For a small 6 week project we were asked to create something for a made up insect spray company. To begin with, we, the games designers were given a task to create a Flash game using actionscript but as none of us were taught this we had to go to a tutor to change our brief. In the end we were given the option to create our own brief decided between us, this was quite easy because there are only 4 of us anyway. We decided on producing a 3D model of an insect, a 3D model of a spray can showing the company branding and a 3D model of a weapon that could be used in the theoretical game that we were designing for.
Rough Test
The first model I tried to make was done using the primitive shapes, and I hated how it was looking so I pretty much scrapped it after 10 minutes. The main problem for me was that it was looking very bulky and didn’t have the organic quality I was looking for.
Fly Model
I started off using a technique I had seen in online tutorials where you draw the shape of the thing you are creating and import that image into Maya and use it as a template to work from. I thought this technique worked very well, especially with an organic shape like the Fly model I made, otherwise I would have to have made it by studying a picture of a fly. This was the first model I made using the “Create Polygon” tool, which works like the pen tool in programs like Photoshop. And I quite like it because of the control it gives you with the shape you want to create. At first I made a model with 3 sections, the head, the thorax and the abdomen. At first I thought this was a good idea because it would be easy to alter certain sections if they needed to be altered and leave the other sections alone, but I found out later that it would prove more work because of the way I would be texturing the model. I decided to use a method of texturing called “Pelt Mapping” which involves a plugin for Maya that transforms the model into a flat object that resembles the pelt of an animal, which is where the name of the technique comes from. The problem with this as I found out is that the model has to be all one object, and as I had 3 sections it made it harder for me to understand the UV maps it produced. So I decided to stitch the 3 parts together, which took a
bit of time, as I had to delete quite a few faces and create new ones to fill in holes. Looking back at that experience I learned most from deleting and creating polygons to fix my model, like adding vertices and filling holes. I’m glad that I decided to use the pelt mapping technique for texturing my model because UV mapping isn’t my favourite or strong area of modelling. Pelt mapping took out the need to move separate UV’s around and did most of the hard work for you, only leaving you to tidy up and resize so that you could easily identify each object for texturing.
Spray Can Model
This was quite an easy and simple design for a spray can that I used, but I think it turned out pretty well. I decided to experiment with a specular map to show areas of the can that were shiny, such as the metal compared to the sticky label. I introduced an area on the label that was shiny and embossed to, to see how different techniques could be used to change the way an object looks. The main can was made with a primitive cylinder, but I cut into the bottom and top of it to make the lip found on most spray cans, then I also modelled the top of the can by scaling it and adding the nozzle using the move tool to stretch it out.
Weapon Model
I found this quite fun, but the finished model was actually quite boring looking not that I look back on it, it was just too linear. I made the gun using basic shapes like cylinders and boxes, and though I stretched and squashed them around a bit it wasn’t very accomplished in my eyes. Possibly the biggest feat was me actually remembering how to do something I learnt on the first year, though I have no idea what it was called, it involved attaching an object to a line and using the line to guide the object, I used it to make a pipe that winds around the back. I actually got rid of this object for a simpler construction because when I got to UV mapping I couldn’t get my head around the mess of lines that it brought with it.
Poster
I finally made a quick poster to advertise the game using the fly model that i created. I used photoshop entirely for this process.
Rough Test
The first model I tried to make was done using the primitive shapes, and I hated how it was looking so I pretty much scrapped it after 10 minutes. The main problem for me was that it was looking very bulky and didn’t have the organic quality I was looking for.
Fly Model
I started off using a technique I had seen in online tutorials where you draw the shape of the thing you are creating and import that image into Maya and use it as a template to work from. I thought this technique worked very well, especially with an organic shape like the Fly model I made, otherwise I would have to have made it by studying a picture of a fly. This was the first model I made using the “Create Polygon” tool, which works like the pen tool in programs like Photoshop. And I quite like it because of the control it gives you with the shape you want to create. At first I made a model with 3 sections, the head, the thorax and the abdomen. At first I thought this was a good idea because it would be easy to alter certain sections if they needed to be altered and leave the other sections alone, but I found out later that it would prove more work because of the way I would be texturing the model. I decided to use a method of texturing called “Pelt Mapping” which involves a plugin for Maya that transforms the model into a flat object that resembles the pelt of an animal, which is where the name of the technique comes from. The problem with this as I found out is that the model has to be all one object, and as I had 3 sections it made it harder for me to understand the UV maps it produced. So I decided to stitch the 3 parts together, which took a
bit of time, as I had to delete quite a few faces and create new ones to fill in holes. Looking back at that experience I learned most from deleting and creating polygons to fix my model, like adding vertices and filling holes. I’m glad that I decided to use the pelt mapping technique for texturing my model because UV mapping isn’t my favourite or strong area of modelling. Pelt mapping took out the need to move separate UV’s around and did most of the hard work for you, only leaving you to tidy up and resize so that you could easily identify each object for texturing.Spray Can Model
This was quite an easy and simple design for a spray can that I used, but I think it turned out pretty well. I decided to experiment with a specular map to show areas of the can that were shiny, such as the metal compared to the sticky label. I introduced an area on the label that was shiny and embossed to, to see how different techniques could be used to change the way an object looks. The main can was made with a primitive cylinder, but I cut into the bottom and top of it to make the lip found on most spray cans, then I also modelled the top of the can by scaling it and adding the nozzle using the move tool to stretch it out.
Weapon Model
I found this quite fun, but the finished model was actually quite boring looking not that I look back on it, it was just too linear. I made the gun using basic shapes like cylinders and boxes, and though I stretched and squashed them around a bit it wasn’t very accomplished in my eyes. Possibly the biggest feat was me actually remembering how to do something I learnt on the first year, though I have no idea what it was called, it involved attaching an object to a line and using the line to guide the object, I used it to make a pipe that winds around the back. I actually got rid of this object for a simpler construction because when I got to UV mapping I couldn’t get my head around the mess of lines that it brought with it.
Poster
I finally made a quick poster to advertise the game using the fly model that i created. I used photoshop entirely for this process.
posted by Oldephase at 11:05 pm
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