###### tags: `Independent Study` `Masters` `Games Art`

### Final Independent Study
### Games Art (Masters) L7
### Junaid Sheikh

https://hackmd.io/@JunoFBX/By6BuTyqll

# Abstract
This body of work examines the creative and technical processes behind the production of a hard-surface mech and an organic Kaiju for scenic renders in *Unreal Engine 5*. This project aimed to explore research as an integral part of the creative process by examining Modern production pipelines and traditional filmmaking practices, such as puppetry and the “man in suit” approach popularised by the classic “Godzilla” films.

This work reflects on the outcomes of this process, demonstrating how research shaped all creative decisions, while showing how traditional film traditions can be reimagined in *Unreal Engine 5*, a real-time render engine capable of scenic rendering with lighting, composition and atmospheric components to mirror the qualities synonymous with cinematic filmmaking.

# Introduction

The appeal of colossal entities in conflict – whether in the form of the Japanese Mecha or monstrous Kaiju-esque creatures – is a recurring concept across cinema, animation and video games. The classic archetypes of intricately crafted mechs designed for combat and the raw nature of kaijus presents a rich opportunity for visual storytelling and interesting technical components for Games Art production.

The basis of this study explores the process of researching traditional Film production practices and modern Games Art workflows to unify them and create a unique, research-led creative process.

To follow the development of this project, it is necessary to gain an understanding of the terms ‘Mecha’ and ‘Kaiju’.
- Coined by Japanese science-fiction media, the term *Mecha* or *Mechanical* refers to the thematic of “giant robots or machines” typically piloted by a human for utility or combat use.
- Kaiju (怪獣 in Japanese), translates to ‘strange beast’ and is associated with collosal sized monstrosities. They are often organic oversized beings that are not limited to Earth as its origin.

# Project Description

This project analyses both Filmmaking and Games Art pipelines, examining common practices between the two industries to aid in the production of two key assets: a hard-surface mech character model and a kaiju creature model to be presented with scenic render composition in Unreal Engine 5.

The concept follows popular Japanese and American culture of Mecha culture, looking to expand upon the genre with a new narrative. Examining popular trends in mecha culture will aid in keeping this body of work thematically aligned with the original concepts of mechs being utilised to combat threats of similar stature or nature.

## Project Aims

This body of work aimed to demonstrate how industry-standard practices historically associated with visual effects and filmmaking can be adapted for games art production pipelines, allowing for physical and digital techniques to be utilised within a games engine, notably Unreal Engine 5.

This project will examine filmmaking techniques related to the creation of physical props, live action suits and the application of celluloid sheet tracing and matte paintings for the illusion of detailed visual effects.

The overall project goal is to draw creative inspiration from these practices to conceptualise designs that could contribute to the thematic of kaiju creatures fighting skyscraper-sized mechs. This can be achieved by demonstrating hard-surface modelling knowledge and applying research throughout the project’s conceptualisation and production.

As a final output, the objective is to produce a hard-surface mech character model, a soft-surface kaiju model, environments for both assets, a rendered cutscene of a launch sequence for the mech, a rendered portal scene of the Kaiju and a standoff scene of the two meeting before engaging in combat.

## Project Opportunities

It will be necessary to examine the progression of classic and modern science fiction, production techniques within traditional filmmaking, modern games art pipelines and exploring the principals of hard surface design throughout this project. Doing so will demonstrate personal development of skills within hard-surface modelling, 3D character modelling, refining a research-led workflow and expanding upon my knowledge of rendering techniques in Unreal Engine 5.

Whilst this study is centered around individual progression, it is important to note that collaboration remains essential for receiving feedback on outputs, advice on technical and modelling workflows and allowing for the project scope to be achieved.

# Mech vs Kaiju – Project Concept

The concept of this project follows popular Mecha culture, focusing on the development of a large piloted Mech fighting an interdimensional Kaiju creature. With such a large scale project, it was important to consider my individual capabilities and requirements for collaboration. After discussing the project concept with potential collaborators, I was able to enlist the support of Alex Leeming, a skilled soft-surface artist and MMU Alumni.

# Research

With an in-depth project such as this, research will be necessary to aid in the understanding of Mecha culture, filmmaking practices and Games Art development. By examining sources related to these topics, it will allow for more critical decisions to be made during the creative process with ease.

## Mecha and Mechs – Defining the terms

When referring to Mecha culture, it is important to note the differences bwtween terminology for this subject.

The term ‘Mecha’ refers to the genre of piloted giant robots, whilst the word ‘Mech’ refers to the machine itself.

### Meeting 1 – Understanding the thematic
Alex Leeming proved the most substantial as a potential collaborator as they were highly knowledgeable with Mecha and Kaiju culture whereas I was lacking on the subject. In order to share their expertise on the topic, we joined a virtual meeting and compiled various source media to take inspiration from.

