Month: May 2023

Look Dev Artist

Chair:

Using the same method I used and learned from how to make the couch I designed the chair. As first part it has the same pipe system going around the chair so it will hold up the chair. Then I started creating The body of the chair, for this I used the reference image I had for my couch and created the chesterfield like seating. As you see on the reference the chair is a bit higher and has smaller arm rests. So I tried to recreate this from the reference image.

Here are some zoomed in details regarding the chair. One of the more important traits for this chair is as I said the arm rest and the ear like back that is somewhat higher then the couch is. I used the method I learned from the tutorial video from the couch I created to make the little indents and outer bulbs of the armrest and the sides of the backrest.

As shown in the images below I re-used the grid side panels I also had in the couch and that is also used in the coffee table (made by eddy) and the radio (made by Nira). This is an element that comes back in multiple places in the scene. and on the right image below this text you can see the result of the chesterfield like steampunk chair I have created.

Over this term I have created 3 different models for our Group project regarding the theme steampunk. For this I was given the option to choose my assets and I choose to create a lamp, a chair and a couch. I have now completed the models that will be ready for the texturing. As seen below I have placed the elements I created together in a scene to show how it fits together in the scene.

Since most of the chair is used elements from the other assets I have made, for example the grid on the sides or the pipe systems that are both used in the lamp as in the couch. The UV’s where more easy to do since the main focus layed on the main body of the chair. (as shown below)

Lamp

For this week I also wanted to do the finishing product of the lamp. So I went into substance painting with the neatly UV’ed Lamp I had modeled and started working on the texturing. For the textures of the lamp, I needed to create a few different parts. So for the lamp, I went to substance painter and started making the dark rusty pipes system texture, the copper part of the Gas tank part, and the gas meter on the lamp as well. All the pipes have the same textures and the in-between parts have the same texture but are made lighter in base color so you can still see the difference between them. For the lamp caps, the thin metal once I gave a simpler metal texture but as for the main lamp cap I worked with the baking system and made it to were the brims you can see the underlaying metal layer and for the base lacquer which added a nice detail to the lamp.

After finishing the main base of the textures I realized that for the Gas meters, I would need a texture that would fit the meter. So I would have gas tank meter numbers going across the board so it will look like a real gas tank meter. I designed this in Photoshop and then made it as its stamp in Substance Painter. You can see the design of the meter in the image below and lastly, I will implement a video of a rotation of the lamp from when the textures were implemented into Maya.

CG Lead

This Week I did a few different things about Being a CG Lead. First of all, I looked at the Excel list (the weekly list to keep track of everything) and decided to add different parts to the list. I filled in for this week and already filled some parts in for the upcoming week to make sure we are on schedule. In the schedule I pointed out what the CG generalist, Look dev artist, and the Compositor had to do for this week and next week this is also so Gonzalo, Christos, and Dom can take a look at this list and kind of see what way we are heading and how far we are. Since we are nearing the end of the term we need to make sure all the assets work in the scene. So for the next week we need a finished asset of everybody so we can point out if anybody has issues with their assets.

Also of course every week (every day) I take a look at the padlet we created and make sure I am up to date on everybody’s work. For the Look Dev artists everything slowly starts to form into the item they are trying to create. Overlooking our pallet You can see that most of the people understand the color template and that all the items also fit in with each other in the scene.

After the last meeting, we also talked about who would do the outside area and that this would form to be a matte painting. Christos (Compositing lead) took it upon himself to create the outside area as well as that we discussed that at the end of the video, there will be a docking system where Nira’s spaceship would land, this will also be implemented through matte painting. In the messages on the padlet you can see that Christos made his first drafts of the matte painting and I responded on it noting that I would want to further discuss this in our next meeting. It had a good feeling as a first draft but ofcourse still needed some work.

The mood board I created last week that viewed our ideas of how the outside is supposed to look also got a reaction from Dom, saying particularly about the parts shown in the image. I took a picture of this message and made sure that Christos got the message since he was working on what should be outside.

Since everybody started working on their textures as well I also made sure that everybody was going for the same idea regarding their pipes. Since a lot of people started creating their assets with pipes I knew it would be a good idea to discuss this in the group. So I made a list of different pipes with different textures and showed it in our group chat to make sure everybody had the same idea. The pipes I sent all kind of had the same feeling to them together but most people voted for 1,7 and 8 as that being their favorites which all three had that dark copper idea to them.

Look Dev Artist

Lamp:

When looking at Ftrack I went to review of my lamp and saw that someone had given me a review on my lamp asset. The review said that my asset was good and it could go into the next phase. This phase is doing the UV’s and starting to texture the assets. So I went into my maya file and started doing the UV’s, this is a very tedious and long job selecting all the different components individually and doing their UV’s in the UV tab.

Here you can see a few of the components I have UV’ed from the lamp. Above this text you can see the objects and their unwrapped UV’s. You can also see the checkerboard below this text on some of these items.

After doing all the UV’s I took a screen shot to show the results of the UV maps I did. I had to take this screen shot from some what closer so the checkerboard would be visible. This image I have also re-uploaded on Ftrack for new feedback on the work I did. Now I have to look into the texturing part but I would have to look into that with my team since a lot of people have done pipe systems and we want to go for a general feel.

Couch:

Two weeks ago I sat down to work on a draft version of the couch that will be added to the scene. This draft version of course lacked on some details. This week I sat down again for the draft version and started to add some details to my design. For some parts I used what I had done on my draft version and for other parts I had to re make it. for the main body design of the couch I had followed a tutorial. (see below)

following the fast tutorial I made the details of the back of the couch. This was to create the idea of little indents and having this over the whole couch. and added to that where the extruded lines going from one indent to another. above this texts you can see a closed up detail for this process and below you see the whole thing together. the sides (armrests) where added by simply using 2 bends and bending the sides on a 90 degree angle.

