For this assignment I was asked to make a 3D model with UV unwrap, texture and a real time render of an item of my choosing. For example a :
- Windmill
- Mantel Clock
- Treasure chest & treasure
- Sci-Fi door
- Old Well
- Magic Witch / Wizard Staff
I have chosen to model a magical witch staff as it sounds interesting and different to design. For my first step I went and re-searched wizard / witch staffs so that I could create concept sketches. Before I started drawing I went and created a mood-board of designs I liked.
I then went onto Procreate and started making sketches of my witch staff. I wanted to so a mix of magical girl / classic fantasy witch staff. Here are some of designs.
I was really into the one with heart with the devil spear through it. So I decided that was the one I wanted to do so I went a drew concept art of it.
I put my concept art into Maya as a reference to copy of. I put it into a front view and made sure it was centred.
Next step was to go into Maya and start blocking out my model. For the heart I started with a basic square block. I put it into a front view and added multi-cuts to the middle and side. I thens shaped it a triangle shape.
Next I started to block out my shapes for the heart and the spear. I wanted to ad like spears to the sides of the spears do I added a cube and turned it into a rectangle. I will model them into shape first and then combine them later in the progress. At the bottom of the spear I wanted to make a point. I added two edges to create the point.
For the spears at the sides I added more edges and turned the one of them up. At the bottom and the top of the point I made the vertices smaller. The top one is smaller as I want to make more of a spike. Also at the corner I pulled it out more to make it more stylised. when I was happy with it I combined them the the main part of the spear.
Next was the horns for the side of the heart. Started with the cube and added a vertices in the middle. I then shaped it into a triangle for the base. I then added more edges and shaped so it had more of a curve. I then copy and pasted it to put one at the other sided. I did the same for the wings.
It’s looking good so far and I’m happy with shape. It turned out better than expected as I’m not great at Maya and only have very little knowledge. For the last part of the wand is the spear at the top of the heart. For the spear I started with the cube.
I then made the top vertices smaller and then bottom a little bigger. I then put it into a top view and placed it centre into the heart.
I’m finished with my model next I need to start UV mapping and getting my model ready for texturing. I went into UV map editor and selected the heart. I went into the UV editor, create and selected automatic.
When I began to do this I had a feeling that it wasn’t right. The texturing wasn’t looking right on the model so I went and emailed a lecture for help to show me how to UV properly. I also looked at Youtube tutorial for this as well. They explained it a very simple way and it was easy to follow.
After being sent a video for a lecture to help me with my UV mapping I was finally doing it the right way. Instead of using the automatic option I instead used the Planar Mapping Option for my UV mapping. I basically clicked on the faces of the shape and used selected were I wanted the texture to project from. I found this method a lot easier as it made the texture neat on the model.
I then went and did the same thing with my other objects. I also made sure that all the faces were in the one island so that when I put them into photoshop they would be on the same page. If they were anywhere else on the island they wouldn’t be shown on the UV snapshot.
When I put my the UV map screenshot into Photoshop I started to colouring in the faces and made sure to keep with in the lines. I wanted the heart to have a cooly diamond effect so I coloured the faces in different colours. For the rest of the spear, horns and wings I created textures for them in photoshop. I wanted the wings and horns to have the same texture.
To create this texture I made purple background to start and used different shades of purple on top. To do this I used a very light air brush and the to create a ghostly effect I used the smudging tool. Next was the the bottom and top spear. I wanted a grungy metal look so I went online and looked up a copy right free image.
I put it into photoshop and changed the colour to a dark purple by turning up the saturation, curve, the channel mixer and vibrance. When I was happy with that I exported them out of photoshop and into maya. I needed a little help with how to make the texture show up on the model as when I did it at first nothing showed up. So I went and looked at YouTube tutorial for help.
It had a very easy explanation on how to do it and I found it very useful.
First I assigned the heart with a standard surface material and went to the display option. I then clicked on the folder next the colour option. I then clicked file and went and found my UV screenshot that I made in photoshop and applied it to the heart. I then went and did the other objects with the same method.
After I was happy enough with my model I went and put it onto Sketchfab.
Overall I’m very happy with how my model turned out as its been a long time since I used maya. I’m not the best at the software and its hard to get my head around it as it is very different from 2D. I just need to get used to the software and start practicing a little more. However this assignment has showed me that its not as hard as I remember and that I can make a decent looking model. I feel like this assignment has improved my skills and knowledge with maya which I will use for my future assignments. However the model is very low poly and isn’t very detailed which I could go back and improve upon in spare time. I should be more challenging with myself and try to do more difficult things. I could of been more ambitious with my model design and try to do something different. But for my first go at doing something like this in maya I’m quite pleased with how it turned out and very happy with how it looks. Even though it was very stressful at the start as I wasn’t confident in my skills, I had to remember that I’m not an expert and trying to get the model done was my main priority.