As stated in my R&D Proposal, the plan for this week was to have my idea fleshed out, my moodboards started, and my blockout done to a basic level in Maya.
I did this to the best of my ability. Due to stress of the module, and other life stressors I'd rather not talk about in an educational setting, I have had to spend a lot of time away from the computer and as such have had to ask for an extension to my deadline.
I did however complete my goals for this week, finishing my moodboards and even getting the blockout done and to scale.
The first thing I did was finalise my idea and make a rough 2D blockout for what sort of things I want to include, and what the main angle of my cinematics / renders will be. My idea is to create a scene inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2; a realistic Environmental Diorama of sorts in a small-scale area that gives the illusion of being much larger by padding it out with trees and other foliage.
So with that in mind, I decided to include the following:
- Scattered Trees and other Foliage
- A Log Cabin
- A Tree Stump with a Woodcutter's Axe
- Log Pile beside the Axe
I chose this theme because Red Dead Redemption (2010, Rockstar North) was one of the video games that solidified in my mind that I wanted to be in the games industry. Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018, Rockstar North) was released the year I started University, and I feel this is almost a sign of sorts (at least to me) that I'm on the right path. Rockstar is also known as a pioneer in Open World Gaming, with Grand Theft Auto 5 (2013) still being popular almost a decade later and being one of the most expansive open worlds to date.
Tuesday 18th October 2022
To start development, I first researched the average height of a man in 1908 -- as
this will play a huge part in how tall I make my cabin. I know the
Unreal Mannequin is 180cm (around 5 Feet 9 Inches) tall so I did some
reverse maths and found that the average man would have been around 2-3
inches shorter. As such this means my doorways need to be suitable for
someone 5 Feet 6 inches in height.
I then did further research, finding this website which goes into detail in a very simplified way, and found that the average log cabin in 1908 consisted of one room and had the following dimensions:
Height - 2.5m
Width - 3.1m
Depth - 5m
After that, I had to put together my blockout properly. It was relatively easy, as I wasn't focusing on secondary or tertiary details at this point -- merely on basic shapes and greyboxing. It is hwever important to be able to recognise the objects (something I learned through Journeyman in second year). Then, once I was certain of what I wanted my scene to look like, I moved onto making my moodboards, which you can find below.
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Blockout set up in Maya 2023
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Every tutorial or piece of literature I've seen starts with creating assets, so that's what I started with, too. This is to make the move from Maya as quick and easy as possible. I started with the Log cabin, building the core structure before adding in my other smaller details, while ensuring I kept to the dimensions stated above.
The windows were something I changed midway through modelling the cabin's walls -- originally intending to go for a more rounded style, but eventually settling on a wooden plank style, as you can see in the images below. I researched the average width of wooden planks (which turned out to be 5 inches) to achieve a realistic aesthetic, and then added divisions in yet again in order to get the desired look.
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| https://www.myfreetextures.com/two-images-window-old-rustic-log-cabin/ |
Once the core structure was done, I moved onto the roof. I plan on using a tiling texture that I will create in week 6 or 7 on the roof, so as such it will remain very basic for the time being.I also added in variation on the logs, adding divisions to them and moving them, scaling them etc to give them a more natural feel.
I also found this image (website linked), which I took inspiration from in order to model the roof and front porch area from there onwards. I liked how simplistic it was while retaining a 'homely' feel, which is exactly what I wanted from my project.
I continued in this way for a full day, creating mesh after mesh and eventually ending up with doors and shutters, too.
Then I took a step back and looked at the reference I'd put together, and decided to advance my skills further by adding a porch area to the cabin. This will be supported in Engine with a small amount of landscape tool usage and Landscape painting, both of which I will research further when the time comes.
I did also add in a chimney and some supporting stonework mesh beneath the foundations, but as you can see I didn't manage to get screenshots of these.
I then moved onto modelling the hero asset of the environment -- a Lumberjack axe that will sit beside a log pile and some chopped up wood. Thursday 20th October 2022
When I started thinking about what asset I wanted to make to be the centrepiece of my scene, I knew I didn't want anything too flashy, as I didn't want it to take over the scene or attract more attention than absolutely necessary. So as such I decided to create a simple axe that I would create in Maya, have it sticking out of a tree stump, and have it set beside the architectural piece in a soft light.
So I started researching axes (see moodboard above) and found one I liked, being a 'Northlander Forest Axe' from Northmen Guild (Available here). This axe has the following dimensions:
Overall length: 25 Inches / 63.5cm
Axe Head: 6.4 Inches / 16.3cm
Cutting Edge: 5 inches / 12.7cm
Overall Weight: 3.3lbs / 1.5kg
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| 'Northlander Forest Axe' / 'Stalwart' by Northmen Guild |
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As you can guess I was already slightly nervous about the curved shape of this object. Primitives in Maya are extremely good for hard surface, but for a curve such as this they are extremely tricky to work with, especially under time constraint. With this in mind I opted to learn to use NURBS Curves and convert to Polygons using Birail, Loft, Lattices, and other modelling tools I've never used before.
The first step was to load in my image (above) and trace all outlines using the CV Curve tool, snapping together the ends of each curve using [C] while clicking and dragging to the end points.
I added a connection point along the top to match with the two points along the bottom edge, separating the top curve to make the next step easier, using the following commands
Connector Point > Click + Drag along the top curve > Curves > Detach
I then used birail to connect the edges. I did this by going into the 'Birail 3+' tool as the left part of my model has three curves, bringing up the options menu, and then applying the following commands before editing the Tesselation under the 'Input' section of the Attribute Editor, upping the U and V numbers to better reflect a smooth, useable topology.
It's worth noting that my curves were not equal in terms of curve points, so as such I had to rebuild them. It's relatively easy to do this in Maya, and the quality of the turnout is worth the extra step to create good topology.I used the same technique on the handle using the following parameters, and the outcome is something I am more than happy with.
(Above left - before Curve Rebuild / Above right- after Curve Rebuild)
After creating the mesh for the handle I used the Slide Edge tool, which uses the existing geometry and allows me to create a non-destructive edit to the mesh's current silhouette / shape. This is definitely a tool I will be using more often in future, particularly for gun grips, smooth assets, and other semi-organic, curve-based structures.
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Slide Edge Tool use (circled)
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After this it was a matter of quadding everything that needed to be quadded, and then applying a lattice to deform the clean mesh I'd made before unwrapping and moving onto my high-poly.
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| Before Lattice |
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To get the high poly, I simply smoothed the mesh and added in holding edges, and then softened all of my edges afterwards. I applied a blinn to check that there was no pinching, before making sure the Low and High poly laid correctly over each other (no random protruding edges etc).
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Low Poly (Left) | High Poly (Middle) | Reference (Right)
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High and Low overlaid (Left) | High Poly with Blinn (Right)
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