This Will 10X Your Modeling Speed | Greyboxing

[@StrunDoNhor]

If you're a beginner dev or artist, then take it from this solo dev: do not get "lost in the polish". You _will_ want to build your assets and make them look pretty from the start, but that all needs to come later (it will come later). Build for functionality, first.

[@MrMOGHammer]

There is a lot of misconception about what polishing is, and it rarely means nice graphics in game development. Or even software development. It’s more about smoothing out the “kinks” for a smooth gaming experience, ironing out the pesky bugs that might impair gameplay.

[@jbdh6510]

Yes! Gameplay over Graphics

[@2.Plus.2.Equals.5]

Mockup, block up, prototype, layout, scale test, grey box. Call it what you want but pretty much any graphic artist does this, especially level designers.

[@brodriguez11000]

Have to, modern levels are too complex to waste time on.

[@BeAltyrnative]

or blockmeshing

[@fearingalma1550]

I hated greyboxing starting out, I just layered on detail after detail and the details became the level, but that's because I was working in Source and using pre-existing assets. I still hate looking at it, particularly since I'm trying to quickly nail down the vibe of an area and translate my concept art as fast as possible. But more awareness of the process of level design is always a plus and I suppose I had to break that bad habit eventually...

[@faryanblender8946]

I am building modular assets to creat buildings and yes we defo need that. We call it Blockout

[@Patxi__]

Newbies prefer to start making detailed level art, because is fun and "easy". When they jump to animation, programming etc, they give up because they see that making a game it is way harder than they though.

[@thanatosor]

Wait till they have to write a careful desgin document for every level / mechanism & story

[@Fenseone]

@@thanatosor Or till they have to submit their work with freeze'd transformations, pivots in center of world, no pinches, everything named correctly, integrated in engine, packed and screenshotted 😂

[@vectorlua8081]

I thought the same thing, except I'm good at programming, which, as you may imagine, isn't the only thing needed to create a game.

[@Patxi__]

@@vectorlua8081 I think if you are programmer you can create an entire game by yourself using premade assets or placeholder models. A 3D/2D artist can't do that. But, of course the result may be better if you team up with a game designer and an artist.

[@Fenseone]

@@Patxi__ They can, sure. They can still come up to problems tho. Some assets are made with lightmaps, other without, some will be lowpoly, some much less optimized. Wait till u put 3 guns in game and get 2 fps

[@CathodeRayKobold]

I find it's useful to fully detail a small part of the level at the start. Even if I delete it later, it's useful to have that visual guideline and something to pull prefabs off of.

[@jessyberbers5997]

Isnt this just called Blocking out?

[@TheExFatal]

Same thing really

[@fergadelics]

It works. The term blocking a scene has to do with tv/ movie scenes, its origin comes from theatre. Someone used little wood blocks to illustrate how he wanted the actors to move around.

[@vader9133]

0:26

[@CeceMelchor]

Might be a little confusing to short hand it as blocking out b/c of the staging of actors in film/tv. Idk if it matters though. I’ve definitely said I was blocking something out when working ux/ui, but the context was clear there

[@jessyberbers5997]

@@CeceMelchor Well, it was the term that was used by my "teacher" and he explained it as because of using cubes alot to represent objects in a scene that arent modelled yet, its called boxingout or blocking out.

[@adrianzockt5347]

This video could be summarized into 1 sentence: concepting and blockout is necessary for a coherent level, and gives you the opportunity to test and plan gameplay early on. If youre looking for a tutorial on blockout modeling in unreal engine look elsewhere

[@brodriguez11000]

Prototyping basically.

[@_.l4n3]

2&1/2 sentences

[@ChaojianZhang]

I always overlooked it. Great lesson.

[@Flowing_8175]

Before: realistic image without doubt After: JUST A WHITE CONCRETE *_Last Brain Cell Left the game_*

[@Mrtargi]

Amazing, thank you so much! Can you clarify one more detail, is it better to create whole scenes and move them to game engine? Or separate it into tiles and then put them together?

