UNIT 4 NEWYORK CITY ROOF
Making a house in Maya
WEEK 1 28 September
Today we had been introduced to MAYA a very complex software use for modelling. Maya is used in mostly used in the gaming industry, used in movies for visual effects and used in 3D animation. Maya can also used for modelling buildings to cars and more. But today I had to design a house and see how we could make it using the basic shapes and using (ctrl + E) to extrude a polygon out or in. A polygon can either be a square or a triangle. In most game industries will use the triangle polygon. The house I had made was not to complicated but simple.
Here I tried to use basic shapes like cubes and subdivided the cube into more polygons to add detail to the cube and add windows. I was trying to find my way around the Maya and the modelling option in Maya.
I made a cylinder and then flatten out it and made it the support of the roof to give it more stylish.
The main body of the house would show the inside of the polygon whic i had modeled the house wrong and then removed the main house and added a new main cube.
here i created a new polygon cube and subdivided
I played around in maya still quiet not understanding how the extrude and how math is involved with using Maya and is fairly simple to make the models but only if you know what you want. this is where it seemed really hard to using maya not kwon what I had wanted, but this was for the time being and will learn more in depth using Maya.
Making a Spaceship in MAYA
WEEK 2
ON the second day of using Maya in seemed to do much better at using the tools, mostly using extrude and moving edges, face and vertices to create a spaceship. I was trying to get the overall shape and then smoothen it out and make it look more aerodynamic as a spaceship will be.
What i liked about it was that it reminded me of a game i played called Kingdom Hearts. In the game you have to build a spaceship called the gummi ship. you fly to different worlds of the Disney universe.
References
The images I chose as references I rather used as a bases on what my final idea would be. In the first three images are rather old but very useful as it shows the a construction site and how the girders are open rather than safely covered with tarp for unwanted accidents. Second images from the games Mirrors Edge . Mirrors Edge is rather clean environment and have a glass like feel to the game. The second game is spider-man rather useful because the game is based in New York and so is Grand Theft Auto 4. What I like about the pictures is that it's just enough for a few ideas already and more.
REASERCH
Difference between Polygonal modelling and NURBS
Polygons
A polygon is an n-sided shape defined by a group of ordered vertices and the edges that are defined by pairs of those vertices. A polygonal object is a collection of polygons (called polygonal faces).
Polygonal objects can be either simple shapes such as spares and triangles. A polygonal object can be closed, open, and can consist of shells
Polygons are made up of several components: vertices, edges and faces. A face is defined as the region bound by joined edges. A polygonal object is a set of faces.
When closed, it forms a solid. This gives you the flexibility to edit and texture a model on a per-face basis. A face is graphically represented as a solid unit with a dot in the centre by default.
You can also assign textures to polygonal objects on a face-by-face basis.
An edge is a side of a polygonal face defined by two ordered vertices. An edge is represented by a straight line between the two vertices that define it.
Polygonal UVs are points on a polygon that are used by Maya to map a texture onto the polygon. By arranging the UVs, you can position the texture on the polygon.
NURBS
Proponents of NURBS modelling appreciate its capability for creating: organic, flowing surfaces such as animals, human bodies, and fruit industrial surfaces such as automobiles, clocks, and toasters smooth surfaces adjustable over broad areas with few control points
The foundation of a NURBS surface is a curve. Surfaces are webs of interconnected curves. The curves help you create and modify surfaces. Proficiency at drawing and editing curves is an important part of NURBS modelling. You cannot render curves, so your work with them is always an adjunct to creating and editing surfaces.
Manufacturers of graphics software have various modelling methods based on different types of curves.
NURBS curves offer the best of a number of curve types. With NURBS curves, you can position points on a curve or surface exactly where you want them and reshape the curve or surface by moving just a few control points that lie on or near the curve
The Third & the Seventh
Alex roman the creator and director of The Thirds and the Seventh is impressive. he had made a entire CGI video of architectural structures and making look so realistic and playing with the depth of feel. at first I thought it was real after further viewing I then noticed it was CGI. The whole entire video is amazing at a artist point of view I will tend to use it as an inspiration for my work in MAYA.
