Hey, I'm Gavin Stewart and this is my blog for my Low Polygon Modelling and Texturing module at the University of Abertay Dundee. Our module leader, Ken Fee, is letting us explore our own interest in this discipline as it's a self-taught module. The class is getting assigned mentors from the game industry which I'm really excited about; I can't wait to start networking with people in the game industry.
I've decided to go down the route of 3D Environment Modelling because I have a big interest in level design. As a designer I'm trying to focus in on a specific role and over the past 4 years I've thoroughly enjoyed being part of the level design process in previous projects.
For my study, I'm going to model a small city square which has a park in the middle of it. It will have a non-photoreal artstyle because, unfortunately, my art skills are lacking! - This is something I intend to get better at but for the time being I'll stick with something I feel like I will be able to achieve. The model of the city will also have collision detection ready to be imported into UDK (Unreal Development Kit).
I don't have a lot of experience in modelling; the only exposure to modelling I've had is using Softimage XSI for 6 weeks in which I had to build a kitchen using techniques we were either taught or had researched. For my coursework I'll be using Maya 2011 which I have never used before. I've been using digitaltutors.com to learn the basics of Maya and I've started a series of tutorial videos which focuses on modelling a sci-fi environment which will be game-ready for importing into any game engine.
Here have a look at what I have so far!
Once I feel comfortable enough and gather enough experience of modelling environments from tutorials I will begin to tackle my own coursework.
Thanks!
- Gav
