Animation Strategies- Week Six – Archie McConachie

This week, I decided to continue finishing up the rest of the models I had on my list. Moreover, these tasks included texturing the telescope, making the planets, pipes and additional items for my individual room. During this process, I was highly inspired by some models I found on Artstation.com. Although these inspirations include a range of different styles, this wasn’t the main thing I was motivated by as a lot of them I adored the colour schemes, texturing and/or the model sculpt itself. Below I have included some images of these influences including links to the credited artists.

Here is one of my main inspirations for the telescope model’s textures. I really love the worn out, dirty brass textures used here and this is something that I am ultimately trying to achieve on the current model for our project. Originally, I already had something like this texture in mind, however, seeing a visualization of it from someone else has definitely helped to imagine the outcome of the model I currently have. I have decided to use this as the main inspiration to create a similar type of level of material whilst also retaining the project style. This model was created by María Escriche.

Although they aren’t in the style or poly count that would match our specific project, I felt as though these planet models were really well made. I picked these as a main source of inspiration for the planet models due to their style of painting and height variations. Our project does lean towards the more realistic type of style you’d find in games like Skyrim, however, I do wish to make the planet models look more artificial. In order to do this, I plan to make them look somewhat cartoon-like to give them the plastic feel that ultimately makes them look more like a science display rather than replicas of their realistic depictions. The model belongs to Artiom Belov.

Artist credit: Victor Desrochers

Artist credit: Mert Suha Oner

Artist credit: ArtStation – OLD WOODEN FLOOR, Raman

As I intend to create a custom floorboard for my individual environment, I felt that looking for some examples that match my interest would aid in the creation of my own. Above are some examples of these wood textures that I have been really influenced by lately. They all are quite similar in the way that they are old, dirty and worn out and this is something I wish to learn from. However, for my own model, I will be making the floorboards a little less realistic in patterns as I plan to create swirls and odd patterns that resemble space-like shapes- I will be making them a little more fantasy-like in comparison.

Modelling/texture progress thus far

Here are some progress images of my process with modelling/texturing during this week. Some of these are continuations from the progress I started last week (e.g. the telescope) and others I began and finished within the span of days just passed.

Telescope Progress- texturing

The telescope model with its initial brass coating. I wasn’t happy with this outcome as it looked too clean and new, whereas it should look old and worn. The metallic levels were also too high and although this doesn’t look the case from Substance’s view, it was apparent when transferred to Unreal Engine. This is something I wanted to fix…

Updated telescope textures. I added extra details and grunge to the telescope shown above using Substance’s pre-built in library. This involved a process of experimenting with a range of different textures until I found the right one with the correct level of opacity. Ultimately, the grunge that I settled for was named, ‘Grunge rust fine’ and I had this attached to a black mask. I definitely feel as though these extra details made a huge difference to the model itself as it completely changes the dynamic and age of the brass material. Moreover, I will take this into Unreal in order to find out whether or not it translates well.

wood flooring model/textures

Here is the un-textured mesh version of the wood floor that I sculpted in Blender. I took this into Substance Painter to texture and finally bake it onto a plane. This was a process that was learned in a previous class with my tutor, Henry.

This is what the model then looked like when fully textured and baked. The details aren’t exactly apparent here, but from the zoomed out version, you can tell that I attempted to add different colour variations to the planks to suggest them being old and worn. There are also additional details in the indents and using black masks and generators, I was able to make these have subtle, yet sharp highlights that add to the roughness of the material.

This is a more close up shot of the wood texture to show the details that are more difficult to see in the last image. Overall, I am really happy about the result of this. It took me quite a while to finish sculpting and texturing the amount of detail in each plank and it most definitely has been worth the work and effort put in.

Planet hanging model/textures

Here is the progress of the planet hanging models. Below, I have included a bunch of sketches that I did initially, along with a mood board and then the modelling itself. Looking back, it is really interesting to see this process and how my work developed from a sketch to the final version of the model. Ultimately, I am quite happy with this outcome and I’m rather excited to include this in my environment.

Moodboard

It was a mixture of these images that inspired me for this model. I ended up choosing the one with the flat blue background as my main reference, however. I didn’t want this to be a carbon copy and therefore took my own spin with the model textures and structure itself, which can be seen in the images below.

Pipes model/texturing

Additional props

In addition to the models and texturing I had to do as part of a team contribution, I felt that I wanted to make some models specifically to fit my room and the vibe that it has. One of these items included a rug that has zodiac related symbolism.

Moodboard

Here is a gathering of different images I found around the internet. These images below were my main inspiration throughout the making of this model.

One of my biggest inspirations is the image above. This image heavily influenced the final design choice with both imagery and colour schemes and the image is from, ‘the title page of an 1814 almanac written by Nathanael Low, M.D., and published by Munroe and Francis in Boston, Mass’– Time.com. The original artist, as far as I’m aware, is unknown and the design shown above does not belong/has not made been made by myself, therefore the credit of this design is not that of my own.

As shown above, I have made some concepts to fit this initial idea and honestly, I really like how they turned out. By doing this, it has given me a better idea of what design I will make for this model and so far, I am aiming for the one in the black/white colour scheme.

I started off with a basic flat cylinder type of mesh, made in Maya and further brought into Substance painter – This is where all the texturing was going to take place. I felt that there was no need to add detail to the mesh (via sculpting) and that this could be achieved solely by using the paint tools in Substance, especially since the rug only really needs the fabric textures to give it density. I also didn’t want to complicate this model too much as I had other priorities and a limited amount of time to complete it.

This is the final outcome of the rug itself! Overall, I am quite satisfied with how it turned out as it looks so much better than I thought it would’ve. I feel as though I did a pretty good job transferring the style of the 2D concept over to Substance to create the model. Ultimately, I will be using this model for my room, but will also make it accessible for my team members if they need extra props.

Animation assignment- The beginnings

Below, I have begun creating some character designs for my action animation. In the animation, I will make these two characters fight each other, finalising with a victory. Moreover, I intend to continue working on this idea starting early next week and in the meantime, I will be focusing on my observatory assignment. So far, I feel quite optimistic about where this plan is heading- I really like the idea of making a hyena and a lion fight each other as they are nemeses in the wild. I also feel quite satisfied with the character designs, however, they will be simplified for the final animation due to time restrictions.

As for the animation itself, I will be challenging myself with making it entirely 2D, whereas the run/walk cycle will be done with the Azri Rig. The reason I have decided to do my action animation in 2D and the rest in 3D is mostly due to time restrictions. If I want my action animation to come across effectively, this will include a great deal of planning and proofing the frames. By doing the rest of my animation assignments in 3D, I feel as though it would be really beneficial as some studios that I have looked into also use 3D animation in a 2D style – which ultimately means I have to be experienced in both areas.