Tools for Maya
I developed a variety of powerful tools for artists and designers in Maya, which were instrumental in the creation of Tomb Raider: Underworld and Army of Two: 40th Day. These tools streamlined workflows and enhanced productivity, allowing teams to achieve high-quality results efficiently.
The Bakery was designed to streamline the lighting workflow for artists while also providing engineers with the necessary data to display lighting in-game. Traditionally, lighting an environment could take an artist a full day, but with this tool, the process was reduced to about an hour. It also saved countless hours on re-bakes, which were required daily as levels were continuously adjusted throughout the projects.
Since dynamic lights were too costly to calculate in real time, we relied on vertex lighting. In vertex lighting, lights are pre-calculated, with the results stored at the vertex level of the geometry. However, this method came with limitations, as the quality of complex shadows was diminished due to the low polygon count in the environments.
When developing The Bakery, I had two main objectives: first, to create a system that produced the best possible lighting results within the limitations of the game engine; and second, to design an intuitive interface and workflow for artists, allowing them the flexibility to be creative while automating redundant tasks.
To achieve optimal lighting, The Bakery utilized ambient occlusion, global illumination, and direct light passes, all baked into a final result that was exported for use in the game engine.
While developing The Bakery, I had to collaborate closely with both the art and engineering departments. With the engineers, we determined the specifications and conventions for the lighting data required by the game engine. This process ensured that the data and geometry were error-free and properly formatted for seamless integration.
I also worked closely with artists, gathering feedback on the usability of the tool. In its early stages, The Bakery went through several iterations until it was intuitive and easy to use. The interface needed to be efficient in its use of space, as it had to remain open on top of the viewport while artists worked. A bulky interface would have hindered navigation between the tool and the environment.
My strategy for designing the interface was to understand the workflow and identify which options were essential. Important but infrequently used functionality was stored in submenus, keeping the top-level interface clean and user-friendly.
The tool was well-received by the artists, providing both ease of use and results the entire team was proud of. Due to its success, it was also adopted to light Army of Two: 40th Day for the PSP, as well as various internal prototypes.