Tag: Maya

Week 4: Texturing in Substance Painter

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 29th October 2023
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This week I focused on texturing in Substance Painter and testing the textures in Maya and Unreal Engine

Base & connections rock texture

For the rock texture, I mixed Substance’s pre-made rock textures, to then scale them down, orientate them vertically and lastly, I added a layer of dirt to give more variation and dimension. For the block of flats in the rock layer, I kept it a bit simpler as there is already a lot of detail in this section and I did not want to overcrowd it. Also, for the connections I added the same rock texture and some asphalt texture for the roads with stencilled road signs on top.

Base colour of the city base, and scale-down and orientation of the rock texture

General city buildings, skyscrapers, & main tower textures

For the city buildings, I downloaded a texture from Substance website which already has the windows set up to increase/decrease to amount of lit windows and the intensity and colour of the lights. I could also adjust the size of the frame of the windows so they have the proper dimensions for my model. I also added an emission layer to this texture so when exporting it, I have an emission map to adjust the windows light intensity in Unreal Engine. This was actually a good discovery as I could texture all the buildings at the same time and pretty quick, whereas if I had to do the buildings one by one, it would have been time consuming and a pretty tedious job to do. For the bridges, I used another texture that I found in Substance website which resembles the texture of the circuits of a machine and, by adding an emission layer, I could show some neon lighting in the circuit details so it makes them stand out. As a final touch, I added a flying car landing sign on the top of some buildings using one of Substance pre-made stencils. I also added a purple neon glow to make it more futuristic.

For the skyscrapers, I added a simple glass texture for the windows as I am planning to add an emission effect later on in Unreal Engine. Then for the main body of the skyscrapers I used a metal texture with some scratches and a concrete texture with some dust painted on top manually. The skyscrapers textures are simple as these are not going to be too visible in the night ambient of the scene.

For the main tower, I also used the same circuit texture that I used for the bridges. In the edges, I added a glass texture with a purple colour which will be lit later on in Unreal Engine. Lastly, using a stencil and an opacity layer only, I painted some vents on the top of the tower.

City details textures

I chose a patterned texture for the city wall and metallic edges. Then I painted some dust on the lower parts so it blends in with the rocky base texture.

For the capsules, I used a glass texture for the top part and another circuit texture (different from the main tower and the bridges texture) to simulate the capsules engine.

The lamp posts and the antennas were textured really quick as they are very small and won’t be too visible. Therefore, I added a metallic and a glass texture for the lamp posts (which will have lighting added on later on in Unreal Engine), and metallic and carbon fibre textures for the antennas.

The cranes also have a metallic texture with some rusty details and a rope texture for the cable which I painted in grey so it looks like a metallic cable. The base has a concrete texture.

Lastly, the flying cars have also a basic glass texture for the windows and a basic metallic texture for the main body as these are going to be very small in the scene. The only distinctive attribute these have is the blue stripe in front which will be the car’s front light. I am also planning to add some emission effect in Unreal Engine to this front light.

Tags Maya, Substance Painter, Texturing

Final Major Project FMP

Week 3: UV Mapping in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 22nd October 2023
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This week I got a bit delayed and I only managed to do the UV maps of all the parts of the model, so I will start with the textures next week.

UV Mapping

I made the UV maps in separate sections of the model, so it is easier to texture later on on Substance Painter (the model in parts will not be as heavy to texture and the programme will run better). I used ‘camera based’ tool to detect the UV map of each part based on the camera view, then I started to cut and sew the seams of each UV to be ablate unfold them as flat as possible without overlapping UVs. Then I used the ‘optimize tool’ to straighten the UVs as much as possible (this will make texturing easier as will avoid stretching issues). Lastly, I used ‘layout’ to try to arrange all UV shells of each section in 1 UDIM, spreading to 2 UDIMS for those sections that were too big to fit in one. After all the UVs were ready, I renamed the UV sets (to avoid issues with UV overlapping later on in Substance Painter) and I exported the model by sections in USD format.

Tags Maya, UV Maps

Final Major Project FMP

Week 2: City Modelling in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 15th October 2023
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I tried to finish the overall city model this week to get it ready to start with the UV maps and texturing.

General city buildings modelling

I decided to make the general buildings of the city using some tools like ‘transform’ and ‘extrude’ to quickly generate random building shapes. I used the following tutorial as an example:

City Modelling tutorial (SYIA Studios, 2019)

I created a disc and reduced the subdivisions to have a irregular grid

Rocky base buildings remodelling

After modelling the city buildings, I noticed that the buildings in the rocky base were a bit off scale so I decided to remodel them and create a more cohesive design. I used the same technique that I used for the top city buildings, by randomising the faces of a cylinder and extruding them out. Then I picked a few faces I moved them inwards so it seems like entrances to the buildings or even garages for the flying cars.

