Dive Time
Sprint 5
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
This sprint, I worked on 4 fishes; the Flying Fish, Atlantic Cod, Atlantic Salmon, and the Hogfish. Along with their corresponding UVs.
To start this sprint, I was told all the main fishes were complete so now I can work on additional fish from the wish list. I was also told there is a change these fishes will not make the final cut since this upcoming sprint is the last and it should focus on polishment rather than adding anything new.
I was recommended working on the most simple fish so we can get these models in as fast as possible. While talking with my producer, we estimated I will finish around 6 fish models before cut off and that I have free range on which fish left to choose from.
Soon after, my concept artist wanted me to do the fish he already made concept art for, so I adjusted my ideal fish based on the provided concept art.
The first fish I worked on was the flying fish. I had some issues with the references because when I looked up the flying fish, each one was different in design. Their fins/wings were different shapes and there were no exact front views to look front head front.
I asked a few questions regarding this fish with my texture artist and game designer because their wing like fins are so thin that I wasn't sure if it would be better to use a flat plane or make a very thin cube for it. I ended up doing a thicker part from where the body attaches to the wings and then thinned it out from there.
Over all, this fish was one of the easier fishes since its a small fish similar to a sardine in body shape and didn't have many fins or add-on spikes or open mouth. I also think the tail fin came out nicely, the tail fins on fishes are usually the harder parts of the fish for me to model correctly. The UVs also came out really nicely with no complex areas that caused red/blues.
The next fish I worked on was the Atlantic Cod. My usual outline and block out of the fish came out nicely, I elaborated the size of the beard like thing at the bottom of the mouth so it's more recognizable. I wasn't sure if I wanted the tail fin to be connected to the body or not, so when I did the outline I made it separated thinking if I changed my mind, I could attach it easily
After plumping up the fish with extrusions and molding it into its right shape, my computer black screened. When I restarted my computer, for some reason only one of my two monitors worked. I had my roommates help me trouble shoot this and while trying to look at the GPU, it wasn't there. Somehow AMDs software stuff got uninstalled, which somehow ended up deleting and rolling back anything that was downloaded in the last 24hrs which also meant my progress on their fish was deleted.This demoted me a bit because who would not be upset about losing a few hours of progress. I did check if Maya had any save files, but those were deleted too.
In the end, I did redo the fish and got it all done. But this did put me in a stump which took away time for me of had possibly making another fish within that time. The second time around, I tried to attach the tail fin to the body which easier said than done. When I connected each vertex and combined them, it rotated the area where they connected oddly. So I spent extra time trying to make it more natural.
The next fish I worked on was the Atlantic Salmon. This fish was a fan favorite, and by fan favorite it was my and my producers favorite fish. This fish wasn't originally in the scope but after many jokes, my designer actually made a place for it in the wish tab.
This fish was pretty easy with no complex fins or body shape. This time I made the tail fish separate from the body and had the end of the body squish in merge into the tail. With a pretty simple fish, the UVs came out nicely too without issue.
The last fish I worked on was the hogfish. I went for this fish because of its unique body shape and its color. This fish feels very eye catching and is pretty unique when it comes to spikes and triangle like pectoral/back fins.
I had fin extruding everything especially the body because of how the spine is more obvious, making the top of the fish have a rounder top for where the spikes sit. I decided not to model all the small spikes on the top since I could duplicate them after I extrude and UV them.
I did have a little shaping issues when I was 'sharpening' the fins where I take the middle edge loop and drag them out a bit in it's respected direction. I also adjusted the mouth for this fish. I originally wanted it closed, or a bit open but that didn't do the fish justice with how big its mouth is and opens. Although I was running into trouble with making its mouth so big, I tried to exaggerate it as much as I could without messing up the faces.
This is the mouth where I extruded from, and you can see lots of red/blue around the mouth. This was an hour before the sprint ended, so I am saving the submission and UV submission for next sprint. I am hoping I can get some help regarding the mouth and UVing the body, specifically around the mouth.
Overall, I am happy with how this fish came out and along with the other fishes done this sprint. I am worried that if I do any new models during this last sprint, they will get scrapped since this is the polishment part where we wrap everything up.
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
This sprint, I worked on 4 fishes; the Flying Fish, Atlantic Cod, Atlantic Salmon, and the Hogfish. Along with their corresponding UVs.
