3D environment handbook

By Caitlin Farmer

Stimulus
Point & Click Environment
You are asked to create an interior living space, for an upcoming point and click room exploration title. The
room should include all essential furniture, and depending on the direction you choose for the style, any
number of other appropriate assets. Use photographic references, observation or drawings to create models to
a visually consistent scale, and place them in a convincing scene which incorporates lights and
graphics/textures to represent materials. You may choose any theme or visual style but should attempt to
create models which look realistic and/or appropriate to the expected scene. Choose a style that appeals to
you and use this assessment opportunity to show your ability to model objects, apply texture graphics and
place lights which demonstrate your skills. Example styles could include; Minimalist, Ikea, Industrial, Steam
Punk, or even Gothic! create a 3D environment following industry practice.
We have to create a 3D environment complete with appropriate concept art, a PowerPoint presentation to
gather all of the work in one place. Concept art shall include photo references, observational drawings and 1,2
or 3 point perspective drawings.

Ideas
A hospital scene was not my first idea and it wasn't the only idea I had produced
concept art for. My first idea was a office room. I then decided that a office was
going to be relatively simple to model so I decided to model my second idea which
was a abandoned hospital room as this would allow me to chose from a wider
range of assets and some of the assets required a more precise assembly than
others making this scene more of a challenge to model.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Although there are no relatively major legal issues with my scene there
are several ethical issues that can be made. In one section of my scene
which I will cover later on there are capsules, empty alcohol bottles and
cigarettes. This substance abuse will have a large impact on the legal
age of purchase as it is seen as obscene material. There is also the
problem of the name of one part of my scene that can be controversial.
By calling the upper right hand corner of my scene as 'Hobo's Nest' it is
supposed to imply a forgotten and neglectful feeling to the overall
scene and is not meant to be offensive in nature.

Specification
I would have liked my target audience to be around the 14+ age range
but due to the content of my scene the target audience would now be
at 18+. Some of the key visual themes I was aiming for was
abandonment, broken and the feeling of being forgotten. During the
concept, development and construction processes there were no
restraints that I encountered that would be barriers in the industry
such as a polygon count, the image resolution, output size, file size and
the file type.

Polygon Count and Image Resolution

Polygon counts are a major setback within the industry although a poly
count was not a restraint in this assignment. If there are more polygons
in the model then that model will cost more so they make low poly
models and texture them with high quality textures.

Output Size, File Size and File Type

File sizes are not as big as a setback within the industry as a polygon
count but file sizes can be a problem because in a bigger file there is
more there that the computer or console has to process and render
which makes loading times within the game much slower than if the
file size was smaller.

Planning - Brainstorm

Mood board
This mood board conveys the theme
of an abandoned hospital. On the
next slide is a full version of the mood
board.

Asset Development - Newspaper

One of the main assets in my scene are
newspapers, notes and magazines. Most will
be of a medical nature or a disastrous theme.
This study uses a variety of materials such as
acrylic paint, newspapers and magazine
clippings, tea stains and coloured pens.

Asset Development - Original Proposed Scene

This sketch is what I first imagined the scene to
look like and over the whole process it has
changed dramatically. The scene was bare in
the beginning and lacking a vast amount of
assets. The room was originally supposed to be
narrow and long with no windows and one light
source. The room looked very neat and up kept
and this was the opposite to what I had first
envisioned.

Asset Development Rusted Metal Bedframe

This page shows several perspective drawings
of the bedframe, a picture of an actual metal
bedframe that my asset was based on. There
is also a picture of a rust texture and a study
of the picture. There are also early concepts
of what the floor and walls would look like.

Asset Development Candle and Upper

Corner
This image has two coloured studies one of
a candle and another of a used cigarette.
There is also a pen perspective drawing of
the upper right corner of the scene.

I added groups of candles to the scene to

add a homely, calm feeling to an otherwise
hostile place.

Asset Development - Windows

I changed the amount and positioning of the

windows as with a singular long pane at the back of
the scene allows the scene to gain long extended
shadows whereas when there were multiple panes on
both sides of the scene this did not achieve this
effect.

This page shows the development of the

windows and the upper left corner of the
scene. It also features a few drawn samples of
textures that are used in that section.

