Time table
Week 1 - Models and Textures
-Console
-Console shell
-Some controls
- Pillars
- Screwdrivers
- Textures and Normal Maps
Week 2 - Building UDK and further models and textures
-UDK level
-Smoke
-Improvments on models and textures
-Lighting
Week 3 - Concept Art
-Sonic Screwdriver Collage
-Laser Screwdriver Collage
-Tardis interior Collage
-Tardis controls collage
-Police Box Collage
-Time Vortex Collage
-Monitor Collage
-Mood Boards
-Mind maps
-
-Console
-Console shell
-Some controls
- Pillars
- Screwdrivers
- Textures and Normal Maps
Week 2 - Building UDK and further models and textures
-UDK level
-Smoke
-Improvments on models and textures
-Lighting
Week 3 - Concept Art
-Sonic Screwdriver Collage
-Laser Screwdriver Collage
-Tardis interior Collage
-Tardis controls collage
-Police Box Collage
-Time Vortex Collage
-Monitor Collage
-Mood Boards
-Mind maps
-
TARDIS
The main objective here is to build a TARDIS from "Doctor Who" that you can walk into seamlessly and have it bigger on the inside. To do this I will use a wall BSP in Unreal Engine and have the back panel of the police box blank. Then I will add in a subtractive BSP to create a hole the same size as the back of the police box. This way you walk through the doors and into the console room.
This is the interior view of my work in progress console room. As you can see the police box and the console are seamless so it gives the appearance of being bigger on the inside.
Corridors
For the corridors I'm going to need to make many pieces so that it's not just one straight line and so I can add more rooms to the interior.
I chose to model the corridors after the episode "The Doctors Wife" but with a personal twist on it.
Police box with fixed UVs and corridor in UE4
I've finished texturing the corridor and also fixed up the UVs on the police box, then added interior textures for the inside which is the blue wood but desaturated and a slightly transparent version of the windows.
TARDIS Console WIP
Untextured work in progress of the Coral TARDIS console.
Laser and Sonic Screwdrivers
TARDIS Console redux
I decided to redo the entirety of the TARDIS console to be thicker and more detailed. This also allows me to add in controls to the sides easier.
TARDIS Interior redux
I have completely redone the interior of the TARDIS from the ground-up so that it's slightly bigger and inculdes higher resolution textures, a ramp going from the doorway to the raised platform and also added the roundels.
Brainstorm
Box Map
Mood-Boards
Concept Art
Evaluation of the theme and concepts
I had to have some help with the drawings so I directed my mum in what I wanted to be drawn and she drew them for me.
I decided to go for Doctor Who as the theme and recreate the main TARDIS console from 2005-2010. I did this for a few reasons.:
1: I've been massively invested in the show since I was about five years old and got really into it, reading up on trivia and even watching the older series to see how it's progressed from tin foil to CGI.
2: I felt that this would be a pretty easy task as I have watched many episodes and know how the TARDIS functions and how its looks are "theme-based".
3: I wanted to develop my skills in Maya and Unreal Engine and thought that this would be a perfect fit with the time rotor going up and down, the pillars needing many deformities and the shell needing to be hollowed out just enough for the police box to fit so it could be a seamless transition.
After making the basic models of the screwdrivers, police box, corridor and shell I went online to compare them to pictures of them in the show and realised a lot of the shapes were wrong and the textures were pretty awful. By the final creation of the scene in Unreal I remade the screwdrivers and shell completely and scrapped the corridor as it was not necessary.
Making mood boards and mind maps helped a lot as this meant I had images to go on as to how things should look like in the show. Using the images and brainstorms I am quite happy with the finished result but if I had more time I would have created more objects to clutter the TARDIS with such as pipes, platforms, more controls, and better textures, as well as maybe re-introduce the corridor and make a more complex interior.
I chose to do these mood boards and mind maps because it shows the evolution of the sonic screwdrivers and the TARDIS console throughout the years. I also included the Laser Screwdriver used by The Master as I thought this would be a pretty cool idea if the scene was ever turned into a shooter game of some description.
I found sticking to a time schedule quite difficult as I can take a lot of time on the more complicated models and UVing them also takes up a huge amount of time if it's a very complicated model with multiple textures, such as the main console itself. I ended up re-working textures and focusing more on the 3D modelling and texturing side more so than making mood boards. I found the mood boards especially quite difficult to make as the TARDIS has a theme so it's only really a few materials (coral, black marble and metal) so it was a bit of a challenge to complete those but overall I am quite happy with the end result however I feel I could have added a lot more detail and made it look better with more features if I had more time to work on it.
