m going to partially redo my top in Marvelous, but it’s okay.
This week was a bit shorter, nothing big really happened!
Next week I’m helping my boyfriend move into our new house and we have a lot of renovations to do, so the next devlog might be a little shorter. But it’s fine because I planned it in my schedule and put easier tasks to do!
Winter is slowly leaving and I’m super happy about that. The sun is shining and the joy of living is coming back!
End of Entry 6.
Welcome, take a seat, get comfortable, it’s time for week 7!
This week was extremely busy, unfortunately not with Dollhouse... I was moving out with my boyfriend into our new house. We had a lot of packing to do. We spent the weekend moving, unpacking, cleaning, and doing some renovations. It was NOT EASY! We are WRECKED!
But yeah, I tried to work a bit at least in the little time I had.
I first worked on remaking the dress layers. They aren’t final, but they are closer to the end result. It was a MESS! I had to redo them a bunch of times, and I’m still not satisfied, but I’ll just work off of what I have and polish it to make it look better.
I also started working on the shoes. I had a meeting with a fellow character artist and did some research. It’s a bit complex, but I think I’ll be fine. It will take a little more time than anticipated though.
The other thing I did was brainstorm new ideas for the Creator. I don’t know if I will have time to commit to these designs, but I just had a spark of inspiration one night at 3 am...
I scribbled a few ideas and doodled a design. I wanted to explore some ideas and not forget them after I slept. I started doing a cleaner paint-over version in Clip Studio Paint.
It might be a little ambitious, but if I have time I would be so down to explore the possibilities. Basically, the idea is:
I want him to look patchy, like he’s made of many people — like patriarchy, where everyone is a part of it. I want him to look loose, like he’s crumbling. I want him to lowkey look like he’s hurting a bit, like the fact that everyone in patriarchy is getting hurt by the system, including men. I want his skin to almost look like a disguise for something much darker.
This is all the work I did this week. I’ve noticed that my teammates are feeling a little down :(
I hope that they aren’t doing too bad! Lots of love to them, we can do this! Time flies by quickly but we are making good progress. The game is already looking super cool and everyone I show it to showers it with compliments! WE GOT THIS! WE’RE THE BEST!!!!!!11!1!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!
End of Entry 7.
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...
COMING SOON...