t-65 x-wing (Textured)

Here is the my final textured model, the x-wing. Once again, there weren't great angled source images for this model. I could find some, thought they were to small and would look stretched out. For the orange stripes I just used the standard Blinn material with an orange like colour. For the body I found a grey dirt material on textures.com, which I found close to the actual body of the t-65. For the rims of the window I used a scratched steel texture. The windows itself are just a standard Blinn with high transparency. Finally the insides of the engines are made of a rusted metal material, which gives the illusion they are slightly run down.

Imperial Shuttle Wing Animation

Today I decided that none of the ships I have made, will be animated within themselves. Originally I intended to have the wings of the imperial shuttle open up as it enters the scene. After doing research on the mechanisms of the way the imperial shuttle works, I realised that it only opens up whilst taking off, This wouldn't make sense in terms of my animation since it is based in space already. Although this animation wont be in the final animation, I still wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to achieve. Below is a rendered out animation of the wings of the shuttle closing and opening.

Rigging and Skinning (New Tools)

Following the recent class practical, I was inspired to start working on an older project of mine where I had created a mesh but never got around to rigging and skinning it.

 Here you can see my mesh with one half rigged. The parent joint in the hierarchy is where the arm meets the chest.

 The first new tool is the Mirror Joint tool. This allows me to have a symmetrical rig without doing both at the same time. This essentials cuts my rigging time in half.

 The next thing I need to do is adjust the way the skin moves around with the rig. I used Skin Weights to try and slowly snap them more naturally.

Although It is not perfect, you can see how using these tools helps the mesh move slightly more fluidly then before.

Imperial Shuttle (Textured)

I have now textured the Imperial Shuttle. The process for texturing the shuttle, though simple, was very different to the Star Destroyer. Originally I tried to find the textures the same way, getting source imaged from various angle of the shuttle. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to find such images. This however, was not a setback I had the majority of the shuttle's detail in the model itself so all I had to do was find the materials. The shuttle as a whole is made of a Blinn, except for the wind screen, which is made of a black Anisotropic material with low transparancy. The rest of the body is made of dirty metal material, courtesy of textures.com. To top of the texture, I added in a very light bump map to give it more realism when closer to the object.

Class Practical - Rigging and Skinning

In this weeks class practical we covered rigging and skinning. Rigging is like making the skeleton of a mesh. Essentially you mark out where all the key joints would be in mesh e.g. shoulder > elbow > wrist. By the end of rigging, you would have a hierarchy of joints which can be manipulated in a fluid way. When rigging, you must make sure to keep it within the mesh perfectly for the best results.
Next You would skin the mesh with the rig. This means, the mesh will now lock and follow your rig which means rotating and moving joints will affect the mesh itself. You cannot skin a mesh, unless they are rigged.

In the class practical, I was tasked to implement the methods onto this hand. You can see how the rig starts from the wrist and gradually splints through each finger.

Star Destroyer (Textured)

Since all my models are finished, I decided to move on to texturing my models. Texturing is essential when modelling. It gives the object a more life like feel to it. Above you can see my textured out Star Destroyer. To make my star destroyer as life like as possible, I couldn't use standard textures or materials as this model relies on getting its structural detail from textures. What I did do, was get a top, side and bottom view of the Star Destroyer it self. After that it was all simple planar projections on each axis using the corresponding texture.

Extra Tools 3 (Batch Render)

In the previous post, I covered making animations on Maya. Now I will actually demonstrate how to render these animations out. The downside is that Maya will render frame by frame, so depending on how many frames your animation has, you will have a large chunk of Image files stored in your project.
In the Extra Tools 2 post, I briefly talked about mental ray and render settings. In this example I have once again rendered using mental ray, however it is okay to render using Maya Software if you would like. Regardless of what you use, they all have a common tab. inside this tab, you will find the File Output heading. Name your animation under File name prefix. I changed the image format into a JPEG and set the 'Frame/Animation ext:' to 'name.#.ext.'. Under the Frame Range heading, you can set the start and end frame of the animation. Once you have done this you can close the render settings. Now you would to make sure your main menu is set to Rendering. Go onto Render | Batch Render, This will start rendering all the frames you selected in the background. Once it is done, they will conveniently save into the Image folder of your project. You can now transfer the images over to any movie software and adjust the speed it plays back at. In terms for this example I uploaded them to makeagiff.com.

