My Love Affair with 3D Coat

So the next step of my project has been UVmapping. Which as any 3D artist knows is a frustrating process. Shaun recommended I use the bonus tools for Maya 2013, but I've run into several glitches with them. The worst of which involves the grayed out buttons that show up in the viewport. They don't actually appear, they're still there, but the GUI buttons aren't. Which means you're stuck praying that you somehow manage to click the button.

So I did some research and found the MEL scripts that the buttons actually run:

Add borders button:

bt_defineWrapMapEdges;

Remove Borders button:

bt_removeWrapMapEdges;

Continue button:

bt_killUnwrapMapHUD; bt_defineWrapMapEdges; if (`optionVar -q AutoUnwrapMapMethod` == 3) { bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD3; if (`objExists "wrapMapAnchors"`) bt_defineWrapMapAnchors ;} else {bt_AutoUnwrapMap ; bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD4; textureWindowBakeEditorImage;};bt_killUnwrapMapHUD ; bt_defineWrapMapEdges; if (`optionVar -q AutoUnwrapMapMethod` == 3) { bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD3; if (`objExists "wrapMapAnchors"`) bt_defineWrapMapAnchors ;} else {bt_AutoUnwrapMap ; bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD4; textureWindowBakeEditorImage;};

Done button:

bt_killUnwrapMapHUD; bt_cleanUpAfterUnwrap;

bt_removeWrapMapEdges;

Continue button:

bt_killUnwrapMapHUD; bt_defineWrapMapEdges; if (`optionVar -q AutoUnwrapMapMethod` == 3) { bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD3; if (`objExists "wrapMapAnchors"`) bt_defineWrapMapAnchors ;} else {bt_AutoUnwrapMap ; bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD4; textureWindowBakeEditorImage;};bt_killUnwrapMapHUD ; bt_defineWrapMapEdges; if (`optionVar -q AutoUnwrapMapMethod` == 3) { bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD3; if (`objExists "wrapMapAnchors"`) bt_defineWrapMapAnchors ;} else {bt_AutoUnwrapMap ; bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD4; textureWindowBakeEditorImage;};

Done button:

bt_killUnwrapMapHUD; bt_cleanUpAfterUnwrap;

bt_removeWrapMapEdges;

Continue button:

bt_killUnwrapMapHUD; bt_defineWrapMapEdges; if (`optionVar -q AutoUnwrapMapMethod` == 3) { bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD3; if (`objExists "wrapMapAnchors"`) bt_defineWrapMapAnchors ;} else {bt_AutoUnwrapMap ; bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD4; textureWindowBakeEditorImage;};bt_killUnwrapMapHUD ; bt_defineWrapMapEdges; if (`optionVar -q AutoUnwrapMapMethod` == 3) { bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD3; if (`objExists "wrapMapAnchors"`) bt_defineWrapMapAnchors ;} else {bt_AutoUnwrapMap ; bt_AutoUnwrapMapHUD4; textureWindowBakeEditorImage;};

Done button:

bt_killUnwrapMapHUD; bt_cleanUpAfterUnwrap;

But most of this ended up just causing a ton of problems for me, including crashing Maya. I fully admit I don't know enough about MEL to even begin determining why. (Damnit, Captain! I'm an artist, not a programmer!) Also thanks to Zak from 3D Buzz for providing the MEL scripts.

So, I gave up on trying to make my life simple and decided to manually UV map. Now, funny thing about me, I actually really enjoy UV mapping...when I'm not in a rush to get it done. It took me 2 hours to UV map the Ward Beds which is one of the more complex models in my asset folders. That's ridiculous. So I decided to find a new way.


Well, 3DCoat seemed to be the obvious response. One of my brilliant classmates gave me a quick tutorial on how to use 3DCoat, and it's a surprisingly intuitive program. I tried using it on one of our lab computers, but there are some funky things going on with the licenses -I wonder if they're effectively kept on a cloud server since all of the computers are ghosted, but I digress. I remembered that Steam had a copy on their client and so I went ahead and bought it. So, worth it. In a fraction of the amount of time it took me to UV map that ONE model, I've UV mapped 6.

Needless to say, 3D Coat and I are very much in love and we'll be running away together to get married soon. :p Sorry, Maya.


