Ben Matthews - Environment Artist. Finishing off the Level in Maya/ Unity.

Once I had finished building all of the textured parts for the level I began exporting them individually as FBX files with the media embedded. I exported them directly into the assets folder of a new unity scene which I had open.

You can see here how I made everything once.

I made everything once with the intention of exporting the objects from Maya to Unity and then duplicating them around the Unity scene. I will fully build the level within Unity.

I placed all of the objects into Unity and constructed the level.

I decided to tidy up the Hierarchy in Unity by grouping the assets together. This allows Me to keep track of the number of objects within the scene. 

I tidied up the scene and applied finishing touches to the level. This included lighting and adding mesh colliders to all of the objects in the level. I did this to ensure the player doesn't clip through objects in the world. The lighting also helps to create atmosphere and set the scene.

I made all of the library walls, floors and ceilings two sided to stop light pouring in. This will create nice crisp shadows around the windows and build upon the atmosphere.

When I turned the faces two sided I noticed thin white lines of light seeping through the mesh. To solve this I edited the lighting bias. I also placed a long thin block across the edges where the floor and walls meet. I did this to block any remaining light from breaking through the edges of the mesh.

I then added in Fog along with a ground outside and external buildings. I also changed the Sky Box from Unity's default Sky box to a simple Gray Lambert. This really added to the fog and removed any hint of a horizon. It now appears like an extremely overcast day. It also builds upon the atmosphere and premise of the story line. It is a ghostly, barren world. Was this caused by war? Or is it symbolic of the characters death? I wanted to leave that for the player to decide.

I then went back through all files that I will submit to make sure they are well organised.

For example:

I reorganized all of the objects within the scene into corresponding groups that make it easy to find individual assets within the Maya file.

This was the final step in the construction of this level. It was now ready to hand over to the game designer.

Final Screenshots.