BA8 Digital Diorama - Tank Update

Since my last post, I have been mostly concentrating on finishing my tank model. The last couple of components have needed cleaning up, eliminating unneeded faces, verts and edges. The tank model is broken down into two parts; the hull, and the turret and sponson weapons. I’ve decided I will make two separate 2048 textures for each part, as to have only one for the whole model would be too low resolution. I have moved onto the texturing also, following a similar approach as I did with my RPG-7 model. This said, I feel very uncomfortable with texturing, the whole exercise being an experiment, one that is made worse by the pressure of this being my final piece no less!  At first, I took a UV snapshot from Maya, then brought it into Photoshop. I filled in all the parts of the model with flat colour to begin with, which took a long time in itself, due to the sheer size of the model.  I then collected relevant looking textures from the net to overlay onto my blocks of colour, to add noise and realism. Once this was done, I began to add mud and grime to the tracks and lower parts of the hull. In addition, I added chipping to the paintwork on the tank. This process took up a far greater amount of time than I previously thought it would. As such, I have had to take drastic measures in reducing the scale of my scene to something more manageable.  I would have liked to have completed what I originally set out to accomplish, but I am simply not that experienced at this whole process, and underestimated the length of time it took to work on my texturing. If I could repeat this project, I would no doubt allot more time to the texturing, over the modeling.  

A new thing I have tried out this project, is adding ambient occlusion to my model’s textures. I found out how to add AO to models in Maya with a surface shader, and then went onto find out how to bake this into an image that can be added to the texture in Photoshop as an overlay. Ambient occlusion adds realistic soft shadows to parts of the model, and its texture. I did this for both parts of my tank.

As a result of all this change, I now have a Leman Russ Battle Tank, mounted on a scenic base. The tank’s position in the scene has shifted so that it has become the central focal point. I have it surrounded by rubble, tank traps and barbed wire. I have got the textures for my other objects, but they need finishing. My next step is to use CrazyBump to generate the normal maps for my models. I did manage to do this on one of my models in a project during second year, but have since not touched on the process.

The NUA Incident - 'RPG-7'

My course has requested that all students participate in the NUA Incident’, which is a short game that will be available to play at the exhibition. For us students, it involves submitting one asset, with a 512 colour texture and a poly budget of no more than 500 tri’s. It is quite a simple task, one that should be achievable by students from all year groups, and from people who’s strengths lie in 2D work, like digital painting.

I personally relish the challenge, as I love creating models in Maya. I chose quite a complex object; the ubiquitous, Soviet made RPG-7. The name ‘RPG’ is quite often incorrectly referred to as a ‘rocket-propelled grenade’, however, this is a western-born acronym, and is inaccurate.  ‘RPG’ really stands for: Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт  Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot, Hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher.  Entering service with the Red Army in 1961, the RPG-7 has since made appearances in many Hollywood movies and Triple A video game titles.

I started by looking for good quality orthographic drawings of the RPG, searching for blueprints and schematics. Ideally I would need; left, right, top, bottom, front and back views of the launcher to get the most accurate model. However, I was only able to gather a decent-quality side view. In addition, I did collect lots and lots of photographs of the RPG-7; close-ups of its different components, people holding and firing the weapon, shots of it from many different angles etc. I even found images of its ‘in-game’ model from recent games like Call of Duty and Battlefield.   

A sample of reference images I collected for my model

This is the side-view image I used in creation of the asset

After I had the correct reference, I looked at the RPG-7 and decided what polygon primitive it matched with in basic shape. I chose an elongated cylinder, as I thought the RPG is essentially just that: a tube. Keeping in mind my budget of 500 tri’s, I manipulated the cylinder into the outline of my side-view reference image, adding edge loops and moving vertices. After some back-and-forth with poly count against attention to detail, I came up with a model I was satisfied with.  It was fairly testing to create a model with such a low poly count, but I had never done something like this, and it was quite exciting, and good experience as well. Then came the stage of unwrapping my model’s UV’s. I tried to use up as much of the space in my allotted texture square as possible.  I kept all the pieces of my model’s UV’s the same size as to avoid stretching.  I found it was a case of breaking down the different parts of the model and grouping them together in the UV space, and keeping any ‘seems’ in places, which would be hard to see.  Once I had laid out the UV’s as best as I could, I began my diffuse map with basic blocks of flat colour. E.g. green for the warhead, brown for the wooden heat shield, a dark grey for the metal etc. I am not very confident when it comes to texturing, as it is something, which is still new to me. Nevertheless, I pressed on and gathered a few textures from the Internet. I added them to my Photoshop texture file as overlays, so to add realistic detail to the flat colour of my texture. The final stage of this asset was to add some fine details and ‘weathering’ to the texture. I added some light chipping to the metal areas, and created text and other small embellishments such as rivets and screws to appropriate areas.

