Craft & Media: The Street Brief

After the first attempt at the project crashed and burned once I reached the UVW Unwrapping process (See below image)

I resolved to create a simple building in hopes that the UVW unwrapping process would go smoother. By limiting and deleting various edges and faces during my first attempt in an attempt at optimization I created an otherworldy mess of overlapping and distorted verteces during the unwrapping process which rendered the effort futile.

My second attempt (fifth not including the various trial and error sessions in between) was much more succesful.

Using the same process as before; starting with a regular base primitve with the dimensions 5 metres X 5 Metres X 7 metres I first divided gemotry into the desired sections using a combination of segmenting the base primitve and then using the quickslice tool in the edit poly modifier to further partition individua faces for details such as windows and the alcove which would feature the door.

The process can be witnessed below in the animated GIF.

 

 

 

 

This process, while relatively simple, gives depth to the building. While not as complex or aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked, this simple extrusion method seemed the best route to attaining a workable and simple structure to UVW Unwrap.

After I was happy with the overall shape of the structure I decided not to try and optimise it this time, out of fear envoking the wrath of the eldritch autodesk gods and being beset by all manner of grisly face errors in the UVW unwrapping window like my previous attempt.

I added seams to the structure at places which seemed most appropriate; extruded ledges and inset alcoves such as the windows and door and pelt mapped each part individually.

 

 

 

 

One note about UVW unwrapping; placing the seems follows a logic which is at first difiicult to grasp; but to use a prominent and fitting phrase…

“Imagine unfolding a cardboard box…”

At first it is a daunting and complicated process, especially when dealing with such irregular shapes which are commonly encountered during modelling.

The approach I took was to isolate the regular parts of the geometry first, faces which lay along the same axis for instance such as the side of the building and the roof. And then work down the building from top to bottom, seaming each area, pelt mapping and then trying to neatly organise them in the UV window.

After I had created my UVW map template, I rendered it out as a .PNG, opened in photoshop and then used stock images and a few hand made textures to texture the map.

 

 

After texturing the map, I exported it as a .TGA file and applied it to the model. When I rendered it out I noticed several errors so I edited the image in photoshop and reapplied it.

Once I was satisfied with the UVW map I rendered the finished building out using the Mental Ray renderer in 3DS Max.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall I was happy with the result despite a few stretched/textures. Despite changing my idea halfway through and going through several bouts of trial and error to succesfully UVW unwrap a model I finally arrived at a satisfactory conclusion. Through the session on unwrapping we had in the studio, several tutorials and forums online and my own experimentation and perseverance I finally feel comfortable with the process.

While some aspects of both the modelling and UVW unwrapping processes still elude me, I have overcome a sizable learning curve which has confused me for some time now. One aspect of the process which I have realised I could have improved was the organisation of the individual maps on the UVW grid.

 

 

 

 

 

After reading this article online, I realised in hindsight that my usage and organisation of the maps on the UVW grid was not as efficient as it could have been. One of the techniques of effective UVW mapping is using the entierety of the usable space in the grid to ensure the textures are as crisp and high fidelity as possible.

The UVW grid is in essence a representation of the resolution of the texture to be applied to the model. The larger an individual map is on the grid, the higher the resolution the texture will be when applied to the model.

In practical turns this can be used to ensure that the accessible textures on the areas of the model which the player can view up close are of higher quality than the inaccessible areas.

For example, on my model the ground floor windows, doors and other textures should be allocated more space on the UVW map. Once in the engine, the player will be able to approach the ground floor, this is when texture stretching and pixilation are most notable.

Conversely, the first and second floor textures should have less space allocated to them and the non-visible and non accessible areas of the model such as the bottom and back faces should have the smallest amount of space on the grid, saving room for more important aspects of the texture such as the windows and doors.

This is a philosophy that I am going to keep in mind in the future which will allow me to make higher fidelity and more realistic models.

Overall I was rather pleased with the finished product. Despite changing my idea half way through I am satisfied with my finished building. It may not be as adventurous as recreating a life like rendition of a local pub but in hindsight that goal was rather high for my first model.

Despite the generic and squat look of my tenement building, I learned a lot in the development of this progress, I am rather pleased with the fact that my finished building is relatively similar to my original concept.

 

 

 

 

Craft & Media 2: Gareth “The Street” 3D Building Brief

For this Craft and Media brief we are initiating a collaborative project based around architecture much like the steampunk building brief from semester 1.

