Preparing for Environment Design 02/11/16

To prepare for the major environment design for the 30th November, we began to use Mudbox again for a few small projects to prepare for the major task.

The task is too create an 3D environment in Maya or Max based on a theme. The theme that we were given was Norse mythology mixed with future technology.  I have a few ideas of what to do for the project. Even though it is a very difficult thing to connect together without it being a mess.

To practise Mudbox we created a rock... Sounds kind of stupid but in a way it works. The way that this worked is by using most of the major tools to create the mesh, but the texture was created by using the paint brush and adding stencils on the mesh, this adds a texture onto the mesh. We found our own textures to 'stamp' on the mesh.

The texturing works the same as in most other drawing programs with layers with your textures. You can also add extra detail with stamps for small cracks and eroded rock.

The only other point is that since this only a model that will not be used in a scene is that I can add as many layers of polys that I want, the more mesh layers you have the smoother it looks and the tools seem to look better as they carve into the mesh however it takes more processing power to not lose frame rate or freeze the system. Finally, considering that there is no wrong answer for creating this I did not find anything difficult , so it is just using the tools in the future.

Normal Displacement and Bump Maps

This week we had to learn the difference and properties of different uv maps. The main focus was on using normal maps, before we are going to do this on our character models we tried this on a cube because the way that it is done can get overwhelmingly complicated fast.

The overall task was to create a cube (the left) and create a higher poly version of a crate (the middle), then 'bake' the high poly crate onto the high poly crate. Once the cube is 'baked' all of the detail is then imprinted on the regular cube
(the right). Even though the geometry of the cube is not altered at all, it acts like the higher detail model, including the effects that it has such as lighting and casting shadows. Even though up close you can tell the differences in the models, from a distance or a tiny scale it would not be apparent to the viewer. This logic lowers the amount of polygons that need to be in a scene.


Normal maps, a map of what your geometry's normals are, This can create an illusion of anything form height to to lighting. This takes advantages of real-time rendering of how your model maybe affected by different angles of effect, in all three axis' in a 3D space. The only main problem with this map is that it is difficult to texture because of the way that the colour is done on the uv map.

Bump Maps, a map that is greyscale that acts like a pseudo-height map. It creates an illusion of raised or lowered details on a surface. Anything above 50% appears to pull up out of the mesh while below 50% appears to push into the mesh.  A problem for these maps is that they can easily be broken if the camera views the map from a wrong angle.

Displacement maps, this is a height map that affects the geometry of a model unlike a bump map that only gives and illusion. This generally applied to lower poly versions of models to have high quality detail while keeping the mesh easy for animating and rigging. A big problem with these maps however is that they require major processing power to create all of the alterations on the mesh because the geometry additions are rendered in the scene.

An Odd Technique in Illustrator 15/10/16

 This week we tried a new way of creating concept art ideas. The way that this worked is we created a image (in our case a rock) that we used like a brush to create an image.

To start (we did this in Photoshop), I used the lasso tool to create a random polygon. I then filled it with grey. Then I split it down the middle to split into a lighter and darker grey to signify the light and shadow on the rock.  To enforce this I then took a small brush and made it white. I then drew all across the lighter gray.

On the other side I drew across the darker side for cracks on the shadow side.

This way that I drew this gives the impression of one of the slender posters form the horror trend from 2011-2013, because of the styles in both images.

After creating the rock and transferring it into a brush I then went on to create a layer by layer image using this brush. The image on the left is what I created. This is all created with the brush transferred from the rock image. The different layers are represented by the brightness of the paintbrush and the brushes opacity. They did not given an idea of what to create however.

The final point was to colour the image
The purpose of this exercise was to try to work with the tools in illustrator, considering that the animation and gaming industry use a large variety of programs and learning as many as possible is impeccable.

The main improvement that I could have done is what the final image appeared to be, even though it can be seen as nothing more than interpretation, The task itself however, ignores all of the detail in the first image.

Once again I don't know how this will be relevant with the rest of the course aside from using tools in certain ways.

"Special Jam" Time Trail 17/10/16

I did a time trail with the rest of my next gen group to try and get us going back to our pre-holiday mind set. The way that it worked is that we had 2 hours to create something that can represent a keyword. This time it was "Loop".

As you can see from the image, I decided to create a model of a desk fan. Why? Mainly because the word loop can apply how something repeats in an endless cycle. One of the best way to see that are thing that go around in a circle, and I just thought of a desk fan because I had other ideas such as creating a landscape of a racing track. The reason I did not do that is because I only had 2 hours to finish, and to make it interesting the landscaping would have to be altered by a large amount.

