BA3 Self Evaluation

Over the course of this unit I have learnt a massive amount of knowledge in how to use 3D software, I feel a lot more confident with my skills now than I did at the start going into this project with barely any knowledge of what I was doing. This most recent brief was unlike the others and I forced myself to focus on getting a good grade, I believe I could have done more but like with the rest I only have a short amount of time to produce amazing pieces of work.

Most of my research was easy enough as it mainly came from basic google image research and gathering my own images around the city. I do feel as though it wasn’t enough compared to my last project, but I was more focused on completing models rather than the research. I know I’ll try to add more background research about why I chose that style or timeline.

When I first started using Maya before the holidays, I felt as though it would take forever to get a number of models complete, then once we learned about UV unwrapping and Texturing I felt as though I’d never be able to finish the design requirements. However because I decided to put more energy and time into this project I got a bigger reward, I was able to complete the assigned tasks, plus I was able to complete a fully textured practise model, which is something I would have never thought possible at the beginning of the project.

I was able to pick up the skills needed to create these pieces fairly quickly in the practise assessment, and I was able to unlock more skills to help speed up the process of my work even more. I did mostly start with 2D ideas because I prefer 2D, but I soon became used to working straight into 3D and although the software is scary and annoying at times, I did have lots of fun creating this project. One of my biggest accomplishments was that I used the media labs, tutors, and all of the resources the University offered, which I didn’t use as much in my last two projects. However while at the beginning of the project I updated my blog regularly, due to getting solely focused on the project work, I left the blog till late to update and I regret that.

To summarise this project I feel was my best one yet, I feel like I’ve done nearly twice as much work as the last projects. I’m hoping for a higher grade than my previous one because I believe I’ve put in the hours to get a good level. This first year of University has been the toughest I’ve ever had, but I don’t regret any of it because of what I’ve been able to take away from it. I can now do drawings I thought where impossible and learning how to use 3D software was a massive change in my life, and for the better.

Finished Folly, Asset Sheet & Turntable

This was my final finished folly submission sheet for BA3, this asset sheet has a main shot of the folly along with side angle shots and wireframe shot, then the two texture maps I used for the folly and base.  I am amazingly pleased with how this turned out, but I know on areas where I could've done more if I had more time.

Creating a turntable wasn't easy when I was in the session, but thanks to tutors help, I was able to note down how to successfully render and create a turntable for my folly.  Once I re-read my notes I found out that making a video is incredibly easy to complete.

Link to my rendered video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teWv_LNnqE8&feature=youtu.be

Texturing my Final Model

When it came to making sure my layout was good, i did run into a problem, where it kept laying out the model, but in very small pieces.  However after fiddling around with the layout option for 20 minutes I was able to fix that problem.  Once I had my first layout I saved it and went onto texturing it.

I put a base layer down and also UV checkered it, once I'd put the texture on, I'd save it out to maya to make sure I was doing it right.  I did however have a couple of major problem's with the layout, first the UV's weren't taking up as much space as they should, this problem was fixed with the help of one of the tutors, who sat down and helped me to make a better layout for the model than before. The second layout did come with a price, the smaller pieces connected together in the model, but separate in the layout where moved apart, nightmare to fix that.  Two it was taking way to long to get through the first line.  Mainly because I chipped away, I have to make sure everything is connected the right way. 

These next photos explain how different the layout's are, the closer one is my recent one while the one on the left is my older version because parts of the layout where difficult to find, one of the tutors suggest I colour code it to see where everything is, I also added arrows to help find out which end was which side.

For Texturing I used basic brick textures taken from CG textures combined with laying them out carefully and making sure they meet with another angle, or close enough.  I took full advantage of using the layer options in Photoshop to help me achieve the sandstone texture I was looking for.  I using a mixture of grunge maps to give it some history in some areas and adding green mossy paint to add the better organic flow to it.  this was the end result.

These extra maps really helped me achieve my overall goal in bringing out the design  more, the diffuse map was finished and I'm ready to move on, however some problems did occur when trying to upload my Normal maps.  Using the diffuse as a base map I added more whites to the scene to make sure that most of the model had a good balance.  However for some reason, whenever I applied the bump map it kept applying it to the older layout option, this then caused the texture to go back to it's original layout.  But thanks to the help from a 2nd year I was able to correct this problem and finish the normal maps.

