Team Art Book

This is a small addition to the Synoptic Project. All it is, is a collection of work for the project between my team. My part of the Art book consists of Wireframes, Renders, Sketches and Concept Art. I am happy with three quarters of what work I have out into this. This mainly comes down to work I did not have to come up with, in the last 2 weeks.

The renders were of both the main models that were done in Sketch Fab (once I figured the website). They did work fairly well, and look better than the standard rendering software in Maya. I did try to use the software "Arnold", however the software would not work with my Maya program; so I cannot compare the rendering software. No idea why considering that I downloaded the program and plug-ins.

I have both low and high wireframes for both models. They are from the top, the side and the front. They are definitely the easiest to get for the book.

The main issue was with the concept art. I'll say that I am just not good at drawing and painting in software (adding the pressure of a deadline within a week didn't help). I did two drawings of my models. I did think the Alien star fighter was alright, however I do not like the main player star fighter. I think that it is misshapen and blurry. I created these by first drawing outline of the objects on paper to using as tracing paper for computer software. The software I used is a new software I am trying to get the grips with called "Corel Painter 5" this was a part of a package with a graphics tablet I recently got. I hope this will help me in the future. I did use more than basic colour in these images however. I did add glowing effects with a faded airbrush around the bright light. I also tried to add a few differences between the actual models and the artwork. To improve this (like most other issues I have had over the past year) I need to practice with both technique and software.

The final  work was the sketches. I mainly did these as ideas for the player ship I had that we did not get to use. All (three) of the sketches have descriptions of what each part of the ship resembled and ideas of what it could do. Aside from the sketch that turned into the final design, the other two showed how a small pod could connect into a larger body for a more advanced star fighter.

Aside from other other additions from the rest of the team (such as final game renders and UI designs) I am happy with what I have provided not just for the art book but for the full Synoptic project (even though some parts do need some improvement). Next up is the portfolio plan.

Player Star Fighter Finished

After a ridiculous stretch to this point, my final version of the main player star fighter is finished. Am I happy with the final product at some points,  however I know that there is some room for things that I could have done better with my own abilities.

Firstly, I am happy with half of the objects of the final model completely. They would be the engines, the primary and secondary weapons. Mainly because I had a complete work flow with them. I am espically happy with the  The other objects (the wings, the body and the latches on the wings) did not. Why? Because in the work flow for them, there was a major error that snowballed into more problems down the road. Example; the body lost all of its UV's when it was transferred into Mudbox and I did not notice until I had finished sculpting the mesh. Another problem is that you are supposed to give a mesh more polys when the base has been done in Modelling software, to be able to sculpt the model with detail in another program. However not all polys are the same size and because of that, you want more polys on some faces but not others. This can cause major frustration. This was a problem for both the latches and the wings (a minor point is that I wished the oranges matched, instead of becoming darker the more to the center an object is.).


Another problem I ran into and still have no idea of how to change, is a problem with the paint layers. The black paint in this image was done with one straight paint stroke. I still don't know what is causing this, you can even see it in the the faded orange above the black. It could be with how the poly shells have been set out, but this has never happened with any other project.

Since the deadline for my portfolio, is the 16th of this month this is finished for the deadline. Hopefully from this long and frustrating experience from developing my part of our Synoptic project I can use what I have learned to not have major issues like this in the future.

Distinctive World Post

Distinctive World and Artstyle                                                                                Matthew Lawson

There have been a large variety of art styles across history and some of them have lived on as iconic for many parts of society. Sometimes an artist's style defines not only the piece of art but can define what the artist will be most well known for making. In this, I will be doing over the two distinctive styles to create the ‘Alien’ universe; by the styles of H R Giger, Chris Foss and Ron Cobb.

H R Giger became well known because of his designs and artwork on the 1979 film 'Alien'. He created all of the designs for the extraterrestrial parts of the film, including the Xenomorph designs. The idea behind the artstyle (which would be become known as Biomechanical (mixing technology and life forms)) is Giger had night terrors and tried to visualize his nightmares into his original drawings. Some of the original art pieces that he created were known as 'The Astro-Eunuchs' and ‘LI L’. Giger's idea was to combine machine, environment, and human with sexual undertones. A lot of the concept art designs had subtleties of sex, even some of those ideas made their way into the final film. An example is the Xenomorphs inner mouth that evokes “vagina dentata” (a vagina with teeth).