I decided to go for Doctor Who as the theme and recreate the main TARDIS console from 2005-2010. I did this for a few reasons.:
1: I've been massively invested in the show since I was about five years old and got really into it, reading up on trivia and even watching the older series to see how it's progressed from tin foil to CGI.
2: I felt that this would be a pretty easy task as I have watched many episodes and know how the TARDIS functions and how its looks are "theme-based".
3: I wanted to develop my skills in Maya and Unreal Engine and thought that this would be a perfect fit with the time rotor going up and down, the pillars needing many deformities and the shell needing to be hollowed out just enough for the police box to fit so it could be a seamless transition.
After making the basic models of the screwdrivers, police box, corridor and shell I went online to compare them to pictures of them in the show and realised a lot of the shapes were wrong and the textures were pretty awful. By the final creation of the scene in Unreal I remade the screwdrivers and shell completely and scrapped the corridor as it was not necessary.
Making mood boards and mind maps helped a lot as this meant I had images to go on as to how things should look like in the show. Using the images and brainstorms I am quite happy with the finished result but if I had more time I would have created more objects to clutter the TARDIS with such as pipes, platforms, more controls, and better textures, as well as maybe re-introduce the corridor and make a more complex interior.
I chose to do these mood boards and mind maps because it shows the evolution of the sonic screwdrivers and the TARDIS console throughout the years. I also included the Laser Screwdriver used by The Master as I thought this would be a pretty cool idea if the scene was ever turned into a shooter game of some description.
I found sticking to a time schedule quite difficult as I can take a lot of time on the more complicated models and UVing them also takes up a huge amount of time if it's a very complicated model with multiple textures, such as the main console itself. I ended up re-working textures and focusing more on the 3D modelling and texturing side more so than making mood boards. I found the mood boards especially quite difficult to make as the TARDIS has a theme so it's only really a few materials (coral, black marble and metal) so it was a bit of a challenge to complete those but overall I am quite happy with the end result however I feel I could have added a lot more detail and made it look better with more features if I had more time to work on it.
TARDIS in Unreal Engine 4
I have put my scene into Unreal Engine, ensuring everything works. A few things need to be done such as the railing, the time rotor, as well as a few controls.
Normal Mapping and Lighting Effects
I have added normal mapping to all of the textures so that they stand out more as well as respond better to the lights that I added to the scene. The lights can be seen in the console and on the police box itself.
Time Vortex
I decided to remove the area surrounding the TARDIS as I feel it would be cooler to have a time vortex appear when you open the doors instead. To accompany this I will also add a matinee and make the time rotor go up and down as the "in flight" sound plays on a loop.
Evaluation of Materials
Materials are basically layering textures so that they have a realistic feel instead of being a flat image put onto a 3D model. For instance I can apply a bump map to a 3D model and it will appear to have extra details when viewing it at an angle or when the model is having light shun on it. (as seen above) I have chosen to use the coral, stone and rusty metals for the inside of the TARDIS, and also used blue wood (which I desaturated to make the interior police box texture) as well as getting a light texture for the top and using a standard police box sign texture. Then I used GIMP to generate normal maps and then it was a matter of importing into Unreal Engine and creating a material and then once the material was made I just had to add that to the object in Unreal Engine and then it was done.
The models I made completely by myself, using no tutorials and only using images online as reference for how they would look in the show.
The textures I got from google and edited them using GIMP and Photoshop to create the materials. I found it quite easy to create the bumpmaps and gather the textures needed to make my scene and overall am quite happy with how it turned out in the end.
The model making in maya went quite well, however the part I struggled with was the UV mapping, sometimes it would take hours to make sure it looked good enough for my Unreal Engine work which was a very long and slightly complicated process at times, particularly on models with a lot of faces and textures, such as the main console.
The controls were a mix of easy and difficult to create. Some controls,(like the keyboard, were extremely simple and just a flat cuboid with a material on it. Some of the controls, like the monitor,) use an animated video file to give it a feeling of realism and screen accuracy. The main textures of the TARDIS in the show are coral and a few rusty metal types meaning I did not have to do too much work in that regard.
The police box in the show is made out of wood so that only required one material (two if you count the desaturated version for the inside) and the windows only needed one material also (two if you count the slightly transparent version for the inside) and then it was just a matter of making the 'pull to open' and the light at the top, and the police box was completed.
The console was created by using using black marble, rusty metal, light and dark coral, glass, and fence wire. It took a while to UV this correctly as the console had a lot of faces and a few different textures to create it.
