Throughout this project I kept having the idea that I was going to create something big and aim for a project that would give a strong start to the year however I didn’t realize that I was highly limited on time and due to me thinking big I wasn’t able to manage my time well.. However throughout the project I did achieve and discover ways on how to use bi-frost in Maya and understand how the material settings effected the cloud textures majorly. Creating the cloud took up a lot of my time as I had never done it before and a lot of the settings kept going wrong and in the end it wasn’t looking like a proper cloud. Before I knew it, I was reaching deadline. I did try to use the other side of bi-frost and create a moving sea to then create a sea with bi-frost clouds above it but I wasn’t able to understand the sea physics in time. So I moved into Unity and I was able to use a shader I had been working on to help myself make a lake in which I then got some particles and made some faint clouds in the far distance. I used this to first set the scene and then I thought I still needed more as a lake view wasn’t good enough so I made a paper boat model and placed a basic shader on it along with a normal wooden plank texture. I then seen that the water shader I had been working on allowed me to make ripples with the boat moving through so I decided to make a paper boat floating through water. At first I was a little worried as I wasn’t fully confident in doing key framing animations however in the end I was able to create a short animation of the boat floating through. In an overall conclusion to this I will say that my time management for this project wasn’t the best as I wasn’t able to manage it well and make a clear aim for how much time I had left. I also believe that this time didn’t go to waste as I was able to discover multiple things I wasn’t able to do before such as being able to use bi-frost to make realistic looking fluffy clouds as well as trying to use bi-frost to achieve a sea scene. down below is the short animation I created of the paper boat floating through a lake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hocJnTgXq_c&feature=youtu.be

Flow

Unity project:

First Ideas:(Basic idea/Last idea) Beach scene with moving clouds that use a personal scripted shader to make each cloud have a swirling effect to it as well as the sea uses a basic cube that has a water effect on it which would be a personal scripted shader, same as the clouds. The beach would then be a sculpted terrain that would match to fit in with the water but the shader on the beach/sand bank would have a gloss effect to simulate the idea of the sand being wet however half way up the beach the sand would have to merge with another sand bank to change the effect of it being dry.

2D concept: A 2D concept art would be created as a first basis of the project as it would help plan out the ideas for the beach and help create the layout which would be used as a plan for the scene.

3D assets: I was thinking of doing a stretch and 3D modelling a basic layout for a house and putting it on top of a hill which would be in the background of the scene as well as out in the water/bay there’s the idea of having smaller islands to allow the scene to have that idea of depth.

Animation side: The clouds would be static if just placed into the scene so as an extra stretch, each individual cloud would have to be animated and moved key-frame by key-frame to create the floating effect.

Second ideas: Steampunk bay. (Main idea) Steampunk bay would have pipes that are falling from the sky in a looping animation that would then splash down into the water below in the bay. And up above in the sky would contain a steampunk blimp clashing with another blimp up in the clouds. Based around sunrise time or night time( Most likely at night to allow the emissions of the lights to glow and allow extra depth to the scene.) If based at night time the blimps would have the cabins which would then contain interior designs due to the emission lighting up the inside. This would be an extra stretch if wanted. The pipes falling wouldn’t contain any emissions.

3D assets in this scene: Steampunk blimp, clouds, sand bay, broken up variations of steampunk pipes, palm trees (2D textures off in the distance), broken and brand new cogs buried into the sand. Distant house on a hill, made on top of a sculpted terrain which would have been made in Unity.
Assets with emissions: The blimps cabin, on top of the deck on the blimps. The house on top of the hill would have emissions and as a possible stretch the house would also have interior designs to allow more depth to the scene.

Animations needed in the scene: Each singular blimp will need an animation of it clashing into the other aka first off the Bigger blimp would be more in a static place compared to the smaller blimp. More so that the smaller blimp would do a slight detour into very close contact with the bigger blimp and most of the battle would be done through particle effects. The pipes that fall from the blimp would have a looping key-frames so then they’re constantly falling over a time period of 10-15 mins. This would save time as some of the pipes could be duplicated and just placed in different angles. The palm trees in the distance have a chance to be 3D modelled and if decided to be modelled then the leaves would have to be key-framed to allow the flowing in the wind.

Particle effects needed(Minimal Requirement): The clashing between the two blimps would have to contain a smashing and slight blowing up effect. The pipes falling from the blimps would have particle effects that make it seem as if small parts of metal are flinging off of them. The pipes would also contain remaining steam as they were just in use before being flung off of the blimp. The clouds in the sky would be a mixture of static clouds(Would be key-framed and animated to move around a continuous loop over the course of 3 mins long) and particle made clouds(Most likely made from steam particles all collected into one section, possible to key-frame them to make them moving particle clouds). The water down below would have splashing effects from where the pipes crash into it.

Games that would give ideas for the scene: Bioshock and Bioshock infinite

Concept art: The concept art will contain the rough drafts of what some of the broken pipes would hopefully look like when they’re falling from the sky. There will be 3 different designs for the pipes as most of them can be duplicated and then switched positions(Some of the pipes will be more rusted than others). This would save time. The concept art will only contain one design for the steampunk blimp as it can be duplicated and just used twice, this is to save time as well on the project. The concept art would also include the 2D texture for the silhouette palm trees. The concept art would also contain a basic plan on how the 3D scene would be structured as if it was a white-box design.