This brief is centered on taking reference and inspiration from real life architecture and transferring our research onto a fully modelled and UVW unwrapped building that will be imported into the Unreal Development Kit. The finished piece will be a full street consisting of various styles and eras of architecture provided by individual members of the group and organised into a cohesive whole, hopefully creating a playable leve for deathmatching in the Unreal engine.

I originally wanted to create a futuristic cyberpunk building, but after seeing the other group members more conventional styles of architecture I opted for a more traditional and conventional building.

I first scoured the internet for various references that appealed to me, I am interested in an industrial themed building so I looked at various warehouses. Because of the past industrial and mercantile heritage of Kingston upon Hull I also gathered photographic reference from local buildings.

The top four images in the above reference sheet are generic buildings in the Scale Lane/High Street area of Hull in the old town, the bottom two are images from a stock photography wesbite (Flickr.com)

Despite the rather non descript aesthetic of the top buildings, I am going to use them as a template for the base of my building and individually model seperate pieces to add on to give the buildings a lived in vibe and to infuse them with personality.

Armed with my sketchbook I looked at some of the details of local buildings on Scale lane and sketched several of the details that stood out to me. Each piece gives the building a unique vibe and tells of the history and character of the building.

Using the image in the top left of my reference sheet I sketched out the proportions of the structure, keeping the limit of  meters in mind and imported the line drawing into photoshop.

After adding texture and colour to my line drawing, a sense of character is being developed, although the structure itself is rather plain.

After another bout of street photography I decided to adapt my idea from creating a generic office building to recreating the “Lion and Key” pub on scale lane. The base structure of the building is similar to the image above, however the exterior facade spews character from every nook and cranny.

Hanging flower baskets, a pitched roof, large tavern tabard and wall mounted cigarette bin are all instantly recongnizable conventions of a pub.

I took several photos of the exterior from different angles, and heights to recreate the pub as close to its real life counter part as possible.

Using my photos as a basis I started to create ny building in Autodesk 3DS Max.

I started by creating a rectangle primitive with a “Footprint” of 5 metres by 5 metres and a heght of 7 metres and sculpted the overall shape of the building.

I segmented the base primitive so I could later extrude the outset and inset detailing such as the recessed windows and the doorway.

I continued molding the base primitive, extruding details and features such as the sign, windows and the small extrusions which stand out from the front of the building, much like my original design.

As I went along I removed unneccessary edges and faces hoping to dcreased the overall poly count and make UVW unwrapping that much easier.

I used the inset function of the Edit poly modifier in 3DS Max to create the window apertures. After a sustained and frustrating amount of trial and error I discovered that the easiest method to create the same depth of each window was to have them all selected simoultaneously and THEN use the inset function. At this point in the couse I am comfortable with the interface and workflow of 3DS Max, but I am still learning. Each little setback is just another notch on the “This is a ridiculously conoluted method to do something simple” belt.

3DS Max is a harsh mistress.

After I was relatively happy with the first floor windows I started to work on the pitched roof and the adjoining windows.

Even before I started working on the roof and the windows I could tell it would be a problem. If you notice in the first image, the base of the roof was several flat and angled faces. After trying to construct some feasible method of creating the intricate outset windows I turned to the internet for help and found an incredible useful tutorial on youtube.

Alas, even with the help of this tutorial I was still at a stalemate. Whereas in the tutorial, the roof is a standard pitched roof, mine was divided into two halves with both base faces at seperate angles. This was a problem. My solution was an extremely tedious method of extruding the top face of the ledge just below the roof to the same height as the first roof segment. I then cut the new polygon in half vertically to create a vertex for the apex of the roof. I then manually repositioned the rear facing edge of the poly in line with the roof partition and welded them together, removing the interior backface in the process. To attach the roof apex to the rest of the model I followd the same method.

Because I am still learning the intricacies of 3DS Max, I was rather proud of this small feat but I learned that it would create a a large problem later in the process.

After finished the roof and adding detail to the extruded pub sign I thought the building finished, I was rather proud of the finished result. But then came the mose arduous and time consuming part of the process; UVW Unwrapping.

Craft & Media 2: Gareth – Architecture in games design

After an introduction to various styles and conventions of architecture in Gareth’s Craft and media session, I set about gathering references and inspiration from designers in the industry whose work stands out to me.

First and foremost was Viktor Antonov.

Antonov is best known for his work on Valve’s Half Life series.

He was taken on as art lead on the project to create a compelling aesthetic for the series primary antagonists, the combine.

