#xb2002

[davidfieldfutureworks-blog]

3D Modelling for Games: Session 15 (18/01/2018)

Another day of failing at modelling the 1989 Batwing. We generally just got on with things for the first half hour of the session before being taught how to bake textures from a high poly mesh to a low poly version. Initially I didn’t understand the point, as I wasn’t going to be using Zbrush, however Paul came over an explained how it carries the information over from the curves and edges of the high poly and applies them to the low poly, giving a much better effect than I realised it would.

My first order of business was attaching the top fins to the body of the Batwing. This meant adding in more vertices (perhaps much more than was necessary on reflection), but I was able to pull it off quite easily.

I did have an issue with the verts snapping into unwanted positions, but Paul pointed out that this can be changed in the settings of the multi-cut tool that I was using.

I finally got round to sorting out the tip at the back of the wing too, figuring out the best and most optimal way for it to come in at a point whilst avoiding any inconsistencies with the wing sloping in at a point.

For the majority of the session I switched my attention to the bottom of the body as it connects to the wing, as I felt that the reference images I’ve been using didn’t really give a true representation of how I personally remember the Batwing from the toys I had as a kid.

Whilst not perfect, I feel like I’m definitely getting there. Unfortunately time is now of the essence, and I need to be much less picky and just “get it done”. On the positive side however, the hand in is merely formative, so I will have time to improve upon it, assuming I stay on top of my other work.

Of course I was never going to get through an entire session without... messing up a little. Somewhere down the line I must’ve accidentally selected a number of verts at the back end of the Batwing, which lead to a lot of deformity. I didn’t have time to correct it all, but I did make sure that they were realigned to the centre of the grid.

Aside from this, I’ve recently spent a couple of hours a day over a four day period revisiting my first assignment. Paul had previously mentioned that my efforts - while decent - were not really up to par, specifically regarding the texture of the MCFC badge. As such I decided to make a “companion piece” for the 89 Batwing by creating a low poly version of the one from Batman Forever. As you can see below the mesh itself is finished and next I’ll be moving on to unwrapping and texturing it. 

[lukesummersfutureworks]

XB2002 - High Poly Model Progress - Blog Post 1

I have begun working on my high poly 3D model which is going to be a highly detailed and fairly complex minigun, to aid me in my creation I am going to refer to several images for reference as well as several Sketchfab uploads from other users, with these references I should be able to create a final outcome of a high standard.

Sketchfab References

Minigun by shadowdragon811 on Sketchfab

Sci-Fi Minigun by Feche Pedroza on Sketchfab

The Usurper by toomanydemons on Sketchfab

Image References

Fallout 4 Miniguns

GTA V Minigun

Real Life Miniguns

Development

Working from these references I have so far produced the bulk of this 3D model, keeping it fairly simple for the time being and focusing more on the scale of individual parts, some refinement will be necessary.

Below are some quick renders of my current progress with smoothing temporarily applied to the majority of the 3D model.

Below is a quick render without smoothing applied.

Below is an image showing the wireframe of the model, unsmoothed.

The majority of the geometry is currently within the bullets which require refinement.

I will now work on adding further detail to this model and refining existing aspects.

Continued Development

Since my last progress update, I have begun to finalize development of the key aspects of the model and I have been focusing heavily on structural consistencies, ensuring that parts are merged together realistically and in a lifelike manner, including a power source for the minigun with the appropriate wiring.

I have also created a final bullet model suitable for duplication, below is a quick render of a smoothed and unsmoothed version of this particular model.

Below is my current progress with the minigun uploaded to Sketchfab for 3D inspection and personal evaluation, untextured and unfinished of course as I am still in the fairly early stages of development.

Minigun Test (WIP) by FWLukeSummers on Sketchfab

[robyngoodallfutureworks-blog]

Low poly model - XB2002 - 26/09/17

[elidecarteretfutureworks-blog]

XB2002 3D modelling

Lesson 1

For the first assignment, we need to create a low poly (under 2000 triangle) prop model to quickly get back into Maya. 

I chose to create a treasure chest.

Research

For this task I chose to create a treasure chest. This is because the treasure chest will work well with the criteria, in that it will be low poly, work with the 1024px limit for the texture and is a commonly seen game prop. 

