exhibition layout

Layout for the end of year exhibition planning showing an ambient occlusion render from within Maya, and a screenshot from within Unreal game engine with textures.

planning show

PLANNING END OF YEAR SHOW

3D modelling artists using the same techniques are most likely to display their work as high resolution renders from within the software they modelled the object, in game engines where viewers can simply walk around the model and experience it for themselves. Since Virtual Reality is now becoming a big thing in the industry, artists are now using the new equipment to display their work, for example if someone were to model a building inside and out, instead of rendering multiple images, they could give the viewer a set of VR goggles and he could simply walk in and out of his modelled work, looking around at the artists work.

The ideal way to present my work in the future as I would like to become an environment artist, having the correct resources to present them, I would choose to maybe capture it on an animated camera to move through my scene focusing on some of the key elements in that scene to really sell my work to the viewer.

My ideal audience would be industry professionals and                  possibly construction professionals, If I was presenting game assets then the industry professionals would be the ideal viewer, but If I was modelling an outdoor scene then the construction teams would be ideal.

I would invite game designers themselves to get pros and cons of my work and where there are points that could be improved drastically.

Facebook would be the social media that I would promote the exhibition as you can choose to share the promotion to friends, or the public.

work evaluation

WORK EVALUATION

The overall theme for my assignment is The Land of Modern 3D for this I would be focussing mainly on modern/futuristic buildings in a futuristic layed out land, my main objective was originally to create a floating island that holds a futuristic land full of unusual futuristic buildings, due to time scale I have only focused on one element of that futuristic city and refined.

Throughout this assignment I have developed ideas and gathered ideas for initial drawings from my research into the land of futuristic cities, creating mood boards of futuristic buildings, land layouts from games, and buildings from games, doing this has helped me developed each design more realistic, without this research I wouldn't have any ideas on shapes, sizes or layouts.

The reference material that I had found throughout this project has varied from research of images into moodboards, research of screenshots from gameplay of games containing features that are related to my project, throughout this research I have found techniques that could possibly improve my work, this could be to help develop the ideas for land layouts, and building placements, and the design process of buildings, colour schemes of those buildings. I had also gathered reference material which has been referenced on the blog of where I had found this information, which helps towards the development if my scene would be featured in a game, gathering information from a game series called Anno, there is information on how the game works, different people in game, and levels.

All the information that was gathered was useful in different ways, in some ways it was to help develop ideas, drawings, watching clips of tutorials was very useful for 3D modelling, what to do and what not to do.

The research has only influenced my design for better, each bit of information gathered, from group critiques, to viewing professional blogs and portfolios, it has affected my design process as it is clearly visible how well their designs are and how much it pays off on the final model.

My skill development has mainly all come from research, experiments and design process, carrying out each individual one of these over this assignment and previous ones, it can be seen that from the start to now, my skills have definitely improved and will continue to develop the more that is done.

The artists that have inspired me, are mainly the 3D modelling artist, mostly the artists that have previous experience in games companies working on well known titles, such as Rockstar and Ubisoft modellers, seeing these artists’ portfolios really inspires me as their work is the level of detail and dedication to what I am working towards, without inspiration there is no possible route to success or obtaining life goals.

The tool and techniques that the artists I inspire use, are mainly computer software and having the modelling to a high level skill, with the artists working for large game designing companies each person has a different job, therefore the only techniques they need are modelling and UVing the object/objects ready to pass to the texturing artist.

I have used a range of materials/tools to create my work, started off by using pencil and paper to design initial drawings, and developed drawings, then I would begin to model those drawings in Autodesk Maya, after the model has been created, I used the basic skill I have at UVing the object, then switch back to Photoshop to create the texture for that object, which  would then be imported onto the object back in the 3D modelling software. Then put it into Unreal for game engine prep.

The techniques and materials I used influenced my outcomes as it is all in the process, switching between the software is necessary to making the finished model look realistic and improve the presentation, the UV process helps the texture not stretch and keeps it looking crisp.

My work changed quite a lot throughout the project as I started making models as experiments and if they nicely finished I would add them into my final scene, but getting through the modelling slowly but surely, after completing around 6 models as experiments I had realised that there wasn't enough time to finish a range a buildings to a high standard, have them all UV’ed properly and have all textures created, with all the maps generated for each building so the lighting and shadows were on point. Therefore I went back to my plan and modified it so I would focus on only one element of the city, which has turned out rather nice I reckon.

The only research I wish I had investigated further would be to research which materials the futuristic buildings could possibly be, whether they are a coloured chrome material, brushed metal, shiny metal. Taking out this research would have helped my design process even more than it was already as I wouldn't have had a struggle creating the textures.

