Games Art and Design NUA : BA5 Studio Project

Experimenting With What I Have Learnt Today :D

Today has been fantastic! I have learnt so much and feel much more confident with Maya. I spend hours today watching the videos I posted previously and I learnt so much from them. I felt confident enough to try and create my own little scene! I followed World of Level Designs tutorials for the chair, cough and using Maya’s pre-built models but I also improvised to create my own scene and build a basic coffee table with glass top.

Here are my results. A lot of it was just basic geometry but I feel really proud of what I have achieved. I feel that so long as I continue to research and watch tutorial videos I will keep making steady progress. As some of these models were similar/the same as basic modeling I have done before I’m not going to post up as step by step guide for every model. I have, however, screen captured the parts which I learnt today and want to document for future reference!

Apparently what I REALLY need to learn is how to print screen properly because, for some weird reason, half my print screens show an extra screen (most likely the screen I was editing them on) which alters the view a bit but I cba to go and print screen the whole lot again, sorry! xD

The Couch!

This is the same 3 seated sofa that the tutorial from World of Level Design’s showed.

Adding The Potted Plant!

The World of Level Designs tutorials also showed me how I could use Mayas “free to use” pre-build models to make my scene more believable. To td this I had to select WINDOW > GENERAL EDITORS > VISOR…

Selecting these brought up the VISOR screen where I could see a list of all the pre-built models Maya has to offer!

As I scrolled down the list I saw the “PLANTS MESH” tab which I opened to find the large potted plant World of Level Designs used within their environment.

I DOUBLE CLICKED the potted plant and MINIMISED the VISOR WINDOW. My cursor/mouse had turned into a SMALL PEN which I was able to click down to “spawn” the potted plant.

As this plant is technically a PAINT EFFECT I had to convert it into a polygon for my environment. I selected MODIFY > CONVERT > PAINT EFECTS TO POLYGONS.

Once the plant became a POLYGON I was able to COMBINE the MESH so that I could SCALE IT and make it large enough to fit realistically besides the couch.

Making The Glass Table!

This is another tutorial given in the videos by World of Level Design. They showed me how to create a table with a glass top and fancy legs; very modern! I started off with a CYLINDRICAL POLYGON and re-sized it so that it was table sized next to the couch. The video taught me how to use a BLINN SHADER (as opposed to a proper texture) to get the glass see through effect. To begin this process I selected WINDOW > RENDERING EDITORS > HYPERSHADE.

This opened up my HYPERHSADE SCREEN where I could assign textures and connect files to geometry. I had to locate BLINN from the drop down menu on the left. Once located, I clicked on it and it which opened it up in my ATTRIBUTE EDITOR. From there I could change the TRANSPARENCY AND COLOUR of the BLINN so that it would appear see through and glass like once applied to the model.

Once the BLINN ATTRIBUTES were correct I was able to MIDDLE MOUSE CLICK > DRAG the BLINN onto my TABLE TOP and it was applied instantly.

Then it was time to create the curved modernised legs for the glass table. To do this I had to use CV CURVES; something I have never used before but have found out is INCREDIBLY helpful! To use the CV CURVE TOOL I selected CREATE > CV CURVE TOOL.

Ensuring I was in the SIDE VIEW for ease, I began clicking my way to a successful curve shape. In order to create the curve you must CLICK EVERY TIME YOU WANT THE CURVE TO BEND. Once I had finished clicking I hit THE ENTER BUTTON to see my CURVE and ensure I was happy with it.

I wasn’t >:(

I had to RIGHT CLICK > SELECT CURVE VERTS in order to use the MOVE TOOL to drag them around and get the right curve. This took me a while…

Eventually I got a curve I was happy with. The next stage was to create a CUBE POLYGON > RESIZE IT > PLACE IT AT THE TOP OF THE CURVE > SELECT THE BOTTOM FACE > SELECT THE CURVE.

Once the CUBE and the CURVE were highlighted I selected EXTRUDE which brought the BOTTOM FACE of the POLYGON CUBE down to the TIP OF THE CURVE.

I then had to use the ATTRIBUTE EDITOR to INCREASE THE SUB DIVISIONS which meant that the POLYGON CUBE was able to correctly FOLLOW THE CURVE. I could also use the ATTRIBUTE EDITOR to add a TWIST.

Next job was to DUPLICATE AND ROTATE the legs so that the formed a modern set of legs for the table.

Once the legs were down I simply POSITIONED THEM UNDER THE GLASS TABLE > MESH > COMBINE SO THAT IT WAS ALL 1 TABLE > AND MOVED IT INTO THE ENVIRONMENT.

Creating The Tall Chair!

Next I moved onto modeling the TALL CHAIR World of Level Design showed me in the tutorial. I followed this fairly well but had a few hiccups along the way that I had to sort out like MIS-BEHAVING EDGES and VERT ERRORS but ultimately I am really happy with it. I DUPLICATED AND ROTATED them so they looked more organic in the scene and added a POLYGON PLANE underneath the environment to give it some grounding.

Creating My Own Coffee Table and Enhancing The Scene With What I Have Learnt!

Okay so to finish off I thought I would use what I had learnt to enhance my environment scene and also add extra work of my own to it.

I started by building a basic , LOW POLY glass coffee table which has a shelf compartment in the middle. I tried to keep it modern looking to keep with the modernised theme of the scene so I re used the TRANSPARENT BLINN SHADER on the top part to make it glass and see through to match the previous glass table.

I then went back into the VISOR screen to import more PRE-BUILT MAYA MODELS to enhance my scene and make it more organic. I used a small gold pot and a candle stick.

TO top it off I CREATED 2 MORE BLINN SHADERS, 1 which was DARKER and I applied that to the POLYGON PLANE FLOOR, the second was LIGHTER/BRIGHTER/WHITER which I applied to the FURNITURE to give it a contrast and set it apart from the 2 glass tables.