Height and Normal Maps

Specular Maps

Because I was successful with the Normal map, I added a Specular Map to bring out the highlights more.

  

Creating my Final Model

Now that I had an idea of where I wanted to take my final model I drew up a gazebo style Greek Ruin sketch to get a better understanding on what it was I was going to be creating.

Once the sketch was done I moved onto creating the model itself.  I wanted to go for a design similar yet different to my previous model, I decided to go with a circle stairs base as a way into the ruin.  Looking at the image research I thought that I should hack off two or three pillars to look like it's been attacked.  I had an idea to do the boxes at the top and bottom of pillars but this proved annoying when it came to UV unwrapping them as they would not connect properly, so I returned to full circle pillars. 

Once I had one of the pillar textures unwrapped it was easy enough to duplicate that item, so the unwrapping will have also duplicated with the next pillar.  When I got to the roof I started to have second thoughts about it, so I went back and re-sketched the roof, and came up with a design better and more suited for the organic feel to the model. 

After changing it to give it a more round block shape I started to create chipped edges to help give the model history.  I kept making little changes here and there to show where mother nature may have affected it, afterwards I added the remainder of the broken pillars to the floor along with some boxes with chips in them. I did change the piece at one point where it had big holes in the structure, however I abandoned that idea when I couldn't figure out how to unwrap it.  

Once my model was finally built I began to properly unwrap it, most of the pillars where already unwrapped due to saving time.  Once all the pillars where unwrapped I moved onto the harder parts of the folly, where I had created lots of edges.  It was not fun to do, but after the 5th try of using different ways of unwrapping and not having them collapse in on themselves, plus a little help from my classmates, I finally managed to find a way to unwrap my UV's.  Next up was the Texturing:

Folly Test Runs

Once I had an idea of what a folly was I started to work on creating a folly, at this point I felt confident that I could do a few iteration models to see how things went before creating a final model. So I did some quick sketches of some folly's that I liked:

The first two sketches where done from image research off existing follies, at first I wanted to create a castle wall type model, but after I was told we had to make up our own model and not copy it like the first half of the project. I decided to scrap that idea and create a tower type structure, but keep the main style Georgian. (I decided to work on 3D rather than 2D, that's why only a certain part is coloured in sketch 2).

This was the first folly I created, I wanted to go for a more organic feel to it by cutting away at the circular parts of the folly.  It has a basic shape to help create a strong structure, yet it's overall design is very boring. I would have needed to seriously go into it with textures to give it some life and help give it history. So I ended this piece here.

My second attempt at creating a piece of architecture that had been broken down and crumpled away did turn out a lot better in this piece.  However , there where a lot of N-gons in the piece and it took ages to fix that, and similar to the last piece it doesn't have enough to make it worthy of a final piece.  I did use this to experiment  with lights and shadows, as well as create a  mock turntable render.  This made creating the real video that much easier. 

This third practise folly my best mock model as I was able to UV unwrap it and texture it. I decide to keep this piece intact and chip away at it on the textures.  When creating the overall design I wanted to keep the idea small as it wouldn't take too long to texture, after looking through some gazebo's I decided to have a go at creating one, this one I decided should have a triangular roof.  Once the model was complete it was onto UV unwrapping it, after some help from the tutors, I was able to layout my UV's and begin texturing my model.  I wanted to aim for a sand stoney colour, but ended up with a more creamish colour more than anything else.  At that point I knew I wanted to do a Gazebo for my final model, and I wanted to give it an organic feel with broken rubble.  I got the idea of using Greek style architecture as a base for creating my final model.  I also played around with the normal maps to see the difference, it brought out the roof in a big way.    

Architecture in Games

Every game has some type of architecture in it, 2D or 3D.  Architecture helps draw the player in with creations to the environment, without architecture inside a game landscape the environment would be flat and have no value, giving the player no sense of engagement.  Having an environment and a surrounding in a set style of architecture have a large role in the games's visual production, some work if they can use a variety of styles, some don't.  What makes the games narrative is the attention to detail on these pieces.  
Here are a few examples:

Sleeping Dogs:

Sleeping Dogs is one of my favourite games to play, I love how they where able to create such an amazingly good representation of Hong Kong, this was able to help me become more engaged with the situation and really feel what's happening with the characters.  I believe what really makes it stand out are the amount of weather affects which I'm guessing are done through gloss and specular maps.  This really makes it so everything stands out and seems interesting to engage with.

