This week I managed to finish all trees models using MASH to place leaves repetitions, and also placed all trees in the environment.
Leaves arrangement using MASH tool in Maya
Since I realised that arranging all leaves manually would take longer that I expected, I decided to look for an alternative and quickest way. Then I found this tutorial on how to use MASH ‘Distribute’ and ‘Placer’ nodes to ‘paint’ an object over a mesh.
MASH tutorial (Ian Waters, 2017)
With the ‘Distribute’ node in MASH, I created the repetitions of the leaves arrangements I designed previously. Also, I made sure to set my MASH ‘Geometry type’ to ‘Mesh’ and not to ‘Instancer’, since this way the alpha map of the leaves will be kept and I will be able to keep the leaves texture. Then, in the ‘Distribute’ node, I set the ‘Distribution type’ to ‘Mesh’ and linked the tree as the ‘Input Mesh’ (so it follows the shape of the tree), and left the ‘Number of points’ as ‘0’ in this case. Then, I used a ‘Placer’ node so I could place the leaves pattern like painting with a brush on top of the tree. With this node I made some tweaks in its setting so the leaves were generated with random position, rotation and scale. Lastly, in order to preserve the leaves texture when exporting the trees with the MASH generated repetitions to the environment scene, I exported them in .ASS extension.
‘Placer’ node used to add leaves too treeFinal trees models with leaves exported as .ASS to preserve textureTree 1 renderTree 2 renderTree 3 renderTree 4 renderTree 5 render
Final trees arrangement in environment
Final trees arranged in environment – top viewFinal trees arranged in environment – front viewFinal trees in environment previsFinal trees in environment previsFinal trees in environment previsFinal trees in environment previs
The next steps for next week will be to try to finish the rest of the foliage and palm trees using MASH too and to start modelling the pyramid.
References
Waters, I. (2017). MASH Placer Node – Painting Points (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2ZGa0JBns [Accessed on 20 May 2023]
This week I focused on finishing the matchmove task with all corrections required and also tried to finish the spaceship model ready for texturing.
Matchmove task
I had a second 1-to-1 session with Dom and asked him about how to export from Maya to Nuke and how to correct camera alignment in 3D Equaliser or Maya. In 3D Equaliser, I missed to set the point of origin and to set the ground points. Also, I needed to align my camera horizon so everything is level to the footage. Once this was corrected, ,I exported it to Maya and realigned the cards and cones of 3D scene. Then, I exported cards, cones, and camera separately in .abc (alembic) as explained by Dom. As I already had the scene previously set before these corrections, I replaced the camera exported from Maya in the Nuke file exported from 3D Equaliser, then connected the cards and cones as geometry in the ‘Scene’ node, added a red constant and some lighting to give some colour and contrast to the cones, and finally redistorted everything together. I finally exported the final matchmove and uploaded it to FTrack for assessment.
Setting origin tracker pointDefining floor pointsCorrecting camera horizon – 3D viewFloor points looking flat at grid levelHorizon line adjusted – 2D viewExporting cards, cones, and camera as alembic in MayaConstant node added to colour cones in red in NukeLight spots added to give some volume and contrast to cones colour in NukeFinal Nuke nodes graph
Final matchmove
Spaceship WIP 1 review and further modelling of WIP 2
This week I tried to finish the spaceship model to get it ready for texturing. I added more details such as windows on the sides (adding edge loops and extruding), two extra engines and wings in the sides, changed the bottom part and added extra details so it looks like a boat, and lastly, I added some extra details in the top of the spaceship so it looks like the top fin of a fish. Most of the more organic design ini this model was made using ‘Curves’ to make the shape I wanted and then with a disc, extruding following curve made. My main reference for the added features is the following:
Reference picture (Michal Matczak, 2012)
Once I finished with the model, I exported a 360° view and took some wireframes screenshots as requested in my first FTrack review of my first model version.
In this week, I started to research tutorials to model trees trunks, branches, and leaves in the most effective way, to then begin to model the trees of my environment. I also put together a previs to see the dimensions of the space.
