The Room as of the end of July 2021.
A few notes about this blog.
First:
As I didn't work on any particular part of this project in any particular order so the dates are a little all over the place. In the interest of keeping things neat and tidy I will group things together regardless of the dates when they were created. Dates will be highlighted by "***" or in "***"
Second and more importantly:
I'd like to mention is that I lost my very close friend, Sonja, on the 5th July 2021 to very aggressive blood and bone cancer. This, as you can imagine hit me very hard in the month of July and I did lose some focus and drive so the amount of work and dates reflect this.
May 2021: Research and Investigations into Maya and other Programs.
Thoughts and Ideas.
I wish I could go back to the point where I knew nothing and was winging it. At least back then I felt that I could achieve this. The beauty of not knowing what you don't know is that it is sometimes a great place to be. But, now after working on a few of these Linked in courses I now feel like I have absolutely no clue about how to do anything.
Courses and Videos: Maya Video Day.
Courses by George Maestri.
My First Maya Course.
So far I'm really enjoying this course, I'm not that far into it but, since I've already watched the Maya 2020 Essential Training from the start and some of the videos have been repeated I don't need to rewatch them all once more
or then again I might.
It depends on how much I can remember.
Then again I do feel more confident with Maya since I did Rigging and Camera Tracking in Semester 2.
Blog for Rigging.
Blog for Camera Tracking.
(Brendan Model for Rigging in Semester 2)
Back then I felt like this whenever I opened Maya.
Me and Maya then and
now I feel a little more like this.
I feel good when things go right.
At least I'll know where some of the buttons are and what they mean.
I'm being a bit dramatic, I know, but I do know a little more about the menus which, I think, helps with the anxiety and fear aspects of working in Maya. Plus if I get stuck then I can always rewatch them later on.
I'll begin with the videos that related to Modelling and Meshes. I think that's a good idea and place to start since I have some models/furniture to make for the room environment.
My Second Course.
Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 were a marathon to watch despite each of the videos being only a few minutes long it still takes it out of you when you have to concentrate on something that you're learning.
For me when I learn I like to learn everything first and then apply that learning to the paratactical process.
This year has been a little different. I've had to learn as I went through the course and apply the process directly to my practice.
It's a new process that has taken a little time to get used to.
So now that I have watched and rewatched the video's I think it's time to start getting into the reality of the practical work of building the furniture in the room for my project.
But first I'd like to watch the section on Animation.
My Third Maya Course.
Watching these has really helped me understand how to animate in Maya as I was really struggling to understand the basics.
I keep watching the videos from Animschool, who specialise in Character animation and Game Design in America. I'm pretty sure that they mostly use Maya for all there models and characters so I really wanted to learn about how to animate in Maya.
I have to be careful how much I watch as I can get sucked in and they are amazing animations.
It's May right now so Demo Reels and Show Reels are starting to emerge on the internet. I took some time away from the course video's to discover what other graduates have produced over the last few years.
This might back fire since everyone has produced such incredible work that is top quality in character animation and VFX computer design.
Animschool of Animation 2021 Demo-reels/Showcase.
Animation Mentor 2020 Demo-reels/Showcase
Houdini 2020 Demo-reels and Showcase.
University of Dundee BDes Animation Showreel 2020 Demo-reel/Showcase.
June 2020.
(Some show reels have been delayed this year due to covid so I've linked in the ones from 2020)
I could spend an eternity watching these showreels but, for now I feel like chilling it is the weekend after all.
Maybe I should think about getting back to work??
This guy is right it's the weekend and why not take a few days.
Weekend is over time to get back to work.
Now it's mid May, how time fly's, it might be time to start modelling and start applying all those lessons I learned from those courses.
The actual Deadline is 9.08.21 at 9am and I'm going to set one for the 02.08.21.
Remember that dates will be highlighted by "***" or "***" so that they can be located easily.