I got a great feeling of accomplishment once I had submitted the model and texture to the server. 

BA8 Digital Diorama - Autocannon progress

Its been a fair while since I last added to my blog, and that's because I've been really busy making lots of things in Maya! Since I have started BA8, along with some concept art, I have begun work on many assets I plan to include in my diorama. These items include; a low, and high-poly sandbag, a modular section of barbed wire, a Lasgun, a generic Imperial Guardsmen, a Leman Russ Battle Tank, a frag grenade, with and without it's pin, a few basic mock-ups of the landscape, a repeatable piece of trench duckboard and an Autocannon. I enjoy what I am doing and get so engrossed in it that I often neglect my blog in favour of just doing more modelling. I don't know if what I am doing is 'enough' to secure myself a decent mark at the end of this, but I am spending most of my daily hours on BA8.

I find it amusing how my work now reflects with the work I was doing in my 2nd year 'WW1 Trench project'. I think it was BA6, when we had to take what we had made in Game Design Document, and realise some of its content in 3D. I really had fun with the project and did work that I am still proud of today. In the project, I planned to create a section of  a front line British trench, fully modelled and textured, with a little officer's dugout and a machine gun position. By the end of the project, I had to reign in my ambitions and scaled down the amount of work I did considerably. I had a selection of objects, some finished, some unfinished, but no actual environment within which to place them. I made things such as, SMLE rifle, a cavalry lance, a hand grenade, a rum ration bottle, a generic wooden crate, a crate with the lid removed, revealing more rum bottles nestled within it, a British 'Brodie' helmet, a sword-bayonet, a section of duckboard, a petrol can, and a 'jam tin bomb'. A few models were unfinished at the time of submission, I had the beginnings of a Mk.1 tank, shell craters, tank traps, barbed wire etc. Just listing objects I have made in BA6 and BA8, there are many similarities! Perhaps this is what I enjoy doing the most! I do see the duality of what I am doing in BA8 compared to BA6, and need to take care not to repeat myself, by setting my goals too high and ending up with an unfinished project.

Returning to what I have been doing recently, I have been switching between steadily working away on different models of my choosing. As of today, none of my models are in a state of 'completion'. But there is a lot in my scene, so this doesn't bother me too much . On the mention of my scene in general, I must say that I need to define my scene more exactly. At present, I don't have a crystal clear idea of whats 'happening' in my diorama. I have thought about it somewhat, but am not happy with my lack of clarity. I have done four quick sketches but am still not satisfied with any of them. These events concern me as this is a problem I had with my 'trench project', and it was a problem that was never resolved. I think what I need to do is just draw lots more, come up with ideas and refine them into solid images. I find 'just drawing' very hard now, as I am so used to working in Maya, everything else seems a bit irrelevant. So I procrastinate by doing more modeling!

Modular barbed wire

Autocannon

Frag grenade

Lasgun

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Sandbag: low and high poly versions

Soldier character model

BA8 Digital Diorama - What to do first

For a start, I needed to create a list of assets that I will include in my scene, no matter what the final composition is. One of the major components I thought of is an autocannon. I thought it would look great as a kind of 'centrepiece'. The model I was basing mine off of was originally sculpted in back in 1995 by Michael and Alan Perry. For an idea of scale, I took a photo of the model itself.

The original metal autocannon model

My mission is to turn this (pictured above) into a fully modelled and textured asset. Ideally, when modelling in Maya, I like to start with clear, high-resolution reference images of whatever I am modelling. I aim to gather at least a side view and a top view, but all possible views if availible. With the autocannon, there are no such blueprints or schematics. I searched for fan-made schematics on various websites such as DeviantArt, but was unsucessful. So I thought that I would just have to make my own. I found images of the individual parts of the autocannon in an old Warhammer 40,000 supplemental booklet. Although the images were grainy and low-resolution, they were better than nothing.

Codex: Imperial Guard from 1995

 I then scanned the book and took the images into photoshop. I then preceded to turn them into clear, vector images with the pen tool, which would make them more suitable for modelling in Maya.

BA8 Digital Diorama - Project Introduction!

