Modelling

Year 2: 3D Animation and Games Design  Designing a Diorama: working with a concept. (3 week Project)

Research/Design/Moodboards 

I have produced a Pinterest board of inspiring art, environment ideas and objects, steampunk themed concept art and designs, cogs, bolts and machinery. Creating this board will allow me to, to have something to refer to, throughout developing and creating my Diorama.

View Pinterest Board:  Steampunk Diorama 

I have also developed some mood boards to help with development and inspiration. 

Steampunk/Victorian housing

Development

I began my development on the software called Alchemy, that restricts you from going back/erasing mistakes. It creates unique random shapes and effects. 

Making random shapes on Alchemy, then taking the shapes and drawing over them in Photoshop, to create an interest shape/design for the diorama. 

Finalising my idea and developing it further. Looking at specific assets to prioritise, so I don’t fall behind when modelling. I want to get a rough idea of what assets I wanted to include in my Diorama before I start to begin to model. I looked further into different references to help me along with this, taking in consideration the ‘Steampunk’ Theme. 

Finalising the design of my steampunk Diorama, I thought i would develop potential colour schemes and look into the specific materials I will use in the future when it comes to texturing my model. 

View Pinterest Board:  Steampunk Colour Scheme 

I then created my own colour palettes, using images taken from Pinterest. I have produced these to get a rough idea of what colours I will use in my scene. 

(Colour Palette 1.)  Preferred colour scheme, steampunk theme fitting. 

(Colour Palette 2.) Colour scheme liked, but not entirely happy with the outcome, almost to safe and simple.

(Colour Palette 3.) Not happy with the colour scheme, too simple, plain and boring, the colours are clashing rather then complimenting. 

Modelling 

I began with my asset list I previously made when developing the concept for my Diorama, slowly modelling each asset so they’re ready to all be positioned into one scene in Maya.

Asset Listing:

(- Telescope - Lamps - Cogs - Pocket Watch - Chain - House - Pipes -Rocks: - (I wanted to create realistic rocks, and due to my lack of confidence in ZBrush I was reluctant to use it to make the rocks realistically in the style I wanted. However moving forward I decided to use it and pushed through, recapping previous techniques we I had been taught.) )

Retopologizing the rock in Zbrush, firstly I duplicated the model and then simply used the decimation master to reduce the polygon count.

Zbrush Notes: -(T) Edit Mode, (E) Scale, (W) Move, (R) Rotate,  -Subtools: (like layers), they separate everything. -Zplugin<Decimation Master<Decimate/ Decimate all. 

Composition, layout, (the addition of a bridge to the scene). Assets, built all in Maya, (Lowpoly stylised). Bridge, Cogs, Pocket Watch.

Pipe Lamp, Telescope.

Final Composition: Steampunk Diorama

UVing

I put off UVing for a long time, as it was my first time properly UVing something and considering the amount of assets in my scene, I’ve never really known how to approach it. I started off by asking one of the technicians to help me, and show me through the process. The process I was shown luckily suited me quite well.

Notes:  -Open UV Editor < UV Tool Kit  (make sure; Create, Cut and Sew, Unfold, Arrange and Layout, are all open in the UV tool kit) Automatic UV -Select Object < Camera Based <Auto (if auto is working, and all that needs to be done is sewing some edges together, to neaten the uv’s up)

(if the automatic doesn’t work)

3D Cut and Sew UV Tool -Select Object < Edge Mode < UV < 3D Cut and Sew UV Tool < Select the Edges < Left Double Click to cut and Cntrl + Left Double Click to sew.  -Unfold < Orient Shells < Optimize (if need be).

Layout Shift + Alt < Select Layer < (in settings change) Packing Resolution (highest) < Shell Pre Scaling (Preserve 3D Ratios) < Texture Map Size (2048) < Shell Padding (10.000 by 10.000) < then select Apply or Layout UV’s. 