Within this meeting we discussed multiple inspirational sources of content from popular media. The following playlist hyperlink details all of the source material we discussed, our analysis of these bodies of work on why they capture the essence of mecha culture and what aspects could be replicated to create an authentic project. Below is also a link to the full meeting, discussing all of the content within the referenced playlist.

Steingeist Project - References
https://youtu.be/kBhbZMHgDqg?si=kN1Ar3sSuGrQV43Y

Mecha culture analysis meeting
https://youtu.be/QnA6f0WVAug

### Mechs in Popular Media

Contemporary science-fiction media serves as a strong example of the perception towards technology, especially towards Mecha culture. As stated by Maradin (2009), our “fixation on out of this world technology” attributes to cultural attitudes of future human development through technological advancement. Japan and America being the “proprietors of contemporary media for Mecha culture” (Maradin, 2009), makes them largely responsible for the fascination with near future technology and mechanical arts.
The impact of mecha culture and its ability to influence opinions on technological advancements has led to the development of a variety of films such as Pacific Rim (2013), Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974) and Power Rangers (2017). This has also been replicated in videogames such as the Titanfall series, Armored Core series and the Gundam Breaker series among many others that follow popular mecha culture.
Videogames and films surrounding mecha culture have become popularised in American and Japanese media, unifying different cultural backgrounds under one thematic. Both American and Japanese interests in mecha culture has led to their own unique adaptations, influenced by their own societal values and trends such as the inclusion of patriotic imagery and native manners of conversation.

### Films

Comparing film Computer Generated (CG) workflows with game art workflows has helped me outline the similarities as well as potential challenges with being able to account for high quality against optimisation. Films have a high focus on creating hyper realistic visuals, aiming to create stunning scenery. This is achievable as intensive rendering for CG can be done without too much dependency on the consumer. Below are some examples of films and animations centred around mecha culture and their significance in adapting the genre.

#### Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Evangelion series features intricately designed mechs, merging humans with machine to create flesh/machine hybrid mechs, piloted by young adults as in this society, they are more capable of withstanding the intensity that comes with piloting an Eva mech. Mechs are depicted as sleek and cutting edge, compared to more bulkier and heavily armoured depictions from franchises such as Gundam or Votoms. Franchises like Mobile Suit Gundam and Votoms are more centered around 'real robot' aesthetics, whilst Evangelion moves towards 'super robot' territory, combining the autonomy of man and machine.

Within the series and the films, various different threats are encountered, but I chose to focus on the film *The End of Evangelion* (1997), as they depict an interesting narrative of the human piloted Eva mechs having to fight against their own mass production Eva mechs, despite them being more advanced with weapon integrations, abilities to fly and launching missiles. An underdog tale paired with intricate mech designs provided a strong and appealing narrative that I aimed to recreate within my own project.

#### Patlabor 1&2
Patlabor originally an anime series greatly increased the level of detail and quality of production when it came to the films. While not originally focusing on a mech fighting kaiju level threats, the mechs in this depiction of Japan functioned as militarised police cars, adorned with typical red and blue lights for sirens, emblems for police department imagery et cetera. I became massively interested in the autonomy of Patlabor’s mecha as they felt more realistic in their settings, functioning as large, bipedal police cars fighting crime in the city, mostly against illegally produced mechs, or companies aiming to profit from arms dealing through selling armed mechs.

#### Pacific Rim franchise
Pacific Rim is a series of films set in a contemporary United States, with some development towards other Asian nations in successive instalments to the franchise. Their concept designs feature very bulky, bipedal mechs with their own unique built-in weapon kits, but they often resort to close quarters combat (CQC) when engaging with kaijus. Both mech and kaiju designs within these films were immensely impactful to the franchise for their unique spin on the deep sea creature narrative. Their concepts for the kaijus featured bioluminescent monstrosities capable of spitting corrosive substances and having deadly anatomy such as claws, spiked tails et cetera. Replicating these organic forms for a kaiju model would be important to keep the project in line with the thematics of kaijus and mechs.

### Games

Videogame studios have always strived to provide consumers with realistic graphics and follow in the footsteps of filmography for cutscene rendering, but have had to make compromises for their games to be playable by gamers with less capable hardware. A masters lecture from earlier in the year (Gribi-King, 2024) covered the topic of "Speculative Future of Art Production for Games", in which he discusses consumer expectations and compares them against hardware capabilities and accessibility across the globe. Modern expectations for gaming have pushed game developers to focus on immersive storytelling, open world or immense world scale, providing live service for refreshing content and cross-compatibility whilst also considering the hardware requirements across the globe. Trying to balance all of these requirements can be a huge issue as this often requires game developers to sacrifice 'Latency over Fidelity' (Gribi-King, 2024), meaning that higher frame rates would be favoured over intense resolution settings.

Features such as ray-tracing for lighting, option dials for environmental rendering, anti-aliasing for smoothing jagged visuals, VSync to combat screen tearing and frame rate capping among many other methods aim to assist gamers with lower graphics hardware specifications, allowing for modern games to still be accessible to a large base, not just those who can afford to have the best hardware available.