Class Practical - Animation in Maya

Now that all the basic models are done and ready, the next step is to make the actual animation which you can find in the storyboard from one of my earlier posts.
The first thing we covered were handles. Essentially handles create a parent for objects or groups.

The way I created the handle, I made a 2d sphere which is scaled around the two objects. I then shift selected the two shapes and middle mouse dragged them into the 2d sphere.
This comes in handy when I need to manipulate multiple groups at the same time, without combining the object into one mesh.





The next task was to create a bouncing ball animation. The idea behind the bouncing ball animation was to understand the concept of realistic animation. Usually when I ball bounces, it flattens when hitting the floor and stretches when bouncing up. When recreating this in Maya, you have to consider the scaling of the ball at the right times. To make this much simpler, I used a reference image which clearly demonstrates the physics of a bouncing ball.

As you can see in the reference, the trajectory in which the ball drops gets steeper the closer the ball is to the ground. Essentially, all I had to do is move the location of the ball from point 1 to point 2, set a key frame and repeat for each frame.






The final task was to create a basic flight part for one of my star wars ships. For this I used the x-wing. The first thing I had to do is create a handle for my x-wing. Then, I used the Bezier tool to create a very simple path. Once these were done, I selected the handle for my x-wing and shift selected the path. Making sure that my menu is set to animation, I went to Constrain | Motion Paths | Attach to Motion Path.

In the image, you may notice that the x-wing is at a slight slant. This was an extra experiment I wanted to conduct. In order to do this, I set a key frame just before the curve and tilted the object within the handle. After the bend, I tilt the object back and key frame it again. This gives it a nice turning motion.



In the next post, I will demonstrate how to actually render these as animations.

Star Destroyer (Final Render)

 Here is a render of my final model, the Star Destroyer. This also has a few changed from the mark 1 version of the model. You can see that the outer rim has been extruded in, also a few extra decals have been added which provides more depth to the top.
This was defiantly the hardest model I had to tackle. It has the most basic shape compared to my other models, however it has so many small details which I struggled to add in. This was not something which would hold me back as the star destroyer won't be to close up in my animation, it simply just flies across the screen. I also feel that the small details on this ship would be better portrayed as textures with either bump or displacement maps for finer detail, which would help if I ever chose to get close up to the model. The only thing I would have done differently is do this model first, it was the most time consuming of all and I could have spent more time on it.

 
I chose to keep the bottom very simple, in fact it is only there purely for aesthetic purposes. In terms of my project, the bottom will not be seen at all, which is why I chose to keep rather simple. It is best to keep the polycount as low as possible so I don't have any problems working on my animation, even when I'm using university computers.

The back of the Star Destroyer is by far my favourite part of the model. It is where I chose to put in most of the detail as that is the part which will mainly be on the viewport. Again there is so many small details that could have been put on the back, just like the top of the star destroyer, however this again should be textured on to save on polygons.

Overall I'm happy that the back looks very authentic as this is the most important part of the model. In total the Star Destroyer consists of 5565 polygons.

Star Destroyer (Mark 3)

The last bit of the star destroyer was the bottom, this was very simple. To make a hole, I used the Boolean/Difference tool to indent it. The panel has been duplicated to surround the sphere. Finally the sphere is extruded in for corners for details.

Imperial Shuttle (Final Render)

Here you can see the rendered out version of the Imperial Shuttle. I'm rather pleased as to how it came out. All the detail can easily be seen with the lighting bouncing of it perfectly. The only downfall there may be is the bottom and the back of the model being too simple. This however, I feel is justified as the Star Wars movies themselves do not have many glimpses of the shuttle in these angles.
If I were to make this model again, It would have been the order I made the parts in. Originally I started with the base and left the nose till last. Due to this, when modelling the nose, the edges of the base would be in the way which made it difficult to see what I was doing. Also there was other ways around this which I was not aware of at the time, like layering the different objects together and hiding them later.
Something very useful I learnt in the process of making this model is not a tool, but a style choice. Most people build on one shape, extruding the whole shape out and only using new shapes when absolutely necessary. I however realised that using separate objects for most parts makes it more cleaner and easier to come back to and work on later.
My favourite part of the model is the top wing. It has the most detail in the model with the decals showing smoothly. It links up perfectly with the base, giving the illusion its one object, however its split into sections.
The model consists of 4442 polygons which is 50% less than the maximum 10,000 recommendation to be considered game ready.