As I am not that familiar with organic modelling, I researched some tutorials to see what was the most efficient way to model a tree. I found the following tutorials that explain step by step how to model a tree’s trunk and branches separately, how to create different variations from the same original model, and how to put everything together once we have our parts modelled. I think this way I will have different variations of trees to fill up my environment and not having to model them one by one from start.
Tree trunk modelling (Alex Cheparev, 2021)
Tree branches modelling tutorial (Alex Cheparev, 2021)
For the leaves, I found a separate tutorial that shows how to model them in groups to then pile them up in different shapes, and ultimately, add them to the tree branches.
Leaves modelling tutorial (TrimitKala, 2020)
Following these tutorials I started with the trees modelling.
Curves used to shape basic trunk modelUsing a cylinder that has been deformed to add a more organic shape in the base, I extruded the roots and trunk. Then amended the tape and added a twirl of each elementOriginal shapeDuplicated the original shape with the curves and then tweaked original and duplicated again to have different variants
Before making the branches and leaves, I wanted to see how much space I had in the environment and how the trees would fit ini it (dimensions). So I expended some time positioning the trees in the space until I reached a preview of how the environment would look like with the pyramid included.
Environment previous
I also made some renders of the frames to see how the camera movement would look like.
Camera movement with wireframe on to see depthCamera movement previs
References
Alex Cheparev (2021). Maya Extrude Tool – How to 3D model a tree trunk (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ls96NCgcc&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=64 [Accessed 30 April 2023]
Alex Cheparev (2021). Maya Extrude and Joint Tools – How to 3D model tree branches (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yDgvyGPqa4&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=63 [Accessed 30 April 2023]
TrimitKala (2020). 8. Creating the Leaves in Maya, ZBrush | Tutorial 8 | Making 3D Scene Step by Step (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycu3A_vf-YU&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=61&t=49s [Accessed 1 May 2023]
This week, we received the group project live action footage so we could make the matchmove in 3D Equaliser, Maya, and Nuke. I also started modelling the spaceship for the group project.
Matchmove task
I started to track the live footage we were given in 3D Equaliser, trying to follow the steps we learnt last week. This was a bit challenging as the floor of the footage had a lot of reflections and it was difficult to keep the tracker on place. Also, before tracking, I denoised the plate in Nuke so I could get a clearer image for tracking. I only tracked the green marks added in the scene initially, however, after my 1-to-1 session with Dom, he clarified that the green marks were only references and that I could add more tracker points anywhere I needed (the more tracker points the better results I could get later on). Therefore, I added more tracker points to then reconstruct the scene in Maya and added red cones on every single tracker point.
Initial trackers on green marks onlyFirst geometry generated from green trackers onlyAddition of more tracker points, clean up of failed trackers, and addition of camera lens dataPoints calculationPoints in 3D spaceGenerated mesh from tracker pointsGenerated mesh from tracker pointsExport of mesh to MayaFootage replaced for undistorted plate exported from Nuke to Maya (so tracker points match with footage)3D scene reconstruction in MayaAddition of cones on tracker pointsMaya render view of cards and cones
Matchmove playlist in Maya – WIP
I was a bit confused on how are we supposed to export the geometry in Maya and the process after this in Nuke, so I will book another session with Dom for next week.
Spaceship WIP 1
For my spaceship model I made some sketches on Procreate app first and then some more hand-drawn sketches while discussing with my group the style approach we were going to follow.
Initial spaceship idea (sketch in Procreate)Group brainstorming for further stylistic ideas (hand-drawn sketch)
After figuring out how the spaceship would look like, I start to 3D model it in Maya directly as I will also have a better idea of dimensions.
Wireframe view of spaceship WIP in MayaWireframe view of spaceship WIP in MayaWireframe view of spaceship WIP in Maya
We were also asked to submit next week our first model WIP to FTrack so I put together some render views.
Spaceship version 1
Also, Roos created a group Padlet board where we will be adding the progress of each team member’s tasks and where we could give feedback and add notes too.
This week, I tried to finish the base model adding all the details and animations required so it is ready to be textured.
This week I focused on adding all the details like the gears, planet’s rings and satellites, handle, base, and further decorative details like the star and the half ring around the Sun. I also animated with key framing the gears and the handle rotation. The handle would start rotating and the gears and planets attached to them would move at the same time.
