3D Art

Understanding the basic components of a 3D Model:

Vertices:

Vertices are the points in which 2 or more curves, lines or edges meet e.g. the points on a triangle. These points will be the points that form an angle. Here is an equilateral triangle with the vertices labelled A, B and C. In a 3D space vertices appear as many points across the an object.

Edges:

Edges are the points in between vertices that form the perimeter around a shape, here is another triangle, but with the edges labelled lowercase a, b and c.

Faces:

Faces are what make up the rest of the shape, the part in between the shape that makes it more than a frame, here’s a diagram with all three parts labelled to show what i mean.

Today i learned how to use vertices, edges and faces in my 3D modelling, using these allows a modeler to more accurately edit their models in more detail than just moving shapes around. I’ll need to keep playing around with it as I only just feel like i’m coming to good grips with it however I believe that i could improve by just learning how each movement of an edge or vertex will effect the shame i’m working with. For example today i attempted to create a modern windmill and while the final result (for now) came and pretty badly because i ran out of time, i’m going to come back and improve it at a later date as a game I wish to create could use it as an asset as well as the general farm land type models i’m gonna also make. The progress I’ve made is just with understanding how the program works much more.

Drone:

My drone idea is a medical exoskeleton that a disabled or inhibited person can stand in which allows them to perform any actions a non disabled person could. The exoskeleton would also come fitted with medical equipment and potentially come fitted with medical knowledge embedded into it (for example, if the wearer senses they or somebody else is in danger the exoskeleton can scan that from their brain and would embed whatever medical information the person may need). This would help save many lives and make the lives of those with the exoskeleton better.

I ended going with a new idea when it came to my model. I created a lifeguard bot, it has a floater in one hand and a dingy on its lower body, both of which can detach to help anybody on the beaches this drone unit would work over, this is the model I have so far.

Using textures, I will add more details to the model to make some of its other features appear as I think of them.

The original model was lost and so I restarted with a new design of the original. I actually prefer the look of this version more I just need to figure out the best way of making a propeller. I will texture this more cartoony than the look my original model would’ve been like.

I UV wrapped my model and combined it, then added a blinn ready to add my color pallet into maya.

I used Coolors.co to decide on a pallet for my drone, I decided on a red and yellow based pallet to match a traditional lifeguards attire.

Texel Density

Texel density is basically just making sure a textures height and width line up with the model, so like making sure the bricks on a wall line up with the wall. We want to maximize it so the texture both lines up without looking squashed on or pixel-ed. We ideally want a model with textures all the same, large size so that the whole model appears the same quality. Models with good texel density allow further details to be added to a model using textures

Drone 27/11/2020

I feel like my drone so far looks decent but I could make the textures more detailed by adding some effects. However, with the way i’ve textured it its hard to add effect to specific textures. I have taken notes of this for future projects.

Spaceship:

For my spaceship, I went for your classic human rocket design.

I UV mapped my model, then went on to coolors.co to help me come up with a good colour scheme for it, I ended up settling with this.

My final textured spaceship came out like this, I also added the finishing touches of the flames and ring of smoke below the ship. I did the flames by stretching out a polygon and adding a slightly transparent orange blinn, with a bright red ambient colour which added a spicy look to the flames, as they should appear.

For the smoke, I simply grabbed a ring, made it gray and transparent enough, then dragged it below the flames. I also added a darker gray ambient colour to make the smoke appear smoggier than just gray tinted air.

My Personal Models:

I will be adding to and texturing my personal character during the week if I have the spare time

Substance Painter

PBR

Physical Based Rendering is a computer graphics approach that seeks to render images in a way that models the flow of light in the real world. Many PBR pipelines aim to achieve photorealism

It uses a more detailed reasoning about the behaviour and relationship between light and surfaces

Fresnel

A Fresnel lense is used particularly in lighthouses and searchlights to concentrate the light into a relatively narrow beam. “Fresnel lense, succession of concentric rings, each consisting of an element of a simple lens”

Substance Painter

A substance painters function is to allow better textured models to be created than could be in something like photoshop. It gives options to paint in both 2D and 3D and has other features including 8k texture baking, real time PBR material workflows as well as many material pre-sets.

Metalness maps

A metalness map is a black and white texture that acts as a mask that defines areas on a texture set or material that behave like a metal (white) and do not (black)

Roughness map

Roughness maps (also known as gloss maps) control the sharpness of the reflections and should be plugged into a gloss or roughness input. The terms gloss and roughness are interchangeable, they are simply inverts of one another.

Emissive maps

This is a texture that receives no lighting, so the pixels are shown at full intensity. Also known by the names full bright map, glow map, incandescence map or self illumination map. This is used for a glow in the dark effect, but does not emit light onto adjacent surfaces.

Normal maps

3D computer graphics, normal mapping or Dot3 bump mapping is a texture mapping technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents – an implementation of bump mapping. It is used to add details without more polygons being used.

Loot Boxes

For my loot box, I’ve went with a pirate theme. I plan to make the crate appear like a more futuristic golden chest, with pirate memorabilia decorating it.

First, I made my basic crate. Next, I added some rubber rings and made an anchor to start. Next I will figure out how to incorporate certain models into my crate and also think of how I could also incorporate a background into my crate, as if it was a loot box section in a game.

3DCTM4: Understand the benefit of good work flows and efficient techniques for creating 3D models

What is a Quad?

Quad modeling is the process of modelling something with 4 edges and vertices e.g. a square. A polygon fitting this description would be referred to as a quad.

then, what is a Tri?

A tri is the same as a quad, but for triangles. A triangular polygon is referred to as a tri.

What is an NGON?

An ngon is any polygon with 5 or more edges and vertices, so anything higher than a quad. Ngons are bad because they both look glitchy as well as cause meshing problems for other models. They also make techniques like extrusion far less effective.

Why do we model in quads?

Quads subdivide a lot better than any other polygon. Quads are also way easier and more predictable to work with than tri’ or ngon’.

What does the word “Topology” mean and how does it link to the prior questions?

“In 3D modeling, the term topology refers to a 3D model’s edge distribution and structure. Two models that look the same when rendered can have very different topologies” – https://resources.turbosquid.com/checkmate/checkmate-product-presentation/topology/#:~:text=In%203D%20modeling%2C%20the%20term,can%20have%20very%20different%20topologies.&text=Quad%20topology%20makes%20it%20much%20easier%20to%20rig%20and%20animate.

The word links as Quads, Tri’ and Ngon’ will all have a variety of topology, with quad topology being the simplest, Tri in the middle and Ngon as the most complex (for obvious reasons).