3D visua

Main 2D to 3D visualisation tasks we’ve done so far (during this schoolyear).

• (End)boss-type creature.
• Head
• 3D map*

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Let’s start with the first one. To briefly explain the task: Design and model an endboss for a game (or basically a sort of boss-type creature) but without the use of any ‘human’-type elements (human figure).

I liked the theme of the task, however the model itself didn’t come out exactly as I had in mind. Mainly because there were several elements I wasn’t 100% sure of how to do them & because I tried to keep the polygon count to a minimum. My design consisted of a bird-like monster with two heads, body made of bones & black wings. The bones were so-so, if I were to do each of them with full detail, the polygon count would’ve surely been a bit overboard. The main thing I had trouble with were the wings. I’ve searched for some tutorials but had trouble understanding/following them. Honestly, I think I would’ve managed if I researched a bit more, but due to lack of time I had to let it go and, for now, settle on something more simple. I did however learn some new things about the use of materials in Blender (eg. making certain polygons transparent) as well as the use of ligths & certain Render settings. Another aspect of this task was that we learned how to place bones in our models. With this we could give them all sorts of poses by moving around certain body parts, instead of completely replacing/move all polygons.

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The second task in the list was to create a head. More specifically; our own head. The result of this one is one I am quite proud of, if I may say so myself. It certainly came with some dificulties (it’s our fist time making an actual high poly human head after all) but nonethelsess we’ve all learned some new things. Thankfully we had a clear step-by-step explanation/tutorial because on my own I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it (or let’s say it would have looked a lot different, with a lot of mistakes and many silent curses). During this task I paid a lot of attention to line-flow and its importance to create a clean, proper model, as well as to make sure the head actually somewhat resembles me. The 3D models do not have hair though, so just in case: I’m not bald, I do have long hair.

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Finally, the last task in this list; 3D map. For this one we had to create a level/3D map. However, we could only use one 1024 x 1024 px, uv-map image for all colors/textures. The reason for learning this is because every image you use inside of a game takes space & time to load. The more you can minimize it, the ‘better’. This certainly isn’t easy if you have a lot of different objects, or in my case; need some sort of skybox/background image as it’s an open space, not a closed of room.

The biggest problem I had with this task was probably simple, plain old lack of time. Several other tasks and some miscommunication about the deadline for our class didn’t help either. The theme itself was enjoyable though, much like the endboss one. Before I forget; this map also needed to have some sort of main path from point A → B, as well as a ‘shortcut’. For me the main path (see images below) was walking over the bridges, while the shorcut was the path created by the lower tree branches. Unlike with the head, I hadn’t really been paying that much attention to line flow here, because my mind was mostly focused to the uv-map. I also apologize for the bad lightning in the 3D render images. Aside from that, a little nice trick I learned (courtesy of a classmate) was where to add a black-white image for mapping. This causes textures to look more 3D-ish without actually modeling them (eg, the straw on the houses looks more realistic, while it’s actually just one, flat plane).