3D – Week 2

Another week has passed, and this past week we’ve been learning more about IP and Visual Style. Whilst learning about different styles we’re still learning more about 3D Studio Max, and this past week we’ve been creating crates. Three different kinds of crates, to be exact, based on different themes. Out of the five themes I chose Sci-fi, Cartoony and Urban contemporary.

Sci-fi Crate:

The Sci-fi theme is, for me, mostly defined by geometric and streamlined shapes with a man-made feeling to it. It uses a lot of hard, smooth materials such as metal, and often stays true to realism in terms of proportions and shapes. The objects and environments often seem very clean, almost sterile, though this isn’t true of all Sci-fi environments. A lot of Sci-fi based games and movies are rather low key, with many high key lights, and are for the most part coloured grey or blue with white or colourful specks of light in the form of lamps.

When thinking about Sci-fi themed games, one of the first games that I think of is Halo, from Bungie. I’ve been playing Halo since I was a kid, and I’ve always been interested in the style of the game series, with the man-made human weapons and bases, compared to the more organic and smooth alien creations. Another game I think of is Mass Effect, which I sadly haven’t played myself, though I’ve seen some friends play it. Both games uses a lot of geometric, futuristic shapes, mostly made out of metal or some metal-like material.

Halo by Bungie

Mass Effect by BioWare

When creating my Sci-fi inspired crate I wanted it to look functional but futuristic, with strong, metal hinges or clasps to prevent it from opening. I wanted to make the corners of the crate rounder and more streamlined, but as I’m still very new to using 3DS Max I didn’t quite understand how to do that without cutting what I’d already created into pieces, I stayed with the more geometric, sharper shape. I’d like to try and re-make this crate with rounder, more streamlined corners later on when I feel more comfortable with using this program and what I’ve learned up until now.

Cartoony Crate:

The Cartoony theme immediately has me thinking about simplified and exaggerated shapes with a lot of colour. A lot of cartoony styles have very rounded and playful shapes and most environments’ are high key with a lot of colour. One of the first games that comes to mind when I think about a cartoony styles is The Legend of Zelda; The Wind Waker. The game has a very simplified, almost caricature-like style with soft, rounded shapes and bright, colourful environments.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker by Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

I wanted my cartoony crate to be very simple, with a playful feeling to it. I imagine it created out of wood, but as I don’t know how to texture models yet I’ll leave that to your imagination as well. I gave it exaggerated corner-planks and bended the sides slightly inwards so that it wouldn’t look so stiff. In hindsight I could have tried to bend the sides outward instead, making it become rounder and softer in shape.

Urban Crate:

Urban contemporary is a theme that I’ve been having some trouble with defining, as there’s so much that could be described as “urban”. The first things I think about are every-day objects, mostly modern, man-made, rather stiff and geometric shapes. The objects and environments are for the most part realistic in terms of proportions, and often strives to look as close to real life as possible. There are a lot of different kinds of games that could fall into the urban contemporary category, from Grant Theft Auto to The Sims.

Grand Theft Auto by Rockstar

The Sims by Electronic Arts

It took me a while to decide upon what kind of crate I wanted to make, and I decided that I wanted to do some sort of open crate, to practice on some of the things we learned during the workshop. I ended up doing a simple kind of fruit crate that might be present at a marketplace.

Summary:

For me, this has been a great exercise for learning more about different styles, and how different shapes and forms convey different feelings, as well as a good practice in modelling objects. As I’m very new to working in 3D I might not be able to create any perfect models or manage to get everything I do exactly as I want them, but I’m learning, and exercises like this one allows me to learn more about the program whilst at the same time learning about other things, such as the different elements of art.

It was more difficult than one might imagine to make boxes – in this case three crates – interesting and based on different themes. It was a fun challenge, and made me think more about all of the planning and choices that must have been made when creating all of these games, and so many other games, where every little detail in each environment is especially designed to fit that certain environment, atmosphere and feeling. I’ve always had a tendency to analyse everything from lighting to animation in movies and games, and this has added yet another layer for me to look at, look into and study.

Thank you.

MPh out.