Modelling - Kitchen Environment - Smaller Details

As the small details are important when producing an environment, I am going to model several kitchen objects which will also improve my modelling skills.

After having modelled these items, I definitely feel that my modelling skills have improved. I have learnt several techniques that have helped me produce these models. In particular I have increased my knowledge of different helpful tools in maya such as smooth mesh and NURBS. 

Kitchen Environment - Texturing

I am confident with my texturing skills therefore hopefully I will not encounter too many obstacles during this part of the production process. I am going to attempt to create textures and shaders that I have not yet attempted as I enjoy challenging myself and it is an opportunity to learn as well.

I decided to texture the kitchen surface with a marble effect. Initially, I researched whether there was a specific shader 'recipe' and encountered some information regarding the marble preset within Maya. I experimented with the attributes and achieved this result.

This is ok but is not quite the effect that I desire. I decided to use my own knowledge and found a high resolution marble texture and attached it to a blinn which resulted in this effect which I am more pleased with.

Kitchen Environment - Lighting

I have not created a night time scene which obviously involves different lighting. This is a good opportunity for me to develop my skills as I feel that lighting is currently not one of my strong points.
Here I have just been experimenting with the different ways of producing the lights in my scene.

By focussing so much on the lights themselves, I have not produced realistic lighting in my scene. Some feedback that I received from one of my lecturers that the lighting is unrealistic as there are no shadows. I don't know how I didn't notice that but I knew that something didn't look right. He then informed me of the three point light system. 

I did some research on interior lighting using Mental Ray and came across a Digital Tutors tutorial entitled exactly that. This tutorial was about 3 hours long but half way through I was already beginning to see results. 

This method included using an IES map which contains accurate light attributes and attaching an exposure lens to the camera, I have not used these methods before therefore it was interesting and I definitely felt that I learnt a lot. 

In these stages I plugged an IES light map into the point lights which contain the attributes of a realistic light. 

In the next stages I attached an exposure lens filter to the camera. Because I used this, I had to Gamma correct all of my textures. 

At this stage I edited the white point of the camera filter to give a less white glow from the light. 

Here I began to put in the hanging lights. 

I have lost the shadows, I think this is because I have too many lights so close together. I deleted some of the lights and I think it looks better. 

I then assigned a lambert to the lights. I used an Orange for the colour and increased the ambient. I also increased the glow under the special effects tab. 

I experimented with the value beginning with 2.

This is a glow of 1.5

This is a glow of 1 which I think is the most appropriate as the previous ones look slightly too bright.

After taking several more steps such as improving glossy materials and indirect illumination within my scene, I am now happy with the finished product.

Modelling - Kitchen Environment

I have begun modelling my kitchen environment. I feel as though I need to become faster at my modelling as some of my peers are faster than me therefore I feel that I need to push myself to work quicker. This is going pretty well so far, I have just started to model the basic shapes. It is the first time I have modelled a kitchen so I keep referring to my research and wandering into my kitchen for reference and also have collected reference photos of objects I will need to model.

Environment Design - 'Kitty Kingdom'

As 'Kitty Kingdom' is a fantasy world, this gives me freedom from the normal regulations of attempting to create a realistic environment, I am excited but nervous about this. I am looking forward to exploring my imagination and that of other peoples but this also makes referencing more difficult.

I have been advised to explore surrealism for this environment as I want to make it clear that it is a fantasy world and not a badly produced attempt of a realistic environment.

I have been questioning as many people as I can as to what they think Kitty Kingdom would look like and I have been keeping a record of their ideas. Many people have said that they imagine it to be fields filled with things cats love such as balls of yarn and cardboard boxes. I have been suggested ideas of trees that are scratching posts and rivers made of milk. I am going to combine my own ideas, my research and other peoples suggestions and produce a surreal environment.

Environment Design - Kitchen

I have decided that I want to model a modern/contemporary style kitchen as I like the style and wanted to explore my skills and develop my knowledge within this type of design. I am however, struggling with envisaging a design with the correct balance as I do not want it to look too modern which can sometimes look unrealistic. These are the kinds of designs that I am looking at, I think I am going to combine aspects of some of these examples.