For the bottom building, I tried to keep it simpler, and just extruded in the subdivisions (giving some separation between faces) and then extruded out some balconies. the bottom part has big doors as if they were entrances for big flying trucks.

Skyscrapers and bridges modelling

To give some interest and variety to the city, I also modelled some skyscrapers that will be placed in the middle section of the city. I also added some bridges linking the lower buildings of the city.

City render view with skyscrapers and bridges added

City connections/pathways, entrances, & city barrier

Using the same technique I used for the rock of the city base, I created rocky connections between cities, with two main roads and a train track in the middle.

City details

Lastly, I added the city details like lamp posts, transit capsules, flying cars, cables, antennas, billboards, and cranes, to make the city more realistic and alive. I used MASH to help with the lamp posts repetition and with the flying cars positioning and animation around the city. I did not make many billboards as most of the advertising and signage is going to be holographic. Additionally, I remodelled the roof tops of the buildings with different shapes to give some variety to the overall look.

Big lamp posts for the city connections and small lamp post for the top city

References

SYIA Studios (2019). Maya Model a Simple City Quickly Tutorial (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2315V1g8fNw&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=118&t=287s [Accessed 12 October 2023]

Tags City, MASH, Maya, Modelling, Simulation

Final Major Project FMP

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

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 8th October 2023
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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:

ProjectProposal Download

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:

Planning
Inspiration research/Moodboards/References
Sketching/Layout draft
Modelling
UV/Texturing
Final layout/Lighting/VFX
Matte painting/Compositing/Colouring
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:

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:

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’.

Cylinder with high number of subdivisions

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.

Staircase made using ‘duplicate special’

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.

Tags Floating City, inspiration, Layout, Maya, Moodboards, Planning, Project Proposal, Schedule, Sketching

Advanced & Experimental Group

Weeks 10 & 11: Final Models Render with Studio Lighting in Maya (Wireframes, UV Maps, & Textures)

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 22nd June 2023
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I expended this week setting my final models with a studio lighting scene in Maya to show topology, UVs, and textures.

Studio lighting set up in Maya

I took me a bit to be able to set this scene as it was preset with different colour space, so the scene was giving me error from start. I followed a video that the author of this scene made to explain how to configure the colour space to make it work.

After, I set everything up, I could start setting my models but, unfortunately, some textures were looking way different and with the time limit I have I just could not do anything about it. Therefore, I tried to match the textures such as possible to the originals and proceeded to render. I also rendered the topology and UVs of the models for the showreel breakdown.

Tags Maya, Rendering, Studio Lighting, Textures, UV Maps, Wireframes

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 10: River Simulation Fix, Lighting, Camera Movement, & Render in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 18th June 2023
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In this week, I decided to fix the river simulation (as I was having issues with the water speed and density of the flow), to then illuminate the scene, and prepare the camera movement following my initial story board.

River simulation fix

Since my previous river simulation was way too heavy and it was giving me problems to see the actual speed of the water (I needed to render the whole simulation if I wanted to see the effect as the playblast was not showing the effect), I decided to find another way to simulate water that was not that heavy on the scene. So I found in YouTube this tutorial that uses a noise shader instead, and then I could just use the glass texture and coloured it to make it look ‘wet’.

Water simulation tutorial (SYIA Studios, 2020)

Adding some subtle colours to base and specular and give some contrast

Water simulation play blast in Maya

I then also considered in polishing my river water simulation effect, as the waves were looking a bit too big for a river. They seemed to be more for a lake or a pool, but a river has smaller waves as it is more like a flow of water that follows a unique direction. Then, in the noise shader, I reduced the scale of the waves and added a bit more noise.

Correcting water simulation noise shader in Maya

Lighting, camera movement, and render

For lighting conditions, I searched in Polyhaven for HDRIs that simulate the light we experience at sunset. It should be subtle, yellowish, and that projects soft and stretched shadows. I found an HDRI that was not giving me the exact light conditions I wanted so I also tweaked the amount of light the it was producing and make it slightly darker.

Once the lighting was done, I started to do the camera movement is my scene. I did not want to show only that outer side of the environment from afar, so I made camera to pass through the rainforest to show the trees, palm trees, and foliage, to then jump over the river, going around the scenario in circles, to finish climbing up the pyramid up un til ending in a long shot of the environment.

