Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part IV)

Another week has come and gone and here I am showing what I have done during the week.  I finished the main window, meaning the only objects still needing to be modeled in the spires or the top portion of the main building are detail pieces.  The door has been coming along nicely.For the frame itself, I am only missing a handful of detail items.  Once these items are finished, I can quickly model the door which just looks like an iron gate.  With the door blocked in and nearing completion, at least to an equal point to the spires or windows, the only major piece to add is the central spire.  I am hoping the central spire goes together quickly, so by next weekend I have a fully modeled cathedral.  Once I am done modeling, I am thinking of posting the finished image of the gray model on a few sites to get some feedback.  From the people I have shown in person, they have all been very impressed, so I am hoping to get something a little more constructive out of the internet.  While waiting for replies, I will try to get the building UV unwrapped.  After unwrapping all that will be left will be to texture, make a final render and a bit of post production work.  If I continue to work like I have been and nothing comes up in the foreseeable future, I would expect this to take until mid December.

Besides the cathedral, I have been working on one other piece.  It is nowhere near complete enough to show off, however, I am hoping to eventually offer the 3D model for sale.  I have thought about trying to work the cathedral into a 3D print, but it would be on a very small scale since the model is over one hundred meters tall.Hopefully when this project has a slow point for visible progress, my other project will be in a decent enough completion that I can show it off.  I have also been considering going back to a project which I nearly finished and see if I cannot just add the final details and get several pieces done at once.  With any luck, I would like to have those two projects finished by the end of the year to at least have something to show off for a year's worth of effort.

Well, I think I dreamt enough for this post.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part III)

So I got a bit more done on the cathedral over the last week.  Not quite what I had been hoping to get done, but I do feel I made decent progress.  The most obvious change is probably the sky I added.  I had been hoping to put it off adding it for a little while longer, but there is not much point to doing so much modeling and not seeing it in the best light.  The spires are almost done, I just have some decorative elements to add which do not add a whole lot to the structure as a while, but I feel would be noticed if missing.  I also began adding the main building.  The top bit is finished, except for perhaps a decorative element or two.  The main window has been blocked out and I just started adding the window framework.  This should be finished easily this week.  Once the main window is done, I will move on to the front door.  This is one of the more ornate pieces and may take some time to get everything modeled.  The last piece of the building after that will be the main spire rising from the center.  Once all of that is finished, I will add a few decorative elements to really sell the piece along with the steps and fence in front of the cathedral.  This is probably a few weeks away and I will not go into more detail on what follows because that is even further away.

Hopefully, everyone is liking how this is shaping up and that it will look even more complete next week.  Until next time,
~gunnah.

Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part II)

So last post I had been fairly brief about this new project and why I had moved away from the original Gothic cathedral.  Probably the biggest motivation to change was because my computer died and I had been unsure of when I would be able to re-access my old files again.  The good news is that this time around, I did not loose them, so I am not starting over from square one like the last few times my computer died.  But now onto what separates Gothic Revival from Gothic architecture.  The spires to the left are nearly done, I will briefly mention what is missing, but for the most part they are complete.  The obvious difference, much less ornate.  In my original Gothic cathedral buttress, nothing was bare.  In very few spots were there straight, flat, vertical walls.  If it were not an arch it were a pillar filling up the space.  These spires are quite different.  Outside a few windows, it is not until above the buttress that there is any sort of complexity.  Almost two-thirds of the height is taken up by an uninterrupted sheer face.  However, this simplicity makes the parts which are ornate stand out that much more.  Many of the stylings are quite similar between the two projects, especially the detail in the vaulted windows.  Hopefully, I will have the spires completely modeled for the next post just to show the difference between the two designs.

Now to quickly go over what is wrong or missing.  The windows near the top of the buttress need some work after looking at the image again.They just do not seem vaulted enough.  Also, the are suppose to sit flush against the wall, though I think this, if textured well enough, could make the model look better than the reference.  Next, the small corner spires are missing the cross on top.  Also missing the cross are the small little projections from the corner spires.  The central spires are missing a projection window about two-thirds the way up and a cross on top.  The brace going between the spires has a cut out in the reference, but I am unsure if it would even be noticeable in this image.

