3D Modelling for Computer Games - Encountering an issue

Upon the creation of my higher polygonal mesh, I noticed I had neglected to UV my low polygonal mesh, and as such needed to UV the low mesh to prepare it for baking, I would then have to rebuild the higher polygonal mesh, though I do not see that portion being a problem at all.

I began selecting different sections of my containment chamber via facial selection and projecting each using a variation of cylindrical and planar projections. Due to the shape of the containment chamber I felt this would be the easiest and most appropriate method to use.
Following this process I used the tools provided within Maya's texture editor to flip, scale and place my UVs within my 0 to 1 texture space, making sure the UV's were facing the right way and sized adequately in accordance with the level of detail required, and whether they would be seen in-game or not. This is why the faces on the underside of the containment chamber have been scaled down in comparison to the faces on the very top, as can be seen below.

At this point, I feel as though the UV's are laid out well, though there may yet be further improvements made to things like the texel density, as it is not perfectly even and if necessary, I will modify it further to produce a more preferable, even layout to the UV sheet.

My next step will be retopologising the higher polygonal mesh again, this will of course be subject to more changes if the UV layout changes at any point.

3D Modelling for Computer Games - Higher poly build and topology.

I continued from where I left off last time with a solid low poly base, building into a higher polygonal mesh and making sure my topology was correct.

I began by inserting edge loops at appropriate intervals to create control edges for each of the defining edges of my mesh. This has allowed me to created a well topologised mesh in both standard view and smoothed view, using 3 on the keyboard. Blow, screen captures can be seen of the flow from a close view, in both standard and smoothed view in the viewport.

I encountered a slight issue with vertex placement once I had finished the mesh itself, and as such, cut the mesh in half, deleted the half of the model containing offending faces and mirrored the clean side of the geometry. I merged it with the original clean half during the mirroring process, streamlining the development ever so slightly. As a result I ended up with a clean, higher polygonal mesh, I set the normals back to their faces in accordance with the mesh itself and softened/hardened any edges which needed modification.

I managed to keep the flow of the geometry smooth along each edge, and besides the one vertex-based issue I encountered, had no issues in the mesh. There were also no major kinks or waves in the mesh, resulting in a smooth overall mesh, with hopefully enough vertices in to bake detail down appropriately.

Below are wireframe images of both the main low polygonal mesh and the higher poly mesh, which will be used primarily to bake the final high poly mesh details down onto the lower poly assets.

I am happy with I will be experimenting with my own kitbashing methods, creating screws/bolts, pipes and panels, amongst other elements to use in the baking process, these will not only help me in this project, but will also help me further into my hopeful career, kitbashing any given models I may make in the future.

Also, I may yet make additions and/or alterations to this mesh, and will add to this blog as and where necessary, as it may still need some more vertices adding to  the mesh for the baking process to retain the highest level of detail from my kitbashed high poly model.

3D Modelling for Computer Games - Low Poly (Silhouette) rebuild.

I decided to rebuild my low polygonal silhouette from the ground up for this unit, as it would give me a chance to keep an eye on the topology, making sure the flow is correct throughout the model.

I began with a cylindrical primitive as I did last time, and added a number of subdivisions I felt would be appropriate for the manipulations I had planned for the mesh, and began making extrusions in the appropriate places.

Bearing in mind the feedback from the previous unit, I tried to make the rear of the chamber blockout stand out a bit more as an intended access panel. To give this a bit more emphasis I reshaped the extrusion on the back of the chamber, giving it a slight slant around half way up the height of the mesh itself.

I reshaped the front slightly, angling in the front panel as I had intended it to look in my concept art, and made a more flowing edge to the lower extrusion around the base of the containment chamber.

I feel I have created a solid base mesh to go from now, though I may still add more to it as my concept art also included pipes attached to the chamber's surface. I have given myself a platform to develop a higher, properly topologised mesh both for higher poly smoothness, and also for baking purposes, giving the eventual high poly mesh more detail to bake down to, which in turn will provide a better overall normal mapped result.