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Ben Everington

http://okadaxi-digitalmodelling.blogspot.com/

The whole 9 yards, Maya to Mudbox and back again.

I started by projecting my starting image on an image plain, this allowed me to build my model up in the different prospectives a lot quicker and had pretty accurate positioning from the get go.

The Next step was to start building my model up. The process was done by using cubes, my door is basically all square edges so this was easy to achieve with scaling and editing edges.

Next step was to make sure I had nicely spaced polys so when it came to texturing it would be smooth sailing, however I ran into a few problems when I noticed Ngons appearing in my mesh.

Using the select by constraints tool, I easily located them and reedited my edges and vertexes as to remove this problem. Noted that after I had got this far into my door I manage to keep all faces quads, except for 2 which I saw no other way but to make them tris, any other method made my arch look differently intended, so I decided to leave the tris in place. After I was happy with my model, I mirrored the geometry as the basic mesh was finished.

Now the so called dreaded UV process. Not! I found this terribly simple and wasn't anywhere near as daunting as Chris made it out to be. 

Before I UVed I checked each individual section of my model by applying a checkered texture. This made the UV process easier as I could easily see what areas needed sorting out on my UV map. Luckily, maybe due to simple design, none of my checkers were distorted and I cracked on with UV'ing.

The basic maps weren't bad, but to make sure I had an easy to navigate map I used Planar mapping. Projecting from the camera I individually mapped each needed face so I had a map suited to my needs which was efficient and easy to navigate.  After I was happy with the layout I deleted any UV's I didn't need and the end result ended up like this.

Now my model was ready for texturing, I built a quick handle for my door and UV mapped it on its own map, ready as a separate object I can add to my model after it is textured, ready for rendering.

I chose to texture my objects in mudbox because for me it is superior to photoshop when it comes to my own abilities where I have found out I work better in 3d since coming to uni. Using stock textures and my own photos I used the same process for texturing and coloring. I basically projected the needed textures on to the model. This was very quick and efficient in making my model textured in no time at all. Once I was happy with the basic texturing and coloring, I went back to both and added in free hand textures/colours where I thought I needed them till i was happy. After I added a custom light setting and made a short video of the finished door in mudbox.

The next step was to get my maps ready to apply in maya. In mudbox I extracted a normal map and an ambient occlusion map, using the build in extractor tools and set them up appropriately to my model, saving them in my maya work project as to easily locate. With the paint textures from mudbox, I extracted them to photoshop using the extract to PSD option.

From here I decided to add my ambient occlusion map in as well which perfectly complimented my normal map. I feel this makes models look nicer, even without a light source set in maya, to do this I simply added them as another layer over my diffuse map and set it to multiply setting, ending in something that looked like this.

As you can see from the image, it's picked out areas nicely (especially the door) and adds more depth into my finished model. I saved this in the correct formats, completing the texturing process.

Now with everything done and my maps ready to use, I first deleted any textures existing on my maya model just to be safe. First I used assignn a new material option to add in my details as a bump map. After applying the normal map my model ended up looking like this.

I next applied my diffuse map with the absent occlusion details I assigned earlier into the correct menus resulting in my near end model.

I was happy with my end product but it needed something else...

After playing around with my normal and diffuse map settings I was happy with the final colours and lighting. After adding in the doors handle using the same processes, all that was left to do was add in a suitable light source and render my turntable ready for hand in.

Here I added in an ambient affect and darkened the light for an afternoon effect, making it look slightly ominous, but still like it could be on a building in a nice rural area. Now with everything done I was ready for rendering....

And here is the finished project! I am extremely happy with my final design. This project has made me incredibly confident using both Maya/Mudbox, I even had a go on Zbrush (totally different to use but nicer than mudbox in my personal opinion). I can confidently say that 3d modelling is the way I want to take my art, and have even started multiple projects and after showing this work to a coder, gotten a small game design project with some coders from norwich who are working on a pc title.

Basic Maya ready projection.

Here is a simple block coloured initial concept for my door, which I will use to build on in maya. The reason for the colour selection is to easily build different areas of the door as I work. The Idea mainly exists around wood textures with peeling paint etc, I also plan on adding a door handle as a separate handle.

Note: Initial concept sketches were unfortunately lost due to my old PC dying.

Initial Influence

The task assigned was to design a door in maya, and have it textured and game ready by the end of the process. I set out thinking about a theme I would like to pursue for my final concept.

I have an eye for grunge textures and resident evil 5 came to mind as a good example.

I like the dark tones and old looking textures which to me create a realistic feel in games. I will pursue this effect when it come to texturing and designing my door. I will be on the look out for broken rock, old wood etc textures as well as other neutral textures that fit with this theme.