Week 8: Church Texture

This week I worked mainly on cleaning up the churches geometry and organizing the outliner. Once that was clean I then proceeded to UV the church and drop it into a texturing software where I applied the right kind of textures that matched the painting.

The first thing that I did to the church was delete a bunch of unseen faces to clean up the geometry. I then split the geometry into peaces so that I could delete certain edges to lower the face count. I managed to delete 2000 faces from the geometry. This will help with render times later down the road. 

I then organized and named all of the components of this model. The objects are grouped according to the materials that separate their UV's. I could not fit all of the objects on to one UV map, I had to use four. Therefore there are four groups.

Once that was finished I started UVing my model and unfolding all of the peaces and sections in the UV editor. Once I was finished I tried to pack a majority of the UV's into one map but that wouldn't work so I had to separate the peaces into four major maps. 

After the UVing was done I duplicated the model to create two separate models. One would act as my base mesh and the other would become my clown mesh. When created I took the separate peaces of the mesh and made them each a different color for each material that I want to apply to the house.

Once the clown mesh was created I exported both the clown mesh and the base mesh using the FBX exporter in Maya. I made sure that embedded media was on so that it would export with materials. Using the clown mesh and the base mesh I created a color ID map for textures. 

Once I created an ID map for each of the base meshes materials in a software called Substance Painter I then started to apply different materials to the model in a clean and efficient way. Using a color selection tool you can create different layers of masked materials. Some of the materials that  I used were found on the Substance share site. Once applied the finished product looked pretty accurate to the painting.

To give the windows a similar look to the painting of the building I used Photoshop and an snapshot of the windows UV's to create similar shading from the painting. 

  

I still have some small color mapping issues that I need to clean up in Photoshop. But other that that I plan on having the priests house and the bridge all cleaned up and textured by next week.    

   

  

   

  

   

Week 7: Modeling Environment

This week I have finished modeling all of the foliage that is in the painting. This included many of the bushes and the trees in the scene. Once they were completed and modeled I brought them into the rendering engine and dispersed them to the spots that needed foliage. Lastly I created the silhouette of the trees that are in the background of the scene.

When it came to the foliage there were five main bushes that I created. All of the foliage was made by using the paint effects tools in Maya. In Toolbag all I did was apply a green material to the plains because they filled the scene better than if I used a leaf texture. To add the flower I took the pedals from the flower brushes and populated the base bush I made with different flowers. 

When it came to the silhouette of the trees I used just a little bit of trickery, all I did was create a cylinder and cut it into a third section then deleted the top and bottom faces. I UV'd it and made a silhouette picture using a bunch of tree silhouettes I found online. After changing the settings and creating an alpha layer for the trees in Photoshop I was able to create a believable treeline. Then using the fog in Toolbag I was able to make it look like it was in the distance.  

Now that all of the foliage and the environment of the painting is pretty much modeled I will begin working on UV'ing and texturing the ground plain and all of the structures in my scene. I will be using Substance Painter to create the textures that will be used in this painting.   

   

   

 

Week 6: Modeling Environment

This week of modeling I started making the major trees that were in the scene that I'm creating. For this I used a software called treeit, a 3D tree generation software. I spent most of my time learning how to use the software. I then ran into the problem of creating the bushes that are in the scene this would also be a hard fix. Lastly I dropped the whole scene in Marmoset due to the fact that the tree shades work better in the rendering engine.

When I started working on the environment I wanted to start with the things in the scene that are the most prominent. So made the most noticeable trees in treeit. It was a little hard to work in the software because most of the adjustments that can be done to the trees can only be done using the sliders on the settings bar. There are no real 3D manipulation tools.    

An issue that I had in Marmoset was that the leaves on the trees came out to look way smaller than they did in the Treeit view port. The best way to fix this was to go into TreeIt and make the leave of the tree bigger. 

Once I had the main trees finished I went on to trying to create bush for the ground. Unfortunately there isn't any software strictly for making bushes. So it took me a while to try and figure out a solution to creating bushes. Then I thought about the tree brushes in Maya. If I deleted the trunks and only kept the leaves the canopy would look like a bosh. Luckly this worked so i created one of the bushed from the picture. I then went in and saw what other foliage the painting tool might have. 

Now that I have figured out a way to make more bushes and trees I plan to peace different parts of the brush presets together to look like the plants in the painting. This will hopefully help fill in some of the empty space that is in the environment.  

