Although I had done quite a lot of work in Maya before, I didn't necessarily understand the work flow for the creation of the environment. As my intention is to go into a game engine to consolidate all my pieces, I wasn't necessarily sure whether I was supposed to be concentrating on the creation of the environment surrounding the buildings themselves. This said, I wanted to approach the creation of this piece in a very simplistic way and build from there. By doing this, I feel I can progress my skills and the object itself in the right direction over without adding too much detail to one areas over another.
Knowing the time it took to create the character model, I was rather sceptical about the time frame I had to create the rest of the model. Nonetheless, I started very much the same way as before, laying out the basic shapes and trying to manipulate them into something I could move on from.
Working from a few amateur videos I found online such as this one below, I began fleshing out some of the basic shaped that would make up my model.
As in my concept artwork I wanted to include two large towers either side of the entrance and an arched doorway I started with these features and progressed from there. Using the techniques I had acquired whilst making the character structure I realised that a majority of what I would be making would have be extruding faces and positioning them to create something along the lines of my concept work. This, coupled with the many pieces of advice in the tutorial I began to flesh out something that resembled my intentions.
This initial concepting proved to be much harder than I first thought. By not having the basic knowledge of combining objects in Maya in this way, left me confused as to what separate parts I should be working with. The image above shows my initial designs for the front of the castle with one wall to the side, each being a separate object (4 in total above) but I thought that combining and moving them would mean having to merge them in a way I hadn't dealt with before. Because of this, I began to merge the vertices of the separate objects to form a new object. This didn't initially seem like a bad idea until I went to extrude some faces and realised the edge loops were all situated in odd places, meaning that nothing I was doing could be reflected onto the other side. Having the experience now as I write this, I have learnt that the separation of objects is necessary to their overall creation, and combining objects is not just something that has to be done by merging them, but instead uniting the objects in a group to be moved together.
Another issue I faced very early on was the doors I wanted to include. Through the tutorial mentioned above, it was advised that these archways can be created using a cylinder flipped 90 degreed, half the faces deleted, and extruded and scaled to create a viable arch. This worked in practise until it came to including it on the body of the castle.
As Maya uses loops and vertices to create it's geometry, adding another object to it that doesn't share the same polycount can't be cut directly into the shape. The only way to do it is to actually create the initial shape with a hole in it. This wouldn't be such an issue had I not merged all 3 shapes together in the first place. With the loops low all over the place, creating this doorway was no longer an option. Although I could pass it off as a closed door later on, this is a hurdle that could have been avoided.
Moving on with the creation of the environment, I was still unsure as to whether I should be creating a plane for the scene to sit on. I could not find any reliable answers online, although I was pretty sure there was no need for it. Whilst preparing my initial idea, I had an in depth look into the Unity Engine, this revealed that much of the environmental plane (such as the ground) can be created within the engine. Because of this, I wanted something to act as a kind of stand in, in Maya, but could be easily deleted when moving into Unity. This decision wasn't necessarily the best, but it did allow me to visualise the placement of all my objects. Using a polyplane to create the ground I extruded some basic levels for each object to sit and allow me to conceptualise the overall piece. Along with this basic levelling I followed some basic tutorials on how to make rocks. Although they didn't come out looking too create or refined, they were good enough for me to get a basic concept together and really see the space I was working within.
Although the overall environment at this point doesn't look very spectacular, it allowed me to understand the space I had to work within, of course I could scale it and make the workspace bigger. But being able to see my initial 2D concept in a 3D space helped me to see what it is I wanted to create. Aside from the issues I had already encountered in this short time, I felt I was able to overcome them in the time I had left.
Working with my tutor, I used this time to write up a report of my progress so far. The document I create read like this;
2D to 3D Game Asset Development
Progression Analysis - 12.5.2015
So far in my project I have begun to get to grips with both the software and the development of the
3D assets i want to create.
As in my proforma, i outlined the 5 sections i wanted to utilise to create my project;!
As in my proforma, i outlined the 5 sections i wanted to utilise to create my project;!
- Character Concepts
- 3D Character Model
- Environment Concepts
- 3D Environmental Assets
- 3D Environment laid out in Unity
Through the first few weeks of the project I came to realise that my character drawing were not something i was particularly skilled with. Although i knew what it was i wanted to create, my skills with anatomical drawing held me back. As detailed further in my blog, i spent a few days trying to nail down the basics to showcase my character before modelling it, only to fall short each time. With this, I wanted to move forward at a brisk pace and not be held back. I looked into other was of connecting a character and descaled some artists use their own bodies in photographs to establish the basic forms and work from there. I used this idea to create the initial shapes and moved quickly onto the 3D structure.
Through this early stage i discovered how much i love working in 3D space. Even modelling this early on gave me a whole new perspective on creation and this just fuelled my passion to move forward. Within a week i had created the basics of the anatomy in Maya and was ready to move onto ZBrush.
ZBrush itself being a sculpting program allowed me to use the basics of what i had learnt using Photoshop and apply it to this new 3D medium. Although the interface may be one of the most complicated i have encountered thus far, my determination to succeed pushed me thorough. After a week of working out how to use the software i had finished a model i was proud to call my own. the finished piece can be seen via the link in the email.!
There are a few more tweaks that need to be done to the base and seams, but for now i am happy with where it is.
Next, i have been working on environment sketches to then go back into Maya and create more 3D assets. Having already worked with Maya as much as i have, i am confident i can create these assets much quicker and to a much better standard than before, learning from the mistakes i made with the character and push me onto Unity.
As far as the last section of my independent project goes, i have not had any experience with Unity thus far. As i near this section of my proposal i will review the time i have left. If this is not feasible then i may stuck with a short animation in Maya, but at this stage i can not say where i will be closer to deadline.
So far i am happy with my pacing and i believe i can continue in this way and achieve what i have set out to.
My pacing so far is something I am happy with, and I feel I can achieve my initial goals. Although I'm sure I will run into more issues with Maya, I don't believe this will slow me down as I move forward.
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