Advanced 3D

for the first semester we are tasked with creating a 3d environment, we was giving the choices of three themes which were WW1, Gothic or Moorish. I decided to do research and choose the World war one theme. the first idea that came to mind for a 3d environment was doing a beach with boats at the shore which leads to barbed wire that has been broken through, then there's trenches which lead to bunkers that overlook the sea shore. what I first did was research any world war one references of beach invasions and what they would look like. unfortunately I couldn't find enough references for my idea based on WW1 so I had to go back to the drawing board. I started researching into Moorish architecture. what I  found was a courtyard called casa baanante which I found looked really nice.

http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr334/libidito/dsc08631g_zps31f93ca0.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2nz895O2Q8Ujqdaq2ie7i09CN-RKC2EXZJUNqaoD90HdMzPs9


what I liked about this location was the architecture, it gave me the opportunity to work on something with allot of small detail and something that not too big. what I noticed straight away is there is a lot of circular architecture going on, I then noticed it went 3 small circles and then a big on which I will start to first make, In maya I first started trying to block those out.

using the cylinder tool I simply created a thin cylinder, cut it in half and put them back to back to make two half's of two of the coves. after that I added a bit more detail.

what I did next was add the bottom part that connects the poles into the floor and a panel on the front to add more detail.

Using this image as reference I quickly made a basic pole to attach

now that I have this i can duplicated it along to see how it looks

duplicated them actually works and the fit perfectly, if I look at the reference image I know the middle one has more detail around it and the forth one is bigger so I will have to make that bigger, the first cove is actually the end so Ill have to delete that half of the circle.

With the walls  I  wanted to keep them modular, I did this by creating simple panes that link into each other and end in a triangle that slots perfectly into the curvature of my archways.  this way would save me time in both modelling a texturing.

the next part I started on was the porch. I used the rings I have now and just made them bigger to create the prime archways to my level, I then used the walls I created to go around said rings and show them coming out creating a little walk way that leads out to the pond. I also started working on the walkway which is just simple planes but then creating a lower floor to access the pond

 as this was block out the floor was really simple and a means for just a block out, I made simple stairs and a pond just to represent were they would be.

This was also the represent were the back gate would be that leads to the outside. I didn't want to go into detail with the gate at this point either


overall I see the block out as a blue print for what my level is going to look like. the Issues I has was I could not port anything into UE4 which is what we were supposed to use due to my licence not working. this lead to everything not being to scale as I was using Unreal development kit. the render Also came out very bad and laggy and didn't show much so it was not worth seeing. I did render it out afterwards as smooth as possible to put it into my blog. overall I did see this a a failure but I did get a look at what my level could look like.

for the camera set-up I wanted to show the main feature at this point which was the pillars so my first camera would go from one side of them to the end so you can clearly see the middle of the scene and have the pillars and arches right in front of you. when I do get around to lighting I want to make the sunlight beam through the archways and was able to see the light beams with the first camera. the second camera I ve made to show of the middle part of my scene, you can see the stairs and the fountain. I made it this was to show of the assets in the scene. the third camera would be to see the front of the archway were the sculptors would be, as with the first camera you only see the inside and they are blocked with the pillars. this would give me to opportunity to show of them at a different angle. the last camera would start at the protruding archway to get a look at the inside of that and go across to see the bottom floor were a patten will be and to see the top of the fountain. It would end just at the gate I will make to show the detail of that.


after block out stage the first thing I did was gain access to UE4 which led me to get the unreal man to use for scale. I first started off with my pillars.

the first thing I did was get the unreal man and use him to makes the pillars a arms length apart each side so you could walk through them like the images, I also used video image of the casa to look at the height of the pillars and get a rough estimate of height wise.

Up close you can see there allot more detail in the pillars then there was in block out, I am trying to keep it a close as possible to the ones in the casa to it took allot of tweaking and smoothing to get the right shape. after I was happy with them I just went round and used the smooth tool under normals to keep it at low poly. at a later date I will use z brush to sculpt Moorish looking shapes into the top and bottom part of the pillars

today I started working on the archways which was another key part of the scene. I've made them allot more smoother from block out and used a pillar on each side when modelling to get a realistic width.  

 at first when putting the arches next to each other It wasn't matching the shape that the ones in the casa has. to sort this I had to delete part of the side of the arch and more the verts upwards. what this would do is create a diamond looking shape which would come in handy later  to place a shape I can sculpt on over it and make it look modular. It was also quite difficult to create the bigger arch due to simply scaling it up ruins the modular side I made. to solve this I cut the arch in half ad started rotating and extruding the arch higher until it got bigger and then rotated it back round to get the arch shape. as you can see from the image it came out a bit wonky and not completely round so I had to go back in a move around the verts.  

