CAGD 230 - Digital Modeling

Game Scene Final Progress Post

    For the game scene project, teams of three or four were to pick a scene from one of three games and recreate any scene from said game. Each member of a team must create one building and at least one side prop for the scene. All models must be UV'd, textured, and put into a unity scene. My group of three decided to go with "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" as our game, picking Tarrey Town as the scene we would replicate.

    During the making of the scene, we would come to encounter problems such as troubles with UVs, blurry textures, and common modeling problems. We also had to manage our time well and develop schedules to avoid falling behind and struggling to finish in time.

    In our Tarrey Town scene, we are trying to convey a sense of happiness and warmth. We did this by making the scene colorful and adding little props that bring the town to life. We wanted a scene that would make people smile when they walked in and looked around, and I feel we accomplished that.

    I occurred a couple problems during the making of my building and prop, with the mains one being modeling decisions and texture detail. When making the front gate prop and parts of the house, there were points where I would find myself with n-gons and it was difficult to get rid of them. Sometimes I almost couldn't find a way to make divisions that would fix it. The solution when problems like this arose was to simply start over on some pieces and plan out the divisions before starting to make sure that it would turn out better, and it would end up working.

    As for texturing, my house textures had a big problem which was that they were blurry. This was because the foundation of my house had a large UV shell, and made all the other shells smaller, but the foundation didn't need much detail, and the smaller pieces did. It took a long time, but I had to resize and rearrange all of the UVs for the house until the right pieces had more detail. Luckily, my fix did work on the first try and my textures had more detail.

    These problems will definitely help me to improve and avoid these mistakes in the future, as I better understand certain aspects of modeling and texturing, like planning divisions to get quads and making sure your models get detailed textures where needed.

    Although we did have to work extra hard to make the deadline for our project, my groupmates and I did have good time management. We planned out what we would do each week and got it done, which really helped to make finishing the project easier. After this project, I know the importance of using all of the class time and not procrastinating, or else deadlines can come fast and you might not have enough time to make a presentable assignment.

    Overall, it probably took me 2 and a half weeks to finish modeling, half a week to UV, and 2 more weeks to texture my objects and put them into Unity. This got me to finish my project and wasn't too harsh of a schedule, each part of the project had adequate time to make it more than doable.

Game Scene Progress Post - Week 4

     At the end of the last week, I managed to completely finish all of the necessary modeling, as well as the UVing for all of the models. I am officially done with modeling and UVing for the project, and all that is left is for me to texture. Will all of the UVs done, all that needs to be done is for me to made IDs, bring the models into painter, put textures on them, and adjust them to look nice.

     No main problems arose, only small difficulties with UVing occurred, but all of them were simple fixes, nothing too time-consuming. I am nervous that the unimportant pieces are larger, and will be more detailed, while the smaller, yet more important pieces are smaller in the UV, so I might need to change things around. I will take everything into substance painter and texture it, if I feel the small parts need more texture, I will redo the UV sheet, making the small pieces bigger to get more detail into them.

     In this week, I plan on finishing the texturing by the first class, or after that class, so that texturing is done by the next class, and I can use that time to bring everything into Unity and prepare all of the models in the Unity scene. I will then need to make some simple terrain, get good lighting, and a nice post-processor. Using class time and out of class time as needed should bring me to completing the project on time.

Game Scene Progress Post - Week 3

    In the last couple of days, I have fleshed out the pieces of the house, as well as finished the modeling, so all that is left for the house is for me to texture the pieces and duplicate them to build the final house.

     As well as that, I finished the foundation for the house, got the UVs done, and modeled my extra prop, the front gate of the town. I feel that this is a great week of progress, as the front gate took a long time, so getting it completed is a good thing.

    The only problems that came this week were with modeling. The foundation of the house was quick and easy and looks accurate, but the front gate is what brought some trouble. It is far from a normal shape, so a lot of different modeling techniques were involved. Making the pieces match how they are in the game was difficult, and making sure there were only quads was also a struggle. Sometimes I would get stuck and have to rethink my beveling and dividing so that I only had quads. I was eventually able to figure it out and finish the two stone pillars. The wood pieces and sign were a lot easier, and I had no problems with that.

