Category: 3D Digital Literacy

My model too a little longer than I was expecting, however, I still managed to finish texturing and rendering with time to spare. I am very happy with how my assessment turned out and I feel as though even though I used tools and techniques that I have used over the course of this semester, which helped develop my skills and made me much more comfortable using Maya, I learned a lot of new techniques though modelling the skull, which was something I was completely new to. Using sketchfab was also a lot of fun, as i was able to play around with the backgrounds and light settings to make the layout of my model stand out even more.

(1) Day of the Dead Staff – 3D model by asmlong (@asmlong) [ea93622] (sketchfab.com)

This week, I began modelling my staff for assessment 1. As the skull is the hardest part of the staff and was something I had never attempted before, I decided to begin with it so I would have longer to work on it than the other elements. I used the skull model to get the shape of this skull. I started by modelling the shape of the whole head first, then, I began the eyes. To create the sunken in eye sockets, I extruded the rough shape of the right eye inwards, then added dimensions to the sunken in portion and bevelled the edge of the socket. I also moved the vertices of the socket to try and give it a rounder look, however, I wasn’t happy with the shape of the socket or the whole skull. I didn’t know how to proceed with this model, so I thought as I wasn’t too far into modelling it would be better to start over than trying to continue with this object.

After restarting, I created the skull shape using a cube and smooth tool, the same as before, and modelled a jaw shape before moving onto the eyes. I extruded the socket inwards again and used the multi-cut tool to add 2 edges to each socket which I could manipulate to give the socket a rounder look.

I wasn’t sure if I should model the jaw separately or as part of the skull, so I reconnected the gaps in the skull until I can talk to Mike in my assessment 1 support meeting. I then modelled the nose by using the multi-cut tool to add more divisions to that area which allowed me to create the sunken in heart shape.

I then bevelled the edges of both eyes and the nose. I also smoothed them out and saved the smoothed model under a different file so I could go back in case I needed to make changes to the eyes and nose.

I also created a flower petal trial where I squashed, stretched out and smoothed a cube, then moved and rotated the top of the object using the B shortcut, giving a smoother petal shape.

This week, I finished my final design for assessment 1. Instead of modelling a windmill inspired by the Weasley’s burrow, I decided to model a wizard staff inspired by the day of the dead in Mexico. I have always found this tradition very interesting, and even based part of my Art GCSE on the tradition. I created 4 concepts, using a skull model and flower images. My first idea was a skull being held up by a twisting vine. I loved the basic idea, however, felt it didn’t look much like a staff. This is why, in concepts 2-4, the staff itself is straight with a handle made of either flower petals or a long bone. As flowers are a very significant thing for the tradition, as they represent life and the souls of Mexican families loved ones, I wanted them to be included not just around the skull, but throughout the staff. For concept 4, I only included one flower as I wanted to figure out whether I wanted to focus more on the living or the death side of the tradition. I included the human spine in this concept, making the staff much thinner than previous concepts, which I didn’t like. I felt as though 2 and 3 looked the best, however, I wasn’t sure if either would be too hard as I am still fairly new to Maya.

Both Mike and Henry said that all designs would be very achievable, and after talking to them, I decided to go with concept 3. Henry suggested I add more flowers to the staff and make the vine thicker, as it didn’t look thick enough to support the skull. After making these adjustments, I thought about colour. Red, orange, and yellow all have different meanings in the tradition. Red symbolises the blood and life of the dead, and orange/yellow are happy colours, which hep guide the spirits of the dead to their loved ones. I felt as though these 3 colours along the green vine would flow well together.

References:

This week, I used substance painter for the first time. I found it much more difficult than I thought I would, as there are many aspects of the software that I wasn’t expecting, such as the different masks that can be applied to fill and paint layers, allowing me to apply texture in different ways. The colour, metallic, roughness etc categories also took me by surprise in the beginning. I did find it interesting using smart masks to apply the rust to the hammer as it makes it look more realistic.

