Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 1
This course will look at the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. We'll look at what makes a good model in Maya and why objects are modeled in the way they are.
# 1 13-03-2014 , 09:27 AM
Acid44
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Anthropogenesis

So, this happens to a lot of people, especially in recent times, but I have an idea for a game, and I think I'm going to go ahead and try making it.

The idea I have is of a post apocalypse type game, minus the crap you'd usually get in an apocalypse shooter. No zombies, no monsters, no irradiated wasteland. Think more along the lines of an economic apocalypse, or just a city/state that used to thrive but has now gone to crap.

Pretty much posting this to help motivate me to do more. I'm tired so this is kind of placeholder at the moment, but I'll include the ideas I have below for crit for now, and show some of what's done when I wake up. Some of the ideas I have aren't listed yet, but I think the main stuff's all there.

Oh, there might be some NSFKids language, so beware. Also, it's a bit of a read and not very well organized at parts.

https://pastebin.com/eCjNBfvG

# 2 13-03-2014 , 03:36 PM
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Good luck with it Steve, I steer clear of anything game orientated these days


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 3 13-03-2014 , 04:21 PM
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Use Unity or UDK. There is far more documentation related to these engines. For less headaches and legacy issues I say use Unity.

# 4 13-03-2014 , 06:30 PM
Acid44
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Oh, I should've mentioned I'm using Unity. Mainly for the fact that it goes so well with Maya, but also because I'm finding it nice and easy to learn the scripting.

EDIT: Here are the pictures I was too lazy to get last night.

So far I have a generic house, a generic building (lobby and one floor which will be copied for the rest of the 15 floors after texturing) I had a terrain, but after a rethink I decided it wouldn't work, so I might work on that today if I can figure some stuff out. Oh and there's a gun that I deleted the scene for and Maya won't let me import, so I'll probably not bother with a picture of that. I haven't done any LOD models yet, I'll wait till I have all the buildings and houses done to do that, so I can just bash 'em out in a day or two.

Attached Thumbnails

Last edited by Acid44; 13-03-2014 at 07:11 PM.
# 5 13-03-2014 , 08:37 PM
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Hey hey! In defense of Zombies and irradiated wastelands, they are pretty freaking entertaining user added image. Good to see you started on this, looking forward to the progress.


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# 6 13-03-2014 , 09:53 PM
Acid44
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Zombies are great and all, but they're never done right and WAY overdone right now. Everything's a zombie shooter, it's just gotten really old to me.

And I started ages ago, I've just been through 5 hard drives and 3 windows installs this month (seriously, it's gotta be a world record), so I'm starting againagainagainagain :p

Also, any ideas on how to UV that building in a way that won't take a year? I'm really not looking forward to that

# 7 14-03-2014 , 12:12 AM
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Well zombies are pretty stupid...in fact for a creature that craves and eats brains they are downright dumb, so there are limits to what you can do with them in a story user added image Collin is the man for UV bro. Will keep an eye on this one

cheers bullet


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 8 14-03-2014 , 02:09 AM
Acid44
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Zombies would be ok if they weren't treated like humans. You'd have like 3 weeks after an outbreak before they just flat out fall apart, and if they tried to run or even walk much things would get messy fast. Also they would stink to all hell. If a game had a smell sensor that went off when zombies are within like 500 meters, that'd be a step in the right direction, lol

# 9 14-03-2014 , 03:10 AM
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a city/state that used to thrive but has now gone to crap.

Montreal! D:

# 10 14-03-2014 , 08:05 PM
Acid44
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I was seriously considering Toronto and surrounding area, since I've lived here all my life it'd be easy to get it done realistically, but my GOD it's hard to find good DEM data, let alone making it useful for Unity

# 11 14-03-2014 , 10:04 PM
EduSciVis-er
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Location: Toronto
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Is there any way to download google maps geometry? I wonder if there's a sketchup intermediate that could be used. Or is that too low res and large scale. You could use that as a basis for building placement and sub your own building layouts in.

# 12 15-03-2014 , 12:09 AM
Acid44
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Google maps stuff would probably be too messy/too low res. I have a couple ideas for my own terrain, just need to figure out the best way to do them. Heightmaps work great in unity, but I can't make them for crap, and I've never modeled terrain in Maya


Last edited by Acid44; 16-03-2014 at 09:34 PM.
# 13 15-03-2014 , 09:16 PM
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- Genny
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# 14 16-03-2014 , 09:43 PM
Acid44
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I'm gonna go the way of making my own terrain, just need to decide what to do. I have a couple ideas to work out before I can really do anything for terrain.

Something I'm considering though is breaking away from the usual island map of open world games. Islands are great and all, but it's a bit boring to always be near a beach, and it doesn't allow for much realistic terrain difference, like mountain to desert and such. The problem with that is that invisible walls suck, falling off the earth sucks, and it's REALLY annoying when games use random airstrikes to keep you in the play area. So I'll have to figure that out.

Actually thinking of it, I like the idea of something like ATV Offroad Fury 2. If you went too far off the map it would just slingshot you backward a few hundred meters. That system with a timer to warn the player, and no damage from the slingshotting would be cool.

Gotta stop thinking about things and start working on things, I'm getting too many ideas now :p

# 15 17-03-2014 , 08:19 AM
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Nearmaps had brilliant hi-res stuff but were bought out I think. I made terrain maps from google stuff but yes they were crap. The one Gen posted was ok but its all US stuff as far as I know. You could always google it mate? see if there are any more out there.


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
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