Uv’s

Workshop 1: Asset Design Substance Painter 

Asset 2

View on: Sketchfab 

Mystical Sword

Baked:

Workshop 1: Asset Design Substance Painter 

Asset 1 Scifi (Crate/Container)

View on: Sketchfab

Note’s From Tutorial:

Shortcut Key’s: 

(Shift + Right Click) - Move Lighting  (Cntrl + Left Click) - Transparency (1) - Paint (2) - Eraser 

File new project - *Unreal settings*  (Don’t tick) - Compute tangent space fragment

Texture set Lists: (names of material)  Texture set settings: (Channels: Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, Normal)

Shelf: Alphas (Work directly with brush)  - Pretty materials

Smart Materials: Fill Layer (properties - change) +add another fill layer - White mask+ lets information through, black mask is completely transparent. 

Texture set settings. Baking:(untick ID): open high poly  - Resolution 2048 - 2x2 Subsampling  Bake all texture sets 

Smart Material (create):

 Properties - Add layer - change propperties add materials to the channels. - New Fill Layer -Black Mask + Generator (mask builder), (Dirt layer) - *to be able to paint on this mask  (leave to last) save as a smart material before creating smart material. 

Add folder to scene - select everything + click and drag into folder. Alphas - Add layer - High information; almost like stamps adding detail (buttons ext) Particles : creates an oil effect.

Projection - Dragg reference image into base color, to create a texture base.

Sword Uv and Hand Painting Assets

View on: Sketchfab

Asset Design UV and Hand Painting Assets

Retopologizing  We were given a complex model to retopologize in TopoGun. The same tools as maya to transition around the model, it was simplifying the polygons down, so it can be used as an asset for a game. When we were finished we exported it as an OBJ  and opened it in maya to UV map.

Uv Mapping  You upload  the new low poly model into maya, selecting the model and going into the uv editor. Selecting components, to make different sections for the Uv map. You have to make sure you resize all of the uv components, so they fit the map. Export as an OBJ.

Then we use xN to generate a map, by uploading a high definition mesh and a low definition mesh, when doing so making sure ambient occlusion is on.

Asset Design Maya, Vertex Painting Style

View on : Sketchfab

ASSET 3. Environment I began with the house, as it stood out the most to me in the reference, and I thought I would tackle the hardest asset first. I began with a polygon Cube and used the soft selection tool to scale the bottom corners in to give the body of the house a curvy shape. I then developed further by working on eat feature separately; window, roof ect, then duplicating when needed to speed the process up. 

I developed the scene further, by adding the other assets one bye one, fitting the reference image.

Asset Design  Maya, Vertex Painting Style 

View on: Sketchfab 

ASSET 2.

I have taken the reference image (provided below) and simply divided it by five; the board, sushi one, two, three and the chop sticks.

Starting with the most simple shape being the board, I created it using the polygon cube tool, scaled the sides out to elongate it into more of a rectangular shape. Improving the shape, so it fits the board look, I beveled the edges to make it look more rounded off. Painting the board was simple, I added a few edge loop tools to the centre of the piece so I could add some stripes seen in the reference of the board. I also kept the side faces darker, than the top face to show shadow and depth. 

The second shape I created was sushi number one, black outline, rice and fish in the middle. The one to the right-backhand side seen in the reference image (provided below). 

I placed a polygon cylinder and reduced the subdivisions to ten. I took the multi cut tool and shift + left click to make a equal division in between the middle point, which allowed me to use the edge loop tool to add the faces needed to paint the details on. I then painted the outside of the circular sushi dark black/blue, and then white for the rice, and then orange and green for the middle of the sushi. I used the same technique for the similar sushi on the left-front hand side of the board. 

I used a polygon cube, elongated it into a rectangle and beveled the edges for the longer shaped sushi. Then simply moved the vertices to form he shape of the sushi. 

I then elongated a polygon-cylinder and scaled one end down to create the chop sticks. I used layers to keep the objects hidden, I also used cntrl+1 to hide non-selected shapes. Duplicating the shapes to make the composition fit the reference image below. 

Asset Design Maya and Vertex Painting 

View on : Sketchfab

Asset 1. STEAK AND CHIPS PLATE 

I have created a lot of the attributes to this model through using simple polygon shapes; (Polygone Cube,Polygon Sphere and the Polygon Cylinder), and then I manipulated the vertices and edges to fit the shape of the object I am modelling.