Assignment 1: Self Critique and Research

Self-Critique

I could say that my model looks about 95% similar to the original product.

Comparison of top view.

Comparison of side view.

Comparison of front view.

Comparison of back view.

I think that the general appearance of the object looks good and matches the real model, and that most of it is made of 4 sided polygons, but the reason I rate it at 95% is because there were some parts that were modeled wrongly.

For modelling the base, I used the method of simply shifting vertices around, without any deletion. It may seem fast at first, but at the later parts, the loose vertices would cause lots of lots of irregularities in the surfaces in which you have to find carefully where are these loose vertices. There are still some loose vertices at the bottom of the base of the arcade stick, but if i delete the edges around them, it would screw up the entire look of my model. This is my err in modelling.

Secondly, the part that i modeled wrongly was the back of the arcade stick, where the wire cabinet and buttons can be found. It cannot be seen in the picture i provided, but there are several lines behind the arcade stick. Also, the wire cabinet should not be protruding. The bottom two corners of the outline of the wire cabinet should be rounded but i did not bevel them. Also, there is supposed to be a clip at the bottom of the arcade stick and I did it the first time round. However, Maya crashed and I forgot to do it the second time round.

Research

http://www.cgonlinetutorials.com/tutorials/joy-stick.html

As done in a previous blog post, this tutorial helped me learn about beveling corners to give them a smooth look, texturing and tips on how to model the buttons and the joystick of the arcade stick. Although this exercise was much easier, the output was less satisfying compared to the arcade stick I had done and this model was pretty much two times more simpler than the arcade stick I have created. However, the concept for the models as a whole are basically similar.

http://maya-vfx.blogspot.com/2008/01/tutorial-booleans-basics.html

This tutorial teaches me more about booleans. It teaches me about why sometimes after using a boolean the geometry disappears. This is because of normals, that if the normal is pointing inwards, it needs to be flipped so that it can be used for a boolean. Also, I have learnt about the pros and cons of using booleans and why we should not use them all the time.

http://caad.arch.ethz.ch/info/maya/manual/UserGuide/ModelingPoly/PolyRender.fm.html

This tutorial teaches me on how to fit the texture of my art on to the art plane in proportion and how to use apply textures the correct way. It teaches me how to use a UV map to align the texture to proportion so that the ratio would be correct and the texture map would fit nicely into the plane or face/faces.

Assignment 1: Modelling the Street Fighter 4 Mad Catz Tournament Edition Arcade Fighting Stick for PlayStation 3

This is how i created the Street Fighter 4 Mad Catz Tournament Edition Arcade Fighting Stick for PlayStation 3.

Process

First, I took the pictures i took of my arcade stick and then created three planes in maya to contain these pictures as textures. These textures will be used to guide me in creating my arcade stick and to check whether proportions are correct or not.

Then, i created a cube following the proportions of the pictures.

First, I used the insert edge loop tool to create new edges and vertices. I created 2 of them across the Z axis of the object at the sides. Then, I used the insert edge loop tool again to create 4 more loops of edges across the X axis of the object, each pair for different levels of irregularities of the arcade stick. I then scaled the vertices at the side, using the picture as a reference. I moved the vertices at the bottom a bit to the left. To create the part of the arcade stick that is circled in red, I removed the bottom edges that were connecting to the part that is circled in red. I then followed up by proceeding to shift the vertices of the arcade stick forward so that it would look like the edge has disconnected.

The front part of the arcade stick was made by shifting the vertices down so that it would look triangular. However, at this point of time, i forgot to delete some edges that were left behind by earlier modifications. These would cause a problem which i would explain later.

At this stage, I decided to texture the base and some other parts of the arcade stick because I could only work without lighting. With lighting, the thing would look kind of blurry to me. However, because of this, it would be very hard to differentiate which part of the arcade stick is actually which component. Therefore, i coloured it.

I then made a new cube object for the art plate. Using edges, I selected the corner edges and then beveled them to make them look rounded. I deleted the edges on top and below that were formed by the bevel. However, I kind of screwed up here as when i tried to apply surfaces, the model looked wrong and the proportions for the art plate was not correct. Therefore, I just decided to create a new cube altogether to contain the art of the arcade stick. I then duplicated this rectangle shape and then used the shape to difference into the plate. I did this was so that I could create a small line in between the red plate and the art plate. I know the technique of bumping, but the problem here is that I only have the texture for the art plate, and not the entire plate object.

I then created buttons for the arcade stick. These buttons would be the core buttons of the arcade stick. I first created a sphere polygon for the button placeholder. Then i scaled it so that it would fit into my reference picture. I used a temporary cube to difference the button placeholder so that it would not intersect into the arcade stick itself. I then created a cylinder polygon for the button itself. I beveled the top edges of the button and then duplicated the button. I then used the button i had duplicated to difference into the placeholder, scaled the original button a little bit smaller so that it would look like it left a space between the button and the placeholder. I then used boolean - union to combine the two polygons together to create a single complete button.