In the following render of the scene, it is visible the camera movement I set in the scene, however, I noticed that I had some texture problems with the trees leaves, so I will need to revisit the textures paths, relink them properly to avoid this issue, and render again the scene.

References

SYIA Studios (2020). Maya Easy Animated Water Shader (online). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVjc3vvvJfo&list=PLAlv9GvsMvnMCUwPx_gcXaCj_yHYdIPqD&index=1&t=62s [Accessed 16 June 2023]

Tags Camera Movement, Maya, Render, River Simulation, Simulation

Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 9: Hologram Base Textures in Substance Painter & Final Model Animation in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 11th June 2023
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This week I focused on finishing the textures of the hologram and refine its animation.

Hologram UVs correction and base texture

When I started to add the textures to the base of the hologram in Substance Painter, I noticed that my UVs were wrong as I sliced them in sections. Therefore, any time I tried to add a rust effect on edges, the programme was not detecting them and placed the textured in the middle. I then went back to Maya and redo the UV maps, but this time only cutting off the edge that was less visible, and unfolded the UV from that cut. Then, I updated the UVs in Substance Painter and added the rust effect in the edges.

Originally, I wanted to do the texture in bronze colour to follow the style of most of the objects in the master render. However, I then realised that this texture will not work as hit is too flat and yellowish so it does not really match with the blue hologram effect on top of it.

Initial bronze texture test in Substance Painter with some dirt and rust effect added on top

After testing the bronze texture, I decided to swap to a more reflective and metallic texture such as the copper texture, and then add the dirt and scratches masks I made for the previous bronze texture on top of the new texture.

Base with copper texture for the overall surface and cobalt texture for the small rivets and the central star

After exporting the textures from Substance Painter, I created the shaders in Maya using the Substance plug-in, and linked each shader the the correspondent part of the hologram. After relinking textures in Maya, I noticed that the metallic textures looked too flat and they did not shine as a metallic surface would do in reality. Therefore, I checked the roughness map of the copper texture and reduced the ‘alpha gain’ till 0.5 (it was 1 before) and then changed the ‘color gain’ to a darker gray so the shadows had some contrast from black to gray (before they were white so they were not visible, hence the flat look). Then, I went to the ‘Lens Effect’ I added for the hologram and reduced the ‘threshold’ from 1 to 0.65 so it did not look that white/burnt shine on the surface of the metallic base.

‘Lens Effect’ added in render settings for hologram effect

After the textures were finally completed, I redid the animation of the spinning of the rings and the little satellites rotation on them with manual key framing.

Final hologram model with textures and animation

Tags Hologram effect, Maya, Substance Painter, Textures, UV Maps

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 9: Environment UV Maps & Textures in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 11th June 2023
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This week, I finished all UV maps and textures of the whole scene so I could start next week with the lighting and camera movement to get it ready for rendering.

Trees and palm trees UV maps and textures

I reshaped all UVs branch by branch, cutting in the edge of each branch and unfolding them. Then I oriented them straight and adjusted the texel so the textures show with consistency. Then, I searched palm trees and trees bark textures in Quixel and linked them in the models in Maya. I used ‘base colour’, ‘normal map’ and ‘displacement’, ‘roughness’ for the specular, and ‘AO’ so the texture does not look flat. Also, in the ‘hypershade’, I went to the placer node of the textures and scaled them down to fit the model shape.

Pyramid UV maps and textures

The pyramid UVs took me a bit more time as it needs to be perfectly straight so the textures of the bricks do not look warped. I took my time to figure out how to dissect it in sections to avoid texture stretching issues. Then I linked bricks and destroyed rocks textures that I found in Quixel.

Ground and rocks UV maps and textures

The rocks were a little bit tricky as they were generated with the randomiser tool, so their topology is made by a lot of triangles and weird angles. The good thing about rocks is that their UV maps do not need to be straight or too perfect as they need to look organic. The ground was way easier as it is a plane so I did not have to retouch the UV. Again, the textures used for these, we’re dowloaded from Quixel.

Tags Maya, Quixel, Textures, UV Maps

Advanced & Experimental Personal

Week 8: Palm Trees & Foliage Modelling in Maya

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 5th June 2023
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For this week, I modelled variations of palm trees and foliage to fill up the scene and make it look more like a rainforest.

Palm trees references & models

I needed a palm tree reference that was not too tall, with a thick trunk, and with some coconuts showing in between the leaves. I think this style will suit best my scene as the pyramid will need to stand out in the final long shot above the jungle, so it would be better to keep the palm trees at around the same high as the trees are. I found the below references with similar characteristics I had in mind:

The palm leaves were made using the same technique I used for the tree leaves previously. I created an alpha and a normal maps in Photoshop from a picture of a palm tree leaf I found online, and then linked them in Maya.

