We were assigned one last project before the start of FMP,
with between two and three weeks to complete it. We actually had a selection of
briefs to choose from so we could create something relevant to our portfolios.
I chose to create a diorama, which gave me the freedom to create something I personally
found interesting. Naturally I chose a futuristic racing theme since nobody was around to tell me not to!
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| The rough whitebox paintover |
It was stated in the brief that there would not be time to
concept our scenes, and it was recommended that we recreate something existing
or use an existing concept. I wasn’t keen to do this though and I ended up
spending the first day of the project doing rough sketches, a whitebox and a
paintover. I spent the rest of the week modelling the ship. The surprising
issue I encountered was that the tri budget was far higher than what I was used
to- I initially assumed that this was because I was supposed to be making
something more complex, but after speaking to one of my tutors it was apparent
that this was going to be closer to a current gen model than what I was used
to. I chamfered most of the edges slightly and tried to smooth things out a
little, but in the end I feel that my tri usage could’ve been far more
efficient and have had a better result.
The “second week” was a bit tricky. Due to the timing of the
project, the Christmas holidays fell right in the middle. This is why the
project was to be either two or three weeks, as sacrificing part of our
holidays was optional. I opted to try and get what I could done over the
holidays, but due to the lack of a proper working environment I didn’t even get
close to my goal of finishing the main ship asset. I managed to unwrap and
texture the best part of half of it. The time I spent at home probably amounted
to a day or two of work in the labs so I had to properly knuckle down when I
got back.
For the first couple of days of the third week I had to try
and finish off what I had aimed to complete during the holidays. I did not
manage to finish texturing the exposed internals of the ship so they are all
block colours, and although this looks passable it really isn’t an efficient
use of texture space at all. If I return to this project and finish it it will
be fine, but it is pretty bad the way I’ve left it.
I had to move on and model the rest of the scene. I had time
to model the most essential props, but not any of the smaller pieces such as
the toolbox. An interesting problem I found was that I was keen to match the
texture sizes recommended in the brief which resulted in attaching separate
objects and unwrapping them as one when my instinct would be to keep them
separate and use smaller textures. The result of this was me feeling quite
overwhelmed when trying to texture so many things at once, so it is entirely
possible that the texture quality took a huge hit by this.
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| The end result |
The final result of this project as I handed it in looks
quite passable, but if you actually look at the textures it is clearly
unfinished. Even the elements that look finished such as the bodywork of the
ship are not even close to how I envisioned them. I wanted the body to be
plastered with decals and logos like a Formula One car, but this wasn’t
feasible primarily due to the extremely limited concepting time. It is also arguable
that I tried to accomplish more than I could manage even if I had managed to
use the full three weeks’ worth of time. I’m hoping that with my FMP I won’t
have so much of an issue with texturing due to the majority being comprised of
a large number of smaller assets rather than multiple elements crammed onto one
large texture sheet. I plan to revisit this project before I put it in my
portfolio as I am not completely satisfied with it as it stands.