*Pictured above: Baldur's Gate 3 settings menu showing all the options for attuning graphics settings for different hardware specifications.*

Considering the expectations from gaming communities and comparing them with optimisation methods will be an interesting development for this project as I could apply a focus on creating high quality renders through filmography workflows, or try to adapt them to creating more optimised models that could feature in both films and games.

#### Armored Core series

When looking at games relating to the thematics of mecha culture, *Armored Core* stood out for its intricate and highly complex mech concepts. Specifically looking at the Armored Core - For Answer Launch Trailer (2020), it showcases a highly intricate mech model at a hangar bay and follows a launch sequence of the mech. This paricular trailer was of importance as it highlighted key parts of the mech through cinematography, with each shot focusing on the intricate mechanical parts of the mech model. Armored Core's For Answer trailer was the best representation of modern mech culture utilising games art pipelines whilst taking into account cinematography techniques, which is something I was aiming to replicate within this project.

#### Titanfall series

Looking through the Titanfall Artbook, it was evident that the aesthetic within the franchise was less stylised and far more grounded in its designs. Titanfall's mech concepts favour functionality over aesthetical design, with emphasis on gearing, joints and technical components collaborating with its grungy and grounded aesthetic. One of the key aspects of Titanfall mechs were the lack of humanoid anatomy, choosing to favour function over form. Digitigrade limbs and lack of a percievable heads pushes its design from bipedal walkers towards mobile tanks, creating a new contrasting adaptation to conventional mech design.

---
### Robotics in popular media

Mecha culture provides extensive inspiration for collossal entities and their relative existence in the world, but has also spurred philosophical and ethical debates on the creation of robotics.

Western fascinations with robot culture have seen the development of films such as *I, Robot* (2004) and *Her* (2013) discuss the ethical concerns for sentience developing in robotics and the detachment between real human connections as it becomes substituted with artificial ones.

Advancements of modern technology have created a subgenre of films and games centered around artificial humanoids that gains sentience and turns against their owners. Most notably *Detroit: Become Human* (2018) paints a picture of a society built to function on artificial humans (referred to as “androids”) that begins to fragment as these androids gain consciousness and begin to act on their own accord.

Examining the modern developments of technology and comparing them with classical science-fiction tropes allows for an interesting opportunity for conceptual development within this project, as a new narrative could be explored when considering the merging of humas and machines.

### Ethics of robotics in the current and near future
Interestingly, Maradin’s thesis presents his perspective on scientific and humanitarian development, offering a viewpoint that contrasts against modern advancements in technology.

> “Science and engineering have not yet caught up to the culturally-nurtured imaginations and ambitions of the human spirit, and they never will.” (Maradin, 2009)

The impact of AI services has begun to bridge the gap between cold, emotionless robotics and emotive AI programs, making it ever present that what was once conceptualised as science fiction is becoming reality.

ChatGPT initially being developed as a customised artificial intelligence capable of researching and sharing knowledge in a more personable manner has led to an online userbase developing personal platonic and romantic relationships. This has also led to the rise of softwares such as Replika amongst many others that allow for romantic relations to be set right from the start.

### Impact of technology in modern society
Declining interests in modern dating culture, concerns for personal safety in a digitised world and less interest in retaining physical bonds has led to the popularisation of AI companions serving as virtual partners.

As convenient this may be for those possibly lacking social skills, it also raises concerns of “AI partners” being able to consent and being mistreated because they are more ‘agreeable’.

Maradin’s thoughts on engineering never coinciding with the “human spirit” does not correlate with the ‘loneliness epidemic’ according to the World Health Organisation that states “1 in 6 people experience loneliness” (WHO,2025). While AI companions may serve to temporarily fix the problem by making intimate interactions widely accessible, it also raises questions about how healthy of an outlet AI companions are, or whether they prey on lonely people for financial gain.

Exploring the zeitgeist of technology and comparing those attitudes to the reality of today is an interesting way to build a realistic connection between technology and humanity. By looking into the psychological impact of technology and AI advancements, I can find a more grounded view of modern perceptions towards technology and use this information to inform my thematic for the project. Exploring a society that has a focus on a more practical/labour focused society as opposed to an intimate one is the main focus for this project, but it is still important to see how current developments in technology have swerved to entertain as opposed to serving as autonomous labour.

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# Project Development

This section focuses on the development of this project from conceptualisation to its final output, detailing the progression of the project, issues encountered throughout development and the necessity for project rescaling.

### Project Lore
Titled Steingeist, this project tells the narrative of a near future society harnessing the power of mechs for planetary exploration and mining. Mechs within this society are used mostly for utility, as there are no pressing threats, but this is soon to change when a mining expedition on an Exoplanet causes a monstrous kaiju to awaken and chase down its enemy to their home planet, where a final stand ensues.

