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Final Major Project FMP

Week 1: Planning, Moodboard, Sketch, & Modelling of City Base in Maya

This first week I tried to carry on with all the planning of my final project to already start modelling in Maya as soon as possible.

Project proposal

At the end of term 3, I presented my final mayor project proposal with the following presentation that shows my first ideas:

Planning

I am a person that likes to do my projects in sections, following a logic timeline, so the work pipeline is as efficient as possible. This is why, for this project, I have decided to separate it in the following sections:

  1. Planning
  2. Inspiration research/Moodboards/References
  3. Sketching/Layout draft
  4. Modelling
  5. UV/Texturing
  6. Final layout/Lighting/VFX
  7. Matte painting/Compositing/Colouring
  8. Rendering

After deciding my work pipeline, I proceeded to organise roughly a weekly schedule on Excel to see how much time I count with to finalise this project on time:

Project schedule

Obviously, this schedule may change or may have new tasks added depending on the progress of the project and possible problems or change of plans that could arise.

Inspiration research, moodboards, & layout sketch

I did some research about floating cities to see which features I liked to add to my city and how to make the layout. I decided that I wanted my city to have a cyberpunk style with lots of neon lights which will contrast with the night sky. I also want to add some clouds and fog around the city and in between the buildings. I also liked the idea of attaching the city with ‘ropes’ or ‘chains’ to the ground (or mountains that are nearby), and include hanging vegetation from them. I also think that the contrast of a rocky and irregular terrain with the sharp and symmetric edges of the city buildings but give some interest to the composition. Moreover, I am planning to add like underground buildings that were built up in the rock as if it was built for the lower class of society (these buildings will have a more irregular shape). Regarding the neon signs, since these are going to be seen from far away, I want to make simple signs that do not have a clear language (it will only show gibberish), so the design is quicker.

After I had an idea of the style and components of the scene, I used Procreate app in my iPad to make a rough sketch of the overall scene:

Sketch made in Procreate

Modelling city base

This first week I focused on the modelling of the rocky base of the city with the addition of the inner buildings carved in the rock. First, I created a cylinder and added a high amount of subdivisions, to then using the stamp feature of the ‘sculpt tool’, create big stalactites hanging on the edges of the cylinder. I formed the base by sections, intercalating a layer of rock, a plain cylinder layer and so on. Again, with the stamp tool, I also changed the shape to vertical lines stamp, and created the effect in the rock as if it was ripped off the ground. Moreover, in order to give a more asymmetric look, I also reshaped and distorted the shape of the cylinders with the ‘grab tool’ and with ‘lattice points’.

For the buildings in the rock, I first made a staircase using a stretched and scaled down cylinder and then using ‘duplicate special’ to translate the duplicates exactly on the ‘y’ and ‘z’ axes. Then, I cut the cylinder in sections (block of buildings) and integrated them with the staircases. And lastly, I added the windows and doors by adding more subdivisions using ‘edge loop’. In the sides and edges of the buildings, I also used the stamp tool to give them a rocky edge the blends in with the rocky aesthetic.

Lastly, using the ‘relax tool’, I got rid of conflicting areas where the stamp tool did not make a great job and messed up the points of the mesh.