Also Thesis was driving me a bit crazy so I decided to doodle some stuff in photoshop:

Every year I attempt to enter into the National Novel Writing Month website. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November. Every year I usually cap out at about 15K words before I lost time or interest, but I like to attempt it every year anyway. This is Seven, she's one of the main characters from the fantasy novel I'm attempting this year. In D&D terms she's a swordsage (Meaning she's good with weapons and blade magic) she fights with a bladed quarter staff. She also suffers from a light sensitivity to the point that she has to wear patches over her eyes during the day (which she can still see through) in order to not be in extreme pain. She can see perfectly at night. She's also had her tongue cut out. Her lips have been sewn shut from a ritual that allows her to speak telepathically.

So Massive Update Dump

Allow me to assault your eyes with a ton of pictures of what I've been up to.

Also this week I'm going to work on getting a gallery page running on this site so that it's much easier to look through and navigate all of the images I've posted.

Highlight of the week though - that has nothing really to do with thesis: I obtained an ankle length 100% Cashmere sweater for 4$, I am very proud of myself.

This isn't so bad

I got a few things that were completely stressing me out taken care of and it's helping me put the scale of this project into perspective.

Application for Graduation submitted ---check

Verizon finally sent me a new phone ---check

Pork shoulder in the slow cooker ----check
New shoes to keep me going ---- check

So basically I convinced myself to go hide in the lab for several hours and just model. Best idea I've had in a long time. I powered through a lot of modelling and got myself caught up from a lot of the slack I allowed to accumulate in this project. I would say I'm about 60% of the way done with the modelling. My goal over the next two weeks is to have the modelling completed and then the time until finals week will be UV mapping, that way I can walk into the next quarter with only texturing to do and fixing whatever I do wrong.

Speaking of texturing: that's my new research track. To plan how to do textures with the intention of putting them into a game environment. I have the basics of the process down, but I'd like to get my workflow in order before I start flailing around and hoping everything will work together.

Otherwise things are going really well in the project. I need to get in contact with Marla and find out if some of the underclassmen in the project planning class next quarter will be able to help me with some of the UV maps I might not be able to finish this quarter just because they're time consuming.

I'll update as soon as I can with some screen caps of the models I've been working on. 

This week on the senior thesis channel

One of the things that drives me absolutely nuts about large scale projects like this is that no matter how many goals and deadlines I successfully meet, I never feel like I'm actually getting anything done. Luckily the Maya files in my thesis folder have proved me otherwise. Something is getting accomplished!

I'm mostly finished with my blocking models. I'm doing some more research to determine how I want to build the Isolation ward. I really don't know why that room is giving me so many problems. Of course that's half the fun of a project like this, overcoming those kinds of artistic challenges.

So what have I been up to this week?

Research:

Tons of stuff on Borderlands and Gearbox software. I love the art style. I've been addicted to the toon outliner since I discovered it my freshman year here. I like how Borderlands combined the outliner with their cell shading. What's even more fascinating is how they made this "11th hour decision" in response to the fact that Fallout was coming out around the same time.

I did some more research into a good workflow for my environment and I think I've settled on one. The basics of it involves block modeling/setting up a reference file, exporting my block models to use them as a reference for the main model. Model, UV, reference back into Maya.

So by the end of this quarter I should have all of the Models created and UVed. (In 4 weeks!!! That's totally doable) I'm all ready done with over half of the main models of the first Ward. There's a lot of repetition which helps with the process.

I've also been doing some thinking and research into texture styles, which depending on how much modeling I get done I may debut next week. :D

Time sheet:
6 hours: reblocking models, setting up file naming formats (renaming everything because I messed up!:0), modeling, cleaning up models
6 hours: research into UV mapping, Gearbox software and art styles, video watching on UDK and modular workflows and doing some work on my website
3 hours: Concept work and SKYRIM (totally game research...radiant game play in response to emergent game play is very important)

The Cool Down Period

So, after three full years of RIT I'm starting to be able to expect the types of madness and insanity that will assault me throughout the school year, but still, the sheer amount of work that seems to come my way over the quarter is incredibly overwhelming.

But this probably because I just came off of a very pleasant summer where I read lots of books and lazed out in the sun. For my last free summer ever, it was nice.

