The beginning of modelling

I know this is a few weeks late, but the start of modelling has begun. I underestimated the complexity of the designs and research into creating these models, I did not want to rush into the modelling too soon without the comfort of research and clarity. To begin, I need to set up my 3dsmax units so that the units and scaling between both UDK and 3Dsmax are on par with each other. I began by exporting my model as an ASE and quickly found problems. Errors began to pop up notifying me about materials and mapping co ordinates, upon searching online I was quickly able to find the solution and found that it was a simple export selection option whilst exporting the model. I found out quickly that the model I created was about 150 times larger than I actually needed it to be. This was because during the mock up, I did not take scale or units into account, I simply just began to model as quickly as possible.

Unit and set up references

 The units here are taken off a guide video to sync up the units for 3Dsmax and UDK. It also shows you how to make a small cube which is exactly player height in UDK. This came in very useful as I was able to work out that my mock up structure was in fact over 80 times too large. As a rough guess I scaled down the whole model so that it was the approximate size and tested it again in UDK. After some adjustments in 3dsamx, this was the scaling and size of the building from a players perspective.

Mock structure from players point of view

 I also had a brainwave whilst working out the size of the individual netting, in UDK they use a snap to grid option, which I plan to utilise when it comes to building the buildings together, these settings can be changed, however its default is set to 16 and thus if I was to make each segment a factor of 16 squared, then the pieces should go together smoothly (hopefully).

I made a list of all the power I can use to adjust the models. Here are the numbers I will use for reference when modelling (16, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160, 176, 192, 208, 224, 240, 256.)

Testing character scale within the mock structure

Here I tested the units, by creating a 256x256 x512 box and exporting it, I placed it over the default box in UDK and from the overlapping, I can tell that it's perfect size, it's time to being modelling.

Overlapping of perfectly aligned pixels

Organisation of Netting and the roof structure

Going from the advice given to me to use a net in order to create my modular pieces, I have been taking the mock up Dougong structure I did and tested to see how well it would fit into a square net. Below is a small square net placed over a topdown view of the structure. As you can see that the structure itself is relatively symmetrical and so changing its organisation somewhat would then create an easier modulated kit. This would require a small amount of adjustments but would be a worthwhile investment of my time in the long run.

The roof structure is one of the most difficult pieces to construct. I haven't found many diagrams or pictures as to how they made the corner parts of their roofs so I plan on designing a specific modular part that will act as a corner piece so that a level designer can create a variety of houses with a corner joint. This piece may be one of the most polygon heavy pieces as it has a lot of geometry that I don't think I could construct any other way. The corner piece could be broken down further but then would not feel as modular as the other pieces. This would be because it would require the player to make a corner piece from 4 different pieces instead of one. This would also take away the usefulness and speed that a modular kit would give to the level designer.

To begin with roof I put the design of the main building together how they would be when a corner is formed, from here I then chose the way in which I desired the roof to collide. From this design below you can see the method in which I want the roof to attach to each other.

This piece of roof connection is know as a 'Gable' roof structure.

Two pieces where a corner need to connect



This is general design of how I want the corner piece to look

This is how the corner piece will look when it's completed and fitted within the other pieces.

This below is a brief illustration of how the roof will sit on the structure. The plan is to have a small amount of dougong visible from the top as from the inspection of other houses, this tends to be the case with dougong based structures. That they show off the structure and colours of wood from the outside

Organisation, and the planning before construction of assets

Before I begin to construct the assets I need to create or at least give myself a better understanding on how they will fit together. My lecturer advised me and showed me a model castle that he designed and made for an old War hammer game. He showed me how each piece revolved around fitting into one square segment so that wherever he put it, it would be aligned with the other objects in the scene. With this in mind I plan on trying to keep each piece of the model as close as I can to one segment.

Interiors were also mentioned which I asked about whether I should consider giving them a shot after making the structure work. From this I was given the advice of only creating the exterior/structure of the buildings as filling the interiors with assets would be a waste of time as they were assets not being assessed as part of the modular and the time spent constructing them could be used to construct better buildings.

So to begin I took at a look at my first attempt at a Chinese building 3D model and tried to figure out how I could break it down in order to construct basically a tileable and modular building. Here is a top and side view of the current mock up building structure I made.

