Big Game: Week 6

Hello!
This week I have worked on creating 3D models for the race track. I a wide version of the track, walls for the side of the track, a connection piece between the wide and the standard size of the track, and a piece for signaling the end of a piece of track. I also textured all of the pieces which I made. I made the start menu for the game.

Since we are going to use a modular track we need different pieces which will fit together. When designing and working on the track pieces this week I had to try and keep this in mind.
The game designer wanted a wider track piece to complement the already existing standard track piece. Once the pieces are put together they have to look like they are all part of one seamless race track, which meant that I needed to create a piece which would fit in-between the wide and standard track pieces for a transition which looked alright.
We wanted some parts of the race track to have walls to make it easier for the player and so that the player doesn’t drive of the track and lose in difficult corners. Since the walls won’t go around the entire track they need to have start and end pieces.
There are parts on the track were the track ends and the player must jump onto another track to keep going. I made pieces to warn the player that the track is about to end and that it is time to switch tracks.
We needed a start menu for the game for the beta version.
I used 3DsMax to create all of the 3D models. Since the track is going to be so huge we can’t really afford each track piece to have a high amount of polygons.  I started out with making a Highpoly version of each of the track pieces. I then proceeded to create a Lowpoly version of each of the track pieces. I used the Highpoly versions of the track pieces to bake a normal map texture on the Lowpoly track pieces. This way Lowpoly track pieces have the illusion of being Highpoly.
I proceeded to make all of the texture for the models in Photoshop. I wanted all of the pieces to have a unified style so that they didn’t contrast each other and not look like they fit together.  I used the same color and similar textures for all of the models.
I used Unity 5 to create a start menu for the game.

I managed to finish all of the pieces for the track. I also managed to texture them all. I even managed to create an extra track piece which I hadn’t planned on making. All of the pieces for the actual track are done now.
I had trouble when making the start menu for the game. Since I have not used Unity much before, the program that I had to make the menu in, I had trouble with knowing what to do. It took some time and I needed some help, but I managed to get the menu done before the beta deadline.

Big Game: Week 2

Hello!
This week I have worked on a turnaround for the pod which I made a concept for. I spent more time researching techniques which I will use when working on the 3D racetrack mesh. I created two different placeholder racetracks for the programmers. I have worked on different pieces for the racetrack which will be modular. I had to remodel my racetrack from start.

I decided further my work on the concept to include a side, front, and back view of the pod. I did this so that I would have a finished silhouette. This will help with the modeling of the pod and decrease the time it will take.
The research I did on the techniques which I was going to use was catered more towards a non-modular level design. Since the group wants a modular level design I had to do some more research.
I ended up creating two different placeholder racetracks. The first one I made had different elevations. This made it difficult for the programmers, so I made a new racetrack placeholder which was flat.
Since the racetrack will be modular I needed to work on different pieces which would fit together to form the track. I needed to make connecter pieces which would allow the different sections of the track to connect seamlessly.
The track which I had worked on last week was not designed with modularity in mind. I had to scrap what I had done and start over.

I used Photoshop to work on the turnaround of the pod.
I researched the different techniques through the help of tutorials which I found with the help of google and YouTube.
I worked on the racetrack and race rack placeholder by using the 3D modeling program 3Ds Max 2014. I also used this program to work on the different sections and pieces of the racetrack.

I managed to finish a front view of the concept for the pod. I didn’t manage to finish the back and side view. I was having trouble visualizing what I wanted to make, and draw it. The silhouette of the front view of the concept was not great. I might have to rework it.
The first placeholder for the racetrack was not optimal for the stage in which the programmers were in. I ended up making a simpler racetrack which made it easier for the programmers to work with, and which they were able to use.
I am pleased with the work I did on the different pieces of the racetrack. I made 5 different parts which are all connectable. These can be placed out along a spline in 3Ds Max to create different sections on the racetrack.