## Concept Process

Following the extensive research into filmmaking and animation methodologies, an analysis on the historical development of mecha culture and collecting primary sources through photographs and literature/art books, the development of concepts could begin.

During this time I consulted a variety of external peers on their opinions on mech designs and chose to start my process through creating blockouts of mechs. As mech designs can fluctuate between simplistic and extremely intricate, it was important to lay out the ground work of the mech’s forms before investing in details for the models. During this stage I worked with a focus on modelling, experimenting with booleans, loop cuts and extrusions to create precise, angular forms. The aim would be to produce a blockout that could be developed into an intricate mech model, before texturing and decimating the model in ZBrush or Substance Painter to achieve a chipped and worn down aesthetic.

I had no prior experience doing hard surface modelling for characters or props, so I consulted my collaborative peer Alexander about my aims of learning hardsurface modelling techniques. This would prove exceptionally useful in the coming weeks when I begin working on the final model and utilise hard surface techniques for the mech models.

### Meeting 2: Hard surface Workshop

As previously mentioned, my experience with hard surface character modeling is limited. My background primarily involves creating complex environment assets such as cathedrals and interior furnishings.
Having Alex, who is well-versed in both organic sculpting and hard surface modeling, was valuable for this project, as both skill sets were essential for developing the kaiju and mech models, respectively.

Within this meeting, I was able to focus on developing some basic hard surface skills in ZBrush, learning the Zmodeler toolkit which is essential for intricate detailing, creating precise cuts in topology and adding extrusions to meshes for more complex shape forms. This workshop was exceptionally useful as it provided me with a basis for modelling hard surface objects that could be utilised for the mech models.

Learning the Z Modeler toolkit in ZBrush reminded me of a very similar workflows in Autodesk Maya, where booleans, extrusions and sweep meshes can easily reproduce hard surface aesthetics. Having more experience and comfort with the Maya toolkit when it comes to environment modelling made me feel more inclined to use Maya first and see how the project develops.

### Project Workflow
At this point, I decided to create a customised workflow that could allow room for iterating forms, experimenting with alpha channels for detailing and texturing with smart materials and generators in Substance Painter to add final aesthetical touches and edge wearing to the model.

This research focused workflow would take into account all of the conducted primary research, literature, art books, PureRef mood boards, Research meeting talks and film/games concept designs in order to produce a well informed output.

The workflow would consist of blocking out models in Autodesk Maya, as this is the software I’m most well versed in. Using Maya would speed up the initial modelling process, allowing for more time to be spent on enhancing the model with intricate parts and for texturing the model in Substance Painter.

Following the blockout process, I would begin to refine hard surface forms with Maya’s toolkit, focusing on mostly the polyExtrude and Booleans to create dynamic meshes.
Once the models begin to take shape, the models could be imported to ZBrush for more detailing with the ZModeler toolkit and Live Boolean tool to create more refined topology synonymous with precisely constructed mechs.
Once the models are completed, they will be taken to Substance Painter to be textured with smart materials and generators to add details such as chipping, scuff marks and custom texture decals on the models for a more realistic appearance.
Once the texturing is completed, the models will be ready for scenic composition rendering in Unreal Engine 5.

# References and Moodboards

After conducting extensive research on mechs, analysing the designs, artstyles and comparing them against the project goals, it was necessary to start compiling reference material and imagery that could aid in concept development and modelling processes. After speaking to Alex Leeming about a variety of films, TV shows and cel animations, I compiled a selection of extensive references that could be used for the mech.

#### Moodboards
*Screenshot of image references from Zone of Enders and Mobile Suit Gundam.*
*Screenshot of image references from Gunbuster and Patlabor.*
*Screenshot of image references from Neon Genesis Evangelion.*
*Screenshot of image references from Gunhead, Mazinger and Armored Core.*
*Screenshot of image references from Votoms, Escaflowne and Gasaraki.*

Out of all the moodboard references collected, I was most drawn to the visuals of Patlabor for its grounded visuals and highly complex interior sets paired with sleek and simple mech concepts. I was also interested in the Gunhead and Evangelion depictions as I liked their unique spins on mecha culture, taking a more futuristic approach and challenging the original narrative of heavily armoured mechs with limited mobility.

#### Votoms
Votoms was of particular interest to me for their grounded use of militarised mechs and their relativity of scale seemed more realistic and easier to gauge, whilst Evangelion remains as a staple in mecha culture for creating athletic mechs. Evangelion in particular tells the narrative of a society utilising mechs piloted by young adults, with an interesting technical composition of mechs being part flesh part machine. This integration serves as a plot point in the Evangelion Film where piloted mechs have to fight against AI piloted mechs that have overridden their programming and breaching their protocols. I thoroughly liked the concept of the mech itself being the weapon, with the Eva-01 Unit having a box cutter weapon sheathed inside its arm compartments, as well as the overridden Eva’s having missiles that lock into shoulder compartments, making their designs appear intricately crafted and intended.

