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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

Tail and wing engine setting

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

Spot the difference.

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

On progress...

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

I gave up the previous design, because I can't feel anything watching it.

I'm starting a whole new one now

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

What about wings

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

I decide to restart my exterior design, the previous sketch is not working as I thought

Btw I want to record my process of finding reference, I separate them into two different aspects to find resources. First is the shape, what kind of portion looks better? What face structure match my style?

Second, I need to consider the structure details, such as how faces connect to each other and what features I can reference and modify to use in my dropship.

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

Ok, I'm stuck.

I built the upper surface first and am trying to proceed, but things are not going right.

The sharp edge structure makes it difficult to go through the next step. Let me think about it for a bit.

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UHGA_Final project_Documentation Strategies Symposium

How you are approaching documenting your development process.

I use Tumblr to document my process.

The thing I'll document:

Stage result. and when I'm thinking, which can include: 1. I'm stuck, and what happened? Can be something like feeling an inefficient workflow, a technology issue, or needing more research or brainstorming. 2. Tough day report. Why is it tough? Write it down. 3. Trying something new or about to make a risky move.

How often? When something above happens.

How long? It depends.

2. Why this is an appropriate process for your particular project.

The function that Tumblr has is quite enough.

All I need is to post words, screenshots, and maybe some links. Sometimes when I'm organizing a new workflow I'll use Illustrator to make the chart and post it here.

3. How you are approaching reviewing your documentation and reflecting upon your activity.

In most cases, when I need to review my documentation is to find: The reference video link, The tutorial I make for myself when learning new skills, and the most important part, workflow or working method remind.

4. Some preliminary judgments or observations about how effective your planned strategy is.

I've been testing this strategy since semester A, and the goal is to work well on my final project. Right now, everything seems quite fine.

5. Any changes you plan to make.

Not yet, I'll write them down when something changes.

6. Any especially effective or striking aspects you think might be useful to other members of the group.

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

How to blend the top plate structure and the front exterior structure?

This is the part I miss in the sketch; it's time for some extra research

Tomorrow, try adjusting this line to sweep a surface which cover higher area.

先給它長上去再喬要怎麼銜接

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

-From view sketch to 3D, day 1

Model analyzation

Parts were inserted to check the structure, the right screenshot is the line I swept, I need to adjust the curve to fix the problem indicated on the left side

Body structure

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UHGA_Final project_Exterior Design

My requirement of this dropship:

Wings

VTOL

Modular cargo bay

For the design method, this time I want to do something different, which is to separate the thing we call "臉譜" in Mandarin, which means "Face Spectrum"

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UHGA_Final project launched

First things first, to check the list I need to present in August.

I was doing deeper research about the Houdini workflow because I want the rotor wash dust effect.

The thing is:

Do I still need Unreal Engine while I can do everything in Houdini?

Am I good enough to master Houdini this quick?

How does the Houdini plug-in in UE5 work? I've tried it on the PC in LRC, but it's kinda confusing and there's not much tutorial I can find on the internet, and this is kinda pushing me away.

If I really need the effect, the best workflow I can assume right now is:

Done everything in UE5, especially the rigging part, and baked the animation and exported it into Houdini to do the VFX part.

Before figuring out all those things, I'll set my goal a bit safer: Except for making the cinematic landing video with VFX all over the scene, my goal is to make a proper dropship design with mechanical rigging and the 360-degree rotation detail render video.

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UHGA_Final project_DropShip design

More studies, several interesting forms.

First, listed the basic function requirement of the dropship.

VTOL

Modular cargo bay

Wings

and the figures of St. Bernard: Strong, helpful, reliable.

The most obvious point of the exterior appearance of a strong figure is that it can't be skinny. For helpful and reliable, I'll say compared to sharp edges, the smooth surface will provide more of it.

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Preproduction Study_What I gonna need

1.Of course a 3D model

Tool use: Rhinoceros 3D.

Outcome: A dropship with modular cargo bays and vertical takeoff ability.

2. Material and texture

Tool use: Substance Painter

Skill, normal things and decal

For decal I'll 1.Paint the line and bolt with height channel. 2.Words decal 3.Normal map painting

3. Mechanical rigging

Tool use: All done in UE5

Experiment: Already done the experiment at previous project.

4. Environment

Broken runway and dust

Tool use: UE5

Experiment, two environment object blending and dust creating.

5. Studio style close-up render and rigging showcase

Done that in keyshot. It's easier to set the clean environment.

6. Animation show case of a landing scene

Mix everything above and this is it.

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Preproduction Study_Skill testing

In previous post I reveal the three new decal technique I'll use in my final project, I build the words decal, normal map painting, and bolt and carve line drawing on my previous project. I didn't make it looks coordiantes because it's just for effect testing and it works!

But there's one thing I found different is at the line and balt drawing part:

The tutorial told us to select '' Lighten (Maximum) '' to get a smoother carve, but...

(L: Lighten, R: Normal)

In my case select normal is better, although the line is still not smooth enough but it looks fine from distance so I'll stop here because I believe it is resolution problem.

It looks working, great.

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Preproduction Study_Pacific Rim study

Key point: the water, building & rigging, and the moving speed, because of the scale.

In Pacific Rim, the water is also the actor; it's not only a simulation based on the movement of the machine and monster, but it was created intentionally to make a more intense scene.

Second, the detail needed in the model building and rigging is due to the scale of the huge character. Everything on the scene needs to look "working" and reasonable. Sometimes, for some small machine character, the rigging and mechanism don't need to be that detailed because the joint won't look that obvious, so the builder can "cheat" in some way.

Another thing is the moving speed of the monster and the robots. It's reasonable that the larger the slower when it's on the same planet. The detail of the movement speed makes everything real and makes the scene intense and entertaining.

It's interesting to know how many details are behind successful sci-fi movies, all the technologies, skills, and efforts. I definitely need to feel it more.