This was the final week we had to work on our models, before the end of the last week, I was given some feedback on my model, feedback which I wanted to act upon before submission, There were lots of things I needed to fix on the model, and a lot of things I needed to change, being given a week to finish the model gave me plenty of time to come up with what I needed to do to fix my model, I laid out an initial plan of how I was going to fix the model in 3 bullet points
- delete edges to lower count on certain objects
- remake the bottom
- fix the joining point on the windmill to the tower
I Interpreted these changes in the updates I made to the model, starting of course with the back fin, the original back fin was…unique, it honestly didn’t even look like a proper back fin as seen on most windmills, so I decided to start from scratch.
Beginning with a small cube, I upped the axis on all the sides to give it plenty of detail, and rotated it so that one point of the box was pointing towards the tower, with this I then thinned the cube out and using soft selection gave it a point, on both its top and bottom.
I felt that using the cutting tool would make it look less natural and aerodynamic, so opted instead to use soft select to give it a natural-looking curve. As for the old model, i wasn’t letting it go fully to waste, as I recycled it making it the holder for the new backfin, by deleting most of the model and then thinning it out at certain points, whilst making the smaller end wider to accommodate the new back fin, and using a cut-down tube, I attached it to the top generators shell.
I got my feedback from my tutor during a meeting and one of the things he brought up was the connector between the tower and the shell of the generator, so instead of just making it a single tube, I made the initial tube smaller, and then added in another tube, I made the top faces smaller, making this new connector look more like a cone, with the thinned top, I feel as though the model now flows together a lot better.
Next, I wanted to fix the blades themselves, as I felt as though they seemed a bit too big, but one thing on the model seemed too small, and that was the generator tube that connects the windbreaker to the shell, I made that slightly thicker and the proceeded to fix the blades, one thing I immediately noticed about the blades, was the fact that they were in completely different places, and if rotated, wouldn’t line up, this would be a minor detail due to the fact that it’s not going to be animated, however, I wanted to fix it to the best of my ability.
One of the first things I did, got rid of the other two blades and left the one blade remaining, Maya has a feature that allows users to modify the pivot points to making moving objects like this seem more natural and realistic, also allowing me to clone the other blades and easily rotate them into place.
Whilst I did like the way the blades now looked, I still felt like there was something off about them, so I then decided to make them smaller after looking at a few references online.
The next step was to remake the base, as the initial one was too random and almost organic looking to be man-made, it also didn’t fit the needs of my tower and overall weakened the model, so i started with a cone, and after looking at some more windmill references, instead of upping the axis, i instead downed them, bringing the total axis from around 15 to 6, which in any other model would be low poly, and whilst still being low poly, It actually made the model more realistic as a result.
With this, i would also need to remake the viewing platform, which was just another tube model that I made low poly, and then lengthened the Z and X-axis, to create a new viewing platform, the older one would have been too small for the size of my windmill.
Using the same method I did last time, I created a slot for the ladders to go up the windmill to the viewing platform. I initially experimented with the old method of creating the opening, but instead opted to create a simple cuboid and then using the boolings tool, open a hole.
Of course, with the introduction of new parts, I needed to shift around the ladder bars, several of which I needed to delete, and also move the danger sign.
As the final few touches on my model were coming together, I knew there were only two things left, the safety features, First I started with the brackets that would protect the Horizontal fins from colliding together, and I just started with a simple cube, which I lengthened on the Y-axis, and made a bit thinner, I knew I’d be a struggle getting it on properly, so I lined up the initial cube and stuck it onto the generators.
I tried several times with the mirror tool before I was eventually able to get the first block mirrored onto the other side of the fin, I then used the same mirror technique to get the other two on, with several attempts needed, but once I got them on, I managed to tweak them and fix them to look accurate.
The final feature was the railings, I knew these would initially be tricky, but I found a method that I wanted to try out for these, and hopefully get the look I needed. So I started with a tube, which I altered in height, and then using several of the preset camera angles in Maya, I then moved each of the points into place.
Once I did that, I followed a tutorial on youtube that showed me how to create a cable/wire in Maya, I thought it’d be a good experiment, and If it looked good, I would then keep it on my final model, however, after putting them all on, I felt disappointed, I knew that there was a lot I could do with this tool, but I didn’t feel like it suited the model currently, and as such scrapped it.
To make it easier on myself, I deleted the rest of the pillars, and then combined the railing that I had created and then duplicated them each time, rotating them until it came full circle.
With that final touch, I felt as though the model was fully complete, and I began working on the hardest most tedious bit, UV mapping, starting off, I named all my parts and gave them the same material, this would come in handy later down the line.
I had another meeting with my tutor the next day, so I wanted to get as much of the UV mapping done as possible before the meeting.
I did the tower first, knowing I could delete a few faces that wouldn’t be needed, I unwrapped the main hull of the tower, and left it there, for most of the UV mapping that day, I didn’t feel completely satisfied with the mapping and it felt underdone but acceptable, so I went to the meeting the next day.