Overall I am quite happy with the materials that I have used have served me well in creating the interior and exterior of the TARDIS.
The models I made completely by myself, using no tutorials and only using images online as reference for how they would look in the show.
The textures I got from google and edited them using GIMP and Photoshop to create the materials. I found it quite easy to create the bumpmaps and gather the textures needed to make my scene and overall am quite happy with how it turned out in the end.
The model making in maya went quite well, however the part I struggled with was the UV mapping, sometimes it would take hours to make sure it looked good enough for my Unreal Engine work which was a very long and slightly complicated process at times, particularly on models with a lot of faces and textures, such as the main console.
The controls were a mix of easy and difficult to create. Some controls,(like the keyboard, were extremely simple and just a flat cuboid with a material on it. Some of the controls, like the monitor,) use an animated video file to give it a feeling of realism and screen accuracy. The main textures of the TARDIS in the show are coral and a few rusty metal types meaning I did not have to do too much work in that regard.
The police box in the show is made out of wood so that only required one material (two if you count the desaturated version for the inside) and the windows only needed one material also (two if you count the slightly transparent version for the inside) and then it was just a matter of making the 'pull to open' and the light at the top, and the police box was completed.
The console was created by using using black marble, rusty metal, light and dark coral, glass, and fence wire. It took a while to UV this correctly as the console had a lot of faces and a few different textures to create it.
Overall I am quite happy with the materials that I have used have served me well in creating the interior and exterior of the TARDIS.
In Conclusion - Final Evalutation
The Good
I chose Doctor Who and to make the TARDIS interior from the Christopher Eccleston/David Tennant era (2005-2010) as this was the console I've seen the most of and know the control layout and how it generally looks. The theme I chose meant I'd have problems getting it to be bigger on the inside, however I found a way around this fairly early on but it's not a perfect solution and has very minor clipping issues but it's hardly noticeable unless you really look for it.
This assignment has been the toughest but most rewarding as it has given more experience as to how developers work and the time constraints they have to deal with. For what's there I think I have done quite well, considering the time restrictions, and not everything that I wanted has made it into the scene. I have a lot more experience with Maya and Unreal Engine after doing this assignment though, which is good because it means I can create more complicated models and mods for games. It was good to experiment with making materials and bump maps to create realistic looking models which give the scene a lot of vibrancy and life to it.
I have learnt some new skills with UV mapping, which was through a lot of trial and error on the models that are in the scene currently although I feel this is the area I most need to improve on, UVing took more time and doesn't give the quality I was originally hoping for but hopefully as I develop and learn more techniques I'll learn how to make better UV maps and make better looking models because of it. It was good to get to use blueprints and matinees to make the doors open at the same time and to make the time rotor move up and down as if the TARDIS was in flight mode.
Overall I would say that this assignment has really helped me develop my photo editing skills, especially when it comes to game design and making textures. I hope to develop these skills even further in the future. I have also learned a lot more about 3D modelling and UV mapping, as well as how to work better with Unreal. Currently I feel as if I only know a few ways of working with these tools and I am eager to learn new ways of modelling and creating Unreal Engine scenes so I can add things onto this map as well as make more maps that will look better.
The Bad
The time constraints were really difficult to work with and it meant I had to make a lot of cutbacks with the scene. I originally wanted to have a corridor system with multiple rooms such as a library, swimming pool, drawing room, galley, engine room and an under console area as well as more controls and possibly animated controls. If I had more time I'd also maybe try and make the TARDIS be able to travel to different locations seamlessly and have you be able to pick a destination from the terminal. I also wanted to have enemies such as the Daleks and Cybermen included and maybe have some missions and go all-out and create a Doctor Who fan game. However this could not be done with the time constraints and made me feel like a lot of this was wasted potential.
Quite a lot of my days and hours working on the project were spent on brainstorms and mood boards. I would have preferred exchanging this to have more time making 3D models and improving the quality of the meshes and textures because of the time limits that were in place. I would have hoped to have a lot more time to do all of it as this would have helped me develop my vision of the scene more deeply and provide a better looking scene, compared to the final product.
Maya can be a little difficult to work with sometimes, which can be a problem if it doesn't save UV maps or textures and you're trying to work on a model. This made things really difficult and I had to remake some models a couple of times because of it overlapping or not saving my textures. I also found it hard to use the deform tool when making the coral pieces, but this could have been a user issue rather than a program one.