Broken pipes: The broken pipes are going to be made up from a cylinder first and then by selecting some of the faces and extruding out. The rest of the faces are to be extruded down, this would help start the effect that the pipe has been broken off from the other side of it. Sides of the pipe would be extruded out to allow for cogs to go on the side of extra pieces of pipe.
Steampunk blimp: The steampunk blimp would be fairly easy to create as most of the blimp’s design can be done through textures as the blimp would be up in the sky so it wouldn’t be close to the shot. Plus most of the blimp’s main parts would be covered with particle effects.
The water: The water would be done through using a shader in Unity. This shader would apply a 3D effect to the water and it allows for dynamic waves. The base of the shader would be applied to a basic material which then would be applied to a cube. The cube size depends on the size of the scene.
The clouds: The clouds for the scene would be modeled like how I modeled beanbags by using the cloth physics in Maya to create the uneven shapes. I attempted this and later realized that it didn’t really work and would’ve been easier if I created the clouds by getting a sphere and then adding 50 by 50 subdivisions and then using the Maya sculpting tools such as foamy to then sculpt out the shape of the clouds.
Palm trees: The palm trees would first be designed from a cylinder and then with 3 large cubes and one smaller at the top of the cylinder. The rest of the work would be done in either Maya or Mudbox by sculpting the shape of the leaves and the details on the tree trunk. A fair bit of the design can be done through textures though to save the poly count.
The pier: The design of the pier would be like a basic wooden pier that’s quite small and just goes out into the water enough for a small sail boat to fit, it would be modeled from all cubes and most of the details would be done through textures and noise maps to save the poly count.
The steampunk lamp posts: The first ideas for designing and creating the lamp post is that it’s made from 4 different sized cubes however it would be better if the post part was made from a cylinder as well as using a cylinder for the base of the lamp post. This would give the lamp post more of a dynamic feel to it. the lamp post would also have spots where cogs would be connected to it.
The sand bank: The terrain would be made in unity using the terrain sculpting tools as it allows for grass textures along side as sand, so all that would have to do be done is adding a wet/damp effect to the sand.
Cogs: The cogs would be first made from a basic cylinder and then would have 8 edges to allow for some of the faces to be extruded out and then the faces that have been extruded out would have the sides beveled.
Overall: Most of the asset’s detail would be done through either textures and noise maps. Or the assets final product would be decimated so it contains hardly any polys. This would make the performance in Unity as well as in vr a lot smoother and would make the user have more of a pleasant experience. Because if they were left to see the scene with only 15-20 FPS then their view of the particle effects would be very jumpy and it wouldn’t be very enjoyable however if the scene was reduced so that it allowed for the user to have 40-60 FPS then the experience would be enjoyable and they’d be able to see the scene at full capacity. What would also be a benefit if all assets were kept to low poly and didn’t have a big file size then the user wouldn’t have to download so much information when loading into the scene. If the scene also had some of the assets share the same material then it would also reduce the size of the scene as there wouldn’t be multiple different types of materials needed to be downloaded so in order to keep the scene as optimized as possible, most of the same types of assets can share the same material and a lot of the assets can be decimated so there isn’t as many polys in them.

1. Creating the basis of the environment. The first basis of the environment is first giving Unity the right skybox so when rendered and put into playmode, the scene has a right skybox/HDR for the sky. It wouldn’t be good enough with the basic skybox Unity provides.
2. Implimenting the clouds. Implimenting the clouds into the scene should be fairly simple however how they work might have to be changed as Unity doesn’t use Bifrost. However it has mulitple different particle systems which can be used to create the clouds. The clouds that are stored in Maya are more so experimental and are only really providing the basic shape for the clouds.
3. The sea base. The sea base this was done through having a cube on the floor of the scene and giving it the size ratings of 2,10,10 (Height, width, length) Now a basic cube doesn’t look like the sea so what was done to fix this was by getting the material of the cube and then changing the Standard shader from it, into an ocean shader. This shader provides a life like sea feel with animated waves and foam effects. This then makes the cube feel dynamic.
4. Moving palm tree leaves. The moving palm tree leaves are done through mostly keyframes of an animation, such as messing with the transform of the leaves(Such as the positioning or rotation) every second, however creating an animation in Unity takes more time compared to Maya or 3DsMax as each keyframe must be done and movements must be ever so suttle, as it doesn’t automatically calculate the movement for you such as Maya, if you move it from the beginning spot to the finishing it fills the gap for you however in Unity it doesn’t do that, so each palm tree is going to have the same animation as it can be duplicated and changed ever so slightly such as messing around with the time stamps which would make the animation slower.
5. Assets with possible dynamic bones. Assets that could have a dynamic feel about them are like the leaves as they would have suttle dynamic bones such as adding gravity to allow for the animation to be more realistic and having slight dynamic bones will allow for more movement during the animation.