Once the spires are done, I can move to the main door and start filling in the gap between the spires.  After that piece is complete, the only piece left of this project will the the main spire, but that is likely a decent way away.  My goal is to get the building modeled and then texture, trying to keep focused on one task at a time.  Until next time
~gunnah

Long Story, Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part I)

I will talk more about the new cathedral I am doing next week, I am just going to leave it at the fact I went from a true Gothic to a Gothic revival cathedral.  So far I have the lower two/thirds done of the front towers.  Now for why I have been silent all October.  Shortly after my last post, during that first week in October, my parents got me a new graphics card.  It is a real nice one with twice the memory of the previous and all kinds of other really nice bonuses.  However, when I went to install it, my computer started giving me problems.  I only got it to turn on twice before I could not even get to the BIOS.  It took me a little over two weeks to get the parts to repair my computer.  I still do not have everything the way I had it, but it is slowly getting back to normal.  So far the computer has been running for about two weeks and I have not had any problems.  While I know it is unlikely in the next two months, I would like to eventually return to the two posts per week style had had going so long ago.  I really feel that forced me to produce more.  Plus if I missed a few in a row it would not be a month between posts.  Well, I think I am done venting, until next time,
~gunnah

Work-in-Progress: Cathedral (Flying Buttress Part II)

So, I did not get much more of the modeling end done this time around.  I had really been hoping to be further along with that aspect of the project, however, I did make progress.  Left is the textured model of the Flying Buttress.  Obvious changes including fixing the lighting and adding a ground plane.  Also, I changed the angle from which the render was taken.  I like this angle since it gives a sense of how truly massive this spire is suppose to be (the camera is now at the approximate height of an average human head).  I started beveling some of the spire, but I cannot see it enough to justify the increase in polygon count.  Finally, for the materials, I am happy with most.  There are a few spots with the one material which look overblown and I am going to need to find some way to fix those spots, but overall I think it came out decent.  I am unlikely to post another picture of the buttress since any further changes are going to be very minor.  Hopefully next time I post a buttress it will be in a full cathedral render.  Next up, the front doors of the building leading into the front two spires.  This building has three spires, two in the front and one where the side wings and main hall meet.  I do not know if I will get to that spire which is significantly smaller and from this angle it may not even be visible..  Until next time,
~gunnah

Work-in-Progress: Cathedral (Flying Buttress Part I)

To challenge myself to bring my modeling to a new level, I have picked to model something that is probably at the limit of my modeling skills: the Gothic Cathedral.  I have always found these structures to be very impressive, but what I feel is unique is the high level of detail on the exterior of the building worked into the stone.  So far I have made the most repeated unit of the cathedral, the flying buttress.  The model, not textured, is to the right, though the image is slightly warped just from the scale of the model.  I am making the model in real units and the top of the highest cross on the buttress is just over seventy meters tall.  I feel fairly pleased with how the model came out, though I want to texture it before I put it on a forum or two for critiques.  Hopefully, I can get the textures done fairly quickly, though there are quite a few pieces to this model and that is likely to slow down the overall speed.  My only concern is the amount of memory it is going to take to render the overall scene.  This model alone has about 125,000 polygons and is going to be repeated quite a few times around the finished model.  Of course I am going to try every possible way to cut back, especially when putting together the final model, but for the level of detail in this style of building, I needed that many polygons.  There are section I would have used more, but I had to cut back, trying to remember objects a few centimeters in size are unlikely to even be noticeable in the final render.

Once this section is done, I have broken down the rest of the building.  The doors will be next and while not especially difficult, they do have sculptures all around which means a high polygon count for them also.  Then comes the spires, one of the defining aspects of this kind of building.  While the doors will likely have a higher polygon count, I know I will need to devout a sizable number to get the overall shape, even if I am not going for an excessively high level of detail.  The spires also have several sculptures, most notably the gargoyles which stand sentinel over the building.  Finally comes the building of the cathedral itself.  This will be of moderate polygon count since most of the detail is handled in one of the other pieces, but the large amount of stained glass will eat up polygons.  While probably not realistic, I am hoping the final model will be about three million polygons.  I am not completely sure if my computer can handle this, but I know if it gets much higher the chances will go down drastically.

