Digital Toolbox
Photoshop pt1 (Week 1)
During the first week of the Digital toolbox module, we looking into composition on photoshop, such as changing the sky of an existing picture with another sky from another picture and adjusting colour levels to blend colours into creating a believable composition.
 Stonehenge |  Dark Sky |
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 Result |
To further extend practice of Photoshop and blending of images we were tasked to create two images of hybrid animals, I have chosen to blend the face of a meerkat on the body of a lion, as well as blending the heads of a duck and a pelican on the bodies of giraffes.
 Lion |  Meerkat |
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 Duck |  Pelican |  Giraffes |
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 Building |  Rust |
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 Dark Sky |  Selection |
 layering |  rusty |
 burn tool |  overgrowth |
 overgrowth 2 |
Photoshop pt 2 (Week 2)
This week's first task was working with green screen images.
For this task we were provided with two pictures, one of a lady on green screen and a picture of a sky.
I started by layering both pictures together with the sky as the first layer, next step by selecting green background via select then colour range.
Upon a satisfactory selection I masked the layer so only the lady would be visible.
The following steps would be to smooth the excess green and adjust the colours so both images would blend better together. In order for this I have adjusted the colour balance and the hue/saturation to saturate the greens so they wouldn't be as apparent. However this left a bold contour on the lady image, so fix this I used the selection from the mask, contracted the selection by 3 pixels, inversed the selection then copied the selected area from the sky image and pasted over both layers as a new layer.
 Lady |  Sky |
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 Green selection |  masking selection |
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 colour and adjustments |
This week's second task was to create a post apocalyptic building using resources provided.
I started by making a selection for masking and render the blue sky invisible to give way for the darker sky from the resources using the same type of techniques from the previous task. Next added the rust layer on top and changing the layer type to overlay for, using the selection from the mask on the building layer, I erased the parts of the overlay covering the sky as the purpose of the rust feeling being it to make the building look older and "rusty".
Added a grey overlay and used the burn tool to make some areas darker by increasing exposure, also made a copy of the building layer and used directly this tool on the layer having visibly more pleasant results.
Afterwards I have also adjusted the sky colours to better match the colours on the building and using some provided brushes I've attempted to add overgrowth, since I wasn't to pleased with the result I redid it with brushes from another source.
Although I'm not particularly happy with the result, I have enjoyed this task and learned quite a lot from it.
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As a secondary task for green screen practice I used a green screen image of Shia Labeouf from his motivational "Just Do It" speech, and as background one of the first scenes in the game Skyrim, where the main character is waiting their turn on the chopping block.
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I've applied the same techniques used in the previous tasks but manually drew the rest of his legs, as they weren't visible in the green screen image. After that I adjusted colours, added more shadow to the green screen picture so it wouldn't look so out of place. Finishing by adjusting the edges of the image and on a new layer drawing the image's projected shadow.
 green screen picture |  Background |
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 Layering and missing legs |  colour adjustments |
 Result |
Maya pt 1 (Week 3)
On the third week, we were introduced to Maya, a 3D computer graphics application.
After being introduced to the interface, navigation, the basic tools for Poly modelling and the extrude tool, we were tasked to make building using these tools. My building was mainly built on manipulating and extruding faces.
Second task was to build a space ship, having a better idea of the build helped in a way to make a more detailed mesh. After having a basic ship mesh done I've used the smoothing tool, added a light sky dome using a texture from polyhaven and added a chrome texture to the ship using Arnold within Maya.
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 Building |  Ship_1 |
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 Ship_2 |  Ship_3 |
 texture added + rendering preview |  Result |
To further practice on Maya I have done one more space ship model. While I was modelling this ship, I wanted to add some pipes at the back of the ship with a 90 degree curve, for that purpose I followed the instruction on this video tutorial which as a result gave me some more knowledge on a few other functions and tools such as the snap function.
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Maya pt 3
Maya pt 2 (Week 4)
This week, we did some more modelling in MAYA, this time we modelled a wine glass and a mug, I also did a bottle to go along with the wine glass.
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Staring with a cylinder adding wedge loops and resizing them accordingly to obtain the desired shape. then adding volume, connecting vertexes and bevelling the cup's edge.
When making the coffee mug on top of making the main shape and giving it volume we added a torus to make the handle and combined it to the main mug shape using the a welding tool to connect vertexes and edges to from the torus to the shape.
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 Vertex connected |  Bevelled edge |
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 mug |  |
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This time I learned more about curves.
Such as drawing curves and revolve them to make for example a wine glass.
Using that method making the base for something a bit more complex, a kettle.
Starting by making a curve in front view, revolving the curve to make the main body.
Then to make the handle I selected a number of faces, circularized them, on front view, I drew a curved line using the selected area as a starting point to make the angle of the handle, when with the line and the area selected, I extruded the selected area along that line.
For the lid, I selected the top part of the main body and separated it, making it another connected mesh then transformed that upper part to make it look more like an actual lid.
For the spout, I circularized another area and extruded it a few times adjusting it to make a form to my liking, for finishing touches I adjusted the handle part to have a section where it could possible be held.
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Fake News
For the Fake News assignment I choose to do an alien invasion/abduction setting in London.
I started by looking for some images online though google, not entirely sure about what I wanted my news to look like besides the spaceship hovering over a recognisable spot of London. But after getting the assets and starting on the projects ideas about what I could do there just started flowing in, so in this project I playing around a LOT with exposure and contrasts, I keep several copies of layers to experiment on, and while I wasn't planning on adding a light beam I thought it would still be a nice touch.
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From v1 to v2 the difference is very subtle as I tried to add some sort of reflection to the blue lights of the ship while v3 has an added light blue overlay in the area under the ship.