To start this sprint, I was told all the main fishes were complete so now I can work on additional fish from the wish list. I was also told there is a change these fishes will not make the final cut since this upcoming sprint is the last and it should focus on polishment rather than adding anything new.
I was recommended working on the most simple fish so we can get these models in as fast as possible. While talking with my producer, we estimated I will finish around 6 fish models before cut off and that I have free range on which fish left to choose from.
Soon after, my concept artist wanted me to do the fish he already made concept art for, so I adjusted my ideal fish based on the provided concept art.
The first fish I worked on was the flying fish. I had some issues with the references because when I looked up the flying fish, each one was different in design. Their fins/wings were different shapes and there were no exact front views to look front head front.
I asked a few questions regarding this fish with my texture artist and game designer because their wing like fins are so thin that I wasn't sure if it would be better to use a flat plane or make a very thin cube for it. I ended up doing a thicker part from where the body attaches to the wings and then thinned it out from there.
The next fish I worked on was the Atlantic Cod. My usual outline and block out of the fish came out nicely, I elaborated the size of the beard like thing at the bottom of the mouth so it's more recognizable. I wasn't sure if I wanted the tail fin to be connected to the body or not, so when I did the outline I made it separated thinking if I changed my mind, I could attach it easily
After plumping up the fish with extrusions and molding it into its right shape, my computer black screened. When I restarted my computer, for some reason only one of my two monitors worked. I had my roommates help me trouble shoot this and while trying to look at the GPU, it wasn't there. Somehow AMDs software stuff got uninstalled, which somehow ended up deleting and rolling back anything that was downloaded in the last 24hrs which also meant my progress on their fish was deleted.
This demoted me a bit because who would not be upset about losing a few hours of progress. I did check if Maya had any save files, but those were deleted too.
In the end, I did redo the fish and got it all done. But this did put me in a stump which took away time for me of had possibly making another fish within that time. The second time around, I tried to attach the tail fin to the body which easier said than done. When I connected each vertex and combined them, it rotated the area where they connected oddly. So I spent extra time trying to make it more natural.
The next fish I worked on was the Atlantic Salmon. This fish was a fan favorite, and by fan favorite it was my and my producers favorite fish. This fish wasn't originally in the scope but after many jokes, my designer actually made a place for it in the wish tab.
This fish was pretty easy with no complex fins or body shape. This time I made the tail fish separate from the body and had the end of the body squish in merge into the tail. With a pretty simple fish, the UVs came out nicely too without issue.
The last fish I worked on was the hogfish. I went for this fish because of its unique body shape and its color. This fish feels very eye catching and is pretty unique when it comes to spikes and triangle like pectoral/back fins.
I had fin extruding everything especially the body because of how the spine is more obvious, making the top of the fish have a rounder top for where the spikes sit. I decided not to model all the small spikes on the top since I could duplicate them after I extrude and UV them.
I did have a little shaping issues when I was 'sharpening' the fins where I take the middle edge loop and drag them out a bit in it's respected direction. I also adjusted the mouth for this fish. I originally wanted it closed, or a bit open but that didn't do the fish justice with how big its mouth is and opens. Although I was running into trouble with making its mouth so big, I tried to exaggerate it as much as I could without messing up the faces.
This is the mouth where I extruded from, and you can see lots of red/blue around the mouth. This was an hour before the sprint ended, so I am saving the submission and UV submission for next sprint. I am hoping I can get some help regarding the mouth and UVing the body, specifically around the mouth.
Overall, I am happy with how this fish came out and along with the other fishes done this sprint. I am worried that if I do any new models during this last sprint, they will get scrapped since this is the polishment part where we wrap everything up.
Dive Time
Sprint 4
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
This sprint, I completed 4 fishes along with their UVs. The fishes included the Giant Crab, Sailfish, Tuna, and Debris Halibut.
To start the sprint, I started working on the Tuna. This tuna would be based off the reference art provided by our artist. The key features that differs from a normal Tuna, would be its lower half near the tail would be made of metal similar to a cyborg.
To start, I did an outline with planes and started to plump and shape the fish. Although the lower half of the fish is separate, I completed the full shape of the body and overlapped the metal part onto the back of the body.
After the tail, I added the main parts of the fish, I felt that I was too hyper focusing on shaping the tail around the body. For some reason I had a lot of issues with the tail with when it connects to the body, they didn't properly hug the model. So, I started working on the addons for tail detail. This included a heater/engine like box on both sides of the tail which have a light attached to the bottom and a few pipes to connect each side.I ran into some issues again with the pipes, so I duplicated the ones I used previously on the Shark and did some tweaks and scaling to fit the Tuna.