Finally the schedule.  I am trying to do this for a contest, though I do not want to sacrifice the render for finishing on time.  With that in mind, I am hoping to finish one section of the building each week, which means I am already behind.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Roman Villa

Left is an image I was making for a competition that had so many problems I missed entering.  My problem was I found this scene almost impossible to render, requiring more memory than my graphics card had and overheating my processors.  The only major things stopping me from calling this completely finished are the fireflies in the courtyard, especially noticeable when zooming in.  In terms of modeling, the only things I wanted to add before the contest limits hit were a shield on the dirt foreground and a few rows of grapes in the background.  If I get around to upgrading my graphics card in the near future, I may look to revisit this image.  Besides that, I am fairly pleased with the overall look of the image.

In other news, I had registered for a course on modeling and that is now over, so I should be posing more since I will be watching fewer tutorials in the coming weeks.  Though there are two contests currently going which I have hopes of entering.  This means very little progress for the game until probably late October, but I have been thinking about it more of late.  Finally, I have been trying to regain access o my website, which I am looking to overhaul and use it to display some of my finished works.

Until next time,
~gunnah

Work-in-Progress: Pipe Set (Part I)

While fooling around with an idea for a scene, I started making a bunch of pipes.  At first it was just to fill up space on an empty wall, but soon I found a need to add more and more detail to these pipes.  After fooling with that for a while, I soon decided that it would be interesting to get actual measurements for the pipes, adding a bit more realism to the scene.  In the course of my journey looking for various pipe radii, I happened upon set of pipe models for sale.  While they did not interest me, I got to thinking that a reusable set of pipes could be very handy.  Once created the set could have several different skins making them useful for a variety of tasks.  A super clean set could be used in the cargo hold level, a slightly worn set could be used in the suburbia level, a rusty set for more of an abandoned industrial or military complex level.

So what is needed to make a pipe set?  I am starting with several straight pieces, an elbow, a t-intersection, a pipe cap, a few varieties of valves, a few varieties of meters, as well as some level specific large sized models like pumps, generators, fuel containers and the like.  Left is the set I have currently finished - a straight 10 and 20 cm and a 5 cm elbow - and an asphalt material on which I am working.  These are my high polygon models, not textured.  These have a 5 cm outer radius (just under 2 inches for those unfamiliar with metric) and are in metric because of the ease of scaling up and down.

These three cylinders obviously did not take a month to do.  In my silence I have been learning thing like architectural visualization and concept art creation methods.  I do not have much to show for these topics, but I will hopefully have a few images by year end.  If I could get some money, I have been looking at hardware and software I would like to get.  Most of that, at least for the time being, is a pipe dream, but it gives me something to eventually shoot for.  And finally, I got around to looking at Art School.  I only looked at one, and it is unlikely I could afford it any time soon, plus as of the moment I do not have a portfolio, but I do think it would be fun.  Not that I am sure it is necessary or the one I looked at is where I would go, but I did get an idea of pricing and entrance requirements.

Hopefully it does not take me as long to get back here for my next post and I have something even better to show off.  Until then,
~gunnah

Work-in-Progress: HRT (Part I)

I had been work on my wyvern, but I ran into a bit of a snag.  I decided to play around trying to just sculpt the face a bit to get more accustomed with the sculpting tools and left the detail on a bit too fine.  Fourteen million polygons later and my computer was trying to kill itself.  I know there are ways around displaying that many polygons, but to do the whole body would probably be on a similar order of polygons.  I will continue to make a decent starting base mesh for the sculpt, but there is no rush if I need to replace my computer, which I do not have the money to do, just to make the sculpt possible.  I can say I learned a bit, probably most important was I need a lot more work with the sculpting tool set.  Also, I know the base mesh will be extremely detailed, but for the larger detail elements, I wanted the polygons to the same size or a set amount different which I did not feel I could do through sculpting yet.