[@Fenseone]

Separate them into tiles. You basically would want to go as modular as you can. Every prop exported as its own fbx. If your whole level is out of one mesh export, a lot of problems can occur

[@Mrtargi]

@@Fenseone thank you!

[@monke3043]

i will try this method tomorrow to make body of aircraft (3D Model)

[@InspirationTuts]

Have fun

[@Thrillidas]

It reminded me when you design UI for websites. Thank you for the tip !

[@warrenscipio4168]

I dont think whitebox testing is referring to the color of the boxes, its a general computer science/software engineer term, I think whitebox testing refers to testing a system that you have the "lights on" you can see every input and going in and seeing how they work in the system, Blackbox testing is testing only the outputs, you could careless about the inner workings of the system because it is just a dark black box to you that and you only care about what goes in and what comes out, I imagine greyboxing is actually a term describing both of these kinds of tests or a middle ground.

[@zonea4860]

While you're right with both whitebox and blackbox, because the terms are indeed used in software engineering, greyboxing in this specific case is just a term that generally refers to art in the first phase and its name actually really comes from the color and shape of the basic prototype you make (i.e. you use literal "grey boxes"). Oh there also, just like you said, is something called greybox testing that is in between whitebox and blackbox, but the only similarity between greybox testing and greyboxing in 3D art is the name

[@macronomicus]

In blender you can easily walk thru your mesh, or fly, when in object mode hit the keys... |SHIFT | and | ~ | ...controls for the mode are listed at bottom of screen, to enable gravity, walk/fly & others, it can come in handy to get a view of things from the right perspectives.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Modern indie games: Just ship the grayboxed environments with some color splashed onto it.

[@vlyrreiht]

Most certainly the dust two think about!

[@goldfishy]

Great video. Where did the thumbnail drawing for the compositions come from? It is shown at 5:00.

[@arcanep]

Unreal dynamic meshes kinda kill this part, so I love it because I hate looking at my blank game. When I finish a room and the rest is just blocks, it also kills my motivation. So in my opinion, it’s not something I do. I do, however, plan it in 2D top-down, usually on paper or Photoshop. Milanote is also a cool tool for this planning phase.

[@gamemakingkirb667]

Guess the title attracted some pros, but at least the newbies were here to learn, too (me haha).

[@cjhatesu]

This is type the fundamental knowledge that really needs to have more presence in tutorials - both paid and free courses. Or maybe it's just that I've learned 3d through courses on using C4D for motion graphics. But as I've tried to get more into world/scene building I've found it pretty frustrating to get a cohesive sense of scale part way through a project and quickly losing my passion for it. Thank you for sharing this knowledge.

[@mikeha]

with unity you can greybox directly in the engine using probuilder

[@Andrium]

I am Level Designer. Greyboxing, whiteboxing, blockout it's very usefull.

[@MykahMaelstrom]

My mans just made a whole 8 minute video explaining the most basic first step everyone who works in 3D already does but presents it as some kind of godlike speed tip lol Edit: im getting a lot of replies here that are really missing the point of this comment. Greyboxing/blocking out things is an important first step and im not denying that its important for beginners to learn. the point of this comment is not that the information is wrong or irrelevant but that the PRESENTATION of the information isnt ideal. the video is titled "this will 10X your modeling speed" and is generally presented as if its a video targeted at people who already know a thing or two about modeling. its a video for beginners presented and in a way marketed towards pros. if instead it was titled and framed somthing like "Dont underestimate this crucial first step in modeling" or something along those lines it would be more appropriate for what the video is actually about, and who the video is for

[@Bweep18]

If anything, it's just a reminder to put more emphasis behind doing it. Not exactly a "life hack no one knows about"

[@VS-mt5tz]

You make the most useless vids I've seen on here lmao

[@oediaxl]

he’s not talking to professionals, he’s talking to schmucks like me f’ing around in their basement after work.

