Hey Party People!
How's it hangin'?
It's me again, back with more 3D learning! I've been really using Maya this week, which has given me a lot of practice! I'm so much more confident in myself, as I know what many of the features I can use will help me accomplish. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm more determined than ever to keep moving forward and continue bringing my work to life!
So, this week's assignment was a Lego project, which sounds easy, but it really is no joke. The things I learned in this assignment were much different than the things I learned in the previous (Minecraft) one. While the Minecraft assignment was focused on texturing, this assignment was a different beast entirely.
It was focused on modeling, which was really fun, but kind of painful when you take into account how many pegs a 4x15 Lego has! Pitfall incoming!
Here's a progress shot, where you can see the pitfall I'm about to go into detail about... which is why my displays are still on!
The one pitfall I experienced while working on this project was that I could not figure out how to accurately snap objects to the grid. I would hit the middle mouse button and X, like many hotkey guides suggested, and even just hit X before grabbing an object, but to no avail. I'm thinking that something may be up in my preferences, so I'm going to talk to Nick and some peers to troubleshoot.
So, you know what that means- I placed all of these practically by hand. I was able to group select and drag them, but I had to lay one row of the pegs over another to make sure the sizing and spacing was absolutely correct.
It was painstaking, but I started small with the 2x2s and then worked up to the 4x15 bricks. Once I got there, I was able to really streamline my workflow!
How many pegs are in a Lego? Too many to count, that's for sure! I ended up grouping everything at the end, since I had a lot of overlapping parts due to my snap to grid workaround. That's why my content window is a bit of a hot mess. Trust me, it gets better in the final file! Everything is grouped- otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to export selected into Unreal!
Speaking of Unreal! Here are some of my Prickly Pear cacti in my Lego world. I wanted to get started on my Unreal build, as it helped demonstrate some of the stuff I was trying to sculpt a lot better than Maya. In fact, if you noticed in the video, I built a waterfall in Unreal that did not fit in the staged scene in Maya, so I have provided plenty of pictures of it below!
Notice the sky? I'm glad you did! I actually custom-coded it into unreal with the Blueprints editor! Thanks to HDRI Haven, I was able to get a really nice look to my overall world!
Here's that Blueprint for future reference! This is really helpful for skyboxes in general and provides dynamic lighting. Since it is a sunset scene, it gives my desert a nice, warm feel to it. Like deserts usually are!
There's a nice view of that sunset, complete with some cool looking shadows on my waterfall! Again, this world is far from complete. I want to continue to build onto it. But I was having fun with the platforms and stairs to the right of the world and want to incorporate more things like that as I keep experimenting.
Here's a nice, peaceful sky shot, complete with some shadows and a pretty view of the desert peaks in the distance.
Here's a view of the platforming section and some of the palm trees and cacti. I really like the way they turned out! They add a lot of character to my Lego world!
Here's a nice view of those mountains in the distance and another look at what I'm building out with those platforms! I have the player start here, which gives you a full view of the rest of the level. Then, you can try your hand at the brick platforms!
Here's a bird's eye view of the whole world! I know it's far away, but I wanted you to see the full grid in all of it's brick glory!
Here's a comparison shot in Maya. The staging in this picture looks so cool- the Infinity Wall and lighting really make some cool shadows. It's like being on a stage!
And last but not least, take a gander at this fast-paced flyover. Sequencer can make some really interesting results, especially if you only have a hundred or so frames. I still think it looks cool, but not as dramatic as my initial Bird's Eye clip.
Besides the Snap to Grid setback and a couple minor bugs, this project went well! The only thing that gave me a small hiccup was transferring the Legos to Unreal. It would not give me the option to use an FBX file, stating that these were "advanced assets" that could not be exported. I instead exported them as OBJ files, which worked well.
The only downside to that was having to delete the material off of them if I wanted to reimport them into Maya. I was able to over come that, but I would like to know the root of the problem for next time. Again, this is going to have to be something I consult my peers on.
But yeah, this is my Lego world! I hope you enjoyed the ride- I really worked hard on this and was extremely happy with the result! This project ended up looking really nice and I'm so happy I was able to work on it!
I'll be back here next week to deliver the final installment of this two-week Lego project!
Until then, see you soon!
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