Native Hunter

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Native Hunter

Duration: 6 months

Team Size: Solo

Position: Technical Designer

Developer: Personal

Engine: Unreal 4

Intro

This prototype places the player in the role of a young Native American on his first hunting trip. The player works alongside other hunters and helps them meet their hunting quotas while exploring the surrounding wilderness. This was a solo project, so I was responsible for almost every part of the development process. The only assets I did not create myself were the forest environment assets, including the animals, trees, and rocks. These were purchased from CGTrader at https://www.cgtrader.com

Mechanics

The character was modeled in Autodesk Maya using basic modelling techniques. I started with a simple cube and shaped the model using reference images, primarily through extrusion and other fundamental tools.

For rigging, I used Mixamo, which was also the source of the animation pack used in the project. Some of the animations initially caused parts of the mesh to distort, but this was corrected in Maya using the skinning tools. I received guidance from an artist friend on how to adjust the skin weights to fix the issue.

 
 

I used World Machine to generate a base landscape that could be imported into Unreal Engine. This provided a starting point for the overall terrain.

Once inside Unreal, I refined the landscape by smoothing out sharp edges and steep hills. I also used Unreal’s sculpting tools to create features such as a lake and several rivers.

I initially attempted to use landscape layer painting, but the results were not quite what I had envisioned. Instead, I created a single material that uses the landscape height map to apply different colours across the terrain. This approach gave me some control over the visual style while keeping the environment more consistent than painting the landscape by hand, and it ultimately produced a better result.

 

I bought a really nice art package but it didn’t have everything I wanted. I created all of the camp assets and the water

 

  • 2 difrent drying/butcher racks
  • camp fire + particle effect
  • Shelter
  • Bow
  • Large animal Rig
  • water + river spline

Art

The character was modeled in Autodesk Maya using basic modelling techniques. I started with a simple cube and shaped the model using reference images, primarily through extrusion and other fundamental tools.

For rigging, I used Mixamo, which was also the source of the animation pack used in the project. Some of the animations initially caused parts of the mesh to distort, but this was corrected in Maya using the skinning tools. I received guidance from an artist friend on how to adjust the skin weights to fix the issue.

 
 

I used World Machine to generate a base landscape that could be imported into Unreal Engine. This provided a starting point for the overall terrain.

Once inside Unreal, I refined the landscape by smoothing out sharp edges and steep hills. I also used Unreal’s sculpting tools to create features such as a lake and several rivers.

I initially attempted to use landscape layer painting, but the results were not quite what I had envisioned. Instead, I created a single material that uses the landscape height map to apply different colours across the terrain. This approach gave me some control over the visual style while keeping the environment more consistent than painting the landscape by hand, and it ultimately produced a better result.

 

I bought a really nice art package but it didn’t have everything I wanted. I created all of the camp assets and the water

 

  • 2 difrent drying/butcher racks
  • camp fire + particle effect
  • Shelter
  • Bow
  • Large animal Rig
  • water + river spline