Hufflepuff Common Room: Added features

My scene is now taking shape. The textures are working well within the scene and the lighting and sound effects help create the warm, welcoming atmosphere I wanted.

It is now time to add the fine details. I adjusted some of my alpha textures which I previously created using an alpha filter in photoshop and saving out as a taga file format. I also added books to the bookcases by creating a cube in maya and adding extrusions. I also beveled the edges to help add shape and curvature to the spine. I then created multiple textures to help vary each books design.

After placing the books and reapplying the alphas I felt something was missing. The room seemed too empty and didn't quite feel part of the wizarding world. I therefore created additional props for the scene. These were a cauldron, a broomstick, a wooden spoon and a potion bottle. Besides the potion bottle, which needed a glass texture applied I could reuse materials such as the bronxe flower pots and wooden texture for the props.

There was already character to some of the bookshelves and I wanted to add to it even more. I therefore created an alpha plane of a spillage. I then split the potion bottle in half and extruding certain edges. By doing this I created the look of a broken bookcase which smashed and leaked potions onto the floor.

I added particle effects just like I did with the fire to the spilled potions and cauldrons to add more magic. I also added a bubble sound effect I downloaded to help bring the magic to life.

Hufflepuff Common Room: Scripts and VFX

I needed to create scripts for my scene. The reason being is that I wanted to create a introduction cutscene which not only pans the camera around the room but also switches between cameras. I used a script I previously created using arrays for this. However tweaking was needed.  Despite the tweaking to the original script there was a bug. Although the script work it wouldn't activate for some of the cameras causing them to freeze in position. I therefore created a debug script and attached them to the cameras which enabled and disabled the original script. This fixed the error.

I also used the same fire sprite from a previous tutorial and project for my fireplace. I adjusted the particle settings to create a realistic fire.

I downloaded music from both the film and games of the Harry Potter franchise. I used them for the cutscene and general background music. I also downloaded birdsong and fire sound effects to help create an atmosphere within the scene.

Hufflepuff Common Room: Unity

I imported my scene into Unity and came across a few issues. I noticed the scale was off and needed to be adjusted back in Maya. Once the adjustments were made I re-imported the scene. The second issue I came across was the amount of materials imported. I ended up deleting all materials from the project and created them from scratch instead. This helped me manage my project better. As I was importing my texture maps into Unity I noticed a third issue. Because some of the objects had multiple textures attached it would be hard to add them in Unity. I therefore had to separate and extract objects back in Maya such as the walls, floors and doors and reimport them. By having them as separate objects it made it quick and easy to apply the texture maps correctly.

I used the sun shaft and bloom camera effects to create god rays in my scene. This also helped create a warm glow which was vital for the scene.

Hufflepuff Common Room: Comfy furniture

I was taught how to make my furniture look more cozy and textured using fiber mesh in Zbrush. By using the fiber mesh tool and adjusting the values I could create the effect of upholstery. I then exported the fiber mesh and backed normal, cavity and vertex colour maps using xnormals. I then used Quixel to add the textures. I tried to add the additional fern pattern as seen in my reference, but I struggled to recreate the look. I therefore left the textures a plain yellow.

Hufflepuff Common Room: Continuously Tweaking

I've continued using Quixel to texture my models. However I've continued to face issues with my UV's while doing so. For example my doors, windows, chairs and flower pots all had wasted space within their UV's. Not only that, but my floor and wall textures also had issues. The textures were not seamless to begin with and there was stretching of UV's around the entrance.

All of these issues had to be fixed. This required a lot of back and forth between softwares in order to deliver models to a respectable standard. Although tedious it was necessary. The UV's for my walls and floors needed to be evened out using the scaling tool in the UV editor. This helped smooth out the UV's and fixed most issues. However extra edge loops needed to be added around the entrance to mend some of the more tricky stretched textures.

I also needed to attach my windows to the walls. This is because I needed light to shine through them using the skybox in unity. I extruded out the faces of the window. I then merged the edges to four points to form a single polygon. Once I merged the wall and windows together I then connected the verts together and the windows where finally attached. Then I could delete the inner faces and have light shine through them.  

