This was never taught to me at school, you have taught me more now than what I learned for the 4 years I went to school for, crazy. Never stop, always improve.
Funny how you are saying they are simple models and looks visually simple, but to me, this still looks really great for a low-poly art style game XD Very helpful tip though, thanks a lot! :D
haha yea I mean simple in terms of shapes/polygons, but you are right a game in that style would look pretty good BECAUSE of the use of simple, bold shapes. that comes down to great art direction, and getting the most out of your budget/scope/team size haha.
This is the kind of channel I was looking for. I spent weeks trying to find high quality unreal environment art tutorials, but with no success. It is sad how long it took to find something of this quality. Great job!
Literally u r the best UA-camr for Game Creation guides! I am falling in love with these topics u choose to make guides, I definitely want to see more like this if u r interested in making!
Absolute like for this one mate, removed all the poor looking design failures, made eyes less strained, so much easier and cleaner to carry on the creative work.. Clutter and mess kills eyes and spirit, keep it clean lads.
The emphasis on correct priorities is probably the most helpful thing in these videos for me. I have issues of getting distracted on small things and this has helped me a lot. Thank you
great information!! i knew about doing a blockout but wasnt aware of doing greybox modular kit!! im learning how to do things properly it feels awesome!! merci encore!!
You are an angle, I mean it. Every time I am struggling with a problem you are there! right on the first page of my UA-cam seeing you answering my problem WITHOUT EVEN SEARCHING for it!
I like to make Blueprint Actors for some objects, just so I can add features and randomization later. Like, putting a light source into the lanterns and having a checkbox to turn it on or off. Then choose which lanterns should be on and which should be off. Or maybe I will later have two or three different lantern designs. I might have the BP to load one at random. Maybe some dynamic materials will look more weathered than others... and so on. And if I use a BP from the start, I can just add those things later and the whole level will update. I don't have to replace them by hand.
Remember that if You have some bp selected in the content browser and select some actors on the scene, You can use "Replace actors with [Your BP]" to do it quickly.
hey dude! the way you manage your kits and level your scene seems so handy and efficient, I was trying to figuring out this process by searching random tutorial onlines, and it took me so long to block out my levels. Really helps me a lot! thank U!!
I'm going to echo The VFX Wizard below - I've been struggling to find some footing learning UE4 without feeling totally overwhelmed. Before finding your videos I spent a fair amount of time watching other tutorials but the whole process still felt very daunting. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your process with the community in these easily digestible videos - I feel more confident now that I can actually create my first environment in UE4!
Hey Tim ! Great content again ! This is incredibly inspiring and gives me the motivation to do the next challenge. I wanted to say that I've been reading your articles too and now I've subscribed to all your stuff... And I really notice that you manage to stand by your words regarding your web presence, your involvment in the community, your will to share your art and knowledge to help everyone that can benefit from these. The fact that you take the time to answer every single comment on every single platform you've posted on.. And all of that despite having a challenge to work on, an 8h job every week and obviously a social life outside of all of this dear 3D world we love. This is the kind of artist I want to be. You are an inspiration Tim. Thank you for that and please go on with that wonderful content, videos and articles !
Ilan Shoshan wow thanks for the kind words :) it really means a lot. Haha you can thank Gary V for the fact i go outta my way to get back to every comment, im trying to use his “ultimate business strategy”: actually care 😂 but seriously, the community helped me on the come up, i dont mind giving back when i can
Hey there, cheers for the vids, really useful for someone trying to learn this hugely complex stuff. I know i'm a year or so late watching this, but as per your request, for me the most useful tip was learning why the 'greybox' stage is so important and has completely turned my workflow on its head, but in good way. I was trying to build stuff to put into environments first then going for a blockout stage, and reversing that has helped me save a bunch of time and prioritize the stuff that needs doing into a far more manageable pile of work. Thanks, keep making more vids for us!!
I'm also doing the challenge and it comforted me in my idea of the greyboxing phase. I thought at first that my blockout meshes were too rough to get an idea of the final scene ! I didn't play my greybox level yet but i'll definitly do it tonight ! Thanks for the video keep it up ! :)
Awesome video man. As a vet of Character Art these videos really gave me a good ideology to greyboxing and level design from an artist perspective. Keep up the vids, your quality is top notch so far.
This was awesome, thank you, I loved the three main tips and also just seeing someone put together a Grey Box scene gives me so much context for how to lay my own out for future reference, along with the models, detailed but not too detailed with plenty of room for future adaptions and edits, amazing stuff!
awesome, thats what I like to hear! with a bit of practice, greyboxing becomes pretty painless and a good wait to gather some quick momentum on a project
One of the most helpfull video's I've seen on greyboxing so far! Been stuck on this process for my latest project so for my next I will make sure to make the process a lot more logical and solid!
