Sci-Fi environment

This is the sci-fi environment modeling tutorial.

Here is blocking out part of the door. So far it's really simple.

Next is a basically completed door. What I really like that this instructor did, is that he does things simply. He just takes the part we made, duplicates it 4 times, and then stretches it on one side.

Even more work on the door and hall. Again, it's just working simply. All you do is extrude the edges to make a perfect hallway.

More hallway work with the inset in the wall and door.

Here's the hallway with ceiling details.

Another angle of the hallway.

This is revisiting the door, adding 45 degree angles. I really love how he instructs it; just make a square, divide it, then use snap to points to get perfect angles. The simplicity is brilliant, and I love the angle snapping.

Something went wrong on the bevel!

Turns out having it on absolute was the problem.

Here's some of the UVs laid out. I opened one of the instructor files to start the UV's, since I wanted to be able to follow along with him.

Here's doing the ambient occlusion settings

This is a screenshot from the video but I had to show it. THIS CHART IS AMAZING

Here's the final picture of it!

Map Baking

This is the tutorial on map baking in Maya. During the tutorial, I learned mainly about normal maps, id maps, and ambient occlusion maps.

To start, I move all the pieces of the revolver far from each other.

Next, I selected faces and changed colors according to the different materials the object would have, to differentiate them.

This is when the color coding is mostly done. I still have yet to do a couple small parts, but this is mostly done. From here, I will move on to maps.

Here's the menu with settings for the maps. Basically, you pick the geometry you want to have the maps, pick the geometry that will be the source, pick a map type, and then set the other settings according to what you want done.

This is after a map was applied, with the high-poly model hidden.

Here is the low-poly model after having an id map and a normal map assigned to it. It shows some of the more fine detail while still keeping a low poly count. Incredibly useful.

This is after applying the final map, the ambient occlusion map.

Overall, learning maps has been very interesting. So far in my work I've never really considered poly-count and using maps to preserve detail while keeping the poly count lower. I am very interested in the ambient occlusion map because it can make your models look wonderful without being textured. I've seen tons of models online that look to have a physical, almost plastic quality that looks great. If i understand correctly, they're just models rendered with ambient occlusion, so I will definitely be experimenting more with that.

Creating a Game Asset -- Cancelled

These are some pictures I have from the cancelled project we were working on.

Here I have laid out the curved part of the sign. The reference image is actually a plane with the image as a texture.

This is working on some detail of the sign, adding the curve to the side and blocking out more shapes.

This is the sign mostly completed, modeling-wise.

Here I have created the flying saucer that is to sit near the bottom.

And here is the full sign, modeled (except the "hotel" letters). I think it looks pretty good!

This is the final picture, from just when I was about to start doing the UVing and texturing. By this point, the tutorial was extremely confusing and unclear. It was really hard to follow. Overall though, I enjoyed the project since I love working with Maya.