“The combine are a collective of races, absorbed under the banner of the universal union and indoctrinated to propel their war machine from the own dimension to the multiverses of the time-space continuum”

Antonov was born and raised in Sophia, Bulgaria in the former Soviet Union. Owing to his familarity with the city and Eastern European architecture in general, Antonov created a realistic and immerisve world in the form of City 17; the primary location of Half Life 2.

From the above image, and the image below it looks as if Antonov has extrapolated the parrallel vertical lines present and typical of Eastern European rooftops to create the aesthetics for the combine architecture. The large vertical lines and dark, saturated colour palette ooze an atmosphere of oppression and alienation. It may be that Anotonov is reflecting the communist influence on both Eastern European architecture and culture in his work on Half Life 2, using vast scale, odd, inorganic angles and vertical aesthetic to create a sense of imprisonment and isolation.

The full effect of the combien architecture is most apparent at the core of their operations on Earth; the citadel.

Jutting into the sky above, piercing the clouds like a cobalt blade, the citadel dominates the skyline of City 17.

Throughout the single player campaign of Half Life 2, citadel serves as a domineering landmark, a sign of the combine’s grasp over Earth.

Towering over the city below, the Citadel serves as one of the combine’s many stronghold’s on Earth.

From the outside the Citadel seems impregnable. A sheer testament to non terrestrial, extra dimensional alien engineering.

When the ployer gains access towards the end of the game the interior is just as foreboding.

Seemingly endless vertical voids create a sense of vertigo. The vertical line aesthetic is continued inside the gargantuan structure to the Nth degree. One aspect seemingly juxtaposed with the inorganic, alien nature of the combine architecture however is the inclusion of organic ducting. Tubes and wires which serve some malignant purpose.

In the lore of the game, the player learns that the majority of the Combine technology, their war machines and aerial vehicles are in fact organic creatues from incomprehensible reaches of time and space that have been encased in synthetic armour and machinery.

Upon seeing the tubes, the player must wonder whether this monolothic structure itself is somehow sentient.

A living, breathing nexus of all that is evil.

On the exterior the Citadel features gigantic autonomous walls which slowy expand from the Citadel into the human city beyond.

The city itself is modelled after a generic post-communist Eastern European state. The architecture is sparse and typical of the tenenements and hovels constructed under the communist regime.

During the regimes reign in the 20th century, morale, economy and infrastructure were at an all time low in the Soviet satellite states.

Government architects commisioned and built tenenemnet buildings to house the vast Soviet workforce. Rather than keep the buildings dull grey, they resolved to paint them bright pastel colours, I assume to try and subtely raise morale.

This combination of state manufactured housing and older cathedrals gives eastern Europe a distinctive look.

Juxtaposed with the eroding communist era tenement blocks are the oppressive and menacing mechanisms of the combine war machine in Half Life 2. The bright colours and familar architectural conventions of the human architecture are juxtaposed with the combine’s onyx blue machine walls; large autonomous structures which steadily devour the surrounding city and gather material for use in manufacturing plants behind the monolithic walls.

The sheer concept of this almost sentient architecture immediately captivated me. The idea of a menacing metal monstrocity slowly devouring the humaity of the cityscape is reminsiscent of the concept of municipal darwinism in Phillip Reeve’s “Mortal Engine” series of books.

In the canon, the world has been mired by nuclear holocaust and the only remainign societies exist on gigantic “Traction City’s” towns, villages and entire metropoles which sit upon vast tank treads.

In the series, the stronger, more millitarised cities hunt down smaller cities across the barren plains of future earth and devour the weaker traction cities, assimilating their prey’s construction material and organic matter into fuel and extending the cities even further.

Whereas most buildings are static, even in high fantasy settings and futuristic dystopias I am enamoured with the idea of living, breathing, fighting cities. Even though architects and designers can breath personality into static cities with the use of colour and aesthetic, there is no doubt of a structures sentience when it is bearing down on you, teeth bared and gears and hydraulics moaning.

In the context of games design, Valve’s Portal uses a similar concept of autonomous architecture.

The setting of the game, the Aperture Science Enrichment Facility is comprised of thousands of moving concrete segments supported by hydraulic arms and controlled by the facility’s core AI; GLADOS.

Throughout the game, the levels react to the player in an (albeit, scripted) but convincing manner.

Entire sections of wall extend out, revolve around the servo motors powering them and then rotate into place to form catwalks, barriers and obstacles for the player to overcome.

Leeds/Wakefield visit reference images

Various and texture/architecture references from the Hull School of Art and Design field trip visit to Leeds and Wakefield on the 23rd of september.