I really appreciate these! As a game artist that is just starting out, you've opened up my eyes to just how much i need to learn. I want to join an artstation challenge to really have a reason to push myself (working on your own projects doesn't give as much umph as i need). Unfortunately i joined at the tail end of the futuristic challenge, so i missed that. However, i want to binge watch all your videos so i have a better understanding of everything. I work with Zbrush and Blender (and have started with Unreal), while sculpting/modeling and in some ways texturing is something i am pretty comfortable with, actual level design is something i had yet to delve into. Again, thank you for this, and i'll see if i can't get better at this myself.
These are awesome for us beginners, I dont see alot of this type of help out there, often it skips to the more advanced stuff. Good to see the steady and creative planning needed and not to just jump in and start slinging assets. What I REALLY would love to see is something on creating sky and atmosphere, going on to part 3, thanks.
thanks so much dude! I appreciate the feedback, especially since this was my second video and I was nervous AF and still learning how to edit/make videos haha. cheers!
Thanks for the video! I'm doing Artstation Challenge as well, but as it is my first time, I'm a bit lost in the pipeline and your videos are really helping me to put all the information in my head in order. Can't wait for the next episode.
Holy shit! You are actually doing the same work at home. I can tell you really enjoy it. You have been a huge help already! I like your enthusiasm and style. Amazing work.
haha thanks! yea it takes some extra effort but I am trying to practice what I preach and build an audience like I have been constantly telling other artists they need to be doing if they want to create opportunity for themselves! thanks for watching, appreciate the love!
Awesome video, the 2nd tip help me the most, because I really like to do the "fun" assets like you said instead working from big to small. Not all hero's wear capes ;)
João Pereira awesome. This used to be my biggest sticking point as well! Now i look at the fun props as a reward for getting to “alpha” (main structures in place)
0:25 Dude just read our minds XD, im a concept artist just found this channel and also starting to use 3D for environments but im finding it really hard, this channel is amazing. love these videos, so much great knowledge and explained in a very intuitive way towards artists. thank you!
Incredible suff, man! Detailed and simple explanation. I've just discovered grey boxing or "white" boxing as I was told. This helps so much. Look forward to seeing more of your videos!
awesome, welcome to the channel bud! yea some places call it greybox others whitebox, blockout, etc haha its super important for both gameplay and art!
In school, they taught us to use BSPs for the blockout and I've always found them to be more trouble than they're worth. I tend to get overwhelmed with this part of the process and I need more than just a cube to get into the flow of things. I'm going to give it a go with simple static meshes with my next project and see if things go a bit more smoothly. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for making these videos. I'm looking to start in the industry soon so I've been watching many videos to make sure I'm not missing out on anything. I love the lighting video you've made too.
This helps me a lot. I've been struggling to create my game's first level because I jumped into the landscape editor without a plan. Thanks for sharing this series!
@@PolygonAcademy yeah, it's very helpful to see a professional workflow being laid out! There's still a lot to learn for me. I'm a developer so coding mechanics or interactions is easy. I also have some Blender experience and I know my way around a DAW so I can create assets, but there's way more to it than this. There's level design, gameplay, texturing, lighting, sound design... An overwhelming but very enjoyable journey. So far it has led me to one major conclusion: there's no greater art form than making games. All kinds of different art (from drawing concepts to animating cutscenes to compositing music) comes together in a game. I don't think people understand that well enough!
Hey Tim :) Thanks again for your great tutorials!! I just have 3 questions and I rlly hope you can quickly help me out with them: 1. What units are you working in in 3ds max? Centimeters? And what system units do you use? 2. When using foliage I always get a warning: "Instanced meshes don't yet support unique static lighting for each LOD. Lighting on LOD 1+ may be incorrect unless lightmap UVs are all the same for all LODs." -> If you´ve ever had that, how do you get rid of these errors? How do you place your foliage? With the foliage tool in Unreal or with the Procedural Foliage Spawner? 3. I´ve watched your tutorials on lighting and downloaded your very helpful "lighting settings" but do you still use them? I know Unreal has added this sun and sky system and there are other cool plugins for that like TrueSky, etc.. What would you recommend there? Thanks a lot for your help!!
1)yea in max i use CM as in unreal 1 unit = 1cm 2) you can set your foliage to moveable so it lights dynamically, it will probably look better, or you could make custom lods for each foliage with the lightmaps being the same, but thats a bit of a pain. 3) yea i still use them depending on the situation, its a great starting point and you can always replace the sky with the new dynamic sun/sky system etc.
Man its so weird youtube knows EXACTLY what I'm trying to achieve. I mean, sure the algorithm should pick up on things like modeling and unreal, with what I've watched. But it's even nit picking THAT. I'll be thinking "I need to learn to model this" and it seems like not five minutes later it pops up in recommended.
While the mindset of starting big and "broad" and then refining down is sort of a staple of all art, I will say that I think tying in how this can help you prioritize your productivity on assets was a super helpful thing to point out. Maybe obvious to some, but it absolutely helped click in my head how to try and better understand a potential project and how to prioritize the assets within it.
amazing video, the greybox level itself looks like something that I am trying to achieve (as a programmer) - now instead of trying to make beautiful assets from the start I know I can just bash things together quickly :D
Exactly what I was thinking, as a programmer I always thought, scenes like that require days of work, but seeing how you can just quickly construct a beautiful scene from just a few assets has changed my mind.