This week, we learned about UV mapping and how to use photoshop to add colour to objects in Maya. After taking a snapshot of the UV map of the cube to create a dice, I imported the snapshot to photoshop and aligned the faces of the dice with the outline of the UV map. I then created a lambert layer and imported the texture file. I ran into a little trouble with the dice as the texture layer wasn’t showing on the cube. However, it turned out to be an easy fix where all I needed to do was turn textures on which I didn’t know how to do before.

I found the coke tin more interesting to do as it was a completely different shape than the dice. I bevelled the edges of a cylinder to give the coke tin shape and cut the top and bottom face and one edge of the mid-section of the cylinder in the UV editor. Once in photoshop, I made sure the orientation of the coke label was correct so it would wrap the correct way around the model and changed the colour of the background to grey for the exposed metal on the coke tin.

I ran into more trouble with the hammer. After creating the hammer, I found that I had created unnecessary objects and faces. It was easier for me to extrude a single cylinder for the handle rather than creating different objects, so I recreated the handle, Once I had; I applied the textures to the hammer in a blinn layer with no more trouble.

Once I finished the UV tasks, I also modelled a snake wrapped around a tree branch. As I had already used the curve tool and sweep mesh for the milkshake straw, I found this task quite simple once I got started. I extruded the edges of a cylinder and changed the direction each extrusion was going to create the branch and used the curve tool to create the shape of the snake. Once the shape of the snake was created and wrapped around the branch, I merged the top and bottom vertices to the centre and moved and scaled the top of the shape to create a wider section for the snake’s head. I then changed the colours of the models to brown and green to make the models look slightly more realistic.

This week was definitely more challenging in terms of the content we learned. I still find cutting and unfolding a little difficult as I often forget the steps and order of when to cut, highlight and layout/unfold different polygons in an object. However, I am happy with the results at the end of this week and feel as though I have come a long way from week one.

In class this week, Mike showed us how to create a milkshake in Maya. I found this model much more difficult to complete than others so far. I learned how to extrude and smooth edges which I found easy enough to follow along with. I also learned how to bevel an edge and change the number of sections and the size of each section. However, adding colour and changing the transparency of an object was a challenge for me. Once Mike had finished his tutorial, I went back and watched his pre-recorded video on blackboard. Through this I learned that I find following a pre-recorded tutorial much easier than following along in class as I am able to go at my own pace and if I find one step more difficult than the rest, I can pause, rewind, and take more time on this section. I did find creating the straw by using the curve cool and sweep mesh very enjoyable. This is something very different than anything I’ve done in Maya so far, however, I found it easy to follow along with each step in the tutorial and am proud of the result.

I also made a vase model this week which I found much easier to complete than the milkshake model. I made the lower half of the vase wider than the upper half and bevelled the top and bottom edges to give the vase a softer look.

This week, I started thinking about my design for assessment 1. The two designs that appeal to me the most are the windmill and witch/wizard staff. I plan on doing a windmill inspired by the Weasley’s burrow from Harry Potter, however, intend to do concepts for a wizard staff as well as I feel a wizard staff will allow me to do more creative models.

This week was my first time ever using Maya. I learned a few short cuts such as using “W” to move objects, “E” to rotate them and “R” to scale them. I also learned how to group objects together and how to move the stage using the right, middle and left mouse keys. We started off by creating a circular table using cylinders and 4 chairs using 1 cylinder, which I duplicated 4 times using shift and move to create the legs, and a cube for the seat. At first, I found Maya very intimidating. However, as we started with something simple, it was less scary the further on I got with the task.

I then created another table and chairs model, this time, giving the chairs a back to them by stretching cubes and cloning them. To create the stand for the table, I changed the size of the bottom face of the cylinder, giving it a wide base. After I finished this, I decided to create a fruit bowl to push myself a little further, allowing me to learn more about the software. The same way I widened the base of the table, I widened the top of a cylinder, then moved the centre vertex down to create a curved bowl shape.

For homework, we were tasked with modelling challenges. I created another table and 4 chairs, this time using only cubes. To create a martini glass, I used 3 cylinders and moved the edges and vertices of 2 of them to create cone shapes. Considering this week was my first time using Maya, I am happy with what I have created and haven’t found anything too overwhelming so far.