Time machine Iterations

Here are some quick sketches of what my time machine could look like, only a few a I have as pretty solid Idea of what I would like which the drawings below will show.

 Design 2, Is the one that I do like the most, I like the idea of a hard edge model. The base with a PC attached would be a nice touch.

The drawing on the left is my most favourite design, I like the idea of it being on a stage like platform of some sorts. The added ring that is connected to the leg could be a type of scanner that lowers down when a character has stepped on the base and then transports you to the past or future. The PC is were a character can place the information of were they would like to go. I want it to be sci-fi themed as I haven't modelled anything in this theme before and thought it would be different to do, and it links to the project well because when I think of a time machine I think of advanced technology that you see in films it's quite traditional. 

Time machine reference images.

I have found some images that have given me a few ideas for my next 3D model project the time machine. I like the idea of a sci fi platform.

(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jVLvoFlKPtQ/maxresdefault.jpg)

(http://img12.deviantart.net/832f/i/2013/317/3/5/main_lab_area_by_blueroguevyse-d6u57gg.jpg)

(https://www.asme.org/getmedia/ad9f3889-c243-4527-ad45-054c809b7eda/time_machine.jpg.aspx)

Week 24 summary

This week I have finally finished my pillar, it didn't come out as I hoped but I did like how the detail has kept well, and overall happy that I can now focus on my time machine project as I haven't done much for it yet, but wish to get the model side completed in the Easter break. We had a live workshop lecture earlier this week. On Thursday we had a contextual studies lecture about phenomenology and thinking through our senses. These lectures in the last few weeks have been very interesting even though somethings I don't understand fully I still like to learn new things and these lectures have opened up my mind on how I will now see games and there meanings. I have been thinking a lot more of the essay that needs to be completed, with the two week break I feel this will be a good time to sit down and start especially the research and my solid idea, which I do kind of have now.

My pillar in Unreal engine 4

When the pillar was finally finalised in Maya and baked in X normal I then had to place the pillar in unreal engine 4. It took awhile to get to this point as I had made an error of scaling my model when imported back from z brush causing problems but with help I finally got my pillar into unreal engine.

This is the low poly model of the pillar in unreal engine without the normal map on.

My pillar with the normal map selected. There is one problem I noticed when placing this into unreal engine is that the pillar base at the bottom is lacking detail on the front side, I'm not too sure why this has happen, but I'm glad that it is in unreal engine, and overall the detail in the pillar is quite effective I'm just disappointed in the curvature of the shape, I was hoping for a sharper shape like my base model.

Broken Pillar model creation stage.

My Pillar had to be first created in Maya only starting from a basic base model, I chose to go with a simple shape that could easily be recognised as a pillar. I wanted the pillar to be well worn, to do this the best way to get these results would be importing the base model into z brush.  Below I'm going to show the stages of my pillar from the start nearing the UV stage.

This is my simple shape, the base model that would be imported into z brush. The base model was done fairly easily and didn't take to long, it consists of extruding from a cube shape and moulding it into a shape that I wanted, this was done at the bottom of the base. The block on top of the bottom base was created and then duplicated a few times. The top block was also moulded to a shape I wanted. I didn't want to make it to square in shape.

This is the pillar in high poly mode in Z brush, I found this piece very experimental I enjoyed creating it and I think the texture of a rock came out well, but maybe a little to much detail was added  to it. The brushes that I used were clay tubes and alpha brushes to give it the detail that it has. I did use a few more brushes as well.

I then had to decimate the pillar so it didn't have such a high poly count I had to lower the poly's to 10k or under, I believe mine came around 7k. I was disappointed with the outcome of my pillar when it was decimated as I found it lost a lot of it's shape. A clear example of this is the top of the pillar it now has curved edges.

I then imported my pillar into Maya once again and then used the quad draw tool to make a low poly of the pillar. The low poly model was then UV mapped.

This is the normal map from my pillar which was baked using X normal.

Week 23 summary

During the start of the week we had a lecture which was another live workshop. We were told that our current modeling project the pillar needed to be finalised by the end of this week. This made me worry a little as I have been having some problems with it. On Thursday we had a contextual studies lecture that was focused on game mechanics, this was an interesting lecture. In my own time I have been trying to finished my pillar, the UV's have been done but I have have got little behind.

Week 22 summary

On Monday I we had a live workshop lecture where our tutor was going through some tips with Maya and Z brush. I do enjoy this way of learning, as we have more of a chance of asking questions and it also recaps on somethings that have been mentioned before but may feel less confident with. On Thursday we had contextual studies which was a interesting topic, I did enjoy it. The lecture was about gender and intersectionality. Our tutor spoke about a video game that I very much enjoyed playing called "Life is strange". I never really thought of analysing the game in this manner, it has given me an idea for a possible essay idea or using this as my game choice. Also in the week I have had a problem with my Pillar. When I was using the quad draw tool I made an error somewhere along the way and it caused the new polys to spiral. I did try to fix this problem but I found it quite difficult to get my head around so I decided I would start using the quad draw tool again around my mesh from the beginning. It did work out in the end and I did manage to complete the quad draw in one night. It did set me back a day but I did learn from my mistake.