This really helped me focus my workflow better thank you. I'm not experienced in unreal engine however, do you have a video showing how you set the lighting up like you did in this video? it looked simple but made a big difference. thanks!
Yea a video at the end of this series covers lighting and fog in depth, check it out, i also have some free lighting presets and other videos on lighting on my channel :)
I’m about to start greyboxing an environment in Unreal and me being a detailed oriented person I tend to get sidetracked by small details that aren’t important so watching your video is a very good reminder/summary of what is and isn’t important during this phase. Thank you!
Hadrhune0 thanks! I try and make the lessons more high level so it works in most engines and software :) usually you should be able to adapt it to your own workflows ;)
@@PolygonAcademy yes, this approach definitely works, youtube is full of speed level design alone but they don't make too much of a sense if no criteria and no preparation is presented beforehand. Good work, once again
@@PolygonAcademy yeah i watched it, I'm subbed, I commented on it too about the awesome lighting on the rooftiles and asked for some info about the shader you used to add moss that a friend of yours gave you, is it available somewhere for free/sale? Or is there some info about the way it works? Thx for the heads up, again awesome vids. :)
Thanks for being subbed :) Yea my buddy is working on a shader pack he is gonna sell, they are gonna be awesome and save so much time for people. I found a video that shows some moss techniques, its this basic idea: ua-cam.com/video/HDluA1f5gzw/v-deo.html
I love your videos! I always have some trouble with greyboxing, so this gave me good idea on how it can be done. Call it obsessive or not, but I wrote your three tips down so I can put them up and take a look at it when it's needed. :)
Awesome video! It is helping me a lot! On feedback that I got a bit confused. The blockout composition, in my opinion, was a bit too fast, I would appreciate a few more tips on that.
Nico Borsarini yea i am thinking of doing a whole video on composition soon :) but you can look up some 2d concept artists videos on the subject, the same rules apply generally
The most useful tips are usually the most simple ones. The one that helped me the most is that I should always focus on creating bigger assets first and then focus on smaller ones, since the big assets set the tone for the majority of the scene.
Thank you really helped me and in part was the stuff i already thought of, helped me to understand why blockout is important and which assets to prioritize first thank you grate tutorial.
hahaha I actually considered starting a mens lifestyle channel in future to cover other areas of my life, like making SICK GAINS! haha maybe one day...
@@PolygonAcademy I STRONGLY support that idea. "Game-Art during cutting/bulking cycles" and "How not to snap your Wacom pen in half after your arms split routine" or "Normal Maps and Whey, two worlds colliding" XD
It always awesome and very insightful watching your tutorials and tips and tricks. Always teaches me something very valuable and new. Please keep doing this awesome stuff and thanks a lot :)
Very good info! Thanks for sharing what you have learned! Amazing that you are willing to do that. I appreciate your efficiency, and goal oriented approach. Please keep doing these!!
Great video series Tim! This got me to thinking to study and learn environment art. Composition and Lighting are my weakness. And literally your lighting and composition on this are fantastic. Thanks for the tips! By the way if you would think about to do environment art course i will be certainly your student ! :)
Loving this kind of stuff and learning a lot! I'm not terribly familiar with Unreal and usually block out entire scenes in Maya. I'll need to buckle down and learn Unreal, got some ideas I'd love to try.
Super informative! Still there is not so much material on level design compared to Programming or modelling. What I'm finding hard is to define a good scale to serve gameplay.
thx so much this is exactly what i need to focus on, i'll try to apply your tips today :). btw i'm very impressed that you had time to share your experience, work on triple A and do sports.
For my game, that I haven’t shown anything new for ages, this grey scale idea is massively helping out with basic level test cell design, now like I have copy and paste things that be moved around, understanding where things belong. And Cheers mate :) this means a lot you making these videos!! My new real Channel is: TheLocalBogan
cool I will take a look when I have a sec! yea it can also help you with your scope, knowing how many unique assets you need to make and how many you can copy/paste around :) thanks for watching!
@@PolygonAcademy I'm a new sub! Are you going to upload more?I still have alot to catch up on. I graduated in Dec and have been struggling to get a game out. 1. Do you have any tips on managing time and keeping the scope small? 2.Also can a level be good for a start for my portfolio? (Game designer) I also watched your First job in a game studio. 3. I'm scared to apply because most of the jobs in Austin are looking for Senior jobs is there a way to send an email/cover letter to a recruiter for a entry level job? Thanks again for your time!
@@masdox27 yea I would say level designer would be a good entry position to shoot for, I dont know many juniors who are hired as "game designers" these days, that position doesnt even relly exist, its more combat designer, level designer, gameplay systems designer etc. so yea starting with some level design and building a portfolio with that would be the route I would go if I was you. You can always apply to positions, but if you are getting radio silence in terms of replys it just means you are not ready yet in terms of what you are showing you can do, dont get discouraged, just keep putting out new work :) New videos coming soon!
