Month: October 2023

This week was again getting the tree and ant models completed, with the addition of the ant model being rigged! I started the week off working on the tree.

Using this image as reference for the tree

I started with a blockout and adding details via sub-divisions, loops and circulations

The tree itself is thicker than the original references as this tree will need to ‘absorb’ the leather armchair that I have made and I’d use the modelling tools in maya to imitate that ‘absorption’ trees do as they grow around an object.

This was a new experience to me a I very rarely use maya’s more complicated sculpting tools to grab and shift topology like I was modelling an actual piece of clay. For the foliage I decided to use maya’s brush generators to create the leaves.

This was a lot simpler than I had originally thought it would be and came out with a decent looking effect. It might be that I end up replacing these with foliage in unreal.

To help alleviate the more depressing aspects of my piece and further the idea of it being meant to be taken more melancholically I decided to make the ant model based on a cuter more stylized reference. This meant more simpler design and rounder shapes. The texture however is more realistic to not make it stand out too much in reference to the other realistic models.

I also rigged this ant and it is one of the best rigs I’ve managed thus far. One of its major improvements is my implementation of IK handles as previously, due to my inexperience, I hadn’t included them and when animating this would result in weaker results with longer times to animate.

This week I was focused on creating the walls, ceiling and floor of my scene. Using my more simple chair model I scaled it up in my block out scene and used it to ‘measure’ the width, length and height of my block out scene so I could recreate that size exactly when constructing the proper walls again.

Using that I constructed the scene like this making instance of simple cubes. With it set up like this I would quickly be able to construct the room in Unreal as all the parts of it have been made to fit together in unreal. As I am still inexperienced with unreal I do not want to make it one object in order to leave myself room in Unreal to change them individually should the need arise.

When constructing the window I originally didn’t have a border around it and it blended into the wall. A fellow classmate pointed out how that would end up making the windows look strange as that border is necessary in reality for how windows are constructed and would make people look at my wall and feel that something was off.

I then took all these and individually textured them in Substance painter:

The texture work here I feel is better than my previous ones as I had received a lot of useful feedback from my professor and from other students with tips and hints on how to improve them. As a result I also put time aside this week to go back to my previous textures and rework them in order to keep a consistent visual language.

I think these two have a marked improvement over the previous textures conveying the “old and left to rot” feeling far more.

The hardest thing this week would be making the floor, ceiling and walls as I had very much underestimated what I would need to do for them. In my own mind they were far simpler than what was actually needed by the end. All that being said my biggest fear going forward is that I am now moving away from all the models that I had confidence in producing. The next model I have planned is for a tree which is more soft surface. As each week goes by the deadline feels realer and realer and it takes some strength to not force myself to rush through things to ‘give myself more time’. I know though that that would only hinder my final project and I am still well within my projected timeline.

Week 2 was consistent of creating, uving and texturing models and doing my best to keep on track with the schedule that I had ordained myself to stick to. Current progress is here:

I am quickly approaching the more complicated models and the modelling techniques I am the least familiar with, namely Soft Surface modelling. I am quite satisfied with my progress and I feel my plan to get all the things I have confidence in modelling out of the way first will aid me a lot with having lots of time to struggle and wrestle with learning unreal while under a time constraint.

Currently an issue with my radiator model due to the way I set up the UV is that the repeating pattern is too obvious. While I’ve done this with some other smaller parts of models in the past to save space on the UVs it is too obvious here. So I plan to come back and fix the radiator model at a later time though I am not to pressured about it as I feel I will be able to mask that issue in unreal should it come to pass that I don’t have time to fix it.

The hardest thing this week was surprisingly the small grid atop the oven.

The smooth curves of the hooks and the flat side with a beveled top was something I struggled with emulating in anyway that didn’t result in a strange topology. However a friend was able to show me a technique that made it quite easy! I would break it up into three parts, the base, the middle, the far end into three separate objects. Then using the bridge tool to connect them you can set it so that it curves in exactly that pattern.

Overall I am satisfied with my progress on my FMP.

This week marks the official start of my final term and for full one production of my final major project that I proposed previously. Over the summer I mostly worked on my thesis, wrapping it up in anticipation for this final term. In my summer I blocked out the animation that I wanted to do for my FMP so that I would fully grasp what models I need and what I want.

The idea for my Final Major Project is to create a 360 degree diarama piece featuring a dead body in a post apocalypse setting. The idea behind it to make it very melancholy. The corpse would have a half face half skull set up with the face part being composed of a texture I will create from multiple different people’s faces creating an idea of a “universal” person in that sense. This person would be smiling, having passed on satisfied with their life.

After getting back to university I also realized that I needed to maintain a proper schedule so that I am on top of what it is that I need to do and how much time I will have to do it. I created an asset list and a calendar.

I also made a padlet for inspiration and references for my work and to maintain citation for everything that I use.

https://artslondon.padlet.org/tschweizer0620221/fmp-inspo-njtmji41eczb36e1

Lastly this week I worked on assets from my asset list. Im very pleased with myself on how quickly I was able to achieve what I thought would be very difficult assets like the leather chair, mostly in regards to the complex structure of the back with the divots that go inwards. It makes me realize how much I’ve progressed in the short year.

I would say the hardest thing I faced this week would be getting myself organized and re-learning some software elements in maya and adobe substance as I hadn’t used them in-depth in a while and needed to work off the rust that I’ve developed for them but I very quickly got through that. The other difficult thing is not letting the daunting idea of working now on my final project for university affect me.