To finalize the fish, I added the fins around along with the eyes and added minor details like spikes between the tail and body and lastly some screws to give a more plump look.
The next fish I worked on was the Giant Crab. Similar yet different to the previous crab I did a few sprints ago which was the Ghost Crab. Some key difference with this crab is that the eyes are internal, inside the shell, rather than sticking out like Mr. Crabs, from Sponge Bob.
I did a lot of research separate from what was provided in the style guide because the references were all angled rather than straight. I also had to keep in mind for the legs, I learned that to help my rigor for animations, adding distinct joints onto the legs helps them rather than letting them guess which in the leg it will bend. I used multiple references for each part of the crab.
After getting a flat outline of the crab from the first reference, I swapped the reference out for a more head on view to see how large the body was compared to the legs and how tall/wide a Giant Crab is.
From the body, I started working on the pinchers. Compared to the Ghost Crab, this crab has 1 larger claw. Scaling the claw was difficult because attaching it to the body felt off since it was so large. I was also having issues finding a reference for its claw because of how the images were angled. The smaller claw was a bit easier since it gave more room for the back hind legs.
Compared also with the Ghost Crab, the legs were larger, which made it easier to work with. Again like I mentioned earlier, for each leg, I added 3 joints. I asked my rigor how they wanted the legs, and he said pre-bent would be best so I had to bend them from their straightened state.
I didn't like how the legs bent, so I adjusted them a few times and talked with my designer and rigor about them and settled on the middle one in the image below.
To finish off this crab, I UVed and manually adjusted the UV layout.
The next fish I worked on was the Sailfish. This fish had concept art which I based it off of. There were no changes compared to a normal sailfish, so I stuck to a realistic Sailfish as my base.
Key features on this fish would be the nose, whisker like fins and its top mane fin. As usual I started with the outline and worked on the fish from there. I had to look into how many fins this fish had because I struggled with understanding what the flaps were between the body and the tail. Another confusion was the whisker fins at the bottom. I could not tell if them stemmed from 1 point or if they were 2 separate fins. Also, how thick they were and if there were 2 pairs which would be like 4 total?
I ended up making the fins between the tail and body attach to the body and were thicker to look implied. And the bottom whisker like fins I ended up making as 2 separate fins which had a small gap between each other.
Next I had some help with the mouth. Originally I planned on making the mouth closed, which meant the bottom lip would be stuck to the sword face. When I asked about the mouth to the texture artist about the mouth since it would be stretched with the amount of loops I did, he helped me extrude the mouth open.
I forgot to take screenshots during the process for this fish, so most images show the final result of many tweaks and adjustments on each part I messed with. Lastly were the UVs which came out without issues but reminded me of a moth.
The last fish I worked on this sprint was the Debris Halibut. This fish lives on the ocean floor, so only the front and top of the body would be exposed. I did some additional research on this fish separate from the style guide because I had a hard time understanding how wide the fish was. I also struggled with understanding the eye placement, if that both eyes were on 1 side of the fish or one on each side.
As usual, I started with an outline and extruded the fish to mold it into a realistic version.During this part, I had to ask my designer for help and search for more references from a head on view to understand its width.
Within a few minutes, my designer provided me with a few more references which really helped. This gave be a better understanding that the top side of the fish was a bit plumper than the other side of the fish that lays on the sandy floor. The only thing on the flat side was the other fin it has but is always at its side.
After attaching all parts onto the body, I asked my designer for any input before I UVed and mirrored for the other side of the fish. The feedback I received were that I forgot to add debris onto the fish. These debris included a pipe that impales the fish, a cog/gear, and some rocks scattered on the top.
The last feedback for changes before moving the fish into complete was adjusting the back of the fishes pipe side to look more sharp, to clearly show that it broke off and stabbed the fish. I also talked with my rigor to see if the model was good to go and added that the edge loops were enough, just to move the debris away from the edge loops so they don't get in the way of the body movement. 
Overall, I am really happy with how all my fishes came out this sprint. Compared to the fish and even last sprint, I have a better understanding of fish models and am definitely showing amazing improvement of my UVings. Collaborating with my texture artist and rigging/animators have really opened my eyes on issues I wouldn't have seen with my models. I look forward to working on these last few sprints and seeing the final product.