Aw man, that's the best advice I've heard from instructors to gaming figure heads. That solid advice helps a lot. I've always enjoyed making level design and learning more. I think that's what scares me the most. Game design pretty much includes alot from combat, quests, inventory system, level design and more. I always wanted to make a game and it was super daunting because my degree taught bare, I mean bare minimum. Especially bare basics art and programming. I loved my level design class and I think that's what I'll fixate on. My only problem I kept running into was making terrian and making it look realistic. Thank you again. I'm going to practice #blocktober and then revisit my work and add details afterwards. ;)
In the time it takes to drink a coffee (10 mins) I learned more than in a year of searching UA-cam. Thanks for some great tips.
you're welcome! thanks for watching :)
This was never taught to me at school, you have taught me more now than what I learned for the 4 years I went to school for, crazy. Never stop, always improve.
while i hate hearing schools are not teaching the basics, I am glad my tutorials helped you out, thanks for watching and commenting :)
Same here 😩
Funny how you are saying they are simple models and looks visually simple, but to me, this still looks really great for a low-poly art style game XD
Very helpful tip though, thanks a lot! :D
haha yea I mean simple in terms of shapes/polygons, but you are right a game in that style would look pretty good BECAUSE of the use of simple, bold shapes. that comes down to great art direction, and getting the most out of your budget/scope/team size haha.
Thank you Johnny Sins
This is the kind of channel I was looking for. I spent weeks trying to find high quality unreal environment art tutorials, but with no success. It is sad how long it took to find something of this quality. Great job!
thanks so much! it really means a lot when i read comments like this :) welcome to the channel!
Literally u r the best UA-camr for Game Creation guides!
I am falling in love with these topics u choose to make guides, I definitely want to see more like this if u r interested in making!
you're welcome dude! lots more to come this year, gonna step up my output :D
@@PolygonAcademy Waiting eagerly, also I followed u on Insta as well, just in case I miss anything 😅
Absolute like for this one mate, removed all the poor looking design failures, made eyes less strained, so much easier and cleaner to carry on the creative work.. Clutter and mess kills eyes and spirit, keep it clean lads.
cheers! thanks for watching :)
seeing how much can be done with such basic models is very inspiring, makes me more motivated to work on my projects
cheers! I am glad it helped you out, thanks for watching :)
The emphasis on correct priorities is probably the most helpful thing in these videos for me. I have issues of getting distracted on small things and this has helped me a lot. Thank you
Breaking down the key steps with a few word for better understanding and catchy is super helpful.
AutherCinemaScope cheers! Glad it helped :)
great information!! i knew about doing a blockout but wasnt aware of doing greybox modular kit!! im learning how to do things properly it feels awesome!! merci encore!!
You are an angle, I mean it. Every time I am struggling with a problem you are there! right on the first page of my UA-cam seeing you answering my problem WITHOUT EVEN SEARCHING for it!
I like to make Blueprint Actors for some objects, just so I can add features and randomization later.
Like, putting a light source into the lanterns and having a checkbox to turn it on or off. Then choose which lanterns should be on and which should be off.
Or maybe I will later have two or three different lantern designs. I might have the BP to load one at random. Maybe some dynamic materials will look more weathered than others... and so on.
And if I use a BP from the start, I can just add those things later and the whole level will update. I don't have to replace them by hand.
yea exactly! that is a great example of using a blueprint to save time :)
Remember that if You have some bp selected in the content browser and select some actors on the scene, You can use "Replace actors with [Your BP]" to do it quickly.
Paweł Szutkowski yea thats a good one, i totally forgot to mention it! Nice catch :)
Lukas Rustemeyer yea you can really start to do some complex and quick things with blueprints, thats a great example of working smart :)
hey dude! the way you manage your kits and level your scene seems so handy and efficient, I was trying to figuring out this process by searching random tutorial onlines, and it took me so long to block out my levels. Really helps me a lot! thank U!!
I benefitted most from seeing how you reuse a small number of simple items to block out your first phase. Thank you!
I'm going to echo The VFX Wizard below - I've been struggling to find some footing learning UE4 without feeling totally overwhelmed. Before finding your videos I spent a fair amount of time watching other tutorials but the whole process still felt very daunting. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your process with the community in these easily digestible videos - I feel more confident now that I can actually create my first environment in UE4!
never thought of the Greybox being so important, but yes I do see how it can help out alot. like always thank you for your time showing us
David Harmon awesome, thanks for watching, im glad it helped you :)
Hey Tim ! Great content again ! This is incredibly inspiring and gives me the motivation to do the next challenge. I wanted to say that I've been reading your articles too and now I've subscribed to all your stuff... And I really notice that you manage to stand by your words regarding your web presence, your involvment in the community, your will to share your art and knowledge to help everyone that can benefit from these. The fact that you take the time to answer every single comment on every single platform you've posted on.. And all of that despite having a challenge to work on, an 8h job every week and obviously a social life outside of all of this dear 3D world we love. This is the kind of artist I want to be. You are an inspiration Tim. Thank you for that and please go on with that wonderful content, videos and articles !