Unreal can be difficult and complicated because of its blueprints and matinees sometimes glitching out. Luckily I managed to work around it a little bit but it was still annoying with it taking ages to build a lot of lighting, which meant I had to use a lot less lights than I had hoped and not saving objects to matinees, which made it difficult to make the the time rotor move up and down.
Photoshop also had some issues like when I merged layers and thought I was done with the texture but then I noticed issues with it and couldn't change it, this meant I had to remake a couple of textures later in development and that made it harder to make the new stuff and get everything in Unreal ready.
Overall I would say that while this project has been fun and I have learned a lot from it I would have liked to spend more time 3D modelling and learning more tools of Maya. I would have also liked to use Unreal more to learn more functions so I could make more complicated blueprints and maybe even scripts. I would have also liked to learn more skills for photoshop so I could make higher quality textures than the ones currently used.
I chose Doctor Who and to make the TARDIS interior from the Christopher Eccleston/David Tennant era (2005-2010) as this was the console I've seen the most of and know the control layout and how it generally looks. The theme I chose meant I'd have problems getting it to be bigger on the inside, however I found a way around this fairly early on but it's not a perfect solution and has very minor clipping issues but it's hardly noticeable unless you really look for it.
This assignment has been the toughest but most rewarding as it has given more experience as to how developers work and the time constraints they have to deal with. For what's there I think I have done quite well, considering the time restrictions, and not everything that I wanted has made it into the scene. I have a lot more experience with Maya and Unreal Engine after doing this assignment though, which is good because it means I can create more complicated models and mods for games. It was good to experiment with making materials and bump maps to create realistic looking models which give the scene a lot of vibrancy and life to it.
I have learnt some new skills with UV mapping, which was through a lot of trial and error on the models that are in the scene currently although I feel this is the area I most need to improve on, UVing took more time and doesn't give the quality I was originally hoping for but hopefully as I develop and learn more techniques I'll learn how to make better UV maps and make better looking models because of it. It was good to get to use blueprints and matinees to make the doors open at the same time and to make the time rotor move up and down as if the TARDIS was in flight mode.
Overall I would say that this assignment has really helped me develop my photo editing skills, especially when it comes to game design and making textures. I hope to develop these skills even further in the future. I have also learned a lot more about 3D modelling and UV mapping, as well as how to work better with Unreal. Currently I feel as if I only know a few ways of working with these tools and I am eager to learn new ways of modelling and creating Unreal Engine scenes so I can add things onto this map as well as make more maps that will look better.
The Bad
The time constraints were really difficult to work with and it meant I had to make a lot of cutbacks with the scene. I originally wanted to have a corridor system with multiple rooms such as a library, swimming pool, drawing room, galley, engine room and an under console area as well as more controls and possibly animated controls. If I had more time I'd also maybe try and make the TARDIS be able to travel to different locations seamlessly and have you be able to pick a destination from the terminal. I also wanted to have enemies such as the Daleks and Cybermen included and maybe have some missions and go all-out and create a Doctor Who fan game. However this could not be done with the time constraints and made me feel like a lot of this was wasted potential.
Quite a lot of my days and hours working on the project were spent on brainstorms and mood boards. I would have preferred exchanging this to have more time making 3D models and improving the quality of the meshes and textures because of the time limits that were in place. I would have hoped to have a lot more time to do all of it as this would have helped me develop my vision of the scene more deeply and provide a better looking scene, compared to the final product.
Maya can be a little difficult to work with sometimes, which can be a problem if it doesn't save UV maps or textures and you're trying to work on a model. This made things really difficult and I had to remake some models a couple of times because of it overlapping or not saving my textures. I also found it hard to use the deform tool when making the coral pieces, but this could have been a user issue rather than a program one.
Unreal can be difficult and complicated because of its blueprints and matinees sometimes glitching out. Luckily I managed to work around it a little bit but it was still annoying with it taking ages to build a lot of lighting, which meant I had to use a lot less lights than I had hoped and not saving objects to matinees, which made it difficult to make the the time rotor move up and down.
Photoshop also had some issues like when I merged layers and thought I was done with the texture but then I noticed issues with it and couldn't change it, this meant I had to remake a couple of textures later in development and that made it harder to make the new stuff and get everything in Unreal ready.
Overall I would say that while this project has been fun and I have learned a lot from it I would have liked to spend more time 3D modelling and learning more tools of Maya. I would have also liked to use Unreal more to learn more functions so I could make more complicated blueprints and maybe even scripts. I would have also liked to learn more skills for photoshop so I could make higher quality textures than the ones currently used.