Now I took the pillars and put them together with two archways, I did this so I can just duplicated and click them together to save time with modelling and texturing. I also created a box to were the archways sit on, then as I mentioned earlier about the diamond part I used that shape to create a plane that goes over it. with this at a later date I would use z brush sculpt a pattern into it.

I then put the bigger archway In the centre and counted how many archways there was in the casa, duplicated them along and made sure they were all together. now I had both sides of the casa.

Today I'm starting on the walls, I first got one of my archways and used the boolean tool to cute out a round shape so they can just be placed over my arch. I also made one for each of the arch so when i duplicate them round I would have a full wall. so far ive been trying to keeps things modular to save time and I think I am doing well.

with them duplicated round its created me a wall, some issues I have is forgetting to make sure the vertices are together otherwise there will be bleeding in the unreal engine.

once again I did the same with the inside walls and duplicated them along and made sure the verts were together, with the floor Its just one plane that goes round. 

for the from part of the casa I simply took the walks and moved them around to they were extruding outwards towards were the pond will be. there still a bit of work with putting them together . as you can see some verts need moving and merging. I do like how the archways do lick together at the bottom when turned the other way to give a nice shape. at the from I have made covers that will be sculpted on.

after that was done I put together what I have made so far, it turned out to look good and how I wanted it to look. its almost identical to the casa which is what I was going for. there still needs to be some improvements as there are gaps towards to back of the walls.

The lower floor was quite simple to do I just had to make sure it went under the upper floor and didn't leave any gaps and there would be stairs there.


after this was done I decided to start texturing. the first thing I did was look at some Moorish patterns as I was going to start with my walls. I am going to try and attempt to recreate the ones in the casa.

starting the patten I looked at quite a few Moorish pattens and I found one that looked similar to the one in the casa. wit h that I made it blue to stand out  and the background gold. I then just duplicated it around. for the blue parts, as they were shiny I found a tile texture and just matched the colour to a dark blue and cream for above it. I then just took part of that blue and made little diamonds out of it. to get the shine effect I was later going to create a roughness map which would help with that. with the walls I wanted them to look like they had been painted, I i used my own home wallpaper which has some noise to give it little bumps underneath the paint. this gave it a nice look and later one I want to paint some sort of patten over the wall.

With the pillars I used the wallpaper texture I just made but Inverted the bumps to make it look like there was dents as I found when I was looking at pillars, from being old and bits falling off. I kept the colour yellow to match the ones in the casa 

In a close up you can see the detail from the texture, I then used a normal to enhance this but had to remove some noise and it got a bit too much. If I had some time I would look at adding some cracks but the main thing I wanted to do was the sculpt on them.

the next thing I've started working on is the lower floor texture, I looked a cobble texture and found a nice one that matched, used a normal on it and it came out good. I then used tiles and tried to recreate the patten on the floor, at first I made it very stretched but tweaked it around and made sure both sides finished were the stairs was. overall I am quite happy on how it turned out

 I have now started on the stairs, I remodelled the ones from block out and made them more round and smoother. I then used the unreal man to measure the height of them so it didn't look like there was a big step onto them. I then found the actual patten that is on the stairs on the casa so I was pleased about that. I then got the blue marble texture and put it around the border of the stairs, making it lighter. for the bottom texture I took the marble texture again and  I just left it the same I made it bigger. I them made a roughness map for the bottom to give it a shine. I think the shine needs toning down a bit as its come of a bit too reflective. the edges of the stairs need re doing as well ans there a bit wonky.

for the archways I started modelling the parts what were going to be sculpted on, I then used the wallpaper texture to put onto them and messed around with the colours to find the ones that best suited the look of the ones in the casa. at the moment there not unwrapped properly I just did these to represent were they would be. I would need to make then a little thicker and bigger in order to get a good sculpt on them. as you can also see in this picture the door and lights are just place holders, due to time management I haven't got around to them so they would be remodelled and textured there only here to show were they will be. I also re modelled my diamond parts to fit round the bottom of the archways, they would also have a sculpt on them.

for the inner walls of the bottom floor I took the patten I made and made it single file. I then took the blue tiles an made them borders around it. using a roughness map I gave it a reflective surface as ive done before. if feels as though the blue tiles go around quite a few parts of my scene which makes it look as though everything fits well together.

the next thing I started working on was the fountain. It was quite easy to model as the one in the casa is a simple shape. I think tried to re create the fountain part were I would make water come out of at a later date. I used a rusty metal texture to go onto it and with the bottom part I found another Moorish texture that fitted round quite well and became seamless. I then made a plane to put into the pond and used unreal water texture to show were water would be.


after this was done I went round fixing parts of the level such as gapes in the wall that was causing bleeding and walls that were too long that were going out of the level. I also fixed some texturing issues as a mentioned above. now it was time for me to render this out and get some feedback on it.

