3D Modeling - Project 1
(Hard Surface Modeling)
March 2021 / SEM 4 (W4 - W8)
To In project 1, students were tasked to create a 3D hard surface modeling based on the knowledge and skills using Maya software. The model could be the vehicles, robots, weapon or anything that could portrait the hard surface visual elements with clear edges. To begin with, I did some online further research regarding hard surface modeling in order to gain a wider understanding before I decided the modeling ideas.
Stage 1: Idea Brainstorm
below was the reference images collected from Pinterest in Miro board for ideas brainstorming. I had a great interest initially in modeling a old school car like James Bond cars in the blockbuster movies. However, the lecturer did not encourage me to model a car especially those with a lot of organic curvy lines as its not easy to model those details in Maya as a beginner. I was encouraged to create something simpler for my project 1 such as the cartoonish car modeling without a massive modeling details. Thus, I opt to model a hoverbike with a moderate details for the project 1.
Below was the final idea sketches for the hoverbike design. Some visual elements of futuristic steampunk was applied and intergraded in order to achieve a delicate visual balance between retro and fashion. While designing the hard surface component, I found that it was challenging to create a good battle vehicle design as I did not have sufficient experience on drawing and designing vehicles in the past. Hence, making use of sufficient visual references was indeed important to pull out a presentable design idea.
Stage 2: Modeling in Maya
I started the model with a basic shapes such as cube and cylinder to block out the rough shape of the hoverbike. I tried to avoid myself delving into the details modeling in haste before getting the blocking correct. I found the biggest different between using 3D Max and Maya to do modeling work was 3D Max allowed me to exact calculation for the dimension of the meshes while Maya gave more flexibility in organic modeling, but it required a good visual estimation when it came to dimension.
(↓ Left image) I was encountering some difficulties in envisioning the exact position to add line segments for the hoverbike body. Therefore I went back to the drawings in Ps and started to do a planning on the meshes segmentations. the reference image was then imported as a guide to ensure the line segments were being cut at the right position. (↓ Right image) The rough modeling for the machine gun, fly bomb, iron spikes and sitting cushion were created.
(↓ Left image) the hoverbike modeling was halfway done in Maya, it gave a rather geometrical and stiff visual perception as the edges had not been smoothen out. (↓ Right image) In order to create a organic yet rigid edges in smooth quality display (keyboard press 3), I needed to add a sufficient amount of subdivisions around the edges of the main model in the rough quality display mode (keyboard press 1).
Stage 3: Rendering in Maya
While dealing with the rendering part, I realised it required a lots of testing and practising to get a presentable results, especially to create a story-driven lighting effect. The biggest issue I encountered while doing the rendering was the surroundings light was too dim. Maybe the way I placing the lighting was not correct, however I was glad that the final rendering result was not too bad.
Final Stage: The outcome
Below were the final renderings and the poster for project 1 Hard surface modeling. Although the final outcome did not fulfil the initial expectations, however, I was grateful that I was able to noticed that there was still a huge room for me to make a good use of the modeling tools to realize my creativity. Time, patience and the proper practices with good guidance is all I need to bring me further.