Hufflepuff Common Room: UV Unwrap and textures

UV Unwrap and Textures


I finished UV unwarpping all objects within this project. I used a variety of techniques and tools to do this. The most popular technique I used was cutting and sewing UV edges and unfolding the UV's using the unfold tool. I then used the scale tool to straighten out the edges in the UV editor window.

However for some of the objects such as the wooden chairs this technique wasn't the best. I therefore needed to use the automatic unwrap on certain faces and sew UVs together in order to create cleaner unwraps.















After unwrapping my fireplace I baked the normals from my zbrush model to my low poly model. I then created a colour map. I now had 3 separate maps, which I loaded into quixel to add the final textures.

I'm continuing to add textures to the rest of the environment.

Zbrush revisited

Maya: Hufflepuff Common Room Greybox

18/02/2016




I have greyboxed my Hufflepuff common room environment in Maya. After looking closely at my references I recreated the room while keeping true to the source material.

I modeled the room using a cylinder and separating the top faces for the roof. I Then attached a cylinder to the side of the room to create the archway/ entrance to the room.

I added a smaller cylinder for the barrel which the students crawl through in order to enter the room.

I modeled many objects in separate maya scenes and imported them into the main common room scene here. I created two types of chairs. I created wooden chairs and armchairs. The armchair was tricky as I needed to model it to appear overstuffed and cozy. Once I was happy with the models I imported them into the scene and duplicated.

I modeled the table from a cylinder and extruded several times. I also retopologised the faces so they are all quads.

I modeled the bookshelves and the notice board from simple cubes and extruded.

For the sofa I split the armchair in half and stretched the model. I then duplicated and sewed the two models together to create a whole sofa.



For the doors I used the a cylinder and extruded outwards to create the doorframe. I then extruded from the center to create the doorknob. I duplicated and deleted the doorknob and merged the verts to the center to create the windows. 

I created the fireplace from a cube and used a cylinder and extruded to create the portrait frame.

For the hanging plant pots I used a cylinder and deleted the topfaces. I extruded down and scaled in to create a narrow point. I used a similar technique for the tabletop plant pots I used stretched cubes for the hanging chains.





Maya: Head Modelling

Head Modelling


In class we learned how to create a human head in Maya with correct topology. Using the tutorial and reference images as a guide I created the model step by step.

I first started by modelling the eye. I did this by creating a cylinder and deleting all the faces except for the front. I then shaped the remaining faces to match the eye.

I then followed the same steps and created the mouth. I then extruded out from the edges of both the eye and the mouth and then deleting the inner faces.

From there I extruded from the faces and slowly modeled the rest of the face. I focused on one coloured area at a time making sure I matched the topology in the reference.

Once I was happy with the face I carried on modelling the rest of the head.

Here is the final model.

This model isn't perfect as there are too many creases especially around the neck. I will have to keep repeating the tutorial if I want to learn to correct the errors I've made here. 

Photo Bashing

Photo Bashing

I've been practicing my photo bashing skills within Photoshop. I was given the task of designing an outfit for a character in class using the technique.

After that I decided to experiment with a 3D environment scene. I modeled a crooked cabin within Maya and saved a jpeg render.

I then opened the render in photoshop and photo bashed a scene based on the video game Fallout 4.

I feel this is a good start and with a little practice I should be able to create concepts quickly and easily in photoshop.

Game Arts: 3D Environment Idea

Hufflepuff Common Room

For the spring submission I've decided to create a 3D environment. After going through several ideas and themes I've decided to focus on Harry Potter. I'm going to design the HufflePuff Common Room.


The reason for this is because the Hufflepuff Common Room already has an in depth descriptive narrative on what the environment should look like. Therefore it is a lot easier for me to design an environment that matches the Harry Potter world. Also the Hufflepuff Common Room is the only common room Warner Bros did not design in any of the films or video games. This allows me that little bit of freedom to incorporate my own style within the design.

I first read up on the design of the Hufflepuff Common Room by looking for quotes and references from the Harry Potter books. I then used this information to help create a one sheet and moodboard.