Retro Device

1st June 2023

Power-point storyline (The young daughter and her adventurous father)

Slowly there was a creak in the door. Tiny peeping eyes gazed upon the towering walls filled to the brim with pieces of loose paper. Books were stuffed tightly next to one another while still leaving enough space for paper to seep out onto the floor due to the open windows that were beside the bookshelves and on the ceiling. The small room was illuminated by a dim but gentle light leading her wide beady eyes upon a strange contraption. She excitedly swung open the door stumbling over her feet to reach this contraption. Slowly looking up she jumped a few times before climbing onto the chair beside it. What was this strange contraption?

“You found it Eula?”

Her eyes quickly darted to the door she so carelessly opened earlier. The small girl jumped off the chair in haste to get away but slipped due to losing her balance and falling down onto her face tears quickly appeared. Soon came loud crying. Her father sighed in return. He made his way over to her pick her up gently and put her on the chair letting her find her balance again. The girl sniffled and looked to her right. Her attention swept away by this tall machine. He smiled warmly “Eula, this was for you my dear. Remember all those dangerous tales I have told thee? You will be able to show me with this. I am sure you will treasure it.”

Eula’s eyes shone with determination, picking up a brush that was sitting beside it she started to draw out her vision. In her father’s eyes it was something truly worth remembering.

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30th May 2023

Remaking Power-Point Render

Why did I remake this render?

After discussing with a Tutor the original render was not representative of my actual vision. The original story included a daughters and father however, after looking upon the render there was not any evidence that there was those people present in the area.

How did I improve it?

I decided to add a map and compass to bring a more adventurous atmosphere to the scene. I added a crudely drawn map to allude to the daughter trying to copy their father. There is also thread that belongs to the daughter to make the scene more lively and full as if it was being used. I changed the camera angles to show off these new additions and the actual model itself.

Did it improve the story?

To some extent I am able to incorporate more of the original story with more maps to influence the Age of Discovery background. However, if it were longer it could be a slower camera pan to make sure the audience has time to take in all the details.

Remake Power-point render: https://youtu.be/FgcWT42gwO4

Remake screenshots

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23rd May 2023

Week Nine – Animating and Rendering

What did I do this week?

Since I had fell ill on the lesson that taught animation I looked at videos by my tutor as well as use online sources which helped a lot. I was able to animate a bare but clean turn on 200 frames at 24 frames per second. It was simple but looked good and showed off my models capabilities quite well.

However, I was not done with the scene just yet. I decided to add a backdrop with an image taken off the internet. This would set the scene better as well as help indicate what type of atmosphere I wanted for the final render. I used a sky dome light editing the lighting to a more warm tint to match the backdrop. Last addition I made was a table underneath the model to add some semblance of a room.

With rendering I was not there either for the class, so I asked one of my tutors for assistance and they guided me through the process of rendering into a photo sequence. Taking this sequence to After effects I added audio of myself saying ‘Father, can I hear another one?’ alluding to the storyline of the model of a father creating ‘Powerpoint’ for his daughter.

The song I used was a song that was created in the late 1600’s, adds to the soft tone of the room and environment. In the end all these components together show the vision I created at the start for a Retro version of Powerpoint.

Overall critique on my MJodel

This is a very simple yet effective presentation of the creation of an old 1500-1600 version of Powerpoint. There are the key factors of powerpoint such as the moving slides, different colours, detachable fabric to replace the slides and create new ones. There was not enough time to re-model the box with the tools in it which could be an improvement if I were to do this again.

If I were to create another model using maya, a few things I would improve on is planning much more for more intricate but repeatable parts, this is so I can duplicate those parts to add simple yet complicated components to my piece without having to spend hours modelling each part. I would also plan a drawing of the final composition at the start so I know what I am going for. However, even when this project turned out a little different than what I envisioned initially it has grown a lot and become more cohesive than what it was at the start.