His ideas were first turned down from the production of Dune, until he was brought on to work on the production of Alien with Ridley Scott. However some of his style can also been seen in not just the creatures he created, but the sci-fi ships he designed. Some of his original work was designing starships with the same style. His concept art for Dune follows the same style but up-sizing the scale of the created art with the same principles in mind.

The other half of the design was the human technology mainly the design of the ship 'Nostromo'. Ron Cobb and Chris Foss combined ideas created the concept of the spaceship. They mainly based the exterior of the ship with ideas from Gothic horror movies such as Nosferatu (trying to make it a floating Gothic cathedral). They had certain locations, buildings and environments in mind when using the style to create the area. To create claustrophobia in such a large environment, they made the interiors very closely compact with very long corridors and no side passages. Compare this to designs of Star Wars 1977, the corridors on the death star for example have multiple side passages, have turns along the path and is fully lit. With a straight path (with no side paths) it subconsciously adds tension; because the fear that something deadly is on the other side we have no options than to run straight forward or back, where the threat can easily spot you.

Combining these together created a claustrophobic and isolated universe, which set the standard for the rest of the Alien franchise and many other projects afterwards.

Other creators have taken some of those ideas and created their own films.  Examples are the ‘The Thing’ 1982 (an isolated environment trapped with deadly threat), ‘Predator’ 1987 (being hunted by a threat you don’t know if you can kill)  and ‘Inseminoid’ 1989 (an alien threat with more explicit sexual tones for fear). A game that uses some of these ideas is the 2008 game ‘Dead Space’ (being put into long, tight corridors and trapped in rooms with enemies that you are not sure where they are).  

All of these examples, however all take from the Chris Foss and Ron Cobb artstyle. As for H R Giger; the idea of Biomechanical beings in the modern media, the artstyle mostly died out. One of the few games that used the idea were 2D shoot em up games, such as R-Type (1987), and one of the very few movies that has used a Biomechanical for some assets of a production is the 2016 movie ‘Independence Day Resurgence’ and the video game ‘Warframe’ (2013). Specifically for the Alien concept art designs, however it does not have the extent that H R Giger uses the artstyle. The style of Biomechanical has mostly been taken up by tattoo artists such as Eric De L’etoile.

However the main example of both off these concepts being put to use again, has to be part of the Alien Universe, the 2014 game ‘Alien Isolation’. In a way the premise is similar to original movie “Go to an isolated location and get trapped with a monstrous threat you cannot face”. The way that the gameplay uses the concepts from the art concepts of the original film is by, forcing you down long, gloomy and tight corridors. With openings along the walls and ceiling so it can keep you guessing where the Alien is. This also corresponds with the way the Alien functions; it has an unpredictable pattern of movement it can show up anytime it wants. If it finds you, you are done for because the Alien moves faster than you and will easily track you down.

So, how can these artstyles be used in future productions? Considering that the styles from Cobb and Foss have been used in a decent amount of productions, I want to focus on Giger. The main problem with branching out this idea is that it is meant to physiologically creep the audience, while having sexual undertones to through them off. Well an idea is that in a distant dystopian world, Humans (or another sentient species) have become enthralled by Cybernetic enhancements, they have become as close to androids as possible, fooling themselves into still thinking that they are humans, by trying look like what they remember Humans to be (appearing in the uncanny valley of humanoid designs), by slowly showing how they changing into something abnormal and eerie. Somewhat similar to the Li 1 drawing he made in 1974.

SSCS Alien Starship Finished

I have finally finished one of the two main models for my synoptic project and I am quite happy with the result.

Since last time, I have baked all of the objects down to low poly versions and applied all of the diffuse and incandescence layers. Then finally put the objects together to create what the final model will look like.

A point that I learned more recently is that when Mudbox saves your model file, it saves your texture files in a separate file. If you export the texture files it can appear differently (as you can see). What happened is that when transferring an incandescence layer to a texture layer in Hypershade, sometimes it can't read some of the information on the layer. An example is using the blur tool with lighting; to cause pools of green instead of a glowing light.

