3D Modeling: Project 2

on

31.10.2022 - 14.11.2022 (Week 10 - Week 12)
Chung Yi Ki / 0345014 / BDCM
3D Modeling
Project 2: Themed scene-based modeling

Lecture

Week 10 / Rendering 
In 3D software, what is displayed on screen is called as OpenGL Rendering. In Blender, the render engine for this is workbench, but there's a limitation in terms of quality. 

Real time rendering on the other hand, has both GPU or CPU based rendering. In this kind of rendering, render settings have to be set according to global illumination, material and lighting. In blender, there's two real-time rendering to choose from, which are Eevee or Cycles. 

Material 
A surface appearance can be given to a 3D object by setting the appropriate material. While material can be set in Blender, sometimes a texture image needs to be applied to make the material more convincing. 

To apply a texture to a material, UV texture coordinate needs to be used. Texture can be procedural, which means the image is sourced from outside Blender, and non-procedural, which means the material is generated within Blender. Non-procedural texture does not need UV texture coordinate to work. 

Apply material 
Material can be applied to a whole object or a specific face of an object. Material attribute includes base colour and roughness. In using a render engine, this can be set in the material  property menu (all the sliders above viewport shading). Roughness determine the matte appearance of an object, this attribute is controlled by the specular attribute. 

  • Subsurface scattering - Determines how much light pass through the object 
  • Emission- Allows objects to look like it's illuminating light. Colour can be set in "Emission" and the strength of the illumination can be set in "Emission strength" 
  • Alpha - Determines transparency of object 
Render setting
Eevee
There are three main settings to adjust in Eevee:
  1. Ambient occlusion 
  2. Specular
  3. Reflection and refraction 
Lighting 
  • Point - light shines in 360 degree, the smaller the radius, the sharper the shadow 
  • Spot - light shines as a spotlight, spot size and bend can be adjusted
  • Area - gives a softer lighting, size can be adjusted 
  • Sun - gives the effect of exterior lighting, sun doesn't affect the size of the shadow, but just
    affects the angle of it. 
Week 11 / Texture 

Texture
When using image for texture, it's better to import the image in a square ratio, the minimum is 512px x 512px, it can be doubled up into 1024px x 1024px and 2048px x 2048px, 2048px is good for close ups, 1024px is the optimum size.

UV unwrap 
To apply image texture, a method called UV unwarp is required to be done. 

In the UV editor, the axis of the viewport is translated into a U and V graph, where the vertical axis is V and horizontal axis is U

To assign a different materials to different faces of an object, go to edit mode and select a face, and then assign the material. 

To assign a texture using image, click the yellow circle beside base colour in the material panel, and then import the picture. Then, click texture under color properties in the viewport shading menu to see the texture.

The position and size of the texture can be customised by transforming the face in the UV map. To avoid tiling when resizing the texture to be really small, use a seamless texture image. 

Another way to add texture is to first export the UV layout and create the texture in Photoshop (UV > Export UV Layout). Though the drawback of creating it in Photoshop is that it's hard to create seamless texture.

To unwrap an organic shape like a tree branch, the mesh needs to be sectioned to half by right click > mark seam, and the mesh will be unwrap properly in the UV unwrap screen. If there's multiple section presented in the UV unwrap, make sure to position them so each section is not overlapping each other. 

Instructions

For this project, we are tasked to create a scene based environment in an isometric style using either Eevee or Cycles render engine. We can choose from four themes to create the environment on: sci-fi, cyberpunk, steampunk, or medieval/fantasy. 

Visual reference
Fig 1.1 Visual references and object blueprint references

My chosen theme is sci-fi and the idea I have in mind is to try out in merging nature elements with sci-fi elements, which ends up with the idea of a kind of abandoned sci-fi space craft which is being infested with jungle vines. I searched for visual references based on the idea and blueprint/reference images of objects I want to include.

Sketch
Fig 2.1 Sketch of scene idea

Fig 2.2 Sketch with possible lighting spots

Then, I sketched out the scene idea I have in mind and roughly plan on what the scene would look like and what to include in the space. I also roughly plan out on possible places to put lighting in the sketch. 

3D modelling process
Fig 3.1 Modelling retro TV from blueprint

Fig 3.2 Using the TV screen from the retro TV model as
the computer screen in the control panel

Fig 3.3 Modeling other objects following the reference images

Fig 3.4 Modelling other objects and putting them in the scene

I started by creating two walls and a floor using cubes, and then model the objects I wanted to include one by one by following the reference images. The objects are mostly formed from cubes, cylinders and a spheres. For the other objects that aren't model directly from image reference, they are modelled freely by either looking at other image reference in Fig 1.1 and based on the sketch (Fig 2.1), some textures are added along the way as I modelled. For the circular and rectangular screen on the control panel, stretch modifiers are used to create the bulging look. I changed the jungle vine arrangements and some furniture choices from the sketch so as to fit the idea better.