Powerpoint model render: https://youtu.be/pc75gsGQlAo

Finished Model

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23rd May 2023

Week Eight – Substance Painter

What did I do this week?

I used Substance painter to create a different texture on the rope looking parts of the model to look more like spun gold. First importing my model into substance painter then baking it so textures will show up well on the model. Then choosing one of the preset golds I exported the textures and applied them onto the model.

An adversity I faced was how the gold would not show up due to some of the texture files being redundant and not helping to show the gold, I realised some of the files were not necessary and left them out. I also checked the Arnold render to see and with a bit of tweaking got the gold to show in the camera render so I knew it would appear on my actual render of the model.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

I did well to stay on track as substance painter is a tricky software but because of my notes from classes I was able to input the right settings and convey the gold accents I was planning to portray.

Gold in Arnold View

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30th March 2023

Week Seven – Writing

Write up

How did I move forward?

For this week I am in a position where I am unable to access Substance Painter. Due to this I am going to focus my time and effort in writing up and preparing for the PDF hand in at the end of this project cycle. To do this I will upload and write about my process so far in Myblog as well as prepare the PDF with images and some reflective text on this 3D elective.

What did I do this week?

I wrote up all of my notes and what I learnt throughout the 5 teaching weeks. I separated the teaching lessons from the retro-device work as it shows how I applied what I learnt into my classes. This also helps create a timeline of what I learnt at the time to what I achieved on my own retro-device project too. Also helps me when reflecting later on as I can see what I was meant to be doing and how I could do better from those experiences.

I wrote up my process on my ‘Power-point’ Retro-device as well as detailing my journey through hardships and how I overcame them. They are important to include as it shows how I dealt with difficult situations as well as how I can learn from mishaps and do better in the future, applying those learnt lessons to newer problems.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

Overall so far in these two weeks I have achieved a lot, although I still do need to do Substance Painter as well as rigging my model, they are small parts of my final model and are still able to be finished in the last week before the next project starts. With this drive I will be able to finish this soon.

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30th March 2023

Week Six – Finishing Z-brush

How did I move forward?

After I recovered from my illness the week prior I was off from teaching weeks for three weeks which meant time to finish this project and write up my progress with it as well. My plan this week is to finish doing Z-brush and export back to Maya to prepare to put it into Substance painter.

What did I do this week?

I did exactly what I said in my plan, by adding wood texture to all of the wood parts. I didn’t mention this last week however when I started using Z-brush there was some parts that didn’t show up (e.g missing polygons) these polygons were missing due to having polygons larger than 4 sides so I had to go back to Maya to edit them to 4 sides then exporting it back into Z-brush, after doing this there was no issue with missing polygons.

However a predicament came up where the box became bugged and would not change no matter how much pressure I put onto it the model would not change. It would not add more polygons to this box either, I already had issues with unwrapping this box beforehand so I had assumed it was because of the many changes (for example bevelling every side) I had added to make the box unwilling to work in Z-brush. I decided on the spot to remove it entirely as it was not functioning and I would not waste time figuring it out as I was on a schedule I was not about to ruin due to a box.

Other than that it was smooth sailing for the rest of the parts, so I decided to export my model into Maya again to check if the model was bugged at all, as well as UV unwrapping some of the changed assets that I did in Z-brush as some had completely different nets that needed to be flattened again to make materials/textures appear correct on it again. I exported a higher and lower poly count model and then imported them in Maya.

At first Maya would not allow for me to add them both into the same project however it was because the models assets all had the same name so it was impossible to import the same model twice. So I renamed them to their respective poly count so they both fit into the same project. After examining the models were okay I added the wood texture back as well as assigning other materials to the other model parts.

