3D Model (Craft/ Ship)

Below is the complete flying hovercraft design as a 3D model in Maya. This is the model I initially created for the Animated Environments project. It's initial function was to become a futuristic dump truck. The dump truck is meant to have wheels, however for this project I deleted them and discovered that when deleted this vehicle then looked rather like some sort of shuttle craft. I was really pleased the way this model turned out and was close to the initial concept sketch. I believe that this model greatly improved my modeling skills as creating this model only took half a day as experimentation helped me to understand the way verts work and how to easily manipulate them to create the shape that I wanted. I also believe that I am now competent with the Extrude tool.

Wireframe of Ship/ Craft

Polygon Mesh of Ship/ Craft.

Occlusion render of Ship/ Craft

This render type was something I learnt to do in the Environments project. I love the way the Maya emphasises the form and structure of a model using light and shadow.
Below are various simple texture renders. I experimented with a few different textures so that I could determine an effective finish to the model. I was not too bothered about the textures as I was depending on both light and distance to obscure any detail in the final product. I did not think planar UV mapping would be necessary as i do not plan for any close up animations within the film clip. In theory if I can get the lighting just right and imitate the lighting in each shot of Open Range then I believe the model will look good enough. I have discovered that lighting can make a poorly textured model look great.

This is the texture I used for the top render. This was a texture finish that was more dirty and weathered.

Below is the texture I used for the middle render and was found on the internet. It is of a section of a bulkhead door design. I thought this texture looked quite interesting as there is a lot of weathering and detail. For this texture I was trying out a more clean texture and introducing a little more colour as I thought that perhaps a black finish would have been too much and would have looked odd in the Open Range Footage. The texture when applied to the model looks too symmetrical and vibrant, which would probably render the model out of place when imported into the original footage.

Here is another texture found on the Internet. This texture was used in the bottom render. For this texture I was trying for a more industrial & weathered finish. This is probably my favourite texture as it will probably be the easiest to merge with the overcast sky of various shots of Open Range. This grey finish will look far more convincing within the Open Range environment.