WEEK 1 & 2
We were informed that this term we would be building a stationary steam engine in Maya, to be composited into a scene. We will be working on modelling, lighting and texturing, alongside this looking at more depth into rigging and hierarchy.
I started by compiling some reference images for my engine, using elements from different machines to inspire my own.
In this weeks class we created a simple wheel and piston system, we were taught how how to correctly rig this. Firstly, we very quickly built a basic piston, with a piston sleeve, and a wheel attached. We did this by using polygon shapes and manipulating them with various tools we had previously learnt.
We added locators at two ends of the piston, and using the Aim Constrain tool, we were able to ensure the piston would always move in the right direction (towards the locator).
We were also briefly taught how to use MASH to create the illusion of a rotating belt on our machines.
The animation is not totally accurate as the machine is not moving in the same direction as the belt. This exercise was primarily to get familiar with the tools to rig and animate our own models, so this isn’t a major problem.
I also started this term continuing some work on my previous Maya scene. I had the idea to create an advert for the bread, this is more of a personal project now – I just want to see if I can create a successful and completed narrative. I started drawing a storyboard for my idea. I’ll come back to this when I have more time.
WEEK 3
This week we continued to create our own steam engines, I drew a basic design based on elements of the machines I liked from reference photos. I chose these parts because I believe they will create a realistic and complex machine. Furthermore, the main aim of this task is to fully understand and create a successfully rigged and animated stationary steam engine, so I chose a design that involves a lot of moving parts.
I started modelling the wheel, it was taking some time to figure out exactly how I would like it to look. I started with a cylinder polygon primitive, adding to the geometry to create a sufficient amount of faces to manipulate – deleting the unnecessary ones to form the shape of the wheel. Extruding and using edge loops as necessary to create the detail. I also used a pipe polygon primitive to create the outer rim of my wheel.
This was the first attempt, I didn’t like the thickness of the spikes of the wheel, therefore decided to recreate it – using the same method.
I started on the steam tank, manipulating the faces of a cylinder to create the desired shape, extruding and using edge loops when needed. I added details such as bolts and panels to my machine as necessary.
To create the latch for the steam tank I originally constructed the right shape using a polygon cylinder, then used boolean difference to create the punctures. This was not an efficient method as it ruined the geometry.
Therefore, I decided to try a different method. I used a polygon cylinder to create the upper part of the latch, deleting the faces to create the hole. I then mirrored this and extruded them into each other. This method kept the geometry relatively intact, so I continued with it – I want to ask my tutor about this in the next class however.
I manipulated the geometry as needed to replicate my reference image.
WEEK 4
We continued modelling our stationary engines this week, our tutor helped me with cleaning up the geometry on the latch. He also showed me an efficient way of creating the organic shape between the two latch bolts. Using the extrude tool and manipulation of the vertices I was able to achieve the look I was after.
Next I wanted to clean up the UV’s on what I had already modeled, ensuring they were accurate by using the camera-based tool, and unfolding in the UV editor.
I also wanted to create a ‘hammered’ effect on the steam tank. I achieved this by adding divisions then using the sculpt tools to organically create the right aesthetic. I wanted the bolts to look hammered in also.
I continued modelling the details of the machine, going back and forth with the reference images.
I needed to sketch out the details of my engine in order to model accurately and efficiently. It helps me to visualize what I am designing.
WEEK 5
I continued modelling my stationary steam engine.
I used the lattice tool to bend the back-plate onto the steam tank, which my tutor had shown me as the most efficient method.
I continued modelling the front mechanism. I wanted to attempt animating part of the model, to ensure that the mechanisms I had modeled were efficient.
I used a Youtube video to see how the movement works. I also re-watched our tutorial on constraints and locators and using these same principles I attempted to apply it to my own machine.
First I established the pivot points of my movement, then placed locators at each of these points. It was important to ensure the central pivot and the locators were snapped together, I did this using the wireframe shader and two perspectives.
Then I used both the Aim and Point constrain accordingly, and put each element in the correct hierarchy in order to achieve believable movement.
This whole process took a bit of time, it was difficult to fully understand which points needed movement and what needed to be constrained. Furthermore what type of constrain each part needed.
I have successfully created the animation, however there are a few issues remaining with it. Some of the locators are jumping during the sequence, I will speak to my tutor about how to fix these problems in our next class.
I now want to build the piston at the front, I roughly drew out how it would look first.
I had a lot of issues when animating the front piston, this is because the aim and point constraints were not working efficiently on my model. After discussing with my tutor, I cleaned up the geometry so it is easier to manipulate then we tried the constraints again.
Upon reflection, we decided that the issue was with the model itself, I believe the proportion sizes of my handles made it difficult for the models to follow each other when animated.
With my tutors help we managed to get the piston working well enough for the task, we needed to manually offset certain parts of the piston and keyframe them in order to achieve this however.
I continued modelling the details of my machine using the same techniques as before.
The animation and machine is finished, I just need to slightly animate the belt and add the textures.
I imported my tracked scene from Nuke into Maya, then imported my machine as a reference. I aligned them up and added the image sequence.
Due to time constraints I decided to texture the model on Substance Painter, I watched a few tutorials and looked at reference photos to decide on my colour scheme and aesthetic. I knew I wanted to use copper as my primary metal.
I ensured the UV’s were correct for substance painter then added the right textures, then I added a paint layer and drew on the wear and tear that I wanted, as well as discoloration and stains.
I wanted to use a similar colour scheme to the scene, so would use the image plane as a reference point.
Once done, I imported the texture maps to my Maya model – at this point the specular is too high in my opinion, so I will play with the settings to get an accurate finish.
I updated my reference in the Maya scene, so my model would show the textures. I started working on the lighting, using two area lights in the corners of the room, one was a cylinder to create more of a soft look. The other needed to create sharper edges to the shadows so I used disk, and changed the spread value.
I also changed the grade of the light source, to be slightly more green. I also need to play with the exposure and intensity of the lights, as it looks slightly too dark right now. My tutor advised me that the black points of my model and the scene need to match.
I am also working on re-texturing the front piston. I am planning to do this in Maya, my tutor showed me how to create a good worn texture for the metal using the hypershade.
I used an image of hammered copper to add to my colour maps for the piston, painting on the discolouration and texture.
Refining the textures of each part of the machine was taking a long time, it is something that I could work on continuously as I feel you can constantly improve it. Overall when I was happy enough with the look, I created and selected the AOV’s we needed then rendered out the sequence and imported to Nuke, ready to be graded and colour corrected to fit the scene.
I have found an issue with my work. The camera track is stable in Maya yet whenever I render out the sequence and import to Nuke, the track becomes very shaky. I am unsure why this keeps happening, I rendered out my Maya sequence twice, even trying a more stable track. Yet the problem persisted, I have no idea how to fix this and due to time constraints I will not be able to before submission. I plan to do this after.
You can see just how much the machine is unstable in the shot, I really have struggled with trying to rectify this, so I think ideally I need help from one of my tutors.
I have found out what the issue was, the frame rate of the footage and the machine animation were not the same. I will render out a new sequence to input into my Nuke script, which should be stable.