Evaluation of 3D Enviroment

Evaluation of 3D Environment

The brief instructed me to create a futuristic environment, there were many different approaches and styles I could choose from however I chose to keep it clean with advance technology by using straight lines and neutral colours, this would be my interpretation of a futuristic environment. I will further explain the assets that I have created and why I made them.

Initially I gained more knowledge of the area by researching other people’s interpretations of 3D environments. I then created a mood board that contained different futuristic assets including I found a model of an artificial tree concept created in China, an armoured vehicle, a futuristic fire truck.and buildings from this I took inspiration and made my own versions improving and adapting the designs as I go. I found this very helpful as it gave me a guideline and a step up as without this I would have gone into this project blind. Through the planning process I feel it would have been better if we made sketches or rough 3D models of our initial designs before researching so we could see how our initial ideas could be improved upon rather that adapting other people’s ideas. My initial sketches were made up of and artificial tree, an armoured hover vehicle, a vaporising bin, a lamppost, a teleport bus stop and a skyscraper, these were all initially coloured in with what I thought would be appropriate looking when it came to the texturing process. 

My original ideas were to make a very durable looking town by making it look very blocky and using metal textures. My initial skyscraper had a cone at the bottom so people could not climb up it, the bin was made of metal and had hazard tape round the top and bottom. I also created a shop with a rotary door to file large crowds with a big CCTV camera on top and a mechanical claw to move objects or people. I later adapted my designs by changing the textures to more neutral colours and I preferred a sleeker looking village as I feel this was more futuristic that my initial design.

To create my 3D environment I used a variety or tools, the main tool I used was the manipulator with this I could move objects, shapes, faces, vertexes and edges to create different shapes. I used the manipulator tool to create the artificial tree seen in my environment I used it to position the different polygons together in the appropriate places to ensure it look realistic. Booleans is another key tool I used when creating my village, it allowed me to merge shapes in order to create things such as windows or other objects. I used this to create my restaurant windows; this allowed me to make it appear that the same shape has a window cut out of it. In addition I used the extrusion tool, this allowed me to select faces, edges or vertexes and drag them out, I usually added divisions in order to extrude smaller segments of an object, this tool allowed me to create the mechanical hand coming out of one of my shop faces. UV mapping is a tool that ensured I could apply textures to objects accurately, making sure that the edges line up with each other and it is evenly spread and in the correct proportion. Examples of the use of this tool can be seen in multiple places in my environment but mainly on the vending machine, I used a Coca-Cola texture to decorate it. Finally I used the fill hole tool to create a face over holes, an example of where this has been used in my environment is on the edge of the wind turbine blades on top of my restaurant, to create these I started with a cylinder, deleted the edges so I could move the vertical edges without then overlapping or passing through any other edges then when they were all in place I used the fill hole tool to give the blades a clean finish.  

One of my main features of my environment is my skyscraper, I am particularly proud of this model as I put a lot of effort and time into creating it. It is split into 3 smaller buildings connected by a series of tunnels raised off the ground level, I extruded these 3 smaller building from a regular polygon however all 3 shapes fit into each other as the building can retract in in the case of an earthquake to make it stronger. Another feature in my environment is a restaurant, I created this by merging a number of polygons I had previously extruded and then using Booleans I added in windows, I am pleased with the final outcome as it suits the style of my environment. Finally I created a mini apple store that is fully furnished with iPad’s Macs and Apple Watches. I like this feature as it enhances the look of my environment and fits in well. I made the walls of the Apple Store transparent to make them look like windows, I done this by making the selected faces light blue then changing the opacity so the interior and products can be seen from the outside.

I sourced most of my textures from Google however because I used neutral colours I also used the colours available to me on Maya. If I were to go back and start the texturing process again I would get a selection of textures to start with so they are available to me when I needed them and I could have some backups in case they didn’t work, I would also have attempted to make some of my own by either taking pictures or using Photoshop. My skyscraper uses a light grey brick texture, I used this as it looks like a futuristic alternative to bricks. Another texture I used was Chrome ENV this is one of Mayas default textures and it makes the object look reflective I used this as it was very modern and sleek. I used a grass texture to add some greenery into my environment to show that it is still looking after the environment. To decorate my armoured hover vehicle aka THE ENFORCER I used a steel texture, as I wanted it to look aggressive.    

When starting the modelling process I sketched out my initial ideas of what I wanted my assets to look like, I then took them and made rough 3D models in Maya, once I had a model for each sketch I when back and made improvements and also textured them. I later imported them all into the same document and made some minor adjustments to finish it. I then animated my car to sake the camera round the environment.

 I feel my environment suits the brief well as it meets all the specification points, My completed environment exceeds my initial expectations as I have included all my initial assets and made some more to enhance the feel the viewer will receive. I feel to improve my environment I would make it a bit bigger and pay attention to smaller details and also ensure all my assets are to the correct scale in the first place to save time later in the project.