The Last of Us:

Probably the best game of the decade, The Last of Us brings incredible environmental artwork in a Post Apocalyptic world, that has been taken from real life locations and been taken over by mother nature.  From this piece I can look at how mother nature has taken over and examine how to implement it into my folly to give it history.

Assassins Creed 2:

The Assassins Creed games goes over a massive amount of time in history, using a range of architecture styles, however the second game has some of the strongest architecture visuals among the rest. The architecture is very realistic, it takes this approach to show the time period successfully.  The size and scale of the buildings will determine how much detail goes into each area, but Ubisoft are able to make every part of the environment look extremely realistic by using real world colour palettes and placing very believable lighting.

 

 

Life Drawing

These first two drawings where done on the first week of term, the First drawing is sixteen mini drawings of a character moving about, this was different body poses at different angles.  All of them where linked with the fact it was showing how the person progressed over these different frames. This helped when thinking about how to quickly observe someone in motion and how fast you can make them look.

The second image is an hour drawing, the biggest problem I had with this piece was creating the foot and the elbow.  I liked how I was able to get the back shadows to really help his back stand out, if I had more time I'd fix the foot so it's not so squarish.

These next two where very different from all the previous life drawing sessions, because we had a female life model.  The first drawing is a character sheet style drawing, we where given 15 minutes each to create, my biggest problem with this piece was that because I'd drawn male's for so long, it was difficult to adjust to getting a female anatomy, so if I could improve, I'd try to make the design more female.  

The second drawing is another hour drawing, I was using chalk to bring out the highlights, while using pencil for the shadows, during the process, I changed the anatomy a few times to get it right. I'm not very good with chalk, so at times I found it difficult, areas to improve would be finishing it, and the left leg.

This as the last life drawing session I had, I was given 2 hours to draw the person, and we did it outside for a change.  I was allowed to use whatever drawing materials I wanted, I chose pencil because it's my comfort tool, I prefer working with shading pencils because of my traditional background.  I really went for the facial details as best as possible but I could have done better with the nose. Things I could improve upon, if I had more time I would have been able to finish the log he was sitting on and give more of a background to him, I also feel as though shading could be done better. But other than that I am happy with what I produced.

Normal Mapping

Normal mapping is a texture map you use after creating a diffuse map.  It is able to fake the bumps and dents within a model to help bring the diffuse map out and give it more of a 3D feel.  There is another name for this technique called bump mapping, but as Maya upgraded, Bump maps where replaced with Normal maps.

Bump Maps:

A greyscale image where the perceived height is defined by black to white per pixel, Black being pushed in, while white comes forward.  

Normal Maps:

An RGB image where the channel represents a XYZ lighting angle per pixel.

Uploading the Map:

For this project, we used a software called CRAZYBUMP.  The technique was to desaturate the finished diffuse texture, then upload it as a Targa file to crazybump, where it would create a 3D style map off the diffuse map.  Once the Normal Map is saved it is ready to be uploaded to Maya, be going on the Lambert page to bump, then switching the 2D bump attributes to Tangent Space Normals, after that select the file and upload it.  This will not work unless the renderer setting is in Viewport 2.0.

Folly Mood board Research

To start off this project, I decided to collect moodboard research on Folly's and there different styles of architecture.

While I did collect a range of photos to choose from I decided to look into Georgian Style Folly's as the architecture style is similar to that of my previous models.  I started this project wanting to do more of a castle arch or wall type of folly, however I changed my mind and decided to do a Gazebo style folly as I found it much more enjoying to create.  

While coming up with ideas for my Gazebo style folly, I decided to look at other cultures and styles to base my work off.  I then choose Greek Ruins as a main source of inspiration for my folly, so I did some image research into Greek Ruins.

My favourite one out of these is the bottom right image, it is where I started when I was first designing my final model, I like it because it has lot's of history and looks very interesting.  I like the crumbled organic look to it and I wanted to have a go and really push myself to create something more natural and give it plenty of history.  Now that I had the image research it was time to move onto designs.

BA3 Creative Brief: The Final First Year Challenge

It's week 5 into our final project and we've been given our creative brief for BA3, this is where the first four weeks pay off, as we put our newly found skills to the test to create a piece of architecture.

