Forest Road using Paint Effects

Forest Road using Paint Effects

Link to use at some point...

Maya Part 4 Continued Progress

Continued Maya Progress... Part 3

I've just be adding...  

A few finishing touches to my models before they are placed within the scenes I've created. The proposal is to do two scenes and one in the Unreal Engine 3. I've had quite a few issues when it come to making terrain for the scenes and its only now I've found a way (which is comfortable) for me to do this. This is using the Soft Modification Tool...

I've used VARIOUS packages to try and get the results I want and yes, these packages are good but some of it was too complex for my scene and it was a challenge to shift thought all of these only to return to Maya and find the Soft-Mod-Tool. (after looking a various tutorials as well) but after all of that, I wouldn't really call it a waste of time because now I can use...  

Terragen... Vue 8... GeoControl... and LD3T... These are all very good terrain making software so now I can say that I've learned more packages. 

I now have basic knowledge of Crazybump (through my mentor) which is a package that helps to create realistic textures with the textures I already have...(won't get into it now but I'll post something at a later date...)

Anyhow, back to my workload, I've made a few adjustments on the plane surface to get the right terrain for my scene. It takes a good while to get it the way you'd like but this process is a long one.

Here's a few current progression images:

This is a quick texture test for the Viking Village scene...

Current Layout of Viking Village - 

This seems like a good start for the Shoreline scene (Well that's what I though after I got to this stage today).

This is the current scene which will have more of a hilly region in the background then a good backdrop for it... My aim is to complete this scene by Sunday!

I've created a fighting arena by placing a wooden fence around in a square setting.. I'll add some more weapons and shields around this section.

This Sword and Shield are placed within the Blacksmith structure. (Not sure if I've already posted this but it's a nice shot.

Another Prop...

I've made some good changes on my Viking Longboat and now it's FINISHED!

Longboat - Screen Grab 1

Longboat - Screen Grab 2 (Get On-board...!)

Longboat - Screen Grab 3 

Here I added some horns around the neck part so it could look a bit more menacing.

Longboat - Screen Grab 4

These scenes will be completed and rendered within the next two weeks, then it's onto the Ultimate Test... Unreal...

Maya Progression... Part 3... Struggling... But I Must Go On...

Today has been very mixed in terms of thoughts and modeling...

When you have a "great" idea... always think about it at least three times... As the saying goes (from a tailor I presume) "measure your cloth three times because you can only cut it once"

Today, I was thinking that I really want to do something else... something more "manageable" A character or something very "easy" to do. I'm not saying that character creation is easy... but it's one model with extras... like adding IK-bones etc... when creating an environment, there's so much to consider. So many things to go in i.e: Assets/Sky/Terrain/Lighting/Water/Particles etc... 

When you feel like you can do it, I'd say think about it some more. I guess I feel this way due to my lack of knowledge regarding some key skills in environment creation. I have done alright, so far but its very difficult when you can't find the right sources. It's difficult. 

I've searched for a few days on Terrain Creation, some of them look promising but the tutorials misses out key elements and then you become stuck. I have used various tutorials to get me this far but it seems like as I'm nearing the end of my course, the things I need to learn/know now are hard to come by in a tutorial. I've been busting my head today but I've had to "figure" this out for myself. Not knowing if its the right way is very frustrating, but I'm at a point now that I just want it done and dusted! The quality is good but it could have or still could be much better. Since time is against me I must do what I can with the knowledge I have.

Here's a few Renders of things done today.

I made some stones to go into my scene, I also made a "Terrain" using the "Sculpt Geometry Tool" and imported a Map to the shape. This could very well be the right thing but I want to make sue that it's "right" for what I'll be needing it for. 

I'm Creating two separate scenes in Maya. One will be the Viking Village and the other one will be the Shoreline area. 

Stones - Render 1 

After using another tutorial for creating stones/rocks, these are some of the rocks I made. Some of them still need textures on them but at least it adds something to the scene. These can be time consuming to texture though... but what isn't?

