Tires!

So, after about a month of Maya tuition, I am starting to update my blog again. In our tuition we have gone through modelling, unwrapping, texturing, shading, and we have started doing rigging. I have been working on some side projects which I haven't been to upload onto here but I will do so once I have permission.

For now, I have been working on tires for the Mitsubishi I modeled over the summer. Since I have been learning Maya, I decided to make the tire in Maya!

So, below, in the first image, I have modeled just one piece of the tire. This was modeled in the top down view and was based on the 4th design from the left, on the left screen. The key thing to remember is that the pattern HAS to be tile-able for later on. So, bearing that in mind, I selected the smallest piece of the pattern I needed to. To make life even easier for myself, I only modeled half of the tire as it is perfectly symmetrical on the left and the right.

The next stage is duplicating the piece I have modeled and making an approximate amount of copies which would then be made to revolve and make a wheel. This number is quite arbitrary and simply determines how many times you want the piece of the pattern to revolve (and create the final shape of the wheel).

The image below is the finished product with all vertices merged.

Below are a slightly different set of tires which I had made previously for the Mitsubishi. I chose a slightly simpler and 'bulkier' design to make them look more like off road tires.

After modelling the tire I decided that it needs some really nice alloys; and while I was at that, I decide it would be a good idea to challenge myself a bit (plus I wanted to model some really cool looking alloys).

Below you can see some progress images. I started off in Maya but I ran into problems when it came to constraining multiple edges all around the tire, so I continued the workflow in Max.

I have to be honest, half the reason I decided to do the alloy in Max is because Max is simply a much better 3D package when it comes to modelling (among other things).

Below is the finished result rendered out with a wireframe.

Matchmover

I have been meaning to learn this piece of sotware for a while now and I have finally got around to doing it. I have to say, this is possibly the easiest piece of software I have had to learn. For anyone interested in Matchmover it's a must for VFX. It's essentially a stand-alone 3D tracking software which tracks your footage and then sets 3D markers based on the track to calculate the 3D space. The easiest way to explain what Matchmover can do is by showing you. I was unable to upload my video onto blogger, so instead here is a link to the video on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/83174201

All I did was track the shot in matchmover, then I exported the tracking data as a 3D scene to 3DS Max and rendered everything together to composite it in After Effects. It is very simply stuff but I am quite happy with my first track.

Perspective Match

This is somethign I have been very eager to try out. As I don't have 3DS Max 2014 I will have to model the environment (the hallway) and then use camera points (as opposed to simply using the perspective match function that comes with 2014).

So to start off with here is a photo of what I will be modeling:

Seeing as this is right outside my door, I was able to get up close to see the detail at any point during the modelling process.

All this had to be built to scale as it is necessary when adding the camera points. Below are some progress snapshots showing the progression of the modelling:


Building the walls first and making sure they are to scale. I was frequently going in and out of the room in order to get precise dimensions.

Building the door frames and cuttingout the holes for the doors from the wall (the image above was actually captured after the doors were made which is why the holes are there).

Working on the banister. The right one is smoothed using NURBS as it is easy to enable and disable the feature when I want to see how an object looks smoothed.

Working on some finer detail. This was done using a simple spline and then lathing.

First attempt at using the perspective match. The door frame is off quite a bit so below is the next attempt after adding a few more points.

Looking slightly better but still not perfect. I will keep working on the scene so I can take a video/photo from different parts of the hallway and have it modelled entirely.

Environment Maps and Compositing

So seeing as I am going to be starting my masters in January and it will be based on visual effects, not just modelling, I have finally gotten around to exploring this subject further.

I have a tablet, and one day I discovered that it had the ability to effectively make a 360degree photo. Although the end result is not 100% perfect, some minor adjustments in photoshop will fix any issues one might have.

Today I decided to use this feature and make a 360 degree image and also a still so I have a background to composite onto.

Now, none of the material you are about to see is refined in any way and the colours are completely off, but it is just to show that this is a very quick way to start off on a 3D-into-photo integration.


 As you can see the images were quick snapshots. These were not edited in photoshop so remained pretty much just as blue as they are now. Well the environment image is not so blue but still, the point is they are mismatched.

Ok and here is the test I did using a simple chrome sphere. I also did not get the direction of the sun quite right or the colour temperature...or the shadow colour. But anwyay the point is that this is a stepping stone and based on this I plan to composite the mitsubishi I modelled into my driveway. I have to say, I am quite excited to see how it will turn out.

Here are two more environment maps created the same way as the first one:

Cupboard Modelling

As I said I will make a new post for the modelling of the cupboard and post the progress as I go along. Here are some snapshots so far:

I just started by getting the scale and getting the basic shape right. Fortunately, it is basically just a box so this took the best part of 20 seconds.