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
The next fish I worked on was the Giant Crab. Similar yet different to the previous crab I did a few sprints ago which was the Ghost Crab. Some key difference with this crab is that the eyes are internal, inside the shell, rather than sticking out like Mr. Crabs, from Sponge Bob.
Compared also with the Ghost Crab, the legs were larger, which made it easier to work with. Again like I mentioned earlier, for each leg, I added 3 joints. I asked my rigor how they wanted the legs, and he said pre-bent would be best so I had to bend them from their straightened state.
I ended up making the fins between the tail and body attach to the body and were thicker to look implied. And the bottom whisker like fins I ended up making as 2 separate fins which had a small gap between each other.
I forgot to take screenshots during the process for this fish, so most images show the final result of many tweaks and adjustments on each part I messed with. Lastly were the UVs which came out without issues but reminded me of a moth.
After attaching all parts onto the body, I asked my designer for any input before I UVed and mirrored for the other side of the fish. The feedback I received were that I forgot to add debris onto the fish. These debris included a pipe that impales the fish, a cog/gear, and some rocks scattered on the top.
The last feedback for changes before moving the fish into complete was adjusting the back of the fishes pipe side to look more sharp, to clearly show that it broke off and stabbed the fish. I also talked with my rigor to see if the model was good to go and added that the edge loops were enough, just to move the debris away from the edge loops so they don't get in the way of the body movement.
Dive Time
Sprint 3
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
This sprint, I worked on the Shark, Eel, and Sailfish models and includes their corresponding UVs.
Majority of this sprint, I spent my time modeling the Mutated Bull Shark model. The references provided were described similar to a Helicoprion, a extinct shark type with a buzzsaw like mouth and teeth that caused it to form into itself like a spiral.
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
This sprint, I worked on the Shark, Eel, and Sailfish models and includes their corresponding UVs.
Majority of this sprint, I spent my time modeling the Mutated Bull Shark model. The references provided were described similar to a Helicoprion, a extinct shark type with a buzzsaw like mouth and teeth that caused it to form into itself like a spiral.
My approach was to start with a plane and scale it to the size of my reference image. I added edge loops along the way to shape the body along with a new plane for each limb like the fins and tail. The hardest part during this was getting the mouth right. I asked around my team on how they would approach this, and my rigger/animators said I should model the mouth straight and let them curl it. After sorting that out, I extruded each part and centered the fins and tail.
I then started touching up the main body like smoothing out the outlines. Then I started messing with the vertexes and edge loops to plump and mold the shark for its proportions. I felt I was focusing too much on the body and started working more toward the accessory add-ons.
The first accessory I focused on was this metal latch that was shown to look like it was attached to the shark. I started out with a cube and extruded each side to make a plus shape. From here I made a circular shape in the center and messed around with it until I liked it.
I originally thought that shaping it and molding it onto the body would be easy. I planned to use a bend tool to curve it enough to look like it wrapped on, but learned no matter how I positioned the bend tool, my latch would more so stretch, rather than slightly curve.
Because of this issue, I tried my best to manually take each group of the section and move it downwards and rotate it just enough to look like it dug into the skin. Although, once I was done messing with each group of vertexes, there was still some clipping, and if I adjusted anymore, there would be overlapping faces and tearing.
Next, was the part I thought would be easy but after the process, was one of the hardest parts, the pipes. I assumed this would be easy because I would use the curve tool to make the pipe line then revolve around that line into a cone. After spending an hour going through tutorials, trying to figure out why this wasn't working, I asked a friend for help.
We ended up adjusting the faces on a cylinder and stretched it out along the reference image and added edge loops throughout it to mimic when the pipes would curve. This would all be done in the side view, then go back into 3D to manually space out and adjust around the shark. Although a simple process, I spent a lot of time rotating and adjust the edge loops because they would end up folding into itself and tearing.
The next part I worked on were the teeth. I talked with my designer about the teeth because if I modeled each tooth, the faces would add up since the concept of this shark has so many teeth. We decided on keeping them as just planes since the fish will wont be seen head-on. I was also advised to keep the teeth as squares rather than triangles by moving them close together, just enough that that the vertexes do not overlap.
The last few details I added were small spikes on the top of the body and on the side, the 3 eyes, and a back oxygen like tank towards the end of the body. Overall, I am very proud of myself for completing this fish as it was definitely a challenge which taught me a lot about tools I have barely or never used. I almost spent too much time that I started crashing out over it, and had some help and take over the UVing part of the shark.
