MDU114 - Week 2 [Modelling, Texturing & Shading]

Jodi set the bar this week by showing our class his version of a 3D modelled chest - based on the requirements for our project due in the coming weeks. He prefaced by saying that it took him roughly 2 hours but it was clearly something that his 10+ years in the industry has helped him achieve. The thing that that impressed me the most was the fact that the lid of the chest was completely independent of the body and could be manipulated via the "hinges" he had attached.

Immediately this was something I wanted to include in my chest and I began thinking of the kind of chest I wanted to create. The immediate choice (and has been since last week) was a replica of the boss key chest from The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

But as the class moved forward, Jodi began to talk about the deliverables that make up the 3D project pipeline. One of these deliverables was something he called a "Mood Board". My interpretation of a mood board is more or less a scrap book of ideas, but for the one idea.

Same-same, but different.

After some thought I made the decision that instead I'll create my own chest, based on elements and designs throughout history and you know, be unique. Like a snowflake.

Jodi asked one of our students to draw up a version of a chest - she did so and it resembled a traditional (Hollywood) Pirate’s chest: wooden, curved lid, simple brass decorations. I actually quite liked the design, it was a far cry from the chest I had told myself that I'd try and recreate but it very clearly conveyed the idea that it was a treasure chest. Then looking back at what Jodie had created I realised that there were so many options and designs that the choices are literally left up to the imagination - that is until Jodi began taking us through the process he used to build his chest. There's nothing necessarily 'difficult' about what he created in terms of design, but the techniques he used to build it and in such a short amount of time seem to be quite advanced. I've only had the chance to do a bit of reading in the last week regarding Maya and as such I'm only familiar with the fundamentals. I aim to change this in time (a short time because of the due date of the project *fingers crossed*) but this was an important realisation for me to make because it means that I'd need to scale down my ideas and design because even though I could probably conceptualise a beautiful, intricate chest, it might very well be a shot in the foot when it comes down to my actually modelling it to the same finish that Jodie managed to achieve. At least for now, my mindset is that I would rather have a polished, simpler design, than a broken, jagged but very ambitious one.

I've digressed quite a bit...back to the class - Jodi put our minds to the test by duplicating the chest he created and challenged us to work backwards and simplify the elements he used as to utilise the least amount of room on the UV map - something which as of writing this, I haven't a proper understand of what it is. I assume that for now it has to do with memory and processing on Maya's side but I could be very wrong. Then again I should probably just google it...

*** OK, I'm back and I'm still confused BUT I can see the importance of UV'ing. And as a side note, all this time I thought "UV" was an acronym for something, like Ultra Violet, but for 3D. Instead they represent the axes in 2 dimensions! More importantly though, it turns out that UVs act as marker points that control which points (pixels) on the texture map correspond to which points (vertices) on the mesh. - I completely stole that last line from the Autodesk knowledge base, but only because they explain it better than I can. Also I jsut realised that seeing as Jodi and my mind are the only two entities reading this, I don't even really need to go into explanations. Then again, this is how I used to study for exams - I find that by writing down definitions it helps me commit them to memory. Ok, I'm completely losing the plot now.

The fact of the matter is he demonstrated that the entire chest could be 'mapped'/UVeed (forgive me if I'm using the term incorrectly), with only a few pieces from the final product. The trick as we've learned is to 'work smart, not hard'. Take a wheel for example, split it into quarts, now you can manipulate a single quart, then duplicate it 3 times and end up back at the wheel - this principle can be applied in many different ways, making for a much more efficient modelling process (assuming you know what the hell you're doing).

PLAY TIME!

1. Create a wheel shape - I used the polygon pipe for this.

2. Select the faces of the object. Then get rid of half a side.

3. Do it again!

4. Bevel time.

5. Apply some rubbery texture...

6. Let's have a look at the UV Editor.

Ok, that doesn't look right...

7. Doesn't matter, let's duplicate it and swing it around.

Now I just need to connect these two pieces together.

Hm, that didn't work the way I expected it to. Let's have a look at the UV editor again.

It looks...the same? Ok I'm just going to duplicate it agiain, complete the square and check out the UV editor one more time...

Right, well there's clearly a disconnect between Maya and me not knowing wtf I'm doing. I'll need to sit with some tutorial videos throughout the week *groans*.

Arguably the most important topic we covered this week, I missed because my train was delayed and consequently I was late - BUT I managed to capture some of it. Jodi started by taking us through an 'Art Bible', at least that's what I think he said. Basically this major project needs to be tied together with proper planning, and the proper planning isn’t just a random amalgamation of notes (kind of like my blog...) but rather it should follow a process of documents. This isn't anything new in the world of projects or to me, but the particular set of documents Jodi spoke about are specific to design and when you look at it, it makes a lot of sense.

There's a core subject I'm taking this trimester called CIU111: Critical thinking in creative media - it's a class in which the purpose is to encourage the students to think outside of the box and challenge the ideas presented to us in media - film, art etc. I found parallels between the core concepts of that class and the documentation process involved in creating MDU114's bible. Each document challenges us to think analytically about all the concepts involved in planning and designing our chests. What colours will we use? Where will we draw inspiration from? Architecturally how have these ideas evolved and what can we take away? Jodi highlighted a situation where we may create a pirate chest (based on the student example from earlier on) and that we need not be bound by the simple idea that it should be wooden, include some brass handles and be more or less quite boring and that instead it may be a pirate’s chest that has been washed ashore, perhaps in a shipwreck and this of course would affect the design of the chest. it may be shattered in places, missing planks, have bits sticking out etc.

The planning stages are obviously just as important as the design, and no less so in 3D modelling.

We were also introduced to what I believe will be 2 of the most important tools in the game: extrude and another tool I've forgotton the name of. Damnit, I thought I wrote it donw. It's the tool that splits things in half? I've clearly lost my mind writing this blog.

Looking ahead, I have a lot of reading and tutorial watching to do. Maya is an incredible beast and even though Jodi has suggested a number of times, that we will probably only end up only utilising 30% of Maya's functionality, that percentage is still comprised of some seriously powerful and complicated tools. I'll be digging my own grave if I don't get my skills up to par in the coming weeks.

- Ryan