Maya Progress... Wood-Men...

I had an idea today...

While in work, I thought about making a few wooden men as what the Vikings would use for practice fighting. These are very simple structures but I also thought about showcasing the weapons and helmets on them as well... I've just knocked these up as quickly as I could so that I don't waste too much time since I dont really have long to go for completion. 


Here's a few shots of them.

WoodMan -1

Just added one of the Battle Axes on this one as if it's hanging from it's arm.

WoodMan-1

Quick Render

WoodMan-2

WoodMan-2

At this point, I started to like the idea of these... 

WoodMan-3

I decided to add another axe to the side of this WoodMan as if it was struck and left there.

WoodMan-3

Bump Mapping shows quite well on the shield.

WoodMan-4

WoodMan-4

I like the detail in the wood. I use created a Normal Map for the texture and placed it in the Bump Mapping section in Maya.

WoodMan-5

WoodMan-5 Duel Weilding.

WoonMan-6

WoodMan-6

This one I added a sword to demostrate that it was hit and left in the arm.

Some of these have been added to my environment in Maya so this section will be ready tomorrow for FULL Rendering - I have a good Mentor!

Hopefully, this will conclude all of the Maya section! I'll post some full true renders when they are done.

Now to add these into my package for Unreal Ed...

I've just thought of something... Sandbags for these to illustrate that they are secure when they are placed within the ground. I'll knock these up tomorrow! I'm resting now!

Unreal Progress... Still at it

I'm trying...

To make it more smaller so that I can have more detail once its layout has been sorted... I've had some help in it so I just need to sort it out moreso. I've also reworked the houses for the final time to make them look more aged and used.

Unreal Current Layout...

Here, I'm trying to close off the area using rocks and trees when I put them in.

This is how its gonna look

Here I've rotated the houses so it doesn't look too uniformed and unrealistic.

Maya Viking Houses Re-Done

Worn Look for Viking House 1

Viking House 2 - Worn

Viking House 3 - With a piece of wood that has fallen from the house

Viking House 4 -

Viking House 5

Shelter

Unreal Progress -

Still at it but its getting there...

I'm rushing of to work now so here's a few images of mt progress...

Top Down View

Screeb Grab 1

Screen Grab 2

Screen Grab 3

Screen Grab 4

I still need to sort out the lighting, fences, trees,mountains and collision.

I'll update later.

Unreal ED Current Progress - Viking Village

Still going and going!

I've been at it all day. In fact, all weekend! After importing my meshes into Unreal ED I found out that my meshes were incomplete when viewed in the Editor... the Cloth pieces for the houses were not being displayed due to them being made from a plane... It seems that Unreal ED only likes full polygons. So I had to go through each asset in Maya and correct them!

I also changed a few of the Viking Homes since I didn't feel that they looked "brill" in Unreal Ed.

I also found out how to import Normal Maps into Unreal Ed, this was a good thing so now my models have "body" to them and look a bit more realisitc.

One more, thing... It tooks ages to do all of this and now I'm getting faster. I've took a few screen shots of the terrain I'm making for my Viking Village... which is now 50% ish complete... I just need to fiddle with the lighting (I hate lighting) to get the right feel for the environment.

This is a Top Down view in Maya of my Viking Village Layout

I took as a reference when placing my models in Unreal Ed. It's not as easy as it looks to do that.

This is part of my Enviroment - the Terrain with the Sand area...

I think this looks good considering that I've learnt this myself.

This is the path into the Viking Village -

I just need to add a rock texture to the sides of the hills and then it's complete!

Unreal ED - Completed Phase One...

I haven't been able to post up my progress for a while...  

Due to spending hours on this computer using tutorials for unreal and getting everything ready for rendering within Maya. I've added better looking trees now to my Maya scene which I felt needed doing again! I used Speed Tree for them. They look cool but if I can add the leaves on in the next few days I'll be much happier. I'll post some current progression tomorrow. 

As for unreal I've re-made the inside of the Viking Home which looks much better now! I'm glad that things are moving since I don't have much time left. Oh, I've also started my Model Book now some I'm multi-tasking quite well for a guy! Anyhow, Ill update properly tomorrow!

Unreal Progress... Part 1 -

Yes! I've done it...

I've managed to put some of my Assets and Objects into the Unreal Development Kit... (UDK) I'm very proud of myself! That's right!! Woohoo... Come-On! :o)

I've done a few tests during this process. I started with one of my Helmets... 

This was my first attempt... I managed to get the Asset in but I didn't get the textures in yet.. but its a start.

Firstly, let me rewind a sec.. My first test was with a Box which was made in Maya and textured with the UV's setup within the grid correctly.. This was the result after I imported the box and then the texture for it.

This was the next thing I imported into the UDK... One of my Viking Helmets...

Tonight (a few hours ago), I decided to get one of my Viking Houses into it to see the results... I was thinking about it because I used 3 textures for the Viking House and I wanted to see if it was different and how UDK would setup the materials on the mesh.

This is one of my Viking Homes... It's in the UDK! At Last! Yes, I know that its inside a room but at this stage, it's the least of my worries... remember, this was a test.

Being able to run around this was awesome!!

I scaled it up so that it was the correct height when playing this level. There's no collision on this yet... I'll sort that out when I put this into my Viking Environment.

The sizs of this house looked really good when running up towards it.

All the correct textures were added for this. I'm happy!

Maya Progress... Final Stretch...

I've been totally, racking my brain...

Regarding rendering within Maya... I've looked at tutorials, books and more books. I know that I need to tweak a few settings within the render settings but there are some things that I really don't have a clue about what they do. 
This section can be a long process (if you don't know what your doing like me) but I will figure it out. I've had some good self learning sessions over the pass few weeks and I can say that I'm getting there in terms of what I want to do. The Viking Village section within Maya is 98% complete... all that's left is to set up some nice renders which will be one of the main parts of my work.

Playing around with Rendering...

I've done a few test renders to see what I can do and what I need to change.

For some reason it came out looking like this... With a Snowy effect... I think this looks cool... Even though this wasn't the "look" I intended it to be.

These looked ok but I its not right... so back to the drawing board...

Next Test Render...
This image below was my next test render using Mental-Ray and this shader was linked to a Enviroment Sky...

I also added the clouds to this scene but it still needs tweaking as you can see.. the clouds can be seen on the ground... if this area was water, then it would have worked out fine.. I really like the look of this though... I'll play around some more till I get it right! I'm gonna go with this setting I think.

I might even add some fire tourches to this... to give it that night feel... when fighting within the fight area. In fact... I'll run with that idea.