Hero Props for Video Games

Create A Game-Ready Prop, From Start To Finish

Clean Surfaces
Material Expression
Design Principles
3D Fundamentals

What You’ll Learn

The course will go through the full process of prop design for film and games. The emphasis will be on design principles for building and modeling props. Realizing concept to finalize game ready model. You will learn how to get the most out of the various tools to get the best results.

By the end of the course, you will learn efficient and practical workflows to achieve quality and believable props for film and games. You will learn how to achieve hard surface elements, and will gain knowledge on how to troubleshoot new problems or tasks.

This workshop on Prop Modeling will consist of six modules of supplemental pre-recorded lessons and live Q&A sessions. You’ll learn core design skills and workflows and be part of a community of artists working to achieve next level quality in their work.

By the end of the workshop you'll:

Have mastered and understand how to apply imperfections.
Know the principles for modeling hard surfaces.
Know the workflow for Material Expression.
Have created your own unique portfolio piece.

COURSE FORMAT: Standard Live

LECTURE TYPE: Live

FEEDBACK: Live Interactive Open Group

DURATION: 6 weeks

ASSIGNMENT: Due each week. Expect to spend 10-20 hrs/wk viewing lectures, q&a, and time on assignments

MATERIALS: Photoshop, ZBrush and 3D packages such as Maya, 3Dsmax, Modo, or else should be known to follow along

SKILL LEVEL: Beginner to Intermediate

PREREQUISITES: Preliminary knowledge of 3D Software Packages

Curriculum

Week 1

References, Sketch, & Design

As we are designing a new prop we have to study what real objects share the nature of our new creation.

Week 2

Block Out

We try to design all the elements in 3d and how they are going to be connected to each other to make a believable object.

Week 3

High Poly

From the blockout we transition to a more technical phase where we use the references to make realistic high poly models. Using a workflow that goes from Subivid, booleans and zbrush.

Week 4

Low Poly

With our high poly shapes we go back into much simpler shapes to have a low poly ready for a portfolio or a AAA game. We are looking at a hero asset so shapes and curves matter

Week 5

Unwrapping and Baking

Understanding the basics of baking we translate all that high poly detail into our low poly to have some detailed and clean bakes.

Week 6

Texturing, Materials, & Presentation

We go into understanding how materials form and what information are we able to see on the surface to make a compelling and interesting asset. Hero props are about telling a story, we explore and create some support material to make a more compelling hero prop, perfect for a portfolio piece or hero prop.

Fran G Castiglioni

Fran G Castiglioni is a passionate developer and artist. He has worked in AAA games and indie games during throughout his career. Jumping from small productions to big ones working in titles like “Homefront, the Revolution” and the unreleased “Suicide Squad” as well as small projects with an amazing quality like “Last Year:The Nightmare” and “Hell Let Loose”.