  

  

     

Week 5: Modeling Environment

This week I dedicated my time to modeling the environment of the painting. This included building the ground plain and sculpting it to look like a river terrain as well as learning a new software called TreeIt to create all of the foliage in the scene. I also finished modeling the bridge that goes across the river, the stone wall and the boat dock. Lastly I staged the whole environment in Maya.

When building the terrain I decided to sculpt it in ZBrush because I had the freedom to make the model extremely high or low poly and I think sculpting in ZBrush is a lot smoother than in Maya. It was hard for me to get the right bend and curve in the river but after trial and error I figured out a good way to do it. 

Once the river had been sculpted out I was able to make the bridge that spanned the length of the gap in the river. In order to make the bridge I used a Boolean on a rectangle to create the arches then used a bend deformer to get the curved effect the bridge has.

Once the bridge was done and everything was laid out I dipped into a software called TreeIt. This software is good for creating custom trees that look relatively realistic. The software is a little complex and full of settings but I'm starting to get the hang of it. 

From here on out I plan on learning and getting a good understanding on how TreeIt works. Then I will be working on populating the scene with a bunch of trees. Once that is finished I will start working on final modeling touch ups before I get into UVing.    

    

  

Week 4: Modeling

This week I finished making the church and the priests house that are next to each other. In the house I decided to create the window frames using geometry instead of textures. I have also cleaned up much of the geometry on the church so that it is all clean and efficient. The priests house was hard to make but worked out relatively well.

I think that it was a good call to model the windows into the church because it looks a lot more realistic than if I just used textures. I plan to simulate a light behind the window by using an illuminate texture on a plane in the shape of the window that I'm trying to light up.

The priests house was hard to create but I think that it looks pretty good. I decided to used the duplicate special tool to create the arches that are around the building. It took me a while to figure out but once I did it worked pretty well.

This is the church and the priests house with a couple of lamp posts put in to show what the set up should look like in the rendering engine Marmoset Toolbag. 

I intend to start modeling the environment starting with the ground plane so I know how wide the river is supposed to be. That way I know how big the bridge is supposed to be in order to cross the river. 

Week 3: Modeling

Last week I had jumped the gun and began modeling the props in my scene and completely forgot to do a blocking scene for my painting. Here it is...

This week I started working on the main structures that are inside the painting. I started working on the church first because it would be the hardest structure to model and it is the main focus in the painting. So far I have practically finished modeling the whole church. The major decision that I need to make is if I will be modeling the windows or saving polygons and texturing them.

One of the hardest parts of modeling the church was getting the dimensions of the church correct. Also the two windows in the front of the church were really hard to make because I used a Boolean to cut the geometry into the building. But I think I did a good job at cleaning up the geometry. 

One of my favorite parts of the model was the front door. I think that it is the one of the better parts of the model and it came out looking really good. 

Next week I plan to make my final decision on weather I will texture or model the windows of the church. I will also try to have the priests house, the bridge, and the rest of the church done. I will also start learning how to use the program Tree It for all of the trees in the painting.   

    

 

Week 2: Modeling

This week I began modeling many of the objects that are in the scene. This included the lamppost, the bridge lamps, the gazebo, and the boat. I thought it would be better to start out with these props because they could be done as a group. 

The lamp post was my favorite prop to do because I got to use the curve and revolve tools. Using those tools you can create some beautiful designs for posts. One of the hardest parts of the lamppost was creating the supports for the lamp itself, it took me a while to find the right curve but I found it eventually. 

The gazebo was a fun structure to do, in the painting it is hard to see many of the small details but the overall details are pretty clear. Trying to figure out the number of polls that go around the gazebo was not easy but I think I figured it out. The wire frame roof was fun to make and I think it looks pretty close to the one in the painting. 

The bridge lamp was pretty easy to make. Once I had the lamppost done I took the lamp off the post and created a new base for it. That way it sits nicely on the bridge. 

Lastly I built the boat that is in the bottom left corner of the painting. I'm probably going to change this boat a bit because it is so smooth, I want it to have more defined edges.   

Next week I will be completing the church that is in the painting as well as hopefully finishing the bridge. The toughest part about modeling the church will be trying to complete the sides that I cant see. The bridge will be an interesting task as well.