Ilan Shoshan wow thanks for the kind words :) it really means a lot. Haha you can thank Gary V for the fact i go outta my way to get back to every comment, im trying to use his “ultimate business strategy”: actually care 😂 but seriously, the community helped me on the come up, i dont mind giving back when i can
Hey there, cheers for the vids, really useful for someone trying to learn this hugely complex stuff. I know i'm a year or so late watching this, but as per your request, for me the most useful tip was learning why the 'greybox' stage is so important and has completely turned my workflow on its head, but in good way. I was trying to build stuff to put into environments first then going for a blockout stage, and reversing that has helped me save a bunch of time and prioritize the stuff that needs doing into a far more manageable pile of work. Thanks, keep making more vids for us!!
so glad to hear this helped out, more content to come soon i hope!
I'm also doing the challenge and it comforted me in my idea of the greyboxing phase. I thought at first that my blockout meshes were too rough to get an idea of the final scene ! I didn't play my greybox level yet but i'll definitly do it tonight ! Thanks for the video keep it up ! :)
Georges-Alexandre AGAPE yea play it in game! Helps you really get a feel for the space and layout.
Super helpful to see you went through the greybox stage and pointing out what to look out for. Thanks a wild bunch!!!
Andrew Chang no problem andrew!
Awesome video man. As a vet of Character Art these videos really gave me a good ideology to greyboxing and level design from an artist perspective. Keep up the vids, your quality is top notch so far.
Akaikami awesome, thanks for the feedback, it really helps throw some more fuel on the fire for the next videos 🔥🔥🔥
Great and simple approach to greyboxing. Really could've used this about 6 months ago, but that's on me for not time traveling ;) Thanks for sharing!
pfffff gotta get that time travel on point!
This was awesome, thank you, I loved the three main tips and also just seeing someone put together a Grey Box scene gives me so much context for how to lay my own out for future reference, along with the models, detailed but not too detailed with plenty of room for future adaptions and edits, amazing stuff!
awesome, thats what I like to hear! with a bit of practice, greyboxing becomes pretty painless and a good wait to gather some quick momentum on a project
The first minute...nothing but truth!! At first I didn't see how it works...but now I do!!
One of the most helpfull video's I've seen on greyboxing so far! Been stuck on this process for my latest project so for my next I will make sure to make the process a lot more logical and solid!
DBGajzen awesome! Glad it helped you out!!
I really appreciate these! As a game artist that is just starting out, you've opened up my eyes to just how much i need to learn. I want to join an artstation challenge to really have a reason to push myself (working on your own projects doesn't give as much umph as i need). Unfortunately i joined at the tail end of the futuristic challenge, so i missed that. However, i want to binge watch all your videos so i have a better understanding of everything.
I work with Zbrush and Blender (and have started with Unreal), while sculpting/modeling and in some ways texturing is something i am pretty comfortable with, actual level design is something i had yet to delve into. Again, thank you for this, and i'll see if i can't get better at this myself.
You’re welcome :) thanks for watching and the awesome feedback, good luck on the next challenge when it pops up!
These are awesome for us beginners, I dont see alot of this type of help out there, often it skips to the more advanced stuff. Good to see the steady and creative planning needed and not to just jump in and start slinging assets. What I REALLY would love to see is something on creating sky and atmosphere, going on to part 3, thanks.
dimeolas777 yea part 6 of the series i go into lighting and fog ;) the sky was just the default unreal sky blueprint! Thanks for watching 🤛
I loved this video, and I consider myself an intermediate. Straight to the point, and didn't feel long at all.
thanks so much dude! I appreciate the feedback, especially since this was my second video and I was nervous AF and still learning how to edit/make videos haha. cheers!
What i was looking out for years, its weird, right at the time that i m getting better at blender i found this, thank you!
You’re welcome :) thanks for watching!
Thanks again... I am in the beginning of the process to become an environmental artist, so this videos help me a lot.
BA. Gamero no problem! Thats the goal, help people on their journey!
Excellent, sir. Very pumped to watch this unfold.
thanks Garrett! im stoked to see how it turns out too haha. should be a fun challenge
I want to become a Level Designer, but using your Greybox Level Design surely helps me a lot :)
I'm currently making similar environment, and these videos are really helpful
awesome, happy to hear they help! enjoy the series!
Thanks for the video! I'm doing Artstation Challenge as well, but as it is my first time, I'm a bit lost in the pipeline and your videos are really helping me to put all the information in my head in order. Can't wait for the next episode.
hell yea! good luck on the challenge, have fun and learn as much as you can. glad my vids can help :)
i wish my teachers were as helpful as you.
thank you
Thanks! Sorry to hear that but happy to hear the videos help you out!
Just started this vlog series after seeing your work on Artstation! Already incredibly helpful and eye-opening, can't wait to continue!