I have used formal elements in my final piece as well as the design process, in the final piece the main elements used, are colour, shape and texture. Whereas in the design process I haven't added any colour as my designs are either initial designs or layouts that are blocked out, therefore the main elements used in the design process are line and shape.

Yes I am happy with my final piece, even though there is much more to develop with it,  I am happy with the final piece,  I particularly like the effect that the chrome has, it portrays the futuristic feel, as soon as someone mentions future you think shiny, which leads to chrome. This piece shows how much my skills have developed, and makes me feel like if I put enough effort into the work, I can get what I want out of it.

Sebastian Vomvas is one of the artists that I took most influence from, mostly from the form and texture from his modelling work, with enough experience and experiments on models I can get my work to roughly the same detail that he does.

If I was to do this project again, I would completely change my view overall, and start by thinking smaller, a lot smaller, and work on immense detail instead of thinking big, to a litter lower detail and not being able to finish on time which was one of my problems throughout the assignment

Self Evaluation

SELF EVALUATION

Throughout this assignment I have learnt many things, in this project I had been introduced to a game engine, I was shown the basics and how things work which has improved the look of my final piece drastically, I have also learnt new techniques with the 3D modelling software I have been using to create my final piece and experiments, I learnt how to UV and model with different techniques by watching through the clips Chris our tutor had provided of 30 hours worth of modelling, UVing and texturing tutorials which has helped me out loads in this assignment and will do in the future of my modelling work.

This assignment is important to the course and my career as I have found out the importance of initial designs and developing them to get a better idea on how to find the best way for me to start the concept art or being modelling, I feel the way I have designed and stuck to my plan has helped me figure out ways to work more efficiently and at a faster pace which will allow me to complete work in a shorter time scale in the future.

I feel that I have given this assignment equal effort between the written side as well as the designing and modelling work, whereas I feel I should give the designing and modelling work a little more effort as that is the piece that sells the show.

Looking through my design process and all written work uploaded onto my blog, I feel the part that was done really well in my opinion was my modelling work as that is the part of the assignment I most enjoy and interested in when mid work. Although the research side is interesting and learn new information each session of research is taken out, I still feel the modelling is part done well.

The mistakes I had made throughout this assignment were not extensive and did not stop me from completing my work, the mistakes I made was in the planning and in the 3D modelling software, in the planning I had given myself too much work to complete without enough time to finish everything to a high standard that I’d like. 

The other mistake I come across was during the render of an experiment that I had created with a textured I had put together myself, but I had overcome this by closely looking through rendering settings and experiment until I had fixed the problem and got the outcome I wanted in the first place.

The classroom activities that helped me learn the most effectively are the group critiques and the times where we are gathered at the front of the classroom to discuss work or work related subject such as the time we were discussing as a class about recently released triple A titles and the evolution of games and the way they are designed, these activities helped me learn new information whilst getting to know classmates more.

The techniques I had used that I haven't before was creating a texture, but creating the different maps to go with the normal colour map, creating normal and specular maps so that depth is visible on the object and the lighting effects work perfectly, I was given advise on how to create these effectively by a tutor who has experience in texture making, which I had created in Photoshop to add to a flat floor tile in 3D modelling software. Not having experience in making them before it was all new information and learning for me which has stuck and will become useful in the future.

The texture making techniques is definitely something that can be used again in other work that is being created in 3D modelling software and I want to further the design by bringing it to life with textures, or import into a game engine to make it game art for a future portfolio.

The first example of problems that I had encountered was around halfway to three-quarters the way through the assignment where I had realised that I had given myself too much work to do for  the time scale given, I managed to solve this not so problematic occurrence by heading back and updating my plan to focus on one element of my scene and refine to high detail .

Another problem that I had come across was in modelling software during an experiment of a pile of leaves which I had created from one texture piece, duplicated multiple times to look like they are laying on top of each other, after importing and applying them on a piece in Autodesk Maya, approaching the time to render out the scene to see the finish piece, that’s when the problem started, my render was black and white, which in a way wasn't a problem as it sprouted an idea for me as the black and white render shown how lighting would reflect on parts of the texture and wouldn't on the others, but closely looking through the render settings and adjusting, I got the render I wanted.

