CAGD 230

Assignment 7: Game Scene
Presentation:

Week 5: This was the final week of this project, a scramble to the very end for me. I finally finished everything I could get done in this week, the scene came out pretty good, but there's always more that you can do.

These are the final rendered images of the unity scenes, my final building is on the far left in the third image.
In this project, we had to make a building from one of three games "Witcher 3, Spiderman, and Bioshock Infinite." My group and I picked Bioshock Infinite because of the easy to understand the modular process, also because the game was colorful. Maya was used to make the structure of the building and all of the modular pieces. Photoshop was used to make the textures that were applied to the building.

These are my UV sheets, these were used to house the textures made in Photoshop. Finally, in Unity, I took the finished building and made an environment around for it to look nice.
My plan of attack was to model the front right away and then distribute the pieces to the back and sides of the model since most of it is the same. I planned to UV after I finished the front and then I wanted to texture after that. What actually happened was, I spent three weeks modeling the front because it was harder than I initially thought, then I UV'ed the pieces I had and then I textured at the last minute.

We were mostly on track as a group, one group member finished early, we were close behind, but the parts we had left took us a day to finish, so we kept a group member waiting. The last day was terrible, we had nobody who could do the environment effectively and the game we chose was city like, so we didn't really make hills or rivers or the stuff of that sort, we made a street.

This was the only bump map I had in my scene, but it worked in giving me better-looking bricks and windows. Pretty cool project and I want to do more stuff like this, test your ability as a modeler, makes you have to think outside the box, especially the 5000 tri count.

Week 4: This week I worked on more of the foundation of the building, I finally figured out how to get motivated to finish this building. I got more UV work done, but I still haven't started texturing, that's my goal for this week.

In these images they show my progress for this week, I made the backside and the sides of the building, so I have the entire model ready, I just need to go and finish the uv's and texture the whole thing.

This is my first uv sheet, I'm going to move some stuff over to the other sheet since this one is getting crowded. My major progress for this week is finishing the building model. My final goal for this project is to finish all the texturing by Friday at the latest, then my group and I can work on the unity stuff and finish the errors if there are any, to begin with.

Week 3: This week I honestly didn't do much at all, it was Thanksgiving break and I put all of my troubles aside, but with some of the time this week I got some UV's done but no texturing yet.

 This is the progress of the building since last time, not much has changed in terms of appearance, but I'm starting to grasp the vision of the building now rather than just a simple building.

Those are the current UV's, but I'm having an issue when trying to save them out as an image for Photoshop, I constantly get an error and I haven't found the solution yet. The major progress that I made this week was making the window, since I can spread that all around my building and not worry, I'm planning on texturing this week for some of the objects that I currently have and I also plan to finish the front side of this building.

Week 2: This week I had great ambition for progress, I didn't get as much as I would have wanted done. I don't feel like I'm modular modeling, yet I have pieces where I repeat over and over. I had to restart the scene two times this week because my scene wasn't fully lined up to the grid lines, what I realized when making this scene the third time is that some things just aren't going to fit in grid lines and that I should just move on before I fall really behind. Here's my progress from last week.

I spent more time this week going through the detail of my first floor, I didn't finish the floor, but I have a better understanding of how to approach this part, to me this first floor is the hardest part of this project for me because there are so many patterns and different kinds of objects that it gets confusing on where to really start. Next week I'm planning on working on finishing the first floor for sure this time, then I'll UV all the parts (big mistake I know, I should have UV'ed before I moved stuff around, but sometimes objects have a side deleted that otherwise would have been needed for that same object if it was duplicated.) Some problems I had other than remaking the scene a few times is that on the pillars I had three of the 4 sides with that pattern you see in the render, but the fourth pillar wouldn't let me move the edges like the other three, otherwise it would move the entire bottom part of the object. I decided to delete the edges on all four pillars. But other than that I didn't run into any real problems this week.

Week 1: This week is the concept week, my group and I talked a little bit about who is getting what building. The game we are doing is Bioshock Infinite, and here is my reference for my building so far, I haven't made much progress because I had other things happen this week, that I had to attend to.

 From the time that I did work on the scene, I got some of it blocked out, but not all of it. I didn't get the roof on, and I didn't label where each window would be, but I gave an area of where windows would be.

That's the full render of what I have right now, I know it's not much. My plan for this week is to fully finish the first level of this building, that being the only part of the render that has any work in it right now.