I know I berated Unity in a post about a year ago, and at the time, from first hand observation, I stand by my observations.  However, it seems that Unity has overhauled their system at least once since then.  While I still like Torque, I would feel remiss if I did not at least attempt to use the remodeled Unity engine.  While both have their catches, I still feel I like Torque's layout better.  But this is a discussion for a later time.

Now on to the post's title: the HRT.  Left is the blocking out, lacking a few details I want to add but overall fairly decent.  The model, just like it is, is closing in on three thousand faces.  I could probably drop it to closer to 2,000 without a lot of difficulty (circular objects are the bane of low poly modeling) but I wanted to have a high enough level of polygons in the mesh t make a detailing pass easier.  It is much easier to have the circles have more edges then try to add more edges at a later time.While I do not mind the main canon's shape, the side guns I feel need a bit of work yet.  The other major remodel will probably be the front end engine area where I would like a lot more detail.  Areas not visible but lacking at this juncture include the undercarriage (something hooking the wheels to the frame), an exhaust ( I would like pipes coming from the engine, I think it would be an interesting touch) and a rear bumper (but probably lacking in spikes).

I am not going to make any predictions since they never seem to work out.  So, until next time,
~gunnah

Work-in-Progress: Swamp Monster (Part II)

Not much done this week.  I am almost done with retopolizing the feet, as seen left.  I am not completely happy with the volume, but I will fix that with one of the later sculpting passes.  Hopefully this retopologizing and adding detail picks up this week since work is changing shifts and I should be able to allot a little more time during the week.  With any luck I will finish the legs and move on to other sections, hopefully adding a little more detail, making it easier to connect the dots instead of just remaking the base mesh with a much higher polygon count.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Oops, missed a little while; Work-in-Progress: Swamp Monster (Part I)

I guess I should start off with I am not dead, just got a little busy over the last few weekends.  I accomplished only a few things on existing projects, so I am not going to mention them.  However, I have been keeping up with tutorials and posts about my particular modeling software and I have a few new outlooks.  The first is that I want to try a sculpting project.  While sculpting has very little benefit for my game itself, outside any statue models perhaps; I am hoping learning sculpting produces an interesting organic model for my portfolio.  Despite the interest in trying sculpting, my impulse alone would not have driven me to start yet another project.  But a few choice words in a modeling article would, and that is exactly what I found.  The modeling software I use is free and attracts many people trying to learn 3D modeling.  Since people with a formal education in a related field usually have access to expensive software, not mentioning companies who hire those artists, very few tend to migrate to the free program.  This has resulted in a general gap between the general body of work made in the expensive programs and those made in the free programs.  With the build-up out of the way, I can get to the pearl of wisdom: Separate from the crowd.  Sounds simple enough, but quite a few people look only to other users of their software, ignoring the more general and higher quality 3D scene at large.  This is what drove me to starting this new project.  Plus the fact there is a contest for it.  (I know I have a poor track record with contests, but with the length of this one, I am hoping for a little better showing.)

The contest is to make a swamp creature that would scare you to death.  The contest is very open, it just has to be a creature that looks like it would hunt in a swamp and be able to hunt human hunters.  I bean by thinking of ideas for what kinds of creatures live in a swamp and outside the crocodile could not come up with any very large creatures - most others were just vicious little ones.  Then came the tough question, how to improve on a beast that pre-dates the dinosaurs?  My answer: give it wings and longer legs.  The legs are a by-product of needing something to manipulate a catch.  Left is the very early base mesh I am using to block in my ideas.  My key aspects are a crocodile-like head, bat-like wings and raptor-like claws (raptor referring to the group of birds not the dinosaur) .

With the silhouette to my liking and all the main aspects in, I decided to retopologize the mesh adding in what I am calling the mid-level details.  Left is how far I have come, obviously needing quite a bit of work still with this step.  My goal is to add all the teeth, spines, eyes, ears and bony bumps into the mesh before starting the sculpting process.  Mostly because I think these aspects need a little more precision and would look a little odd if left to a novice sculptor.  Note that I started retopologizing the arms because I felt the muscles needed were inadequately represented in he base mesh.  The arms are by no means close to finished, but give a much better image of how I want the final image to look.

