Week 7 & 8 - Berlin, Presentation & Follow Up Crit

During week 7 I was in Berlin and unable to do any work, which was frustrating

On Tuesday, week 8, we had to present our level to our tutors to show our progress so far and it gave them an opportunity to tell us what to improve and add.

The changes/additions that I had to make:
- Making the wood textures more scuffed
- Add plaster to the brick work in the backstage area
- Create a different wood texture for the stage
- Add a trapdoor to the stage
- Add shells to the lights on the stage
- Make the underneath of the second floor plaster
- Make the walls less perfect in general

There was some general tweaks to the level we should make, such as asset placement, which I also took as I work quicker and would be able to do it

I therefore spent the week making my way through this list.

This is the scuffed wood material that I remade for the stage, after my tutors advised that it would be very worn from use and stage dressing

I also tweaked the existing wood texture for the main floor so that the grain in the panels were different and so the planks had a slight colour variation so it looked more realistic

Heres the trapdoor that I quickly made which I think gives the stage more character and helps add to a narrative

I vertex painted my brick material, combining a plain brick and painted brick. I think this really helps the backstage area as it would not be pristine and cared for. Here is the painted brick I made using my existing brick texture and changing the colour, normals and roughness to look like paint

Added the clam shells to the exposed light bulbs like in the ref pictures I had seen as without them they would blind the audience

Instead of a plaster texture I put a marble texture on the underneath of the second floor as I felt this gave it more grandeur, It also helped lighten the entire underneath area which was quite dark with a wood underneath

I then designed, modelled and textured an archway and trim on Friday to fill the large space between the ceiling and second floor. This really adds to level and I think it looks really nice and I'm very happy with it

I then got Justyna's pillars and changed the height and scale of them to make them stagger down the steps

I then modelled some very small assets; programmes, buckets, popcorn bags & cardboard boxes to help populate the scene, which I then gave to Jasmine to texture as she had finished her work 

I did some more level dressing following their advice to make the stage area more cluttered and give the impression of being set up. I used the foliage brush to scatter programmes around the level as it made it look more realistic and less placed

For week 9 I plan to just be doing tweaks, fine tuning and changes to materials if needed