For my final work I have undertaken a client project called ‘Explore Malmesbury’. The projects objective is to increase footfall and dwell time in around Malmesbury with informative and engaging stories of the town’s history. The brief I will be following, will be to recreate a Saxon water powered mill in 3D software with animations showing the internal workings of the mill as well as a detailed exterior of the building.
Project time: Jan-Apr 2021
Before starting this project, I created a Trello board with a schedule for the different areas I would focus on each week of the semester, with goals for things I wanted to learn as I progress. I first created the schedule, which just briefly outlines my aims for each week of the semester with the first week focusing purely on research. I decided to make an extra section on the board for the research part, with further goals for what I wanted to collect in the form of images or text to help aid my designs later for the Saxon Mill. Other than this I had also included set tasks for what I wanted to learn while working on the project such as animation, texturing, and rendering. Even if it does not contribute fully to the final version of the Mill, I wanted to have these objectives here to refer to in case I had time to learn them. I then would be able to contribute this into the main goals I had made for the project at the end of my Trello board.
I began by first researching the types of mills from the Saxon time. From this I found drawings and diagrams of what they would have perhaps looked like. My recreation will not be 100% accurate to how the mills were made, as there are no Saxon mills remaining today as references, only drawings, which gives me a little creative freedom to the project. The research suggests that most of the mills then would have been horizontal rather than vertical.The horizontal mill and animation shall be the first area of the project I will look at constructing in 3D software.
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Having gathered sufficient research and planned the design for the buildings structure, I jumped into Maya where I worked on the internal parts that make up the functioning of the mill. For the first stage of the build I wanted to make sure that the animations for the mill worked before moving onto the exterior and details of the building.
internel pieces of the mill
mill, sluice gate and floors blocked out
For the animation I wanted it to show the water level change when the sluice gate opens and closes. Once opened you can see the water level drop and the horizontal mill start turning.
Horizontal mill animation
Sluice gate animation
I omitted one half of the external structure of the mill to show one side of the building complete while the other side remaining open to see the internal workings of the mill.
externel structure of mill / Open
externel structure of mill / enclosed
After creating a basic shape for the building and the functioning parts to the mill, I then went on to add aesthetic objects and textures. For example, I made some bags and a horse cart that would have been used to carry and transport the grain in Saxon times. Along with this I looked at finding the textures for the building’s interior and exterior, which involved compiling them from the Quixel Megascan’s library. Later I want to look at taking the textures and adding more detail to them within Substance Painter.
A busy entryway
sacks of grain
Front of Mill & sluice gate
Process of texturing mill
Below building / horizontal mill
blockout complete / textures placed
Along with texturing the building I have also worked on making the surrounding area, by including textures for the ground such as mud, sand, and grass. While doing this I also when about implementing the geometry of the floor by making it more natural and uneven in places.
The river bank details / textures
The brickwork dam & sluice gate
Saxon Mill scene / wireframe
Additional props & textures placed
I have been adding more detail to the building by creating objects from the time period, such as the horse cart, which provide more visual points of interest when looking at the Saxon mill.
Horse cart / Textured
Horse cart / Topology
Throughout the build I have used the UV editor to make the layouts of the different geometry ordered on the texture tiles.
UV edited the scene
warped beam textures
All the beams in the build have been altered differently to make them more warped and unique from one another.
Warped beam geometry
All beams and their differences
wide angle of newly altered beams / open
wide angle of new assets to front of mill / enclosed
I continued to add details to provide more of a story and realism to the building with things such as tools, furniture, and other items from the Anglo-Saxon time.
lantern / shaded
lantern / topolgy
lantern / In scene
horse trough
Wooden Rake
Axe / Log splitting area
wood chips & split logs to add storytelling details
Outer doors
Crude construction technique on display
simple bolt lock system
Horse cart with spilled wheat
Fire box / sitting area
Spade and horizontal mill
front of mill building
As an extra detail I wanted to include a trail of footprints in the muddy path leading from the log cutting area to the fire pit inside the building. I used the Boolean tool in Maya to get the indentations of the footprints on the floor.