I always like to be ahead of the deadline by at least 1 week and I feel confident that I will be on time. That is if nothing goes wrong, happens or there are no disasters. Which I hope will not happen but, you never know.
A recap of where I am at this point in my environment project.
February 2021.
Floor Plan: 1.02.2021.
The room will have one wall as a picture window and large sliding/pocket opening for a doorway.
When the room changes the window will black out and the door will close and a more fluorescent ambient light will take over and illuminate the room.
Wall and Picture Window Assets: 01.02.21
The table was created a week later on the 8.02.21.
It's almost mid May it is time to start modelling, to start getting down to applying all those lessons I learned from those courses. Let's see how this goes.
17.05.21.
(From the first course I watched)
Example from the Course
2019 Essential Training Course on LinkedIn.
My attempt to make the chair for the main project. I still haven't mirrored the chair yet because I have an issue with the arm. It doesn't seem to be sitting in the right location. The main difference is that I don't have a top view of this chair. However, I think the arm should angle in towards the back.
I wish I'd taken more pictures of the issues that I'd had over the course of creation. The back of the chair took a few attempts, the seat of the chair took a few attempts but, the leg of the chair, particularly the top where the armrest is, was the hardest of the 3 parts to make.
The curve of the arm was difficult and making it look seamless took a work. Maybe there was an easier way to do this however, I think I pulled it off. We will see what happens when I start adding textures and materials.
Reference of Chair (https://bombinate.com/product/2000001000310220163?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpJH44ICI8gIVAbvVCh2htQNrEAQYCCABEgKpxvD_BwE)
It took a lot of work to achieve the curves. I'm quite proud of the work that I achieved today. I'll keep going till the room is completely finished.
Top view of the chair and from here you can clearly see the gap between the arm and the back of the chair.
The next task is to figure out how to angle the arm inwards.
18.05.21.
Before I start the side tables I really want to redo the arms on the chair. That arm really bothers me and I know that I can do it better.
I figured out that the arm is slightly angled in and downwards. It's not exactly to scale or aligned. I think it is as close as I can get it and it does look natural.
The biggest issue now is the back part of the seat and that it doesn't align with the base. I also forgot to do the screws in the legs but, I don't think that it will matter too much as they are not very noticeable in the scene.
It did take all morning but, it was worth it.
Gallery.
Notes from 26 and 27.05.21.
I started hearing about substance painter around the end of May and the beginning of June and there will be more on this later but, basically I fell in love with it and want to do more. but, first I had to learn it. I used my desk chair as an experiment which I will talk about in more detail however, this side chair was left till the end of July and I will talk about this now.
Substance Painter Research.
Chair continued 27.07.2021.
Office Side Chairs.
Maya.
When I built this chair in May I took advice from a lot of different tutorials on linkedIn and a few from Youtube that dealt with building furniture models. The problem with doing that was that it didn't help me understand that the chair I made had way too much topology and when I tired to remove it I didn't do that in the right way either. This was therefore not the best made object or even the more efficient. I have the advantage that it is only a prop in the room and sits in the background.
Next time I will have to be more aware of the construction and subdivisions and be more efficient.
I showed this to Sang and asked for his advice. He recommend a few areas for improvement. Most notable was connected to the amount of vertex's that I have and how to delete them correctly from the model. It is too late for this one particular model but, I will be using his advice in the forever future.
Another suggestion was to revise the Soda-Can project that was due back in Semester 1 (December 2020). Now for various reasons, one being that I didn't have a working computer till almost December, translated into me not being able to complete this project and because I simply had never worked in Maya before and I did not know how to use it.
Youtube and Google have become my best friend's this last year and I have a feeling we will remain firm friends for the forceable future. For now though this felt like a really good proposal so I decided to rewatch the videos once more.
Once I'd rewatched the videos I decide to set aside some time, about a week I thought, to try to complete the task. This was so out of my reach only 10 months ago and it still seemed ambitious even now.
Soda-Can Blog.