 Those two renders are closer looks at the open windows from the reference, and the door from the reference, but I'll need to get some more work on those.
The object list for this scene right now: Door Gate, Window, Wood Beams, Wood Pillars, Big Wooden Beams, Flags, Windows, Some sort of roof, Roof support pieces, and a few barrels.

Assignment 6: Living Room
Week 5: This week was the final week, so I did everything that I possibly could to make things look better. I worked on Uv's for the couch, ladder, picture frames, and some of the TV remote. I also adjusted some of the lighting, and I also textured everything in my scene, no some parts aren't white, they are light gray.

 These are my final renders for the scene, I was surprised with how long it took to render each shot, it took around 15+ minutes. Some things I struggled with in my scene were texture scaling, some things look small while some things are massive. Like I tried applying the brick texture and it spread the bricks to an unrealistic level, so I had to tile the texture in photoshop and also line it up on the uv's so that it wouldn't break color. I struggled trying to figure out how to make the texture on my couch not stretch, it was only on one area, but the texture sheet was already really full, so I just put that part in with all the others since they shared a texture anyway.

 That first image was the couch uv sheet, the second one is my bump map for the ceiling and walls, the floor is on here, but I never used it for that purpose. In total the amount of hours I put into this scene is around 28 and a half hours, next time I do a project like this, I'm going to start making more progress earlier rather than later.

Week 4: This week I took some of the models in my scene and started the uv's. I made massive progress on the couch this week, only thing I need to do is texture it. I also got some help on making a T.V. glow from Conner, that gives my scene some realism now. I also took the completed couch and filled in the other 2 placeholder couches. Another thing I added was a ladder in the corner of the room, this leads up to a trap door, that's the only way into the room and there's no windows so it's naturally dark.

Some problems I encountered this week, I tried to use an area light for my T.V. and it wasn't giving off a realistic effect, Connor suggested the mesh light which I completely forgot existed. Also, when I tried to UV the couch, I had problems with the sides and how to fit things on to one sheet, I tried to stack items on top of each other and it worked, but the problem still is that everything won't fit, so I used a second sheet. On the couch UV's I also used planar mapping after I struggled with automatic and stitch and sew, much better and much faster alternative. For next week I need to finish the rest of the scene, so the textures and UV's since I already have the light source.

Week 3: This week I took some of these blocked out models and expanded on them, for example, I took the cabinets around the T.V. and beveled them to have a smooth look. I also got the T.V. model that I plan to use, that model is also UV'ed, I even got a bevel on the T.V. to prevent it from looking too flat. I got my table in from another scene since I made a table that was very similar already. The final thing I worked on was the model for my couch and not the blocky placeholder. The couch isn't done yet, still needs back cushions, armrests and beveling on all the hard edges, but it's coming along pretty well.

Some problems I ran into were UVing the T.V, the UV's were stretched in the back and I wasn't too positive on how to fix it, but Conner helped me by showing me another example of planer mapping which was very helpful.
For week 4 I want to finish up the couch, possibly put up pictures on the walls, not sure if I'll do that. Another thing I want to do is UV the couch and start texturing. Last thing I want to try doing is getting that T.V to be the only light source in the room, so that I get unique shadows from objects in the room.
Week 1: We needed to create a blocked out scene based off the reference we gathered. This scene doesn't need to be detailed by any means, this just needs to convey the idea that you were going for.

I went off of this reference photo for my scene, I wanted a modern living room that was made for gaming, I haven't put in all of the details yet, but I wanted to make a living room that I would enjoy being in.

 Assignment 5: Grocery Shelf

Take the pasta box and pasta jar and create other items found in grocery stores, but you must also create a shelf for these items to sit on. This assignment makes you review how to model objects from pictures, this assignment also makes you edit product textures to map correctly to your uv’s. This assignment finally lets you create new models from starting models. These objects are also based off real world measurements and should be used as reference.

These are my base reference photos, we had to create these exact objects, the textures mattered on the stuff since that shows how good your uv’s are. We had to get these objects as close to the reference photos as possible. We were given some tutorials, which helped give a process on how to make new objects from existing objects.  

When I was making this scene my composition idea was an industrial shelf whose main focus was drawing the eye to wood base of each shelf, I made the color stand out compared to the other objects so that the viewer would look at the base and then look at that shelf's products. I ran into the complication of poor time management on this project, I tried to push too much work into too small of a time frame, because of this I didn’t get very creative with box designs and product textures, I did a ton of cereal and 2 jam jars from the same company, but I didn’t even finish the plastic item that we needed so overall wish I used my time better. The textures that I made were good and all of the boxes have good textures, it’s just that I didn’t finish everything.