MODEL IN UNREAL ENGINE 4

artist web address

Don Pham Artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/dpham81

Miguel Silva Artist

https://miguelsilva.artstation.com/

Mouhsine Adnani artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/mouhsine-adnani

Steve Bell artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/stevenbell

Andre Kieschnik artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/kieschnik

Ben Wilson artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/benwilson

Hugo Castano artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/hugo2k1

Sebastian vomvas artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sebastianvomvas

Tobias Frank artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/tec

Liam Evans

Bibliography

Web Addresses of images from moodboards.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=medieval+village&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvuNTi0vjMAhVjOMAKHaAQC6IQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=1Rf-tVxVsR3H6M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=medieval+village&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvuNTi0vjMAhVjOMAKHaAQC6IQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=cbLbufh2dsoltM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=medieval+village&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvuNTi0vjMAhVjOMAKHaAQC6IQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=0vxtZw4LpJ8UDM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=R49VyTsGxVLtEM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=abandoned+mall&imgrc=361KV7bxpdSH3M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=abandoned+mall&imgrc=WVLInx1jqFYl-M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=abandoned+mall&imgrc=-UvUBFumc4EEaM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=futuristic+city&imgrc=lBlUU7frhl7w_M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=futuristic+city&imgrc=Cf8romyBREkLlM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mall&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr5t-R0_jMAhXKK8AKHbvSAQMQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=futuristic+city&imgrc=JoUhMlb11T2FfM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=favela&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi89azf0_jMAhUkJ8AKHRTMCyUQ_AUIBygB&biw=1905&bih=961#imgrc=O5hf0sikI4KObM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?

q=favela&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi89azf0_jMAhUkJ8AKHRTMCyUQ_AUIBygB&biw=1905&bih=961#imgrc=gcqMuuNY4NsP8M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=favela&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi89azf0_jMAhUkJ8AKHRTMCyUQ_AUIBygB&biw=1905&bih=961#imgrc=w3kCtZ8z1gGJ_M%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cities+skylines&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijxtHt0_jMAhWnIcAKHTecAUAQ_AUICSgE#imgrc=ymyN4mQPf81dTM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cities+skylines&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijxtHt0_jMAhWnIcAKHTecAUAQ_AUICSgE#imgrc=oxBJ-wh9ecyaWM%3A

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cities+skylines&espv=2&biw=1905&bih=961&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijxtHt0_jMAhWnIcAKHTecAUAQ_AUICSgE#imgrc=oFzo22GpPD0UEM%3A

Liam Evans

POWER SOURCE BUILDING UV PROBLEM

renders of experiments in place in scene

plan breakdown

tobias frank

sebastian vomvas

hugo castano

ben wilson

andre kieschnik

Artist Interpretation

Artist Interpretation

This piece is what I have created as artist interpretation from one of the artists I had researched for this final project, his name is Steve Bell and he is a 3d modeller, I took inspiration from his generator looking model to create my own looking one, using form as one of the main elements, this is what I had created, along the same lines of generator, mine has been brought up to date more by adding that little screen and a few knobs, but also keeping the old features like the submarine style metal wheel.

Final piece screenshots with annotations

Final Piece Futuristic Power Source

Step One

It all started from this single cylinder, this is the base of the main fixture of the building, from this object, extruding will be taken out to give it a distinctive look.

Step Two
The next step I created a cube, shrunk it thin and elongated it, i then duplicated four times and placed them directly opposite each other around the pivot of the cylinder in the center.

Step Three
This step is where the detail starts getting added, here I've added whats called, a Torus, when the Torus is created, it adds an extra tab to the material attributes allowing you to change the width and height

Step Four
Here I've added these four posts with heat-fins attached on the top, I really think they have a cool look and make the piece detailed. From this point in my model, shows how i my modelling skills have developed by the attention to detail and creating items that fit together that will have an effect on the finished model.

Step Five
Working on the detail to the base of the Power Source building, adding what will look like, buttons to adjust how much pressure us put into heat-fin post.

Step Six
Here I have extruded the top of the base of the building to create the stem that will protect the transportation of the energy to the base of the building, there are different stages that the energy go through on the way down, explaining the cooling fins in the centre of the stem.

Step Seven
With this building being both an attraction and dangerous, where I have let my imagination take over, this surrounding is both funky and futuristic, I also think that it displays the fact that people should stay away giving it the job along the same lines of a scare crow for the farmers crops.

Step Eight
After letting my imagination take over and keeping it symmetrical, I had realised that there wasn't a clear entrance for the person to mend it if something had gone wrong with the building, therefore I had extruded the faces of one of the sides of the surrounding creating a hallway type entrance.

Step Nine
Now that the hallway for the entrance has been made, now to start thinking about the door that fit on there, therefore I had simply created this door frame from a simple cube and shuffling around edge loops to create the shape that would suit the hallway.

Step Ten
With this being futuristic and the future hasn't yet been written, i have designed another door frame, but smaller, and extruded faces on the outside of the frame to create the slot for pipes further in development of the second door frame.

Step Eleven
After looking back and zooming in and out of the new entrance, I had noticed that the second door frame had a rather large top to it, and looked empty, so I had designed what looks like, a vent on the top, to build up the detail for the final render.