But now I need to get back into the flow of things. And it's stressing me out. It seems like I'm always working, working, working. And drinking a ton of coffee all the time. I practically live in the coffee shop at the library...I'm like some sort of hipster emo writer. I feel like I should be wearing all black all the time and have a black beret and that I should talk in a snooty accent.

Enough joking around though!

Despite some struggles I did manage to get some decent work done this week, it doesn't feel like I did a lot, but I've definitely made progress. It's that awkward cool down period where the obvious changes to the project are coming slowly, but they are definitely coming along. I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to on the project this week, but I had other classwork fall down on top of my head (Not literally, all though sometimes it feels like it). I'm redesigning my identiy - my logo, my business card, my website, my resume, my other blog, I'm even working on redesigning this blog.

I tried to get in contact with Rolling Hills Asylum so that I could have the chance to visit a real psychiatric hospital to give me a better idea of where to go with my thesis, but unfortunately due to some poor timing and the Halloween season I don't think I will get the chance to go. I'm sad about that, I was super excited to check it out and get some pictures particularly for textures.

So here's the progress I made on the blocking models this week:

The assets without the building surrounding them

Ward A, high security

The Nurse's station

Ward B, overview

Ward B, common area

Ward B

Level Overview

As you can see, I'm still having some issues with the isolation ward. I'm not completely sure what I want to do with it yet. I've also changed a few of the level aspects. For example, Ward B is not purely bed rooms, but is in stead large areas with many beds that also has storage closets, a series of showers, toilets and a common area for patients to spend their time in. 

Next week I'm going to get the assets of Ward A done and set up this blocking model file to be a file that I can reference the assets into. 

Block Modeling Progress

Well, despite being sick and feeling like my throat has a furry animal living in it, I managed to get the block modeling that I wanted to get done this week completed.

As you can see, the Isolation Ward still needs some work, part of that is due to the fact that, while I have an idea of what it looks like, I've been focusing so much on the other wards that I haven't had  a chance to write it down conceptually.

And this week's time sheet:

Invisus-What's in the Name

Wow, this project seems so entirely HUGE compared to what I've done in the past. I'm almost overwhelmed by everything I have to accomplish. I'm also learning just what it's like to power through being sick when you have a large scale project...which I suppose is actually great real world experience.

Yeah, I know it's only second going into third week back at school and all ready I've gotten sick, it's nothing serious though, likely just allergies trying to kick my rear in to submission, but I say no! Moving from the south back up into the far North never goes well for me. I'm a southern girl at heart, I need my heat and my constant sunlight. Again, good real world experience, learning to press through and take care of myself while still getting my work done. Not easy.

So this week has been spent working more on my design document - which is actually proving to be a bit of a challenge; not because I'm not a decent writer or because I've never written a paper on this scale before, but because I've never written a paper of this type before and there seems to be no excessively wrong way to write a Design Document, so I'm flailing around attempting to make it look pretty and also make concise logical sense. I know I've written mock Design Documents before, but for some reason any knowledge I had of writing one has flown out the window.

I've also been blocking out the level layout in Maya with extremely simple polygons as well as trying to decide how I'm going to accomplish the overall level layout. I realized in the process of blocking things out that there are going to be a lot of small assets and the thought of all of them is almost overwhelming. But I'm cautiously excited to tackle the task and I suspect that once I get started it won't really be so much busy, busy work.

But, I figured that I would attempt to explain why I chose the name Invisus for my project. I had intended to call my thesis Fracture because of the fractured mindset of the main character. Upon doing some research I discovered that LucasArts has all ready produced a video game under the name of Fracture. So I started looking into some other words that could say a lot in a single word. I played with translating software and ended up going back to the second foreign language I ever attempted to learn, Latin.

I fully admit I was never very good at Latin grammar, but I was fairly decent with Latin vocabulary. Invisus comes from the word Invidere (Derived from the latin word Videre, meaing to look), which means to cast an evil eye on, to bear ill will, or to be envious, or - as I was taught in school- to dislike someone (including yourself). Invisus is the past perfect conjugation of the word Indivere, which means that it translates to mean hated or detested, or loathed. But what really caught me on the name is that not only has it's primary meanings, but depending on who you speak to, Invisus also means hostile or malicious.

It also means unseen because of the conjugation of the word Inviso, but I always thought that was an awkward word.

Anyways, I leave you with a bit more concept art. Block modeling of the level layout is well in progress!