What If? Metropolis Reflective Statement

Reflective Statement

"What If? Metropolis" is the second part of the environment project. Using one of the "Invisible Cities" final outcomes, the goal was to create a 3D model of our chosen concept art. This means  involving furthering research, extending on current designs, planning matte paintings, then finally modelling, lighting and rendering in Maya. 

I decided on my internal concept as I felt this was the most interesting, giving the most challenge in design and modelling. When thinking about how I wanted my internal space to be perceived, it needed to feel lived in. The ambience to be warm and cosy, and like the tradesperson has just left the room for a moment, so it will be a bit messy. Firstly taking my original concept art, I used colour co-ordination to break the scene down into categories, these where Matte paintings, Hero Props and what would need to model in Maya. I wanted my vision of "Diomira" to have a oriental fashion, so my influence maps involved items from eastern periodic and modern eras. With the research complete, I used them to inspire my thumbnails and final orthographic designs. Although I didn't need orthographs for the more secondary items, drawing the thumbnails gave me a better understanding of their structure. Before using Maya, I started the basic matte paintings for the foreground and background in Photoshop. knowing my foreground objects (crates and bamboo barrel) would be darker, I tried to keep details minimal but they needed some texture otherwise they would have been bland. The back ground and walls was left plain until the final render was done, so to have a idea where to place the light and shadows to blend all the elements together. Taking these aspects, I went into Maya and modelled my Hero Props, some of the smaller items was created free hand. These other items are not meant to draw the eye too much, so the geometry didn't have to be so in-depth. Once all these was complete, I had to unwrap the UV's and place the painted textures. The textures where images I found online, used them as a faint base and then painted over the top to bring though a bit more of a rougher style. The crates where a painted individually. But, for the red wood, I painted the bench, then copied and manipulated them across to the table and cabinet. This technique was also done for the metal detailing, the golden top of the table was painted on rather then modelled. Doing the textures this way allowed to keep the style  and was much less time consuming. Now all the textures was done and the models re-wrapped, I could make a new Maya file and bring all the items together with the concept art as a guide. With everything was in place, lastly the scene required a few light sources. The main light was a Arnold Mesh Light to enable more intensity and exposure, for the background I placed some spot lights to act as flames for candles on the alter. Also, the main reading light had to have a source to illuminate the pages. Using a dimmer Area light for the doorway makes it seem as if the door has been left open slightly open. The lights have been given a more light yellow glow, to create a warm homely atmosphere. Now all the lights was set, I could use the shadows that Maya has created and work with them in Photoshop to define the Matte painting. Finally placing some highlights on the areas that are shiny (but I couldn't make reflective in Maya as they are painted), and darkening the "stuck on" foreground. The foreground Matte painting could be used in Maya due to transparency problem, so creating a wrap around the layer in photoshop removed the stuck on appearance.

This part of the environment project was quite a challenge. The research was fairly easy as I knew what I needed, and was able to draw the thumbnails quickly to capture my vision of the objects. However, moving into Maya was where there was the most difficulties. Having limited knowledge, I wasn't overly confident in creating the main light, cabinet and the paper-piles. Once I had finished the table and had some tutor discussions, it seemed their modelling come about much easier. But, at times I had gone a little overboard with bevelling, meaning it had added more geometry then needed. Unwrapping the UV's was also a issues, this was due to having too much geometry so finding the right place to makes cut caused problems and warped UV's. I had learnt from this in the later models, and the UV process was much better. Overall, I have enjoyed creating this scene, and feel I have learnt to be a bit more careful with my modelling in Maya. In the future, I want to improve on my confidence in my work and to do more painting and modelling tutorials exercises to gain this.