Step Twelve
Now the time to create the doors, with watching Sci-Fi programs, I decided to design heavy duty doors that lock together with a zig-zag style to create the look.

Step Thirteen
After zooming out in the program, I noticed the doors looked a little plain, therefore i had designed what could look like cogs that would spin when the doors would open, which would need work in the animation part of Autodesk Maya.

Step Fourteen
The middle of the doors looked bare as well, so I added some abstract looking armour for the door, following the theme of Sci-Fi and artist Don Pham who works on Sci-Fi pieces in Maya.

Step Fifteen
Coming back to the extruded face on either side of the second door frame, these were the pipes that I was planning on designing for the extruded faces, these are pipes that would control the pressure of the automatic opening doors.

Step Sixteen
This is the other side of the second door frame, these pipes are much more heavy duty and these ones are earthed which contain the wiring for the operation of the door.

Step Seventeen

This is an overview of the whole piece showing off the half bowl that would protect the sphere balls of energy that creates the energy by kinetic movement.

Tom. M

Tom. M

This picture is a plan from this 6 years of experience freelance architectural draftsman, what I'm seeing is a detailed labelled picture of a house/building, then two top down views of both downstairs and upstairs of this design, the plans are labelled nicely and are full of detail, this is shown by designing the beds with pillows and quilts on, and the bath has the plug hole and taps marked out.

Tom specialises his work design using both paper and computer programs, he has stated using technical drawing on paper, and Auto Cad, Cad, and Photoshop, having skills in both of these materials show that they are good at what they do and are determined.

I think the only techniques used would have been imagination and a creative mind with also the common sense to go with it.

The main elements that he would have used, would have been colour for the exterior of the houses he designed to give the builders and idea of which colour would suit the property best, then there would be line, to create the outline of the house, then the small details like windows, doors, roof lines, and on the top down see through designs, the lines would go into making hallways, room layouts and asset creating.

There isn’t much happening in this piece as they are plans, they are only displaying what could be created in the future and how it would look.

The one thing I like about this is the amount of detail gone into the floor planning and positioning.

This relates to my project as I have designed a house for my futuristic city and was thinking of doing an experiment as part of architectural studies by making a blueprint or floor plan for the building I made.

Steve Bell

Steve Bell

What I'm seeing here is some sort of generator or cycle cooling source, this piece looks realistic with the fins on the side and pipes on the side, looks like this item would be placed in a Sci-Fi futuristic area, I will be honestly this doesn't like it has been modelled with serious high detail in mind, and hasn't been textured, but with some more work it will look great.

The materials he has used to create this would have been Maya, and as I can see from this still picture the lighting effect looks good, and the floor is textured nicely without seams, the floor texture may have been created in Adobe Photoshop.

This artist has used techniques like modelling, texturing, but I am unsure whether he has UV’ed the model as it hasn’t been textured, but the techniques like adjusting the lights for the shadow effect has definitely brought it to life to a certain extent.

The main elements used in this would be form and light, as it is a model without texture, texture can’t be one of them, the form of the object is nice, and the light puts it in the spot light, which has affected it nicely, but could do with more work and looks unfinished.

There isn’t a lot happening as it hasn’t been put into an environment, its just a single piece, the artist wants the viewer to focus on just his work as there really isn’t anything else to focus on.

The only thing I like about this piece, is its very cool looking.

This relates to my projects because I have designed some building for my floating city and they look quick Sci-Fi looking, like my main entrance door on my power source building.

Miguel silva

Miguel Silva

What I'm seeing in these images that I have taken inspiration from, looks like a futuristic looking rural house, seeing images of the model grey work before texturing, after texturing, and then with added detail like foliage to add to the crisp blue sky with clouds really brings out the detail and atmosphere. The immense detail done on the outside, it really makes you think of what the inside of this beautifully created house and how realistic it would look.

Judging by these pictures, the highly experience artist has used all the features possibly and needed within the program Autodesk Maya, but maybe switched to Photoshop to design where the foliage would look better, like the bushes at the bottom of the stairs either side of the walkway, and designing only one tree for outside.

The techniques Miguel used would have been all within Maya, like switching between materials on the objects he makes, like giving the object a shiny look or a matte look, and giving the windows a shiny reflective look to give the effect.

It doesn't look like is really anything happening in this piece apart from a building doing its job and making the scenery look nice, the artist wants the viewer to look at what he ha created, having the background detail in brings out the life in his piece, maybe because he wants to show off the amount of detail he has done and the skill he has to inspire other people.

I like the unusual shape of this house as it is very appealing to me and makes me want to create something like this in the future when my skills have risen. 

This relates to my project as mine  is about buildings and unusual because the future hasn't been written yet, so I'm writing my own future by creating such buildings that I have designed myself on paper.