The next fish model was the Giant Moray Eel. It's key feature is its armor like head surrounding like another layer. A reference to this was the metal exoskeleton head plates on the Dunkleosteus fish.Starting off with the plane outlining the body, I separated the fish into 2 parts, the body and the long fin surrounding it.
Then I worked on the frill that was originally going to look like the end of the helmet, since I assumed that the helmet would be textured on as a different color of the head to the body. Looking back, I am not sure why I was so adamant about this frill, but I still think it came out nice.
I also added some rigid spikes around the head to relate back towards the concept art of a cliff like edges. Some feedback I got was to make the exoskeleton more obvious and adjust the head to be less smooth.
At the time I was a bit confused so I experimented with adding some stone like scales around the head for height but ultimately duplicated the body and deleted everything but the head. Then I deleted faces for where the eyes would go and filled some empty space within the mouth area.
While I was getting help with the UVs, one of my teammates helped me adjust the helmet I made for the exoskeleton. We deleted some of the faces towards the frill and made it more carved. I think this really put it all together and made it stand out more.
My last fish for this sprint was the Sailfish, which is similar to a Marlin or also known as a sword fish. This fish I had to ask a lot about compared to other fishes in a few aspects specifically the top fin and the bottom belly fins.
The concept art for the top fin made it look like 2 seperate parts but also combined, so I wasn't sure if I should separate them or if it wouldn't matter and my rigger said it wouldn't matter but if they were separated, it would be easier on them, which I ended up separating.
The next confusing part for me were the belly fins. In the realistic concept art, some of them had these fins which looks like they split in 2, so I wasn't sure if there were 4 fins or if they branched from the body. After modeling and rechecking in, I was informed that there were just 2 rather than 4 on the belly
Another part I got help with was the mouth. While I was modeling it, because it was such a long line, I worried about it stretching and where to cut to have the mouth open if it did. I also asked how the animation would work, which would depend if I kept the mouth closed as 1 or split it as the beak/tip and under lip.
I was proud of the final product, and learned a lot in the process, specifically about how to UV. My Texture artist helped me out where I should be cutting to make texturing much easier, specifically doing the butterfly cut technique and cutting as little as possible.
Overall, I am proud with how my models came out this sprint, although I didn't meet my producers expectations, I feel I am getting what I can done and isn't causing anyone else to be blocked. Depending on the future fishes and their abstractness, I hope to still strive to get more than 3 fishes done each sprint.
Then I worked on the frill that was originally going to look like the end of the helmet, since I assumed that the helmet would be textured on as a different color of the head to the body. Looking back, I am not sure why I was so adamant about this frill, but I still think it came out nice.
Overall, I am proud with how my models came out this sprint, although I didn't meet my producers expectations, I feel I am getting what I can done and isn't causing anyone else to be blocked. Depending on the future fishes and their abstractness, I hope to still strive to get more than 3 fishes done each sprint.
Dive Time
Sprint 2
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
As the 3D modeler, I worked on the fishes, which I learned I will be in charge of for the whole project. Specifically, this sprint I worked on the Sardine, Ghost Crab, and Barracuda.
At the beginning of the sprint, I worked on the Sardine which meant I had to gather references. Majority of the references I was given from the design documents were 2D, so I started looking at the anatomy of the fish to understand the width, size, and whatever is going on on the other side of the fish.
After settling on an image, I brought it into Maya with an image plane. My idea was to outline the fish and line up vertexes for its silhouette. Once adjusted to my liking, I extruded everything a little since the Sardine is one of the smallest fishes in this game and is overall tiny in width. I then used the smooth tool to round it out while deleting unnecessary edge loops to keep low poly. To top it all off I verified with our rigger if there were any edge loops what were needed and if so where, and asking if any existing edge loops were unneeded.
The next fish I worked on was the Ghost Crab. So far this was definitely the hardest fish I modeled even though we're only 2 sprints in. Again I found a diagram and did some research on this crab. Compared to other crabs, their eyes stick out of their shell and have a wonky eyelash at the top of them. I also noted that one of their claws are bigger than the other. While I was modeling It was brought to my attention that the note on this crab by my designer specifically said they didn't want it to have the large claw which I ended up deleting.
The legs gave me the most difficulty because when I modeled them, I traced the reference image but once extruded, it came out really flat. I tried to fix this a few ways, the first being to smooth it, since everything smoothed has come out looking nice which I tested on 2 of the crab legs. Next I tried beveling the edges of the legs on the bottom and had my designer give me their opinion. We ended up settling on the beveled version because the smoothed one looked too much like tubes.