Monica Benya thanks monica! Enjoy :)
Holy shit! You are actually doing the same work at home. I can tell you really enjoy it. You have been a huge help already! I like your enthusiasm and style. Amazing work.
haha thanks! yea it takes some extra effort but I am trying to practice what I preach and build an audience like I have been constantly telling other artists they need to be doing if they want to create opportunity for themselves! thanks for watching, appreciate the love!
hi, your videos are great and full of tips. its about an a week i follow you and all of your content are usefull.thank you
ِDavid Majdi awesome, that makes me so happy to hear :) thanks for following
Great video Tim! Great tip to really focus on mood and composition. I can already get a feel for the scene only in your blockout stage.
Pall Smenis cheers, yea composition is key for level art :)
Awesome video, the 2nd tip help me the most, because I really like to do the "fun" assets like you said instead working from big to small. Not all hero's wear capes ;)
João Pereira awesome. This used to be my biggest sticking point as well! Now i look at the fun props as a reward for getting to “alpha” (main structures in place)
Nah man I think he's wearing a V-neck ;)
im pretty sure this video just changed my life. thank you for your insight
0:25 Dude just read our minds XD, im a concept artist just found this channel and also starting to use 3D for environments but im finding it really hard, this channel is amazing. love these videos, so much great knowledge and explained in a very intuitive way towards artists. thank you!
This video is of such high quality! very useful for anyone getting into 3D level design, it's a fascinating world.
Awesome, so happy to hear that :) thanks for watching!
Incredible suff, man! Detailed and simple explanation. I've just discovered grey boxing or "white" boxing as I was told. This helps so much. Look forward to seeing more of your videos!
awesome, welcome to the channel bud! yea some places call it greybox others whitebox, blockout, etc haha its super important for both gameplay and art!
@@PolygonAcademy Thanks! Binge watching your videos now. Can't wait for your next one!
Very high quality and great to see! I will be keeping a very close eye on my sub box!
Thanks Andrew, busting out some new art for the challenge and will be back with another vlog in a few days :)
In school, they taught us to use BSPs for the blockout and I've always found them to be more trouble than they're worth. I tend to get overwhelmed with this part of the process and I need more than just a cube to get into the flow of things. I'm going to give it a go with simple static meshes with my next project and see if things go a bit more smoothly. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for making these videos. I'm looking to start in the industry soon so I've been watching many videos to make sure I'm not missing out on anything. I love the lighting video you've made too.
This helps me a lot. I've been struggling to create my game's first level because I jumped into the landscape editor without a plan. Thanks for sharing this series!
awesome, glad it helps! enjoy :)
@@PolygonAcademy yeah, it's very helpful to see a professional workflow being laid out! There's still a lot to learn for me. I'm a developer so coding mechanics or interactions is easy. I also have some Blender experience and I know my way around a DAW so I can create assets, but there's way more to it than this. There's level design, gameplay, texturing, lighting, sound design... An overwhelming but very enjoyable journey. So far it has led me to one major conclusion: there's no greater art form than making games. All kinds of different art (from drawing concepts to animating cutscenes to compositing music) comes together in a game. I don't think people understand that well enough!
Hey Tim :) Thanks again for your great tutorials!! I just have 3 questions and I rlly hope you can quickly help me out with them:
1. What units are you working in in 3ds max? Centimeters? And what system units do you use?
2. When using foliage I always get a warning: "Instanced meshes don't yet support unique static lighting for each LOD. Lighting on LOD 1+ may be incorrect unless lightmap UVs are all the same for all LODs." -> If you´ve ever had that, how do you get rid of these errors? How do you place your foliage? With the foliage tool in Unreal or with the Procedural Foliage Spawner?
3. I´ve watched your tutorials on lighting and downloaded your very helpful "lighting settings" but do you still use them? I know Unreal has added this sun and sky system and there are other cool plugins for that like TrueSky, etc.. What would you recommend there?
Thanks a lot for your help!!
1)yea in max i use CM as in unreal 1 unit = 1cm
2) you can set your foliage to moveable so it lights dynamically, it will probably look better, or you could make custom lods for each foliage with the lightmaps being the same, but thats a bit of a pain.
3) yea i still use them depending on the situation, its a great starting point and you can always replace the sky with the new dynamic sun/sky system etc.
@@PolygonAcademy Thanks so much for your answers!!! That helps me a lot!!
your videos provides more insights that are useful and improves my skills in level design. Need more videos frequently.
Great man, appreciate that blockout phase , make me wanna do an environment !!
Olingova Crabhunter go do it! 👍
Man its so weird youtube knows EXACTLY what I'm trying to achieve. I mean, sure the algorithm should pick up on things like modeling and unreal, with what I've watched. But it's even nit picking THAT. I'll be thinking "I need to learn to model this" and it seems like not five minutes later it pops up in recommended.