I am fairly happy with how the normal map appears on most objects for the model. especially for the body back indentations and the weapon tips.

If there was anything I wish I could improve would be how the wings join up to the body, it looks just like is clipping into the main body. One more idea would make more of the indentations glows appear blue, too make the colour more prominent without overpowering the green.

For now I am done with this model and need to prioritise finishing the player star fighter. Right know all of the objects are finished with the first model and UV'ed. What my issue is now, is that I have an understanding of Substance Painter 2.  Since that texture program has better capabilities than Mudbox I might want to redo the textures. So either redo all textures in less than 2 weeks or continue with a not as good texture editor.

Adding more to detail before the deadline

In the past week I have decided that I will add more detail to my objects before it is finished.

The way that I will do this is by smoothing out the mesh in Maya and creasing certain lines to keep the mesh what shape I want, before importing it to Mudbox  and adding one more subdivision level for sculpting.

Something extra I have figured out is that you can change the look of the mesh with a material editor next to the stencils and stamps. That's why obj files are orange and fbx files are black.

The main point of the extra detail is to add dents and drops in the mesh. Compared to how simple some of the objects are in the model I want more from it. I know that I can't do this to every one of my objects, however I will try with most of them.

Since I have started to properly understand 'Substance Painter 2' I will texture this object in SP, then see how it will look, compared to the rest of the model. Since SP has more options for the textures (such as adding metal shading into the colour), I will most probably appear different however.

Depending on how much time I have left, that will show if I use Substance Painter for the project. I will finish the objects in Mudbox first before Substance painter,so I have something to show as a finished project.

SSCS Alien Starfighter Model Update

Since the deadline is starting to creep closer everyday. I have had to stop and reevaluate the state of work for my part of the Synoptic Project. While the Main player star-fighter only needs tweaking, the main enemies need to be finished. I did finish the model and finished UV unwrapping a while ago, however it needs texturing and then baking.

After looking through a few concept designs, I have learned that alien ships have 3 defining characteristics: they look either organic, pieces of metal being gravitationally bound (like the Prometheans form halo 4+5) or being as lit up as a disco ball because of glowing lights. So since lighting is the simplest one to get right I went with that.

For a while I was still not to sure what colour scheme to use, I originally wanted a main purple and secondary green.  However I have gone with a silver and green colour scheme. I got the idea from the "Xcom" plasma weapons. I have tried to make the placement of the colours seem meaningful, to show how the ship can function (and to make it appear cool). The silver is kind of a no-brainer for a colour palette. As for the green though, it has a uneasiness about it; as it has always been associated with alien life. Not to mention it contrasts the player Starfighter (who I made glowing orange).

The green spots were achieved by creating an incandescence layer and making the colour very light green. Around the edges I used the blur tool not just to smooth the edges of the paint out, but to add glow around the green light. Something I am happy with however is the addition of a tint of blue on the main cannons. Instead of the model being entirely glowing green I made the weapons glow blue instead; I think it looks nice. The way that I did it was have 5 separate shades of colour between green and blue and then blur the edges of the colours together. The only improvement right now I can think of is to get the colour at points to look brighter.

My main tasks now are to clean up the textures for my current objects and to put together the the starship by the end of this week.

Industry Standard Project First Version Finished

I have finally finished my typewriter model. This doesn't mean I am finished with it yet however, this is the main focus however I know I can add more before the deadline of June. Sine last time I have textured and baked the keys and have cleaned all of the main texture issues.

I have learned that some rendering software (such as Arnold) are better than others. Sometimes (like in my other blog posts) Mayas software can try to hard to render everything and over bake certain parts of models. As for the final render of the completed object I am mostly happy with it, all of the objects look fairly decent and fit together well. Any problems with my current objects would have to be that some parts of the normal maps don't cover up the low count at points. An example is the loop that surrounds the keys; you can see some hard edges that should be smooth.

As something else that has been bugging me for the longest time. I figured out how to change more of the lighting system in Mudbox. In the display tools you can deselect "Smooth Shader", what that does is it adds extra shadows to the model based on what angle you are at. This is helpful when the mesh is finished, however when it is still being sculpted and painted, it gets very irritating. So since it is gone when I need it, it makes the process a bit easier.