During this time I thought this was fine so I wanted to double check with my rigger so see if everything is ok to finalize but realized it was too flat, and realistically, crabs are not flat like that. So when turning it into it's proper view, the legs were an issue again because of their length and how they were bent.
I spent a good few hours messing with the vertexes to widen the legs for their joint proportions and how they would move. Again I checked in with my rigger and was given the green flag to UV it and submit it as finished.
My last model I did for this sprint was the Barracuda. As I was modeling the barracuda, I was told to remember the theme of steampunk and incorporate that into the fishes. I was told our concept artist made a sketch for the barracuda, so i referenced some parts into the fish.
After getting the outline then extruding, I started adding a metal almost like a metal neck brace around the fish. I spent a good while on this small detail because I didn't know if I wanted it to be 1 object or to break it down into 3 piece; left, middle, and right. I also tried to mess with the revolve tool which made more problems than making things easier because it created stacked faces and weird vertexes.
Once I was almost done, my designer came over and said they actually wanted this fish to be more realistic than steampunked, which was contradicting my producer. We had some clarification issues but ended up re-working that jaw part, into a can around its neck.
I lastly checked in with my rigger to see if the joints had enough edge loops to animate smoothly, and was given the greenlight after adding a few loops to the can and the end of the tail.Overall, I am proud of the work I have done this sprint. I feel like I am getting better than modeling fishes which is a good feeling because I have never modeled anything breathing/alive. I am also proud of myself for doing 3 cards this sprint, which seems low and honestly is, but I am doing better than last sprint and hope to do just as many or if not more by next sprint.
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rouge-lite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
As the 3D modeler, I worked on the fishes, which I learned I will be in charge of for the whole project. Specifically, this sprint I worked on the Sardine, Ghost Crab, and Barracuda.
At the beginning of the sprint, I worked on the Sardine which meant I had to gather references. Majority of the references I was given from the design documents were 2D, so I started looking at the anatomy of the fish to understand the width, size, and whatever is going on on the other side of the fish.
After settling on an image, I brought it into Maya with an image plane. My idea was to outline the fish and line up vertexes for its silhouette. Once adjusted to my liking, I extruded everything a little since the Sardine is one of the smallest fishes in this game and is overall tiny in width. I then used the smooth tool to round it out while deleting unnecessary edge loops to keep low poly. To top it all off I verified with our rigger if there were any edge loops what were needed and if so where, and asking if any existing edge loops were unneeded.
The next fish I worked on was the Ghost Crab. So far this was definitely the hardest fish I modeled even though we're only 2 sprints in. Again I found a diagram and did some research on this crab. Compared to other crabs, their eyes stick out of their shell and have a wonky eyelash at the top of them. I also noted that one of their claws are bigger than the other. While I was modeling It was brought to my attention that the note on this crab by my designer specifically said they didn't want it to have the large claw which I ended up deleting.
During this time I thought this was fine so I wanted to double check with my rigger so see if everything is ok to finalize but realized it was too flat, and realistically, crabs are not flat like that. So when turning it into it's proper view, the legs were an issue again because of their length and how they were bent.
My last model I did for this sprint was the Barracuda. As I was modeling the barracuda, I was told to remember the theme of steampunk and incorporate that into the fishes. I was told our concept artist made a sketch for the barracuda, so i referenced some parts into the fish.
After getting the outline then extruding, I started adding a metal almost like a metal neck brace around the fish. I spent a good while on this small detail because I didn't know if I wanted it to be 1 object or to break it down into 3 piece; left, middle, and right. I also tried to mess with the revolve tool which made more problems than making things easier because it created stacked faces and weird vertexes.
Once I was almost done, my designer came over and said they actually wanted this fish to be more realistic than steampunked, which was contradicting my producer. We had some clarification issues but ended up re-working that jaw part, into a can around its neck.
Dive Time
Sprint 1
Steampunk, low-scifi. Heavy themes of machinery and flesh fusion.
3D side-scrolling underwater low sci-fi diving & fishing & mild thriller/horror. (Underwater ide-scroller diving/fishing/rougelite)
Swim, catch, sell, upgrade, and don’t drown.
Dive into the water, catch fish, avoid danger with your abilities, return to the surface and sell the fish, upgrade your equipment, then dive again.
