(Week 01) Making Buildings for the Kaiju

Monday, November 27, 2023

With the Kaiju finished, I needed to make some buildings and bottom base for the Kaiju for the Diorama.

Here is the reference image that was provided to me. I model the the base in Maya, then I will sculpt details onto the models in ZBrush and will bring it back for retopologizing in Maya.

Here is the base model for the DonutShop. It is ready to be exported for sculpting in ZBrush.

A quick note, some of the objects don't need sculpting. That would be the sign, and the supports holding the donut. There doesn't seem to be changes made in the reference image so they are left alone. Also, the back door will be added during retopology. This was done to make it easier for modeling, so no extra lines on the base model and when doing retopo, you get to control the way the model is shaped.

Here are some screenshots of the DonutShop sculpt in ZBrush.

The first thing I did was the donut. I gave it some more sub divisions then made marking lines for the jelly both inside and outside. I then use the clay buildup brush to build upon the jelly. Next was the roof, process is about the same as the donut except for the building upon something. You want dig into model.

I used the same clay buildup brush but used the subtracting function to dig in. Next is the glass/doors, here I just did simple line markings and will retopo them in Maya for later. The last model that needed to be sculpted was the main body. Same process as the roof: marking lines, digging in, smoothing if need be and a marking for the door in the back.

Now that the sculpting is finished, I export the model back in to Maya for retopology.

Here is the retopo for the DonutShop.

Nothing much to say here but retopologizing is very tedious process. This was the last thing I did before calling it day.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

So today, I worked on the other two buildings and to at least get them to a sculpting state. So here is building one's base model. The model consists of the wall, window frames, glass and the roof/platform.

I kinda went my own way to make this model as I felt the supplemental material given me was not up to date. Some techniques I used were pivot control and dupe special to make the modeling process much faster and less tedious. Nothing much too say here but the model is ready for export.

Here is building two's base model.

Process is about the same as building one but this is taller and lengthier. Also, no roof on this model.

Here is the sculpting for building one.

For this sculpt, I just dug into the model and added a noise filter onto walls. For the glass, I made marking lines and for some of the windows I added "Empty" or "E" to indicate that window will be gone from the model.

Here is building two's sculpt.

In the reference image, building two is really damaged so top isn't there. So the very top won't be retopo'd. The process is more or less the same as building one. Dig in the model, and mark your lines for the glass. This is where I stopped for the day and the sculpts are ready for export.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

For today, I exported the finished ZBrush files into my Maya project and I'm going to retopo them. Here is the glass from both buildings.

Here are the screenshots of both retopo'd glasses.

With both of them finished, I start working on building two's wall retopo. I did little bit before calling it day. Not too much to say today, just busy work most of time.

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Today, I managed to finish retopology for the walls and the glass for building two. I also managed to put edgeloops on all the glass pieces so that the high poly will be ready for baking. I need to do it with the walls also but also bring it in to ZBrush. Once it's in ZBrush, I can use the noise feature to apply wear and tear to it. It will also be the high poly once done. Below are the screenshots for the day.

That is all for today.