Addition of rings and satellites system to each planetGear modelGear platformTop gear rotates at attached planet’s rotation speed, bottom gear rotates at previous layer speed Gears system layeringHandle modelBase additionAddition of star and ring to SunAdded a glow to it to see how the illumination would look like in render
The overall model follows a consistent aesthetic, however, I feel like I am going to change the base as I am not that convinced with the shape I gave it. Also, I am thinking in adding a dome that could have like a space texture as a background.
This week, I had one meeting with the group students another with the lecturers and collaboration partners. We reviewed the first models from ghosts and environment as well as optimisation for importing into Unity.
I started to model the ghost of the mother this week so the 3D animation girls could carry on with the rigging and animation of the characters as soon as possible. To start off, I took a reference female model from Maya’s ‘Content Browser’. Then I researched about possible looks that were more suitable for an apocalyptic ambience. I started to think about what a person would wear the day that they are supposed to be euthanised, and I reached to conclusion that a person that is going to kill their child to then kill themselves, would not care much about appearance, so basic jeans and jacket would be the most logical option.
Then using symmetry and the soft brush, I started to shape the features of this character since the preset model from Maya is pretty standard. I also duplicated the body, dissected it in sections, and adjusted the scale so I had the basic shapes for the model’s clothes. Then with a smaller soft brush, I also added some creases to the clothes so they would look more realistic.
Clothes modelling
Later on, I researched about how to model hair as I have never model this. I found a hair tutorial with XGen in Maya:
Maya XGen tutorial to create realistic hair (Karimi, 2021)
This tutorial uses XGen tool in Maya to generate ‘guides’ that would lead the direction of each strand of hair. After all the guides have been placed the tool creates a duplicate of this in the form of hair strands. We could add more or less density, width, and even texture. Then we also have to set up painted maps so the tool recognises the direction that the hair needs to follow. Lastly, with the help of modifiers we can refine the final look with tools like ‘clamp’ (to fix hair to place), ‘frequency’ (to add ‘noise’ and randomness). I followed most of the tricks and techniques from this tutorial and came up with the following hair model:
Hair UV map and guides placementTidy up of guides to set hair styleHair generation, adjusting ‘density’Reduction of number of guides and replacementAddition of ‘modifiers’ such as ‘clumping’ to determine orientation of hairFirst attempt of xGen hair – Front viewFirst attempt of xGen hair – 3/4 viewFirst model – Full body
I was so proud of this hair but it needed some tidying up as it looked a bit messy. Also, as this was only a practice I also started to think about what kind of hair style this character could have. I think straight hair would be the easiest as I also have limited time and to shape the hair takes me quite some time.
Main weekly meeting
In this meeting, the VR team showed us their floor plan of the building’s interior we are going recreate. They also set some possible routes and interactions the main character could follow.
From VFX side, I presented my ghost model of the mother. They liked it, however they mentioned that it could be nice to add eyes and face features. Since this was going to be distorted with particles effect in Unity I considered unnecessary, however, they said that it could help to have something that gives a bit of characteristic features to the ghost. I came up then with the idea of a face mask, taking in consideration that the people cannot really breathe properly because of air pollution, so they could wear like a face bandana tied to the back of the head. Also, VR girls mentioned that the hair could give some issues when importing into Unity since it is not made with geometry so the programme will just ignore it.
Regarding the environment, a draft model of the map was presented by Martyna and Jess. It also looked very good but we needed to discuss dimensions as it needed to be tested into Unity to see the scale of the ceilings, walls and how it would look like from the viewer’s perspective. Overall, it seemed to need higher ceilings, the waiting area needed to be rounded with some exterior light coming through the ceiling (windows, or broken parts), and the shape of the door frames should be in a transitional form and not flat (see sketch below). We could also see some parts of London from the broken parts of the walls so the audience can be situated.
Door frame sketchMain building – Outside viewEntrance main buildingWaiting area main buildingCorridor – Interior view
Model hair optimisation, face mask, and eyes
Following the review received in the last meeting, I decided to optimise the hair top convert it into mesh so Unity would be able to read it. But before to do so, I wanted to adjust the hair style of the model first to a low pony tail and also model a hair band.
