#20: New Unreal Project (& 3D Model Work) (3/7-3/16)
I created a new unreal file this week, tried out a few file-management systems, and now think I’ll be able to have a 3D printed mockup to test with.
I added the cleaned-up model to Unreal, got the wall roughly aligned with the x-axis, and have filled in all of the light sources that I’m planning to work with. Right now, this is what that list looks like:
Wall Sconces Up: one very wide “spotlight” just above each of the 6 wall sconces, facing up. I wish this could sit inside the wall sconce, but would have to hollow out the wall sconces in Blender, and this works more than well enough for this experiment.
Wall Sconces Down: one very wide “spotlight” just below each of the 6 wall sconces, facing down.
Below Windows: 2D “strip lights” that sit at the bottom of each of the 5 center windows, a few inches in front of them to throw light up the face of the windows, adding color there and hopefully highlighting the shallow texture of each window
Above Windows: A sharp, fairly narrow spotlight facing straight down above each stained glass window.
High Sides: spotlights from either side of the wall, at a shallow angle to the wall, originating near the top of the wall and scraping across and downwards. I’ve done this as a pair of lights (“near” and “far”), to cover the whole wall. One light further away could work just as well, but this way I can control the colors separately on each half. These lights do a great job highlighting the top of the curtains and the edges of the vaults.
Mid Sides: same as above, but more centered vertically on the wall, aligned near the top of the curtains. Separating near/far not so useful here. These lights are perfect to highlight the folds of the curtain, which I really hope line up with the curtains in real life.
Low Sides: Sidelights like the previous two, but these are located near the bottom of the wall, highlighting the curtain texture as well as the vaults above.
Box Booms: These lights come at the wall more form the front, and provide a “fill” light – whereas the sidelight lights very little of the actual wall, and mainly accentuates the details and edges, the box booms fill in the shadows and do a better job lighting the wall
Floating Ball: A loose omnidirectional light I can play around with.
The closest thing I can find to folders to put these into are what seem to be scenes. I’m disappointed that I can’t easily toggle all of the lights on and off together, or manipulate their color & brightness together, simply because they’re all in the same scene, however it does make it much easier to find all the lights I need. I’ve discovered that I can “favorite” visibility, and that makes building each look much quicker. I’m sure a Blueprint can do exactly what I want in terms of controlling multiple lights easily, but I’ll cross that bridge later.
All of these lights are inside the .fbx file in Unreal, meaning that I can move the model around and all the lights travel with it. All the cameras will be outside of the .fbx, so that I don’t have to worry about the orange highlight as much. As Nathaniel pointed out, the G key can hide these (by toggling “game mode”).
In addition to the new Unreal project setup, I’ve got a printable 3D model to work with as well. After some (very) brief research, I’ve discovered Blender’s decimate function, and was able to more than halve the face count without loosing noticeable detail, and feel that I can go even further for a 3D print.
Rather than extruding the shape into a solid object, I’ve used a handful of Booleans to create a block with the face of the scan mesh. I also had to fill a number of holes that I’d created when I first tried to clean up the model, and ultimately replaced the beadboard lower wall section with a flat surface, since it had so many holes in it. Note to self – next time, don’t simply delete faces to remove protrusions, use a Boolean!. Regardless, I’ve created and sliced a model that I can print at work in a little over 9hrs. Not too long ago I was ready to give up on the 3D print component, but now it’s ready to print and I’ve gotten a much better mesh out of the process.
