polycount

So when checking my polycount I have just under 13,500 (13, 466 to be exact with the stand and
13, 226 without the stand.)

Rendering ambient occlusion (Problems)

Because of the fact that I had never used ambient occlusion on Autodesk maya before, the task of rendering out a clear image of my vehicle proved incredibly difficult. This was due to the fact that I didn't know what settings where supposed to be used to make the vehicle be seen clearer, but this was the best I could do at this point I as the rendering was a lengthy process and I wouldn't have the final turntable finished otherwise if I started again and finally found the correct settings. 

final object

Here is the final model before I triangulated my objects

and here is after I triangulated 

geometry fixed

Since the last post, I have fixed these various problems, cleaning the geometry around the whole model which can be seen through these pictures.

Geometry

As you can see here the geometry is all over the place (not clean). there are too many triangular polygons and edges not connecting on the wire frame.

same could be said for this part of the geometry, and the edges of the polygons are stretched too much.

ship wing development

During the development of the wings I encountered many problems with the geometry, especially when I stretched out the cube, to which it originated from. One of the main problems with the geometry of this mesh, was the points or edges of the wings, they tended to only have three points which became a problem, as the polygons where highlighted in black.

Thruster development

For this part of the ship (bottom thrusters) I started off by extruding out various parts of  half a sphere and also made the design look intriquet by layering these extrusions one after another.

ship bottom mesh

Gun & front body Maya development

For this gun I wanted to create a weapon which could be interpreted as futuristic. Following the concepts done in my sketchbook, I developed this example using cube-like shapes, on top of each other with indents. Also in the gun barrel, giving it serrated edges to show something new. 

In designing the front body of the ship, I wanted to keep as closed to the look of the concept as possible. But because of the geometry being a little different  on certain parts of the front, the parts needed to be moved a little closer or further back.

Art sheet

In the final design of this space ship, I wanted to go for a colour scheme which didn't have colours that were too bright, (apart from the lights), as it would probably take away from the military vehicle design feel, which I intend to create. The reds and the blues, that are incorporated into this design, are intended to be lights on this vehicle. Where as metallic colours, will be used for the rest of the body, (gold, bronze and silver).

Model sheet

This model sheet shows the design of how I want to make this space ship model  look like.

Ship body parts development

Here I have tried create a couple of options of which parts could be used for my ship in this past week. Going from side thrusters and bottom thrusters to various guns, which could be used for my combat space ship idea. The side thruster idea, I would probably categories into a heavy type combat vehicle, as the bottom thrusters would probably work for any. For the gun designs, I would most likely go for the bottom thruster option, because it has more to the design, e.g more parts to it which makes it seem more interesting.

Media tests concepts

In this initial idea I wanted to go for a sort of jet fight type of vehicle which incorporated a thin body. This would give the impression that it had intense speed. One of the problems however was the colour scheme that I added to the body, typically military vehicles do not have bright colours, no matter which time period it tends to come from. However, the positives of this design In my eyes was the gun, I liked that fact that it was just a singular gun, at the front of the ship, (I didn't want to have too many weapons for this design as it had a thin body). Following the initial design, which was created using ink pen, I decided to try digital painting it.

Still sticking with the military vehicle option, I wanted to look down different avenues, so for starters instead of going for your typical flying or road based vehicle, I wanted to go for a design which had more humanistic qualities, so I went for this mech design. Since it was a mech, I didn't mind adding more weapons and also it would add to the heaviness, to which I was trying to show. One of the reasons this mech wouldn't get past the development stage, would be because when 3d modelling this design there would be far too many parts to make, which I think would go over the limited time that we have. This design was made using ink pen.  

In this example, I have went for a heavy combat type look, with tons of large weapons at the bottom and small guns at the side. Although this is a military vehicle type, I think it may also be suited to industrial use for dragging large objects. This design was done in pencil.

Although this design isn't final, I like the idea of making a drone ship or a spaceship with designs like this. The body wouldn't be too heavy so it had good manoeuvrability but would still have a little bulk to it. One problem for this design, I wouldn't use this gun as its too simplistic, because it doesn't have much in the ways of design too it. This design was also done in pencil.