Pony tail made with xGenHair band model
I optimised the hair following a tutorial I found in YouTube, which explained how to convert an xGen curve into mesh:
Hair optimisation tutorial (My Oh Maya, 2016)
First, I needed to select the hair guides created with xGen, and then in the xGen tool ’utilities’ tab, select ’guides to curves’ and ’create curves ’ to be able to create physical curves that can be used to create a mesh. Then in ’create’ we select ’sweep mesh (dialogue box)’ and we click on ’one node for each curve’, so each curve can have a mesh that can be modified individually. Then we adjust the mesh to the shape we want. In my case, I used a flat card shape to then add the texture with ’standard surface’ and link the hair texture with an alpha and a normal map. The alpha will be linked to opacity so the black parts of the texture card do not show in the render, the normal will be linked to the bump map to give texture, and the diffuse is linked to the base colour.
Hair guides converted into mesh planes – Front viewHair guides converted into mesh planes – Back viewHair guides converted into mesh planes – Side viewHair optimised with texture added
In addition, taking a plane divided in half and forming a triangle shape with this, I also started to fold it on top of the character’s face to form the face mask. I also added some creases and with a deformed and scaled down torus I created the back nod of the bandana.
Bandana mesh and texture
For the eyes, I simply took a sphere and duplicated it, and then adjusted the UV map so it fits the sphere. I added a texture of eyes that I had saved from one of my previous projects from term 1 (lip synch face model). Lastly, I added the rest of the textures (clothes and skin).
Model with eyes and eyebrowsFinal model of the mother
References
Charro, J. Fade to White Characters (online). Available at: https://charro.artstation.com/projects/PY5e3 [Accessed 18 February]
Karimi, H. (2021). Creating Realistic Hair with Maya XGen (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkpJ4LGJrf8 [Accessed 18 February 2023]
My Oh Maya (2016). XGen for Game Character Hair (Part 1) (online). Available at: https://youtu.be/1Fs6rle_IbE [Accessed 18 February 2023]
Nam, H (2014). Marlene : Last of Us by Hyoung Nam (online). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gw9x [Accessed 18 February 2023]
In this lecture, we focused on finishing our Rube Goldberg machine texturing, camera set up, and rendering the final outcome.
I continued adding the last textures and finishing touches of the design, such as the finish lines numbers, and some more neon lights in the edges of the planks and of other components. I also modelled the light bulbs’ buttons to switch them on and textured them with glow.
Neon glow added to the rotating and fixed planksNeon glow added to parts of the domino pieces and rest of featuresNumber 1 and 2 textures added to domino pieces at finish linesButtons modelling and texturingFinal look of finish lines when balls arrive and light bulbs are switched on
Moreover, I decided to animate some arrow lights on the top of the initial ramp to add another point of interest in the animation:
Arrow lights animated on ramp
After I finished with the texturing, I continued to set the camera movement using ‘camera and aim’. This way, I only have to set the ‘translate’ of the camera since the ‘rotation’ is adjusted with the aim. I tried to follow both balls switching priority between one and the other depending on the point of the animation and which one was more important to follow each time. Therefore, I not only framed the scene from the front view but I also made the camera rotate 360 degrees around the machine, showing its back too.
Camera and aim set up with keyframes on ‘translate’
In the last bit of the scene when the second ball has to reach the finish line, I had to reduce the duration of this since it was way too slow. Therefore, I selected all the elements of the scene and in the ‘graph editor’ I scaled down the number of frames required for this last movement. I reduced from 800 to 700 frames. The following video shows a preview of the camera movement I set:
Camera movement preview
When I had my animation fully set, I proceeded to set the render. Thought of adding a chrome textured background with the lighting of the skydome I had previously, however, it turned out to be problematic as there were too many reflections so the render would take too much time to finish. Maya also started to crash every time I tried to preview the render. Therefore, I decided to get rid of this chrome background and leave it with the original workshop background. I just lowered the light a bit so the glows added were more pronounced.
Disregarded dark chrome backgroundRender settingsRender preview with render settings adjusted
I was playing around with ‘Camera (AA)’, ‘Diffuse’, ‘Specular’, and ‘Transmission’ to get the best result without having to render for too long.