Left is the two above images overlaid to give a better idea of what I am trying to make.  Again, living in a swamp, I am trying to make it look semi-aquatic.  The only main detail missing is webbing in the talons.  Once I have finished the retopologizing which may take some time while /I figure out details I want to add, I will move on to the sculpting portion.  My first pass will be muscle tone in the jaw, wings and legs.  My second pass will be small details like scales.  Finally I am going to make an asymmetric sculpt pass to add scaring, damage to the wings, breaks in spikes or teeth.  While I am not sure I will be able to get ll I want to finished by the deadline, I hope to get most of it and use the finished image as a starting point for a portfolio.

Playing Around

I have not really done much over the last two weeks, at least as far as this project or 3D modeling is concerned.  I have tossed about several ideas for new scenes - unfortunately they just seem to keep coming to me - though I managed to limit myself to only one new one.  I have not finished the blocking out yet, otherwise I would have probably shown it.  That is not to say I have not been giving time into the other projects, just not enough to make anything worth showing.

Do not get me wrong, blaming life and work could just as easily been my response today and been completely true, but I decided to focus on the positive.  So, until next time,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Crooked House (Part I)

I have been fooling around with a few projects to get back into the flow of things after my little break.  As shown last week I was playing with an organic model, though I did not make too much progress.  Actually, it was quite a bit of progress but it just does not look like much because of how small the detail in the face is.  The other projects are a hard surface, a scene and an architectural model.  As I made the most progress with the architectural model, that is what I will be showing off today.  Hopefully as I work through these projects, I can show each of them off, and hopefully finishing them and getting back to game models.

I have always like the Tudor style houses with their exposed beams.  It may just be that there are not that many around me, or that they are only used on larger houses.  But that is what this model is going to become, a four-story Tudor house with several leaning elements to create an interesting look.  I started out by blocking the first two stories of the house out.  I then started adding in the beams.  Most of the first three stories have been constructed.  The first floor is stone, which is why some of the block out still remains there.  The part of the third floor that has not been finished is a rear window and the base on which the fourth floor sits.  The coloring was only added to hopefully make it easier to make out what shapes there are.  I felt the grey blended into itself much too easily.

Until next time,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Little Aviator Exercise (Part I)

Last week was really hectic, though work should be calming down now.  I know I keep saying that, but this time I think it will be true.  Being busy I did not work on anything for the game, which I find a little disappointing, but I do have a little something to show for the week.

This is my little aviator   One of the sites I frequent for tutorials gave a turn around set as a modeling exercise and I decided to run with it.  I have everything below the belt pretty much finished while most of his upper body is only blocked out.  I do plan on adding some extra details, time permitting, like stitching to the pockets and patches in the jeans.  I know this is far from done, but I think in recent months I have been a little paranoid of showing off works which are not 100% finished when showing them would show how my abilities on a 3D model have improved.

Hopefully I can finish this model before the deadline but there was only two weeks given between the release of the modeling sheet and when the tutorial is going to come out.  Who knows what the next post may bring?  Until then,
~gunnah

Unplanned Break

Okay, so I must apologize for missing the past few posts.  However, all you missed in those would have been excuses.  Things along the line of work is hectic, need to study, need to read would have filed those posts.  Similar to what Life is doing to this post.  However, I do have a bit to show, so with further ado, what I have been toying around with.

I know this is nowhere near done.  In fact, it is nowhere near where I would even want to present it.  However, it has been quite a bit of time since I posted any modeling images, and so I wanted to show a bit of work.  Granted it is completely unrelated to the project at hand, but I thought it was cool looking.  Besides its interesting look, there are several aspects which make this piece interesting to me.  First is the mixture of organic and hard surface modeling, a blend I would like to incorporate into my game models.  The main body is organic in nature while other aspects like the pulley and arm are closer to hard surface modeling.  Also, since the body has several cut-outs inside the shape, I felt those would make an interesting look while providing a decent deal of complexity.  Obviously this model is nowhere near complete, missing many of the attachments in addition to the lower arm.

