3D Wk 5

 This week we started modeling a proxy game asset, brought it into unreal to establish a pipeline, and modeled the detailed model.

After following Nick's tutorial, I adjusted the model to make a stylized "broken" version of the crate.

Common Wk 4

 This week we worked with lighting. I will start by showing you the different results I received in rendering:

Arnold RenderView

Single Frame Render

I rendered all three of these sculptures created by Nick Zuccarello with Arnold. I made a simple 3 point light setup composed of a point light, an area light, and a SkyDome. Believe it or not, both rendered are the same setups, but I wanted to show the huge difference I experienced between rendering through Arnold's RenderView and Maya's single frame render using Arnold. The single frame renders came out MUCH darker than the previews and lost a lot of the HDRI tones I was trying to push in, however it had some very appealing contrast! Inevitably I felt it was far too dark to show off the sculptures details, although they created a very neat mood. It also had weird color artifacts in the shadow that I did not like, but I thought I would still share my results!

I chose to use an underwater toned HDRI to give my images a nice cool tone. I felt this made a big difference in the render compared to the HDRI given to us.

I then brought in my Lego ship from my 3D art project and used this same lighting setup with minor tweaks to render it as well.

3D Wk 4

 This week we put our legos into blueprints in Unity and made cinematic renders of them. This was challenging to say the least. There were lots of problems but we got it done in the end.

I laid out my modeled Lego pieces and assigned materials

Base Materials

Lego Ship Blueprint

My Custom Blueprint

Event to rotate my Blueprints

In the end I was able to apply most of the post process effects except the reflection plane on the floor as it would not pick up my transparent materials correctly. I also chose not to animate my cameras for my sequence renders because it made it difficult to see my models clearly.

Common Wk 3

 This week we used different render passes in order to work with value, color and contrast in order to make an interesting image.

I started by finding some references for where I wanted to go with my design.

I then played with the different render passes (AO, Z-depth, shadow, etc.)

I then played around with color and painted over the rendered shot.

I had a lot of fun pushing the values that the render passes gave me and using them to make changes to the color of the scene. Overall this was a a super fun experience!

3D Wk 3

 Lego Bricks!

This Week we modeled proxy Lego Bricks based off of images of the bricks using basic shapes. We then assembled our bricks and brought them into Unreal to establish a pipeline.

Common Wk 2

 Use of silhouettes

This week we made ship designs using silhouettes. We used maya and a model from Nick to change the shape of our ships to create interesting forms.

I had a lot of fun designing the shapes in Maya. It was a very fast efficient way to block out multiple ideas and see them in 3 dimensions. I hope to use this method in the future!

TA Wk 2

Today I learned its not a good idea to turn in a bunch of files on Perforce the night before something is due/needed. And that communication is very important! I will add more to this post in the future about using P4V to update project files.

I played around with some BumpingPub and Harbor assets to make this little piece. I wanted to play with the lighting to make a more dramatic scene.

I also lost all my work right after this screenshot due to UE4 crashing and not properly checking out my file... so note to self to do that.

3D Wk 2

Block model in Maya showing bevels

UVs laid out

My textures

Maya render of working textures

Material in UE4

This week we created a Minecraft-ish level. We went through the steps of modeling in Maya, creating UVs, texturing them in Photoshop, then bringing a model with textures into Unreal Engine 4. I thoroughly enjoyed this project as I used to play so much Minecraft and loved the buildings I could create. I tried to create an "Autumn" home and trees with a river and bridge. I found that my workflow in UE4 is improving, but I would still like to figure out blueprints a bit more.

Common Wk 1

Sparth (Syd Mead) Shape Study

I wanted to take this piece by Syd Mead but give it the more saturated colors seen in some of Sparth's work. I wanted to focus on understanding the forms of the different dogs as they relate to 3D space.

I started by using the prototype shapes to build the basic forms of the "dogs".

I then drew over my shapes, using them as a guide to better understand the forms,

Taaa Daaa

Although I think I did not do this project as it was initally intended with a Sparth-inspired space ship, I learned a lot about understanding form and using basic shapes to build believeable concept art. I would have loved to spend more time modeling the dogs to get all the details in but I think I still managed to create a fun piece of artwork. I hope to continue using this method for starting concept pieces in the future!