Homework W 04 – Textured crate

This is my Sci-Fi crate for assignment 1, textured and put into UDK.

So why does it look like this? When I made my crate I was inspired by the not-so-obviously-openable crates that are usually used in Science Fiction games. These can be placed on buttons, moved to redirect or intervene lasers, thrown through a barrier and used as a stair, among many other things. In some games they are placed in large rooms to fill out space and sometimes you can get loot from smashing them. They don’t have any more direct function yet no one really question their existence.

When I started modelling this crate I wanted to have a lot of geometric shape but after doing the immersed corners and bevelled sections in the middle I decided that clean and simple will go further than overly detailed and complicated. I took some inspiration from the Portal series, which really pulls clean of on a great way.

But I did not want it to look too much like Portal so when I started texturing I initially wanted the whole crate to be metal. However after doing the texture on the corner parts and trying out some metallic textures on the sides as well I realized that it became too much metal. It didn’t look good at all. Henrik, who was sitting beside me, suggested that I made the sides white or very pale blue.

White is commonly used as a dominant colour in the Sci-Fi genre. When it is used it is often used to give of the feeling that something is futuristic, functional, high-tech and/or sophisticated. It is refined in a way that a rusty metal version of the object is not. It is often used in contrast to something else. The colour white can in some way represent power and inferiority, it can also feel very corporate and sterile. For example the Storm troops in Star wars. They are a part of the oppressing power. They wear shiny white armour that is clean and whole. They have everything under control. Their opponents however wear clothing made of brown cloth and are over all more ruff and guerrilla like.

I decided to try white (resisting my fear of it looking too much like Portal) and it turned out nice. I realise that there is a reason why I decided to use Portal as inspiration and I really like the futuristic look of white and metal together.

I didn’t use a pure white because it doesn’t really exist in reality. White surfaces usually have a little bit of colour in them, especially if they have been exposed to weather and light. Nothing white stays white. The colour I chose is ever so slightly red because it would make a nice contrast to the grey metal on the corners. Since the white is the dominant colour of the crate I would say that it has warm colours, but really it’s a bit of both.

I wanted the box to look used and I needed some detail on the white parts so I took the decision to put some dirt on it. If you look at the texture you can see that one side (the bottom) has a lot more dirt on it, because the crate would have been pushed or pulled which would make the bottom dirty.

This is my box as wireframe, shaded with checkers and shaded with my texture. The last one is the crate in UDK.