Big Game: Week 1

Hello. This was the first proper week of the Big Game course. I managed to get into Project Steel as a 3D artist / pseudo level designer. Project steel is going to be a racing game and act as a spiritual successor to the F-Zero games.

This week I have worked on a concept for one of the racing pods which will be in the game. I spent time researching on different techniques which can be used when creating a 3D mesh of a race track. I made a concept for the level one race track. I started working on the level one race track from my concept.

I created a concept for one of the pods so that when I start modeling it I will have a reference to go by, and a finished design to follow. This will decrease the time needed to model since I won’t be trying to design the pod as I go.
I needed to spend time researching different techniques on how to model a 3D mesh of a race track so that I could use the technique which is best suited for the type of race track which I am going to create.
I created a concept for the level one race track so that when I start modeling it I will have a reference to go by, and a finished design to follow. This will decrease the time needed to model since I won’t be trying to design the pod as I go.
I started working on the 3D mesh for the level one race track. The group wanted a finished iteration of the level one race track so that it could be implemented into Unreal Engine so that we could test it.

I used Photoshop to create the concept for both the pods and the level one race track.
I researched the different techniques through the help of tutorials which I found with the help of google and YouTube.
I created the first iteration of the level one race track by using the 3D modeling program 3Ds Max 2014. I used the spline system in 3D max to draw on top of the concept map to get the shape which I wanted.

I managed to finish a top down view of the concept for the pod. I am quite pleased with the result. I think that it has followed the style which we are aiming for.
My research went well. I managed to find a technique which I feel will be useful for creating the 3D meshes of the levels.
I am pleased with the work I have done on the concept for the first level. I was not sure what difficulty the map should have. I made it rather simple since it is only the first level. I think that it followed the style of map which we are aiming for.

3D week 7: Anatomy!

This week we learned about anatomy. We were supposed to bring in some of our 3D drawings. We did this to see how well we knew the human anatomy. In 2D-I we had also been working with the human anatomy. I planned to bring in some drawings with me from my sketchbook which I had used to draw in during the 2D-I course. The drawings I had done, well more like sketches really, I had drawn were from when we had nude models which posed for us. The models would change position in 30 second intervals so we didn’t have that much time to get a good accurate drawing of the anatomy, is was mainly so that we had the chance to get the basic shape of the human figure. But I ended up not going to the lesson because I was sick that day.

I realized that I did not have a lot of knowledge about the muscle anatomy. During the one of the anatomy classes we drew the anatomy on top of sculptures or how we thought it should be. I used pictures of muscles from the internet and that was easier for me though it was not perfect but it helped me to understand how to do it in 3D. I think that like a lot of things especially drawing is to practice a lot and to get good and learn new techniques. The muscles are very important when making any character, even aliens. Alien creatures might not have the exact muscles as us, but I think that it would make sense if the worked in a similair fashion. If their arm would be able to bend then it would have to have a joint and muscles which would allow the alien to control their arm.

Understanding how muscles work isn’t only important when drawing your characters, but also super, if not more important, when modeling them. The model will be able to be seen from many different angles so knowing and understanding human anatomy is very important or the model might end up looking alright from one angle, but very wrong from another.

The things that I think that I need to work on the most is probably the arms and the legs. I think that the arms and the legs are very important. I think that they are more important than the torso because the torso is often covered with clothing of some sort where as the arms and legs are normaly shown more for an example if the character is wearing a t-shirt or shorts.

The face is also something which is very important for me to work on too. I think the face is the one of the absolute first things which people look at when they look at a drawing. People see faces everyday all the time. If a face is weird it is a lot more noticeable than if a leg or arm is bent a little bit the wrong way. Well for it is like that anyway.

3D Week 8: 3D scanning

Hello there! During this week we worked with the modeling of human faces. We learned about different methods of creating 3D meshes of faces. We also talked about the topology and edge-flow for facial projects.