Semi hahah thats awesome! Thanks for watching :)
While the mindset of starting big and "broad" and then refining down is sort of a staple of all art, I will say that I think tying in how this can help you prioritize your productivity on assets was a super helpful thing to point out. Maybe obvious to some, but it absolutely helped click in my head how to try and better understand a potential project and how to prioritize the assets within it.
Awesome, glad to hear it helped you out :) thanks for watching!
Super quality content, Tim! Very enjoyable to watch
Artem Mykhailov thanks artem :) appreciate the feedback
Superb video, keep em coming!
Lewis Thompson thanks bud, will do, more content inbound for Wednesday 🔥🔥
This knowledge is pure gold.
I am learning tons of new things about environment art and workflows this series. thanks a lot. smashed that like and subscribe button already
vanilla rocket hell yea :) appreciate the sub and love! Enjoy the rest of the series 👍
@@PolygonAcademy pleasure is all mine
Thank you 🙏🏾. Coming gameplay programming this has really helped understand better the production phase.
amazing video, the greybox level itself looks like something that I am trying to achieve (as a programmer) - now instead of trying to make beautiful assets from the start I know I can just bash things together quickly :D
Exactly what I was thinking, as a programmer I always thought, scenes like that require days of work, but seeing how you can just quickly construct a beautiful scene from just a few assets has changed my mind.
I love this tutorial series. I always want to do too much right off the bat and I often overlook this integral step.
Great tips, this is a great video to show my students. I've telling them the importance of the Greybox/Blockin.
This really helped me focus my workflow better thank you. I'm not experienced in unreal engine however, do you have a video showing how you set the lighting up like you did in this video? it looked simple but made a big difference. thanks!
Yea a video at the end of this series covers lighting and fog in depth, check it out, i also have some free lighting presets and other videos on lighting on my channel :)
This channel is gonna grow crazy fast! Keep up the good work!
Mohamad Salame thanks dude thats a really inspiring comment :) I hope so 👍
Nice environment video. Hope the gameplay improves the space.
I’m about to start greyboxing an environment in Unreal and me being a detailed oriented person I tend to get sidetracked by small details that aren’t important so watching your video is a very good reminder/summary of what is and isn’t important during this phase. Thank you!
Awesome! Glad to hear this was useful, thanks for watching and good luck with your project 💪
Visited this channel twice in few days and the contents are good even though I work with Unity and Blender. Subscribed. Keep up all the good work.
Hadrhune0 thanks! I try and make the lessons more high level so it works in most engines and software :) usually you should be able to adapt it to your own workflows ;)
@@PolygonAcademy yes, this approach definitely works, youtube is full of speed level design alone but they don't make too much of a sense if no criteria and no preparation is presented beforehand. Good work, once again
Awesome vid, can't wait for the foliage and roof parts.
The 1llus1on1st 1 hahah im dreading the foliage a bit, havent made any in a loooong time! But always good to be outside your comfort zone 💪
The 1llus1on1st 1 i go over the roof in the latest vlog 😉
@@PolygonAcademy yeah i watched it, I'm subbed, I commented on it too about the awesome lighting on the rooftiles and asked for some info about the shader you used to add moss that a friend of yours gave you, is it available somewhere for free/sale? Or is there some info about the way it works? Thx for the heads up, again awesome vids. :)
Thanks for being subbed :) Yea my buddy is working on a shader pack he is gonna sell, they are gonna be awesome and save so much time for people. I found a video that shows some moss techniques, its this basic idea: ua-cam.com/video/HDluA1f5gzw/v-deo.html
I love your videos! I always have some trouble with greyboxing, so this gave me good idea on how it can be done. Call it obsessive or not, but I wrote your three tips down so I can put them up and take a look at it when it's needed. :)
Demi Vos awesome! Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Writing down the tips is a great idea, i still forget them from time to time hahaah 😂
Awesome video! It is helping me a lot!
On feedback that I got a bit confused. The blockout composition, in my opinion, was a bit too fast, I would appreciate a few more tips on that.
Nico Borsarini yea i am thinking of doing a whole video on composition soon :) but you can look up some 2d concept artists videos on the subject, the same rules apply generally
@@PolygonAcademy oh! Ok! Thank you! :D
really excellent video for a budding level designer/environment artist! subscribed for sure.
A G thats what i like to hear 💪 hope it helps you with your next project
"Very basic layout" looks so cool that I could probably use it in production lol. Great job!
Everything helpt me in the video ! Thank you so mutch
The most useful tips are usually the most simple ones. The one that helped me the most is that I should always focus on creating bigger assets first and then focus on smaller ones, since the big assets set the tone for the majority of the scene.
This was super helpful, thanks!
no problem!
Thank you really helped me and in part was the stuff i already thought of, helped me to understand why blockout is important and which assets to prioritize first thank you grate tutorial.
you're welcome, thanks for watching :)
loving this series keep it up , as far as what i learned is importing assets and setting them up for basic feel of my what im trying to build
Dude you are an inspiration.
hahah thanks :) glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you, this really helped me wrap my head around level design sketching.
glad to hear that, thanks for watching :D
Awesome tips and tutorial but when do we start talking about workout routine and proper nutrition? XD
hahaha I actually considered starting a mens lifestyle channel in future to cover other areas of my life, like making SICK GAINS! haha maybe one day...
