Month: March 2018

Although I have previously worked with many of the physical effects Blender has to offer, I had only used the cloth effect to create a simple sheet of material. Because of this, I had not idea how the feature would effect differently shaped meshes, and decided to do a little bit of experimenting on how to use the effect to gain the best result I could.

Because my initial plan was to create a modern pop-up tent, the following experiments were used to try and recreate the above reference picture. Although my idea changed, the trials I describe in this post helped me to understand this specific modifier to a higher level.

During my experiments, I tried the following methods:

* Cylinder to cone

* Sphere

* Select pole vertices and make a face

* Plane

* Cast Modifier

Cone & Cylinder

When begging to experiment, I firstly wanted to see which mesh would be most appropriate to begin with. I initially thought a cone shape might be a good start, but although the cone is triangular, I wasn’t able to subdivide or loop cut to create detail in my cloth, so I opted to create a cone shape out of a cylinder. In my first few attempts, I began by trying to make each section with one large shape, but as I carried on it proved rather difficult to do so, so I often used the initial shape to model around the shape of the poles, then deleted the vertices I sins need until there was enough to fit one of the four sections of my tent.

I began by scaling the cylinder so that the top and bottom points matched the curvature of the tent poles. After this, I created loop cuts to add detail for when I apply the cloth simulation, then began to scale each section to again follow the curvature of the tent poles. Afterwards, I needed to scale and alter the whole dome until it encompassed each corner of the frame, and deleted faces so that I was left with just the right amount for one panel. After separating these faces by selection, I created a vertex group to add pins in the cloth simulation, and was left with this following result.

Sphere

As above, This was initially an attempt to create all four panels at once, deleting the bottom half of the sphere and working with the top half. Once I had scaled and altered the sphere to fit comfortably into the tent poles, I deleted faces so that only one panel was visible, in a hope to focus on this individually and duplicate it for the rest of the tent. As I began to refine the details, I found it difficult to get the mesh to move as I hoped when using proportional editing.

Create a face

Another method I attempted to use was to use the vertices from the poles to create a face and model that mesh. After selecting the points along two sides of the inner sides of the pole, I simply pressed [F] to make a face and copied the selection to form a new object. This then proved to be ineffective as I was unable to subdivide the face of this mesh, causing no movement when the cloth physics were enabled.

Plane

This method seemed to work most efficiently, an was the simplest to do. I simply created and subdivided a plane, rotated and scaled it to create a triangle that was the width and height of the frame of the tent, before using proportional editing to curve the mesh to fit the curvature of the frame. The initial proportional editing was effective, however I still needed to make alterations in order for it to look more natural. I struggled to fit the frame exactly, but with a bit more time and attention to detail, it could be achieved.

Cast Modifier

I found a rather helpful tutorial online that explained a way to create a modern tent precisely and with one mesh. This method proved easy to follow and introduced me to new features of blender I had not yet used yet. I did not follow this tutorial fully, but I gained a result I was very happy with. Had I chosen to create a modern tent with this shape, I would have used this method, however, would need to experiment with how to create detail on top of this mesh to make the model more realistic. For example, creating a zip and an open door would be difficult so I would need to consider using one of the other methods I have tried for this panel.

Cast Modifier Tutorial

Sources:

– Blender.stackexchange.com. (2017). How to model a Dome Tent?. [online] Available at: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/41982/how-to-model-a-dome-tent [Accessed 27 Mar. 2018].

 Brainstorming

After looking at inspiration images for the assets and locations I assessed in my initial environment ideas, I sketched a mixture of elements to two examples I wanted to base my final project around. As well as giving me an idea of items I need to consider creating, I was able to use the images I provided to draw both assets and a brief idea of how my environment could be designed.

Environment 1

For my first environment, I have chosen to create a campsite-type setting. The reason behind this choice is both the variety of assets I can create, as well as the opportunity to merge manmade items with nature. The two key influencers of my choice in this environment are the below pictures.

The primary reason this image influenced my idea to create a camping scene is how compact and detailed the scene is. As I want to have the opportunity to have either a rendered still image or a more interactive output, I felt this image held the perfect opportunity to do either one. After looking at “That’s You’, I was hoping to create a location that is a smaller-scaled project, allowing me to focus my energy on minor details. This image has both large and small assets that have peaked my interest; the bed, tent, and chair are large but aren’t outstanding from items such as the lantern, the cooking station, pots, and trunks. The feel of this scene all feels organic and ‘lived in’, and instantly inspired ideas.

This scene also holds many details that can be easily added to my scene in order to create a more relaxed and less uniform environment. The dirt floor and wooded surrounding could create interesting lighting opportunities, and the accessories are plain but organic. There are a few elements to this image that, if recreated in Blender, could easily react to physical effects I hope to generate. The campfire is more generic and recognisable than in the previous image, something I would be tempted to base my designs on, and the inclusion of a simple camping table is also something I could use. Something I would most likely alter in my design would be the modern tent. Although the design, again, is recognisable, it doesn’t encompass the rest of the scene as well as the tent in the first image, making the item seem separated from the rest of the items.

Initial Design

Final Design

Wireframe

Environment 2

For my second environment, I have chosen a much simpler design, but with just as much of an opportunity to create details that will add to the realism. I have chosen to create an abandoned/old American diner, setting it in a nighttime lighting. Initially, the second environment I wanted to create was a city/industrial style location, either a shop front of some kind of eating establishment. While deciding on the elements of this location I could design, I realised that this location could be difficult to replicate realistically. In order to keep to the theme of my previous environment, I turned to more rustic and run down places of interest, coming across images of vintage American diners in the process. This lead me to turn my design to this more focused area of stimulus.

While this picture doesn’t include an actual diner, the theme of the image ran along the lines of what I wanted my scene to resemble. The location is urban but rather deserted, and the sign mimics something I would expect to see outside of an old America diner. The main reason for including this image is the sign and how it is presented, the colour palette is soft and rather faded, and it holds opportunities to add broken lighting or other details to make it look even older and abandoned.

Because I want this scene to be less elaborate compare to my campsite, I chose to keep this image as inspiration for the look of my diner. The design is straightforward, with no complex shapes, but the larger details such as the awning and the sign help to prevent the structure from looking monotonous. The windows are all uniform, and the colours are very bland, adding to the old and rustic idea I hope to replicate with my design.

Initial Design

Final Design

Wireframe