The chosen piece of architecture we have to create is called a Folly.  A Folly is a piece of architecture that has no purpose other than to be part of the environment or a reminder to someone about an event.  Normally they are quite small, but there is no limit to a folly's size.

During the next three weeks I will research into a style I will do for the final design, probably Georgian style, due to all my previous pieces being similar.  

The Main Submission for this project will be to hand in:

One fully finished, built, unwrapped, and textured Folly with as many maps as possible in a high quality rendering turntable video.

This is going to be tough, but i'm going to give it everything I got and come out with something amazing hopefully.   :)

UV's and Unwrapping, Somebody Help Me!!!

This is the most difficult part of 3D Modelling in my opinion, it follow's a complicated procedure and one slip could mean total destruction for texturing your model.

Unwrapping is essential for all pieces of finished 3D modelling, especially if you want to texture said model, unwrapping is able to convert a 3D model map into a 2D model map so that textures can be applied in Photoshop.  This process is slow and will take around 1/4 of the overall process.  
The main problem's with UV's is Distortion, Texture Space, and Seams, These are never perfect.
Distortion: Caused by the shape and size of the UV, organic shapes are more difficult than static ones.
Texture Space: All the space available that should be used, but never touching the outside, leaving enough space for everything to scale perfectly.
Seams: Eases distortion of the UV's, but need to be kept hidden from sight, because they stick out too much.

UV Checkers: UV checker do exactly what the name suggests, they help make sure that the UV's stay the same across the entire model.

BA3: Practise Models

Throughout weeks 2-4, I spent it researching, sketching, and creating models of 4 different pieces of architecture in Norwich or the internet.  Each one was a challenge, however I was able to create each one to my best potential with my experience using maya.  Even though one was not technically classed as architecture, because I was fiddling around with U.V's I was allowed to keep it.

Lamp Study

This was my first official model for the project, it took me about a day to complete, I used a basic cylinder, then using edge loop tools, extruding, and shrinking to get the base of the lamp, the more detailed parts like the lightbulb where done with separate tools and a lot of extruding and moving. I didn't know that much about the UV's at the time, so I thought I was ready to texture it, what I hadn't done at the time was unwrap it, so it became incredibly difficult to texture. As a result the model refused to let me texture it the way I wanted, so I decided to move onto the next model instead. 

Door Study

This was my second piece of work, and the only one that I used the internet as a main source for construction.  I did struggle a lot more with this piece, getting the basic shape and the pillars done was simple enough with extruding, shaping, and scaling tools, the hardest part was building the mount on the top.  After completing one half with extrusions, and scaling, I cloned, and rotated it so they would meet in the middle.  Merging them was another story, it took me quite a number of hours to figure out how to get them to merge together well.  Next to my textured model this one took the longest to create, but I do feel proud of my results and I know I couldn't do something like this at the beginning of term.

Shed Study

To make this model, I decided to use as many basic primitives as possible, however later on I decided to use as many as I could to finish it.  This model was my least favourite, due to it taking over a week to complete, I kept going back to it to add more items to it because it felt incomplete when I looked at the image reference.  At one point when constructing the side door, I had a problem with the edges, somehow I had managed to tangle them up on the roof.  It took me a while before I figured out how to solve that problem.  The window and the roof tiles took a couple of days to complete, I was able to produce a finished piece, but I hate how slow I was at creating it.

Window Door Study

This was my final and textured model for the practise models assessment, I was able to create it quickly thanks to the skills I picked up in Lectures and workshops.  The top semi-circle was created separately from the main body and then combined together.  Creating the circle in the middle was the most difficult part of the build because I had to boolean it.  Then came unwrapping it, I probably spent about a day unwrapping the model, it took me a while and asking the tutors for help, but I managed to complete it with four days left to texture it. When it came to texturing I decided to get basic photos off of CG textures and layer them on top of each other, while painting over them to look like they where one piece.  The longest part I spent on texturing was the wooden door, I kept changing the main colour to try and match the picture. Once the diffuse texture was complete, I attempted to try another map like Normal and specular, however I ran out of time and had to hand in the model with only the diffuse map on it.

Summary

Overall I feel good that I was able to learn these skills in such a short time.  I am very happy that I was able to complete all four studies and texture one, I know they aren't up to professional standards, probably very noob level, however I do feel as though my understanding and overall skills have grown extremely fast this term, and I hope to create an amazing finalised piece of work for the second half of the project.