Modular environments

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Modular means pieces are made to fit together according to a common pattern, so just a few pieces can be reused multiple times to create a bunch of variety.

Modular Design & Workflow

How to plan out the development of modular environment pieces, and the workflow for creating them. The design of modular pieces is closely linked to game design; see Category:GameDesign for more.


ThiagoKlafke boundingboxes1.jpg Modelling Buildings with Interior (Question) Polycount Forum thread with advice on creating buildings.

JacobNorris UDKModularBuildingSetBreakdown.jpg UE4 Modular Building Set Breakdown - by Jacob "jacob07777" Norris. Gritty urban city modular system. File:JacobNorris Building Breakdown.pdf (1.5 MB)

PaulMandegarian GearsofWarInspiredEnvironment.jpg UDK Gears of War Inspired Environment - Modular - by Paul "Ahniketos" Mandegarian. Gears of War themed modular palace environment. Latest art is here on his website.

TorFrick UDKModularMasterclass.jpg UDK Modular Masterclass - Efficiently Creating and Entire Scene with Tor Frick - ($) an Eat3D tutorial by Tor "snefer" Frick. Abandoned warehouse modular workflow in UDK, using Modo and Photoshop.

HelderPinto PostApocSceneBreakdown.jpg Post apoc scene Breakdown - by "HP" Pinto. Details about the creation of a modular abandoned warehouse.

Halo4 Article.jpg Polycount Article: The Environment Art of Halo 4. Modular workflow for Halo 4.

PatrickSutton TheEnsignTavern.jpg the Ensign Tavern - by Patrick "PatJS" Sutton. Breakdowns for a modular multi-floor 19th century building.

TylerWinlass ModularBuildingWorkflow.jpg Modular Building with UDK - ($) a 3dmotive tutorial by Tyler Wanlass. Covers planning and workflow for modular buildings using Photoshop, 3ds Max, and UDK.

JoelBurgess SkyrimsModularApproachtoLevelDesign.jpg Skyrim’s Modular Approach to Level Design - Transcript from GDC 2013 talk on Skyrim"s Modular Level Design. An excellent in-depth article on Bethesda"s environment art system.

KevinJohnstone ModularEnvironmentDesign.jpg Modular Environment Design.rar (12 MB) - by Kevin Johnstone. East Coast Game Conference 2011 slides of the talk "Modular Environment Design, Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the grid". More workflow explained in the threads Lack of Environment Artists, Gears2 Environment Art and Gears2 Environment Art Step by Step (ZBrush Central).

TorFrick SciFiLab.jpg An exercise in modular textures - Scifi lab UDK - by Tor 'Snefer' Frick. Extreme Texture atlasing and ChannelPacking.

ScottJones InvestigationIntoModularDesignWithinComputerGames.jpg File:Investigation into modular design within computer games v1.0.pdf (8.6MB PDF) - by Scott Jones. Research paper on modular workflow. Definition, benefits, history of modularity, usage, methods, case studies, UDK and 3ds Max. See the Polycount forum thread Modular design within games.

EpicGames UsingWorkflowTechniquesAndModularity.jpg Workflow techniques and modularity with Unreal game technology - by Epic Games. A guide to setting up your art-to-level-design pipeline and designing modularly.

BenHale ModularEnvironmentArtAppliedFromPlasterTabletopSets.jpg Modular Environment Art applied from plaster tabletop sets - by Ben "Makkon" Hale. Polycount forum thread with great visual breakdowns of modular tabeltop models.

ChristopherAlbeluhn VisuallyAppealingBuildingGuide.jpg Visually Appealing Building Guide - by Christopher Albeluhn. An excellent breakdown of how to create visual interest with game buildings. Additional tutorials here.

ThiagoKlafke CreatingModularEnvironmentsInUDK.jpg Creating Modular Environments in UDK - a tutorial by Thiago "Minotaur0" Klafke. Covers the techniques used to make Zest Foundation.

ModularMountAndBlade.jpg Modular Mount & Blade - by "gutekfiutek". Modular workflow for the mod "Polished Buildings" for the game Mount & Blade.

GlynnSmith ModularBrickWallTiling.jpg Modular brick wall tiling - by Glynn Smith. Tips and screenshots for sculpting modular brick walls.

BramEulaers GenericWallTutorial.jpg Generic wall tutorial - by Bram "Peris" Eulaers. Using 3ds Max and Mudbox to sculpt tilable modular sections for a stone wall.

RyanGreene SegaRallyRevo.gif Rock modeling approaches - a Polycount thread. A variety of approaches for sculpting individual rocks and tilable cliffs.

OwenShepherd CreatingPerfectlyTilingMeshes.jpg Creating Perfectly Tiling Meshes in Zbrush for use in Videogame Environments - by Owen "SHEPEIRO" Shepherd. Using ZBrush"s 2.5D canvas to tile stamped meshes, then using Maya to model tilable geometry.

PhilipKlevestav WorkingWithModularSets.jpg Working with Modular Sets - by Philip "PhilipK" Klevestav. How to design and texture modular sci-fi wall panels.

PhilipKlevestav ModularRocksTutorial.jpg Working with Modular Rocks - by Philip "PhilipK" Klevestav. How to design, model, and texture modular rock assets, using Crazy Bump, Photoshop, and 3ds Max.

AidyBurrows ModularityAndOddAnglesOnBlendersGrid.jpg Modularity & Odd Angles on Blender’s Grid - by Aidy Burrows @ CG Masters. Getting more natural-looking angles in your modular kit.

Units and Scale

The units and scale you use is very important. Modular meshes should be built to snap to a unit-based grid, and physics calculations depend on certain scales. Fortunately, game editors usually have a scale setting you can use on import to convert from 3d modeler scale into proper game engine scale.

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