Week 5: Environment Optimization + Improvements

This week I mostly worked on environment optimization like reducing the size of the PCG volumes to improve the overall frame rate for working on the LED Volume Stage, and just basic improvements the environment. This week’s blog is concise and consists mostly of planning and thinking ahead. I did not get to make as much progress as I would’ve liked to this week due to other projects, but during this next week, (Week 6) I plan on dedicating more time and effort into this project.

Environment Progress

As per request of the team after some issues with our most recent pre-vis, I flattened the path where the fairy will be walking to match more closely to the story board. Another method I am planning to use is creating multiple copies of this level and starting to separate each level per shot or per group of similar shots for not only for optimization but also for organization. This will also allow me to improve the quality of each scene without worrying about other shots.

I am not happy with how the roots of the trees aren’t properly integrated with the ground, and obviously with their overall quality as well which will be improved/fixed. I am doing some research on snow generation for the models and I would love to be able to generate some snow at the base of each tree.

I came across a tutorial to create paths in a PCG environment using splines, instead of having two copies of the PCG Graph beside each other as I do in my scene. This will give me a lot more control and create a more realistic look.

Issue Example

The grass and rocks spawning on the cliff side look really unnatural and unrealistic. I plan to research PCG methods to avoid spawning points on steeper slope angles to avoid this issue. Another issue is the snow clumps, I am going to remove them because they look strange.