And here is my plan with the wooden structure to make it easily modular along the X-axis. By cutting the structure into one section, the designer or myself have more control over how large they want to make the building. Instead of making a building that has to be a power of 2 sections or 4 sections, the level designer can now make small adjustments where necessary.

This design isn't flawless yet at the design is not perfectly ready for duplications and will need some adjustments before the final edition. For example, the building still needs two more columns in the centre in order so that 'rooms' could be built with and to give the design more stability. This will also aid in  the designs for a roof that hangs out over the canopy slightly.

More model preparation will be coming soon, I know it's late but these designs need to be perfect to execute such a complicated modular build with precision.

Design drawings and Scaling

Christmas and holiday season is over, it's time to get back into the swing of things. I've been trying my hardest to complete these drawings and designs within the constraints of the timeline, however I didn't find it personally feasible as they were tricky to make and design. I feel I may of over scoped the designs of each building however, they are now complete and I now have a general idea about proportion and scales of the buildings. Although drawing all these buildings has been rather tiresome, it has also giving me inspiration to now make them in 3D form. These are the buildings as a collective and will be used whilst 3D modelling to guide me.



Building 1
 

Building 2
 

Building 3
 

Building 4
 

Building 5
 

From these I will now start the final asset list and then begin 3D modelling. I know that these are late, but I've been working on these over the last few weeks. These drawing are also not final and can or possibly will be changed.

Asset list and drawings

Hello there world, I have been doing some drawing of the sort of buildings I wish to create within my village and i've found it extremely time consuming and I may of over scoped this part of the time line. Currently I have only one building drawn out in a basic isometric form to build upon the advice given to me to make all blocks and items fit one block. Here below is the drawing I've completed to help guide me into choosing the assets and create the asset list. The asset list may be quite large but a lot more buildings can be built from this kit if they were made.

From the isometric drawing, here is a snippet of all the pieces I would need to create to make this model. This list will most definitely expand as I would like a slight variation in my buildings.

Hopefully I can get the next set of buildings done very soon to add to this list. Although you have to remember that a Chinese house can be made up of many buildings put together so this may seem like a large amount of assets for a building, or maybe I'm not dividing it up enough yet.

Basic map design of village

Based on my research here is a simple top down view of the style of map and layout of the village I would make, although this wont be the final design, it is a taster as to the style of orientation and organisation of the houses I hope to aim for. All the main entrances facing south to keep away from the North winds, tight and close structures with small alleyways. I hope to design a few more in the next two days.

Miscellaneous inspiration of various chinese buildings for top down map

As I am now currently trying to sketch down a few drawings of top down maps of my eventual village layout, I searched on the internet for some images to get me in the right mood or to create a 'mood pallet' to aid my drawing, as this always seems to help me. There were a few images I found very useful and that gave me inspiration. I started by looking at google maps to see if I could see any older districts fo China to get a style of layout of some buildings to give me some foundations but I foudn that China is very secretive about showing off their countrys map to the West.

Here are some of the pictures I found inspiring and helpful whilst drawing down top down maps, although some of the pictures don't have the same features of the Sui-Tang dynasty, they still do have some similar aesthetics.

A man climbs down a ladder after sweeping dust from atop the entrance to his small residence in a "hutong", (or small alley in Chinese) in central Beijing, on April 22, 2011. Doorways leading to "hutongs" and their "siheyuan" (or small courtyard houses in Chinese) once criss-crossed the city, but they are quickly disappearing with Beijing's fast evolution into a modern metropolis. (Reuters/David Gray)

 

Interior view of an earth building located at Chuxi Village, Xiayang town, Yongding county, in east China's Fujian Province. There are about 30,000 earth buildings, dating mostly from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, in the Fujian Province, southern and eastern China. (Reuters/Kin Cheung)

 

A Chinese man paints the scenery while a villager rows a wooden boat passing by some of the Ming Dynasty's ancient buildings built along a river in Xitang, Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province, on May 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

 

Ethnic Dong minority villagers walk through a covered bridge on their way to a Kam Grand Choir gathering in Tongguan village of Liping county, Guizhou province, on October 17, 2011. (Reuters/Sheng Li)

All these images were found off of a collection of new an old Chinese Architecture blog, the blog can be seen below

Links:

Chinese Architecture Blog
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/chinese-architecture-old-and-new/100409/