I then textured it to become blinn - white and then duplicated it 7 times to create the seven other core buttons. I then changed the colour of the two buttons on the right to black.

I then proceeded to make the joystick of the arcade stick. The joystick was fairly simple, I simply combined a cylinder and a sphere and then scaled it to proportions. I then created a pipe at the base of the joystick to form the ring around the joystick.

Then, I proceeded to do up the details of the arcade stick. Firstly, I created screws. The screws were fairly easy to make. I created a sphere, created a cylinder with subdivisions 6 and then used the cylinder to difference into the sphere. I then textured the screw blinn - black. To be honest, the screws for the real object are actually really rusty now. However, because they were once black, I shall colour them black instead of rusty as it spoils the entire look of the object.

I then created a cube according to proportions for the part where the utility buttons are kept in. This object is gonna act like a stamp; I am going to use the base of the object to create a depression based on the bottom of the "stamp".

To create this stamp, I used the insert edge loop tool to create a subdivision for the "stamp". I beveled the corner edges of the stamp. I then selected the bottom edges of the stamp and then scaled them in so that they would match the depression as shown in my picture.

There you have it! My "stamp" completed! However, notice the irregularities in the texture of the "stamp". I will explain this below. However, as the "stamp" was just a temporary object that is going to disappear soon, I did not care about the irregularities.

I then differenced in the "stamp" into the arcade stick. With that, I started to create the buttons and switches on the utility panel.

Firstly, I created a new sphere polygon for the button. I then duplicated the object to create the other button. The buttons were pretty straight forward and easy to do. I then created a cube object for the lights on the panel. With that cube object, i duplicated it 7 times to create the array of lights. The reason i used a cube object is because the the lights were protruding a little bit from the arcade stick, so i need to use a solid polygon that would ensure the look that the lights are actually protruding.

For the next part, i decided to create the switch part.

For this section, I turned on the Snap to Grids tool to ensure that the new cylinder objects and the new cube object would be aligned properly.

Firstly, I created a new cube object. Then i created two new cylinder objects which are of same height and width with the object. With the Snap to Grids tool on, I do not need to worry whether they are not properly aligned or not.

I then removed the top edges around the axes of the cylinders. This caused a problem. When I tried to boolean - union the objects together, my entire geometry just disappears. Then I realised what was the problem. At first when I did the removal of the edges at the top rotating around the axis, i did not remove the bottom edges, hence the error.

After I did the removal, the boolean - union succeeded. This shall be the shape for my switch. I then duplicated the switch to form a smaller oval like shape for the switch slots. I then differenced in the smaller oval into the bigger oval. Then, i create a cylinder shape for the switch itself. I then duplicated the final ovals and then placed the 2 of them onto the panel.

I then took the art for the art plate from the internet and used that art as the texture for the plate itself. I turned on lighting so that it would look nicer now. The texture plate would help me much better than using pictures to reference from. This is because I know where are the placement of the buttons and joystick and whether I got them right the first time around or that I should adjust them.

Then, i duplicated the previously created core buttons and scaled it down in size to make the Start and Select buttons behind the arcade stick. Here comes the hard part.

At first, I boolean - difference a cube object into the arcade stick to form the wire cabinet, so that I can differentiate between which part of the object. I then created a beveled slot cover for the cabinet. First try it worked. However, when everything was done and all set to go, Maya crashed on me. I was extremely pissed at this point because it reset me back to when I just created my stamp object but did not boolean - difference it in yet. This taught me a valuable lesson; to always save my work every 10 minutes.

My second try was when all the problems started coming in. I tried to difference the wire cabinet into the arcade stick. However, the main problem was that when I tried to boolean - difference it into the arcade stick, my entire object disappears. I found out that the problem was probably that the normals were pointing in the wrong order. However, the problem was still not solved as the normals were all correct. Therefore, I improvised.

I created the illusion that there is a wire cabinet inside the object, but actually, if you were to see through it, there isn't. I made the big cube i made to protrude out of the arcade stick and the booleans - difference in the cover slot of the wire cabinet. There, my wire cabinet is complete.

I then created a new pipe shape for the "legs" of the arcade stick. I selected the bottom edges of the "leg" and then scaled them out. Then, I put a new sphere shape in the middle of the "leg" for the screw. I then created yet another stamp to create the hole of the screw. I textured the outer part blinn - black and the inner part, which is the screw blinn - silver/steel/grey colour. I duplicated 3 of these and placed all of them underneath the arcade stick.

There, you can see my arcade stick legs placed neatly.

Previously, I mentioned about the irregularities in the surface texture. This is caused by many loose and unwanted vertices in my model. At the end, after I finished modelling my model, I came to realise that some surfaces on the model were extremely irregular. It was a pain to remove all those loose vertices one by one as I could not remove the vertices by itself and had to remove the edges first. I then used the interactive split tool to reconnect the vertices once I had deleted the hidden unwanted vertices.

This is the end result of the Street Fighter IV Mad Catz Tournament Edition Arcade Fighting Stick I have modeled.

The Four-panel view of the Arcade Stick.