ASSIGNMENT 1 – Introduction to 3D Modelling – 7th March – 50%

(COMPILATION POST OF ALL WORK AND REFERENCES DURING ASSIGNMENT 1 )

 

WEEK  1 – MODULE INTRODUCTION:

We were introduced to the new semester and given our next modules that we would be working on. We would be focusing on 3D Digital Literacy and Animated Narratives. We were given our first assignment due for the 5th of March, where we will have to Model, UV unwrap, texture and real-time render one of the following:

  • Windmill
  • Mantel Clock
  • Treasure chest & treasure
  • Sword & shield
  • Sci-Fi door
  • Old Well
  • Magic Witch / Wizard Staff

 

I am most drawn to the sword and shield or the wizard staff as I think I could create an interesting design for one of these.

Week 2:

I had begun the research for this assignment by looking at the 3D staffs made by other 3D modellers on Sketchfab and seeing how they designed their staffs. I was looking for inspiration in order figure out what kind of staff I wanted to create as well as how to go about designing each part.

 

I created an Inspiration List on Sketchfab with my favourite or the most unique designs that I found: https://sketchfab.com/unamaciver/collections/staff-inspo

I was most inspired by Meltem Ozceliks Star Staff design here: https://skfb.ly/6UxDR

as well as Marlena Bayer’s Staff of Eternity design: https://skfb.ly/6XUoo

 

I then decided to start brainstorming and do some really rough concept sketches of potential staff designs and elements to include for my assignment model:

 

Week 3:

I continued drawing and designing more ideas for my staff for the first assignment. I began looking at staffs and weapon designs from various media and video-games.

One of my main inspirations was Final Fantasy X, an RPG game, where one of the main characters has a staff that changes design throughout the game.

I also looked at Okami, another video game, for its weapons and world designs. I love the art and style of the game and wanted to perhaps create a staff that could be found in the game.

Tsukuyomi from Okami, as modelled by daemongrave on SketchFab: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/tsukuyomi-28197e3ae5e0480b980318db002658eb

 

I also looked at various staff designs and 3D artists that further helped me in my staff model concept design:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also looked at the work of artists:

  • Adrien Chan: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1nGyxe
  • M. Barutcu: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xzwWB4
  • Nathan Mulhollen: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Aqwbzo
  • Annie Boudaghain: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8nROn
  • Ayhan Ayogan: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/amoNq

 

These are my cleaned-up staff designs that I came up with that I liked most!:

 

Week 4:

STAFF DESIGN

For Assignment 1, I continued making progress on finalising my staff design this week and refining this further. I wanted to make a staff that could be found in a video-game like my primary references and inspiration, yet I did not want to just copy a staff and remake it instead designing my own ideas to it. I considered making a dragon staff, however I believed this would be too difficult for someone at my modelling level and I thought I wasn’t as unique as I would like for my design. I really liked the elements of the Shinto religion in Okami, and so I wanted to incorporate parts of that into staffs the final design, whilst keeping some of the fantastical designs found in weapons in Final Fantasy.

The final staff design I am working on consists of a basic staff pole with a decorative hilt and a moon and sun at the head. Tied around the centre of the pole is a Yoshiro shimenawa rope, and hanging from the staff is a lantern with mala beads and an ofuda (paper slip).

I collected the previous image references that had elements that I wanted to include in my final staff design. I tried to look at mostly objects and crafts that could be found in real life and then used those to make a magical staff for a wizard or mage.

FINAL CONCEPT DESIGN FOR STAFF:

I made a quick line art concept sketch of my final staff from the front and side to understand how it will look the entire way around in 3D. After having finished this, I was able to finally begin modelling my staff on Maya.

I am still very new to modelling and using 3D software and am finding it difficult to create my designs from basic shapes such as cubes, spheres and cylinders how I want to, however the following YouTube tutorials on Maya have been extremely helpful in the creation of my staff model.

The Game Dev Academy tutorials especially have been really useful in helping me learn how to modify and sculpt my staff model., as well as a few other videos I have also looked at.

 

My model currently looks a bit bare and simple, however as I continue to refine the details and shapes, I hope I can create something that I can be proud of as a 3D modelling beginner.

 

Week 5:

This week I continued working on assignment 1, completing my model.

I had a call with Michael O’Callaghan from Oaken Studios (https://www.oakenstudios.com/) who looked at my staff model and helped show me ways to create my staff model more efficiently and effectively by using simple model shapes and showing me step by step how he would go about creating the parts of my model. This was incredibly useful for parts of my model like the bottom of the staff and the bow which were more complicated steps I was less sure on how to create.

 

These are screenshots of Michael’s process making parts of my staff, which I then followed myself.

 

He also gave me tips on how I could have made other parts of my staff such as the moon in different ways which improved my understanding and techniques using Maya a lot. I found this session extremely helpful, especially by finding out ways to create parts of my staff design much faster and easier than how I was going about creating each part.