Assignment 4: Dinner Prep

Take the reference given and create a pasta box and a pasta jar. This assignment makes you review how to model objects from pictures, this assignment also makes you edit product textures to map correctly to your uv’s. These objects are also based off real world measurements and should be used as reference.

These are my base reference photos, we had to create these exact objects, the textures mattered on the stuff we were given for reference, we had to get these objects as close to the reference photos as possible. We were given some tutorials, which helped give a process on how to make these objects.  

When I was making this scene, I ran into the complication of bad texturing, I tried using the pasta box texture and when it was applied I spent a good hour or two trying to align it just right so it didn’t look terrible, but the uv’s ended up not looking good, but the texture looked fine. When I tried to uv the wine bottle, I struggled on making sure the uv’s weren’t stretched, even when I watched the tutorial videos, I still missed a thing or two and it really showed on the model texture. I had trouble making the lighting look good, the lighting was set up in a basic fashion on the scene, but when I messed with settings, I just wasn’t sure what color the glass should be, I messed with it and got it into a state of this is acceptable.

Assignment 3: Table and Couch

Take the reference given and create a coffee table and couch. This assignment teaches you how to model something from measurements and reference, like looking at the real-world scale of your reference. You are also taught about fast ways to uv objects, and also how to properly tile textures and apply those textures to your created uv’s.

These are my base reference photos, we had to create these exact objects, the texture color didn’t really matter, but we had to get the object as close to the reference as possible. We were given some tutorials, but nothing that showed how anything was modeled.  

When I was making this scene, I ran into the complication of bad texturing, I tried using one wood texture and when I tiled it, I could still see the tiling line, so my solution was to try another texture which worked way better on the tiling. I tried to search for a fabric texture and didn’t find a gray fabric one, so I went to google and searched for a non-water marked texture, which I found, but when I applied it the texture went blurry, I reapplied it after some texture fixes and got most of it to look alright, but some parts were still not correct, but I ran out of time so I went with it. Another issue I had was when I tried to make the couch look not stiff and pointy, I remembered what Conner said about the soft select which helped me make it at least not, look pointy.

 



Assignment 2: Marker

Take the reference given and follow tutorial videos to create a dry erase marker. This assignment teaches you how to model something from a picture, like a marker from a marker photo. You are also taught about edge loops and how they work and how they can affect the geometry of the object they are used on. The process of UV’s and how they work, and finally the process of texture and Photoshop.

This is my base reference photo, we had to create this exact marker through the tutorials we were given, we couldn’t stray off those tutorials otherwise we are missing techniques that may be important for later use.

When I was making this scene, I ran into the complication of “why are my uv’s terrible looking?” When I followed the tutorials, I got to the Uv’s and missed a crucial step that confused me for the rest of the assignment, I didn’t have the setting that showed uv’s as blue on, I instead had the setting that showed the color of stretched uv’s. Another issue I came across was when you combined the tip and the body of the marker, this caused many ngons that were not on your model, I solved the issue by using a tool that I was taught last year called Target Weld, this fixed this problem without any trouble. I had one more issue and that was on the cap, when you duplicated the two faces on top in a radial fashion, my vertices weren’t merging, Conner helped me see that I never deleted history so my merged vertices weren’t merging, which got fixed with the history being deleted.

Assignment 1: Primitives

Gather basic reference for a scene and then proceed to model that scene with the basic primitives that Maya offers you, you may not add edge loops or edit the specific faces or vertices that these objects have, you are only allowed to edit the scale and segments, but that is through the Attribute editor. This assignment is meant to teach the art of working with base forms of objects, also this helped people who never used Maya get caught up a little bit.

This is my base reference photo, I wanted to recreate this scene through basic models. When I started, I wanted the pool to be the eye catcher, I believe that I still captured that in my render.

When I was making this scene, I ran into the complication of “how do I make the umbrella’s in the scene?” When I look at that photo, I thought those were lights until I took a closer look and thought that those could be open umbrellas. My roommate helped me think of a solution using basic primitives to make the umbrellas look closed. Another issues I came across was properly lining up all the tiles, for the black tiles I took the ending sets of four and made them slightly bigger so that there wasn’t empty space, for the white tiles I tried to cover the bad tiles with the umbrella or chairs or other stuff. Another issue I came across was thinking of what the missing side would look like from that reference photo, I assumed a normal house with a sliding glass door and stuff, but I could not think of a proper roof so I blocked it to look more fancy and not like a typical roof shape.