Started: 04.07.21
Completed: 07.07.21 and the
Ice took the 15.07.21 and 16.07.21 to complete.
You can read more about the whole process on this blog.
One of the final renders:
This might have seemed like taking a step back or wasting time but, learning is never wasted time and it is foolish to believe that you know everything. So I will always want learn what I do not know and discover a better, more efficient, way of working and for this building models.
I began this project in Ernest and then to my surprise thee days later and I had my final can.
Two more and I was cooling it down with some virtual ice (which I used to help me learn about glass and reflective surfaces for my office desk). It turned out not too bad and I actually enjoyed the process a lot more than I had the first time when I was too rushed to digest the information or understand exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it.
First render with three point lighting.
Diversion over.
Side Chair UV Maps.
First attempt of Side Chair on Substance Painter.
2nd pass to make the material lighter. I still think the material is a bit too rough. I would like it to be a bit smother but I'll see how this turns out.
This reminds me of a retro tv so much.
Trying to fix out the textures on the material but, it is still really rough. Might have to ramp up the metallic texture or add another fill to soften and smooth it out.
Despite the issues I do like the wood texture and the colour of the fabric at this point.
It will all change when I take this into Maya I'm sure of that.
Maya.
When I first looked at this in Maya I thought I had done really well and I know the colour isn't the same and it feels just as rough as it was on Substance Painter.
I did have a sense of knowledge because I had already done the tables (you can see them in this image) and my desk chair, which I will talk about later on in this blog.
That was until I saw my room through the Arnold Render viewer.
Oh dear me what has happened here...
Now, on a side note, I strangely do like this. I find it very Neolithic and/or futuristic depending on the setting but, for what I was hoping to achieve it is completely wrong.
Very, very wrong.
So very wrong! It isn't that clear but, even a blind man can see that something is not right in the virtual world of Maya.
I realise that I had a break from Substance Painter in July and I forgot that I do have a bad memory so this wasn't that big of a shock to be honest but, I thought I was winning with this program.
I mean I absolutely love it and I had been working with it for a good few weeks and understanding it. I know that I will be doing everything in my power to learn more about it, there is no questioning that and that lead me to believe that I really had learned something quickly. I think I should maybe try a few more tutorials to get me back into using the program once more.
But, moving forward since going back would take too long.
Hyper- from Maya on my small chair textile.
The reason turned out to be a simple one. The Height Map was brought in by mistake, it wasn't needed on the others and therefore I forgot to turn it off when exporting out the textures. Once I broke the connections with the standard surface output then normal service was resumed.
The side chair as of 27.07.21
At least it renders out correctly despite the texture/fabric of the textile being what looks rough and the wrong colour. Maybe once the lighting goes in things will turn out.
One of three problems fixed.
(the solutions to the other two are on
Part 2 of this Blog)
Office Desk Chair.
26.05.21 to about the 23.06.21.
Final Model for the Desk Chair.
Notes:
This chair wasn't as difficult to build as some of the other pieces of furniture that I've been building. So either it wasn't as difficult as it looked or I'm getting better at doing this.
I hope it's the latter because then it would mean that I am learning and getting better even if it seems easy enough for most people I still am proud of all the work that I have done and I look forward to all the work that I still have to complete.
Building this desk chair brought new challenges. The arms were a challenge I built one and then tried to duplicate it over and rotate it and then [-] the values but, that didn't quite work and something about them didn't look right.
I still haven't figured out how to do the textured pattern on the back of the seat.
It does have me stumped.
This has been quite a challenge since it is the first time that I have attempted to make something that doesn't contain anything more than solid shapes and flush finishes.
I tired creating a tile pattern from solid planes and then dipping the corners in on themselves however, that didn't really work either as it wouldn't sit flush on the back that I'd created.
I tired a stitching tutorial on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqB45iP6i3w but that didn't work out quite right.
Then this one on how to do a Chesterfield pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwEaCBNNYiQ
and finally I tried this mattress pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV4E3NKHW2A this one turned out to be the closest match but, still it was not quite right either. I'm hoping that I can do something in Substance Painter.