My plans for this now is to mainly add more individual objects to the typewriter to make it more complete. I have already added a small lever on the face at the front. An example of what I could add would be all of the small metal rungs and gears further at the back near the main lever. Or maybe add letters to the keys.

The Final Draft for My Emerging Technology Essay

Research Report into an Emerging Technology or Trend                        Matthew Lawson

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality is the technology that can be seen as an opposite of VR. In VR you are brought into a virtual world, while Augmented Reality is bringing virtual elements into our own reality. Most of these inputs are visible or auditory. Another importance is that Augmented Reality works in real time with actual events at the time, this also works with the environment that the device is surrounded by. As small as a market AR is, it is quickly gaining traction. Revenue is “forecast to increase to £90bn by 2020.”. The way that AR functions is that there has to be an anchor for the apps to respond to and detect what to show on the screen. This can be a physical anchor (such as a AR pad) or a signal from multiple sources.

The History of Augmented Reality

The term “Augmented Reality” was created by Tom Caudell based on the previous efforts of Ivan Sutherland and Myron Krueger. The earliest recognised AR system was the Virtual Fixture, made by Louis Rosenberg it was created for the Air Force. “The full upper-body exoskeleton allowed the military to control virtually guided machinery to perform tasks from a remote operating space. The first major use of AR was when (in 1999) the NASA spacecraft X-38 flew “using a Hybrid Synthetic Vision system that used augmented reality to overlay map data to provide enhanced visual navigation during flight tests.”.

It was not until the 1998 that Augmented Reality was taken into the entertainment industry. The 1st and Ten system was created to create the first yellow virtual down marker. In the 2000s software such as the ARToolkit was created and AR was tried by Print Media, however it took until around 2013 to evolve to become the market we know it as today. In 2014 the Augmented Reality trend in the public started mainly with google, announcing their google glass ready for consumers, which brings us to today. Although the technology has and is being used in other fields of work rather than just entertainment.

AR Technology Today

The purpose of AR is varied based on what program uses it, but an overall view for it is to add digital elements to our regular lives, making it more interactive. Most of its functionality right now is for retail use. On a small scale this is used in simple apps in phones to point out highlighted interest points on the local map, or in games (major example is Pokemon Go or in AR Tower Defense). No triple A developers have created a game with augmented reality in mind. However it does not mean that some these games are not successful, far from it in fact. Pokemon go has “Estimated number of Downloads to date: 650 Million”. This is a worldwide statistic. For more expensive products such as AR glasses, such as Microsoft's Holo-lens, the Vuzix M-100 and the Atheer One. All of these glasses all have different functions for different purposes.

Some examples of some AR products that have gained recognition for convenience are, the IKEA AR catalogue, it was designed to show the user how a piece of furniture would fit into your household, (A Study done by Digital Marketing Academy) according to the company statistics it shows that the app came out with 8.5 million downloads for it, within a few months back in 2014, even though it met with below average result from customers. This can prove that this technology is very popular (because it is new to the public) and peaks interest, however it needs to be done well to keep their attention for the foreseeable future. The American Apparel Colour-Changing App (allows you to change the colour of clothes to see what would suit you) and Shisedio Makeup Mirror (allows you to test makeup on yourself to see how it would look).

Some other ways that AR is used are in certain job fields. In the medical field, the near-infrared vein finder creates patient monitoring data, this can include a virtual x-ray based on ultrasound and micro probes. This has help doctors with finding tumours and blood clots. This can make procedures and examinations much faster and less harmful for the patients.

In tourism, Word Lens is an app that translate any foreign printed texts. “Word Lens looks at any printed text through the Iphone’s camera, reads it, translates between Spanish and English.”. The app needs translation packs to understand the language first though. If continued to be invested in this could be a virtual translator in your pocket. Both of these technologies have potential but they still need development to become better products.

