Beauty Shots/Final Render/Animation Video
These are my final renders for my object as well as the video of the animation. Overall I am super pleased with the final result, specifically with the dust texture as well as the flower detailing using height to create a raised effect. The only thing I would change would be the glass, as I think a chiselled effect would work really well with the rest of the design
Rendering in Sketchfab:
This was an enjoyable step for my project however was also really difficult as I enocuntered one major issue. When I exported my textures into sketchfab it worked perfectly, however, when I added my animation to the zip file, none of the textures appaeared. I believe this was due to the glass being in a different material. I then spent a very long time with many attempts to fix this. I tried to export the glass from maya as an OBJ whilst the rest of the animations were exported as an FBX file…non of this worked. The only solution which worked was to add the files in and then manually add each of the texutres in the materials window of Sketchfab. Luckily this worked and I was able to complete the model!
Animating
This was quite difficult for me as animating in Maya was very knew. I really only knew how to keyframe and translate/rotate/scale objects. Over this process I learnt how to turn on and off ‘ease-in, ease-out’, I also learnt how to cycle an animation, use wire deform, begin to understand MASH, and export Caches.
Rendering in Sketchfab
I absolutly loved this part of the elective! I felt like my work really came to life during this asepct of the project. I was able to add a certain quality and atmopshere which was lacking during the texturing process. I added a lightsource located in the gemstone and added a bloom effect to create a slight glow and emission. In addition, I made this light golden andit reflected beautifully onto the wooded staff as well as giving my detailed design a lovely warm glow. The glass effect was made by changing the opaity and index of refraction whilst also adding an orange tint to the material to add to the warmth. This contrasts with the forrest green background which is used to create a sense of earthy tonesto match the theme of ‘adventures of old’. In addition, I used a forrest environement on the glass to really emphasise this.
Baking and Substance Painter
Substance paint was where I encountered many of my problems in this elective. I initially found the layout of the program quite difficult to use and thus took a while to understand how it works. Layering using black and white masks was difficult to get the hang of but once I did it helped create non-destructive work. Another problem I faced was adding my own textures as the export of my PNG didn’t work, thus I had to add a black mask and manually correct some imperfections.
Blocking in Maya
This design changed pretty drastically as the project progressed. I wanted to create a very simple and modern blender to get a feel of the object. From there, I altered the design to match the aesthetic of the Victorian Era, taking references from Vases and Grinders. I wanted to make the design sophisated and elegant, something which can be used both decoratively and functionally.
Initial Ideas
The devices I was drawn to immediately were a TV remote and a kitchen blender. Eventually, I settled on the blender as I thought it was more visually appealing and would translate better into a different time period. When I began researching I looked into 3 different time periods: Viking Era, Ancient Egyptian, and Victorian Era. Whilst both the Viking and Egyptian time periods would be interesting, I loved the details I would have been able to add if I made something in the Victorian Era.
Zbrush Failures
When I added my work to Zbrush, most of the objects subdivided perfectly, however, the wood section created some weird topology and when I began to sculpt into it, it was weirdly bubbly (rough). I decided to subdivide the rest and leave the wood simple and use height and texture to create a similar effect in Substance Painter.
Baking and texturing Substance Painter
I wanted to create a very painterly effect in Substance Painter and this was done though layering. I made all of my own textures by building on previous layers, using small changes in colour and height. On the wood, I really wanted to create indents, scratches and swirls and this was done by using height as the main factor. For the details on the lantern, I used the X symmetry tool and changed the middlepoint. I had a general design in mind but some of the time I went with the flow to create a natural flowing design.