Task 8 - Evaluation

Overall, I think the project went well. I was able to complete it to a standard that I think is satisfactory and have completed it by the deadline. I sometimes struggled to stick to the schedule I set myself, and the later tasks started piling up near the end.

At first I decided to put my environment together in Unity, but had to abandon that after I had trouble getting the textures on my models to show. Instead, I used Layout, which I found more difficult and 'awkward' to use, because certain commands were bound to different hotkeys, like delete being - instead of the Delete button, or being unable to copy and paste things, instead having to use a Clone tool. It also seemed like sometimes objects would snap as if part of a grid when moving, and sometimes they didn't.

I think that I did my design pack well, and went into enough depth with it that anyone would be able to look at it and create the map themselves. I also think that I gathered a good amount of images and textures for researching and figuring out what I wanted to do. I am pleased that the layout of my finished environment is still the same layout that I had for my final map design in Task 3, as I thought that I may have to change the layout slightly as I put it together.

Some parts of the project were not done as well as I would have liked them to be. This includes the textures I chose for some of my rooms and how I modelled the doorways for the rooms. I left my texturing until very close to the end, so I did not have as much time as I wanted to find the textures I thought would work best. Also, when I was modelling I was rather careless with the doorways and when putting the environment together some of the doorways were slightly the wrong size or shape.

Task 7 - Presentation

Flythrough Video


This is the flythrough sequence that I have rendered in Lightwave Layout. It is very fast at normal speed so the video should be reduced to 0.25 speed on Youtube.

Camera Route
The following screenshots show the route the camera followed through my space station during the flythrough video.

Finished Environment

This is a birds-eye view of my finished environment. When compared to my finished map design, the environment looks mostly the same. I am pleased about this as I expected the final product to end up different from my designs.

Task 6 - Prototype/Flythrough Build

My space station environment was put together and recorded in Lightwave Layout. Due to all of the pieces I created in Modeler being modular, I was able to copy and paste certain parts, such as the hallways, and place them in different locations on the station. 

Occasionally I had trouble with certain pieces clipping through each other, and hallway pieces not quite fitting together with the doorways.

Environment Assembly

 To start off the assembly of my environment I placed down the hangars and connected them with the wide hallway variants.

The next piece of the station was the bridge, which was connected by a 3-way hallway.

Then I created a hallway from the 3-way hallway which lead to a 4-way hallway, leading towards the canteen, the research room, and another hallway leading to the rest of the station.

The next thing I built was the dorm rooms and bathrooms. This was the hardest to put together, because there were a lot of objects in such a small space.

Then I made the narrow hallway that connects the dorms to the canteen.

When adding my dome-shaped rooms to the station, I had to place the hallways slightly into the room due to the walls being round.

Adding Props

Once all of the rooms were put together, I started adding the props into the map. The first props I added were the beds in the dorm room. I was only able to fit 3 beds in each room.

The next things I added were the benches and tables for the canteen. The tables were also used in the dome-shaped rooms and the research rooms.

The computers were mostly meant to be used in this room, but when I created the 2 different types of computers, I decided to use the wall variant in the research rooms.

In the dome-shaped rooms, I had the normal computer & keyboard resting on top of a table that was clipped into the back wall.

For the bridge, I also added the wall computers on the pillars inside the room.

Task 5 - Environmental Build

Modular Environment Pieces

Dome-shaped rooms

To create my dome-shaped room, I first created a ball, and removed half of it. Then I created a polygon with the points on the bottom, and extruded it downwards.

To create the wide doorways to the room, I had to create a box that was the same size and shape of my wide hallway, and use both that and the boolean subtract tool to cut out the sections of the wall. To create my walkways I created 2 long and thin boxes and merged them together.
Wide Hallway

To build my wide hallway, I created multiple box shapes to create the outline of the object. Then, I took all of the points on the front of the object and pasted them onto the next layer. With all of the points selected I created a polygon, which turned the hallway into a single flat polygon, and extruded it.

Narrow Hallway

My narrow hallway was created by taking my wide hallway and using the stretch tool to reduce the width of it.

Since my station had branching paths, I had to create hallway connectors. I created a 3-way, 4-way and a corner hallway for both the narrow and wide hallway types. 

To create the connectors, I copied the hallways and placed them in multiple directions, then created polygons between them to connect them to each other. 

For the corner I copied the short connector between the two hallways, and put the copy further away, then made polygons to connect it to the other ends of the hallways.

Research Room

To create my research room I created a large box-shaped room and cut a hole in the centre, using a large block and the boolean subtract tool, to make the pillar in the room.

Since my research rooms were the only rooms using the specific layout, I put all 3 rooms into the same file. After copying the first room twice and placing the rooms in the correct positions, I cut narrow doorways into the walls to connect the rooms to each other. In the first room, I created a wide doorway to connect the rooms to the main hallway.

Dorm Room

The dorm room is a simple box-shaped room, with 2 narrow doorways cut into 2 of the walls. The room will be filled with beds, which will be placed against the walls.

Bathroom

The bathroom is a small rectangular room with a narrow doorway cut into the corner. Since the props I'm using in this room are being used ONLY for this room, I have decided to just add them as part of the room itself. The props inside the room are the Toilet Stalls (with blocks inside to make it seem like there is a toilet inside), and sinks, which are boxes with square dents inside them.

Bridge

The bridge is a large box-shaped room with 2 pillars rising to the ceiling on each side. The pillars were made by creating 2 large pillars and using the boolean tool to cut the holes into the room.