The method we used was to convert real life objects into digital 3D meshes. We did this by scanning photographs of the real life object from many different angles. The photos had to cover the entire face, otherwise there would be holes and missing parts in the digital 3D mesh resulting in a bad model.We were given the opportunity to work with our own faces, to create digital 3D meshes of our own faces. The amount of photos you take determine the quality of the scan, the software will have more information to match the photos and create a 3D model from them.

Once all of the photos are taken you upload them into your computer. We used Autodesk 123D to create the digital 3D mesh from the photographs, it is simple and free. When that is done you can download the model as an .obj, so that you can open it in your 3d software.

This was the first part of the of the exercise.

In the second part of the exercise we were tasked with changing the topography of the digital 3D mesh. The edge-flow is very important if you want the character to be able to make expressions, and move its face. The edge flow on the face was rather simple. The edge flow goes around in circles around the mouth and eye areas. These are also the most important parts of the edge flow when working on a face. Modeling half of the face can save you a lot of time, but you have to watch out, almost no one has a completely symmetric face so making slight changes to one side could be a good idea.

We used a trial version of the program 3D-coat to work on the digital 3D-mesh.

We were also supposed to read the article  ‘Photogrammetry’ in ‘The Vanishing of Ethan Carter’. I really enjoyed reading the article. I think that the author explained the difficulty in a rather informative way. I have never tried Photogrammertry before, well not “real” photogrammetry, so at first I kind of just thought “well it’s probably difficult and requires skill to get a really good 3D scan out of it. But how hard can it really be?” After continuing to read the article I started to understand the work and effort which you have to put into photogrammetry. And it is really a skill which you can master. Even when us students were just going to take pictures of our faces a lot of the models did not turn out well because they were blurry. It kind of puts it into perspective when we were just supposed to take around 10 pictures and barely made good models, and then when the guys in the blog are working on taking around 250 photographs so that they can get an entire house 3D modeled.

Something which I thought was very interesting about the article, was in the end when he was writing about not wanting to preserve the photo realism to a hundred procent. They did this to support a certain visual style which would fit in with their game.

3D – Assignment 3: Part 3!

Assignment 3 finished product!

This is how my model turned out:

Here are the textures that I used:

The specular map is very boring in this one. Almost all of my model is wearing cloth items, so there are almost zero reflective surfaces.

3D – Assignment 3: Part 2!

Hello there! This is just going to be a very quick update showing what I have done on assignment 3. So far I have only begun with the actual modeling process. I have not started texturing as of yet. My next update will include pictures of the finished product, including the textures. I have been working on creating Simon Strandh’s model, a Jawa from the Star Wars universe. You can read more about the character and it’s background here! http://mrninjabear.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/week-6-blog-report/

Here is a picture of the concept:

This is a picture of my finished 3D mesh:

3D – Assignment 3: Part 1

Hello! I’m finished with assignment 2 and I have sent it it for evaluation. This week the class has started working on assignment 3. In assignment 3 we will be working on creating humanoid 3D models. Being humanoid doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be humans, basically a humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. (Two arms, two legs, one head hopefully all attached to a torso, that kind of thing.)

The first thing to do when creating a character is to come up with a concept for the character which you will be modeling. The concept should shed some light on what kind of character you are making, if it is a male or female, young or old. Once the concept is done we need to create a turnaround of the character. A character turnaround is drawings of your character from different angles often in a “T-pose” a pose where the character is stood with his or her arms spread out. The character turnaround is used to see the character from all it’s different angles. This means it will be much easier to model the character since you see all of it’s sides. Here is a turnaround of the character which I drew(It also includes an action pose):

We will not however be modeling our own character which we created concepts and turnarounds for. Ludwig Lindstål is going to be making a model of my character. And I in turn will be making a model which Simon Strandh has made a concept and a turnaround of. It was a bit of a surprise when the teacher said that we would not be making models of our own concepts, everyone thought that they would be. So that was a bit of fun. I’m a little bit upset though since I was very pleased with my concept and turnaround. 😦