Architectural Visualisation
Architectural Visualisation is an umbrella term describing the process by which architectural and engineering 2D drawings are converted into digital 3D models and visualised into photorealistic 3D imagines and animations.
I often used architectural visualisation trying to thing of unique angles to display the structures I have constructed in maya and give a more profession look and making it interesting.
The Utah Teapot
The Utah teapot is a 3D computer model that has become a standard reference object and something of an in-joke in the graphics community. The teapot model was created in 1975 by early computer graphics researcher Martin Newell. It is a mathematical model of an ordinary teapot of fairly simple shape that appears solid. Many programming libraries even have functions dedicated to drawing teapots.
Bump mapping
Bump mapping is a technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. The result is an apparently bumpy surface rather than a smooth surface although the surface of the underlying object is not actually changed. Bump mapping was introduced by James Blinn in 1978.
In my experiments I would use bump mapping in Maya but first I would assign a new material. Then choosing blinn and it could work with other colours. Clicking on the checkered box under the option bump mapping and u could choose different styles such as sea/ocean, noise and a few others. I mostly used noise for the objects.
My Experiments
Rooftop Chase Scene
I found this clip of YouTube of the Matrix the movie were one the main characters are being chased by agents on the rooftop in New York and it's just the kind of structure of a gritty and broken down rooftop. using this video can be used as reference of scale the building and just to generalized the actual size of the objects on the rooftop. I do this video is very good references for that.
MY FINAL ROOF TOP CONSRUCTION
I my final construction we have to model something similar that of New York roof top. My idea was seems to be ambitious and my overall modeling was fairly good amount of buildings with a construction site and even a crane. The roof top level I planed it out to be more of a puzzle to find your way to the end of the level. So far in my modeling I just modeled everything then I would go on to the texturing. Getting the right proportions in crucial and would make it to real world. I have tried to get the proportion as possible. I used mental ray plug-in to render in Maya to add a sky and light to the environment showing shadows and different dynamic effect.
I enjoy using architect visualization to show interesting angles to the composition making the whole level to seem catching to the eye making you want to see more. As I rendered out the buildings seem like a mirror`s Edge games being clean and giving it more similarities to toy like environment.
PROGRESS
TEXTURE
There are different type texturing but the most easier one I have learned was projection mapping. texturing in Maya was really hard at first and a challenge to understand using the planer and UV mapping and assigning new materials all the time becomes very much tedious but eventually began to understand was easier. Projection mapping was the first that I have learned where I would use a image of some sort texture like bricks, concrete, wire fence and rust, before any texture was applied I would get textures either download or take pictures but texture should be flat as possible. This would make it more realistic, A grate website is CGtextures with plenty textures.
To apply textures you would first need to move all your textures to sourceimages in your Maya project folder and then assign new material as lambert and then name the texture so it wouldn't cause any confusion. Then using the UV planer to adjust the texture making it small, big or repeated and tried to scale it to the correct proportions.
RENDER WITH TEXTURES
Using architect visualization I was able to render out a image in a way to look visual interesting and the texture mapping is giving the illusion of very detailed texture and realism. Textures is a very complicated process using UV mapping and planer to adjust the image used for the textures. I do quite enjoy textures being that it is very time consuming.
PLAYING WITH LIGHT
Playing with light was the interesting part to see weather shadows were casted giving a different contrast to the open environment of my entire construction. The way light would reflect off the walls could perhaps give a different tone to the textures either lighting up or darken? Textures can impact how light will bounce off. The brighter and object the more it will reflect off and the darker the less. This give a fair amount of different options how I would use light. In MAYA you have to create a point light move that where you would need light and make the light intense or the complete opposite.
VIDEO MONTAGE
The video montage I created was rather enjoyable to make. I took rendered images of my rooftop and make them into a short clip showing the different angels and panning through the images like architect visualization animation.
As the video progressively plays through, it goes from light to a dark as night.. I tried adding depth of feel to some of my images to give the feel of realism. In Sony Vegas I crop pan the images to give movie like impression.