So, the final project. When I started here at NUA, I came with the idea of gaining the skills needed to be a concept artist at a game studio. Here at the last stretch of third year, I have changed over from 2D to 3D, with my goal being to create a 'digital diorama' of sorts. It will be finished to a high standard, efficiently modelled, fully textured with diffuse and normal maps applied.

I began with a few different ideas of what to make, but eventually my thoughts settled on my favourite dark, dystopic, science-fiction universe ever; Warhammer 40,000.

A ruined chapel, in the midst of a battle

A grim, gothic scene

Another battlefield ruin, with burst toxic waste pipe and oil barrel

This was the image I decided to settle on

This snowy scene is set on one of the fictional planets of the Warhammer 40,000 universe: Valhalla. I planned to make a snowy outcrop , with remains of a building evident, a gun emplacement and sandbags. I have since decided to draw more itterations of this scene. I made a few different scenes, all based around this fantasy conflict on Valhalla.

BA7 - Studio - Entry 1

 I have now gone through several ideas for what to do for my studio project. At the beginning of term, I knew I wanted to pursue my goal of becoming more proficient in 3D modelling. Having decided to give up on my original aspiration of becoming a concept artist. So I knew I wanted to create a small environmental scene, preferably in Maya, with a fully finished, textured, geometrically efficient model at the end of BA8. I just had to decide what to choose. This was a big decision for me, and as a result, I had lots of different project ideas.

My first thought was to create something from one of my favourite horror movies'; 'The Evil Dead'. I thought about the movie, and came up with the idea that the cabin was the ideal size for the project. I would re-watch the film several times if necessary, going over every frame in detail, so to get the most accurate recreation possible. I aimed to create the cabin itself, with the interior fully modelled and textured, as if being played from a first-person view perspective. I also wanted to model the shed outside, and the 'almost-iconic' Delta 88 'Oldsmobile' as well.

Another idea I had was to look at a fantasy universe that I have a personal passion with and a great love for; the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I wanted to create some kind of 'digital diorama' depicting a scene, telling a story with only a snapshot. The same basic form as the 'Evil Dead' idea, but just different content. Back in first year, in BA3, I created a bunker door from the game 'Fire Warrior', which is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I was very pleased with the end result for this project, and got my highest mark out of all the modules I've done so far for it.

My finished BA3 project from first year

For BA7, I will do something similar, a small but well polished scene that shows my potential with 3D modelling. So far, I have done a few quick concept sketches of what I might like to do.

Battlefield ruins 1

Battlefield ruins 2

Heretics Hill 1

Heretics Hill 2

Battle for Valhalla

BA7 - Contextual Studies - Entry1

So, I have decided to start with the question: ‘What is it that makes people spend so much time in virtual worlds?’ I came to this question after just thinking about video games for a while.  The amount of time in people’s lives video games consume astounds me. People spend most of their lives in front of a screen of some description.  When it comes to video games though, what is it that draws audiences in and holds their attention for so long?

For an example, ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ has a little counter, which is visible before a player is about to jump into a multiplayer game. This counter gives varying statistics about the worldwide audiences actions in the game. One shocking statistic I found, was that collectively, players all across the world have spent over 10,000 years playing ‘Call of Duty’: Black Ops’. The last time I checked this counter, was well over a year ago. At the time of writing, three more Call of Duty games have been released every November. I find this amount of time completely ridiculous.  And that’s just one game, and more than that, what if it was only displaying the time spent on the Playstation3 platform alone?! ‘Call of Duty’ games are typically released on PC and Xbox360 simultaneously with Playstation3.

What makes video games so addictive? Why do so many people play them? How are they so successful? I am not speaking from outside the frame here. Let me be clear in saying that I myself have whiled away hour after hour after hour on video games. Overall, I think everyone, myself included, spend to much time playing video games when theres a lot more to life than just 'Halo' or 'Minecraft'. I don't want to say that games are a bad thing, I think they can be enjoyed like anything else really, in moderation. I want to look at the things that make games so popular and attractive to an audience. To begin, I would say that games can offer people; control, violence, sex, and the means to do things they would never get to do in real life. The first word which springs to mind when I ask myself 'what is it that makes people spend so much time in virtual worlds?' is escapism. 

If we look at film for a comparison, we can see that James Cameron's 'Avatar' and George Lucas' original 'Star Wars' are two of the highest grossing movies of all time, even when adjusted for inflation against all others throughout cinematic history. These two films, are both of the science-fiction genre, both contain lots of action, but more importantly, they are both escapist fantasies.