These first two weeks we focused on researching about what we wanted to do for our personal project and in putting together a presentation of our proposal.
Since I am mainly interested in focusing my career on Environment 3D modelling and texturing, I thought of making 3D scene in Maya with a simple camera movement, animation, and VFX. Then I also considered that I have not done much organic modelling (which is slightly more complex than geometric modelling), and it could be beneficial to practice it. Considering these two points, I then started to research about inspiration of organic scenery such as jungles, forest, mountains, etc. Following on, I came across a picture with the Mayan pyramids in the middle of the rainforest. Since I love Mayan and Aztec cultures I thought this would be an interesting style to design. Therefore, I researched some Pyramids scenery that would be surrounded by rainforest and put the following moodboard together:
I also found a tutorial that show how to use MASH in Maya to duplicate and distribute trees or plants models so I do not have to model each one of them. Also, I found how to add the texture to create the tree leaves effect with an alpha channel or even how to use XGen tool to make grass using guides (like I used to create hair in the collaborative unit). Moreover, I found how to make running water effect with Boss Ripple tool (plug-in) in Maya in the case that I also decide to add a river or something similar. Also, the water texture could be generated with another Maya’s plug-in called VRay.
Later on, in the second week, we were asked to create a small presentation of our personal project proposal, so I made mine detailing the target of my project, why did I chose this, my inspirations, and possible challenges that I could encounter.
References
Imations Jk Creations (2022). Environment Modeling (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t8EAN3GeVE [Accessed 23 April 2023]