Wed 8th April 20:
Finishing the texture of the lava rock, the next goal was to create small pieces of the rocks to spread across the environment. Research on how lava rocks on google images looked were helpful as reference, which then was used to recreate these rocks using the lava texture that was previously created.
Some tutorials on YouTube were needed to create these rock. Low poly rock research led to a video called 'Autodesk Maya 2018 - Stylised Rock Speed Modelling' which showed a sped up video of making a rock in Maya. Also 'How To Create A Low Poly Rock In 2 Minutes [Tutorial]' and 'Rock editing in Maya- Creating organics' were very useful. These videos were never used previously, although they would did prove to be useful and could be used for future projects.
Later a video called 'How to model rocks and stones in Maya, fast and easy' was found that cracked apart a sphere to create shards. Duplicating these rock would have been appealing, but the thought to put the rock into a new Maya project to crack the rock apart wasn't as effective as predicted. By pulling the rock with soft selection, it made the shape individual for cracking. With the scatter effect to break it apart however, the texture didn't appear correct on the shattered pieces. This outcome is why it wasn't used for the environment.
Making rock shards was a terminated aspect of the project, so the flaming tree was continued and positioned to the left of the screen. Before doing a single frame render to insert into After Effects, the trees had to be correctly in place to create the environment. After the rendered frame into After Effects, the image was duplicated. This was to allow for the image to be flipped with Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal to get a tree on the opposite side.
The single frame of the lava rocks were also rendered to put inside the environment with the flaming tree. The final rendered image in after effects showed the first version of the project, so then everything was saved.
Some tutorials on YouTube were needed to create these rock. Low poly rock research led to a video called 'Autodesk Maya 2018 - Stylised Rock Speed Modelling' which showed a sped up video of making a rock in Maya. Also 'How To Create A Low Poly Rock In 2 Minutes [Tutorial]' and 'Rock editing in Maya- Creating organics' were very useful. These videos were never used previously, although they would did prove to be useful and could be used for future projects.
Later a video called 'How to model rocks and stones in Maya, fast and easy' was found that cracked apart a sphere to create shards. Duplicating these rock would have been appealing, but the thought to put the rock into a new Maya project to crack the rock apart wasn't as effective as predicted. By pulling the rock with soft selection, it made the shape individual for cracking. With the scatter effect to break it apart however, the texture didn't appear correct on the shattered pieces. This outcome is why it wasn't used for the environment.
Making rock shards was a terminated aspect of the project, so the flaming tree was continued and positioned to the left of the screen. Before doing a single frame render to insert into After Effects, the trees had to be correctly in place to create the environment. After the rendered frame into After Effects, the image was duplicated. This was to allow for the image to be flipped with Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal to get a tree on the opposite side.
The single frame of the lava rocks were also rendered to put inside the environment with the flaming tree. The final rendered image in after effects showed the first version of the project, so then everything was saved.
References
3dEx. (2018, 4 Sep). Autodesk Maya 2018 - Stylised Rock Speed Modelling. [Video file] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/6Vf9XDw1jMY [Accessed 8th April 2020]
Google. (2020). Lava Rocks Images. Retrieved from https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en-GB&authuser=0&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ALeKk010yTASVmsCy8dXMlG4f3nvhs6v3w%3A1591025265514&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=657&ei=cR7VXvmUHdaQ8gLcloTICA&q=lava+rocks&oq=lava+rocks&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6BAgjECdQsgVY5BdgthtoAHAAeACAAUyIAfUEkgECMTCYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img&ved=0ahUKEwi5kZz-9uDpAhVWiFwKHVwLAYkQ4dUDCAc&uact=5 [Accessed 8th April 2020]
Maya for beginners. (2017, 19 Aug). How to model rocks and stones in Maya, fast and easy. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2WqeUddTIcE [Accessed 8th April 2020]
Spitzer, S. (Rock editing in Maya- Creating organics. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RYeQ-8GTFxs [Accessed 8th April 2020]
Wick, E. (2018, 2 Feb). How To Create A Low Poly Rock In 2 Minutes [Tutorial]. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/U9xoloxilIk [Accessed 8th April 2020]