the feedback I got from this render that my scene felt really empty and plain. it also looked like it hasn't changed from blackout and that I need to give it some sort of overlay to fill the scene up. so what I done was look at other Moorish court yards and tried to find some inspiration from them. as the courtyard I am making is mainly used for weddings I tough why not do a wedding overlay and put some wedding looking themes into it such as loads of flowers and banners. from looking at other Moorish courtyards I came across one with a long pond in the centre of it, that gave me the idea as to change my little fountain into a pond and have candles floating on top to make it look romantic and a wedding settings also put rose petals floating on top of it so I started working on that. I also removed the gate and that wall for mmy scene due to it not fitting in well with the overall look an instead made a bigger protruding part that looks like a isle a wedding couple would walk down

today I finished up making the pond. I wasn't that hard to make and didn't take long, I used the same textures from my pond to keep the feel of Moorish then added the water into it. at a later point I would add the candles and petals. as you can also see in this picture I started creating some bushes ill explain them next

so with wedding comes allot of flowers, I decided to put some around my centre piece which is the pond. I simply created metal beams going around the pond, its way I would wrap around flowers and have vines coming down from them. With the bushes I created planes and put a bush texture on it and added some flowers then I just duplicated them around till they looked like a bush. at first I made them white a pink but the colour didn't seem to fit well with the environment.

as you can also see In these images I started playing around with lighting, in my feedback I was told making it into a night scene would make the environment look better so I had to add lighting. as the scene was quite dark so I started putting lights in and made them bright to show off the patterns in the scene. after I done this I waited for some feedback.


feedback from this was the scene still needed filling and needed more wedding things into it because it didn't look that much different. another thing was the lights. I was told there too bright and looked like something you would find in a kitchen. the first thing I wanted to sort out the lights so that would be my next thing to do.

wit the lights I went into the settings and toned down the intensity quite allot and they were really bright before. I then change the colour of the lighting to orange-ish as I know that works well with blues, which is the prime colour in my scene. as you can also see I made some changes to the floor as-well, just added a dirt overlay and removed some of the lines to make it look quite old and worn. I then created new doors and added a basic wooden texture.

the other light I did today were the candles. I just made them quite small and to the colour of a flame. I added a little intensity as-well for the glow to look nice on the water. I then put in a skylight and toned down the brightness of it a little, this was to give the top of my scene some light from the stars above in the night.

as my scene still felt a little empty I quickly made some more assets with a Moorish vibe. I found some big clay pots as ideas and created a few. I then added a clay like texture to them and a nice Moorish patten that looked like it had been sculpted into it.

I have now started to add a few more assets such as banners going around the scene to fill it up and then a Moorish patten on the walls and I thought they looked plain. If I had more Time I would of liked to of created a more complex patten. and for the ends of the archway I ran out of time to sculpt them so I added the texture I was going to use as reference.

with the archways I changed them a little to make my scene a little different. I kept the originals on some of the smaller archways ad changed the bigger ones to something bigger and different shaped. I then added a nice gold lace texture to them. I then added flags on the walls as they looked a bit empty. my scene now looked more like a wedding after party more than someone had a wedding with but I am ok with that and I don't have time to change it.


after this is was time to do my final render of the scene

the render IT self came out a little darker but I am pleased with the overall outcome of it. there are some parts were it goes darker but I could not find a fix. I did have to re arrange my cameras aswell to fit around my new assets in the scene.

overall I found this project to be quite challenging as ive never done anything Moorish before. I also had alot of time management issues which lead me to fall behind on things and no do the thing I wanted to.


What I  think went well 

• filling up the scene I think has gone well. sine alpha my scene wa quite empty and adding a theme to it helped out alot.
• the lighting was improved drastically and now looks like the nightimes and works well with the colours in the environment
• as this is my firs time making anything Moorish I feel as though I have capture what a moorish courtyard looks like and made it looks like casa bannatte with a few changes.
• I feel my texturing skills have improved and enabled me to make nice Moorish patterns that work well. 

What I think didn't go well

• creating a wedding theme I think didn't go well due to time management issues 
• sclupting the pillars and archways didn't go wel lso I had to revert ot a texture which was a shame
• the pattens on the walls feel to simple and look weak I would of liked ot make something more complex
• I still feel like the scene needs stuff adding so filling it out even though I tried might of not worked
• the back wall with the gate wasn't fitting in well so I removed that

what could I improve

• creating sculptures in a brush for my pillars
• adding another room to the casa such as possibly a reception room for a wedding
• increasing the size of my courtyard
• adding more of a better theme as my wedding one didnt turn out good and ended up looking like more of a party. 
• lighting could of been adjusted more as some areas turn pitch black and others are too bright
• running water coming out of the fountain