I do still want to add a texture/material that will give the impression of old supple patterned leather.
Desk Chair Gallery as of June 2021.
UV Maps.
Around this time and with this model is when I got really into Substance Painter. Here is a selection of some of the links and references I used. This is not a full list but, a range of the ones I found to be helpful and intresting.
June 2021.
Videos Watched.
Youtube.
I've been watching this channel on Youtube a lot recently.
Sang's Video's.
Sang's video's are really good for the whole process of taking things into Substance Painter and working on them before exporting them back into Maya to continue working on them.
Some other Videos on Maya Arnold and Textures on Photoshop.
Linked In Learning Maya 2020 Essential Training.
Chapter's 8,9 and 10.
Each technique has its own pluses and minuses, as does the instructor, where I've found that it really matters is what kind of patten or texture or material you're hopping to create. With the standard choices in Maya they might be enough for general or quick options but, having something from Photoshop, where it is specifically tailored and individual, would be good if you're working on a scene that requires something unique.
Substance Painter seems to have a high quality and wide verity of choice but, it also seems to take up a large amount of memory or disc space on the computer so I will definitely have to watch that and make sure that I am backing stuff up properly.
I do not want to lose anything or run out of memory before I'm even half way through.
Another thing to think about is that most of the tutorials that I've found on line tend to lean towards OBJ's and Jpegs and Sang uses FBX or Tiff's. Judging by what I've read and learned FBX and Tiff might be the way to go for getting a higher quality end product.
My definition fo the difference between OBJ and FBX:
OBJ is much simpler format that only keeps geometry (vertex, normals, etc) and uv data. FBX is much more advanced format that can hold much more data - models, uv data, joints, skinning information, animations, multiple takes of animation in one file, curves, and even embed texture files.
Office Desk Chair Continued.
Original Reference for the desk chair.
End result at the moment.
This was the first pass of the desk chair that I made. Ideally I would love to use the chair that James Annandale drew a concept for. However, my Maya skills are not quite there yet I'll give it a shot once I've done a little more. Until that time I'll stick with this one.
Final Chair.
Desk Chair in the Room.
Small Side Tables.
Side Tables.
May to June 2021.
These are the side tables that I've chosen to use in the design of the office. The boomerang design was popular in the mid 1900's and the reflective surface will hopefully allow light to bounce off.
I also really love the orange colour and the iron legs of the table which is mirrored in the main office desk.
The being question is: How on earth am I going to make these curves in Maya?
I've put the table top in for now but I'm still working on trying to find out how to do these curves.
I know that I've seen how. I remember watching a video thinking that it would be possible which is why I haven't thought about it much until now but, I'm having memory again issues at this point. I guess the lack of stimulus over the last year has made my mind mush.
First Attempt.
From this first attempt it is easy to how uneven the table top looks from the side and front views.
Final table top.
The second attempt came out much straighter and smoother in the side and front views.
UV Maps.
Gallery.
Table Tests.
May to June 2021.
Original Reference for the small tables.
Small side table. (first test)
This table isn't a metallic as I'd like I think I need to go back into Substance Painter and rework some of the settings
View from the inside of the room.
The Desk Table.
February 2021 and July 2021.
This was originally set to be a glass table with iron legs that turned into a touch table.
There are more details on my Blast Off Blog.
Schematic for the Touch Table:
This is the final schematic that will hopefully be used in the animation. The plan at present is to have it reduce down to twice over the course of Scott's attempts to find the workaround that will save the day.
Table Reference.
(unable to find a link to the location of the source)
This table will be a little more complicated because I don't have any architectural plans of this table but, it should be simple enough.
A reminder of what the main desk/touch-table will look like. I still love the simplicity of this table.
June 2021.
Tabletop UV Maps.
Legs.
UV layout of table Top for After Effects.
(it's a bit hard to see but, it still comes through)
Gallery.