    For this coming week, I plan on finishing all of the UVing by the end of the week and will move onto and finish texturing by the end of next week so that I can use the last week to bring everything into Unity and make sure the scene looks good. If I work well in class, I should have no trouble meeting these deadlines. By the next post, I should have the front gate fully UVed and be ready to being everything into substance painter for texturing.

Game Scene Progress Post - Week 2

    This week, I completed most of the modeling required for the building. I found one more reference image that helped me to better see parts of the building like the windows and doors. With this nice image, I can see a lot more detail in those objects and make more accurate replicants of them for my scene.

     The first thing I did this week was I added color to the base blocks of the house to see how it looks compared to the game, and it looks great. Next, I made a window, door, roof, and stairs for the house. I ended the week by placing it all together to see how it looked and added a ground plane to get a better idea of what the finished product would look like.

    So far, I have had no problems with any of the modeling, every part went smoothly and I am confident that I can start UVing very soon.

    This week, I plan to finish modeling for the building and get a good bit of UVing done for the building in the first class. By the end of the week, I should be finished UVing and will have moved on to the extra prop, the front gate. The front gate is an odd object so I plan to take up most of the next week modeling it and will hopefully get to UVs by the week's end. If all goes well, I shouldn't have any trouble finishing the project before it's due.

    As far as managing time, I feel that if I use all of the class time these next few weeks, I will easily be on track to finishing the project. If that is not the case, I will simply work outside of class as is needed.

Game Scene Progress Post - Week 1

    We have recently started the game scene assignment, in which groups of three or four are to choose one of three games and replicate any scene from the game the best that we can. The only requirement is that each group member makes one building and one or more side props. My groupmates and I decided to choose "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" as our game and we settled on a location called Tarry Town for the scene we would model.

    Tarry Town is a small town located on a circular island above water, connected to the mainland by a thin bridge. It consists of nothing more than six houses, a front gate, and a central fountain, as well as smaller things like fences and lampposts.

    My group has split up the work between the three of us, with all of us doing two of the six houses, since the houses in Tarry Town are more simple than other buildings in the game. For side props, I will be doing the front gate that is in the picture above, my groupmate Trevor will model the fountain in the middle of town, and my other groupmate William will do the lampposts and fences that are scattered throughout the town.

    Since we had time to get started on modeling before the next class, I decided to start with the base for the houses in the scene. The houses in Tarry Town are simply colorful blocks stacked to make a house, we therefore only need one main block that we can duplicate to make the houses. I took a square in Maya, scaled it up, and beveled the edges to match the blocks that made the houses. With this block made, I duplicated it, moved the pivot, and aligned it to make a shape. To make the houses, I only need to add a few more blocks and model extra touches like windows, doors, etc. 

    Problems that I can see arising in the future is not with the houses, but rather with the side props. The houses are simple, so they should go smoothly, but the other props, like the main gate and lampposts, aren't as simple and can cause more trouble. Good reference images can hopefully help with this, as we can see how they modeled the objects and try to replicate the process. 

    As far as time management, we will be sure to make full use of class time to work on objects, and if we see that class time isn't enough to finish in time, we will work outside of time as needed. In this next week, we plan on finishing one of our houses and make each part separately so that we can easily make the second. If we have more time, we will begin working on our side props. After the house and side props are done, we will then model our second houses.

    I believe we have a good start to this project, and if we use our class time efficiently, we will be able to complete the scene without much trouble.

Western Scene Final Post

    For the western scene project, we were told to choose from a western saloon, blacksmith, or general store, and recreate one using Maya. For this, we had to gather references, make several objects, UV and texture them, and display it all in a scene with proper lighting. I chose to make a saloon, with props such as chairs, tables, a bar, glasses and bottles, and other small objects.

    In this post, I will be showing images of the scene and textures, as well as talk about problems I had, solutions, time management, and what I have learned.