I began researching treasure chests, firstly from Google images and secondly from different games. 

Google Images research

Google images gave a few examples of real and cartoon looking treasure chests to get some inspiration from. I firstly looked at the shape of the treasure chests and noticed they all followed a very similar structure. This was that they were rectangular at the base with a curved lid which could be opened to allow people to look inside. Inside is where my coins are going to be placed. The second thing which I noticed was that they were mostly made from wood, meaning the texture for my treasure chest would most likely have to be wood. Thirdly, most of them contain gold metal holding the wood in shape. I also found a chest which another designer has modeled and used that as a reference too. 

Game research

I then went on to research treasure chests in other games. These games included Skyrim, Legend of Zelda and Spyro. One thing which I noticed to be different from the images from Google were that they were not all created from a wooden texture. I also noticed that they all featured patterns and symbols to add detail to them, something which not all of the Google images above contained. 

Sketchfab

I also looked on Sketchfab to view other 3D treasure chests which other designers had created. The advantage of viewing these were that I could get a 3D perspective and analyse the wireframe involved, which in turn, could benefit my 3D model, as I could look at the way others created their models and replicate parts of it which I may not know how to fully create whilst keeping the chest low poly. 

The ones which I looked at were: 

https://sketchfab.com/models/0b8cbed26343414ab9f28ba6b5f023de

https://sketchfab.com/models/1e6f70cd55f5479bb9ab552f119ea9c4

https://sketchfab.com/models/b67d504dddeb436e823bf36defc2ed8b

What I noticed from these models were that they followed the shape of the chests from Google images and were all made out of a wood texture with metal hinges to hold the wood structure in place and to make it solid enough to be able to hold the coins inside it. I also noticed that they were a lot similar in the design than the ones from professional games were.   

Images of creating the 3D treasure chest with process

After researching these treasure chests, I began creating my own. I am going to create it out of wood with metal hinges holding it together and have a lock on it, with some finer details being placed on the metal sections to give it more of a professional look. I will also have the chest open so that the coins inside are visible, with them being created low poly with a high resolution texture placed over the top, most likely in Substance Painter. I feel the rectangle ‘box’ look is too overdone and simplistic, so I am going to give it more detail by making the base a little bit thinner and the top of the chest a little bit wider. This should make it look more professional too, as the ones I have seen where the designer has done this look more unique and are rarer to see. 

The creation of the 3D treasure chest

I opened Maya and began creating the treasure chest. I began by creating a cube and modifying the scale so it was a lot wider than it was tall. I then selected the front and back faces and added 2 edge loops horizontally and vertically. From there I scaled them out so they were near the edges of the face, as these will become the metal sections holding the wood together. I then took the top face and extruded it downwards to create the inside of the chest for where the coins will be placed.  

From here, I extruded the faces inwards; starting with the front and back ones together, then the 2 sides. This adds depth to the chest, meaning more detail is added, allowing it to look more professional due to the treasure chest having more realism.  

I then created the lid of the chest by creating a cylinder and cutting it in half before scaling it so it was in line with the base which I had created before. 

I then added 2 edge loops across the top of the lid and moved those to be in line with the edge loops on the base of the treasure chest. 

From here I took the faces from the 2 top edge loops and extruded them upwards to create where the metal arcs will be on the lid of the chest.  

I changed the pivot point for the lid to the center of the back bottom edge and rotated it round so that the lid opens in the same way a normal real life chest would open. 

By the end of the first lesson I had reached this point, moving the back down to where it would be in order to open realistically, with the gap on the back being there to allow for the hinges to be placed on the back later on. I feel like I have achieved quite a lot in this lesson, especially as I have not used Maya properly for a few months and the structure of the object is beginning to resemble a ttreasure chest.  

The next job was to put splits in the front of the chest. To do this, I added 4 edge loops vertically and moved them into place to look like 2 wood panels down the front. I then selected the 3 faces between the front panels and the same 3 faces on the back and extruded them into the chest. This created the structure of the wooden chest, which will be made out of metal once textured and is used in real life to hold the chest’s wooden structure together. I then took a sphere, split it in half and placed duplicates around the chest to act like jewels.  

From there, I added 2 edge loops down the lid of the chest and extruded the middle faces outwards.