I am not even going to guess what the next week will bring, so until next time,
~gunnah

Oops

I accidentally missed a couple of posts there.  Not that I had anything to really share, but I do try not to miss them now that I am only doing one a week.  I have hit a bit of a road block with my contest entry, so bad I do not know if it is going to be a salvageable project with what I have coming up.  Outside of the little 3D modeling work I have been doing, life has been very hectic of late.  Between work going nuts, a visit from a relative who has been on another continent most of the last 18 months, and my exam coming up, I have made almost no progress in anything.  The good news is most of that should be wrapping up in the next week, not that I want to see my relative go back but the other two points.  So what does this mean for the immediate future: not much will get done this week.  Hopefully work will be sorted out Monday or Tuesday. My relative departs Thursday morning.  My test is Saturday morning.  With overtime likely this weekend and almost guaranteed the following, April is pretty much a wash for anything productive.  I hope I am wrong, at least enough to get a few work-in-progress images to show, even if they are unrelated to the game.  Well, I think that is enough talk of nothing, until next post,

~gunnah

Busy Week

I will keep this short since I do not really have much to talk about in terms of progress on my floor piece.  I was going to try to hurry to get the last few pieces created, but I did not want to rush the shapes.  I figured it was better to take a bit longer if it meant having a better selection.  What is the point of rushing through a piece only to have it be the first one tossed out because it had the least thought?  Of course the next contest begins this week.  Hopefully I can get something together for this contest, even if it slows this project up a little.

Well, no point droning on about how much nothing has been getting done and what great plans I can write.  Until next week,
~gunnah

Life

This week's post about sums up why I got almost nothing done this week.  Next week is likely to be similar. A lot of overtime in combination with car troubles meant what little free time I had was slept away.  I have been doing little bits on the game in terms of thinking about various aspects, but nothing concrete yet.  As mentioned in the two previous posts, my concern is getting a floor piece made, and then building the other pieces to make up the map.  Once that is done, I will have something to show.  Good news is there should only be one more week of heavy overtime.  Bad news is a new contest begins the week after next and I would really like to enter one of these.  I will admit my last entry fell apart due to inexperience modeling organic shapes, though I may finish it eventually anyway since I thought it was a cool scene.

That is it for this week, hopefully next week brings something new.  Until then,
~gunnah

Working on the Floor

Last post, I went over what was the minimum needed for me to create a level.  I detailed all of the pieces and their basic function, but I do not feel I gave one in particular enough credit.  The generic floor piece is one of the most important to construct for the map.  Not only will it likely be by far the most used piece, it will predominantly be responsible for setting the feel of the level.  Every other piece will be in one way or another a modified version of the floor piece.  Even pieces like the walls, while not directly a copy like the ramp, ledge or support pieces will be, will have the general shapes similar to the floor to keep a unified feel.

With this level of importance, I do not want to rush in and take the first thing I make and run with it.  Outside of missing some great ideas which may come from making multiple iterations, my main purpose is to find one that looks right while fulfilling my criteria.  Since form follows function, most of my criteria are fairly easy to meet.  Obviously, the science fiction look I am creating stems from the fact it is suppose to be a starship cargo hold.  Intricacies and a slightly unfinished look stem from the setting also and science fiction in general. These intricacies lead to cool and interesting looking pieces (and I could continue with this train of thought, but I think I made the point, its usage dictates a certain look and a certain look makes its useable).  The hard part come from my desired polygon count: one polygon or two triangles.  Having an intricate and detailed piece fulfill this requirement means a heavy reliance on normal and displacement mapping.  I do, however, feel this is necessary to keep the game running smoothly.  I know I could do some level of detail work, making the closer planes a little more high polygon, but I have worries about seems where the levels of detail change.  I have played game where their level of detail models changes too quickly and it made the game seem unpolished.

Hopefully, if things progress like they have been I will have a few more normal and displacement maps done by next week and then see how well diffuse, specular and ambient occlusion maps can fake distance the week after this.  Once I have all the maps done, I will show them, detailing the highlights and short comings of each.  At that point I can select one and start modifying it to make additional pieces.

