12 Jan, 2024 — Donita Kadharusman
Principles of Games Art 24/25
3D — Worlds Apart, Winter Break
3D Modelling Diorama
One more way to create longer pipes was to use the EP curve tool, so I had an idea of using this tool to create the ropes, then connecting them with bridge tool.
I tried applying bevel, but it ended up with many n-gons. Since we’re aiming for low-poly diorama, I decided to stick with a rough looking asset rather than a high-poly one.
‘Nothing ends in one vertex’ is what I remember Michael telling to the class. So I always remind myself to create the islands’ ends with more than one vertexes.
As for the swirly ladder / corkscrew climber, I used and altered the helix polygon. (Turns out that the corkscrew climber in playgrounds are used as a ladder to climb up or a slide to slide down.)
Creating the tree trunk was straightforward, but I wanted to come up with an interesting low-poly foliage design. I came across this tutorial by Art MZ (2021) which used MASH to duplicate a polygon and attach it to another, hence creating many leaves with ease.
Organising each ball to create a ball pit would be a nightmare, hence I followed this tutorial by Cg artist all rounder (2020) that created sphere polygons to fall. I used active rigid on the balls and passive rigid on the islands which made them hit each other. However, I wasn’t satisfied with how the spheres stacked on top of each other, as it prevented them from falling smoothly.
Bibliography
Art MZ (2021) 3D modeling low poly tree with MASH (Autodesk Maya 2020). 21 October. Available at: https://youtu.be/0hQFUITotrM?si=gyK7YTU3Sa0WHb8d (Accessed: 2 January 2024).
Cg artist all rounder (2020) Maya Bullet – fill a bowl with objects. 6 October. Available at: https://youtu.be/lSLF8vwmbfU?si=YcFJ4cs3_in9RNRn (Accessed: 3 January 2025).