[@joepolophotography]

Hey I found this video extremely helpful as a newbie, check yourself bud I'm sure you can learn something valuable watching beginner tutorials if you try

[@suspectplayerau6258]

Need to explain this process to Fiverr clients... Trust me they all want to skip this step of development

[@pdbsstudios7137]

i just do domular details, so i start by the main thing and then add details over time, much easier than remaking the whole thing as grayboxing is.

[@TorQueMoD]

Great video :) It's also called blocking in or blocking out. In fact, I think those terms are used more often than "insert-color-here Boxing".

[@lawrence9713]

I find it difficult to swap the greybox with the actual models. I did a small island with paths and filled the spaces with boxes "buildings". Had no idea how to get the final art fitting without going back and forth and constantly readjusting

[@esscee96]

generally your greybox models and final meshes should conform to some predetermined dimensions. you then create your final buildings as best to the dimensions/overall silhouette of your placeholder greybox models. For me personally, I just overwrite and save the new meshes over the greybox's fbx - and atleast in Unreal Engine, you can right click and refresh the 3d model in the library browser to make it update to the new mesh. And since the same greybox should be instantiated across the map, it should update all the models to be the same. This way you don't have to go back and forth with replacing your placeholder greybox meshes with the final assets unless you need to.

[@sophiasouza4122]

To add to what the other person replying to this said... you can also probably take your grey-boxes into blender and create your actual models around the grey-box to make sure that the scale and overall shape are accurate if the issue is scaling rather than placement

[@watercat1248]

Nice idea as 3D artist game development and level disainer ECT This nice idea for making prototype maps for my game. As solo developer it was nice idea.

[@TheFrev]

I wonder how if grayboxing is at odds with asset packs. If you decide to build a game around certain asset packs, it would be better to their parts for alot of the level. Why would I use a graybox arch and dock when I have the models already finished. If I am laying out a street, wouldn't it make sense to use the parts I have than to make it out of a plane?

[@HuskDanny]

No mention of building grey boxing on a grid, modular... pretty important to know for env art.

[@curioussoul5151]

Thank you so much! for this amazing video

[@OmegaF77]

Strange, whenever I make my levels I start by hotboxing.

[@jacobwhitt4652]

Running a blocked out scene through stable diffusion img2img can also help you visualize or clarify what the finished product might look like.

[@AtelierMcMuttonArt]

Or you could do your own creative work and not use the disgusting theft machine.

[@crouchingdonny]

@@AtelierMcMuttonArt He's suggesting using it as a tool to help visualize what the end result is going to be.. not to actually use what it spits out.

[@AtelierMcMuttonArt]

@@crouchingdonny If a machine was powered by orphans, you wouldn't use it at all, no matter how little its output was used in the final product. Same thing.

[@crouchingdonny]

@AtelierMcMuttonArt it's nit and in this instance it's not taking the place of anything I'd have commissioned from a real artist.

[@AtelierMcMuttonArt]

@@crouchingdonny You're still using the goddamn thing, my guy.

[@lordeross4870]

Part 2?

[@captainofnumenor8221]

Awesome video

[@saibaepsilon]

I usually hear this referred to as blocking.

[@josephvanwyk2088]

Man I wish I had Unreal and Blender when I was a kid (back in the 90s-2000s) I would've been soooooooooo good at this by now. My career path went into filmmaking instead. And I have dabbled with Unreal a bit but then decided to study Blender in 2018 and have primarily focused on modeling. Just wish I had this stuff as a kid. I feel like Unreal is still rocket science for dumb folks like me. Once Unreal becomes SUPER user friendly I'll return to it.

[@pstwr]

My games more of a round world filled with giant balls and default material is coming in blue not grey. Would I still need to grey box this or is blue balling fine?

[@a420dro]

though if you're on budget and using owned assets in vault, then just very rough path blockout, filled by assets very soon to adjust level design on the go, to fit with assets u own or bought

[@brodriguez11000]

Low-poly as fill ins.