AR in Filming

In the filming industry Augmented Reality has been created with visual effects with in Science Fiction films such as Avatar (2009) and Total Recall (2012), however one of the more relatable but extreme (to us) is a small six minute feature that has been getting recognition because of how it shows Augmented reality. It is call Hyper-Reality, created by Keiichi Matsuda. The purpose of the feature was to show how  “Our physical and virtual realities are becoming increasingly intertwined. Technologies such as VR, augmented reality, wearables, and the internet of things are pointing to a world where technology will envelop every aspect of our lives. It will be the glue between every interaction and experience, offering amazing possibilities, while also controlling the way we understand the world. Hyper-Reality attempts to explore this exciting but dangerous trajectory.”. Even though the feature is short, it is very visually stunning.

Augmented Reality can become  “the whole story is filmed from one woman’s point-of-view, wearing a pair of (fictional) “augmented reality” glasses – and as her day in the city progresses” As well as showing just how overwhelming Augmented Reality can become in our future, it can also show how Augmented Reality can become the norm for us fairly soon. Considering that this is a drastically improved Vuzix M-100 or Google Glass it can become a reality in our very near future, especially since looking back on how far technology has developed in the past two decades. Right now the Vuzix M-100’s “pre-installed apps can be used to take still pictures, record and playback video, track timed events, link to your phone and more. The real strength of the M100 comes from its compatibility with thousands of existing Android apps, and easy access to developer resources which enable the creation of custom apps to suit virtually any need.”. These features are creating a really good foundation for AR glasses’ future in society. This could lead to Hyper-Reality coming into our own reality; this could even make mobile phones obsolete given how much capability this technology has. .

There are very few filming projects that actually use Augmented Reality for the audience. One of the closet is ‘NFF AR Movie Experience’. Created for the Netherlands film festival in 2011 “this AR mobile experience uses the layar app to create a “3D surround film set of a movie happening in augmented reality””. The set is filled with speech bubbles floating in certain areas containing dialogue of the movies that were filmed there. While this is very far from an actual film feature, it can give an idea of how some films may use AR in future productions.

Augmented reality, however does have some drawbacks that have stopped the technology from evolving. Aside from risks from a new technology (the 500,000 Hoverboard malfunctions in Britain) and stupid behaviour (driving while on the phone). Ar has its own problems that have to be addressed. Examples of this include “limitations regarding GPRS, information overload and privacy”. An example of this can be AR has social media applications you can advertise the fact that you have new items in your home to paint a target for thieves. Another point is that it can become another platform for companies to advertise all over. If the technology gets enough investment this will become a reality, just like Youtube (2007). The main question now is can Augmented Reality live up to its potential, or will it fade away in a few decades? Not to mention how we might lose sight of the world around us. With this ease of access to technology on the go we could live in a society that is constantly turned on, losing sight of who we are.

Conclusion

Right now Augmented Reality is a very niche technology, it has drawbacks and limitations. However AR still has potential for future use. Given how popular and diverse the technology is, it can be supported and invested into; to be improved for even more functionality. A parallel for this can be computers in the late 70s and early 80s, the technology still has a way to grow but can develop into something much better. The applications that it has now can change some of the elements of gaming, mobile apps and real life interaction with digital elements. Although, this technology will not alter the way we see digital apps or video games, it is to specific (just like Virtual Reality), it is an addition to entertainment technology. It will probably not overtake our current industry.  In other fields however, such as architecture and medical science it can have more of an impact because of what new equipment can be created to make doctors and architects jobs so much easier. Although since the future is not set in stone maybe the ideas of ‘Hyper-Reality’ can change the way society functions (being completely reliant on technology).

Bibliography:

Tim Merel. (2016). Augmented/Virtual Reality revenue forecast revised to hit $120 billion by 2020. Available: http://www.digi-capital.com/news/2016/01/augmentedvirtual-reality-revenue-forecast-revised-to-hit-120-billion-by-2020/#.WQHYklUrKUl. Last accessed 16th April 2017.

Augment Team. (2016). Infographic: The History of Augmented Reality. Available: http://www.augment.com/blog/infographic-lengthy-history-augmented-reality/. Last accessed 22nd April 2017.

Augment Team. (2016). Infographic: The History of Augmented Reality. Available: http://www.augment.com/blog/infographic-lengthy-history-augmented-reality/. Last accessed 22nd April 2017.

Charlie Sorrel. (2010). Word Lens: Augmented Reality App Translates Street Signs Instantly. Available: https://www.wired.com/2010/12/word-lens-augmented-reality-app-translates-street-signs-instantly/. Last accessed 26th April 2017.

