The Captain's Table : Creator's Challenge Nov 22

In November I participated in a creator's challenge as part of the real-time artist bootcamp I'm doing with Mastered. The aim for each of these is simple - we're given a brief which we're meant to complete within a 6 hour time frame. These challenges run monthly and this was the second one that I was participating in.

The theme for this challenge was Pirates of the Caribbean with a brief of creating an object or environment inspired by films.

Around this time I had mostly been focused on learning Substance Painter and Maya. Thus I decided that I would like to make some small, simple props which could make up a pirate captain's desk.

Left: The pirates films inspired many of the objects Right: Concept sketch

I started with a quick sketch to work out layout and decide which objects to make. I wanted to make a coin, a spyglass, a compass and some books and maps, with the stretch goal of making a key if I had time.

I started with modelling in Maya. For this project I was relying on most of the detail coming from the textures I created in substance painter, so I made the models very simple to save time. This also meant that they were easy to UV. The compass was the most difficult to create being a somewhat complex shape. I decided to make the glass a separate piece so that I could adjust it more easily in unreal as glass can be challenging to texture.

Above: Models in Maya with close up of compass and it's UV map

After modelling, I UV mapped each model individually and exported them as FBX files to bring into substance painter. You can find the detail of the process I went through in substance painter for each object below and accompanying images of the process.

Spyglass

1. I created folders with a black mask to separate the three different materials on the spyglass - leather, bronze and glass.

2. For the bronze sections I added a distressed bronze material that I found in the library. On top of that I added a layer of scratches through a fill layer with a grunge map. More details were created using alpha brushes. I added a stamp on the side and some ridges to the rings for extra detail.

3. For the leather I added a leather material from the library and added additional fill layers with generators to add more scratches and damage. A fill layer with dirt generator was added on top.

4. For the glass of the lenses, I painted the areas with a dark blue, turning the roughness down and the metallic up. I added extra details such as cracks using an alpha brush and added some dirt with a generator round the edges.

5. With all the materials completed I added some more dirt focusing on the corners of the model.

Coins

Maps & Papers

Book

Compass

After completing the texturing I exported the texture maps and took it all into Unreal Engine. I placed the items on a table I had created previously; composing it like the sketch I made at the beginning. Some simple lighting and a rope asset that I found in the quixel library tied it all together.

Above: The setup within unreal engine

The aim of the challenge was to see what you could in a limited timeframe, and I feel like I met most of the goals that I set out. If I had more time I would have maybe made the materials in substance painter from scratch instead of finding them from the library, but I am very happy with what I was able to create.

Above: Final Render in Unreal Engine

To see the more of the final renders and other projects I've worked click here!