Blog post #10

This week I have finalized the 3D model of my Vehicle for my assessment. Similar to my last 3D modelling assessment I animated the vehicle using key frames for very smooth movement. We were required to use a turntable camera to showcase our vehicle in action. I believe that the turntable camera will be extremely useful in the future if I were to continue 3D modelling or animation in showing off my work.

 We were required to provide a video rendering of the 3d model showcasing the natural coloured variant of the model which then transitions into the wireframe display of the model to convey its topology. This was achieved through the use of contour shading. I learnt that rendering a single object in Maya is substantially faster than rendering multiple objects at once. I am very happy with the final product of the assessment but I do think that it could have been much better with additional time and experience. I believe that if I continue to learn techniques and hone my skills as a 3D artist I could eventually work professionally with the right amount of dedication.

Blog post #9

This week I have spent a great deal of time unwrapping the UVs and texturing of my 3D model created last week. I really put an emphasis on the detail of the space ship and attempted to make the space ship appear alien-like and added lots of subtle touches like scratches and paint splatter to make the model appear used and realistic. Unfortunately I don’t believe that I truly achieved the realistic appearance I was going for due to time restrictions but I still think the model appears fairly visually appealing.

 A spec map was used to balance the reflectivity of all parts of the model, the glass is extremely reflective whereas the interior has very little reflectivity at all. This was used to help reinforce the realistic aesthetics that I was trying to achieve in my work. I also used a bump map for the first time which was very interesting to me but was also very hard to balance out the eccentricity of the bumps of the vehicle. I was pleased with how the texturing aspect of the 3D model turned out but I do believe I could have improved the illusion of realism I desired if I managed my time more efficiently.

Blog post #8

For the 2^nd 3D modelling assessment for my course I am currently studying, I am required to produce a 3D model of a vehicle which will need to be efficiently created using 5000 triangles. I decided to create a space ship based on the appearance of the aquatic animal the stingray. I created a simple set of plans for me to create my model from. It portrayed the front view, side view and top view in order to insure the proportions of the model were as they should be. We were taught in our tutorials how to create a symmetrical 3D model utilizing the duplicate special function.

In the end the 3D model differed from the original plans slightly due to a shift in the visual expectations of the model. I discovered the extract faces tool which was used to separate the glass from the initial 3D model to allow an entrance into the seat of the vehicle.  An extra feature I looked into was smooth binding to allow the animation of the tail of the vehicle to give an organic appearance similar to that of the animal that inspired it initially, unfortunately the mesh would deform incorrectly until I learned about the ability to paint skin weights. This allowed the front of the vehicle to have a great deal of weight causing the tail to move appropriately for animation. I am happy with the vehicle because it appeared almost exactly how I imagined and I managed to make it nearly reach the provided tri count.

Blog post #7

This week I have been learning how to animate a scene in the unity interface.  I have been learning how to animate a camera through selecting it and setting key frames to allow the smooth animation from one point of a scene to another while keeping its rotation. I used a fairly large selection of assets provided by my lecturer which were imported into the scene and animated separately relating to a mock up advertisement for a board game called “pirates gold”. These assets all had a very distinct cartoonish appearance in order to appeal to young children.

 I learnt a small amount of rigging through rigid binding the game board which was provided by my lecturer and animated to unfold using key frame animation. I also learnt how to batch render an animated scene which was an extremely time consuming process and definitely the most time consuming aspect of 3D modelling that I have come across. After that long process the rendered images were then brought into adobe after effects as footage and accompanied with audio in order to render a final video file.

Overall I was extremely happy with the final outcome and the sheer amount of work that went into producing the entire project and the fact that it was my first 3D modelling assessment in Maya.

Blog post #6

This week I have been learning how to create and unwrap UVs in Maya and simple texturing to give an object a sense of visual flare. In order to produce the UVs for my treasure chest model created last week I used the Automatic mapping function which as the name suggests automatically maps the UVs of the object. This is a good way to start the UV mapping stage but it does not produce the UVs in such a way that would be efficient in texturing.

By separating UVs and moving and sewing the edges I created a UV map for the 3D model which utilizes a lot more space than the original automatic mapping function. After this was completed I then begun texturing in Adobe Photoshop using the brush function to provide a simple cartoonish colour map which is outlined in the brief provided for the assessment I am working on. I also painted a simple spec map to make the wood matte while giving the metal a shinier appearance.

I am very pleased with the work I produced this week as it was my first attempt at texturing a 3D model in unity and I think I managed to make the visuals apply to the provided brief.

Blog post #5

This week I have been working on a very simple low poly treasure chest for an assessment using basic polygonal 3D modelling techniques in order to produce a final result. I started off with a simple cube with 4 divisions and slowly formed the shape of the base of the chest. I extruded the faces of the chest to produce extra details and add a sense of depth in the opening at the top and inserted edge loops when necessary.  I then duplicated the faces at the top of the base of the chest in order to begin the creation of the lid.

Using extrusions I made a 3d object from the simple faces which were apparent in the beginning of the creation of the lid. They were also used to give it a sense of depth. After the general shape of the treasure chest was created I softened and hardened the edges of the object depending on what produced the most natural appearance. I then parented the base of the object to the lid to keep both pieces as an entire object.

I am fairly happy with the final product which took several attempts to create without any problems with the geometry.