Modeling an Exterior Environment for Render Time Using Maya
The goal of this project is to render an architectonic exterior. It consists of a modern house in render time with a camera animation showing the facade in 1 shot. Here you can watch the composited version:
Composited short film for Environment Exterior.
The workflow I'm developing integrates the following tasks:
First of all, I'm defining the camera animation using a storyboard/animatic. This is the pre-production phase of the project:
Animatics for Environment Exterior.
Also a concept artwork, to visualize look & feel, including lighting and VFX:
Environment exterior concept artwork.
Once our pre‑production is approved, I'm proceeding to production. Visit the following links for more information on 3D production and pre‑production pipelines:
Developing 3D Pipeline
Writing a 3D production pipeline for render time using pre-production, production, and post-production, including modeling, VFX, and compositing.
Guidelines for Real Time
Establishing guidelines for a real time 3D production pipeline. Research, One Page Design, developing environment, characters and programming interaction.
Modeling
I'm starting my modeling with 2D CAD references. Here you can see a picture of the cad floor plan and elevations:
Environment exterior CAD.
For information about pre‑production and visual development for environments in real time, visit the Level Layout case study:
Level Layout for Video Game
Drawing a Level layout for a video game as part of the pre production process, using CAD floor plans and elevations and blocking out the level in 3D.
Once I have my floor plan, I am extruding geometry from planes, using the CAD lines as references on the floor.
Later, adding and extruding geometry from the walls to make windows and doors:
Adding gaps for doors and windows.
I'm modeling this facade in Maya because of the better simulations (than 3DS Max) and keeping all meshes in quads. 3DS Max's modeling algorithm doesn't care for quad modeling.
Applying the Minimum Quads Count method.Final topology view.
For more information on modeling for environments, visit the following case studies:
Modeling Arch. Interior
Modeling architectonic interior, drawing CAD floor plan and elevations, modeling rooms and furniture using quad extrusions and NURBS in Maya.
Modeling Level Geometry
Modeling real time level geometry using CAD floor plans and elevations, blocking out meshes and adding details in 3D Studio Max with booleans and stacks.
The following steps in the pipeline are:
Rigging/animating the camera, and
Lighting/texturing the meshes.
Rendering
Here you can see a sample of lighting and without textures:
Lighting without textures.
For more information on texturing for environments, take a look at the following links:
Texturing Buildings
Texturing buildings for real time environment, modeling and UVW in 3DS Max, hand painting textures, applying to materials.
Rendering Interior Env.
Rendering an interior environment through animatics and concept, HDRI lighting, texturing, simulating VFX with Maya Nucleus, rendering EXR, Nuke comp.
VFX
Once my lighting and texturing are approved, I'm solving the visual effects (VFX). In this short film, I'm using:
nParticles
Fluids
Paint Effects, and
Volumetric lights.
Exterior visual effects.
For more information on Visual Effects for environment (VFX), click on these cards:
VFX for Environment
Simulating nParticles and force fields in Maya for an exterior environment including wind on vegetation, air particles, volumetric lights and water.
VFX Workflow
Letting animated characters drive VFX using Maya Nucleus, including flexible cables, molten metal, smoke, sparks, and optical effects.
Compositing
I'm rendering my frame queues in Open EXR format, importing the information in Nuke and compositing. Here you can see some of the buffers (Mental Ray) on the composited frames:
Sample compositing on one frame.
For more information on compositing, visit the compositing case study:
Compositing Short Film
Compositing short film using Nuke by rendering EXR and grouping background, character, volumetric lights, simulations and optical effects.
Once compositing is ready, I'm cutting the frames in an editing program, like Premiere Pro. For more information about Modeling in the 3D Production Pipeline, visit these links:
Modeling Arch. Interior
Modeling architectonic interior, drawing CAD floor plan and elevations, modeling rooms and furniture using quad extrusions and NURBS in Maya.
Modeling Level Geometry
Modeling real time level geometry using CAD floor plans and elevations, blocking out meshes and adding details in 3D Studio Max with booleans and stacks.
Modeling XReality Prop
Modeling prop glasses assets for an augmented reality app. 3D scanning, adding retopology with Quad Draw in Maya, and setting up with Python tool.
Modeling Prop
Modeling a prop hand grenade asset through references, templates, schematics, modular polygons & UVW in Maya. Sculpting detail in ZBrush.
Sculpting Human Body
Modeling a human body using ZSpheres, retopologizing mesh and opening UVW in Maya. Sculpting micro-detail in ZBrush. Exporting normal and displacement maps.
Sculpting Human Head
Sculpting basic detail in ZBrush, applying retopology in Maya using Quad Draw and re-importing into ZBrush for micro detail.
Modeling Mechanic Char.
Modeling a mechanic character with automatic edge loops with ZRemesher, importing as OBJ into Maya, and sculpting detail in ZBrush.
Reconstructing Photo-grammetry
Reconstructing, repairing, and cleaning up photogrammetry scan, using ZBrush Dynamesh and ZRemesher to open UVW and clean up textures.