    For my scene, I wanted a warm, inviting saloon that you can imagine existing in western times. I wanted people to not only like the saloon, but to derive happiness from it and appreciate the work that went into it.

    Although a lot of the project went smoothly, there were a couple problems that slowed things up a bit while working. A few of these problems included ngons, getting nice textures, and keeping under the quad limit.

    The problem of ngons arose when modeling the walls, as the lips halfway down and at the bottom created ngons that I didn't see for a while. When I did see them, it was very difficult to make edge loops that would fix them, I sometimes had to redo a whole wall to get rid of the ngons. It was only after hours of redoing edges that I was able to solve the problem.

    The next problem came when I got to texturing, as I didn't have many textures to make the scene look nice. My subscription to substance painter was a little buggy and didn't come with substance source, so I could only use the limited textures that came with painter. This was a problem because I needed some textures that substance painter simply did not have. My solution to this came with using unorthodox textures and changing them to fix my purpose, like using a scaled-down fabric as wallpaper and other things. I was also able to use texture files that others had linked in the discord and those things combined helped me to get through texturing my models.

    The last problem that I had to deal with was at the end of the project when I realized I had far too many quads in the scene. We were limited to use below 10,000 quads in our scene, and when I had my scene put together, I had much more than that. I tried several different things, like removing unnecessary models and trimming down the quad count of objects by getting rid of unimportant edge loops, but I still had too many quads. It was only until I realized that some of my objects were still in smoothed mode that I could solve the problem. The smooth mode adds a lot of quads to a model, so turning smooth mode off brought me way under 10,000 quads, and I was even able to bring some models back into the scene.

    This project has taught me a lot about both problem solving and time management that I will take with me into future projects and assignments. I feel a lot more confident in modeling objects without tutorials, as well as texturing and UVing models. I know how to reduce quad count and how to get effective lighting in a scene. I also know how to better manage my time, like using all of the class time, dividing up the work into chunks that I can tackle one at a time, and spreading the workload as to not stress myself out.

    Although a short project, I feel that I have learned a great deal from it, and the experience that I have gained from it is immeasurable.

    

Western Scene Progress Post - Week 2

    In the Western Scene assignment, we are expected to make one of three chosen western scenes: a saloon, blacksmith, or general store, I chose the saloon. We need several objects that would fit with the selected scene, as well as references. We need to model, UV, and texture these models, as well as position them all in the scene to make it believable and add lighting.

    In the past week, I have used my written plan to start some of the modeling and UVing required for the scene. So far, I have a completed model for a bar, chair, and table, as well as the previously made models, like a lantern, barrel, etc. I have also completed the UVs for these models and organized them, I also set up the IDs and lows for the objects so I can start texturing next class. Last, I made some changes to the written plan as I went along, like crossing off finished things and removing some. I decided to remove my idea for a second floor, as it doesn't add much to the believability, but can make it much more complicated. Doing this also saves a lot of time for me to make more detailed objects. Although I wanted a second floor, I'm confident that I will be happier with how my current idea for the saloon will turn out.

    So far, I have luckily not encountered many problems yet. The modeling has gone well, and references haven't been difficult. UVing wasn't bad, but there were a couple times that I did get caught up trying to get shells to unfold. The solutions to these problems were usually freezing transforms or making extra cuts. Other than that, I have yet to be stopped by any major problems, and I hope that continues going into this week.

Western Scene Progress Post - Week 1

    For the Western Scene assignment, we are told to combine objects we have made, as well as make new objects to create a full scene. We had to choose between a western saloon, blacksmith, or general store and make objects that would fit in that scene. Having chosen the saloon, I need to create a full saloon with tables, chairs, a bar, and any other objects that would be commonly found in a western saloon. All objects in the scene must have UVs and textures and the scene itself needs 3 point lighting.

    For my western saloon, I am using the reference images above. I like having a small second story with a balcony and doors leading elsewhere, and both images are similar to what I want my saloon to look like.