Asset Development Hobos Nest

This part of the scene was intended to add
an abandoned, forgotten and neglectful
nature and feel to the room. I chose to make
it a homeless persons camp as they both
share similar traits.
If any part of the scene will create a moral
issue it is this section as it infers to such
features like alcohol usage and smoking. As
well as the several capsules in the opposite
corner.

Pen and Charcoal Sketches

These are some pen and charcoal sketches
that show some of the proposed assets. Some
of these are used in the final version of the
scene and some were taken out in the
development process.

Software Interface
Although the software interface can look complicated at a first glance
but once you become familiar with the layout and the various tools at
your disposal then the interface becomes easier to manage.

Loading, Merging, Importing, Saving and Auto

Saving
Loading, merging and importing various scenes into 3DS Max is quite
simple. The options to merge one scene with the one you have open is
under the import tab. Loading times can be tricky as when you have a
large scene full with textures, maps and assets this tends to slow the
load times down. It is important to keep saving your scene at regular
intervals as 3DS Max can crash unexpectedly so you may loose your
work if you havent saved in a while.

Properties and Backups

Each scene has its own set of properties which can be changed or
maintained in the render setup or environments tabs. Files can corrupt
themselves for various reasons and this is why it is important to have
backups of your scene saved in different places such as other
computers, USB drives or on an external hard drive.

Viewports
In the original settings when you load up 3DS Max you will be faced
with 4 viewports all showing a different perspective or mode. One of
the modes you can set a viewport to is the wireframe setting. This
allows you to see the outlines of all your assets and each asset has its
own colour outline. Each viewport is manipulated separately from the
others so this allows you to move one viewports view without changing
any of the other viewports. There are various viewport controls that
can be found in the lower right hand corner of the application. Some of
these controls are; pan, orbit, maximise viewport size and there is also
a command that maximises only one viewport to the size of the whole
viewport dock.

Virtual Cameras
You can find virtual cameras under the button on the right hand toolbar
by clicking the camera button. You can render from the cameras
viewpoint.

Wide shot/ Extreme Long shot; a shot from a distance. This is

frequently used as an establishing shot that sets the location.
Aerial shot; Also called a crane shot or an overhead shot this is often
used for helicopters within films.
Long shot; the asset can be seen from top to bottom.
Mid shot; the asset can be seen from top to half way.
Medium close up shot; the framing is a quarter of the asset.
Extreme close up shot; only a top part of the asset can be seen.

Lighting Techniques
Photometric lights use photometric (light energy) values that enable you to
more accurately define lights as they would be in the real world. You can
create lights with various distribution and colour characteristics, or import
specific photometric files available from lighting manufacturers.
A target light has a target sub-object that you can use to aim the light.
A free light has no target sub-object. You can aim it by using transforms.
The Mr (mental ray) Sky Portal object provides an efficient method of
gathering existing sky lighting in interior scenes without requiring high final
gather or global illumination settings that would result in excessively long
render times. In effect, a portal acts as an area light that derives its
brightness and colouring from the environment.

Standard lights are computer-based objects that simulate lights such as household or office lamps,
the light instruments used in stage and film work, and the sun itself. Different kinds of light objects
cast light in different ways, simulating different kinds of real-world light sources. Unlike photometric
lights, standard lights do not have physically-based intensity values.
A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theatre, or a headlight. A
target spotlight uses a movable target object to aim the light.
A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theatre, or a headlight.
Unlike a targeted spotlight, a Free Spot has no target object. You can move and rotate the free spot
to aim it in any direction.
Directional lights cast parallel light rays in a single direction, as the sun does (for all practical
purposes) at the surface of the earth. Directional lights are primarily used to simulate sunlight. You
can adjust the colour of the light and position and rotate the light in 3D space.
Directional lights cast parallel light rays in a single direction, as the sun does (for all practical
purposes) at the surface of the earth. Directional lights are primarily used to simulate sunlight. You
can adjust the colour of the light and position and rotate the light in 3D space.
An Omni light casts rays in all directions from a single source. Omni lights are useful for adding "fill
lighting" to your scene, or simulating point source lights.
The Skylight light models daylight. You can set the colour of the sky or assign it a map. The sky is
modelled as a dome above the scene.