Hangar

The hangar is a long box-shaped room that will remain mostly empty when placed into the level. The hangar door for the ships was made by bending the ends of the wide hallway model, then increasing the size. Then I used the boolean tool on a similar shaped object to create the hole in the wall for the ships to fly through. 
At first I was going to make a closed blast door so you couldn't see outside, but I didn't have time, so this is the only place on the station that you have an outside view.

Canteen

The canteen is a box-shaped room with a wide doorway cut into the centre of one wall. At the back wall is a narrow doorway that will connect to the back passage to the room. When placed in Layout, the room will be filled with benches and tables.


Texturing

Wide Hallway

The wide hallway uses enlarged and stretched versions of the textures I originally chose for my research room. Originally I was going to use white surfaces, but instead I went for a more industrial style. The floor is the same texture as the research room's floor, and the walls use the room's wall textures.

Narrow Hallway

The narrow hallway uses the exact same textures as the wide hallway, although slightly less stretched due to its size.

Research Room

Both the floor and the walls we textured with images that I found online, and have sourced in Task 2. At the beginning I planned to have everything be rather white, shiny and 'clinical', but after finding these textures I decided to go for a more rough and industrial theme.

Dorm Room

The dorm room uses a wall texture I found and sourced in Task 2, and the floor is a cloth/carpet surface that was taken from the Surface Preset menu in Modeler. As this is a dorm room, I wanted the textures to be less industrial and look more comfortable for the inhabitants.
Bathroom

The bathroom has a light grey tiled texture for the floor, and dark grey tiled texture for the walls. Both textures were from images I found online and sourced in Task 2. All of the prop texturing is mentioned below.

Hangar

All of the textures for my hangar were from images that I discovered online, and have sourced in Task 2.

Canteen

As this is where the crew would have eaten and relaxed, I didn't want the room to be very industrial, so I made the floor a wooden texture I found, and the wall is too.

Dome-shaped Rooms
Room 1

The walkway and the walls use the same textures as the research room's walls, and the hangar's floor, but the ceiling and bottom of the room are using surfaces I used from the Surface Preset menu. The ceiling has a glass texture, and the floor has a grass texture, as it is meant to be an agricultural room. The ceiling and floor do not show well in Modeler.

Room 2

This is the reactor version of the dome-shaped room. The only difference between the rooms is the flooring. Because this room is meant as a reactor room it shouldn't have a grass floor, so I made the floor a rusted metal texture, which doesn't show well in Modeler.

Bridge

The bridge uses textures from the hangar, canteen and bathroom. The pillars in the middle of the room have the hangar wall's texture, the floor is the the bathroom wall's tiled texture, and the rest of the walls in the bridge are from the canteen's walls.

Props

Bench

The bench was made by creating a long and thin box as the seat, and placing 2 small boxes on each end as the bench's legs. I didn't have a proper texture to put onto the bench, so I went for a dark grey for the legs, and a lighter grey for the seat.

Table

The table is almost identical to the bench, but the table was made with much taller legs and a wider surface. Same with the bench, I had no proper texture to place on the table, so I put the same dark and light greys on it.

Chair

I made my chair with a slanted back and legs so that it didn't look plain and boring. I did this by selecting the points on the top of both the legs and the back of the chair, and moved them back slightly, making them lean. The seat is a simple flat box shape. When texturing, I decided to make the chair a pale blue, with dark grey legs.

Bed

The bed was made completely using simple box shapes. The main body of the bed is a box, with the pillow being a box extending out from the top. The bed sheets is a smaller and thinner box than the main body, and rests on top. I wasn't sure what colours to use for the bed, and I ended up using a dark blue for the sheets, a paler blue for the pillow, and made the main body/mattress white.

Computer & Keyboard

The computer and monitor were made as the same part, partly to save space, and because images I have seen of computers in the 1970s have the computer and monitor in the same unit. The computer was made by creating a cube, and using the bevel tool on the front polygon to shrink it slightly and move it inwards. The keyboard was made by creating a thin box that was the same width as the computer, and had a slightly smaller box placed on top of the keyboard to serve as the keys.
When texturing, I had a blue screen texture for the monitor, and an image of a keyboard to go over the block on the keyboard so I didn't need to create each key separately. The rest of both objects were made to be varying shades of grey.

Wall Computer

The wall computer is mostly the same as the previous prop, but has the keyboard connected to the computer by an 'arm' holding onto it. The 'arm is made with 2 boxes that were merged together and placed underneath the computer. The keyboard was rotated so that it was facing upwards at an angle, is if someone would be using it standing up. The textures and colours are identical to the other computer prop, and the 'arm' was made a dark grey.

Toilet Stall

The way I made the toilet stall, it is very difficult to see inside it, so instead of completely modelling a toilet I built a basic base from 2 boxes, in case anyone could see inside. The stall itself was made by creating 3 thin walls that almost reach the ceiling of the bathroom it will be placed in. The door is a slightly smaller version of the wall, so that I would have room to make some hinges for it. The colours for the stall were chosen from the Surface Preset menu in Modeler. I chose to have the toilet be pure white, the walls/door be an ivory colour, and the hinges be a metal texture.

Sink

The sink is a simple shape made from 2 boxes, the top one being the main part of the sink and the bottom part being where it joins the wall. The top of the sink has a big square dent in it, which I made using the boolean subtract tool. The sink was made completely white as that is the colour that most sinks are.

Lamp

This lamp object serves as the light source for the entire station, and was made by creating a cube and bevelling the top polygon up and out to create the section that will attach to the ceilings and walls. The lamp itself is a bright yellow, and the other section was made a dark grey.