After that I created a sword to go into the chest to give it more purpose and story, as just having a chest with coins in would not be very rewarding compared to finding a sword which can be useful. I began by creating a rectangle for the top of the handle. I then added 3 edge loops down the middle and moved the vertex’s inward on one side to create the shape which the blade would be. I also added one edge loop horizontally, moved those vertices around then extruded that shape out to create the blade. For the end of the blade, I extruded out the two top faces and moved the vertices to meet in the center using the merge to center tool. For the other side of the rectangle, I extruded the 2 faces out to create a rectangular handle.  

From here, I gave more shape to the top of the handle by scaling the end of the handle faces inwards (towards the center) on each side, leaving the middle faces higher than the sides.

I then rounded the rectangular handle by moving the vertices on both sides more towards the center and creating the more rounded shape by eye.

Before extruding the end faces, adding edge loops and creating a spherical shape out of them to create a base for the sword by manipulating the vertex.  

I then moved the faces of the inside of the chest upwards so the sword was not sitting to far into the chest and could be easily visible, scaled the sword down and placed it into my chest.

I then added 2 cylinders to the back of the chest to create hinges which would be used to allow the lid of the chest to open and close. I created a cylinder, scaled it down, placed it into position, duplicated it and placed the second one into position.

I then created another cylinder, scaled it outwards and made it thin in height to create a coin shape, placed it into position around the sword in the chest, duplicated it a few times and placed a few of them in.

I found that I had some double extrusions in the front of the chest when I had moved the faces back. This caused issues when trying to UV the chest. To overcome this, I selected over each vertex to see how many were overlapping, for example, the one in the image below has 5 vertices selected on the green dot, which can be seen on the poly count on the top left, first row, last number (5), then clicked on the ‘merge (vertices) to center’ tool, which merged all of the vertices into 1 vertex.

Another problem I faced was that the inside faces of the chest lid disappeared and became uneditable. To fix this, I selected the left edge and the right edge of the bottom of the lid of the chest and bridged across it to form a base for the lid. When I come to editing this chest before the summative hand in, I would like to indent this inwards, as the chest would not have a flat base to the lid as it would not close correctly, especially if a sword was in the chest, as it would stick out too much for the lid to close.

The image below is an example of UVing the lid of the chest. As can be seen, it is split up into parts to UV, unwrapped mainly using planar unwrapping, as well as automatic unwrapping in small complex parts of the unwrap before they were edited in the UV editor. I selected all the different components using object selector, i.e. the lid, sword, base, jewels, coins and hinges and combined them together so they made 1 object which could be textured using 1 texture sheet. 

After all the pieces were unwrapped, my unwrap looked like this in the UV editor:

With the untextured version looking like this: 

This is the unwrap for the coin:

And for the jewels in more detail. 

This is a closer look at the unwrap as shown above. 

I then neatened the UV up in the UV editor, moving all the different components of the unwrap into one sheet (grid square) so that it was easier to texture and so that each part could be textured through 1 sheet, as using multiple sheets not only gets messy as to where each part is but also would cause the engine to have to load more elements when it was placed into an engine. The image below is what the unwrap looks like from the back.  

The side:

And the front. I overlapped the coin and jewel UV’s as they are going to be the same colour and textured the same anyway so it made sense to have them overlapping and use the same texture, plus it saved space on the texture sheet. 

I then began texturing in Substance Painter. This was the first time I had used this software so took a bit of time to get used to the different functions, but with a lecture based on it, it was not too long before I had a basic knowledge of how to use it. I began by adding a wooden texture onto the chest, with a leather handle for the sword and a steel blade.

This is a screenshot of Substance Painter with the 3D object on the left and the 2D flat texture sheet on the right. I added a copper metal texture to the front and round the edges to make the metal structure of the chest which would be used to keep the wood panels in place, added a red aluminium look to the jewels and gold colouring to the coins and the end of the sword.   

This is how it looked in render: 

I also added the ‘gold armor’ material to the middle of the sword handle too:

Once I got to this point I decided I did not like the bronze metal on the chest so changed it to a rough steel texture with ‘iron old’ markings on it. I feel this gave the treasure chest more colour and made it look brighter.  

