3D Modelling for Games: Session 20 (01/03/2018)
Due to the dandruff-like snow and our country’s inability to cope with it all lessons were cancelled today. Thankfully though the majority of tutors were still in and available, including Paul, Ewan, and Dave from the previous year. As expected, I was the only one to show up. Understandable really considering most live in farmlands and equally uninhabitable areas (seriously, move to a real place people!)
Joking aside, I had a slightly productive session. Choosing to dedicate one last four hour slot to the 1989 Batwing, my focus was on some of the details in the mesh, mainly through the use of booleans. The front cannons, front exhaust, and missile launcher were the areas I implemented, and it’s now becoming clearer and clearer that I simply won’t get this finished in time. It’s far too complex a mesh, and let’s face it, I’m not a great modeller. Even if this turns out to be a masterpiece, I’m at the very least a slow modeller, which is still essentially a bad one as far as industry standards are concerned.
I’ve messed up massively with the front cannons. As the “ears” weren’t modelled properly, the housing chamber now looks like the imprint a broken pen would make in a pile of glue. Inserting new edge loops to accommodate the cylinder has proven to be a pain, as it has with almost every new addition to the mesh. Obviously I should’ve looked for the reference toy much earlier, as many elements are much easier to figure out now. Too little, too late though at this point.
The exhaust ports are actually coming along quite well considering. It doesn’t look like much right now but I’ve made a bit of headway with it, which is encouraging. Issues have arisen though again due to the new edge loops. Additionally, many parts of the mesh now have to be resculpted around this due to the changes it’s made in the main body.
Finally, we have the missile launchers. Not nearly as complicated as the others, it’s been just as tedious. Once the edge loops are complete I’ll also need to add in a lip, as with the others, so as to preserve the integrity of the mesh when it comes to smoothing.
Paul actually came in at a couple of points to see how I was getting on, and provide me with feedback for Batwing Forever. The topology was praised for the cleanliness and efficiency, and the the use of emissive channels was also praised. However, the flat colour issue reared its head again. Suggestions for improvement include adding wear and tear, and a few more panel details. As it’s practically finished, I suppose I could experiment with stamping on a few height maps here and there to see how it comes out. Obviously this will take it further away from the clean, sleek look of the source material, however it’s not about authenticity, it’s about getting a good mark!
Additionally, he had a look over the 1989 Batwing I was working on. He gave me a few tips and a couple of new tools to utilise. A combination of selection constraints and the scale tool can smooth out the creases that have been an issue since the start, and “append to polygon” should make cleaning up the bottom of the mesh slightly easier. In theory.
Next time I’ll need to work on the front lights a little bit again, as I’ve messed it up without realising, but it may have needed an extra edge loop or two anyway to maintain the rigidness of the area when it comes to smoothing it.
