Final Project

I decided to add a few things to my model of the Firefly class ship I made weeks ago.

Hand Model

Could still use some work, but I believe it is a passable hand!

 

EDIT:

Improved the model a bit and added some 2 point lighting.

Here are renders of the lowpoly version for curiosities sake.

Group Project (Week 3)

My original barrel had 580 polygons, which isn't all that much, but maybe so for a barrel. I decided to make a low poly version so we could use barrels sparingly without a performance loss. Using MultiRes I could get the poly count down to 279 keeping the shape, but with quite a loss of quality. 279 is less than half the original but I knew that if I just remade the barrel from scratch that I could get even lower with perhaps a smaller loss of quality, so that's exactly what I did. 

I made this version using a 12 section lathe, and didn't put a bottom on it. It ended up at 66 polygons.

Left - 580 poly | Right - 66 poly

Left - 580 poly | Right - 66 poly

Note:

I can apply the texture on the lid to look like either version. I wasn't sure which I preferred.

I archived both versions in the same 3ds file so if we want the camera to fly in close by a barrel we can use the higher poly one, but from afar the low poly version seems to be just as effective.

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Added a new archive file for the barrels, and added an archive for the Watermill.

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Did a few sign models so we'll have something to work with for now, also added the archive to the library. I plan to make a better opacity map for ruined signs as I make more sign textures. I just used these as temporary textures.

Simple horizontal sign model

Simple vertical sign model

Billboard model with a ruined sign

Billboard model with ruined sign  zoomed out

Group Project (Week 2)

 Firstly, I improved my barrel a bit. I fixed the texture mapping on the top which was off and I aligned the shading on the binding around the barrel better so the crease isn't quite as noticeable.

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Secondly, I did a few sign textures. I planned to do more than I ended up with, and I also wanted higher quality results, but alas my muse was not with me. After thinking about how I was going to approach the signs, I realized that this was actually a much harder assignment than making a building, in my opinion. I needed to really understand these people that live on this Sci-Fi Japanese Island Fortress as well as know what all my classmates conceptualized, so that I wouldn't go contrary to that. It is tough, I basically needed to create a culture for these people, or not really create one, but understand or realize what their culture already is from the little information given to me. There is the fact that they live on a crescent shaped island, this could have been nature, which found it's way into their culture, or they could have created the island in a crescent shape purposefully because it is significant in their culture. Then there is the golden statue. I could be bold enough to say he is the god of the moon, whereas many cultures in Earth's past have worshiped the sun, these people could worship the moon. I've heard there is a link between the proximity of the moon to the rhythm of the oceans waves, or rising of the water level, something along those lines. Then you can link the fact they live on an island, the shape of the island, the statue, and generally their culture to the moon. (working this out as I type this.. but it seems to be going somewhere.. More later..)

Symbol means "Fish", and a crude drawing of a fish. It seems kinda bland, need a background color perhaps, or more dynamic placement.

Symbol means "Moon", sketchy style dragon and crescent moon drawing. I like the color scheme and how it is laid out, but I'm not sure if these would be fitting colors for worshipers of the moon. Seems like it should be blue and silver maybe. I'll try that out later.

Districts, Top symbol means "North", bottom symbol means "South".

Districts, Left symbol means "West", right symbol means "East".

I didn't make the models for the signs yet or add the texture of the actual sign/ruin it. I don't think that will take much time and it will really depend on how the city is put together and looks/feels. Also I will want to make quite a few more signs. Maybe some feedback will help in creating them. I have quite a few ideas for some, but I'd love hearing some others as well.

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Now because I hit a wall with the signs, I felt like I should do something else as well, to even things out. I had been playing with an idea of water mills along the island, perhaps just a few, but it sort of goes along with the solar panels/renewable resources. I have some cool concepts in my head, that I would like to make, but as a warm up I put a generic water mill together just in case I don't get around to the others.

I just reused the wood texture that I painted, but I will either find a new texture entirely, or do some work on it to specifically work for the windmill better. Also it could use some gunk, wear and tear, for the street cred.

Group Project (Week 1)

So this week we were asked to find a certain texture to add to the library and to make a prop. 