#### Evangelion
The athleticism of Evangelion mechs and their unique designs were inspirational for my concept, but felt too detached from my original project lore and so I chose to focus on Votoms and Pacific Rim as my main influences for creating bulkier, more grounded mechs. I had concerted ideas of construction based mechs, with features like handlebars, towing winches, gears and pipes. This felt more in tune with transporting and resource related industrial mech designs as opposed to sleek athletic concepts that are precisely created for conflict.
When looking at the cinematography of Patlabor 2, the opening cutscenes show the intricacies of the pilots cockpit and the gloves pairing with the tendon like pistons in the mechs arms. This particular scene provided me with inspiration and felt more relatable for my thematic, as the mechs in Patlabor were designed by functionality and it’s purpose as a police car. My thematic of developing a construction and mining focused series of mechs would align more with Patlabor’s depictions of mechs and so I heavily referenced their concepts for my own work.

---
### Primary Research
During this point, I worked with Alex to conduct primary research, looking at sources of inspiration such as wartime museums, airshows and exhibitions that could aid in developing a good reference board for the mech model to be built from.

*Primary Research - photographs collected by Alex Leeming and I when visiting Suffolk and St. Andrew's, Scotland.*

## Modelling Process – Concept Development

Forming the project workflow outlined above would allow for a clear sense of direction, as well as making it easier to streamline the workflow or troubleshoot issues at each stage when necessary.

Following the workshop provided by Alex Leeming, I proceeded to develop basic blockouts and create concept art with Alex for the mechs. I wanted to create something that was well informed by the research conducted and thematics explored, so I chose a select few representations of popular mecha culture and took inspiration from them. Having explored a variety of mech animations and films, I was particularly drawn to the Votoms series and Evangelion series, and aimed to replicate their aesthetics within my own work.

## Modelling Process – First Mech
After creating initial concept art for mechs, I began to model the first concept design as it provided a good starting point for constructing some complex forms with intricate details and proved to be a good starting point for testing my hard surface modelling skills that I learned from Alex’s tutorials.

#### Concept Art
Below is the concept art for one of the first mechs that I then modelled as a pratice piece for learning hard surface skills and applying the techniques for an intricate model.

*Concept Art of a support/resource loading mech with intricate detailing and mechanical components.*

#### Model Process - Support Mech
*Screenshot of modelling the mech arm in Maya viewport.*
*Screenshot of mech progression in Maya viewport, fixing proportions.*
*Screenshot of mech progression in Maya viewport.*

#### 3D Model - Support Mech
*Screenshot showing front view of Support mech in Maya viewport.*
*Render showing front view of Support mech, using Arnold.*
*Screenshot showing back view of Support mech in Maya viewport.*
*Render showing back view of Support mech, using Arnold.*

### Meeting 3 – Feedback on Hard Surface Model and Kaiju model feedback
After spending some time refining the first mech model, I felt pleased with the output as it reflected the concept art well, was proportional and had low mesh density, which would be great for creating an optimization focused workflow for games. At this point I debated if the model should be subdivided more for higher levels of detail as this would be more synonymous with film production quality.

I conducted another meeting with Alex to receive a peer review of the model, as well as to see how the progression of the kaiju models were going. We both decided to attempt smaller models and test our skills first as creating a centerpiece model from the start was an insurmountable task and would be difficult to get correct without having iterations to review.

Below is a transcript of the meeting, detailing Alex's experience of the initial sculpting process, his feedback for my model and some feedback for the kaiju.

> Alex:
When it came to designing my kaiju, I wanted to look at a range of designs but mostly focusing on the classic Tokusatsu filmmaking of live action films paired with practical effects. I really admire the creativity of these designs despite their limitations of having to be a worn costume and the limited budgets when compared to a modern western film budget.
For example TV shows like Ultraman had a fast weekly episode run that required the kajiu costumes to be produced quickly and so they often took costumes from other productions and repurposed them. Eiji Tsuburaya was the lead director and owner of Tsuburaya Productions and provided costumes for early Tokustasu shows, most famously working on Godzilla but also worked on Ultraman. Godzilla suits were often reused in Ultraman, with different changes to the suits like frills, horns, and plating.
The two most notable of these were Jirras and Gomess, the latter being referenced by Hideaki Anno in Shin-Ultraman where the first kajiu to appear in the film was Gomess and the character was a slightly altered version of Shin Godzilla, a nice to anode both the creature and the history of the show.
I think despite the cartoonish and silly looks of these costumes, there are nice quirks to the designs that I believe to be quite unique and can be extrapolated to create a more believable creature while still maintaining what made it unique in the first place.
When I started working on the kaiju, I took a look at Zeton's design, as I have always been a fan of the concept for Zeton and decided it would be a good exercise to resculpt a Zeton bust before taking on the challenge of designing my own kaiju from scratch that could attempt to update a classic.
*Alex's messages of the Zeton sculpt in Zbrush (left) and the original reference photo (right).*
I find the task of updating a creature very difficult as its very easy to miss the point entirely and over design the creature to look modern and realistic, losing a lot of the charm of the original concepts and that was something I set out to avoid. I think the end design of the Zeton maquette represents the original well, keeping to the original quirks of the classic design whilst improving on the proportions that just would not be achievable by a man in a costume.
Now that I had designed a creature I felt was in line with what we were trying to achieve, I felt like I could move onto designing the main kajiu.