[@Will_Forge]

It's also called a "blockout".

[@Will_Forge]

Oh right, to explain obviously it's because it's all blocky, so it looks like a version of the final product made up of just basic building blocks. Hence a block out. This version is usually slightly different in that it's made up of simple building blocks entirely, rather than having any custom world shaped out pieces. Greyboxes may have a simple custom modeled world that just lacks any texture or anything. Just basic grey environment and collision. But a blockout is a bunch of blocks that assemble to create the same kind of shape, and while it's super engine intensive due to all the objects involved it also cleans up later to free up resources, so in a way it sort of consumes resources like depositing those resources into a bank. Later on when the static map objects are all combined into one object for rendering, you get those resources back since the render engine has fewer objects to render even if it's more polygons per-object by a significant amount.

[@UltimatePerfection]

Is it worth it though vs. texturing and modelling as you go if you are a single dev that does everything on the project (i.e. no team)?

[@angelnievesphoto]

of course it is; it doesn't matter how large your team is. Who wants to spend time on something that might not work right?

[@nikals]

where is the greybox

[@echowhiskey_gaming8284]

is there a paid courses that teach that ? in spesfic for UE5 game development?

[@PhantomMiles]

Greyboxing actually the most easiest step in GameDev. first draw your scene as top view map. 2nd put your character 3rd start greyboxing. scale them with appropriate scale. so building wont look as big 4rd build as simple not full modeled 5rd export them to 3d software and heavy modeled in that software repeat each level

[@ChaojianZhang]

Always begin with the largest features.

[@rjwh67220]

“Press E to grab?” NOOOO. Press G to grab!

[@likelyLuna]

But you just threw a grenade?! 😂

[@bompinghead9865]

@@likelyLuna You just turned on your hazard lights 🚗⚠

[@joel6376]

>sadly it is often overlooked by a lot of beginner artists Is it? If they are artists and wish to improve at art, in game dev say.. environment art, I am not sure that going off and also plunging into level design is a great way to improve at environment art.

[@trentonmccoy9292]

It’s overlooked by a ton of beginner artists unfortunately. A lot of them don’t understand how to get a good visual of what they’re working on, so they work on individual pieces to “AAA quality” like they see on random UE5 videos, and then give up when it gets hard.

[@hgzmatt]

It really depends on what you specialize in. Some people focus purely on materials or props. Then you certainly won't need level design or set dressing. But you should have a sense of scale and proportions.

[@Kilakilic]

There i also a beautifull corner techinique

[@VV4fflew4ffle]

trust the cube

[@usifovalentine]

❤

[@sobreaver]

80% results in 20% time

[@viktorsheep]

Ah... Dust 2

[@Ptah1130]

Dude sounds like a mosquito circling the mic, lol

[@sadge6430]

oip

[@thanatosor]

Block out - work in everything from sculpting to a whole environment concept art 😂 No, really, this make environment concept artist life much easier to read game designer intention before making new scene/map.

[@PhantoLucas]

Wtf is wrong with the thumbnail!? XD

[@sadge6430]

bvn

[@sadge6430]

asd

[@shirotonbo6315]

The video is good but your voice needs some work, ending every sentence in the same tone is a recipe to put the viewers to sleep.

[@sophiasouza4122]

I don't really think his tone was that flat... sure, it wasn't dramatically flamboyant, but it's not like he's trying to do voice acting for a character, so it doesn't need to be dramatic

[@CashsCoffee]

8 minutes useless videos to spam ads in the description. do you like wasting people's time? this could have been 5 seconds. "artists commonly block out in their work" wow! change title to 10x your annoyance of blender tutorial youtubers

[@Heg2501]

why are you speaking like this?

[@blockyshoe]

Because it’s his accent?

[@abdou.the.heretic]

Do basic shit, rename it, make a video, profit.