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The Gnomon Workshop - Behind the Scenes

Vehicle Modeling for Production review

The Behind the Scenes series is a new production line from The Gnomon Workshop, guiding 3D artists throughout the process of creating a high definition cinematic sequence that takes place in a video game. The Behind the Scenes or BTS title refers to the fact that viewers will have the chance to witness actual production meetings between members of the production team. In this case, the main agenda is to create the 3D polygon model of a two dimensional futuristic helicopter, an invention of renowned concept artist Mark Goerner. Accomplished 3D modeler Paul Schoeni is your guide and teacher throughout this video training module, as he creates the high resolution helicopter model based on Mark´s drawings.

The included production meetings do concern constructive discussions about the drawn model and it´s three dimensional variant, as the original sketch is tight enough to give an overall impression of what the 3D rendition should look like, yet exhibits certain details of high frequency that should be interpreted with cautious flexibility.

The training module consists of 14 lectures. Right after the first production meeting between Mark and Paul, your teacher gives you a very useful overview of the tools he is most fond of and reliant on. Schoeni uses a recent version of Autodesk´s Maya software to build the model, while his highly efficient modeling workflow concerns absolutely traditional methods, tools and solutions. Some renowned artists do prefer to invent and use custom tools or even sophisticated scripts to work, yet the latest versions of Maya have the majority of the popular custom tools already implemented.

In the aforementioned introduction sequence, Schoeni uses a series of polygon cubes to demonstrate his personal toolset. A rather fruity sequence, as the methods and tools you see in operation now will be utilized during the creation of the high definition model, as well. Paul informs us about the common methods of accessing the tools, while his personal approach of keeping them nicely organized on a custom Maya shelf might suit for the student, as well.

The focal operations demonstrated in this training module do give both a general and an in-depth overview of Maya´s sophisticated polygonal modeling capabilities. Creating and maintaining a clean, strong global topology for the 3D mesh is the primal agenda of the modeler. By utilizing Maya´s diverse polygon display functionalities and the related options, Schoeni reveals very efficient methods to establish both soft and extremely tight flow to the geometry. As a modeler, your primary concern will be to carry certain hard edges of your low resolution model on to the higher resolution variant, yet there will be occasions when your aim is quite the contrary: you want Maya to flush the polygons out, giving you a nice, clean, smooth surface to work further on. All these methods are thoroughly utilized and demonstrated by Schoeni during the lectures.

While extruding the polygonal faces of an object is the quintessence of polygon modeling, it is always a very good idea to aim for four sided polygons, or quads. Schoeni though points out that sometimes it is acceptable to get away with three sided polygons, especially at the tip of less significant, less complex objects. What you can extrude from your model though, does come from what you have constructed already. There is a lot to learn from Schoeni´s splitting techniques, as he demonstrates very efficient and logical ways of getting tight results with only two or three clever splits, as opposed to affecting the entire mesh with the insertion of a brand new, global edge loop.

During the modeling process, Schoeni delivers useful notions about the theory behind extremely complex geometries, pointing out that the eye can be pleased even if it witnesses essentially simple shapes with supportive detail work on them. Paul draws your attention to the dominant, simplistic character of the shapes that might be interpreted as highly complex mechanical structures if finer details are present on them. This general agenda of pleasing, entertaining the eye via the utilization of keen readiness to offer detail is in the prime interest of this training module. By the individual work processes taking place on various primal parts and accessories of this helicopter model, you will have a thorough understanding of how such an accurate work is formed and how it is perceived as remarkably complex at the final stages.

It is most curious to see that Schoeni does not necessarily seem to be obsessed with rigorous mathematics during the creative process. Though you will see him “eyeballing out” finer, repetitive details on numerous occasions, he also shares extremely useful workflows and tricks out of his modeling arsenal to scatter supportive detail work - like tiny bolts, for example - throughout the mesh with tight controls and convincing results.

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