The main project this term was to create a 3d door in Maya. Since the directions of how the door is suppos to look like were rather free, I decided to go simple and creative. My image for this door was a ruined wall with an archway and a old wooden door inside it. It would not be attached to other doors rather a lone object possibly in the middle of a field or such. So a started working a rough concept in Photoshop. This was quite easy since i had a clear image in my head. The wall would be made of old stones and the archway would have runes engraved in it. This is what the first concept looked like:
The design looked good, and seemed easy to create as a 3d model, But i wasn't too happy with the wooden door itself, So I redesigned it, Gave it some Celtic knots and changed the main symbol on the archway. Now it was ready to be modelled. I didn't include a side view since i knew exactly how it would look from the side, plus the model is rather flat and the front is the most important.
Than I started modelling, It took a while to get used to the modeling techniques in Maya, but after a while it seemed natural and the model was coming along well. I took an approach as if I was building an actual stone wall/door from bottom up making each individual brick and placing them on top of each other.
After my door was finished and I was happy with it, I unfortunately found out that triangle polygons are going to cause problems when exporting to mud box, this was a problem since my door was filled with triangles. So instead of painstakingly removing the triangles i redid my entire door, making sure the brick contained no triangles.
Now that my model was ready. I had to go through the pain full task of UV mapping. But with the use of some very help full online tutorials, I managed to make this much easier for myself. Since I learned about the automatic projection option. This has helped me out greatly since i didn't have to go trough the "tetris" process. After that I brought my UV map to photoshop and started texturing, which was a surprisingly fun process and with the use of some high res textures it came out very nicely. Finally I added some details like the grass on the bottom of the stones and the platform which the door is sitting on. If I had more time I would have textured the platform itself as well, and added some details like little stones scattered around the door and making the model look like a miniature terrain for a fantasy board game. But overall am happy with the result.
After my door was finished and I was happy with it, I unfortunately found out that triangle polygons are going to cause problems when exporting to mud box, this was a problem since my door was filled with triangles. So instead of painstakingly removing the triangles i redid my entire door, making sure the brick contained no triangles.
Now that my model was ready. I had to go through the pain full task of UV mapping. But with the use of some very help full online tutorials, I managed to make this much easier for myself. Since I learned about the automatic projection option. This has helped me out greatly since i didn't have to go trough the "tetris" process. After that I brought my UV map to photoshop and started texturing, which was a surprisingly fun process and with the use of some high res textures it came out very nicely. Finally I added some details like the grass on the bottom of the stones and the platform which the door is sitting on. If I had more time I would have textured the platform itself as well, and added some details like little stones scattered around the door and making the model look like a miniature terrain for a fantasy board game. But overall am happy with the result.