Also, I know I said I was entering a contest.  Unfortunately work has been picking up and there has been quite a bit of overtime, so I was not able to get close enough to finishing the entry to even show it.  I may work on it later, but for now it joins my list of unfinished projects.  Until next time,
~gunnah

What is Needed to Make a Level

So I have decided to make a modular level, similar to what I had been doing with the road pieces.  I looked at my ideas for levels and decided the one I could probably piece together quickest is the space ship cargo hold.  So with the level picked, I had to decide dimensions.  This was fairly simple since the last time I was deciding on a level to make I had a rough idea of the size.  For the cargo hold, I am thinking something like a square with a side of two kilometers.  This would make a four square kilometer box with twenty-five possible points of contention.  While this may seem sparse, I want the game to flow in more small skirmishes than full team on team which I think this size and distribution may provide.  Of course the big test will come once I get enough done to start assembling the level.

With the level picked out, the size chosen and key points selected, I then began to think of how I wanted the level to look.  Since I am going for fairly quick and many of the pieces will be repeating right next to each other, I am going for a cleaner look.  So the only thing left is what actually needs to be made, which I have listed at about twenty pieces.  I am sure this is not a completely list as it has no unique pieces on it, but I think the main modular set will include about that many.  Below is a brief listing of how those are divided.

Floor tile: one piece; probably the most repeated unit in the map.

Ledge: two pieces, either a corner or an edge; used with raised platforms mostly.

Ramp: three pieces; one to go up, one to go down, and an optional mid piece.

Supports: four pieces; a base, a top and an optional mid section as well as a whole section; these are needed not only because floating platform drive me nuts but can also provide some more covered areas.

Walls: six pieces; all are either a corner or an edge, and either a base, a top or a mid section; mostly to wall in the map and the base.

Windowed Walls: two pieces, corner or edge; I want to use these on the north and south walls to break up the way the walls look.

Note that any pieces used for flooring (floor, ledge and ramp) I want to display the current owners colors.  These will be shown by lights in the floor which will change when the sector changes hands.  This means each of those will need five versions of each texture (one for each team and a  not captured color).  I have actually started on the main floor tile and hopefully I have something to show for next time.  Until then,
~gunnah

Another Week Already in the Books

So I started the week with two models basically done with being blocked out.  From there I decided if I worked on one model, it may get to completion faster than working on both at once like I normally do.  While working on the one, which I have called Scorpio, I have though of one other design which I have yet to block out.  None of these models are in any condition to be shown yet.  With any luck, the first concept will be up about middle of next month, for reasons I will discuss shortly.  For my first demo, I am hoping to have four tanks available to chose from, so this is a priority.

Now, for what is going to delay my tank modeling process: a contest.  I think my skill is decent, though nowhere near where I would like it to be, but I never have any deadlines.  Should I say something and the date passes like it always does, I move on to the next item on my to do list.  I am hoping entering the contest will give me a little more of a push to get stuff done.  The post after I submit my entry, I will put it on display. I am hoping it turns out as good as I have envisioned.

Just a final note, I have made some minor changes to the log's layout.  Biggest of these includes a list of tanks and their current stage of development.  I am hoping that keeps me motivated.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Creative Flow

So recently I have been learning the process of bringing something from an idea to a full fleshed out 3D model.  It seems most people start with a series of sketches and then make a high polygon count block model from the sketch.  However, since I am still getting adjusted to digital drawing - I have had a tablet for a little while now, but have not really had much of an excuse to use it - I have modified the process slightly and will describe it below.

Concept Block Out
This is an extremely low poly version of the models I want to make.  The real purpose of these models is to figure out what are the main pieces I want in the model and what proportion each piece should have to the others.  These look like a lot of my early work since they are primarily primitives and are nothing to show, unfortunately.

High Poly Concept
Once the block out is finished and I feel there are no other major pieces of the model to add, I will set it aside for when I start this modeling phase.  Here is when I take the hideous sets of cubes and cylinders I am calling models and turning them into showing I can show.  Most items will be blocked out as separate objects.  Minor details will be omitted, but I will probably share these images, if not the full turntable.

High Poly Model
At this point I go through and start examining the model's topology.  In addition to topology fixes, and final tweaking to the model will be done.  Once everything is where I want it, I will add in details like bolt and the like, giving the model its final looks.