Foliage models

These are some references I took as inspiration to create the foliage to fill up the rainforest scene:

Big leaves reference (Jorge Castillo, Lucas Bustamante, Frank Pichardo, 2022)

I also made the alpha and normal maps in Photoshop for the foliage leaves, to then link them to plane shapes in Maya.

Additions of new models to environment

Once I finished the models, I placed them in the main environment scene to see how would they look. I also used referencing in Maya, so when I add the textures to the original models, it would update in the main scene too so I do not need to place everything again.

I also had some problems trying to see the textures of the trees leaves in the main scene when I switched from my personal computer to the university computers. Researching in forums online, I found out that when .ass extensions files were exported, these needed to be exported without ‘Absolute texture paths’ option ticked, as it would always take as reference the same path assigned originally, so when changing computers, these will not show. I reexported these as mentioned before, and relinked the assets with a ‘relative path’ so it does not have a fixed route.

Render settings to remove absolute paths from .ass files

References

Castillo, J., Bustamante, L., Pichardo, F. (2022). Why is Ecuador the best tropical country for nature photography? (online). Available at: https://www.tropicalherping.com/articles/why_ecuador_for_photography.html [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Gerisima (2020). Coconut Palm trees on white sandy beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. stock photo (online). Available at: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/coconut-palm-trees-on-white-sandy-beach-in-punta-cana-dominican-republic-gm1270732523-373579722 [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Lubilub, 2009). Beautiful palm trees by River Dulce in Livingston, Guatemala. stock photo (online). Available at: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/beautiful-palm-trees-by-river-dulce-in-livingston-guatemala-gm117952546-9032250 [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Nurjuwita, D. (2018). Where to travel in 2018: The best rainforest destinations (online). Available at: https://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/travel/travel-2018-best-rainforest-destinations/ [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Tags Environment, Foliage, Maya, Modelling, Palm trees, Rainforest, Render

Advanced & Experimental Group

Week 8: Hologram Reduction of Model Subdivisions in Maya, & Radio Textures in Substance Painter

Post author By Nira Gonzalez Sanchez
Post date 4th June 2023
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This week I had to remodel the base of my hologram and make the hologram effect to test in in final scene, along with finishing the radio textures.

Hologram remodelling

After Martyna and Roos tested the hologram in the master render, they were having some issues with the hologram as it was too heavy for the scene. Then they figured that the particles used for the particle effect had too many subdivision and asked me to redo this with simple cubes instead (it will not have that polished effect, but it will lower the poly count of he model considerably). Apart from the particle effect, Roos also recommended me to delete any unnecessary subdivisions, so I deleted most of them from the constellations cylinders, from rings, rivets, and base of the hologram. After reducing the poly count, I also had to redo the hologram’s UV maps.

Hologram’s new UV maps after amending subdivisions

Radio Textures

I also carried on with the radio textures this week so the CG lead could have most of the final objects with textures to test the illumination with them in the master render. In Substance Painter, I chose a wood texture for the base and main body of the radio and mixed it with some metallic textures to give that futuristic look to it. I also, found two pictures online about the channel dial of retro radios, so I created an alpha and a normal map version of these and added them to the radio. I made the normal map to add some texture to the typography in it and the alpha map to add some emission to the screen (focusing on the typography only) as if the radio was turned on.

Top channel switchers with bronze texture in the centre – also added some scratches and damaged edges with some masks

In Maya, I linked all the textures as I did with my spaceship, by using the Substance plug-in to automatically link and group the different layers and maps into shaders. Then these shaders were connected to the correspondent parts of the radio. I also linked the channels screens to the radio and added a bit of emission (as previously mentioned) to give the feeling that the radio is turned on. However, after I uploaded this textured model to FTrack, Gonzalo mentioned that this emission was too bright and should be turned down slightly. Therefore, I corrected this and uploaded the final version to FTrack.

Radio model with emission levels too high in the middle channel screen

Final radio model with textures

References

Cobalt. Vintage radio dial (online). Available at: https://stock.adobe.com/gr_en/search?k=radio+dial&asset_id=55983088 [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Pilcher, G. Vintage radio dial face (online). Available at: https://id.pinterest.com/pin/740279257483290061/ [Accessed 3 June 2023]

Tags Final Model, Maya, Poly Count, Shaders, Substance Painter, Textures, UV Maps

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