 

After this talk and over the weekend, I understood how to complete my model and was able to create the bow, hilt and tassel, as well as fix up other parts of my model. I cleaned up my mesh, removing any ngons that were visible and fixed imperfections in the modelling.

 

 

However, I unfortunately found that my staff had certain mistakes that I was not sure how to correct without having to delete and completely remodel parts of the staff, such as ngons that had appeared when extruding and warping the model parts. I did not have the time to do this, but thankfully most of these mistakes are not visible. In future, however, if I was animating or sending the staff professionally and had the time, I would have recreated the staff.

I was struggling to make the cloud part of my staff, however, Jodie was able to call me and show me on discord techniques they had learned in their tutorials for how I could draw vertices on a cube, and then delete the extra parts and then extrude the faces.

Thus I completed my model.

I looked at a few reference videos on YouTube to help me when completing the UV mapping and exporting of my staff.

 

Reference Videos:

UV Mapping Fastest and Easiest Way in Maya 2018: https://youtu.be/cy1vqLw-agk

 

I also had a one-on-one tutorial with Henry to help with my assignment also. This was really helpful as he looked over my model, and liked it. He suggested ways on how to export it and to put it into a UV island and import it as units.

UV Mapping my model was probably the most difficult part of the process but after completing the tasks Alec had set to us and being able to rewatch the lectures, I was able to fully UV map my entire model in order to texture it.

 

Final UV Mapping:

 

Substance Painter:

Initially I had to upload my model to Substance Painter and bake the mesh. Then I added a couple of smart materials to give the overall staff a texture. I added masked and aterial colour selector to choose specific parts of my staff to texture. I also went onto substance share where I could download specific smart materials for silk and painted wood.

After completely texturing my staff, I then painted into it to added shadows and smaller details.

I primarily followed Alec’s video lectures to texture my staff, however I did also look at other YouTube tutorials to follow, so I could learn how to add different effects. I used the following videos as reference:

  • Old Beer Mug – Beginner’s guide to stylized texturing in Substance Painter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDzM_QwwNPY

  • Substance Painter Emissive maps: https://youtu.be/agrPbueG1Kw

 

I followed the emissive tutorial which gave me the effect of my staffs lantern glowing, which I found really cool! However the emission would not load onto Sketchfab when I exported it unfortunately.

For my staff colours, I lboth used the natural colours I found on the references but also looked at the designs in Overwatch which varied between the designs and colours in skins. I was mostly inspired by Genji’s Oni and Blackwatch skins and wanted to use a similar colour scheme for my staff.

After finishing up on the texture on my staff, I was completely finished with my Staff model and then exported and uploaded it to Sketchfab.

FINAL MODEL – Moon Staff

 

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/moon-staff-78b10195746a4f5f89ca799be8b0305b

 

For this assignment I modelled, UV unwrapped, textured and real-time rendered a Magic Witch / Wizard Staff. I designed and practiced using referencing images and creating my own concept from reference; 3D Modeling Techniques; UV unwrapping; Using basic materials & textures; Real-time rendering in my model in Sketchfab.

 

As a novice to 3D modelling and the programs, I think completing this assignment really helped me to understand how to model, use references, and figure out how to use programs like Maya and Substance Painter. In the beginning I spent a very long time figuring out the tools and techniques to model and had never before attempted to 3D model, so I have improved a lot from the start of the semester.

 

I believe the parts of the assignment I did well were modelling an intricate object for the first time. I made a 3D model just how I imagined in my concept design. I heavily used references and other 3D artists and their work in order to learn as much as possible when undergoing this assignment. I learnt how to use smart materials, layers and advanced modelling as well as UV mapping.

 

Some mistakes I made when creating my model were having too many triangles and vertices in the final model, and a couple of ngons I couldn’t fix without having to completely remodel the entire staff, which would not be acceptable at industry level. I also was unable to export the emission glow effect I had created in Substance Painter. I believe I could have been more precise UV Mapping the model as well as fix a couple of imperfections in the model.

 

If I could change or remake the model again, I think I would be more accurate in modelling to make it as low poly as possible, with fewer triangles, vertices, edges and have no ngons. I would also further my knowledge of modelling in Maya and Substance Painter by learning more about vertex manipulation and sculpting with curves, as well as watching even more tutorials on various techniques I could use to improve.

 

In conclusion, as someone who had only begun using 3D art programs just more than a month ago, I think I successfully created a good model that made me learn so much in the time creating it and am happy with the outcome and proud of my progress. Overall, I think my model is well made to me as my first complete 3D model.

*******

 

Assignment 1 -Introduction to 3D Modelling – 7th March – 50%

For this assignment I modelled, UV unwrapped, textured and real-time rendered a Magic Witch / Wizard Staff. In this assignment I also designed and practiced using referencing images and creating my own concept from references.

 

Blog:

  • Blog Link: https://blogs.ulster.ac.uk/unamaciver/2021/03/07/assignment-1-complete-compilation/

 

Portfolio Page:

 

Maya Scene Files:

 

 

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