Richard Fisher. (2016). This 'Augmented Reality' Film Is Incredible...and Terrifying. Available: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160519-this-augmented-reality-film-is-incredible-and-terrifying. Last accessed 28th April 2017.

Daniel Tamarjan. (2012). Augmented Reality Movies and Their Challenging Future. Available: http://augmentedtomorrow.com/augmented-reality-movies-and-their-challenging-future/. Last accessed 25th April 2017.

Virtual Reality Society . (2016). Arguments against augmented reality. Available: https://www.vrs.org.uk/augmented-reality/future.html. Last accessed 30th April 2017.

Craig Smith. (2017). 80 Amazing Pokemon Go Statistics and Facts (April 2017). Available: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/pokemon-go-statistics/. Last accessed 2nd May 2017.

Sarah Tyler. (2016). Half a million hoverboards recalled due to fires, explosions and injuries. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/06/hoverboards-mass-recall-danger-explosion-fire-hazards. Last accessed 2nd May 2017.

Keiichi Matsuda. (2013). hyper-reality. Available: http://hyper-reality.co/. Last accessed 22nd April 2017.

http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/wqncf9uj88

http://hyper-reality.co/

Trying Shading in Drawing

If I want to follow with a Carrier path in animation I have to improve my drawing techniques and styles I have to practice. A suggestion I got was to practice shading in drawings. I have drawn a few objects from games I like and decided to try to shade them in well. I think I did fairly good, but just like anything to get better I need practice.

The way that I tried drawing was by, firstly lightly shading the ares that should be shaded in from the direction that the light was coming from (where I positioned the light), then by adding in more shading to where the shading should be darker. Then another layer of even darker points and so on.

I drew a Hollywood set chair, Overwatch Rip-tire, and Dark Souls Sorcery Clutch Ring.

I feel that I did fine with the objects them selves and the shading on the objects however the shadows on the ground were mostly tacked on as a last minute thought. Since these are pencil drawings they are fairly unprofessional, I might do computer drawings in shading later, once I get more experience.

Considering that I had one image to go of off for the design and ideas of how the lighting might hit the objects, a way to improve the final look of drawings like this is to get some real life examples in front of you which is what I will try next time.

Finishing off my Main Synoptic Project Models

Considering that the main models have been finished last week, I have been working on the texturing for all of the objects of the model. Since last time I have found a good texture to use as a Stencil in Mudbox. Considering that spaceships have hulls that are made up with multiple plates, this fits the design fairly well. Plus it was a lot easier than sculpting all of these tiny plates on the models (like last time I tried). I have used this stencil on all of the objects for main star fighter.

I have also learned that you could isolate faces in Mudbox. This is useful if you don't want overflowing of colour onto the connected polygons. You can do this by right clicking onto the object (you have to select the object or faces first).

I have added a lighting effect on the cockpit window and addition engine front vents. I did this by creating a diffuse layer of bright orange before adding a incandescence layer of the same colour and tint, then blurring the edges of the colour for a glowing effect close by.

Another idea I had was to increase  the amount of polys for the separate objects. When I tried the same result occurred when I did the same to typewriter body (the edges all curled inwards that made it look disfigured), so for now I have decided not to sculpt the objects. It will be an extra goal if the rest of the project is finished.

As a side note, I am replacing the bronze with a silver so the colour seems more "sleek" (by the way, the images you see now are not rendered).


My only problem with texturing these objects are that you can see some of the texture be in jagged lines (the main body cockpit window), I believe that it is from the polygons not being UV'ed in the right direction after more polygons were added to the UV shells. I don't think that I can change the poly's this late in production but is a goal I can look into later.

This week is my final time for completing my models for the project(first version) by Friday.

As for the rest of the team, Conor has finished almost all of the coding for the game, Jacob has finished all of his VFX work and wants more to do and I still am not sure what Gabriel does these days. Aside from scrums to tell our progress we don;t socialise because we are busy (mostly) with our work. We do seem to work well as individuals in a team but other than that, I am not sure. My main ways of communicating with my team is to see if they have any errors and changes that they want me to make with my portion of the work.