First Test Animation of Touch Table.
27.07.2021.
Since July my project has been simplified to an office environment and I have decided not to continue on with the original production of my touchable and instead focus on the office environment.
The table will still have a glass top and iron legs which have been generated in Maya's AiStandard Surface Render.
Applying the Glass to the Table Top.
Doing this table top was one of the quickest and easiest parts of the project to complete and I think it mainly had to do with the SodaCan project where I investigated and added ice for the can to sit on.
Most of the time was taken up tweaking the levels to find the right transparency. I really like the frosted look and I'm not sure if I should keep it this way or smooth it into a more glassy look.
I've also noticed that the legs are really coming through so I will adjust this so that they aren't so prominent.
Out of all the days I have spent on this project doing this was possibly the easiest, the quickest and the most rewarding because of the first two reasons. For me, personally, I feel it was because I had researched and completed the process previously in another tutorial.
Sliding Door.
27.07.2021
Reference for sliding door.
I keep calling it a sliding door although it is also known as a pocket door.
I first started out by building the wall and using the edge loops to portion out the glass/frosted panel's that will be slotted in. I made a small error with the wall and miscalculated how to fill in the spaces.
On the horizontal edges you use the "bridge" tool to fill the gap on the vertical edges and use a "fill hole". This is what is advised in the video that I have been following for building this wall and door.
A collection of images with the sliding door construction.
I used the concepts in this video to make the wall and the door.
The second attempt at this worked much better since I had already done one test (and failed) but, still experience with constructing this wall and the second attempt, I feel came out much better than the first.
The wall where the door will be.
Making this was much easier the second time and the more and more that I repeat the process the better and better I become at it. As it should be but, you have to have the right training and teaching in order to achieve it.
It's still a little difficult to see but, there is frosted glass in these panel. I'm thinking about making them a little more frosted, the way the table top was when I first generated it however, I'm not sure about that yet.
The Mural.
Too many dates to mention: April/May/June and July 2021.
A frustrating idea
with a fantastic outcome.
...but then aren't they are always the best ones.
Completed on the 28th July 2021.
Image.
Reference Image.
Over semester 1 and 2 and now three this mural has been the bane of my existence! I kid you not.
First I tired to import the image in the 3D space and that didn't work.
Then I tired to import the image in the Shot_cam space and that worked but, not very well.
Then I turned to my friends (Youtube and Google) for moral support and guidance and they came up with this however, that turned out to be misleading as the post was from 2011 and a little out of date.
What I should have done was ask my Maya Guru Sang how to do this. I know I wanted to solve this problem myself and I tried, for months I tried and to no avail. So when I accepted that this one had me beat I asked for guidance.
This is what happened.
Adding an Image to a scene.
This has turned out even better than I expected and I am super impressed with the way it looks. I only wish I was the one who had been able to complete the challenge without any additional.
Now that I have added this to the scene, with some assistance, I have decided that I want to add someone artwork to the wall behind the desk. There was supposed to be a wooden sculpture in the background so this won't be far from the the original idea.
Old Artwork/Sculpture.
I liked the idea of having some sculpture mounted on the wall behind the desk.
Original sketch of the office.
Most of this has stayed the same but, I haven't had time to build the bookcase.
New Artwork Proposed.
29.07.2021.
These are magazine covers that I made when I was studying my degree (many years ago) for another project that didn't come into being. I never did anything with them and now I have the opportunity to place them somewhere where they can be of use.
I have no way of eating them in there current format, other than to change them from PDF's to either PNG's or Tiff's, any editing that I do will have to take place in Maya. I also couldn't find the original locations for these images but, I hope that I would have chosen free images. At least in this setting of "education" I can use them without incurring any copyright issues.
Images/Magazine Covers to use.
Shape References from Google Images.
Results.
I still have issues getting this wood texture to show up in the render view. Will work on it later as I'n sure the next frames will have the same issues if not more.
Picture Frames.
