Games Art 3D Modelling (MAYA)

  Patrick Sutton (Artstation 2017) Patrick Sutton is a 3D Artists known for his 3D models and final renders of environments and objects for games such as Halo 5, but also produces a lot of weapons and ship models in his free time. What caught my attention was his 'Firewall generator Cylinder' (Artstation 2011) and the processes used to design it. Sutton used 3DSMax 2011 to produce his Polymesh model by creating the initial cylinder model flat and using a bend modifier tool to make a round shape, he found this process to be a lot simpler than modelling it as a cylinder.  One process used when developing objects with a lot of detail such as the image provided is called 'Baking'. This process is used to produce a detailed model with a low polycount for optimisation within games with a limited polycount. When importing a PolyMesh into texture programmes like ZBrush or Quixel Mixer, any textures and details created will usually produce very high Polycounts which is not ideal...

  Using ZBrush For Concept Art (Sergeev 2017) A marginally faster way of producing 'paint overs' can be to use ZBrush for 'White Boxing. Using ZBrush, a polygon can be manipulated similar to programmes such as Maya using the ZModeler Brush. Using ZModuler, you can manipulate a poly meshes face, edge or point (vertices). One benefit to this tool is that it will automatically weld all vertices together when extruding the mesh (Pixologic 2015).  Using ZBrush for 'white box' modelling is effective for achieving very basic and simple low poly meshes to be used in cityscape builds such as buildings for a city. Creating a cityscape on ZBrush is referred to as a 'Tiling Alpha'. Using the canvas of ZBrush, you can begin to populate and begin scaling the landscape, creating an assembly of all the polymers parts built and using 'Shift + S' to duplicate meshes. (Pixologic 2015) Once an Alpha has been created and exported as a .psd file, the image can then be imp...

  Tyler Smith (Artstation 2017) Tyler Smith is a Senior Environment Artist who has worked on projects such as 'Ghosts Of Tsushima' by Sucker Punch Studios. One piece of work that caught my attention was 'Aurora Night Sky' for its variety of programmes used to develop the piece (Artstation 2020). One software used in the development of the landscape is Autodesk Maya. Using Autodesk Maya here creates low to high polycount models. What I can see in this landscape is that Smith has used flat planes for his tree models. This technique in 3D modelling is effective for optimisation, there is a low polycount for models that are far and do not need a lot of poly detail for their immersion. These models have then been UV wrapped and textured with a tree texture created on software such as Adobe Photoshop. The hills and cliffs of the landscape are created using spot selection and scaling the vertices of a flat plane. For increased detail, Smith has also used programmes such as ZBr...

  Week 8 - White Boxing and Rendering  What Have I Learned This Week? White Boxing is a 3D process used as concepts for game design, creating a primitive representation of a Landscape or Environment to represent its final shape/volume. (Pre-Visualisation) Our task was to create a White Box based off a reference image. One new Tool we used as a part of Arnold Renderer was SkyDome. The SkyDome is used for simulation of light from the sphere or dome about the scene. It can also be paired with HDR (High Dynamic Range) Images to create image-based lighting. Using a default Maya SkyDome Exterior Image I Created a Model of an environment from reference and included Tools from what I've learned in Lighting and Rendering I was able to Create my own White Box.  White Box models are kept to their most simplistic shapes, so trees and bushes were created with sphere polygons as well as the bigger trees in the background being created from extruding each vertex of the sphere. Water tex...

  Week 7 - Lighting and Cameras What Have I Learned This Week? Lighting - A Range Of Light Tools Ambient - "Indirect Light" bounced off or transmitted through objects in the scene. Can illuminate areas that are not directly lit from another light source.  Spot - Spot Lights can be controlled to illuminate and aim the light at a specific target/point.  Point - 'Lightbulb'. Creates Light in all directions from a point.  Area - Used to simulate reflections of Windows. Produce high-quality light and shadow at the cost of longer render time. Volume - Creates a visual representation of its lighting within the space which it is bound. Directional - Shines light evenly in one direction. Can only be adjusted with rotation. Simulates the Sun. Cameras As I am only working on static models, I can create a Simple camera and adjust its position to face the static model, using the lock tool to keep it in place and changing perspectives with the 'spacebar' to the camera view....

  Week 6 - Mirroring What Have I Learned This Week? Gimbal - When manipulating an object (Scaling, rotating etc) a controller icon is created known as the Gimbal. The size of the Gimbal can be adjusted with the + and - Keys. One important use of the Gimbal is its location, which can affect a rotations pivot, as well as, pairing with the snapping tool to snap a model to a specific Vertices or Edge. The Gimbal can be moved using the D key. The Location can be reset in Modify > Centre Pivot. Snapping Tool - Snapping is used with the Gimbal to snap it to a certain location as well as allowing very specific movement within the different movement tools. Holding the J key with the rotation tool will allow the object to 'Snap' to specific increments of rotation which is useful for achieving 90 degrees or 45-degree rotations. Grid snapping can be achieved by holding down X as well as Curve snapping with C and Point snapping with V.  Copy and Duplicate - Used to create two or more of...

 Week 5 - Blueprints What have I Learned This Week? Blueprints - Planes can be used within Maya to allow Blueprint images within the X,Y,Z axis. This can be done by manoeuvring the cameras with the 'spacebar' to access the front, top and side camera views and importing 'image planes' accordingly.  Destructive Workflow - When manipulating a mesh, Maya stores all its history within the attribute editor. Destructive Workflow comes from compiling too much history which can cause future problems and make processes like texturing much harder. It's important to clear 'all by type' history occasionally to ensure all processes work properly.  Using what I learned this week and previous weeks, our first task was to create a PSP from Blueprint Models. Using Blueprints ensured that I would achieve the correct shape and proportions of the PSP model. The initial shape was created with a flat plane and using the cutting tool to outline. Once the shape is outlined I made su...

  Week 4 - Edge Looping and Circularise What have I learned? This week we learned how to use the circularise tool for circular edge looping on the face of polygons. To practise this tool are first practise task was to create a door model. To use circularise you must have at least 4 quad faces in a series for the tool to work (9 vertices), the more faces the more circular. To increase the faces you can create edge loops with the multi-cut tool and holding down ctrl, increasing the vertices. Once the faces are all selected the circularise tool can be selected. With these new tools learned and using previous skills our new task for the week was to produce a collection of Tools of our choice using images for reference.  The first tool was a simple knife. To create the blade shape I used a Plane Polygon. On the surface, I used the multi-cut tool to create a rough outline of the shape and deleted excess faces. With this plane it was important that all the vertices were kept as quads...