Above this text you also see the cushion of the couch. I re-used the one I created in the draft version and added these little brim lines on top of the component, you can see these in the reference image above.

Then as shown in the tutorial I also added this part for below the cushions. this gives the couch some more depth to it otherwise the cushions would feel like they would fall through the couch, this was also done in my draft version with a simple cube.

Lastly I added the details to the to the pipes around the couch according to what changes where made to the body of the couch. In my first idea I wanted to add gears but in this version I decided that these would not fit to the couch I created and left these out. The raster shown on the left image was something I already added but I have played around with it in this version according to what would fit with the changes of the couch.

also the back corner of the couch had some changes since it now is more a soft corner. as shown in the image I have cut it to be 2 times a 45 degree angle instead of 1 time a 90. this takes up more of the empty space that was there befor.

In the end this is what the couch looks like, I have uploaded this on Ftrack again as a video that rotates around with the wire frame on it. My next step will be moving to fixing the UV’s and applying the texture to it.

CG Lead

For this week as a CG lead I tried to push people to uploading the first model they made as an Alembic type of file. This is so that the CG Generalist could start working on the scene and see if there is anything weird regarding the objects.

Other then that Martyna and I had a meeting with Dom to talk with him about the fact that now it goes full frames and that we wanted to figure out what was the best way to fill in that last few frames that now looked quite flat. During that meeting he pointed out about our story in the given scene, and he started by creating a storyboard as an example. Since we had not made a story board Martyna, Nira and I decided to sit down to create the story.

After we had a general idea for the story board I sat down and drew out all the details on top of the frames Martyna had given me as a reference. With the drawings I also implemented text and arrows to point out important parts.

Other then that I also made a moodboard for the outside area since we had not really pointed out on what was going to be outside. I also sat down with Christos to discuss this since he would be doing a matte painting of the outside space. An important element of the outside area is now that due to our story board we decided to add a docking system to the last few frames to really give it that depth.

Look Dev Artist

To ensure that Martyna is able to play around with the objects in the scene I have created a draft version of all of the assets I am suppose to make. After this draft version of the chair I will be working on the UV-map and texturing of the lamp (this will be a task for next week) and During the UV mapping I will try to finalize the chair and the couch so the week after I will be able to work on the UV-mapping and texturing as wel.

The chair is one of the assets I had a problem with figuring out how I wanted it to look. I started off with the reference you see above this image but realized soon enough that this chair was too much for our scene. Since there already were quite some elements to the scene I think this chair would stand out in a wrong way from the rest. I realized this when I started to model it. As you see in the modelling images I did not get far before realizing this error.

After a lot of thinking I came up with 2 different designes that I thought would match the couch as well a bit more. one would be where I take the couch and recreated a smaller version of this. The other one would look a bit more like a desk chair but also using the pipe system. I think it is a good idea to keep the pipe system going in the objects so these different parts match each other in the scene.

Starting off with chair idea 1:

I started off by taking my inspiration of the reference images above the little bar stools. They have this X themed pipe system to hold up the chair. As shown in the images above I have recreated this in my own way.

This design is with a rounded seat and back which gives it this really fancy look which contradicts the open pipes a bit. I had some difficulties figuring out how the arm rest were suppose to be placed but ended up doing it from the backside of the chair. When looking at the left image I realized the pipes where too small in comparison to the seat so I had to change this, This size is also more accurate to the couch pipes.

Chair idea 2:

This is the chair idea 2, This one is the one that looks very similar to the couch as I have used parts that were also included in the couch. For the idea I think this will work a bit better then the round one since it will be more matching. I do plan on replacing the armrest of this one and give it more the armrest look of the rounded chair. other then that when I will add more details I am thinking of pulling up the back support so the 2 objects (couch and chair) have a little bit more of their own values. (example reference below)

CG Lead

For this week we had a presentation during Gonzalos class, For this class I created a presentation regarding the process of our team. Christos had send us a list of different things that needed to be added for the presentation. It needed to be a short presentation only pointing out some key points (see the image below).

Looking at this I started creating the presentation for Gonzalos class, Due to the padlet asset list I already had a lot of information I could add regarding my team mates. Some people I had to text individually for their work but I almost had it all. Other then that there is also a point where it says to add a few lines on why they chose that piece. I sent an update on this in our group chat regarding this presentation and that I needed them to write something about their work. I have asked them to upload this to the padlet list under their asset.

The presentation I created:

An opening page to welcome the people listening to our presentation regarding our steampunk project.

A page with the members of our team (this page is outdated since the changes, CG Lead: Martyna/Roos and Look Dev Artist: Shiqi Ma).

First page filled with different assets from our look dev artist and a small explanation with it.

Second page filled with assets from look dev artist and process of our CG generalist, Compositor and compositor lead.

Last page of a list of reference items that still have to be modeled for our group project.

Martyna and I used this presentation during Gonzalos class giving a small insight of where we are at as a group. We talked about the different assets created and how we are looking at different parts. Also mainly pointing out as well that we are looking at a specific color scheme that will bring everything together and where we are headed to.

An important thing we also discussed to our team are 2 points: 1 is the naming convention and the 2nd thing is the element folder:

Our first column in our asset list is called: IMPORTANT, This is a list consisting of details that everybody needs to remember when working in this project. The first one, naming convention, speaks for itself. Everybody need to specifically name their model in the right way. when working on the scene the scene has to be saved as the naming convention and when caching this should also be the case.

The other thing is to gather the un-textured versions of the models so that Martyna can start playing around with where to place the different objects in the scene and so we can have a look at everything together and see if something will look off in the scene. I created a folder in elements called STEAMPUNK where everybody can upload their model as an alembic, ABC