During this point Alex had also created a variety of concept art for the main kaiju model, as well as concept art for a pilot that could operate my mech model. With Alex being able to quickly mock up concepts, it allowed for a really quick visual representation of all the key components for the project. Without Alex's skills with concept art, the project would have become a lot tougher with iterating designs and trying to create unique concepts that were informed by the classic concepts of kaiju and mech design.

*Screenshot of Alex's concept art for an initial kaiju design.*

*Screenshot of Alex's anatomical concept art for an initial kaiju design.*

*Screenshot of Alex's kaiju head concept art for a kaiju design.*

*Screenshot of Alex's first concept art for the pilot of the mech.*

*Screenshot of Alex's updated concept art for the pilot of the mech.*

*Screenshot of Alex's concept art for the initial main mech design.*

All concept art provided was created by Alex Leeming, and despite the project focusing on the independent developments of the project, it is important to acknowledge that collaboration, even at the smaller stages are vital for helping provide visual aid.

When Alex showed the concept art for the mechs and the pilot, I thoroughly enjoyed the visualisations, but felt they needed some changes as my initial view of the project had a more functional oriented focus, following in the footsteps of Patlabor and Votoms. Looking at the mech concept art in particular, I liked the complexity of the mech, the agile silhouette and the segmented joints, but felt that it took too much away from the initial concept of a mining purposed mech. The thrusters, legs and arm joints were aesthetically what I wanted to reproduce in my model, but the form depicted in the concept felt more in line with Evangelion's sleeker aesthetic.

The pilot concept art was exactly in line with what I pictured for the mech pilot, showcasing lots of pouches, straps, mechanical components, wiring and clothing that captured the aesthetic of a contruction mech pilot. As we highlighted that the mech would be detailed but stylised, we wanted the pilot to also reflect the same nature as its mech so that their art styles would be consistent.

Looking at the kaiju models, Alex and I both agreed that something more primal in nature and following the classic design of a bipedal creature like Godzilla would be a better tribute to the mecha vs kaiju culture. I liked the concept of the kaiju lacking discernable features, but we agreed that a re-imagination of a classic kaiju creature would fit more in line with the project aims. Even though the concept art did not perfectly capture the project, it was a good starting point for us to begin modelling and iterating for the main models.

## Graphic Designs – Mech Decals

After developing my first model, I wanted to attempt creating decals to bring more life to the models, making them more personable. Inspecting my model, I noticed the model felt too clean, and needed some weathering patterns and some decals to make them seem more like branded machinery as opposed to manicured robots. I took a lot of inspiration from shipping crates and tank decals, looking at their aesthetics, logo designs, brandings and patterns to create a series of my own decals that could be used across all my models for this project. I liked the idea of creating my own company branding for a fictional mining company, so I chose to experiment with graphic decals for company logos, as well as branding patterns for the mechs. I also liked the idea of creating a pin-up inspired decal set, taking inspiration from wartime pinup aesthetics and reimagining them as galatic mining propaganda that could be used on the mechs as decals or pinned up inside the cockpit as a polaroid photograph for the pilot.

*Graphic design logo I created for a fictional mining company to be used as a decal.*

*Graphic designs for various other ficitional company logos to be used as decals for the mechs.*

*Graphic design decals of unit numbers to be used as decals on the mechs as a form of identification and uniformity.*

*Pin-up inspired decal I created for use as a decal or for props, showing both the reference photo and the pin-up art.*

## 3D Model - Main Mech

After creating stylised decals, iterating with the first mech model and experimenting with hard surface modelling techniques, I was finally able to begin modelling the centerpiece mech model. I felt comfortable enough at this point to make a start on producing the model as I had utilised ZBrush and Maya's toolkit well for hardsurface modelling. Below are some snapshots of the modelling process leading up to the finalised model.

### Main Model - Maya

*Screenshot of Maya viewport showing iterative modelling for mech components.*

*Screenshot of Maya viewport showing arm and leg joints, with an iteration of an arm cannon.*

*Screenshot taken in Maya of a close up view of the arm joint, cannons and initial torso modelling stage.*

*Screenshot taken in Maya of the Mech's Driller Arm being iterated.*

*Screenshot taken in Maya of the curve tool generated for the drill, with a Sweep mesh being used for the final drill model.*

*Screenshot taken in Maya of the finalised torso and arms.*

*Screenshot taken in Maya of the ankle and feet of the finalised mech.*

After finalising the model and sharing my progress with others for their feedback, I felt comfortable taking renders and assigning materials to start building on the texturing stage of development.

