Millz's 2nd Year Animation - ANI2027M & ANI2023M

Finished Showreel

The Finished Showreel can be found on my Vimeo here - http://vimeo.com/65858860
Amelia George 3D Environment Design Showreel 2013 from Amelia George on Vimeo.

Now I've got some footage of my environment being 'played' I just wanted to look again at existing show reels to know what I need to include in mine. This time I'm looking more specifially at showreels by asset and environment modellers.

Unreal Engine 3 UDK Environment Showreel from i3DTutorials on Vimeo.

Scott Homer - 3D Environment Art showreel 2011 from Scott Homer on Vimeo.

These are two examples I thought stood out in particular, and both are aimed at showing models/environments created for video games. So the things I took from these and a few others, that I believed I could include in my own showreel are:

- A title card with your name and what the showreel demonstrates e.g. 3D Environment Design, should also include an email address and website URL if you have one.
- Say which software is used in the making of these models, some people use the icons of software to indicate this.
- Same as I found with other modelling showreels, use lots of panning and zooming to make the video dynamic otherwise it's boring. It brings non-animation models to life.
- Duration, most of the better showreels I watched have ranged anywhere between 1.30 to over 6 minutes. Now I think 6 minutes is far too long (potential employers are not going to watch all of that), so I aim to keep my showreel anywhere under 3 minutes.
- Show wireframes and different passes as well as the textured versions of models. I think the best way for me to do this is with turnarounds.
- Have it end with your title card again to remind who's watching of your name and email, so they remember this is your work and can put a name to the skills you've demonstrated.

Unity - Creating a Game Level

After consulting Sean Oxspring about this idea, it seemed it is perfectly possible to import my Maya scene into Unity (a game engine). The exciting thing about this is that 1) I will be able to shoot some walkthrough gameplay to include in my showreel, and 2) I can actually create some interactive aspects in the scene, to get it looking more like a real video game.

Sean gave me a few basic lessons on how to import the objects from Maya and reapply their textures, as well as getting around the interface of Unity. I've found it's quite easy to pick up, but mainly because there are some similarities it has with Maya.

I started by creating a new ground in Unity and using the software's manipulators I could 'paint' hills onto it. The grass texture is a combination of a software plug-in and one I painted in Photoshop which can be brushed over each other using the terrain tools.

I was able to create some collision physics with the log pile so that on starting the game, they are in the air but by the time the player can turn to face them you can see them bounce and roll off each other.

Unity makes it very easy to add some special effects like fog to the scene. The fog is on an animated plane which you can place anywhere in the scene just like an object in Maya. I decided to add this around the house to make it more atmospheric.

I've been experimenting with lighting in Unity as you cannot import lights from Maya, which means I will have to create all my light sources using Unity. But this isn't a problem, as lighting in Unity is actually a bit easier than in Maya - the lights appear as they will in game in the editing mode, so colour,intensity, scale and direction is easier to judge in this case.

The sky box is also made in Unity, which has some default sky boxes to choose from. You can also create your own texture to use as a sky box, but I don't feel that I have enough time to learn that at the moment as it is a little technical and it is more important that I finish other aspects of the level first.

I've imported all the assets I created in Maya now, I was able to duplicated and manipulate the angles and scales to create some variety. The lighting has also been successful, all I had to do was get the right colour and intensity for the window lights. I combined a point light with a spot light (aimed at the tree and the ground) to create some bounce which just makes the light a little more realistic.

Game Level Assets - Trees, Bushes and Rocks

I knew from the concept stages, even before I decided on the Witch's house that I wanted a scene with lots of foliage in it. Not just that, but learning how to create plant life is a very important key skill for a modeller. I haven't done much organic modelling before either, so all the more reason to include it in this project. I looked up some tutorials using the internet and the book "Maya Studio Projects: Game Environments and Props". I also had a good look at tree models, in games like "Hitman: Absolution". I noticed how the leaves in particular were on single planes and were made to look individual through using the alpha channels in the texture.

The base of the tree is made from a cylinder which I have pulled and stretched to create roots which will be submerged into the ground. The branches are made by creating additional cyliners which have been extruded into crooked forms and slotted into one another to appear like a real branch does. I noticed that in real trees the branches are formed as they split and continue splitting along to the tips, so I tried to replicate that. I also tried to follow closely to the original design I drew in my concept artwork.

Making took a little while to get through, I basically had to use cylindrical mapping on each branch and unravel them so that there were no wrong facing faces.

I used the plane technique to create a section of leaves that I then duplicated and stuck at various angles on every branch to end up with a full leafy tree.

For the pine trees, I attempted a similar technique. I decided to use conical planes which I could then add the pine branch textures to. As with the other tree, I painted by pine branches in Photoshop and used a transparent background and saved as a PNG to retain the alpha channels. I layered the pattern a few times to create a full-looking texture.

I used the exact same process to create some bushes, at the base they have the same type of branch construction as the purple-leaf trees, which I modelled and textured in the same way. I created two different types of leaf texture, a second one with flowers and slightly differently coloured leaves, so that there would be a little variety in the scene.

Thinking about other additional assets I could include in this scene, I created a fairly simple tulip-looking flower which I could resize and duplicate around the environment.

