D_Rogue Game Art Project

T he very first model I began to create at the start of the project, back in Autumn 2018, was the bow mast of the  F/V  Scully.  This was created using very little detailed reference; mostly from photographs (much like the rest of my work in the project). Since then, I have come a long way in my modelling skills and decided to take on creating one of the last large pieces of gear attached to the bow mast. The picking boom. This acts like a giant winch that hoists up crab pots onto the deck. After the coiling block has brought up a pot from the sea floor to the surface, the picking boom then transfers it onboard onto the pot launcher. Jason Bartlett © Above is the complete picking boom attached to the bow mast. I quite enjoyed working out the location of the mounting points to join the two like that onboard the fishing vessels seen on the  television show Deadliest Catch. Jason Bartlett © To create all the rigging, I used bezier curves and extruded highlighted cylinde...

S creenshot of  the F/V   Scully's   coiling block finally UV unwrapped in Maya . This model was a lot of fun to work on. Unlike the previous models I unwrapped, this one had a combination of relatively simple geometry, contrasted with some of the most complex I've worked on in the project  so far ! Jason Bartlett © Spreading a 3D objects surface into a 2D surface is never straightforward; they'll always be distortions. There are many ways to UV unwrap the same object. There's also many different software you can do this in. The best way, is the way that fits your needs the most! With the majority of the deck machinery now UV unwrapped, I feel confident moving forward with other assets and the workflow prepping for texturing. Thanks for reading :)

S creenshots of  the F/V   Scully's   sorting table and a tote UV unwrapped .  Like the pot launcher in the last post, this was a pretty straightforward unwrap; due to the model not being overly complex and mostly composing of planes or cylindrical  geometry . Jason Bartlett © Jason Bartlett © In the next post, UV unwrapping the last of the main deck gear...the coiling block! Thanks for reading :)

S creenshot of  the F/V   Scully's  pot launcher UV unwrapped .  This   was a fairly straightforward unwrap, with the geometry faces mostly  being  planes or cylindrical. Jason Bartlett © Next up, the sorting table and tote! Thanks for reading :)

 A nother s creenshot of my progress UV unwrapping assets onboard the F/V   Scully. This   time round, the rope coiler, unwrapped and ready for texturing! Jason Bartlett © I'm slowly making my way through unwrapping the assets for the main deck that I've worked on so far this year. I knew this would be a slightly time-consuming stage but I'm a lot quicker at it now than when I first began the project in 2019. Over time, I've found a steady balance in my workflow; where I alternate between  paths  to create the best possible UV maps. I use, both the main automatic UV projection tools available, or go in to the UV editor and manually unfold and correct where needed. When I reach the next major challenge of the project, working on the interior of the boat, I'll have even more experience and a greater idea in the whole unwrap workflow. Next up, the pot launcher! Thanks for reading :)

S creenshot of my progress UV unwrapping the F/V Scully hydraulic picking crane ready for texturing! Jason Bartlett © On one hand, this is one of the few large-scale assets to unwrap, so was quite time consuming. On the other hand, I've found a good workflow process and continue to use the best practises (as mentioned in my last post) to further unwrap all the other mechanical models and beyond! Thanks for reading :)

S ince leaving University, I've truly learnt how optimising and refining the  geometry of my models is a key part of the production process in Maya. Figuring out what surface  components  are necessary and removing unnecessary ones can make a huge difference on performance in a video game. Even more so, the more assets there are, such as in triple A games. This model of a coiling block  I created,  is a great example of this. In the second and third screenshots, I have enabled wireframe on shaded mode to show the tidied  vertices, edges and faces. While this is a fairly detailed model, I have still applied the best practices of  cleaning up any unessential  elements . After enough repetition and iteration, optimising geometry becomes second nature.  Jason Bartlett © Above is the complete  coiling block in Maya. This piece of equipment is powered by hydraulics and helps raise heavy pots out of the water by coiling line along a spinning sp...

U nderneath are a few   screenshots in Maya of t he next  significant asset I created for onboard the F/V Scully, a sorting table . A sorting table is quite self-explanatory but is where the catch from a crab pot is sorted by the crew to check the crabs are the right size and not under the legal limit to be caught. Any that are too small or the wrong species, are thrown back to sea.  This model was a fairly quick build. The part that took slightly longer was the bolt latches  (highlighted in the second image)  for the gate. I had to keep the geometry for the saddle, latch and bolt as low poly as possible. To achieve this, I tried working backwards by adding in all the parts and edge loops first, and then stripped the components back to be as low poly as possible with only the necessary features. In the last  screenshot , I've included a little bonus model, a tote tub. This is used for moving lots of crabs (once sorted from the table), either to a holding ta...

H ere are screenshots of the next key mechanical model I've created for the F/V Scully , the pot launcher. This is a major component of any crab fishing vessel.  The hydraulic launcher is a powerful  piece of equipment  that raises and launches crab pots.  There are various types of launchers that can both raise up to toss the pot overboard, as well as, tilt forward and shake crabs from a pot to a sorting table. I struggled for some time working out what equipment crab fishing vessels had back in the 70's and whether a pot launcher made the Scully look slightly too modern-day in terms of technicality . Sometime between the  commercial crab fishing industries beginning in  Alaska  (back in the 50's) to its heyday (around 1980), pot launchers were introduced to fishing vessels to help speed up loading and offloading crab pots (empty pots alone can weigh roughly 800 pounds). I did some research and eventually decided to make a basic single actuating launc...

B elow are screenshots of my next mechanical model,  a rope coiler,  I'm working on for the deck of the F/V Scully. This an  automatic rope coiling device that draws in a line of rope to a crab pot being hauled in. Similar to other models I've created before, I only had photographic references to go by making this coiler from scratch.  When it comes down to working from a handful of images, it  requires me to get creative. This is because c ertain areas are not as well documented. A big part of the job is filling in the gaps to make it as believable as a real-world object.  However, this isn't always straightforward! In this build, it proved quite tricky with many parts pivoting on one arm and the other being fixed inside to the top of the coil can. Eventually, with enough trial and error, I found a balance and soon had the low poly model complete. Jason Bartlett ©   Jason Bartlett © Jason Bartlett © Thanks for reading :)