Changes in the story/model

Only changes I made were in UV unwrapping as well as adding materials to all of my models assets. There was a process the model went through which is Decimation, a non-reversible process in Z-brush that helps reduce polygon count by putting them as triangles. This cannot go back to the previous processes so when doing this I was prepared to continue going forward into Substance painter after checking in Maya.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

I am very content with my work ethic and speed this week. I got what I wanted completed at a high quality, as well as preparing well to use Substance painter in the near future to be able to animate very soon as well. Although being ill brought my productiveness down for a while, I used this work to effectively get back to a spot I am meant to be in.

Model so far

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30th March 2023

Week Five – Starting Z-brush

The plan

How did I move forward?

My plan for this last teaching week was to utilise the universities computers and stay at the facilities to use Z-brush and finish that before the end at the very least. I could also start animation and finish it in the next coming weeks before the coming elective starts up.

What did I do this week?

Unfortunately I fell very sick this week and although I tried to push to come in on the lessons I only got worse without being able to learn or process the animation process in Maya that well. So I decided to rest up for most of the week to be able to come in at the end of the week and at least start my Z-brush before the end of the 5 teaching weeks. This was an unforeseen turn of events as plans fell out due to this sickness, since university is an hour away from home it was not in my best interest to be that ill away from family in case I needed to call for an emergency none of them could come quickly.

Changes in the story/model

In the end I was able to come in on Friday and start the Z-brush process as I had already prepared the model for it I was able to just get into the room and start. I added grain texture using the alpha tool in the program as well as adding a swirl in the nobs on top of the scrolls. The only other part I put texture on was the paint below the model. It was minor adjustments but it made all the difference when making the model look more realistic.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

I could have rested more, this was most likely due to burn-out as my body for a lack of a better term gave up on me feeling sickly and dizzy from over extortion. In order to prevent this in the future when I work at home I could work downstairs so I do remember to drink plenty of water as well as get more sunlight than sitting in my room forgetting to drink water and go downstairs to stretch.

Z-brush on my model

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30th March 2023

Week Four – Texture

How did I move forward?

Last week I did Z-brush and model changes/preparation to be added to Z-brush. However due to having my tutor look at my model I decided to shift to adding wood textures before bringing it to Z-brush to add that 3D wood texture to the model as well.

What did I do this week?

I learnt Substance Painter and all its capabilities, however on the days I had off I researched/ watched videos on how to create your own texture and add it onto shape in Maya. I had already known how to add a new material in Maya however I wanted to create my own texture image first. To do this I decided to try taking an image sample from one of the old devices in my old device mood-board. In this mood-board I decided on the chair as it was the only one with a clear flat photo of the wood texture that I could use in my own model. I took the image sample into Photoshop to edit the photo to fit the UV editor square. However when doing this I tried to load it into the material to only show black.

This was an issue I didn’t know at the time how to fix. So I looked up how to fix a texture that won’t show up in Maya. In the end I found out, with using the original photo without photoshop, that when I did layout on all of the models UV shells it shrunk them to a really small size so all of the image it perceived was black. So in order to change this I resized each of the UV shells of all the models shapes. I had manually rotated some of the shapes so the texture was looking the right way up and lining up grains so it was seamless on the actual model. A time consuming step but proved very helpful in the future when adding the textures back after Z-brush.

Changes in the story/model

At the end of this week all I changed was some of the UV unwraps as well as preparing the model for Z-brush (Such as using clean-up). Another part I changed/improved was labelling the components/grouping them all to one group in the end.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

Substance Painter by far was one of the more difficult programs to use due to how many parts it had to make textures show up on models, so that part of the week took most of my time to process and learn. However even with learning a new program in two lessons I was able to figure out how to add my own materials to my model and problem solve how to get it to appear the way I want it to. I am proud of my outcome so far, although it was different from what I envisioned in the start it has evolved to become a model I stand by quality wise and is a representation of my best 3D abilities at the time.

Wood Textures I found

: 30.93.2 Detail 3

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30th March 2023

Week Three – Adding Embellishments and Z-brush

Z-brush and Embellishments

How did I move forward?