Considering that I learned more in my software and learned from my mistakes in work flow, I would say that this project has helped me. This will still be the core of my work for the next five weeks. My main goal is to finished texturing the model objects bring them into Maya to render them.      

Development of Future Technology Essay

We have been asked to create an essay and presentation of a future technology that has recently or will soon take root in our society. I choose the subject of 'Augmented Reality', if you don't know augmented reality is when digital assets are brought into the normal world. It can be seen as the opposite of Virtual Reality (VR immerses you into a digital world). This is a gathering of my findings so far.

I have some examples of AR in real-life casual use. Some of these for small scale use include mostly small app games on mobile devices like Pokemon Go and AR Tower Defense.

Some of the few products that have gained recognition is the IKEA AR catalogue (it allows you to try furniture in your home with digital assets beginning placed through the screen into your room) ; information from the Digital Marketing Academy shows that within a few months it had 8.5 million downloads.The American Apparel Colour-Changing App (allows you to change the colour of clothes to see what would suit you) and Shisedio Makeup Mirror (allows you to est make up on yourself to see how it would look).

For more large scale devices there are, the Microsoft Holo Lens, the Vuzix M-100 and the Atheer One. All of these Headset products are used either for real-life convenience (such as finding highlighted locations) or for adding more interaction for certain systems. 

Other fields that have expressed interest in this technology are medical science and architecture. More information will come along as I find new information.

The Issues With Baking

I am determined to finish my industry standard project however another problem keeps popping up everyday. With the final stretch being in sight but with another roadblock, the phrase 'So close yet so far' is very reminiscent.

My issue is that when baking down the high poly models to the low poly models is that either (my fault) the UV's don't align with each other. That forces me to re-texture the model, though the sculpting is able to bake on the low poly normal map. It must been taken into Mudbox again to finish it (like the typewriter body).

My second issue is that even if they match up the result is just bad (look at the lever arm). Apparently, this is just because of the software view and when rendered it looks better however I rendered it and it still looked bad. I just don't know how to deal with this. For now I have ignore it to complete the other objects.

At least I have finish two parts of the typewriter that are ready for the final scene. For the rest of the objects if baking doesn't work with the textures then get the sculpt from the normal map and import them into Mudbox to finish the texture.

Something else I have learned is that there is no need to add extra smooth layers to models when you are not going to use them. It just adds more to render time.

My next steps are to see which objects need to be sent back for texturing and those that don't to finish this project.

Fixing My Problems With My Work

For the past 2 weeks I have been facing problems and now I have slowly but surely fixed my issues so that I can get back on track.
Firstly, with the Mudbox import of the synoptic project. To recap, I imported the main body of the player star fighter into Mudbox to sculpt and texture the model. The issue came in the fact that I exported the model as a FBX and I could not sculpt it. So I exported and re-imported it as an OBJ file. The problem was I added two subdivision levels to the model so when I started my work the UV map was not part of the file (which mean I can't paint the model without problems in Maya). So, even though I put a lot of more into the mesh I decided to cut my losses and restart from the beginning of importing in Mudbox with keeping the UV's. My designs for sculpting remains the same for now however.

For my industry standard issues, the problem (the most recent) was that the objects would not bake down because either mostly the objects couldn't map out the normal map on the lower poly model or the low and high poly objects would not match up, which causes problems for the textures. The object that worked out mostly is the main body however the colour wouldn't bake on because the UV's were in different spots. So the main task now is to repaint the object in Mudbox to finish.

For other progress, I have started to sculpt the main body but not to the extent as the first time and have started trying colour palettes for the colour scheme of the ship. Then, once I have finished baking the desk and the objects the scene will be finished for the industry standard project.

I am happy that I have almost fixed my problems for my current projects and started to make more progress, after these tasks are done the next steps are to finish all other objects for the player ship in the synoptic project and pose all finished low poly objects in a scene for this Wednesday.

Synoptic Project Update

Our team project is taking shape now. Most of the coding basis for features and mechanics have been finished and the player code is done, Has my modelling also kept up?

Well, both of the main models that I have been working on have been fully designed and UV-ed. All of the additions for the main ship have been finished. I am just fixing any errors in the meshes so it s ready for texturing. The only main point of content now is "What colour palette will the models have?". My opinion, I believe the alien ships should a purple or blue main coat with additional green additions. For the main ship, it could have a silver coat with bronze additions and placement of bright lights.