*Screenshot of the final mech, with assigned materials for texturing.*
*Screenshot of the final mech, with assigned materials for texturing.*
*Screenshot of the final mech drill arm, with assigned materials for texturing.*

### Main Model - Maya Arnold Renders

After finalising the model and getting constant feedback from my project manager Ashli and my collaborator Alex Leeming, I was able to finally take some Arnold renders of the mech model. By this point I was really happy with the model, as after cleaning up the model, the entire mech model had 48k faces, which is quite good for a hard surface character model. I would have like to have spent more time subdividing the mesh and adding even more intricate details with ZBrush's ZModeler toolkit, but due to time constraints, I wasn't able to continue spending time with modelling.

*Screenshot of Mech poly count, taken in Autodesk Maya.*

*Arnold render of the final Mech, posed.*
*Arnold render of the final Mech, close up, posed.*
*Arnold render of the final Mech, side close up view, posed.*
*Arnold render of the final Mech, full body render, posed.*
*Arnold render of the final Mech, ground view, posed.*

---
# Assessing the Project Scope

After conducting extensive research, collating reference material and assessing the current project progression, the project scope had to be changed. During the prior meeting with Alex, I was able to finish the first model and create texture decals for my mech models while Alex was able to mock up concept art for the kaiju/mech pilot, create a ZBrush model of the pilot's head and recreate a classic kaiju model in ZBrush, but I began debating the next steps of development, assessing the current progress and what needed to be changed.

The original focus for this project was to assess and apply Filmmaking practices and Game Art workflows to produce high quality hard-surface mechs and organic creature models to be cinematically filmed with Unreal Engine 5’s toolkit. This featured rendered scenes the pilot walking along the hangar platform, operating the mech through a hangar bay launch sequence, a portal scene for the Kaiju and a standoff scene in a countryside nearby a large city.

Significant progress was being made, but due to personal bereavement and future engagements to career prospects for both Alex and I, the scale had to be revised as there was six weeks left to finish production of the project. This was a pivotal point of the project as it meant that my initial ambitions for the project would most likely not be achieveable within the timeframe.

After discussing the project scale with my project manager Ashli Bell-Bowling and project collaborator Alex Leeming, I was able to find a realistic means of finalising this project for submission. This would consist of reducing the focus on cinematography and sequenced renders and allocating it more on the process of modelling, texturing and scene composition within Unreal Engine 5. I was still aiming to utilise my understanding of cinematography within Unreal Engine 5, so I continued to work on creating an environment that could showcase these models. It would be a necessary compromise in order to finish the project on time.

Though this was difficult to come to terms with, it was necessary to have these meetings and accept that certain goals may not be achievable within the time frame, and so we began to formulate a plan of action for the remainder of the time left. At this point of the project, I had already begun making the final mech model, Alex was continuing his progress on the kaiju model and we were looking at various techniques of modelling, texturing and rendering that could quickly help speed up the workflow.

# Collaboration
I had consulted other peers within my cohort about potential collaborations and chose to help Sarah Booth with her project work as a Graphic Designer creating decals for her racing car in exchange for her assistance doing some of the UV tiles for my mech model. It was a difficult point of the project and I needed as much assistance to make sure i could get my models finished in time, so i enlisted Sarah's help to help streamline my workflow. Throughout the project, I have collaborated with others either via providing my skillsets, providing feedback or enlisting others to assist in my project development and this reflects the professional industry workflow.

Gaining assistance from meetings with Alex Leeming and Ashli Bell-Bowling allowed my work to be critically examined and helped me assess how to manage this project with a realistic set of aims. My original aims were definitely ambitious especially to complete in the span of three months, but the aim was to collaborate as much as I could to provide value to others and gain more insight on how to develop my own skillset from others who are more well versed in different areas of games art production. The meetings were important for allowing me to keep a professional manner of organisation and made sure to keep me on track by certain points of the project so that when each meeting was conducted, there was progress to show. This will aid me moving forward, as it is professional custom to report your progress in weekly meetings but also to ask for assistance when you are struggling to overcome certain obstacles.

# Texturing

After assessing the project scope and streamlining the project with some assistance from interested collaborators, I was able to finally begin making more progress towards getting my model textured. I had previously studied the use of UDIMS in a prior unit I studied, and wanted to utilise that information for this mech character model. With the model being exceptionally detailed in some parts, I did not want to lose quality of texturing across the model, so I created multiple UVs laid out in identifiable sections: arms, legs, head and torso and cannons. As the mech had been modelled with modular composition in mind, a lot of the mech's components were repeatable such as the joints, which made creating UV sheets and laying out the UDIMs a lot easier.