Here is my character bio:

• Name: Urdu’nak
• Gender: Our equivalent of a Male
• Age: Unknown
• Physical: Strong, healthy.
• Movement: Slow and steady until challenged, then it because quick and nimble.
• Appearance: Tall, long legs , disproportionate body (compared to a human), small head.
• Intelligence: High
• Religion: N/A
• History: Unknown
• Psychology: Quiet, knowledgeable, humble, strong
• Language: Unknown

Intelligence & Psychology

Highly intelligent, but primarily live a nomadic lifestyle. Thus Bounty hunting and smuggling is a very popular job amongst the offworlders who have moved on to search for work in other regions of space.

Appearance

Urdu’nak has a disproportionately small head set on large shoulders. He has long spindly legs with very sharp angles. His hands are protected my massive gauntlets which reach up to his elbows.

Urdu’nak’s race come is a very large array of shapes and sizes. His race is heavily into body modification, since they are so technological advanced they can change just about anything about the shape of their body, of course with some restrictions. It is rumored that no one actually knows what an adult of Urdu’nak’s race looks like.

Religion / Culture

Urdu’nak follows no religion likewise a overwhelming majority of his race. There is however a small cult which has since left the home planet by hooking themselves to a passing comet, presumably they are still alive.

Assignment 2: Part 2

Hello! This week will just be a quick update on the knife that I have been working on for assignment 2. It is going to mainly be a visual post. There won’t be that much text.

These are the different texture parts which I have created for the knife:

I am pretty happy with the final result of my knife. I think that it turned out much better than I expected. Adding the specular map had a huge impact on the rendered look of the knife. Here is a picture of the final product rendered in 3Ds Max:

Museum & Modeling

Hi there! This week we were supposed to meet in Visby’s viking museum. We were then supposed to find an objects which we liked and then take pictures of them. These pictures were used as references when creating our own 3D model from one of the objects which we had chosen. We were given a tour of the museum, the guide gave some basic background to many items which were showcased in the museum. After the tour we were allowed to roam around and take pictures of the objects which interested us. I think that weapons including knives are used in almost every kind of action game. So there is a lot that you can take away from this assignment. I haven’t modeled in 3D before this course let alone modeling a weapon. I think that this knife has a very interesting look to it, and I think that it has a good amount of detail to it. I think that the pattern on the handle of the knife has a lot of personality to it, and it really pulls the knife together.

I took pictures of a flag, two different vases, and the knife. The vases and the knife had the most and the best pictures taken of them, so the flag was quickly ruled out. I ended up choosing a knife as my reference .The reason I decided to choose the knife as my model is that there were not that many things that I found interesting or that I felt like modeling, and of the four things which I took pictures of, the knife was the most interesting.

During the Nordic seven-year war, where Poland, Denmark and Lübeck went to war against Sweden, a danish fleet of Lubeckian ships were headed for Gotland.
The knife is believed to have been in the care of a high officer on a fleet that was sunk outside of Visby because of a storm. I think that the knife was most likely just something that was supposed to look good and not for any practical use, decoration of some sort. he storm brought down 14 warships and somewhere between 6000 and 8000 men within hours. The knife itself is made of silver.

The style that I want to go for when modeling and then texturing this knife is something which could exist in the Skyrim universe. I think that Skyrim has a pretty realistic look it, so I will also try and make the knife look realistic. The decoration on the hilt of the knife is very important too give it a viking look. When I texture the knife I will try and recreate the patterns on the hilt.

I don’t want to make the knife far too shiny and new. I want to make it look like it has seen some action or at least been around for many years. It should look used. As I am going for a realistic look to the knife I will try and keep it in proportion. I don’t think that many people realize that the vikings had these kinds of decorative weapons, at least not weapons that looked like this.