CAGD 230

• Primitives

In our first Maya project we were tasked with constructing a scene of primitives in their basic form. Essentially what we were doing was using the basic shapes that maya provides in order to create a scene with reference to anything. We were not allowed to manipulate any polygonal components including vertices, edges, or faces with at least 1 directional light being placed in the scene itself. 

In My scene I had decided to go for a medievil theme, I had seen a reference image of a castle on google which had inspired me to create the scene that is detailed below.

So far I believe everything in my scene went as planned, in terms of the turrets that I added on top of the towers, I had used my imagination and free time to complete them. Overall however I believe the scene draws the viewers eye to the focal point quite well since I had surrounded the main subject of the scene with trees which helps the viewer distinguish the setting. 

• Marker

For my marker assignment our task was to create an expo marker and use the UV editor for the first time. We had followed a set of tutorial videos detailing the instructions on how to create the form and overall shape of the marker. We had used three objects in this scene, one was the cap of the marker, second was the body of the marker, and third was the marker tip. Throughout the creation of this scene we had learned several new tools in Maya, one being the use of the move tool to move the various vertices in order to create the body shape and curves. After work on the body of the marker we had learned a new tool for the indentations in the marker cap, the extrude tool. Next we had used the duplication tool as well as the revolve tool in order to create the cap evenly. One of my main issues with this assignment was the layout of the UVs. Although I had gone into Photoshop to create the logo with the uv snapshot the texture itself never loaded onto my marker but rather in my UV editor as displayed below, therefore I was missing the logo on the final Marker render itself.

One of my main issues with this assignment was the layout of the UVs. Although I had gone into Photoshop to create the logo with the uv snapshot the texture itself never loaded onto my marker but rather in my UV editor as displayed below, therefore I was missing the logo on the final Marker render itself. However, I do believe that I had grasped the overall objective for the assignment as a whole.

• Table & Sofa

In the Table & Chair assignment our objective was to create a coffee table from scratch with only the reference images that were provided. We were to use all our prior knowledge of tools and shapes in Maya in order to achieve this task. Something new I had learned in this assignment was a better understanding of the use of the image plane in order to create the best replication of scale from the references. Another tool that I had discovered when creating the cushions for the couch was the multi cut tool as well as the bevel tool when creating the edges of the cushions/pillows. 

Although the textures on the couch ended up being a lot shinier than I had originally anticipated due to the shader I had placed I believe the overall objective of the assignment was achieved, My UVs for the table were a bit troublesome however after a while of messing around with it, I had come to have a much better understanding for how textures work in Maya.

• Dinner Prep

For the Dinner Prep assignment our objective was to create a wine bottle, Pasta Jar, and Pasta box. In my opinion this assignment had to have been where I experienced the most complications, mostly with the UV section. So far throughout the assignment and following the instructions creating the shape of the jar was relatively simple however at one point I had become stuck since I couldn't figure out why Maya wouldn't allow me to perform the same actions that the tutorial had instructed to do. I assumed that this was mainly due to the fact that I had missed a step before, therefore preventing me from progressing in the intended way. This had set me back from creating the UVs for the wine bottle correctly unfortunately as well. However, I had learned a great deal from it in terms of how to layout UV Snapshots in Photoshop and how to import those images correctly back into Maya. 

One of the biggest learning points for me in this assignment was when creating the UVs for the Pasta Box and the manipulation of the faces after the fact. We had also learned to change the pivot points on the box in order to fold it correctly without distorting any of the UVs which really served valuable for the grocery shelf project.

• Grocery Shelf

Our most recent project that we had completed was the grocery shelf in which we were to create a grocery shelf which had to include a grocery shelf (structure up to me). On this grocery shelf we were to create 3 glass items (including the pasta jar), 1 plastic item, and 6 box items. 

This was the assignment where I believe I had truly understood the way UVs work and how it is that textures are placed on various different objects in Maya. For the boxes I had only needed to create a working UV layout for one box then I had duplicated that box and scaled them into various forms since changing the physical properties of the box does not affect the UV layout. Apart from following the instructions given to me on this assignment I felt as though there was much more independent problem solving involved. Once I had gotten down the basic understanding of how to assign the different materials and texturing to the objects in this scene I had actually finished understanding the UVs for the pasta jar from the Dinner Prep assignment. 

Week 1 update

Although I don't have any reference images for my scene since it is from a house I no longer live in I do actually memorize the placement of everything in the room. So my inspiration for this project was all based on the house that I used to live in. The room was laid out as following: one couch facing the TV with a circular glass coffee table in between, speakers on either side of the TV, a nightstand beside the couch, and a tall fireplace that reaches the ceiling, and a tall lamp beside it. Other than that I will be adding my own ideas in terms of objects such as an Xbox One, soda cans, and lastly potato chip bag.

Week 3 update:

In my 3rd week creating my living room scene I've actually fallen a bit more behind than I had anticipated however I do believe I'm making progress in terms of how it is my living room is appearing to look. I have created more models every week whenever I have any new ideas. In this week I had decided to utilize a bit more of the space within the living room by adding speakers to the t.v set up, a fire place, clock, while also working on creating a ceiling lamp/chandelier for the scene. 