Texturing Techniques
There are a few different ways to texture an asset. You can use the
simple, straight forward way which uses the default built in textures
that wrap themselves around the asset with no seams or distortions.
Although there are many textures to choose from it does have a certain
limit to how many textures are in their library. You can go into the
modifiers panel and use the UV Unwrap tool to gain a template of the
asset and then you can import it into Photoshop to create your own
textures.

Rendering
When it comes to rendering there are several different rendering
procedures that can be used such as scanline or mental ray renderers.
Scanline can render much quicker than Mental Ray but Mental Ray
gives you a more detailed render than scanline.

Scanline
The scanline renderer renders the scene as a series of horizontal lines.
It is one of the production renderers provided with3ds Max, as
opposed to the interactive renderer used in viewports. Images
produced by production renderers display in the rendered frame
window, a separate window with its own controls. The scanline
renderer is the original 3ds Max renderer, and it is the default
production renderer choice when you first use the Render Setup dialog

Mental Ray
The mental ray renderer from NVIDIA is a general-purpose renderer
that can generate physically correct simulations of lighting effects,
including ray-traced reflections and refractions, caustics, and global
illumination.

Comparison
Compared to the default 3ds Max scanline renderer, the mental ray renderer
relieves you of the need to simulate complex lighting effects "by hand" or by
generating a radiosity solution. The mental ray renderer is optimized to use
multiple processors and to take advantage of incremental changes for
efficient rendering of animations. Unlike the default 3ds Max renderer, which
renders scanlines from the top of the image downward, the mental ray
renderer renders rectangular blocks called buckets. The order in which the
buckets are rendered can vary, depending on the method you choose. By
default, mental ray uses the Hilbert method, which picks the next bucket to
render based on the cost of switching to the next one. Because objects can
be discarded from the memory to render other objects, its important to
avoid having to reload the same object multiple times.

Bed Frame
This metal bed frame was made in a
similar fashion to the bookcase
although it has a medium rust texture
added to it. The last picture is the final
render of the asset.

Bookcase
This simple bookcase was made out of elongated
boxes to create the base model. After I textured it
with a wood texture which had no stain effect to
give it a worn down look. The final images is what it
looks like when it has been rendered.

Bottles, Boxes and Bandages

To gain the shape of the glass bottles I used a spline to
create a 2D shell and then used the lathe modifier to get
the final bottle shape. The same process was used to
create the glass jars and the lids were made from
cylinders. The boxes and bandages were made from a
standard box. I then textured the assets accordingly and
rendered the scene to obtain the final image.

Candles
The candle is a simple cylinder with a smaller
cylinder in the middle for a wick. Using the melt
modifier I was able to create the basic shape of
the candle. Then i applied a red oil texture to the
base and then gained the final render.

Dented Wall
This was a dented wall I had created by using
the soft select tool on a plane with many
vertices so it is very easy to create hills and
valleys. After this led to the first model (blue).
Once I was happy with the model I then gave
it a preset rust texture as it would have been
very complicated to use the UV unwrap tool
to create a texture of my own. Then I
rendered the scene and the model looks like
the picture on the bottom.
When I had first made this asset it had an
intended use then when the whole scene
went through a few remodels I no longer had
any need for it.

Medical Screen
The main metal frame and the wheels of the medical screen are made
from cylinders that can be found under the standard primitives tab in
3DS Max. The plastic sheets that make up the screen are flat planes that
can also be found under the same tab as the cylinders. I textured the
wheels with a black plastic, the screens with a white PVC texture and the
metal frame with a light rust texture pre-set.