Star Destroyer (Mark 2)

 In mark 2 of the Star Destroyer, I started working on the back of the ship, starting of with the engines. There are two different types of engines, the first engine a large one which goes in and curves into the center point. To achieve this look I made a standard cylinder. To get the inside curves I used a sphere and the Boolean tool to indent that into the cylinder. The smaller one of the two is just simple extrusions.

 Now that the engines are made I placed the engines into place behind the ship. Three large ones across the X axis separated by two smaller engines.

Now I started to work on the finer detail of the back. Starting of with the plates at the end of the wings. To achieve this I used a cube and arranged it into place. Then I made several edge loops which would be extruded in to give it that robust rigid finish.

I now extruded the back of the tower in and started creating the grill/vent on the back. Again this consisted of multiple edge loops equally spaced out. Every other face is then extruded out which gives it the grill like look.

Star Destroyer (Mark 1)

 Starting of the star destroyer, to make the diamond shape I rotated a cube 45 degrees. This caused a few problems when using the move, rotate and scale tool. The problem was the axis orientation, by default it is set to world or object. so to fix it I just had to cycle through them until I find an orientation that suited my current move.

At this stage I started adding the decals which rise up in level. This was rather difficult as the base is in an awkward angle and the decals had to be rotated appropriately.

 Now you can see that is stared working on the several levels that the star destroyer has. The first level is a new cube like the decals.

 As the levels go up I start extruding inwards and then upwards. Usually I separate them into different sections, however that would take much more time due to the awkward angles.

Here  you can see how the ship lines up with the schematics. I used the lower left screen (front view) to model the tower.

Here is the complete base of the star destroyer. It is very simple at the moment but the idea is to have something which I can easily pick up on when opening my project again.

The importance of Schematics

When modelling an object, you would generally use reference images. This is generally a good idea when modelling, however using schematics of the object can help speed up the process dramatically. It is easy to find schematics for anything these days. I managed to find schematics for all three of my star wars models which has helped me towards my assignment.

As you can see, they outline the basic shape of the object. This allows you to model your shapes based on these schematics. Here is an example of me using them;

Now you can see how I got the basic shape and detail just using schematics. Sometimes they will not be perfect, this may be because of the image sizes. In my case this is ok as I prefer to just use schematics as a base guide and all my main details come from reference images.

Imperial Shuttle (Mark 3)

 Moving on to the third stage of my Shuttle, I worked on the nose. Usually, I would not leave this till the end, however when working with schematics, I found myself making it way more over complicated then it needed it to be. The trouble mainly came from the awkward angle of the nose.
The nose it self is made of a cube. You can see a few edges floating around which is actually used later on.

Where I made the extra edge loops, I extruded them in too make the  windows. Also I made a couple more edge loops on the ends of the head and extruded the faces out.

In the final image of the head you can see that I used a flattened cylinder. Now this was more my own decision as the neck cannot be seen in any schematic reference images. I assumed it would look like this as the droids from star wars have similar necks. From the look of the imperial shuttle it looks like it was designed after the droids or vice versa.

t-65 x-wing (Final Render)

This is the final render of the x-wing, from the last post you may notice some differences. the first one is the windows of the x-wing, which has been indented using Booleans. The other is in the bottom wings, you may notice that you can now see the engine from the top of the bottom wing. Also the barrel of the engine has been extruded into give the illusion it is the actual engine.
If I were to make this model again, I would have used the symmetry tool. This occurred to me fairly late in the process of making the x-wing, I also would have liked to add in extra details, however I feel that they would be better suited as textures. This is already my highest poly model at 5690.
Another thing I did not take advantage of is changing the pivot points when duplicating the wings. This would have been much easier by setting the pivot point to 0, 0, 0 and then duplicate and scaling it. this would have put it in a better location which would require me to tweak it a lot less.
My favourite part of the model is the nose. This was the hardest part to follow as it has a very awkward shape. The bottom of the nose blends into the body, however the top of the nose looks separate. That aspect makes me prouder of how the nose turned out as I managed to portray that blend.

Imperial Shuttle (Mark 2)

 At this stage I was adding finer detail to the shuttle. First I started working on the guns which extend from the two bottom wings. I used a sphere as the base where the barrels would attach to. The barrels itself is a cylinder which is extruded into the shape.