Fig 3.5 Using array to create the number of mesh needed for the metal grate floor

Fig 3.6 Modeling the vail using two cylinders

For the metal grate floor, I created the shape of the grate using a cube first and then used the array modifier to multiply the numbers needed for the holes, then used the brush Boolean tool to create the holes on the floor. And for the vails, I created the casing from a cylinder first and used another cylinder to put inside the casing, some faces of the casing are deleted to create gaps to see inside the vail. Solidify modifier is then used on the casing to give thickness to it. 

Lighting and rendering

Fig 4.1 Scene and lighting setup

Fig 4.2 Bark texture for jungle vines
Source: https://www.sketchuptextureclub.com/textures/nature-elements/bark/bark-texture-seamless-12359

Fig 4.3 Unwrapping jungle vine mesh using smart UV unwrap

Fig 4.4 First attempt render

After finishing modelling the scene environment, I setup the model with lighting for my first test run in rendering it. I assigned each objects the proper material and used a bark texture for the jungle vines. Since the jungle vines need to be UV unwrapped first, I used the smart UV unwrap function to quicken my process in unwrapping it rather than doing it manually. I also resized the UV layout to fit the texture with the mesh. Then I rendered it in Cycles at 300 samples with the denoise function on. For the lighting, I used primarily red lighting to create the look of a crashed space craft where all the lights turned to red.

Further development of model

Fig 5.1 Further development of model and lighting setup

Fig 5.2 Wireframe and without wireframe preview of model

Fig 5.3 Material and lighting settings of model

After receiving feedback from Mr. Kamal, I made some changes on my model and the lighting setup. I made the holes on the metal grate floor and the jungle vines smaller. I also adjusted the wireframe of the walls to create a better shape and texture and also added two additional light emitting source on the wall for visual interest. I then subdivided all the mesh that needs subdividing and add bevel modifier on them to give them a more 3D feeling, and also applied shade smooth with varying degrees of auto smooth on all the objects. 

I then changed the materials of the objects to make the scene less monotonous and adjusted the lighting setup to make the scene more well lit and add in some more blue lighting. Specific materials are set to specific faces of some objects as well. 

Fig 5.4 Shading nodes for orange and green emission lights

Fig 5.5 Shading nodes for purple and blue emission lights

Fig 5.6 Compositing nodes for bloom effect

I later found out that Cycles would make emission lights whiter by default and doesn't have a bloom effect. Although I can use Eevee to render the scene but since the glass material only looks good in Cycles, I decided to keep using Cycles and find ways on solving this problem. While searching on the Internet, I found this Reddit post with answers on how to preserve emission light colour in Cycles and this video on how to create bloom effect in Cycles. I followed the two tutorials and used the same nodes technique on my rendering. 

Fig 5.7 Unifying the two walls using brush Boolean

To get rid of the visible edges where the two walls connect, I unified them using brush Boolean for rendering. I also set the colour management in the render option to high contrast. 

Volumetric lighting tryout

Fig 6.1 Cycles render with volume scatter cube (without bloom)

Fig 6.2 Eevee render with volume scatter cube

For experimentation, I followed this blog post and this video to try and see if I can create a volumetric lighting like how I sketched it out in Fig 2.2, where there's a visible cone of light coming through the window. But when I tried it out, I found out that the other lighting setup I used outside of the scene would be visible too since there's too many light source near the model, so I just decided to not use volumetric lighting and render as normal. 

Final themed scene-based modeling

Fig 6.3 Final themed scene-based model


Feedbacks

Week 11
The texture of the floor (holes) and the vines on the walls are too big, try to look for references to guage the ideal size. The rightest most box could be moved nearer to the gate as it looked too cramped at the middle. Add some blue lighting to make the scene look better as well. Adjust the position of the platform as it looks like it's floating above the ground. Try and play around with the colours of the materials more as it looks monotone now. Also try and switch on the bloom effect to make the emission lights look better. 

Reflection

In terms of modeling, this project is a smooth transition from project 1 as I had the chance to get used to modelling in Blender for project 1 so I ended up modeling objects somewhat quicker in this project. I was also able to create shapes and textures for objects without direct reference as I've gotten familiar with how wireframes work in Blender. For me, the difficult part of this project is thinking about how to better compose the environment using multiple objects and the choice of materials that would make the model look interesting and not monotonous. I think part of the challenge is that since I'm doing sci-fi, I restricted my choice of materials to be primarily metals of different shades of greys and limited the places to put emission lighting, so I had to play with the ways on how to create interest by tones alone. Modeling the jungle vines was also challenging as it's an organic shape, and it had to flow well along the wall so I had to take a lot more time in making the twist and turns look right. 

Other than that, this project was enjoyable for me as I got to learn more about different ways to apply materials, and also the use of nodes. Plus, emission lights are cool!

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