From Dust

From dust has some amazing water simulation for being done in real time and in a relatively small game. Released in 2011 it was a Puzzle game for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, with its main mechanics being the manipulation of terrain and water to spread the population of a small tribe.

The water reacts realistically and features huge tidal waves that wash over the islands, rivers, water erosion, and lava.

The differences in the behaviour between water and lava are interesting and the shaders, while stylised, are believable and effective in their representation of the different materials.

Initial Project Thoughts.

After the first few lectures and labs my thoughts about my project are still quite scattered.

I am still exploring aspects of simulation, I'm pretty sure that i want to work with the focus on the games industry, so a lot of focus should be put on making it run in real time, or at least give examples of how it could be implemented into a real time system.

A problem i may face with this is that maya isn't particularly well known for running in real time, especially on a  computer that isn't top of the line. Simulations in games are also done in engine, so with the exception of perhaps using Unity or UDK it will never be exactly as it would be in a game.

The areas i have been looking into have been water simulation and fire simulation, both of which have games that demonstrate them well but also issues when in a game engine.

Water simulation using Height Fields

Simulations from the first lab.

Here are some screenshots of the simulations made from the first lab notes.

Using Passive and Active physics objects and the time line we created a bouncing ball first, then experimented with editing the attributes, then finally we assembled a wall of active physics objects and launched the ball into it. 

After that we experimented with fluid dynamics and nParticles, the results here were me turning the number of particles in the bucket up to about as high as i could go without it taking years to finish the simulation. 

To try and make it more realistic i attempted to add a colour transition to white when it was moving, but i couldn't get it to work properly and it will take more experimentation with the particle properties to understand the intricacies of realistic particle production.

Start of a New Sculpt

To Further my composition and render knowledge I'm going to attempt to make a 3D render of the character and then try to make the render look similar to the painting.

This is the base mesh for the sculpt, the arms are still a bit short and the neck is a bit fat at the moment. One problem i may face is that the body is very detailed but isn't segmented in any way. Meaning i will have to make the mesh very high resolution and can't make it into separate sub tools, Aside from the trumpet.

Scripting and Dynamics Introduction

For this module we have to identify a problem ourselves and solve it using our knowledge of the dynamics system in Maya paired with scripting.

Over the next few weeks i will post a lot of research and plans for the module here on the blog.

Initially I'm drawn towards explosions or water effects but these could become very complex very quickly, especially if i try to tackle real time implementation. 

Final Render and its assembly.

This is the final render that i worked on for the "Long Neck" creature, it is my first attempt at putting together renders in photoshop and i learned a lot about how to make my renders look better and more proffesional. I am very happy with how it turned out and i think that the process of making it has helped me not only to understand the process but see where i can go next with my project.

After assembling the render together i am looking forward to doing it again but perhaps assembling it into a painting , or compositing into an existing image.

This was a depth pass, for using effects like focal shift.

A variety of different lighting angles, they were all combined on top of one another in photoshop using screen to add different intensities of light from all the directions but also ensure the ending result wasn't too washed out.

On the left is a material pass, used as a masking layer in photoshop, it allows me to easily select different aspects of the final render. For instance i wanted the eyes to be brighter in the final image so i selected them separately using the green eye mask and bringing up the light in just those areas.

The image on the right is a reflective map, used to pick up the skin and pore detail, to make the skin seem more alive.

These are rim lights, used to make the model pop from the background, all of them were used in different intensities in the final image.

These are shadow maps, used like the light maps, but used in multiply mode as it is better for dark shadows.

After adding a soft glow into the background just to make it a bit more appealing i adjusted the colour balance and contrast of the image to see what effects i liked more.

In the end i settled on a warmer yellow tone to tie in slightly with the tribal theme.

Colouring and render tests.

With the colour i wanted to make it seem dangerous, but also thin skinned, so sub surface detail was something i spent a long time trying to add. By building the colours up layer upon layer using a variety of different alphas and textures i could get a nice effect.

Base colours on the model.

Teeth and cheek muscles based.

Finished colour and lighting experiments

Harsh underlighting, sadly due to the shape of the cheeks it completely hid the eye balls.

slightly softer under light, i really like the way the shadows from the bones cast over the forehead

Side view to show the depth of the face and the colour down the neck.

Long Neck Sculpt.

Initial head and separate sphere for teeth

After it progressed further the shape of the eyes and the ears were giving me a distinctly tribal vibe. 

As i am trying to give my sculpts that sense of life and a backstory i decided to roll with it and try to incorporate other elements of story down the line.

With the skin details and teeth in roughly the right place i started experimenting with details.

One of my fellow students suggested a membrane or muscle at the back of the mouth opening to give it a more realistic look. This was an important lesson as i was pushing the boundaries too far for it to seem believable . 

Adding piercings made of bone into the skin, to give it a more native or tribal feel.

I posed the model using a zsphere rig, something i had never done before. i can certainly see how this would be useful in future projects as it can significantly speed up the posing of characters. This also makes the character seem more alive in the final renders.

Originally this was going to be the final pose. The character was looking down at the viewer making it more powerful, but in practice it looked more sad than intimidating so i shifted the perspective for the final renders to make it more menacing.

Sculpts Based on the Sketches

I took a  few of this sketches forward into ZBrush and made them, or part of them , into sculpts.

I also experimented with a few new ideas.

The Sculpt of the "Chicken Man" Sketch that i posted earlier, the head was really interesting and challenging to sculpt. I tried to maintain a link between the upper lip and the eyebrows of the faces, so that they blended seamlessly into one another while still maintaining the expressions. 

I also took what i learned in the human head cult and kept the face slightly asymmetrical.

The body was hard to sculpt and keep the humanity coming through and the legs ended up a bit  squat      for what i was envisioning.

I coloured the body using more greens than i would put into a normal skin tone to try to make it appear sickly or diseased.

This was an experiment in sculpting hands similar to "The Flute" by Zdisłaf Beksiński, it was very difficult to keep the definition between the fingers and the idea of getting gaps in-between them fills me with dread. I may practice by trying to sculpt the flute player or perhaps another of his paintings.

Experimenting with dramatic lighting.

Under Lit full body

With the idea that this creature was meant to crawl across the floor i tried to make the skin look heavy and thick, almost leather like. I also took the wrinkled appearance a step further than the sketches, adding more layers and grooves to the skin. 

This was another piece experimenting with multiplied anatomy, a man trapped and moulded into his chair, the hands and feet writhing into multiple copies. It was fun to sculpt, especially the hands but i feel with the focus points being so far apart there is almost no composition that i could show the whole model in an interesting way.