During the meeting, my tutor showed me something that I felt really helped with the UV mapping. It’s known as Planar and is an alternative way of making UV maps, By just selecting a face I am able to make almost perfect UVs, or at least UVs that the programme can understand.
Just before I got back into the model, I wanted to create the sign for my windmill, as I knew this was the only thing I couldn’t fully create in the programme I was going to use later, so I took inspiration from an existing sign, and then created something similar in Illustrator.
I took a whole day going over each of the UVs that had already been created and redoing them, making them more acceptable, and easier to understand, I was also able to make the Uvs more compact than they originally were, again, making it easier on not only me but the programme I would be working with.
Between all of this, I use the Bevel tool on the door frame, the control panel, and the connectors to the H-Fins, this I felt gave the model a final polish.
With the final preparations taken, I was able to finally bring the model into substance painter, a programme that allows one to edit textures in real-time, using various different effects to make the model look as realistic as possible.
I initially started working in smaller details but ended up eventually going almost at random, mostly due to my want to experiment with the various different tools available to me.
I’m not going to mention everything in this blog, but I will mention some of the smaller details.
I found a rust paint tool and thought that It would suit the underside of the tower at the base, as it was already situated on a large metal plate, so I added the rust steaks to the underside of the viewing platform, and on top of the base, giving it the illusion that the platform had begun to rust and was streaking rust down the stone. It soon became clear to me that I was going to make this look futuristic, whilst also making it look overly worn and old, almost in a grunge underground style.
I added rust streaks to the ladder to give the same illusion and then moved onto my sign, as initially, the texture didn’t load in, as I was unaware of how-to, I wanted to test out the normal stamps, Initially, I didn’t know how to use them, however after doing some research online, I figured it out. I used normal stamps on most of the objects, however, the smallest examples are the control panel and the sign.
With the doors, I added the same rust steaks along with the split of the door, making it look somewhat more used and tattered.
For the generators, and connectors, I added a fibreglass material to them as I knew that they’d need to be light and sturdy, however, I didn’t want to overuse Carbon Fiber, despite it being a favourite material of mine, I used it sparingly, with the H fins, I figured they’d also need to be flexible enough as they were in a unique angle and couldn’t fully adjust themselves to the changing winds, so I made them a cloth material, and added several stitches along it to give them a very tattered look, which I feel succeeds.
With the final few touches, I added carbon Fibre to the windbreaker at the front and at the fin at the back to make it more lightweight, along with adding the Fiberglass to the fins up here, I then used a single metal material to paint the tower a creme colour, which I felt gave it an older look to it, as If the design itself is futuristic, but the paint is weather outdated or was painted to match a time of year.
With the initial model finally done, it was time to move onto the final details, and I immediately started with the rotor blades, using the first scratch tool i found didn’t do much, So i instead went to the tower, and using a streak brush with leaks, I made it look like there had been a leak at the generators, possibly of oil or lubricant that had stained it, and made it look dirty, if course due to the nature of the tower it would be hard to clean, I then used the same technique on the control panel.
I moved up to the carbon fibre windbreaker, and knowing that it would be taking the brunt of most of what the elements had to throw at it, I opted to put some cracks on the surface of it, acting like deep scrapes and cuts, possibly from stones.
I then moved back to the blades to try it again, and found a wear bush, which once I tried it on the blades turned out great, I opted to only do the edges however since they’d be getting the most from the elements.
I then found a scraping tool that would allow me to add scrapes to plastic, so I did to the carbon fibre parts, making them look immensely damaged.
I quickly added more damage to the control panel, before discovering a rain tool that would simulate the effects of rain on any part of the model I wanted, so naturally, I wanted to try staining the only part of my model that would be made from fabric, that being the H-fins.
The next bit required help from my tutor, as I realised that I would need to put a type of texture to the platform to make it realist, and finding a metal gate, I thought would be perfect, however, I didn’t know how to fully work the first few tries, after talking to my tutor, he gave me a link to a video that showed me how to use the tool, and after using the bake tool and adding a mask with colour selection, I then had the effect I was looking for.
The last few things I ended up doing were adding rust smart masks to each metallic piece, and roughing up the rest of the fibreglass materials.
The last thing I did on this model before I exported it to Sketchfab, was add graffiti on the base, as I felt like it would give it a bit of character, I added it under the dirt to make it look like it had been there a while, I even added an easter egg to the model, something I am probably going to do more of, as I love finding secrets and easter eggs in media.
Overall, I am very pleased with the model, I feel as though the changes I made to the model were enough to improve it, however, there is a lot that could still be improved on, especially since I know more about substance painter, I feel as though I could do a lot more with the software if given more experience with it, built from what I have achieved so far, and in this assignment, I am pleased and happy with the work that I put in.
References for reading:
https://www.windsolarusa.com/wind/wind-turbine-components/
https://hhhincorporated.com/ladder-safety-requirements-decal.php
https://youtu.be/rvHGX3cqTuQhttps://youtu.be/-r0kT63zf40