Mechanical Marvel Steampunk vehicle project.

This project will be about the development and creation of a steam punk themed 3d air vehicle.

What is steam punk? Steam punk is a sub genre of science-fiction themed and usually associated with Victorian themed steam punk but their are different types such as old Western steam punk and alternate universe. steam punk can also substitute modern technology with steam variations for example here is an example of a clock

and frame of mind when thinking about creating something steam punk is science fiction from the point of view of an Edwardian individual what they with the current technology they have their imagination on what future objects and technology would look and act like typically steam powered because that was the current technological innovation at the time.

for this project i should look into the origins of air aviation and the different forms of air flight during the Edwardian era such as airships airplanes.

i will research into the first types of air aviation and create initial idea that i can generate from these forms looking at key characteristics

During the Edwardian era many inventors have tried to create a working flying machine but it wasn't until the wright brothers who were inventors and air pioneers  in 1903 after many attempts with glider s  did they create the first heavier than air human flying machine it was called the wright flyer 1

It is important to look at these kind of airplanes because they are around the same time period that steam punk is centered around and look at how this worked compered to other planes



planes are one of the first engine propelled aircraft in order to create realistic steam punk version of a plane it would need to be powered by steam I should research this idea of steam powered engines that are light enough to be carried by a light aircraft.



Hot air balloons and air ships.
Hot air balloons is the oldest and most successful flying machine in history it involves having heated air enveloped in a balloon to make a aircraft lighter. this can be substituted with gasses that are lighter than air like helium and hydrogen making like Zeppelins and blimps are powered


                                                                                              Hot air one of the very first flying aircraft a hot air balloons uses hot air to lift it self into the air later then they created the zeppelin and the blimp they used lighter than air gasses what were more effective lifting heavier objects into the air.

zeppelins were primarily used during war time specifically ww1 which is why i don't think it is a good idea because i don't think it would be a unsuitable  model to create because of the simplistic design i also don't think it would make a very good steam punk design because of the time period they were primarily used

Zeppelins.









initial designs and concepts with annotation
key parts of air planes should be researches such as propellers or balloon shapes.for airship because these are the small detail that i think is needed to create a realistic aircraft.

I am now going into Maya to have a look at various shapes and scales on a 3d plane to see if any or my concept have the right angles and shapes that i wouldn't see on 2d drawings

currently i am now in Maya constructing my airship so far i have used the same method of doing only half of the main body and then creating a instance duplicate which mirrors to create a symmetrical ship this enables me to do as much work in half the time this is what I have so far

i have done the main ship body the side propellers the masts and the top railing i still need to make the sails and the rigging also the main railing in the centre i am confident i will be able to finish this ship in time for the texturing and animating.

i have made the balloon  with the metal outer part with the two side wings with steam pipes and propellers i created this in a separate maya file and imported to my main maya file i still need to make the straps (rigging to tether the balloon to the ship)

i have completed my ship and have also added details like lanterns and leavers as well as a flag i have completed the mesh within my goal of under 15.000 polygons my next goal is to texture the model and then animate.
here is my untextured and un animated model.

I am now going through the process of creating a uv map of the different pieces of my model this is the process where i take a 3d model and unwrap it into a 2d shape, this is needed to achieve the best possible outcome when i apply my texture so far the process of uv mapping is easily and is simple to u understand and learn however i have been having difficulty with the checkered pattern that get overlayed on the uv map not properly showing on  the 3d model because of this i have been delayed however I am confident i will finish on time.

I have finished the process of uv mapping here is why work looks so far.

I am now ready to begin texturing the model. texturing this model has been challenging and i have found difficulty to understand but i have finished texturing my model the texture follows a rule i have made so no texture looks out of place i wanted my steam punk airship to have a degraded look towards it rusty metal clunky animations for the propellers to give it a work appearance.

here are my results 

i am now working on the animation which is going to be approximately 10-15 seconds long and involves 5 scenes the first scene takes place behind the air ship an a 45 degree angle to give a side angle of the airship and the ship goes along the motion path (a motion path is a line called a curve that objects can be attache to so it can be animated) the second scene is a tracking shot where the camera tracks the airship the third scene is  a Aerial view of the airship the fourth is a position from the point of view of the pilot and the final scene is in from of the ship going towards the camera ans the animation ends before it reaches the camera 

evaluation overall developing creation texturing and animating this model had been very challenging some aspects such as the texturing proved difficult at times but from this project i have leaned a great deal more about designing a 3d mesh in such a way that it has the least amount of geometry and yet still has detail because of texture creating the illusion of geometry that isn't their.

the modelling of the airship didn't seen that difficult because of previous experience with other projects 

the uv mapping and texturing was a difficult process because of getting the seamless realistic look is difficult.

the animations of the airship along the motion path and the key frames of the propellers and the cogs was a easy concept to understands and was one of the easier parts of the project.

the process of going into after effect i found easy because looking back on my initial research of paper and pencil animation/flip book animation it uses a similar process of inning up a sequence of pictures or frames to create an illusion of movement.

overall the project has been a successful experience of the process of researching developing creating animation an producing a game asset that can go into a fully working game. it has also given me insight about how game developers can create models with little amount of geometry and still make it look as realistic as possible because of texture being able to create the illusion of geometry without it actually being there.