Textured Model
Once everything is set in just the right place and every bolt is where it belongs, I will texture the model.  This process includes the diffuse, specular and occlusion maps.This process is likely to start with piece by piece texturing and then baking each piece onto a final UV map.

Low Poly Model
With everything set and the model looking exactly how it will in game, hopefully, the process of removing extra baggage starts.  The goal at this stage is to get the model to have as few polygons as possible while retaining the basic shape.Once set, the high polygon model will have it's normals baked on to the low poly model.  The model will then be rigged, a series of animations sequences created and exported for used in whatever engine I have selected at the time.

Hopefully, this will shed some light on what I will be doing in the upcoming weeks.  My goal is to get four tanks for my initial release to demonstrate the weapon selection screen.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Not much done

As I believe I had previously mentioned two weeks ago, I spent that week reading up for my upcoming exam.  I even spent most of the weekend also to study.  Then last week, I worked more overtime then I ever had.  I was lucky to get sleep let alone study.  That means that most of the modeling was put on the back burner for this weekend.

I was going to try to get one or two original tanks blocked out.  However, every time I began to get somewhere, I really did not like where it was going.  So then I was going to write the background story, explain the technology and such.  However, I also did not like how that was turning out.So by the end of the night, I was just fooling around trying to make a material library, when I made a camo pattern.  These are likely to be the matte base in the game, and I made one for each team (yellow, green, red, grey).  The desert and jungle camo are staples while the red desert and arctic camo I though cam out nice.  This means, I think, that the blue team I had initially said when laying out team will be replaced by desert camo (yellow).

Hopefully, I will have something more substantial in the coming week.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Friday Posts Delayed

I am not sure if I mentioned it in passing, but I was studying fore and passed a test back in November.  That was the easy one since it was the one for my major.  Unfortunately, I need to take another test which is more of an overview including a subject I have not taken in a decade and a subject I have never taken.  This means I will be devoting quite a bit of time until the test in early March to studying those holes in my knowledge.  But with all of this time newly devoted to studying and still needing to work, I am going to have nearly no time left to do any modeling work during the week.  Because of this, I am going to stop posting Friday nights/Saturday mornings.  It is not like I have been making Friday posts regularly for some time and the ones I do are mostly excuses about overtime or something came up, et c.  I am hoping to get some modeling done over the coming weekends while taking a break from studying, but as fate would dictate, most of my overtime is now over the weekends.  I am going to continue chugging along slowly but surely and hope that things come together real soon.

Hopefully with a focused post one night a week, I can get this project back on tracks.  I am going to add a list of projects for the game as well as side projects I am doing to the page eventually, just to keep track of what I am doing for everyone else.  Until next post,

~gunnah

Getting Better, More Slowly than Surely

The last week has been rough.  I have been pretty sick, so bad in fact I had to take off one day from work.  I am starting to recover, but I have been spending most of my free time sleeping.  This has meant I have not gotten a lot done on the game models.  I am hoping to finish a few tutorials, just to bump up my art display, while working on the game models.  I am hoping to alternate post eventually with one being a completed tutorial and the next being something related to the game.  It will probably take me until the beginning of next month to get on that schedule, culminating with the finished Abandoned Building Scene.  I tried to work on it with a new technique, but it kept crashing before I could make any progress.  Hopefully I can figure out how to fix that without too much extra work so I can get it back on track.

Until next post, hopefully I will be feeling better,
~gunnah

Happy 2013

I was hoping to have a lot done for this post, but not much happened.  I have been feeling a little off for a few days, and now I think it is in full blown cold mode.  Hopefully, I will be able to work through this, but I am not sure how much extra I am going to get done on these projects.  Most of my time has been devoted to seeing how real world examples handle details, so playing video games, and learning more about post=processing of images, also known as watching tutorials.  I was going to do a few, but with whatever I have, I just cannot get everything straight in my head.  This is also why I have not worked on that one nearly finished project.  I do not want to put a bunch of work into it, then look at it later and decide I do not like the direction I took it.

Hopefully this bug clears up and I can get back to normal, with perhaps a surprise or two in the future.  Until next time,
~gunnah