The only criticism that I got was that the fan should have been spinning in the cage. Aside from the time limit the reason for this is because I don't know how to do animation in 3ds Max and because the fan blades are part of the main body of the fan mesh.

The main pointers from this experience were that, for the bars of the cage were all extrusions from the rings however they were to thick for what a fan appears to be so I scaled them down however this affected the ring to make it abnormal. So adding in a small extra extrusion at the base of each bar stopped the unwanted scaling. The other point is that (for me) there are a few extra shortcuts that I never knew such as double clicking on an edge highlights the entire edge loop. This was useful for using the chamfer tool, too smooth out parts of the model like the fan blades.

The main point that I took for this is that the company Framestore sometimes does time trails from all that are willing to participate in the challenge. This can be something I can use to keep my skills with different modelling software.

UV Mapping In Maya

This is the return of the most tedious task in 3D modelling, UV unwrapping. This time around it was done in Maya instead of last years 3ds Max. After finishing the Mudbox version of the golem I imported a lower poly version of it back into Maya. The reason for this is because the amount of poly's that would have to be taken into account for the high poly model would be over 33,000! The lower poly version is around 6,000 but it will still have the amount of detail that the high poly model will have for the textures.







This task was much easier in Maya than in 3ds Max, because you don't have to register every polygon individually and scale it. You treat the polygons as like a 2D cloth in pieces to peace it together. The way that I UV-unwrapped the model is by taking one part of the model and splitting it down the middle (like vertically down the middle of the arms). Once in two parts the polygons are then smoothed out into a flat plane and scaled right to size the planes are then sowed together in one of the cuts of where you want the texture rip to not be visible.

This tactic also applies to most of the model including the arms, legs and torso. However the hands, fingers, the head and the feet have a bit more complicated. Some specific features need individual parts to get there own mapping. Next week I will finish the mapping of the model and start texturing.

Drawing Story-boarding and Concept art Catch-Up

For the past few weeks I have been taught a few drawing techniques for concept art and storyboards, some of them have stuck but most have not, a main reason for this is that we mostly use digital programs rather than physical paper and pencils. I don't have those programs so I have no way of practising these techniques.

Other points that we went over are using many different shadows to tell a concept of the story of a image or storyboard. How to order a storyboard to add extra concepts into a scene.

This is an image of Mr Greedy from the child stories of 'Mr Men'.  This was created by using the pen tool in Illustrator, drawing lines and curves around an background image of Mr Greedy.

Most recently, we were creating silhouette images by going into Photoshop, using the lasso tool and scribbling on the page filling in the blanks and with black and editing the scribble to create some form of an image, these images were my results.

The reason for this exercise was to let lose imagination, most concept art you complete is done by first researching what you want to draw but without it you create what you think can look good, because it is a silhouette you can use your imagination to fill in the blanks of what you think the image is.

Finally, the image at the end of the post is an attempt of using elements of film making shots into an image. The idea of the image was to re-imagine the plot little of red ridding hood. The idea that the group came up with is to use sci-fi (it not like it's been overdone or anything), even though the image is very sloppy in detail the premise for the image is that it is a stand off between the alien (wolf stand in) and little red. The main feature of the image is the shadow on the alien. The reason for that is for the audience to put together what the alien can look like, with an idea given the eyes. The reason you can see the body in the image is that the other option was to use black and that just look stupid for a drawing considering it would take up almost half of the image.

The final point was, we were asked to create a game idea with a storyboard about a news story online. It was to see if we understand basic components of creating art. With certain perspectives and what attracts the viewers attention.

The point of the image was to demonstrate if you can have a narrative in one image. If you have elements of mystery and suspense into an image it makes it much better. The image is meant to look like a stand off between a relatable human and an unknown entity.

The Line Enrichment Project

This was a very awkward project to work on, the idea was to enrich a line to make it

more appealing. Examples that they gave us were, Cinderella (1950) dress scene, Catch Me If You Can intro and The Hearthstone Target arrow. I struggled to come up an idea to do this project especially since I am not the best artist. The idea I had was to create letters held in place at a construction site. The pallet will brown to black for most of it, the letters are red to standout more to be noticed in the image to show there importance and that they are what the image revolves around.

The main reason for this was for the group to try to use www.nextgenskillsacademy.com. However, (at least for me) it was a very awkward project to try, even though it could be useful?