Collab Project 2-Day 39

Our last day before the christmas holidays. I have two jobs for the holiday period and I know that my version of Maya at home isn't compateble with colleges, so not much work may be done. We shall have to see.
Unlike with the previous break, I may not include the next two weeks in the project day count.

Collab Project 2- Day 36

I tried to create some normal maps for the bed, door and candle, but I wasn't happy with how they turned out so I left them for now.

Collab Project 2-Day 35

Altered the new candles flame with help from Simon.

Once that was done I sorted out the UV's for the bed and textured it.

Collab Project 2- Day 32

Decided to redo the candle as I felt it was too angular. This increased the poly-count of the object, but if the candle is too angular it wouldn't look right, so when modeling game res models, you have to balance appearance with poly-count. This is why normal maps are quite usefull.

Also on a spur of the moment I quickly made a single page. This can be used through out the map just as added details and to perhaps show wind blowing. It's simply a single plane, with a texture with an alpha applied to it.

Collabe Project 2- Day 31

Started to make a basic bed. The school our game is set in is a bording school so the upper floor will have sleep areas. There will be two kinds of beds: a simple one for the kids, and a grand four-poster for the teachers.

 

Collab Project 2- Day 30

Revamped the door. Gave it over to Jack as one of the main components needed to create the level.

Collab Project 2- Day 29

Deiced to go and re-do the tables texutre, so I acctualy has one rather than just a flat colour.

Collab Project 2- Day 25

It took all day, but look it it!

DEM UV'S!

Collab Project 2- Day 23

Started to work on a bench.

Like the table, making the bench was quite easy, however sorting out the UV's is going to be a bother again.

Seriously, what is that meant to be!

Collab Project 2- Day 22

Having got some good UV's for the table done on Friday, today I tarted to detail it in ZBrush. Using a slash brush, similar to the one I used to create the hair in the previous project, I tried to create a wood grain effect on the table.

Plank used for reference

The ZBrush process

One I had finished I asked Simon to help me with creating the normal map to apply to the basic mesh in Maya, having never done it before.

After some slight confusion with the normal map (turned out it was upside down) I applied it to the table alond with giving the material a brown colour. I may decide to create a full texture for it later, but I think it looks quite good already.

Maya render of the finished table

Uing the normal map on a model helps give the appearence of detail, but acts like a texture and doesn't add the the models poly-count. This puts less strain on the game engine and it can run faster and smoother.