Foot prints
Showing where a worker has been
Muddy footprints inside building
interior / back of building
final block out topology / Open
front of building topology / enclosed
Storytelling details together
For this section I wanted to learn a new aspect of the software Maya, Nparticles and Bifrost fluids. Then apply this to the mills animation to create moving water, bringing that extra detail to the build. This should help to make the animations flow more seamlessly from one another.
nParticle emitter
nParticle emitter with collision box
Larger nParticles with collision box
Here I have started by learning how the Nparticles systems works in Maya by first creating an emitter. I then looked at changing the direction of the particles by editing the speed at which they fall and move downwards. This was instead of the default of the Nparticles dispersing in multiple directions. After I went on to make a simple collision box so that when Nparticles hit it they will either bounce or roll off and continue falling. I then changed the size of the Nparticles to make it more noticeable, but I would like to take this concept and make it into a fluid for the mill animation.
nParticles applied to the mill animation
nParticles and collider highlighted
Bifrost fluid and collision box
Bifrost fluid and collider
Having tried out both techniques of using Nparticles and Bifrost fluids I decided that a Bifrost emitter would be better suited to the main animation of the mill due to it being easier to create a liquid format from.
Animation test
Fabric texture Before edited
Fabric texture After edited
Created Texture maps
The examples here show the before and after of each texture. The fabric texture for the sacks of grain I altered its colour, so it was less shiny and dirtier. Below you can observe the changes to the texture on the model
fabric texture before edited / on model
Fabric texture after edited / on model
Stone texture Before edited
Stone texture After edited
The stonewall was another I though needed changing so that it transitions better from dark to light. It also had areas with what looked like paint in places which needed to be removed. This was done using its painting tools to overlay a colour from another area of the stone texture itself making the whole thing more seamless.
Stone texture before edited / close up
Stone texture after edited / close up
In this section I have taken the textured model that I have created in Maya and imported it into substance painter. There I can edit its textures further by applying the various bump maps to each of them, along with features such as dirt and grunge. This should help to make areas of the textures more seamless and detailed when it comes to producing renders.
Front view / bump map
Rear view / bump map
I first imported the model in as an OBJ and was given a plain white version of the Saxon mill. The texture maps had to been done separately and assigned as textures before applying to the model. All the geometry had been UV mapped in the editor on Maya, so it was just the case of placing the bump maps into the correct slots. The main maps used were the Normal and the ambient occlusion, which even in the black and white version showed the 3D details of each texture.
underneath the mill / bump map
Inside the mill / bump map
Front view / fill layer added
Underneath the mill / Fill layer added
Using the Fill layers on substance painter I was able to include the textures material colours along with adding the normal map again to bring in another level of detail to the Saxon Mill.
Rear view / fill layer development
Interior textures / bump map details
Interior props detail
Interior ground floor development
When all the textures were added to the model, I wanted to begin experimenting with the main painting tools of the software which allows you to edit texture with grunge and dirt layers. Some of the stonewalls are close to water and mud so I wanted to add a layer of dirt to the bottom section of the wall and have the top halve lighter as it become less dirty away from the water. The effect should help to transition from different layers by bridging seams and jumping from light to dark textures.
Before dirt generator was added
After dirt generator was added
I added a generator to the texture that allows you to alter the levels of the dirt layer that is applied to the main texture, in this case the stonewall.
Before edited / paint to be removed
After edited / dirt layer added to texture
While adding new pieces and textures to the build I also created some rendered photos within substance painter, which show the stages of the build and the new content that was added as time went on.
Front view / Render of new materials
Rear view / Render of new materials
At this stage I began including the Anglo-Saxon tools and items I had created into the scene to bring in more visual interest to the environment.
front of Mill building
Log splitting area
Horse trough / rendered new materials
Horse cart & tracks / rendered new materials
Lantern / interior render
fire box & sitting area / interior render
Scene edited and fully decorated / rendered new materials
Wide view / showing canal area work in progress
Substance painter has been a useful tool to learn in this project as it does help to both visualise the 3D model and edit its textures at the same time. It has also meant I could create some rendered photos of the build as I progressed and added elements to the scene. My plan is to take this build further by placing it into an Unreal scene to work on adding details such as different lighting effects.
I went on to export the 3D model into the Unreal engine and looked at adding foliage such as grass to the scene, in order help hide the seams transitioning from mud to grass. I also wanted to use it to incorporate different lighting options, by including candle lights inside the building where I have added lanterns and changing the colour and direction of light onto areas of the model.
Front view / Grass, water and lighting details added to scene
Interior lighting and ambient light
Underneath the mill / Unreal engine
Procedural grass and scene details
Unreal water rendering
Overview of the mill building and canal
interor / detail lighting
interor / normal lighting
internals of mill / normal lighting
internals of mill / detail lighting
Lantern lighting
Log splitting area
Front Door & footprints
Horizontal Mill
Sluice gate & Canal / sunset lighting
canal reflections at sunset
Back door & Path / sunset lighting
Sacks of Grain, ready for processing
Completed scene, with Autumnal tones
Here I have provided a link to a PDF Document with details of the FBX files and textures that I have left in the Google Drive folder to handover to the client.