I haven imported the main body of the ship to work on. For extra detail I have added small trenches across the main body because on science fiction spaceships you can see they have plates of metal spread across them, this is to show where the plates end. If I did small but a little wide ditches and pull the edges together with the grab tool, then lightly flatten the surface (with the flatten tool),
gives the best impression for this. I will admit this my not be the best choice but I will follow through until it has been completed. Another addition is the vents at the front of the body like some ships have.

My next steps are to finish the body and texture it before moving on the the other parts that will not take as long. I plan to have this model finished before the beginning of April.

Final Stretch for Industry Standard Project

In the last few days I have updated my objects for the detective scene (mainly the typewriter body). Since my last blog post I have found out how to increase the poly count in the models without altering the rims. Their are two tools to get this effect. Firstly, the 'Crease' tool allows you to lock an edge into place with their vertices.  The other tool is the Smooth tool, this multiplies the amount of polygons that the model has based on which polygons you have selected, meaning a very large polygons will have the same amount of extra polys that a smaller one would. Mind you this is for the mesh not for individual polygons.

To use these changes, I have added extra sculpting into the bodies of the mesh to add extra detail. Adding sculpts for the screws in the side, minor holes for small levers and ironing out sharp corners.

I have redone some of the textures for the objects and have have added some extra layers (besides diffuse maps), such as gloss and bump maps. I do want to try and redo these textures in Substance Painter later.

However, another snag is that I have imported all of the objects I have finished back into Maya but when I try to bring in the low poly version into the scene as well all of the objects are screwed up and some of the objects just disappear. I think it is because the program thinks that the similar objects are the same. Even though the file names are different.

When the bake for the scene is completed that will be the end for this task for a while.

Week 8 For The Industry Level Project

In the past few days I have finished the textures for the typewriter, the lamp and the desk, although I feel that I can improve on them I am happy as a first result, especially with the desk.

The typewriter was separated into 6 separate objects (minus all of the keys and legs), each had to be painted individually. Unlike the desk and lamp, the lamp was 2 objects (the shade and the stand) while the desk was one object.

Something that this project has shown me is that Stencils in Mudbox are awesome. They are the reason the get high detail while you are painting your models. In this project is allowed me to add scratches and patterns in the wood, rather than a plain brown layer. It also showed patterns in the worn metal in the handles.I have learned the uses of the burn tool for the draws and blur tools for fading colours.

The typewriter textures were fine in my opinion since I also added a gloss layer to the major steel parts at the back. A way to improve I feel would be to add space for more polys to sculpt the model in some parts the problem is that when I add a subdivision layer to the body, it gets malformed.

A corner that I did have to cut though was painting all of the individual keys letters because that would take a lot of extra time with other textures taking priority.

Also I don't know if I could bake down this model because I have not added in any other sub-division layers, the poly count is only 456.

 A improvement to the lamp that I feel I could make is to make the shade more translucent to appear more like fabric rather than green plastic. Trying different layers in Mudbox for the lamp shade I have tried to add a bump map layer to the top layer to give the idea of roughness to the shade, however for some reason when I imported the object to Maya the layer seems to disappear.

If there was one complaint for the textures, it is that the edges seem to meld into each other that seems to show a more pulp look to it, and I have no idea how to fix this right now. However if I was able to get more polygons in the model I could add detail to the mesh rather than just the textures.

Something that was recommended was using a program called 'Mental Ray', this adds shaders to the model textures to not make the layers appear flat. I have tried the program 'Substance Painter' for extra detail however there is a learning curve to the program that I haven't past yet so it is out of the question for now.

Something that I am going to do first though is get the textured assets to better quality before adding in anymore objects to the scene.

One more thing that I have learned is from rendering the scenes, sometimes Maya can screw up with what software to use while rendering. If you don't take notice this can screw up the render. You can also use resolution gate in camera settings to show how much of the scene will be rendered.

So the next steps are to see if I can add new polygons to the typewriter without changing the shape of the object, try to add shaders to the textures, get to grips with Mental Ray and get a good bake for all objects in the scene.