For this semester, we were tasked with modelling an object of our choice: a sword and shield, a wizard staff, treasure chest, windmill, a sci-fi door, an old well and a mantel clock. After much deliberation, I decided to do the Wizard staff as I thought there could be many ideas that would work.
I began designing rough sketches of the wand, without looking at references.
I liked the tree the best, but figured it would be a bit too advanced. I liked the Magical Girl staff, but decided that it was too simple. The Popcorn and sausage staff was created on pure delirium, and I figured I would struggle to model a sausage. And so, I elected to advance more with the bird bath staff, since I really like animals.
The idea was to have the bird sit atop of a marble podium in a glass ball. I considered making the bird a rubber ducky since I found it highly amusing.
I attempted modelling the staff in Maya, but I wasn’t really that into the idea anymore. I looked back at my initial concepts and decided I would more likely have more fun modelling the Magical Girl type staff.
I started designing the Magical Girl staff again, but this time I looked and gathered references.
Magical Girls/Boys anime from my childhood, like Mew Mew Powers and Sailor Moon, were a big inspiration. Instead of just looking at their weapons, I looked at their clothes, with the big ribbons and the frills. Binan Chikyuu Bouei-Bu Love!! had outfits I looked to for the colour schemes, with pinks, reds and whites. Some games I like (Paladins and Smite) have had Magical Girl themed skins which I also drew inspiration from; characters like Io and Artemis, had a really cute aesthetic I wanted to translate into my staff. Idols, as their outfits are very Magical Girl-ish, were also something I looked at, mainly the Idol Job in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, especially since the weapon is wand type microphone with a cutesy design.
Additionally, I looked at angel wings, as I noticed this was par for the course for Magical Girls/boys for their weapons or head gear. For this, I looked at Cheep Cheep from Mario and angel wings other people had drawn or created. The Cane of the White Tsar (Final Fantasy XIV) was another one of the reasons I wanted to add angel wings.
From this, I decided to start modelling.
This was my first trial at creating the staff, and while I was slightly proud of what I managed to accomplish, it was not received well by others. After being shown how to improve upon this design, I scrapped this attempt and started again.
I really wanted to create two swans atop of the cane, however, even after being shown what to do, I was still struggling. The deadline was getting closer, so I reluctantly scrapped this idea as well, deciding to do a simple heart with a gem like texture and appearance.
Some ideas from my original design were just not possible for me to do in the time I had left, like the ribbon hanging from the surface and curling around the staff or the tiny crown I was going to put atop the heart. I was disheartened at this, however, I still like the outcome.
I modelled the ribbon and wing separately with the “Create Polygon” tool, which I found was much easier to work with than just shapes. I found out afterwards that I could have modelled them in the same file as my wand as there is an option to hide certain objects within the program and focus just on one.
I stuck them together and then got to work on the UV map which may have caused my sanity to drop to 30%. UV mapping was very difficult for me and I had to consult the tutor a couple of times to understand it. I have a very light grasp on UV mapping even now, but I think it looks okay. Some outlines were not doing what I wanted them to do, but I wasn’t sure how to fix them, for example, some wouldn’t flip over when I wanted them to. I was definitely too shy and that affected my work, as I probably could have fixed this issue if I just asked someone for help.
Speaking of issues, my laptop was at the end of its rope when I was texturing. I tried using Substance Painter, but it was very slow and lagged quite a lot, I could also feel my laptop over heating. Fearful for my computer’s life and my own sanity, I asked my tutor for any alternatives, to which he suggested using Photoshop. Unfortunately, my computer thought to make me suffer even longer as I encountered problem, after problem, with a bit of lag thrown in for good measure. I needed to have Maya and Photoshop opened at the same time, but my laptop didn’t like that. Resigned, I asked my sister if she knew what to do, to which she said that she did all her texturing in Maya. I wasn’t completely satisfied with what the staff turned out like in Maya, but I still feel like it’s a good effort.