Stones - Render 2

Stones - Render 3 - 

This shot is taken from my Shoreline Scene. I've added a Rock/Grass texture to the plane and a Stone texture to the other plane. Doesn't look bad but needs touching up.

Shoreline Scene...

Here are a few progression renders of the shoreline scene...

Shoreline Render 1

 

 Shoreline Render 2

Shoreline Render 3

Shoreline Render 4 - Rock Shot.

Viking Village Scene...

Viking Village Render 1

Viking Village Texture Test... 

Not sure if I'll use this texture but who knows... It's not bad but I would love a professional opinion.

Anyhow, ANY COMMENTS would be appreciated! Until my next update... (shouldn't be too long now) Many Thanks!

Continued Maya Progress... Part 2 (continuation)

Continued from earlier post...












Village Layout - Render 4 -

Broken Longboat Render 1 - (which will be set just off shore)

Render 2

Render 3

Render 4

New Barn Texture Render 1 -

New Barn Texture Render 2 -

Continued Maya Progress... Part 2

Just more of an update using more renders...

Wood Tower Scale Render - 1 - I had to make sure that these were set to the correct scale... it looks a little bit too big for this character...

Wood Tower Scale Render - 2 - This looks more correct in relation to the character beneath it.

Wood Tower Scale Render - 3 - This look a little better compared to the first image... If I was to create a a few characters for this scene, they would have to be this size (of the character pictured)

Trees...

I attempted to use the trees that I created within SpeedTree only to find out that since this version of SpeedTree is "exclusively" of use with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), you cannot export it as a Maya file or as and Object file (Obj)... So, I have a problem... 

I have decided to make a tree using the good old fashion way of modeling one in Maya... I have looked at a few tutorials (since I've never really modeled a tree before). I did try and model one but it looked rubbish so the tutorial I found has allowed me to create this tree with the branches... it has no leaves on it yet but I'm thinking that I might just leave it the way it is due to this scene will be set within an Autumn / Winter season so it will be brownish/yellowish grass and leaves on the floor... so in this instance, I have actually made a decision on what the environment will look like now... this has helped. 

I only created one tree, duplicated it a few times (with a rotation) and placed them within the environment and I think they look cool.

Tree Render Layout  - 1

Tree Render Layout - 2

Tree Render Layout - 3

In fact, I have changed the textures slightly on the Viking Barns... I taken all the textures of my models and added the normal Lambert so that it will run quicker... I deleted them from the Hypershade due to have my machine freeze a few times yesterday... I'm running a Quad Core 2 and I'm getting little problems! Boo... I actually made this computer for this but yet things still happen! Anyhow, here's a few more shots at it current stage.

Render of Current Progress - Viking Village 1

Render 2 -

Scale - Maya Progress...

I've come across a slight problem...

I need to work out the right scale for my Viking Houses and all other assets... since these were made in separate scenes, when I put them together, some of the models were slightly bigger than the other ones. This was seen mostly with the weapons, shield, Longboats and Barns... 

How to tackle this?? 

Anthony gave me the idea to get a character model and use that as a reference when sizing up my models. I thought this was a great idea so I've managed to re-scale my models so that they are of equal size when compared to a character. 

Here are some screen grabs of this...

 

Scale Render 1 -

Scale Render 2 -

Scale Render 3 -

Scale Render 4 - This is to show how big the character or a character would be compared to the Viking House Door.

Scale Render 5 - This render is to show how the character would fit into the Blacksmith Model... I also added some weapons and shields to this area.

This seems to work but I would really need an "expert opinion" on this mi-thinks... for peace of mind.

Continued Maya Progress...

As previously mentioned... 

Here are some more Renders of the current layout of the Viking Village...

As you can seen a lot needs adding... Terrain, lights etc...

 

Still need to add the rocks, path and barns, water etc... pretty much everything for it to look realistic.

This will be tonight's workload...