Modeling the Spaceship

During the process of Team Project 2, it was advised by our 3D Lecturer J.J. Quinlan to make a distinguishable environmental feature to tie in with the narrative.  He gave us examples such as an Aztec building or a statue.  With this we designed a Spaceship which in a relation to narrative fits perfectly as the island caretaker has to get on the fantasy island somehow.

Creating the spaceship - V1
Upon creating the spaceship for Haven, the spaceship was designed in Photoshop.  Using this design the spaceship was created using a box object in 3dsMax and was edited in the Editable Poly modifier to get the desired shape of the design.  Thrusters where then added by using the extrude modifier and they where then beveled to get a vent like appearance.  The door was then detached from the rest of the ship by selecting Polygons where the door should be and then in Editable Poly with polygons selected, clicking detach and naming it as a separate object.

Problems: There were various problems with this approach, one being the normals inside the ship where not present.  This would mean we would not be able to see the inside of the ship.  Originally we were going to do this, but later on decided on having an interior.  The options where to use the Shell Modifier to add a layer to the inside, but this raised the poly count and created a weird lighting deformation in Unity.  The other option was to model the inside by hand, but this raised the poly count significantly even without the interior objects.

Creating the spaceship - V2
I had no choice but to start again.  Using the same technique as the last time, i created  a box object in 3dsMax and was edited in the Editable Poly modifier to get the desired shape of the design.  To make the Thrusters, i modeled them separately as the bevel in the last version didn't look very neat on the inside.  I then used Pro Boolean to create a doorway.  Pro Boolean subtracts an object from a selected object and leaves the shape of the picked object in the selected one.  I then modeled a door separately and placed a walkway.


Here are the developments of the spaceship:

 

Modeling the Brush/Grass, Rocks and Fruit

The next step of my role as environmental modeler for Red Ember Games was to create the smaller objects for our game Haven. The small objects consist of Grass/Brush, Rocks and Fruit.  Although these features are small in appearance, adding them to any scene gives a great deal of character. 

Grass/Brush
The game Haven is populated with different variations of grass and brush.  These features are randomly spread out around the island.  Together with the large vegetation of Haven, the game has a beautiful environment.

Here are some images of the islands vegetation:

As you can see from the images above, the grass alongside the larger vegetation gives the island of Haven real character.  Also you can see the approachable characteristics of Poly Art Style. Some scenes using the Poly Art Style use both Realism and Poly Art Style to complete the scene.  In Haven, the island is complete with Poly Art Style including the smaller vegetation. 

Creating the Brush/Grass 

As Haven uses Poly Art Style, we have the advantage of having a low poly count for our objects.  Although the polygon count can rise with the amount of detail being added.  When modeling the grass/brush it was important to keep the poly count down and not get carried away adding detail as these objects are going to be heavily used around the island.  It is important that our assets keep a low poly count due to Haven using the Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift is a Virtual Reality headset.  The headset looks similar to a goggle.  Using the Oculus in our game we render the scene twice.  Once through the Oculus device and another on the computer, which will view the rendered scene of the Oculus.

When modeling the objects, the first approach was unsuccessful. 

This was due to the normals not being visible on one side.  This was achieved by using a plane object to create the desired models.  There where two options to resolve this:

Shell Modifier

Using the Shell Modifier, i could add normals to the object as it creates another layer on top of the model.  This was not the approach i wanted to take as the Shell Modifier would put the poly count up more than it needed to be and there are also some undesired shadows effects in Unity using the Shell Modifier.

Do it Again

The only other way was to do it again using cubes instead of planes.  This was the approach used in the game.  Keeping the Poly count down was easy, when creating the cubes the segments where kept low and the desired shape of the objects where created using a minimum amount of segments.  There were normally 3 height segments per grass blade.  Here are the finished renders:

There were also some unsuccessful creation when developing the objects.  These models where created when trying to get the desired shape when using this art style.  The first image was trying to achieve a large brush.  The poly count was too high and very static so it was therefore unused.  The second and third images i tried to keep as simple as possible using cubes.  They did not look right and where therefore unused.

Rocks

Rocks where added to add character to the island.  These objects where very easy to make with the art style.  It was a simple means of creating a cube and modifying it to look like a rock.  If i was creating a realistic rock it would be much more difficult to add the curvature and deformations to make the rock look as natural as possible but with this art style it was a matter of giving a distinguishable box like appearance. 

Here are the final renders:

Fruit

In Haven, one of the game mechanics is too feed a creature to gain its trust.  Therefore we needed something to feed them.  And what else would you find on a tropical island?  none other than fruit.  the fruit created were Apples, Bananas, a Berry Tree and a Pineapple.

Creating the Fruit
To create the fruit was a simple means of following a design which i drew.  The shaped where standard 3dsMax shapes such as spheres and cylinders.  To create the spheres, the segments were decreased to 5-8 to give the Poly Art Styles theme and then adding stems to the fruit.

