WEEK TWO AND THREE: MAYA EXCERCISES, PRESENTATIONS, TRIM SHEETS, MODULAR ASSETS, CONCEPTS AND MODELLING BEGINNING
We did an exercise in class which was to see if we remembered all of the tips and tricks we learned in Maya and how we could solve problems if they came up in our future modelling.
I managed to figure out most of them, but there were some I had issues with, usually very minor issues that would’ve made it more inconvenient – so getting a problem-solving exercise was very helpful.
For example, for the first one I knew how to select and move the vertices, but completely forgot the connect tool existed and just used multi-cut. I did the second exercise right, but not the way that was used as an example in the video showing us the solutions. In the solutions video the shown way to do it was to select the faces and extrude them with an offset inwards and down, and then bridge them together. I used Booleans and difference to get the same effect way faster in my opinion, which I’m pretty proud of.
I kept running into problems in the exercises I wasn’t too sure of. I was able to identify where the problem was and what was wrong, but didn’t know where to start with correcting it, like on the exercise where the faces were wrong. But I learnt how to fix a bunch of things I wouldn’t have known how to fix otherwise.
I also started on some asset concepts this week – I’m very interested in creating concepts for props and modelling them for the project, so I started on some tarot card designs and a crystal ball. My group also had a talk about what direction we wanted to bring the environment, and it’s going to be a sort of high class, academic environment – with some spiritual and magical aspects in there. I thought it would be nice to have some tarot cards strewn across the table and some crystal balls, I think they would add a lot of personality to the environment, and provide a little bit of narrative in the environment.
On week 4 in class, we went over modular assets and trimsheets. We did an exercise where we created a wall that we could use as a modular asset in our own environments so this was very useful to learn. We went over the process in Maya and then brought them into Substance Painter, and finally were shown how to use them in Unreal.
Since I am designing small assets, I also decided to get started on creating concepts for tables and chairs to go in the environment. We weren’t going for anything too extravagant for the furniture so I created some simple wooden furniture for us all to place throughout the environment as we wish, I could create some more tables and chair designs if they’re needed as well.
I also went ahead and finalised the concept for the crystal ball with a colour scheme and a rendered drawing – though the colour scheme can be changed in the future when we reach the texturing stage should we need to. I also created a sketch of a telescope concept. I didn’t want just a cookie cutter copy of a normal telescope but sized up, I wanted some strange, fun aspects to it. I wanted to see it have twists and turns in the metal and some astrological/magical motifs. I think it would be cool to have the moon cycles engraved in the side or something similar to that.
I modelled the tables and chairs this week too; they weren’t too complicated as I’d modelled a table last year in my group animation project – this one isn’t the exact same as that but I definitely knew how to go about this easier than I would’ve last year. The chairs were very similar, just manipulating vertices and using the multi-cut tool and adding some bevels to make it look nicer. I’m going to UV the props I made next week if I have time. Though I might not be able to do much next week as I have a lot of things happening outside of the class.
I also went ahead and finished the concepts for the few tarot cards I designed last week – I am SO happy with how these came out; I think they’re so cute! I can imagine them already sitting on to of the table I modelled in the final environment.
