Zenith

Zenith

Introduction

The Zenith is supposed to be a challenging and driven final project of ours, which combines all the skills we have to create something of interest to us. We are given a certain range of freedom with this project, as long as it has to do with our media project.

My for my project I decided to go into 3D environment modeling, since I enjoyed making an environment for the previous narrative project in Animation, so I decided to expand on that.

I had to challenge myself with this project in that this time, I focused on a specific theme and mood, sort of like the Explorations project from last year where I used the color scheme I had learned from that, and made a background.

I used a lot of the skills I had learned in Animation class, since we learned about modeling, and using interfaces such as Maya, ZBrush, and Substance Painter, and some of the technical skills I learned from the first year of animation, with key principles and elements of design(lines, repetition, etc). I finally decided on a sort of desert/alien feel as my project, and then I got to work.

Process

Sketches

This is the initial rough sketch of the environment.
This is after I added color to the environment, trying to make it feel hot like the desert, but also alien, to account for my theme.

Initial Maya Models

After getting the sketches and a better idea for the project, I made some rough models in Maya so that I could later sculpt them in another interface, ZBrush.

Initial model for cactus in Maya.
Initial model for landscape in Maya.
Initial model for house in Maya.
Initial model for skull in Maya.
Initial model for tree in Maya.

ZBrush Models

I imported the rough models into ZBrush, and got to work, adding more details and making the model look smoother, and how I wished it to look like.

Detailed model for cactus in ZBrush.
Detailed model for landscape in ZBrush.
Detailed model for house in ZBrush.
Detailed model for skull in ZBrush.
Detailed model for tree in ZBrush.

Substance Painter

After finishing molding the models in ZBrush I imported them into Substance Painter, where I added textures and the like to make the final models come alive.

Textured model for cactus in Substance Painter.
Textured model for landscape in Substance Painter.
Textured model for house in Substance Painter.
Textured model for skull in Substance Painter.
Textured model for tree in Substance Painter.

Completed Project

Finally, for the completed project, I imported everything in Maya once again and adjusted the models, their position, etc. I added the textures and some lighting, and after rendering, it was finished.

Unrendered project in the Maya interface.
Rendered out image of the final project.
Another rendered out image of the final project.

The following is a video explaining my process and a few reflections on it.

Zenith Reflection

We were asked to write a reflection and record ourselves reading it, which is displayed down below and sums up my thoughts on the project.