I consulted Sean Oxspring (3rd Year Games Computing) who I have worked with on several of his own developed games, about what other assets are generally needed in a game level. "Rocks!" was the answer, "Lots of rocks." So I went back in Maya and started with a cube with about 10 subdivisions. I then used the sculpt geometry tool to push and pull the faces into a more organic form. The texture I made to be sort of seemless apart from adding some moss at the bottom, just because I knew the rock would be a little tricky to properly UV map.

Witch House - Mapping and Textures

Thanks to last semester's project, where I modelled the Bathysphere and all it's interior components, I feel quite confident in the process of UV mapping.

I already knew in my head what sort of textures and colours I wanted the house to have. I had imagined from fairly early on with the concept drawings that I was going for a tudor cottage style. Obviously I wanted it to look a bit grubby and worn, seeing as the building is in a forest and has had to contend with the elements.

I've used the alpha channels when creating the textures for my windows as I want the possibility of light being able to pass through them, and also so that they feel like they are actually glass. Even though I'm not going for a hyper-realistic look, I still wanted to give the windows some detail such as with the diamond framework. Looking at images of country cottages, I noticed one of their appealing features is the many styles of windows. During the modelling, I also made sure the window frames were slightly warped, and not too straight to give the building a more aged feel, as well as the kind of crooked style that is associated with witches and horror.

I merged a thatched roof texture with my paint strokes in Photoshop to create the roof textures. On the 'underside' I included some wiring as an extra detail.

I created two log textures for the log pile, and simply twisted and moved the UV maps of each log to make the pattern on each one have a slightly different placement so they're not too obviously duplicated.

The chest texture has a combination of Gothic patterns with leather texture and paint strokes to give it the sort of ornate look I was thinking of. For the claws, I used a metallic shader, which I found was effective enough without the need to map them. I did attempt the mapping, but found it was a little complicated and so the shader seems to do the job just as well.

For the fence panels, all I've had to do is create a map for one panel and then used the 'transfer attributes' action to apply the same map to every panel. This worked just fine as every panel has the same number of faces and there are only minor differences in the vertices so that when it comes to applying the texture, any warping should not be visible.

Creating the mushroom textures was pretty fun, I used some different types of brushes to paint them. I decided on purple as it's sort of a common colour throughout the scene, or so that's what I found with the concept artwork.

I made this lantern in about half an hour, I feel I'm getting much better at speedy modelling. I can decide on which basic polygon shapes to begin with and how to mould them into an everyday object. I've also noticed in many current video games that not all textures are highly detailed. It is often dependant on how much interaction with the object the player is expected to have, or how important that object is in the story.

This Project is Evolving

Now, looking back at my project proposal I said that my intentions for the project were fairly open and that I would be designing my projects without specifically thinking about whether they were intended for film or video games. However, as the semester has progressed of course I have been working on a few video game projects and found that it has ignited more of a passion for this.

Because of this influence, I am thinking more about pursuing a career in games development and as an effect of that, I would like to steer my work for this module in that direction as well. As I am modelling, I am thinking about making this space more of a game level than anything else and how I would move a character about that space. In the back of my mind, I am even thinking about the story behind this scene and what the characters of this story would look like.

I am going to look more at video game specific showreels, and I am also considering placing my scene in a game engine so that I can walk through it as if it were a game level.

Witch House - Modelling

Using one of my concept sketches on an image plane, I have started modelling the house in Maya. To create the basic structure, I created polygon cubes and other shapes (using create polygon tool) and simply stacked them inside and on the face of the main section of the house. Each 'extension' of the house was made by using the create polygon tool to go over the lines in my original sketch and were then extruded.

For most additions to the structure, I started off with a basic polygon cube and then extract the faces into the shapes I wanted.

The log pile was created by taking a cylindrical polygon shape and then manipulating some of the vertices and edges to give them an uneven surface. There are 2 differently shaped logs, which I then duplicated and transformed to make a pile that appears to be made up of different logs.

I wanted to try and give most of the objects in the scene are warped appearance, and reflect the style in my drawings as well. I like the idea that 3D objects should still retain the character of the 2D concepts. So when modelling the chimney I made sure it had a lot of angles and was asymmetrical.

I have made my white picket fence by starting of with 1 basic panel and then creating 3 variations of it by altering some of the vertices. I created a small group of the panels in a line, and then duplicated around the house to create the entire fence. I've also used the same panel model to create the gate, just by altering the shape slighty.

The wooden beams are made up of cubes that have been extruded around the outside of the house base.

The chest is an additional prop that I want to place in the scene. I had a look at some images of chests and sketched a couple of doodles on paper. When I had a decent idea of the shape I wanted, I used the create polygon tool to make the front faces of the chest and then extruded it to make the basic shape. I used Bevel on the edges to make them a little less harsh. To make the edging, I squashed a circular plane into a sort of softened rectangular shape and then extruded this around the edges of the chest. I modelled the lock panel using an image plane of a quick digital sketch I made, and went over it with the create polygon tool.

The 'paws' are modelled from a cylinder, which I extruded and resized at different points to create the arch at the top and the round base section. The toes were made by extruding the faces on the front of the base and once again manipulating the vertices and edges to get the right shape. The claws are simply cones which I bent into curls and inserted into the toes, they were then merged.

I created some extra details on the gate, like the hinges and this lock by using the create polygon tool and the extrude tool, as well as using the basic polygon shapes for parts like the bolt in the lock.

These mushrooms were made by manipulating cylinders and spheres. After I made the first one, I just duplicated it and then altered the angle of the top section and the scale of each one for variety.