Note that to begin with, I only had one monitor while working on this so I was a bit tight in terms of screen space.

Getting some of the relief patterns. Just a simple spline combined with a bevel profile to create the relief around the entire shape.

I now have 2 monitors! As you can see I was modelling the chain and the details around the doors. I also made the hinges work so the next bit will be modelling the mesh thing on the front of the doors.

Adding the handle was very easy. I just used a Geosphere and cut out the necessary polygons. Though I would need to retopolise it a little bit because there will be some issues in the corners when it is smoothed.

Creating the mesh itself was very simple and took almost no time at all. The planks which made up the mesh were not completely flat so I made sure to give them a slight surface curvature using soft selection and dragging out.
 

This is the first test render and I think it is coming along quite nicely. Obviously I still have more details to add but I realised I didn't have any renders or pictures of what the model looked like as a whole so I made this specifically for that reason.

This design was not the easiest to make due to the triangles present in the actual shape. On the left image you can see the way I developed the design bit by bit. I was actually copying the shape as I went along in case I messed up and wanted to go back. This would save me time as opposed to either using edit hold or saving each stage of the shape development as a different file. I am relatively happy with the end result although there are some very minor issues which are actually not noticeable even in a closer shot.

 Added a few extra details to the star thing and then added the actual circle around it. Oh and I also cut out the hole using ProBoolean to fit the shape in. I am fully aware of the huge drawbacks of using things like boolean and procutter but I'm not going to be smoothing that particular part and it is not going to deform so as long as that's the case then no need to worry too much about strange topology.

Looking much better now. I actually resized the whole thing because it was off and remade the mesh so that it is identical on all parts of both doors. Both doors are now rigged and open/close normally using a helper object. Just need to clean up a few very minor things, make sure everything is good for texturing, and start unwrapping!

 So that's the cupboard done! Now onto the texturing stage...

Here is a first glance at the beginning of the teturing process:

I actually made four variations of this texture, however it still seems very repetitive due to one thing that I failed to change (making it seem like it's the same pattern). This will be changed later on and updated on here.

I am much happier with this texture compared to the little triangle designs' texture. It looks much more natural and the size of the wood grain is perfect. This makes the individual triangle designs stand out as the texture might be a little bit high res and also the colour is a bit off. As I said, this will be changed later on once I can see it in context with everything else.

I am quite pleased with hos this has come out although I am a little unsure about the contact point between the big and small rings. I did not get a chance to take any close up photos of this for reference but I think I am heading in the right direction.

Here is another update to the cupboard. I have finished texturing the mesh of the door now and I have been working on the last few details. In the image above I have just done a quick test render to see if the mesh looks ok.

Above is the latest test render of the entire thing. It is looking pretty good although I have quite a few more adjustments to make. The two pattern circles are grey at the moment as I will be retexturing them. I'm also very unhappy with how the mesh has come out so that is something that I will have to go back to and refine.

Above is the finished render of the cupboard! I will begin matchmoving the video footage I have in order to start compositing this cupboard and show off my VFX skills!

Asset Modelling

The reason I have not posted a lot is due to the fact that I have been doing a lot of Maya tutorials, trying to get to grips with the basics and understand the software better. That and I didn't want to just make anything because that would be a little pointless. Instead I found this at one of my friend's houses:

I found the design of this cupboard to be very interesting.  I was told it is of oriental origin although I would not be 100% about that. Anyway the point is that this will be my next mini project - to model, texture, and light this cupboard. I particularly want to pay extra attention to the texturing as that will be key in making this a believable and realistic looking asset. I will make a new post for all modelling related updates regarding this project and I will keep updating it as I go along.

Mitsubishi L200

Here are some renders of the finished product. I think the end result is ok for a first model but I do feel that there are quite a few improvements I could make on the model.

Wireframe Renders

Finished Renders

Car Modelling (Cont.)

As you can see I have added more details to the car. I reworked the back a little bit and added in the handle for opening the boot. I also added in the rear wondow as well as the little lights on the left and right. I am currently working on the detail inside the boot as well as the door handles and the bottom of the car. The progress will be posted here

Next I added in the side mirrors and started working on the wheels.Here you can also see that I've added in the door handles and the mud flaps.

FIRST TEST RENDER

As the title of this picture suggests it is just a test renderbut I wanted to see roughly how this would look with some basic textures thrown on. Below is another test but from behind. This one is even worse because I forgot to smooth some areas, and actually added the wrong texture to others. But as I said, this is just a test and so far it is looking reasonable.