I ended up with "barrel" as my prop, which was lucky for me since I previously modeled a barrel. My model was a bit high poly for a barrel since I actually modeled a few sets of metal rings to bind it, so I decided to delete those and just use the base model, maybe use maps to give some depth to the rings. I had made a hand painted texture for it, but it was kind of blurry and just not very good quality, so I decided to find a better one so my barrel wouldn't stink up our city. I came across a beautiful hand painted texture made by Skayne from the Polycount forum, he also did a tutorial on how to do it yourself, so I might try that when I get some time.

EDIT: This is where I posted some renders of the barrel with Skayne's texture, unfortunately I had to take them down though, since he sold the rights to a game company. I will attempt to paint my own texture tomorrow before class, hopefully I get it done in time to show you all. If not, just be assured that I have completed the barrel and will get around to finding/making a texture for it soon. I could just grab one pretty easily, but I would like it to look great, so I hope you all understand my plight.

EDIT #2: I made a quick texture for the barrel this morning. I should probably work on it some more though >>

I might also try to do some conceptualization for the city itself this weekend.

Compound Objects

After a couple weeks off from modeling my hands were unsteady at best, so I decided to tone it down a bit this week with a reference to one of my former favorite games, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, but specifically the Blood Moon expansion which came with the small continent of Solstheim. This is partially because I'm so incredibly excited for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and was compelled to do something in tribute, and partially because I intend to expand on this scene with something special once we get into editable poly (hopefully we aren't given a specific subject to model once we do).

I tried doing a background, but I'm really inexperienced at landscapes so it would have taken me a "really" long time to do well, and since the focus was on Compound Objects I decided to just find a cool snowy mountain artwork and put that up for the background.

The symbol on the Standing Stone is made using subtraction in proBoolean. The trees are placed using scatter, as well as the snowfall which uses a volume scatter. The landmass was made using terrain.

 

Oh no! The blood moon is rising!

Werewolf sketches *hint* *hint*

Lathe and Loft

Before beginning this project, I decided to check out what my classmates had come up with. I was impressed by what I saw, enough so that I knew I was going to have to up the ante. I preferred the idea of a single large project over 6 smaller ones, so from there I started brainstorming on possible subjects. In truth I had been wanting to model Serenity for a while. I was going to wait until we got into editable polys so I could do the beaut' justice, but after looking her over I decided that I could do it. 

I googled for some reference images, luckily I found all of the orthographic views that I needed, and arranged them in my workspace. I decided to start with the hyperdrive and the wing thrusters because they were ideal candidates for the lathe technique. I used orthographic top view to trace out the wing, and switched to front view to draw the path for lofting the wing spline. 

Now for the hard part, the main base of the ship. I won't go into all of the ways I tried that didn't work. In the end I made the base in three parts: Body, Neck, and Cockpit. I used a similar technique on each of them. Originally I tried to draw the shape from the front view and have the path run along the center of the ship, but this lead to some complications. I found the easiest way was to draw the shape from the side and the path going across the width of it. I duplicated the shape 10 times, then set each shape in 10% increments along the path using loft. This was necessary to get the parts rounded. I scaled the shapes appropriately by going to Modifiers>Loft>Shape, then selecting the shapes I wanted to scale. I did them in pairs to get them exact, such as scaling the shapes at 0% and 100% at the same time, 10% and 90%, etc. For some of the lofts I used more than 1 shape spline to get the forms right. I did basically the same thing to make the neck and cockpit as well. The details on the hyperdrive were made using loft in a similar fashion. 

The part that curves around and under the hyperdrive I made using a variation of lathe and loft, the curved part was made by drawing a rectangle, moving the pivot point to the center of the hyperdrive, and then lathing it. I decreased the lathe to like 312 degrees instead of the full 360, so it would be open on the bottom. Then I put a bend modifier to give it some curve. The parts that come off of that, under the hyperdrive I made using loft. 

 The hyperdrive and thruster effects were made with a fire environment effect. Instead of explaining it I will just link you to the help file that I read to do it. 3ds Max Help: Fire Environment Effect


Now to unveil the ship! 








SERENITY, firefly class! :D

Yes friends, I am a browncoat. I just finished watching Firefly through for the 4th time and Serenity for the 2nd or 3rd, so I was feeling in the mood to pay tribute