As you can see on the base of the wing, the rim of it is extruded in. The next bit was working on the decals, which is what gives the shuttle a lot of detail. I made this with several flattened cubes. I used the schematics to trace out the decals. Now originally, I was going to bevel the decals on to the side of the wing. This would have helped me saved some polygons, however, Doing so would make it very difficult to see the detail which led me to keep the decals and just press it to the side of the wing.

Imperial Shuttle (Mark 1)

 To start of the imperial shuttle I made the base shape of the body. I got the basic shape using the schematics which I will post onto the blog in the near future. I also have made the basic shape of the upper wing.

 You can see how I used different orthographic views to trace over the schematics. To see clearly on the side view, I turned on x-ray mode which allowed me to see the outline clearly. At this point I started to make the rounded sides of the body by using a cylinder. I could have added in edge loops on the side and pull the vertices out, however, I felt that it would have taken too long and I prefer to keep my objects separate as it is easier to go back and work on later.

I then added the part the component which connects the body to the top wing. The bit that is highlighted in white (left image) holds the base and the wing together. Rather then duplicating them onto the other side of the ship, it is one object. Although this means there are faces going through the wings, that results in half the possible poly-count for that part of the object.

Next I made the visor for the headlamps. I just used simple extrusions from the precious cylinder I made earlier for the side of the base. I then made the outline of the two bottom wings. I also extruded in certain parts of the shell to make the wings rotations look more natural.

Extra Tools 2 (Render Settings)

In this post I would like to talk about different render setting I have been tinkering with since I have been working on my 3d models. Rendering is really important in 3d modelling, it shows me how my object would look in game. Even in animation, it is made of several rendered frames. Usually Maya have settings you can play around with when rendering, however there is a few ways you can boost the render stats to make it look better.

• Mental Ray

Mental ray is plugin for Maya which adds extra render stats for your object. I generally like to have higher settings on my objects. First you have to make sure the 'render using' is set to mental ray. Select the quality tab and go to the sampling sub tab. I set the overall quality to 1 and under the filtering sub tab set the filter to Mitchell. Now, go onto the Scene tab and under the environment sub tab, create physical sun and sky.

• AO render

Doing a AO render is some what of a luxury, It looks great but is very costly on render time. In order to do an AO render you need to make you need to select your object and add it to a layer(on the Render tab). Then. go on the attribute editor and find the layer tab, click on presets. and set it to occlusion. Once these steps have been followed, you will notice that the object will turn black. To add extra shadow, I like to put a cube, with the front and top faces deleted, around the object. This adds extra shadows to it when rendered

Class Practical - Materials Part 3

Following on from the previous post, the next technique to practice was UV editing. This can be achieved by using the UV texture editor. The purpose of this, is to keep your UV's as clean as possible to make texturing easier. In the exercise, we had to apply the following texture to a cube.

Maya does a pretty good job in applying the texture to the object, however some parts (like the label and writing) were out of place. To fix this, we have to open up the UV texture editor and move the UV points to match the texture.





At first, I ran into a rather annoying issue where one UV is selected, more gets selected with it. In order to fix this I had to separate all my UV's into individual shells and then I had no Issue. Bellow you can see the final textured box.

Class Practial - Materials Part 2

In this weeks practical, we covered projection maps. Essentially there are four different types of mapping on Maya, which includes; Automatic, Planar, Spherical and Cylindrical mapping. The different mapping types respond differently to each shape, meaning some give a better result than others.

In some cases, cylindrical mapping may not be the best option, more often than not it depend on the file you are using as the texture. As the cylinder above has a simple and consistent texture it looks fine, however, if I were to use an actual image, it would most probably be stretched out in a disorientated manor.

 In this image you can see that I got three spheres and applied the same textures to them all. Fromm left to right the projection maps are; PLANAR, SPHERICAL and CYLINDRICAL. Interestingly, The planar map gave the best results. Planar mapping is usually used to texture on to a flat surface on the XYZ axis. The cylindrical map tended to stretch out ever so slightly whereas the spherical map seemed a bit of. Just like I said earlier, the spherical map would have worked fine if it was a consistent texture, however since it was an actual image of something, the right result wasn't achieved.

Planar Mapping

 

Naturally on a Cylinder object, cylindrical mapping would be an obvious choice as the texture would wrap around the object neatly in the circular part of the object.