*Screenshot of entire mech model UV's laid out for UDIM usage in Substance Painter.*
*Screenshot of entire mech model UV's laid out for UDIM usage in Substance Painter.*

### Texturing issues
When trying to navigate substance painter's UDIM integration for my model imports, I noticed two main issues that caused significant errors when importing my model. In the past, I have assigned materials for different groups, usually to signify the different materials for the models which has been fine for static environment assets not requiring UDIM layouts for texturing. Applying multiple materials often does not work with UDIMs. Another issue was the method of exporting. After trying multiple times to resize my UDIM layouts, moving them around and re-baking, I still could not fix the baking error in Substance Painter. At this point I had consulted Sarah Booth and Alex Leeming about this baking issue, none of which could help with the errors for baking and promptly led to me searching for a fix for this issue.

*Screenshot of UDIM import error in Substance Painter.*

### UDIM fix
*After trying multiple different exporting options in the advanced export options in Maya and customising importing options, the only fix I was able to find for UDIM supported models was to export the model as an OBJ, rather than a FBX. I believed FBX files to be more versatile for asset texturing and importing, but the only solution I was able to find was importing to substance as an OBJ.

*Screenshot of UDIM importing fix, with the UDIMs enabled.

After getting the UDIMs to work, I was able to begin the more enjoyable part of the process: texturing. As mentioned earlier, I had produced a variety of decals for the mech and wanted to make use of them by decorating the model. Below are some screenshots of the texturing process, where I used my textures as base textures, alphas for custom brushes and used generators to create chipping and scratching detail.

### Texturing process
*Screenshot of a rust layer for the mech, mostly affecting the joints and concaved parts of the model.*
*Screenshot of the viewport in Substance, showing a custom alpha and the rust texture layered on a generative material.*
*Screenshot of my custom textures being used as alphas for a paint brush, making it easier to paint on the decals.*
*Screenshot of my pin-up art on the digging arm, used as a base texture.*
*Screenshot of the viewport in Substance completed with texturing.*
*Screenshot of the viewport in Substance completed with texturing.*

# Unreal Engine - Final Render

# Conclusion

The original project goal was to develop a mech character model, a creature model, a select few sets for each model and create a cinematic short film that is informed by mecha and kaiju culture. Over the course of this project I believe I have established a strong project structure. Looking back on the work, I can acknowledge that I took up an ambitious project and that the level of workload would be near impossible to complete on my own in the span of three months, especially as the project aimed to create an entirely new set of environments, character models and create cinematic sequence renders for each.

Despite not meeting my initial project aims, I have learned a lot over the course of this year of study, allowing for my skills to develop into more versatile skillsets that I had not known of before. My prior units of study provided me with the knowledge of utilising alpha channels for custom texture brushes, utilising UDIMS for higher texture resolutions on high quality assets, learning the node system to create stylised shaders in Unreal Engine 5 and learning the cinematic sequencer within UE5 to film sequences.

Over the course of this unit, I have identified a lot of personal challenges that I needed support with to get my work to the final stages. I was stuck trying to fix UDIMs for a long time before I was able to progress to texturing, this wouldn't have improved had I not consulted other peers along the way. Considering the scope of my project, I am pleased to have got as far as I aimed to, considering that as an individual, I created multiple hard surface models, created custom decals, custom textures and rendered them.

With further time to develop the project, I would have liked to expand more on the hard surface elements of the models, creating more intricate parts and texturing them with more weathering/chipping detail, and rigging them for animation in a cinematic render.

My prior experience has solely focused on environment art and prop art, but over the course of this year I have pushed myself to expand my skillsets towards creature modelling, technical art and hard surface.

I have found this project overall exceptionally enjoyable as it has tested my abilities as a games artist and has pushed me to understand how it is to take up multiple roles within a studio, not just a role that I am comfortable in which reflects the working practices in the professional world.

# Bibliography

Gribi-King, A. (2024) The Speculative Future of
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Maradin, N.R. (2009), “MECHA:
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DEMONSTRATED IN SCIENCE FICTION MECHANICAL DESIGN”. Undergraduate Thesis. University of Pittsburgh. Available at: https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/7880/1/Maradin_Nicholas_BPhil2008.pdf. (Accessed: 23 June 2025).

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Shinkawa, Y (2009) “Metal Gear Solid 4: Master Art Works”. Japan. Softbank Creative Corp, Konami.

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Bandai Visual (1989) “Patlabor The Movie - Archives”. Printed in US. Headgear, TFC, Production IG.

Bandai Visual (1993) “Patlabor 2 - Movie Collectors Edition Artbook”. Printed in US. Headgear, TFC, Production IG.

Dominguez, A (2022) “Mechapocalypse: Tracing the Global Popularity of Mobile Suit Gundam”. [E-book] Illinois. Illinois Open Publishing Network. Available online: https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/article/view/926

River Seager (2023) “The Mecha Genre and its Apocalyptic Bodies”. Illinois: Illinois Open Publishing Network. Available online: https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/article/view/926

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