Final Submission for BA3

This is my final creative submission for BA3, showing the completed folly with full lighting and textures. Overall I am quite pleased with what I have made, but I know there is still a lot for me to learn and improve with in terms of modelling and texturing in Maya.

First of all, I am very pleased with the geometry of my piece. I think it is very clean and fairly topologically correct. I thought a lot more about using primitives to map out the forms instead of trying to create the shapes with other tools this time, which really helped build an accurate form rather than rely on guesswork and trying to line faces up. Plus, using instances for parts like the pillars and the balustrades really help in making the UV map a lot more efficient so I could get more detail out of it.

However, there are some big issues that could be addressed. Even though I tried to fit everything in on a single UV map, there are some parts, like the balustrades, which are absolutely tiny on the UV map. During the creation process I had to do some chopping up and more instancing, for example on the base, to try and make the unwrap more efficient and so I would have more space for other elements to fit. It would have been nice to have some texture variations with the pillars and the upper walls but then I would likely have to split it into two separate unwraps to get enough space which, in hindsight, may have been a better idea to begin with. Plus, even though I put a lot of work into the texture I feel like it could still do with some more work to make it seem more worn-down and unique, as right now it still feels a little flat.

Next time, I shouldn't be afraid to use multiple unwraps for my models, as sometimes this will be beneficial to get more detail into my model without having to use absurdly high resolution textures to get the information I need. I could definitely have moved half of the UVs onto another unwrap and gotten more detail and/or have smaller textures. I could also consider more about adding detail with normal maps. I would like to learn how to use ZBrush and Maya in conjunction to get even more detail work into my models without having to fiddle around with converting bump maps. I have explored that area a small bit but I haven't put it into practice yet.

Even so, I am satisfied with the quality of work that I have produced. Considering I have only been working in Maya for a few months now and working with some of these texture maps and concepts for even less, I picked up a lot of the concepts quickly and learned how to incorporate them into my work, which shows here. I would definitely like to revisit this style of work more later.