Pirate Ship Interior (3D Art Week 02)

 For this week our turn-in was all the high res pieces that we proxied out last week. As I was making the high poly versions of these pieces, I realized that I had to organize my trim sheet a little better and use the space it would afford in a more economic way. For example, previously I had space for metal beams on my trim sheet. When I examined the scene better, I realized that I could accomplish more by replacing that with some wood textures and making another texture sheet for the more unique pieces such as the carvings on the pillars, the pillar feet, and now the metal beams since those aren't used anywhere else. To that end, I rearranged the trim and organized it like this:

1. Decorative Trim: This texture is used for bordering, on special planks for decoration, and can be used as siding. It's just a versatile decorative piece.

2. Roof Beam: While this is called a roof beam, it can also be used for the floors. I intend to use these as hides for the seams in between geometry, and the rounded shape will make it look like a log or a hefty piece of wood, like the kind you'd find serving as a crossbeam on a ship.

3. Planks: Pretty self explanatory what these are. The pattern wasn't too bad to figure out but it's important to keep in mind that it needs to tile.

4. Big Plank: Very imaginative of me, I know. This texture is used for a couple of pieces: a fat beam that separates the planks from the panels and breaks up the wall further, and as the texture for the pillar sides. This versatility means that I can get more mileage out of this trim sheet and save time and processing power.

5. Panels: Each one is treated slightly different to add an interesting variance, with a couple having designs on them for further visual interest. These can be used as centerpieces on walls or simple paneling as I have them below. 

Thusly color coded and organized, I went forward into Zbrush to sculpt these pieces out. Since most of it is a wood pattern, and I didn't want to get too fancy to tire out the player's eyes, I ended up making most of it naked wood with the planks having some nails. I unfortunately didn't have time to get to sculpting the panels at the bottom nor get to the unique pieces, like the pillar tops and the metal braces, but those will certainly take less time than the trim sheet as this was a new process for me and most of my time was spent organizing and planning to make sure nothing went wrong. 

Most of the techniques that I used while making this sheet I learned from this guy so I strongly recommend you guys check him out! One of the tips that helped me out was turning on the wrap function on my brushes. If my stroke would take me off the model, the stroke would then begin anew on the other end. That came in really handy during this process because we're trying to make a tileable texture, so that continuity prevented me from having to eye it. 

I look forward to finishing these sculpts and making it all look better, so next week I'll have some quality stuff to show!