Here are the final renders of these models:

 

Modeling the Trees

The first iteration of creating environmental models using Poly Art Style was to model Trees for Haven.  I began this process by firstly researching online images of poly art style models in current games and i also found some useful tutorials explaining step by step the process of modelling in this particular art style.  The tutorials mentioned are not made for using the 3dsMax modeling pipeline, However, 3dsMax offers the same tools in its package to make these tutorials adaptable.


Below are research images that i used as a reference when creating my own variation.  Researching is benefitial by generating the idea of what i want to achieve before aimlessly creating random models.

Research:
http://www.awwwards.com/low-poly-illustration-what-s-the-secret.html
http://www.awwwards.com/low-poly-illustration-what-s-the-secret.html

Tutorials:
http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/go-beyond-retro-pixel-art-with-flat-shaded-3d-in-unity--gamedev-12259
http://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/secrets-to-creating-low-poly-illustrations-in-blender--cg-31770

Although i used tutorials to learn about Poly Art Style, i still had some difficulty creating the models needed for the game.  However with practice, and i mean a lot of practice i finally achieved the models we were looking to create.

As a team we discussed what trees we needed to achieve the atmosphere we wanted in the game.  Our first idea was to create Palm Trees as the scene is set on a tropical island.  We also wanted to populate the island with variation of trees so we therefore decided to also add Deciduous Trees.  Below are mock designs i have created to review with the team and understand what approach we want to take.  On my own initiative, i have also modeled an Evergreen Tree, which was reviewed and approved  by the team.

To create these models, in 3dsMax i created a 6 sided Cylinder and unchecked the "Smooth" option as to keep to the box like appearance of Poly Art Style.  Then after changing the object to an "Editable Poly",  i used the extrude option to make branches for the trees.  Then i modularly  placed approximately 5-10 segmented spheres on top of the branches to finish off a Deciduous Tree.  For Palm Trees there were no branches but more emphasis on the overall shape of the trunk.  Then with the completed trunk, i could add the leaves in which i  found a great way of creating them.  This was to create a 5 segment sphere and scale it down on the x-axis and scale it up on the y-axis.  This left a leaf looking object.  After some final polishing i attached all the pieces together.

Here are different variations of the tree's i have created for Haven including Deciduous Trees, Palm Trees and Evergreen Trees.

Deciduous Trees

 

Palm Trees

 

Evergreen Trees

Introduction to Poly Art Style

So this is my first ever entry on Blogger.  My name is Conor Pendlebury.  I am currently a student at Dundalk Institute of Technology in my final year and final semester.  I am studying Computing in Games Development (Level 8). This Blog is to journal the development and process of creating Poly Art Style artifacts for the module Advanced 3D Concepts. The module aims to create these artifacts for use in our Team Project in which we are creating a game called Haven.  Haven is an adventure game for PC with the aim to teach essential social skills to children aged 8-12 years plus.

What is Poly Art Style? 

Poly Art Style or Low Poly Art Style is vast becoming a new trend in the games developing world. Poly Art Style uses a minimum amount of polygons to create world models. Rather than smoothing out the polygons, we render each of the facets of the model leaving a box like appearance to create something more abstract instead of trying to represent reality. The models created using Poly Art Style are modern, fashionable and approachable to all ages and it is also very cost efficient on our GPU's.

Every 3D modeller takes a careful approach when making assets to use the least amount of polygons whilst achieving the quality they want in that asset. With Poly Art Style, there are no anxieties about this as the asset can be created using a minimum amount of polygons and adding maps such as normal and diffuse to add a higher degree of detail.
With Poly Art Style, although it has simplistic features, lighting, texturing and shadow effects are used to create a beautifully sophisticated model.

Here are a list of games that use the new modern art style:
Toca Nature:
http://tocaboca.com/app/toca-nature/
Shelter 2:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/275100/

Why use Poly Art Style?

Poly Art Style is a modern trending art style that is distinguishable by its box like appearance.  We chose Poly Art Style because of its approachable characteristics.  As Poly Art Style is child friendly, it is suitable for our target audience of children ages 8-12 years plus.

Below are some images to describe visually what we want to achieve for Haven.  As our game is set on a tropical island,  it is important for lighting and colour to be vibrant and colourful.  With Poly Art Style, you can see from the images below, that flat colours and shadows works perfectly.   The lighting is bright and compliments the colour palette Haven uses which is soft and gentle colours.  The aim of creating our environment for Haven is to have a beautiful island capable of being used as a relaxation source.

How to create Poly Art Styled Artifacts?

• Create a basic primitive in a modelling package.
• Turn off “smoothing” to lower the polygons.
• Use “Editable Poly” to modify the shape as desired.
• Use “Extrude” to add more polygons as needed.
• Use Modular Modelling to add features to the model such as leaves etc...
• “Attach” all objects together.