Joe Caleno's Blog

What If Metropolis? Reflective Statement. I have really enjoyed this project. At the start of the project, I found Maya very confusing, frustrating and difficult. However, as I began working with it, I got the hang of it. I enjoyed turning Italo Calvino's Armilla from his book called Invisible Cities into my own city. I reimagined Armilla and made it my own. I researched things that appear in the real world like pipes and buildings and included them in my drawings. From these drawings, I was then able to draw up a final concept drawing of what my scene will look like.  I found the modelling process very enjoyable. It went much better than I thought. The hardest part of making the 3D model for me was making the UV's. The toilet bowl UV was stretched so I had to add more edge loops in. The terrain was easy to model and so was the water. Making the UV's for the terrain and the water was also fairly easy.  I have learnt a lot in this project and I am looking forward to taking t...

  This is the finished scene with some cloud reflections on the pond's surface. I also softened up the pond's edges. This is a photo edited version. After putting an edit on it, I had an idea. The desolate landscape and the strange buildings really reminded me of a Pink Floyd album cover. So, I decided to make an album cover. 

This is my final Maya scene pipeline. Below are some images I have taken whilst making my scene. At the bottom of my page is the pipeline.    The front right pipe's UV.  Rusty Purple Pipe.  Water UV. The Terrain's UV.

  I began making my final scene by modelling the toilet house. The main shapes I used were a cylinder, sphere and a cube. To make the toilet bowl I cut the sphere in half and morphed it into the shape of a toilet bowl.  I after I modelled the toilet house, I began modelling the pipe.  After modelling the pipe, I duplicated it and positioned the pipes in the correct positions. I then started building up the terrain.  I then started adding more pipes. I felt like the scene was too bare. These pipes aren't in my concept drawing however I have improved my scene by adding these in.  I then rendered my scene in the camera view to see what it will look like.  I then put in the background.  This is the finished scene.

  This is what my pipes are going to look like. They are all going to be purple with red wheels. Pipe Production Art.

 After a while of thinking, I decided that I want my scene to look like this. In my street view drawing, there was a river going through the middle of the scene. I don't like that idea anymore. Now, I want to make the gnome house the hero building and all of the pipes help draw in the eye to the house. This is what I want my final scene to look like. 

 

 Before drawing up my pipes I wanted to sketch them. This way, I can get a rough idea of how I want them to look.  These are my sketches.  This is my first  pipe sketch. It has some detail on it however I think it could do with a bit more.  This is a revisited version which ill be using for my orthagraphs. My orthagraphs are on the next post.

 I don't want my pipe to just be straight with no bends or small details. I want to give myself a challenge. I want my pipe to have some smooth organic bends. This will make the model more interesting to look at. Also pipes in real life aren't just straight and vertical, they have bends in them. I want to add small details on the pipe however you can have too much detail and it gives you a very hard job when it comes to modelling. 

  Nathan Crowley is a production designer from England. He is a former art director who is best known for his work with Christopher Nolan. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design for The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Dunkirk and First Man.  He began his professional career in 1991 and was in the credits of 1993's Dangerous Game. I find this really inspiring. Just in two years, he was credited in a film with Madonna, Harvey Keitel, James Russo.  His most recent film he worked on was 2020's Tenet. Tenet was a film I actually really enjoyed although it was very confusing at times. Tenet has a lot of atmosphere and style, which I like. It is futuristic yet similar to the world we live in today.  Crowley is now 55. 

  This is my production art for my toilet house. This house looks like the sort of place a gnome would live in an environment where there is water. The toilet house also fits into my version of Armilla. At the front of the toilet house there is a door. It is red with white spots because of Toad's house from Mario. Toad's house has always reminded me of a gnome house. 

  Finished Painting.  Matte Painting Gif.

 Art Nouveau architecture uses very organic shapes and forms.  This architecture is really interesting. I almost looks like it is melting. It really reminds me of Dahli's surrealism. He uses a lot of melting, organic shapes in his work. The way the stained windows also follow the shape of the building is also effective.  This building is heavily decorated. There is alot going on with this its architecture too. When looking at this building your eyes are always busy. Every time you look at it, you find something else to look at. Going back to the gnome house idea, this type of architecture really looks like somewhere a gnome would live. The way nothing is symmetrical. I also started looking at plantation houses and the way the trees tunnel our vision and make us look straight at the house. The trees help make the house look important and grand. I want the pipes in my scene to be the trees in this and the plantation house will be the toilet house.  

  Using Pics Art, I put together this image. This is roughly what I'd like the texture of the toilet house to look like. The reason I have picked this colour and included white spots is because of Toad's House from Mario.  Toad's house really reminds me of a gnome's house too. Gnomes also seem to live in unconventional living areas and living in a toilet in Armilla sounds like a perfect fit. Through this, I'm also making the nymphs sound like gnomes. 

  This is the Top, Right Side, Front, Left Side. Then bellow is the back. This simplistic approach of drawing will make it much easier to use in Maya. I won't get confused with lines or anything like that. 

  When I started thinking about the idea of toilet houses in Armilla, the first thing that came to my head was gnome villages. Gnome villages houses have very organic shapes, they're very rounded and do not normally follow a particular shape.  At first look, they look very untidy. The way people make them looks like gnomes have actually built it.   A toilet, just like this, doesn't look anything like where someone would live. However, if you was to remove certain parts and change it up a bit it will.  You may not agree with me, but I feel like this toilet bowl could be a strange looking house. There could maybe be a small doorway at the bottom of the toilet. When I come to texturing my final model too, I want it to be red with white spots. This idea was influenced by Toad's house from Mario. It will also make the toilet look a bit more like a gnome house. 

 I am going to be modelling the street view. When modelling it, I want to show the sheer scale of the pipes and make each pipe unique if that means simply turning them so each pipes looks different to their neighbour.  I have thought about what I want each pipe to look like. I started looking at the pipes from Mario. These pipes will be very easy to model. Maybe a bit too easy. I want to give myself a challenge because then I will feel like I have achieved something. I may model some pipes like the Mario pipes tom use for extra detail however I am going to try my best to steer away from them.  I want to give Armilla a more lives in feel. At the moment, my version of Armilla is just a forest of pipes. Adding details like baths, maybe even houses will make Armilla seem more of a place people are meant to live in. 

  This is the revisited version of my second concept art drawing. I have filled some of that empty space up with extra details. There are two extra pipes, one on each side, pipes in the background, cloud, more water and extra sky details.