Maya 2020 fundamentals - modelling the real world
Get halfway through a model and find it's an unworkable mess? Can't add edge loops where you need them? Can't subdivide a mesh properly? If any of this sounds familiar check this course out.
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16
03-10-2004
, 07:18 AM
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Front Gate
1) If the best approach would be to use a texture with alpha mask rather than modelling it.
2) If I model the gate would it look better and reflect light better?
It took long enough to paint out and modelling it is probably nightmarish alone. So, at this point the front gate is just a planar polygon with a frontgate texture on it ie question 1).
If I have time I will investigate question 2) further hehe.
Detail:
Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 03-10-2004 at 07:24 AM.
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17
03-10-2004
, 07:19 AM
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Quick scene test
Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 03-10-2004 at 07:23 AM.
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18
03-10-2004
, 11:48 AM
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Gatelight thesis
It seems to me that the polygon plane with the alpha masked frontgate texture recieves as much light as the fence left and right of the gate which are geometry with mass.
Didn't know this and I'm well pleased to not having to model the gate hehe.
Detail:
(Sorry for high quality jpg, but I want to show the light as well as possible.)
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19
03-10-2004
, 12:36 PM
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04-10-2004
, 07:28 AM
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The fence around the porch consists of 32 boards. Perfect task for some automated stuff or some intelligent duplicate with transform. I realized I could look into this, but chose not too. Maybe I was scared (+dumb), but I also wanted it to look more homebuilt. Automated tasks in all honour, but irregularity is important too. Especially in 3D I think where it often becomes too clean, too perfect. Now what a waste of time for so much detail on something that's barely visible in the scene. Well, I've got a front porch now hehe. Hopefully it's reuseable.
I discovered the wedge tool that made the foundation, of what will become a balcony, with a couple of mouse clicks. Will play around with Wedge lots more on this project as I think it might be nice for arching windows and little detail like that. I encourage you too look up Wedge Faces in the manual. What I found wasn't very clear, but soon enough fell into place, was that you need to mark the faces you want to wedge, and select by edge and mark the edge. Two selection methods, adding to the selection holding down shift.
Another constant time-eater is struggling with proportions, heights, widths, relations, distances. It's not an easy task, but I guess we all improve ourselves each passing day.
Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the result. It's got this cool Psycho-esque look and will make more sense when the balcony and half octagon behind it all is in place. Best of all I had tons of fun making it.
Detail:
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21
04-10-2004
, 07:36 AM
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As you can see the porch "disappears" almost completely, but now I can do close-ups and it does add to the picture. It will also be easier to see what is what once some proper shaders/textures are in place.
One problem that becomes obvious is that too much is going on in the middle. Bad for the focal point. The lantern placeholders, the front gate, the porch, and the bay with the highest tower. Hmmm. Gonna play around with widths of gate and porch. Needs some thought this...
Sorry it's so dark.
Last edited by AlphaFlyte; 04-10-2004 at 07:52 AM.
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22
07-10-2004
, 02:04 AM
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07-10-2004
, 11:54 AM
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Darkness Falls... From Where???
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07-10-2004
, 04:42 PM
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Experimenting with a red sky to give it a more evil look. Come all the nice, warm and welcoming light at the front door and ruin it all hehe. Next on the agenda is to redo light and fog, and I'll fix the proportions and positioning of the ingredients I hope.
The lightning bolt is added in post just for fun.
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25
07-10-2004
, 07:06 PM
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Darkness Falls... From Where???
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26
07-10-2004
, 07:32 PM
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thats a good example of lighting.. what style of scene are you going for though ? add mapping to different channels
FX supervisor - double negative
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27
08-10-2004
, 11:28 AM
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That's good lighting indeed, and quite close to what I want to achieve on the frontgate posts. Perhaps a little less vivid. There are just lantern placeholders there now.
Add mapping to different channels? What is that, how and what do I look up to read more about it?
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28
08-10-2004
, 12:21 PM
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looks cool, gate really stands out
maybe you could do something with the moon to give it more realism
keep it up
best of luck
Thanks for wasting your time reading this line.
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29
10-10-2004
, 04:11 AM
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I spent extra time on trying to grasp the basics of the Hollywood way of doing lighting. The three-point lights (Key, front and backlight). It's a great concept if you want to look into this further. Well worth reading up on.
To make a short story long: I've been struggling with the fog and how to light it. So far everything has looked like there's a big police helicopter in the air chasing zombies on the ground with their search spotlight. Terrible.
Anyways, I closed Maya feeling very discouraged and intimidated by light, and it felt like the score between Matt vs Lighting: 1 - 10.
Went to play some Quake 3 to let off some 'steam' and booom: This idea came to me. What if I connect a 3D cloud texture to the color input of the volume shader. Woaaah instant mass and volume, and I can control the contrast and transparency with the 3D cloud. Here's the result:
Next on the todo list is look into render layers and passes, so I can tweak the fog without having to wait 5-7 minutes for my slow comp to re-render it all. 37 degrees celsius in the morning, had a good day
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30
10-10-2004
, 12:25 PM
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really good work. happy to see you have more reson's to feel you come out more ahead.
Last edited by Pony; 10-10-2004 at 12:27 PM.
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