Benjamin's Blog

I know it's been a long time coming but I wanted to be done with my project before I addressed it here. So this is the first of a couple of posts- this one will go over the          project itself and the next post will cover rendering and the stages I ran through to get everything working so let's dive into it!  Found on 3D warehouse So I decided to go down the toy train route, simple but effective if done well. I started to  research the references. I wanted something simple but could really shine as a 'hero' asset- that is the focal point of a scene. The wooden train you see to the left is more detailed than my own- I wanted a clean look, polished and simple so it didn't fit.  Found @  https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-wooden-toy-train-1215533 This toy train was another consideration, it was simple and something I felt I could accomplish. I felt that after my previous attempts I needed to get someth...

So with the pretentious blog title out of the way let's take a look at, in 3D terms I've done this term. This should be fun or depressing! Let's look at one of the first models I made- 'Shippy Ship' This space ship was simple, low on polys and low on detail, I built half the ship then mirrored it so it's very symmetrical. It looks like a budget tie-fighter. It was alright  for a first real attempt but it was a first attempt and personally I can tell, but still- could be worse! Next up we have the penguin: This penguin I was much, much happier with. It had more detail but was still quite simple at its core. The mistake I made with this one was modeling in smoothed mode. This meant that I had to go back and fix some of the problems that caused with the polygon version.  Now we move on to my project work, this could be interesting! This was a first 'second' attempt at the space ship. The first few tries where so bad I dare no...

An attempt was made at texturing this bench using substance painter- it went ok! Texturing is a nightmare. That's an overstatement but it's not easy- the basic 3D modeling I think I've got to grips with but UV mapping- Trying to actually get it to work? That's hard and requires me to think a little differently. I haven't really had to use 3D tools before and 'flattening' a model in a way that works is really tricky.  I've tried it with a couple of 'simple' models that I've put together - as you can see above. It's not fantastic- but for some reason I find substance painter much easier to work with, it makes 'sense' to me because I can 'paint' directly onto the model and see the changes reflected in the UV map via the UI; this has really helped me understand the process of texturing and mapping. Now my actualy model isn't quite ready for texturing at this point- this is more advanced preperation. So far though,...

Time management or as I call it the art of trying to keep to a schedule. It's tricky, it's no fun but it is an essential skill.   How essential? Well if you don't have it - or a sembalance of it you're going to get into heaps of trouble right out the gate. That's not great. So how do I manage my time? I work 16 hours a week in Leeds for a bank doing mortgages- so even when I'm not working I'm thinking about the job- the customers and the conversations I've had. It can be hard to engage with university work in that mindset because I've got my mortgages mindset in play. Trust me they're very different things. On the job I learn something new everyday and at university I learn multiple new things every hour! It's exhausting.  If I don't keep a proper schedule I'll never get work done! But if I don't rest then I'll never get any work done! It's very catch-22. It's a balance that I can honestly say I haven't mastered ...

Maya is an- interesting tool. I've struggled with it, I've cursed its very existence on multiple occasions. I've had to dive into forums and question threads. I've had to really spend time getting to grips with it- even now knowing so much I feel like I'm using maybe 30-50% of the whole tool set. That either speaks to a large tool set- or alternatively a lack of knowledge on my part. It's tough to know where I'm at but am I enjoying it? Well, that's a tricky one to awnser too! I'm en joying Maya when it works is the honest awnser. I remember right at the start of the semester I had to re-install windows just to get it to boot! Very frustrating- then I got into the tool set. It was a case of the first models I made where based on extruding everything I came into contact with- resulting in some very blocky models. That's fine, a part of the learning process I'd say. So far so good, but looking at the alternatives Blender is getting bigger an...

So this is the image I decided to use as a reference for my space ship- it's baased on the spaceship from the video game No Mans Sky and the image itself is by Justin Mezzell . So here's my progress so far- it's still rough and it's behind where I expected I'd be at this point in time but so far it's looking ok- I'm having some trouble with the engines on the wings at the moment which is a bit of a pain. Overall I'm happy with the look so far but we'll see how it develops beyond this.