SMU Guildhall Graduate Catalog Spring 2020 — Cohort 28 | Page 10

Jenn Cummings Art Creation « Overgrowth and Hard-Surface Decay My thesis project featured a rainforest elements of destruction into a project. Rain Serenity ship from the “Firefly” TV series. me as they seem so magical and other- environment with the wreckage of the This was an 11-month project focusing on realistic foliage, hard-surface modeling, and destruction/decay. The software I used to create the artwork was 3ds Max, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, Photoshop, Marmoset Toolbag 3, and Unreal Engine 4. In addition to making high quality, game- ready assets, my goal for this project was to make the environment immersive and dynamic. This meant making the scene dense with foliage from every camera angle and incorporating effects like wind, dust particles, and dynamic materials on the ship. I chose this subject matter for several worldly to me, and the “Firefly” series is one of my favorite shows. For these reasons, I decided to make these things the center of my thesis. This project is useful to the video game industry because creating realistic foliage that is optimized and does not hinder performance is very important. In addition, nearly all video games feature vehicles and weapons that require hard-surface modeling. Lastly, elements of destruction and decay can help scenes feel more realistic and less static. This project took approximately 426 hours of work from ideation to completion. reasons: I wanted to push my skills with “Firefly” series copyright 20th Century Fox Television and Mutant Enemy Productions challenge myself with the creation of a Serenity copyright Universal Pictures creating game-ready foliage further, massive ship, and explore incorporating 10 forests and jungles have always fascinated ART CREATION