Once I had created the treasure chest I decided I wanted to see what it looked like with an emissive blade to the sword to give the illusion that it was enchanted. To do this I created a blue emissive layer on the steel blade and it was fairly effective in giving the illusion I was looking for.  

This is the UV with the emissive blade texture:

This is a close up of the treasure chest with the emissive sword. As can be seen, it is quite bright, so would stand out in a dark room inside of a game, making it noticeable to players as a stronger weapon, as that is the common feature of enchanted weapons. 

Just to extend on that point, an example of enchanted emissive swords can be seen in World of Warcraft:

Image from: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/File:Enchanted_sword.png

In the end I am happy with how my chest came out with it looking a lot more realistic than anything I have ever created before using Photoshop. It looks exactly like a treasure chest which could be found in an RPG game, which is the look I was going for. In terms of changes, I would like to create an indent in the base of the lid to create a more curved and realistic chest lid and use a different texture for the metal, as it is too bright and does not look as realistic as it could do. Below are the 3 pages which I created for my PDF hand in. I did not hand in the emissive textured treasure chest, as I created this after the formative hand in, however, for the summative one once changes have been made, I may hand in the emissive one.

Here are some beauty shots of the rendered treasure chest:

Beauty shots: 

UV sheets:

Final texturing and texture sheets: 

Sketchfab link for the treasure chest:

https://sketchfab.com/models/6eb48ecb052b4fa3ac64a8f8df098f53

[myrgaeri]

Chapter 38: Modular Asset Challenge

My God, why were you such a pain, project? Honestly, I know why.

This was quite an interesting and different project, taking into account the way I had to model the asset and unwrap the UVs; but let’s be clear: the worst part was the positions. The grid. Making every module ‘snap’ to each other was the hardest thing of all. I got bored of trying to understand and exporting selections and importing them in Unreal again.

Exhausting. The result, however, was an amazingly easy way to a non-stop creating tool of different buildings.

You don’t quite get it yet? Let me introduce you to my modular building:

The concept is quite smart: It consists on modeling different parts of the building to be able to create ‘blocks’ of it (like Lego), so that you can create a 3-floor building and then change it to a 5-floor building in seconds, without altering any geometry or textures. Fascinating, because with a couple of blocks, you could build hundreds of different combinations.

I can really talk much about my experience with it. It was fun, yet stressing (I ran out of time to work on it so the deadline was approaching and more errors kept popping up). Good thing is now I have a modular set to create some cool building or town (if I decide to do more modules) for my portfolio.

What do you think about this method? Clever, uh?

[simranwhithamfutureworks-blog]

XB2002 Assignment Three - Environment Art

The Environment Art Scene Fly Through and Trailer:

For my final development milestone of my low poly environment, I created a flythrough/reveal trailer for the whole environment scene itself.

For the trailer, my main focus was to capture the majority of the environment within the Unreal project and have a seamlessly smooth transition throughout the whole thing for the camera’s projectile path it takes.

For the camera and video itself, the video was captured on a matinee keyframe animated camera, and upon completion of the matinee’s route rendered out the Matinee’s movie projected path at a 1080p 60 frames per second video at the MP4 format.

From here it was the case of taking the Unreal matinee movie and importing it into Adobe Premiere Pro and adding visual effects such as the transition to white in the title and credits scene and adding the soundtrack Floating Home over the video.

Within Adobe Premiere Pro I also compressed and rendered the video from its initially slow speed Unreal video file, and from here was able to acquire the smooth flow of movement visible in the video above.

I am very satisfied with the final version of the reveal trailer for the whole low poly environment scene, as it has allowed me to develop my 3D modelling, environment art, and Unreal materials skillsets.

One of the design challenges I faced within the video creation process of the project was creating the right visual effects for the video to make it more professional, as my creative milestone aim for this video was to create a fly through that resembles that of an actual game reveal trailer.

Overall I believe the trailer video manages to good a good job of showcasing the environment itself and capturing the emotional feeling of the visually displayed environment and it’s narrative and matches that of the initial concept idea I had for the environment from the beginning of the project.

[drgamesdesign-blog]

XB2002 (3D Modelling) Assignment 2: Game Ready Prop - Axe

[charlottetaylorfutureworks-blog]

Low Poly Teapot Redo

This is my progress of my low poly assignment, I kept the main parts of the teapot separate to save time in the UV mapping process.

