Questions for a project im trying to do

#1

hey i have a question about a project im working on - basically im trying to model a kind of science lab in Maya and Unity for a university project. i want this lab during an emergency where the player (this is gameplay prototype basically) wakes up out of a kind of stasis pod and you wander around this small lab. Its a pretty much first time unity project for the class so its okay for my level to be limited to a smallish area, quality over quantity does go over well.

i want the lighting to be poor, and to a revolving light to be spinning around on the roof like a kind of alarm light, casting shadows in this room. i want to add a bit of volumetric fog and all, but my real concern is actually modelling the room and its contents, and i want to ask for your advice

how do i model this small lab, and texture it really nice within a few days? (really nice for a beginner at least) and make it look the best i can.

just today i was modelling the stasis pod that the player “wakes up” from, and it was going cool and all, the tri count was pretty high, like 30,000 for a pretty bad thing because i had these cables coming down into it which added a huge amount by themselves, and i was trying to UV unwrap it but maya crashed and i lost all my work, the save even vanished completely, i ahd to revert to a backup with far inferior amount of work on it, so i need to ask you pros, how do i model fast and beautifully, i need this done in a few days modelled and textured.

thank you in advance you awesome modellers.

#2

There are a few approaches you could take.

One is to basically map out a very simplified version with primitive shapes. And gradually work it up adding detail (new objects not building on the primitives)

And in general you want to do most of the detail with mapping. So you’d have a high detail object that gets baked to a low detail object.

But first block out the entire lab, where everything needs to go and put in simple proxi objects. Then take each one and model it to a level of detail that you need.

As far as specific tips there are a 101 things that you can learn to make it go faster. Most of it comes from doing it many times. You are just learning, I would not put too much pressure on being an expert at fast modeling and just do what you can for now and maybe that will mean doing less.

But one general tip is to not add a lot of detail at the start. Even when you are making the more complex version. Start simple, blocking out most of the shape with a broad stroke and then detail it gradually.

#3

thank you so much for the reply, its very appreciated. May i ask how you would go about adding the details with mapping, since this is a Unity game project, i believe you are referring to normal mapping correct?

#4

Yes, normal mapping.

This looks like quite a good tutorial on the subject. Something I have going to have to read now that I dug it up.

http://www.chrisalbeluhn.com/Normal_Map_Tutorial.html

Hopefully it will answer most of your questions.

#5

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