Flying vehicle analysis

In the analysis of these vehicles I am looking at potential elements that could be added to my design. Furthermore I am going into the break-down of large and small shapes to give an ideas of what could be generated from these shapes. 

ground vehicle analysis

Possibilities for different components that could be used for my vehicle design

 A breakdown of the shapes that could be used for my vehicle

 What shapes and textures could be used for the smaller details

In these two examples I have done the same thing, but with a vehicle which is like a motor bike and a robotic vehicle

flying vehicle research

In these examples, I have started exploring options into what type of flying vehicles I would like to go for?, if I chose to go down this route for the design of my vehicle.

Taking inspiration from the game dead space I'm looking into this vehicle which is used for mining purposes.

Ground vehicle reseach

For my research for the vehicle in question, I started off by looking into what type of military vehicle would be thinking of making, if I were to chose a ground vehicle? 

Would I go for something which was more like a sort of racer type?

Would I go for a heavy duty vehicle which could which could withstand high impact and have many layers of armor? 

A vehicle which could be similar to a bike?

Or something which looks like a robot?

High-Poly Vehicle Art for Games

For this particular model I have chosen to do the brief in which I have to create a high-poly vehicle model, which could be included in a game. The type of vehicle I have chosen is one in which  it would be used for Military purposes – A land, sea or air vehicle designed for combat. As the client has stated in the brief, he would like the vehicle to take inspiration from the sorts of vehicles designed in the films like ‘Elysium’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and games like ‘Titanfall’ & ‘Mass Effect’.  Various other artists and films with similar styles of vehicles design will be researched too.

 

People & motion

To start off here are some of the examples I have done to show motion of people more than the emotions of people e.g. expressions. For this exercise we were tasked to do various sketches, using fluid line in two hours. Overall, I think for this particular task I think I haven't done so well on achieving these techniques on this time round, as I think the sketches should be more loose and try not to focus so much on the detail aspect of things. The problems that I had with these drawings however was the fact that the people I drew tended not to stay still for long enough periods of time, so this made the task difficult as I could only draw certain parts of these people. For all of these drawings, I used an ink pen so I could make more scratch marks because of the time limit and the amount of detail we could only put on it. The reason why I have drawn most of the people from the back, was because every time I tried to draw these people from the front, but they would almost immediately turn in the opposite direction, and were in a different pose. I didn't want to have to keep moving every time they turned their body. I don't know if it was just my luck?, or on purpose.

Although we Had limited time to do this exercise, there was only so much detail I could add, but I would say in my opinion, I think I would need improvement in getting my humans more anatomically correct, as some of the drawings particularly in the waist and leg sections of them, didn't have the correct curvature or were too plump. However, the positives about doing this exercise were that I was able to use materials to create these pieces that I wouldn't normally use every day (ink pen). Another positive about  doing these drawings, was the fact that for certain parts of the body, such as the head, arms and back I noticed a slight improvement in skills, as they were anatomically correct. How can I improve on this session?, well In the future I should practice doing legs and waist and try to speed up on my drawing skills. 

Tone & shading

For this weeks task we had to draw two object, (that were both black and white) with tone and shading. This task was set upon us to give us a greater understanding of the tonal range and value of different objects. For my first two examples I used regular pencil and applied smudging to these two pieces. However applying this technique, I learned later on turned out to be a big mistake for adding tone and shading as it ruined the paper and made it harder to work on and I didn't get the same amount of detail as I wanted to. Since coming from college to university, I have noticed a large improvement in my skills, of tone and shading which can be seen in these two drawings here. One thing I would fault about these two drawings, are that the shadows are possibly a bit intense, as the room was very light to begin with. Although I used pencil and smudged the drawings, I still think it retained most of its detail.

Perspective

Perspective evaluation
For this task we had a maximum amount of time of 2 hours to complete a perspective study, using only line, of any place we wanted as long as it was within the university campus. What was also needed in the perspective drawing was for us to show depth to within the area. For this decided upon choosing an area which was close for convenience, yet still had enough of a composition and had a good perspective without the use of tone and shading. The area I chose was the front entrance to Abertay university.

Because of the sheer scale and the limited time given to draw this composition, this task did prove to be quite a difficult one, with me only being able to roughly draw the simplistic shapes of the buildings and not the finer details of the structures further into the picture. In my opinion I think the drawing has achieved the perspective of this photograph fairly well, as the perspectives from both pretty similar.