Industry Practice

I think that my scene and assets were overall constructed to a good standard although they could have been made
to a better standard. Another aspect I could have improved was the amount of textures I could have made using the
UVW unwrap tool and not just relying on the pre-sets. The scene fits the overall theme and feeling I was going in
and it achieved the aesthetic quality that I was hoping to achieve. My production skills can be vastly improved as
most of the assets are made using the standard primitives and a few extended primitives. It had taken me a few
weeks to settle on one idea for the environment we had to produce and the workflow and time management was
slow moving but I managed to finish in time. During this process I had several colleagues helping me with ideas on
how to improve the quality of the scene as well as several technical problems I had ran into. One of the technical
problems I had run into was the daylight system which the lighting levels were vastly far off from the default settings
and this caused problems with lighting up the scene so I replaced the daylight system with several target lights to
compensate for the broken system. The environment has dramatically changed from my original intentions as the
scene was void of assets and had many windows and the final product has a broken window and a vast amount of
assets. I can honestly say that to me this environment is not up to industry standards and neither are my efforts in
the creation and texturing of the assets. On the other hand my environment does comply with the environment
specification. Several of the assets has been reused a few times as in the medical facilities there are many medical
jars, books and bottles. The ceiling and floor of the scene are sloppily made and visually look rushed although there
are some assets that counter balance this lapse of judgement such as the beer bottles, medical screens and candles.
The most difficult asset that I made was the metal bed frame as there are many complicated components that make
up the overall asset and the sizing and spacing with the bars had to be accurate. The concept stage of the
environment was quite an easy process as there were no tight restrictions on what theme our environments had to
be. Some of the placements of the virtual cameras suit the environment although there are some renders that do
not fit the overall feeling of the scene. The concept process of this assignment took between two to three weeks to
complete. The development process had taken about another couple of weeks and the construction process had
filled up the rest of the time we had left. The most frustrating process that I had encountered has to have been the
construction stages as not only did I have to make a lot of assets I also had to review the entire development process
at the same time to make sure all assets had fit within the environment.

Many of the assets had gone through several evolutions before coming to the final solution. Due to
several of my assets being explicit or obscene I had to consider legal and ethical issues and reconsider my
original target audience which was age 14+ but due to the ethical issues I had to change it to 18+ because
of the industries standards and ratings for which they have strict guidelines. We also had to review and
rewrite the clients brief so that we could show that we understood what they were looking for. To show
my ideas I used and thought bubble diagram which outlines the scene, main assets and what textures and
components they are made up of. The concept art shows the stages that the environment had gone
through before it morphed into the final product. There were also different parts of the specification we
had to research and consider such as a polygon count, key visual themes and other constraints that we
may have come across. During the planning stages we had to make sure that we gave our file appropriate
names and that they were saved in appropriate folders. We also had to work out a production timeline
that had extra time allocated in case we had ran into any major technical issues such as corrupt files or a
glitch within the scene cause by the coding of 3DS Max. There are certain technicalities that we had to
keep in mind such as the brief and our own constraints such as our own abilities and capabilities. My
environment would not hold up in an industry as the level of quality and commitment were not there. To
hold up in the industry my scene would need to vastly improve in quality of not just the overall scene but
the individual assets, textures, lighting and cameras. To improve my scene I could have used more
complicated ways of creating the assets and have provided them with more detail than I have. I have used
one free camera and one target camera to utilise both of their abilities although their placement could be
improved. Many of the renders within my PowerPoint could have been done to a higher standard and
they could have been angled and framed better than they are. Although my scene does fall into the clich
abandoned spooky hospital category it does have some features that stand out from the others such as
the homeless bed, the door in the middle of the scene and the extensive amount of books and candles. I
did not want to fall into the trap of the stereotypical expectations of hospitals so I have tried to give the
scene a very subtle creepy feel to it which is something any hospital can achieve by itself even when it is
still in operation as it reminds people of how weak and vulnerable they really are.

I believe that the best modelled asset in my scene is the door in the middle of the room
as I had taken the time to even model two hinges for either end although it does not have
a door handle. The most terrible looing asset in my scene has to be the small wooden
boxes and the window dock as they are poorly made with very little consideration or time
put into them and they were overlooked and less important than some of the other
elements of the environment. If the brief had allowed us more time I believe the scene
would have been improved upon drastically but this is one of the major constraints within
the 3D modelling industry nowadays. The overall model I have produced is only one part
of an entire level if it was featured in a game as it alone would not make for an extensive
and interesting level. Most if not all of the metal surfaces were given a varying state of
rust texture to show the vast amount of neglect the scene has endured it also shows a
large amount of time progression which could not have been seen otherwise. Overall I
believe the scene was a narrow success due to the fact there are more faults than there
are positives but the positives are of a higher quality than the negatives so that is why I
believe its marginally better than garbage. This scene would not pass industry standards
and would receive very negative reviews not only from any form of higher management
but also from the vast general public across the world. This scene would not pass for a
point and click game as there are not that many different interactive objects that stand
out in the scene.