In this week I learnt how to use Z-brush. I had researched old devices in the previous week to add embellishments to my model so I can texture them in Z-brush.

What did I do this week?

Before I could texture I needed to add these embellishments to the model, such as the extra wooden notches, metallic rings as well as some nobs on the top of the scrolls instead of boxes to be textured later on. These all had to be unwrapped in UV editor which took a lot of time as there were a lot of new additions. I asked for some assistance for the metallic rings as I was going to use a vastly more inefficient method however I was advised to use a flat circle and create a 3D ring from that, twist the object so it looked like what I was going for. However without texture it looks much like a rope rather than a gold embellishment.

Most of my time this week was taken up by UV wrapping as well as editing the shapes to be able to be transported into Z-brush as well as working out if the embellishments looked good enough to move to the next stage. This was where the simplistic design was able to let me change my model easily and add and remove parts to make it look exactly how I want it to look.

Changes in the story/model

I decided to use the newer design to change a lot of block shapes, for example the base changed to a circle to fit and accommodate the new gold rings as well as shifting the box on the right and the paints up in the centre. This gave for a much cleaner look as well as fitting the more rich look as this was made by the rich man to his daughter. There has not been much change in the story as it has stayed consistent.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

Although I have slowed down, it is vital I do not rush my progress since looking upon the first presentation of the 3D process it detailed how backtracking to Maya was normal to clean-up, adjust and add to the previous model so doing the work now will save me time from backtracking too much in the future and making sure the model is ready for Z-brush as the program permanently changes the nets of the shapes so making sure they are all labelled and unwrapped properly is important.

At this point in time I was content with what I have achieved so far as I have kept up with keeping notes in class as well as doing my model on the side. There are times were saving is an issue however is fixed with creating multiple saves so if a save file is not working I will go back to a previous one which was saved not too long ago, this helps reduce time loss due to the software crashing and losing my progress.

Changes in the model

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30th March 2023

Week Two – Doing more research

Doing research

How did I move forward?

After finishing the base model I was ahead of where I had to be however with a new learning week meant doing a new part of the 3D industrial process. UV wrapping is a new part of Maya that I needed to apply to my model this week.

What did I do this week?

I decided along with class UV wrapping I would unwrap the current model I had blocked/smoothed out last week. Easier said than done as I had a few Boolean shapes where it was trickier than normal since there were more than 4 sides polygons which Maya did not like when unwrapping the shapes. There was a simple solution which was the tool clean-up. I used multi-cut and target wield to make each face 4 sided to be able to unwrap easily. Other than UV wrapping more discussions with tutors told me I was ahead of where I was meant to be. The next step was to research old devices at the time period my device will be set in. The reason for this step told by my tutors was the fact the coming week would include a new program called Z-brush where I can add texture to those embellishments in my model.

Changes in the story/model

On the Friday I decided to research into those old devices looking up wooden chairs, doors and mirrors (In the 1400s-1600s Italian renaissance/Age of Discovery). What I discovered was lots of swirl embellishments and layers/notches to add more complexity to the design. There was use of metal which added more value to the piece rather than just being made out of wood. The metal would be imprinted with a pattern matching with the complex design of the wood too.

I decided to take this discovery and go back to the drawing board to get a feel of how I could incorporate these embellishments into my design. I did a few different designs before creating a final version. Although doing this over the weekend so I had to apply these new changes in the next week instead of doing them this week.

Overall critique on my workflow/work output this week

I could do better in efficiency when researching and creating mood-boards. However looking back I still did well to keep ahead with work as I still was much more than on track to finishing before the end of these 5 weeks. The one thing I will mention is that I had a better balance of taking breaks and doing work than previous projects, I used notes from class to assist me in developing my own model in my spare time away from the classroom. That part of these 5 weeks was efficient and time well delegated.

Old devices moodboard

Creating new designs

Research Pages

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