West-Hill Project.

For the group client task, we decided to work on the West Hill Cemetery project. This involved building two 3d models of the old chapels that used to exist in the cemetery grounds before they were demolished. Along with this an AR element will be made which will allow users to interact and see where the cemetery was in the real world and learn about its history. I spent my time building one of the 3d models in Maya and then transferring that into Unity where I built and tested an AR prototype of the chapel using Vuforia.

Chapel Photograph

I was set the task of building the smaller chapel of the two and the only reference I had to the building was this old photograph. This meant I did have a little creative freedom in the way I built the 3d model. The photograph at least gives me the main shape of the building and the details such as the windows. To help get and idea for when texturing the model there is a lodge on the grounds that still exists today and would be an example of the time period style that the old chapel would have had.

Chapel build

I started by using the software Maya to build the chapels basic shape and assets such as windows and arch doorway. I wanted to make sure the features of the chapel were as accurate as possible to the photograph of the building. I used a video tutorial to help with building the window & door arches. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyoSiggrezw)

AR Test

Here is a quick video showing the test that I made for the Augmented Reality. I uploaded a test version onto an android phone, which uses the camera to spot the image target. Once it is spotted the chapel model appears on the screen of the phone and makes it look like it’s in our world.

Texturing chapel

I continued with the 3d model of the chapel by building on its detail through texturing. To ensure that it comes close to the photo of the old building I added bricks and roof tile textures to the model to give a more real looking visualisation.
Once the textures for the chapel had been created I then tried placing them onto the model that I imported into Unity. From this I found that the textures did not probably size on parts of the model, which meant that the UV needed editing in Maya before it would work.

UV Editing

To make the texture fit the 3d model I needed to go to the UV editor in Maya and create a UV map for the model. This simply required highlighting all the geometry in the editor and then arranging it into a layout that fits one square as shown above. The layout can be arranged automatically in the editor.
After this I then placed the textures onto the 3d model in Maya, however I still needed to resize the textures using the UV editor. Highlighting a face on the model and using the create tool in the editor, I was able to select an option called Normal-Based which sets the texture to a scale that fits and does not stretch it. This process had to be repeated individually to each of the faces on the model.

Substance Painter

Once the UV mapping was completed, I wanted to continue to improve the texture of the model by importing it into a software called Substance painter. This allowed me to overlay other images on top of the textures I had, in order to create differences within it. This would help make the textures stand out, instead of it all being the same continuous pattern. The software works something like Photoshop in the way that it adds layers to an image, but in this case to a 3d object. The result is a more detailed looking 3d model that becomes more interesting to look at with the layers of dirt and grunge that are merged into the textures.

Final Outcome

The materials and textures that I made were then imported into Unity, along with the UV mapped model. The textures could now function properly when placed onto the 3D model of the chapel. The final version can now be seen using the augmented reality within Vuforia. Overall my task of building a 3D model of a chapel for the client has been completed, which includes texturing and the AR to allow it to work as an app on a phone.