Maya Keyboard Shortcuts - The Cheat Sheet! #3

Cheat sheets for Maya!

Well its not really cheating, but these are very useful sheets to print and keep handy when working within Maya. If your like me and tend to forget the vast amount of keyboard shortcuts available across a wide range of creative software, these can be extremely useful and quick to refer to if you have them sitting close at hand.

I would recommend these links...
Shortcutmania.com: Maya Keyboard Shortcuts. (printable version).
DigitalArtsGuild.com: Maya Cheat Sheet. (pdf. version).

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The Relationship between Maya and UDK... #2

Maya and Game engines...

Although the technical information provided for the module submission along with the project brief states the final 3D Environment sample does not have to reach a game engine. It's still prudent for research purposes to investigate this relationship a little further.

As for the game engine in question, UDK was chosen as the game engine to investigate.

When modelling environments and objects/assets/props (or what ever you want to call it), its important to make sure that the Maya grid will match that of UDK. As importing models from maya into UDK may cause problems if the scale and proportion ratio isn't 1:1 [1 Maya Unit = 1 Unreal Unit 'uu'].

It might also be important to note that when importing objects from maya into the game engine (UDK), that it uses the origin point of the maya grid as a reference point when importing into UDK. So its always best to centre objects modelled in Maya to the origin point on the grid as seen in the image below.

Character Size Measurements:

[ UDK Character Size. ]

First before going straight to modelling in Maya, the grid system in Maya also has to be changed to match that of the UDK grid system. To set up the grid in Maya, go to:

Display ---> Grid Options.

When the Grid Options window pops up on your screen, you need to change the 'Length and Width', 'Grid lines every' and the 'Subdivisions' settings in the 'Size' tab. This will ensure Maya's grid units = 16uu in UDK.

Length/Width: 512
Grid Lines Every: 512
Subdivisions: 32

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Computer Arts Practise - Project Brief #1

Project Brief:
Produce and develop a professional 3D environment sample suitable for a computer game engine.

Brief Digest:
The Client is developing a new game concept for to be presented to a publisher in the near future. They have commissioned you (the Artist) to mock up an environment sample from one of the concept art pieces they have provided.

You are to research, conceive and develop a professional quality 3D environment sample suitable for a game engine.

The Initial Concept Art:

[ By: Noah Bradley. ]

Similarities:

[ By: Noah Bradley. ]

[ By: Noah Bradley. ]

- Having a quick look up of Noah Bradley's on google, I found his own personal site. A quick skim through the site produced some more Concept Art by Bradley that had a similar look and style as that of the Initial Concept Art provided in the Brief. An excellent start to the project as it provides more insight into the original concept and a strong starting point for the project.

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Mining Tug.43- ProMarker Media Test #5

TUG - 43 - Mining Cargo Tug Concept.

Having carried out more research, specifically looking to Scott Robertson, Feng Zhu & Francis Tasi, for both practical skill building and theoretical research purposes. Continuing on from the last post (#4) where the mining corporation 'Fabricom' was introduced as a potential story point to the project.

A question cropped up:
 'How would this mining corporation move Cargo?'

Thus Tug.43 was created as a small media test, using ProMarkers -following on from some of the useful information I had learned while researching the concept artists listed above... Of course this is only one design, in what could have potentially been an endless amount of design possibilities and far for perfection in terms for the actual drawing.

• While Scott Robertson gave insight into design  and the necessity of good line drawing.  A glimpse of traditional media was picked up in the form of marker usage.
  
• Fend Zhu gave great insight into.the need to expand the brain's visual library,  being able to recall details of objects from the mind and using them to help inform the drawing and design.  

• While Francis Tasi touched upon the need for 'Greebles' - an industry term used by both 2d & 3d designers and illustrators to describe the details of complex-looking mechanical elements that are used to add visual interest and complexity to an image. Which in turn touches back upon the need to improve the brains visual library.

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Planet Progression & Development Media Test #4

After some brain storming and mind maps, the original 2D planet image was revisited and a fictitious idea was applied to it. In order to spark a sense of purpose to the image and project, it was decided that a sense of story would be best applied to the project in order to justify it.

Having realised that the project might come up short if the only focus was to be 'world building' as per the original plan. The realisation was made that some sort of relevance was needed in order to justify this continued course of action. If a background story  was to be applied to the image, it would more likely take on a new form of realism - if only in a fictional sense at least. This in turn lead to an epiphany that the story would underpin the basis of the project and re-enforce the overall outcome of the final project.

While the initial planet image was akin to a barren desert planet, possibly unable to support life, some greenery was added. Further more part of the planet was left barren and developed to give it a slightly more decimated look. The idea of mining was applied to explain it's final visual image - A habitable planet that was slowly being turned into a barren body of rock, stripped of its valuable resources by a mining corporation, in order to supply raw materials to a galactic civilisation contained within a fictional universe.

Thus the birth of the Fabricom Mining Corporation... The name stemming from a pick-&-mix style of choices, through the use of a random name generator found on the Internet: [ Seventh Sanctum. ]

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Holograms? #3

[ Hologram Effect ]

Holograms are projected three-dimensional images which are representative of a person or object. Its a typical form of futuristic ideology often found in a varying range of Sci-Fi and is usually conveyed as a form of visual communication or as a type of entertainment e.g: Star Wars - 3D Chess Game  & Star Trek - Holodecks.

Here again, I've taken the initial image that I created and conducted another media test. This time with the intent of replicating the typical holographic effect [Left ] & a slightly more 'digital' stylized version more akin to what you would find in a film poster [Right ].

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New Vs. Old: Digital Distress? #2

[Normal vs. Digital Distress.]

I thought about Sci-Fi as a genre in relation to this project, specifically the typically more retro feel sometimes associated with Sci-Fi. I came to the realisation that older work from this genre usually have an image on screen that typically suffers form a digital distress effect; think old Television Monitors & VHS with scan-lines... So I decided to give it a try myself, using an image I'd previously put together for my last post as a media test.

With digital art, its easy to recreate images containing distress effects that mimic screen grabs from television monitors. Typically using a horizontal line pattern, adding noise filters and adjustments.

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