I mapped out the pieces separately, this split my time nicely and helped avoid any bad UV mapping.

I tried out a few different colours and materials on the teapot, choosing the orange texture for the pot as the pale blue, white and greys looked very boring.

Screenshot from SketchFab.

[callumreyesfutureworks2]

XB2002 Hammer Concepts

[betsyjonesfutureworks]

Environment/Level Design

Images from the level

[davidfieldfutureworks-blog]

3D Modelling for Games: Session 08 (09/11/2017)

Missed approximately half of the session due to attendance of a committee meeting. I continued with modelling the main body of the cockpit, adding in more loops and attempting to sculpt it appropriately. I feel that in my approach I may have completely ruined it, as I should’ve been utilising the edge slide tool. I’m far from happy with it at the moment and may have to backtrack a little and proceed from an earlier version.

As for updating my previous assignment, I spoke to Paul again, and he agreed that I can create a low-poly version of the Batman Forever version of the Batwing (as long as it looks good, of course) so I may start alternating between the two in order to keep myself on track.

[lukesummersfutureworks]

XB2002 - High Poly Model Progress - Blog Post 2

Below are some quick renders of my model in its current state with smooth preview enabled.

I have made several alterations since my last update and I have separated low poly and high poly versions of each part of the model into layers, ready for the baking process.

My current tri count for the low poly version of this model, as you can see below, is 21,574.

Below you will find my current progress uploaded to Sketchfab, smoothness has been applied for this upload.

Minigun (WIP) by FWLukeSummers on Sketchfab

[robyngoodallfutureworks-blog]

Low poly model for XB2002

‘Create Low poly game prop to demonstrate Maya and game art creation skill. The prop can be up to 2000 Triangles with a texture limit of 1024x1024′

I have decided on creating a low poly stylized Ice cream truck and my low poly model. This will need to be duplicated and then unwrapped, so it is ready for texturing in Substance painter. 

I just have a few accessories to add to the exterior

I have used this cute truck from Sketchfab as my inspiration

[williamroylance-fw-blog]

William Roylance XB2002 Assignment 3 Paul Bannon Modular Modelling portfolio

Cave wall piece

Cave structure

Cave doorways

Palm trees

Fire pit

Early build of island scene

nectar plant 

Level design assembly using assets

leaves before assembly

rocks before assembly

[myrgaeri]

Chapter 49: ZBrush Challenge

Hi, all. Let me say this first: ZBrush can do amazing things, that’s true, but that’s because the person behind it has suffered uncountable hours trying to understand this damned program.

I hate ZBrush. I hate it with all my heart. It’s the most unintuitive software that exists on Earth. It’s confusing and stressing. It’s almost like a beast you have to tame with years of training, and it makes no sense whatsoever. I have no clue how anyone can find this program logical.

And I had to redo this project. I already had an idea, several sketches, I had half of the sculpting done already, and then I had to start again. From scratch.

Nevertheless, I survived the project. I learned to approach ZBrush (no saddle yet), and I learned how to retopologize a bust with Maya. It’s easy yet laborious and time-consuming. 

Well, what do you think of my attempt to model Jaina? I love the new appearance they gave her for BFA :) She’s so cool. If she keeps being badass she will become one of my favorites for sure.

[simranwhithamfutureworks-blog]

XB2002 Assignment Three - Environment Art

Final Screenshots:

Above you can see final screenshots of the finished version of my low poly sky island environment scene for assignment three XB2002.

Overall I am pleased with how the project has developed and the final finished project.

This project has allowed me to develop my 3D modelling, Unreal post processing, Unreal materials, and environment art skillsets, as I have been able to develop my 3D modelling workflows when working with low polygon art models and how to achieve high aesthetic valued models through the use of what materials and colour palette’s help make the environment feel more visually attractive to a gaming audience and help make the environment feel more vibrant and organic.

This assignment has also allowed me to develop my understanding of the post processing and creation of materials inside Unreal Engine 4 which I can later take into future projects and idea’s when creating environments.

If I could have added anything to the project I would have developed it even further by having an additional low poly island within the environment scene, and have the final trailer go to all three islands, and would have perhaps based the third island on a different season of summer/winter, with a whole new colour palette.