After two days rendering, this is the final result:
Final render
I really enjoyed this project and I feel enthusiastic about 3D modelling and animation. I also feel like I could improve the render, amending some details like adding a dark and reflective background to darken the scene and to make the neon lights more visible. However, due to limited time I was not able to do this (but I definitely will if I find some spare time before the end of term 2).
In this class, we learnt how to bake the simulation that we already set up, to then add texture, refine the design of our Rube Goldberg machine, and animated the camera movement of our scene.
After all our bullet actions are adjusted and we are happy with the dynamics of the animation, we will proceed to ‘bake simulation’ of all the active rigid bodies so all bullet set up is removed and converted in key frames instead. It is also important to select ‘delete entire bullet system’ to get rid of any bullet set up left in our outliner.
Once the dynamics of our scene are sorted, we can proceed to animate the camera movement of our scene, creating a new ‘camera and aim’, and setting its position and aim at the same time. We can also add texture to our scene and finish building up the final touches to make it look presentable.
This week, I focused in finalising my Rube Goldberg machine’s design and dynamics. I added a different route for the second ball, with a helix slide, a clock gear, and a second finish line. I also refined some of the elements, adding some edge loops, to then smooth them down pressing ‘3’.
Box added to top of seesaw so the ball stays in placeRefine of basket, adding edge loops on the topAddition of third rail in the middle of helix as the ball was coming off without itAddition of second basket or tube for the second ballSecond ball falls in slideHelix slide for second ballSecond ball comes off the slide towards a gear that spins and redirect itAfter bouncing on a domino piece, the second ball reaches the second finish lineAlso added several gears and tubes as a connection between top and bottom level and as decorationFull view of my designArnold rendered preview
The next step of this project would be to bake the active rigid bodies, so the programme creates the key frames of the movements set with bullet tool and continue to texture it and set the camera movement of the scene.
This week we finished up our air balloon adding UV textures.
We learnt how to set up a UV map with the ‘UV Editor’ from an object so the texture looks realistic when added. Later on, we downloaded some textures and added them the the UV map created on each part of the balloon. We also changed their appearance playing around with ‘colour’, ‘specular’, ‘transmission’, ‘geometry’, etc. As these images look too flat and no too realistic, we created a ‘bump map’ using the ‘hypershade’ editor to add more detail to the texture. In the ‘hypershade’ editor we also saw how to join different nods to create different texture effects. Lastly, we created a short animation of the model, spinning the air balloon 360 degrees and showing only the object and not the background, and then rendered it in EXR. This would be used in our Nuke class as alpha matte to make a composite with it.
Final texture close up of ropes and top balloonBurners texture close upBasket texture
Final 360 spin render
Since I am interested in focusing on modelling and texturing in Maya, this was a good practice to improve my knowledge on this. I look forward to explore more organic modelling and all its possibilities.
In this lesson, we learnt further modelling tools more focused on starting our model with a drawn line that will evolve into a 3D shape with revolve tool, some extrusion, and some UV and texturing. We also modelled an air balloon that we will use next week in our Nuke’s session.
We started modelling a simple line using the EP Curve tool. This shape had to be kind of a slice of the final object we were going to model, in this first case a wine glass and a wine bottle. After our curve shape was drawn, we used ‘Revolve’ to transform it into a 3D shape. In addition, we reshaped our 3D object repositioning the control points of the curve shape until we were happy with out design. We also learnt how to create a glass effect adding a glass material and finished the scene adding lighting and choosing a background.
Bottled and wine glasses wireframeFinal scene with texture
Using the same EP Curve tool, we continued to build up our air balloon. Then we played with extrude, duplicate special, deform (bend tool to warp the object), and used the UV editor to add texture to the model (used cloth, brushed metal, and rubber textures).
Top balloon model and texture
Building up burnerBuilding up burnerBurners wireframesGas bottleBasket TextureFinal model medium shotFinal model closeup with girl model from MayaFinal model long shotFinal model shots sequence with HDR background dowloaded from polyhaven.com
I really enjoyed this assignment as I realised I love 3D modelling in Maya so I would love to further my knowledge in this aspect.
