In this blog, I will talk about inspiration from 3D artists in regards to my 3D models from 'The Tower That Never Was'. Inspirations
My models: The Revolver
What inspiration will I take from this?
Having looked at the weapons asset joshuawatt811 made, I have decided to go for a specular material and normal mapping for the revolver. The material I used in Maya is Blinn material to shine the specularity of the revolvers metalness.
Unfound Door
For the materials, I am going to add the Blinn material for the unfound door with a rough material/map alongside it. A rough material to add the feel of wood on the unfound door. I used lambert material.
The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower's inspiration for the model will be a sci-fi-themed tower with horror elements to it.
Having said that these inspirations of the assets have one thing in common: They're all inspired by the Dark Tower. Due to time constraints and deadlines, I won't be able to implement the dark tower inside the game engine. I decided to go for a last-minute change of plans for my 3D assets. Instead of them being implemented into a game engine which was my original goal, I am going to create a VFX shot for the Revolver and Door itself. In others a plan B to the pipeline. In the master class talk from Danny Sweeney provided great research materials. Reference excels in your art. I used reference for when I was producing the revolver.
The lesser the geometry, the more control the smoothness you have at the end. I tried going the artistic route with my geometry whilst maintaining the simplicity of the revolver asset. The same applies to the door.
If I were to animate the assets I need to finalise the details of the assets before rigging and then animating the asset.
Be fast and efficient when creating assets in a workplace (Animation, games and VFX industries) Working smart over harder goes a long way. Preventing any errors from occurring within the geometry of the assets themselves.
Here are some more tips for geometry on 3D models:
- Good topology flow
- Edge loops into their correct places ( no engons and tris etc)
- Use substance painter for game industry standards (in context of textures)
- Strong and solid foundation goes a long way in concept art. (references, proportions, topology etc.)
- Prevent triangles and engons in your geometries
With these tips in mind, I will use these methods as a way to create and build the asset from the ground up. I work in Autodesk Maya to create my own 3D models. Having inspirations help builds a good reference and strong foundations of the models when you are creating 3D models.