@@PolygonAcademy I STRONGLY support that idea. "Game-Art during cutting/bulking cycles" and "How not to snap your Wacom pen in half after your arms split routine" or "Normal Maps and Whey, two worlds colliding" XD
My man I can't thank you enough for this playlist ! props big time
you're welcome, enjoy!
I'm just amazed he dod this all on one screen
hahah i have 2 monitors, working on 1 screen with unreal is super frustrating :)
@@PolygonAcademy i asume its easier for the video :)
Awesome, thanks for sharing useful information!
MSA Artist my pleasure :)
yeah, I needed a tutorial like that. Thanks, Tim, great video as usual!
can't call it a basic blockout though
hahah its pretty basic! but thanks for watching and dropping a comment :)
0:27 hits me right in da kokoro :D
howl13 😂
It always awesome and very insightful watching your tutorials and tips and tricks. Always teaches me something very valuable and new. Please keep doing this awesome stuff and thanks a lot :)
Very great work. Thank you for sharing, I am learning from your experience. It helped me a lot. Thanks again!
Very good info! Thanks for sharing what you have learned! Amazing that you are willing to do that. I appreciate your efficiency, and goal oriented approach. Please keep doing these!!
more to come soon ;)
Great video series Tim! This got me to thinking to study and learn environment art. Composition and Lighting are my weakness. And literally your lighting and composition on this are fantastic. Thanks for the tips!
By the way if you would think about to do environment art course i will be certainly your student ! :)
cheers! thanks so much for the support, it means a lot to me :)
this series is a god send you saint!
haha thanks for the kind words :)
as always nice videos, does you have some video about skybox creation? textures res, tiles , uv techniques, sizes, parallax effects... etc
Loving this kind of stuff and learning a lot! I'm not terribly familiar with Unreal and usually block out entire scenes in Maya. I'll need to buckle down and learn Unreal, got some ideas I'd love to try.
Super informative! Still there is not so much material on level design compared to Programming or modelling. What I'm finding hard is to define a good scale to serve gameplay.
Thanks! Amazing video, I'm learning from home right now and its hard to find videos showing 3d artist's full workflow.
cheers! thanks for watching, hope you enjoy the entire series :)
thx so much this is exactly what i need to focus on, i'll try to apply your tips today :).
btw i'm very impressed that you had time to share your experience, work on triple A and do sports.
ambre you’re welcome! Glad the vid is useful :)
Awesome video Tim!!
pedro colon thanks pedro 🤙
Great Video .It helped me alot to avoid time consuming during the production .I'm waiting for other videos ,Keep it up
Mostafa Samir awesome thats what i like to hear!
For my game, that I haven’t shown anything new for ages, this grey scale idea is massively helping out with basic level test cell design, now like I have copy and paste things that be moved around, understanding where things belong. And Cheers mate :) this means a lot you making these videos!!
My new real Channel is: TheLocalBogan
cool I will take a look when I have a sec! yea it can also help you with your scope, knowing how many unique assets you need to make and how many you can copy/paste around :) thanks for watching!
Cheers man, I’m going to post something new Worthing the next week as I will have a semi playable scene to show
info about grey/whiteboxing seems really sparse so this is great, thanks!
Keep it up! I love this and its getting me hype for #blocktober
Hell yea ;) glad this helped you out, now go crush blocktober!
@@PolygonAcademy I'm a new sub! Are you going to upload more?I still have alot to catch up on. I graduated in Dec and have been struggling to get a game out.
1. Do you have any tips on managing time and keeping the scope small?
2.Also can a level be good for a start for my portfolio? (Game designer) I also watched your First job in a game studio.
3. I'm scared to apply because most of the jobs in Austin are looking for Senior jobs is there a way to send an email/cover letter to a recruiter for a entry level job?
Thanks again for your time!
@@masdox27 yea I would say level designer would be a good entry position to shoot for, I dont know many juniors who are hired as "game designers" these days, that position doesnt even relly exist, its more combat designer, level designer, gameplay systems designer etc. so yea starting with some level design and building a portfolio with that would be the route I would go if I was you. You can always apply to positions, but if you are getting radio silence in terms of replys it just means you are not ready yet in terms of what you are showing you can do, dont get discouraged, just keep putting out new work :) New videos coming soon!
Aw man, that's the best advice I've heard from instructors to gaming figure heads. That solid advice helps a lot. I've always enjoyed making level design and learning more. I think that's what scares me the most. Game design pretty much includes alot from combat, quests, inventory system, level design and more. I always wanted to make a game and it was super daunting because my degree taught bare, I mean bare minimum. Especially bare basics art and programming. I loved my level design class and I think that's what I'll fixate on. My only problem I kept running into was making terrian and making it look realistic. Thank you again.
I'm going to practice #blocktober and then revisit my work and add details afterwards. ;)