This week for my game called The Gap I’ve been doing some house components. The game is set in the suburbs and there will be a lot of house interiors. In what I envision to be the opening scene of the game your main character wakes in his or her bedroom alive with excitement and ready to explore the world. Which has little to do with cornices but it’s these details that make the game look like a world and adds to the immersion.

So here is an example of a cornice that I have made in Blender using the Bevel Modifier.

This starts as a cube with about a quarter cut out of the form and a reduced height. But any straight edge will do. First use the edge select to assign all the relevant parts you want to bevel into a Vector Group. (Select the edge and in the object data panel use the “assign” button under the Vector Group section). Then you add the Bevel Modifier and as you can see in the image above you use the Limit Method by Vector Group and then add your new Vector Group you just assigned. Choose Custom Bevel and use either one of the presets or use the graphing tool window at the bottom to create your own bevel shape. There are a couple of nice cornice style presets in that section to get you started. (It helps to play round with the Amount and Segments section at the top to improve the look – also try Smooth Shading on the object).

Below is a Window frame I used the same technique on but with a different profile. I used ctrl+R to make some loop cuts around the inside of my window frame and used the edge select to assign the cuts to a Vector Group. Then again I used a Bevel Modifier to make a custom set of ridges around the window frame to make it look like the fittings of the aluminium framing around the glazing of the window.

You can see I also added a normal Bevel Modifier to the edge of Window Sill to create the outer wall shape where the rain runs away from the window frame.

I did a quick mock up in Unity to see how they performed under the often difficult lighting environment of the game engine. As you can see below by the shadows on the walls and spot light on the floor it’s not an ideal set up and the cornices are looking pretty crap. At the top of the room on the back wall I have two longer cornice pieces and a corner piece is visible as well. The two at the back are picking up different light sources and one looks lighter than the other. They are clearly three separate objects and not one nice clean line. It might help to add some more surface geometry to the longer pieces so they are not just one long face (loop cuts or subdivisions). Alternatively I could measure them out to fit the room exactly and meet in the corners – but then I would have to make multiple lengths instead of a more modular re-usable approach.

Character Design

The other thing I did this week that was actually productive is some more character designs. This one is Hippo Boy catching a football and a couple of different shading styles (still playing with Clip Studio and still enjoying it). Next up I’m thinking about all the ways I can program a mugby style football game.