So far my only issues were trying to figure out how my UVs for the couch I had imported would be set up. I seem to have a much better understanding of UVs than I have in the beginning of the semester, however when it comes to curved models and abnormal shapes I seem to always have trouble trying to figure out the layout. Not only this but trying to understand how to stitch my UVs together is another issue I had run into. After a bit of problem solving and playing with the UV editor It seemed I had fit everything within the 1K texture map correctly. Yet the UV squares never evened out and were still distorted. I have yet to test the textures on it but that will be something I look into going forward with my project. An example shown below

 Overall my plans for the next week is to get all my model ideas completed as well as my UVs. My textures is more or less secondary however I plan on including those by next Tuesday. Something else I need to figure out that is rather minimal is creating a render of the room inside the reversed mesh, also creating windows in my scene.

Week 4:

For my fourth week working on this assignment I had essentially solved the majority of my UVing. The issues I had with my cushions in the 3rd week were resolved after learning more about how to utilize the cut and unfold tool in the UV toolkit as shown below.

Apart from fixing the UV for my couch cushion I actually had to remove the backrest from the couch entirely and create a new one since the geometry was broken on it which made the UVs very troublesome. Besides all of this the only real issues I had with my UVing involved trying to figure out why I wasn't able to use the automatic option. After asking for help and thinking critically I had found out that the automatic UV placement would usually work after I had done three steps, center the pivot point, delete history then freeze transformations. Only then would it work the way I anticipated. Overall however the majority of the UVs in my scene were relatively easy to fix such as the fireplace and chimney column since I had altered their shapes before.

 Another UV map I was working on was the potato chip bag, which I had created using the soft select tool on the pillows from the couch and scaling them down.

My next and final step that I plan on working on for this living room scene is to finally add the walls, add the windows, and finally texture the entire scene before I have any final render to showcase it. 

Week 5 

I have completed every UV and have textured everything to my liking. However I had many issues with figuring out the lighting of the scene therefore I had to remove the roof in order to get a clear view of the scene since it was dark. I had textured the majority of my scene while leaving a few objects to the presets Maya provided such as the brushed metal texture, glass, and copper textures.

Some of the texture maps I had created as well are shown below

Overall the amount of time i had spent on my scene goes as follows: 

Planning- 3 hours 

Modeling- 6 hours

UVs- 6 to 8 hours

Texturing 20 hours

Lighting- 2 hours

GAME SCENE

In my Game scene the buildings that I chose for reference came from the game Bioshock: Infinite. We were to model these buildings as closely as possible given the knowledge that we have learned throughout the course up to this point. Shown under are the reference images that I used to model my specific building.

In my scene I plan on modelling the building to the far right of the images. The way I began doing this is by using simple shapes to get a rough perspective of the way it would be laid out. 

In my scene I am using a small variety of objects. Mainly just cubes and cylinders to be making the chimney pipes above the building. I had a few issues when trying to extrude a few of the windows because it would always add a new face which resulted in some clipping problems on the wall.

I had realized the reason for the clipping was because the multiple faces so I eventually deleted them. The last screenshot basically shows what it is that I was doing in terms of the objects used to create the shape of the building from a side view.

Week 2

In my 2nd week of progression I had solved the majority of the issues I had encountered in my first week starting with the face clipping issues. My solution to this was simply to create each segment of the building face separately in order to also create the windows in a symmetrical fashion.

The majority of this week I had mostly focused on still modeling my building and staying within the 5000 threshold for my poly count. Once I had completed my separate walls in order to create the windows and doors for my building I had decided to go within my building and delete the faces that the player wouldn't see in order to conserve my poly count. Once I had completed doing this I had made the last few objects for my building.

In this part of my progression I encountered the least amount of problems since all I was doing was essentially snapping edges to vertices. Aside from making all the window sills , I had planned on doing a bit more modeling for the smaller details in the coming week such as window blinds, doorknobs, window frame as well as some cleanup of all of unnecessary faces and vertices.

Week 3

In my third week of progression for my building I had decided to make a number of changes for my building model. First being the objects that made the overall look of the top of the building. Initially it was made of multiple cubes which were angled in a very specific way to give the appearance of being an individual object. I had realized this wasn't the best way to utilize my poly count so I had used the vertices and edges that were already in place to create a single roof piece by inserting edge loops and snapping edges to those vertices.

Another thing I had worked on in my third week is my last set of windows and the arches above the windows. Initially I didn't really know a good way to create the arches as accurately as I wanted. Then after doing a bit of my own problem solving and thinking I had created a few arches to place above my windows as shown below.

Lastly, by the end of my week 3 progress I had deleted all unnecessary and unseen faces of all objects in the scene, I had modeled everything I had planned on in the scene apart from the third story windows, and lastly I had began working on a part of my building's UVs.

Week 4

This week I have completed all modeling that I had planned for my building. Thankfully I had just under 5,000 for the maximum poly count. Taking a look at my building it's clear that I had added a few final touches compared to my last week.

For week 4 thankfully I didn't run into any issues that I couldn't solve myself, I did find a bit of trouble trying to use the deform -> bend tool; however after a bit of experimenting I had figured out how to create the bends for the arches above the windows. From there I had just to clean up my scene of any useless faces that would take up my poly count. That is when I had decided to remove a few objects from my scene.

When looking above at the chimney stacks you'll notice that I had removed the cylinders and replaced them with cubes mainly because of poly count. However also because the player will most likely not see any difference when looking at it from a distance as the building itself looks natural for the most part.

 My next step in the process is to begin the UVs for my scene and begin texturing soon after to have the final product ready for submission. Overall I believe this will be the most challenging part.