    Below is my blocked out primitive scene, a starter that will be transformed into the fully textured western saloon. I have the second floor that I mentioned, and I like the placement and look or the tables, chairs, and bar. I will remake all of the objects, UV and texture them, and add previously made objects, like the barrel and whiskey bottle.

    Last week I did not start any modeling, I instead wanted to get everything figured out and organized so that I know exactly what I should do every time we get in-class time to work on the scene. Below is a page of assets needed in my scene, along with sketches of what I think they should look like so I can model more easily. I also have a list of what objects I want to tackle first, second, third, and so on so that I don't have to waste time wondering what I should start working on next. I lastly added ideas at the bottom for that I will use each of the previously made objects for, and where they will be in my western scene.

    As of now, I have reference images for the objects that I plan on creating, the only problem so far was finding images that matched what I wanted. After a couple very specific searches, I managed to find everything I wanted, and I am more than ready to make the most out of the next few in-class work periods.

 Micro Scene

    For the Micro Scene assignment, we were told to create a small scene consisting of a barrel, lantern, two glass objects, a sack of flour, and two additional objects of our choosing. We had to use Maya and Substance Painter to model, UV, and texture all of the objects. We then would place them on a textured plane with a 360 background and three-point lighting. The objects were to be placed in any composition that would make a good render.

    Most of the project went smoothly, but there were a few problems that occurred along the way. Some of the difficulties I encountered were making glass, making a liquid material, and UV-ing the barrel. When making the lantern, it was all smooth sailing up until I had to make the glass. By itself, Substance Painter does not come with a glass material, and I was having a lot of trouble getting access to Substance Source to download a glass material, so I decided to instead use a copper material and make it transparent. It was only when I got everything into Maya that I realized this wasn't going to work, a glass material was needed to make glass. I then realized that a glass material was linked in our class Discord, so I downloaded it, brought it into Painter, and retextured the lantern. When I returned to Maya, the glass worked perfectly and turned out great.

    After getting the glass under control, the next problem arose when finishing the whiskey bottle. While making the bottle, I knew that it had to have some whiskey inside of it. I duplicated some faces and scaled them down to make the correct shape, and assigned an ArnoldStandardAI material to it. It was making that material into a liquid that was challenging. I tried changing several characteristics, like roughness, opacity, and many more, but the material still clearly showed as a solid. It was only until I learned that the material has presets, many of which being liquids, that I was able to solve the problem. I set the material's preset to honey, darkened the color a bit, and ended up with whiskey.

    The last issue I had when doing this Micro Scene came at the beginning when I was modeling the barrel. At this time, UV-ing was very new to me, and starting with a complicated object such as a barrel was quite the task. There wasn't one big problem with UV-ing, but several small problems that I would get stuck at. A lot of pieces would have deformed shells that didn't match the model, and unfolding them wouldn't help. After a while, I froze transformations and deleted the history of the model, then it unfolded correctly. There would be times that the UV shells were compressed or stretched in certain parts, even when cut and unfolded. I later realized this was because of the history again as well as the model being smoothed. When the model is smoothed, it adds a lot of extra geometry that isn't in the base model, and this resulted in said extra geometry being stretched or compressed on the UV shell. To solve this, I simply set the model to normal view, and again deleted history, and froze transformations. There were other smaller problems when UV-ing, but most were solved just by watching or rewatching the tutorial.

    Those were all of the problems that occurred when making the Micro Scene. Everything else went very well, any problems were quickly solved through either the tutorials or just catching a personal error. The bullets and barstool went especially well, as no problems occurred and they turned out great in the final renders.

    To improve in the future, I will definitely remember to delete history and freeze transformations more often, as well as switch off the smooth view when UV-ing. As far as time management goes, I will be sure to make the most of class time, and I will pace myself, completing parts of a project throughout the week, as to not stick myself with hours of modeling the day it's due. Overall, I think the Micro Scene, as well as other assignments that made objects for the scene, taught me a lot about using Maya and Substance Painter and cleared up a lot of the confusion I had with modeling and texturing.