Shape References from Google Images.
Results from this tutorial.
This tutorial was easy to follow and complete. It provided me with the best and quickest solution to my problem. I'm still unable to make the wood effects/texture stand out in render and I will have to solve that problem later. For now I want to finish adding more colour and textures to my scene.
Gallery.
Wallpaper for the Hallway.
Links.
Free images to use as wallpaper in the hallway. It is a bit difficult to decide upon on which one to use.
Option: A.
Option B:
Chosen Pattern.
I have chosen this one as my hallway wallpaper.
It has a lovely pattern with a few subtle colours that I hope to replicate throughout the rest of the environment. It is also really great to see some colours other than varying shades of "space" grey on everything.
Notes:
A few quick comments about today's production. Today I feel like I had a really productive day. I got colour onto the walls, the flooring, the hallway and the hallway flooring. I still have to figure out why the "wood" texture still isn't coming on when the render viewer is active.
I chose the colour orange because it was my friend Sonja's favourite colour. I really wanted to put some of her influence into this project because she was so supportive in what I have been doing this last year despite dealing with the cancer that eventually took her life.
I have offset this strong and independent colour with a burgundy floor in the office and a teal hallway floor. I hope the colours come out as strong as they do in the 3D space because I am loveing them. The are definitely reminding me of Andy Burgess, David Moore and Will Martyr.
Andy Burgess.
David Moore.
Will Martyr.
Today's Colour Gallery.
29.07.2021.
12 Days Before the Hand in.
To gauge where I am at this point I'm going to figure out what I have achieved so far and what I hope to achieve over the next week.
The Room as is...28.07.2021.
From the Perspective View.
From the Arnold Render View.
Through the Arnold Render Viewer you can see that there are some issues going on with applied surfaces and textures. and that glass is supper sharp compared to the first render where it was frosted.
I have added a few extra walls and a ceiling to give the rooms a sense of presence in the 3D space and allow for a path where the camera can follow to show off the room in it's best sense.
This is a better view with the Sky-dome light on to give a sense of shadow and shape to the scene as I haven't done any lighting yet.
The Room as is...29.07.2021.
As you can see a lot has happened over the last day alone and I feel that with colour comes life. There is still stuff missing. I'm thinking some sort of vegetation or plant life.
I should be focusing on the camera work and the lights but, first I want to looking into adding some more areas of interest to the environment. This might include a clock, lamps, plants or more artwork in the hallway or picture frames on the desk. I'm not sure yet.
I really wanted to make everything myself or at least with the aid of tutorials or guidance from Sang and Kieran from the university I'm slightly concerned about time and how little there is left of it.
My lecturer Kieran Duncan suggested using pre-made assets and I have looked into this through websites like: https://www.thangs.com, https://www.turbosquid.com/free-maya-models and https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models. He also sent me this link
about the Smithsonian's recently scanned 3D Heritage models which I will have to investigate further since this would be amazing if I could get one of these high quality scanned models in my environment. Although, I am slightly apprehensive that it would outshine my simple model and it would defiantly be more interesting.
What I have done so far:
The basic shape of the room i.e: Walls.
Built the furniture: the chairs and tables
Added the sliding door
Added the mural
Added the walls for the hallway
Added textures and materials to the tables and chairs
What I still have to:
Wallpaper for the hallway (completed 29.07.2021)
Artwork on the office walls (completed 29.07.2021)
Accessories: Plants/Clocks/Objects etc
Lighting
Camera Path
Might need a different SkyDome Light
(the wood texture still needs to become active in the render viewer and the side chair textures still needs to smoothed out)
Seems like I'm halfway there. 6 for 6.
Now (29.07.21) it is 10 for 4 .
I think that's it although I have a sneaky suspicion that I'll get to the end of the next week and find that I have missed something incredibly important and absolutely necessary that I never even knew existed.
Continued on
Office Room Environment Project (May to August 2021) Final Personal Project
Part 2.
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