 Piccadilly circus in London |  black smoke |
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 alienship |  |
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 v1 |  v2 |  v3 |
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Bond Gadget
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As my Bond Gadget assignment I decide to try making a "fire breathing toaster" using the one I have at home as reference. Even though the general aspect is quite simple I found it more challenging than I expected but I did enjoy making it.
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I started out by making the base shape out of a cube, adding multiple edge loops with the same spacing in between them to help with spacing and getting workable surfaces, facilitating extruding faces.
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To make the buttons, upon getting enough edges to be able to circularize I extruded in the circular face then take the face as a base to make the buttons as another object, clone it and fit it on the button holes I had previously extruded in. The "levers" were also made as separate object, and as separate objects I could just use the smoothing tool after making he general shape.
On the main body I fine bevelled most of the edges adding extra partitions for much smoother and softer edges
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Then I just added a surface, some lights, a skydome and played a bit with the materials to make them look the most like the toaster I have, used mainly pre-sets as base and adjusted the material settings.
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After this week's lecture and pondering on the feedback I decided to rework the surface the toaster was on, so instead of making look like it's floating on a circular plane I modelled a marble counter top and wall, then decided to also model the electricity socket, the plug and wire for the toaster.
All said and done, I took better resolution renders of this reworked setting for the toaster bond gadget and I'm very content with how it turned out.
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Week 12 (Maya)
This week we experimented with booleans, using basic shapes to make an object and unite it. Remesh the resulting object and smoothing to reduce polygons on the object.
Then we experimented with non-linear deformation tools on basic shapes.
Lastly we learned how to rig bones in a shape/object and changing position to control for example curvature of the shape/object.
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New York Rooftops (Assessment)
Final render
Wider view render
New York rooftops assignment, this was a big one for me personally.
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From thinking layout to what should I model into a rooftop, it just had me lost from the beginning. So I thought "what do I want people to see?", so I took it from there.
It all started with a rooftop, a view from a rooftop, not just what goes in that rooftop but the view to give a feeling of being.
Went through a lot of photographs on google of New York rooftops, too many of them rooftop bars, that wasn't what I wanted.
Needed something with more signature and less modern which brings me to the first thing I modelled: The Water tank, and from there it took flight.
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Modelled the water tank barrel, and then the base, for the base, after a few failed attempts, I used various sizes of I and L elongated shapes, plastered one of the sides of the base together and adjusted it so I could clone it and make it fit together, I modelled the screws in as well so it would feel more like it was built rather than glued (check other renders and screenshots). The textures (courtesy of Quixel Bridge) were added in, along with the shader fully on Maya and by adjusting UV maps, which was more time consuming than I expected.
I also modelled a fire escape using the same procedure as the water tank base (just missing a few screws), since it was fully I just used one texture, UV not much of a nightmare as this asset was meant to be away from the main rooftop.
Back to the rooftop, I made a base, added the tank, a side building, a light roof, some roof tiny vents and a bigger vent. On the bigger vent I got the grid texture off google, and added two layered decals of water spillage to go with the rusty aspect of the rest of the model.
Textures and assets added to main rooftop, used brick textures for the walls and building roof directly in front and cement texture for the floor, I also added a few graffiti on the walls.
for the limits of the rooftop I modelled tiles to put along it and the textures for these were made from colour and setting adjustments within Maya.
I also modelled a roof radiator thing but did not use it or textured it, but you can still see it on the screenshots.
For a more sense of being there I quickly modelled a glass bottle and textured with from within Maya.
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Other renders
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Being pretty happy with how the rooftop looked I moved on to make simple skyscrapers to be at the end of the scene, 2 of them are just rectangles with a texture plastered on them, I did attempt to make a displacement map for them using photoshop and some googling. The maps did add some texture to the models but not enough to be noticeable from the position I put them on. The other skyscraper I modelled and used Maya's chrome preset and added some roughness not to make it too much of a mirror I did the same procedure for most glass surfaces.
Moved on to middle ranged buildings, I made elongated brick cubes, added a top and corners (this is where vertex snapping tool really came in handy), modelled 2 types of windows and used a different brick texture for the second one, but keeping the main model. Cloned windows to make a row and cloned them down as well to make a window sort of wall and just paste it together along with the fire escape I modelled before.
All the buildings were added on the main scene and arranged for a view from the main rooftop, cloned assets and changed dimensions, some of the tanks I changed the wood material which unfortunately isn't very noticeable.
To finish up I modelled a billboard and light poles, I also added lights on those light poles making it that they would illuminate the billboard, for the ad on the bill board I just google ads and went with the Coca-Cola one (please don't sue me).
With that I finished he scene and did the wireframe and final renders.
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Screenshots
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TimeLeap (Assessment)
For the Time Leap part of the assessment I decided to do part of a trench.
I wanted to try the sculpting aspect of Maya for the land terraforming so initially I played with it on a plane to get used to it.
First I looked at pictures of trenches from World war, picked a few and assembled them on my second screen to use as reference.
I started my making the wooden barriers to make a path, as well as sandbags and clone them to make a wall.
After I started terraforming around the path I created, lifting surfaces and smoothing them as necessary, to make the surfaces closer to the wood barriers I used the grab tool and manually adjusted the proximity.
On the side I modelled a helmet to add to the scene.
All textures were obtained from Quixel Bridge, and I adjusted UV maps to avoid stretching on the simple shapes.
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Although there is a lot of room for improvement on my trench scene it was a great learning experience, I am much more comfortable with assigning textures and respective maps on Hypershade. I hope to be able to work more in depth at adjusting them to make the models look more realistic
Other renders
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