Medieval Ballista

Hi, I'm Goldie and I'm a student from The One Academy and I've been learning about 3D softwares for about a year now. I'm excited to be able to share my first ever hard surface project. I was given a span of 6 weeks to complete this project and am satisfied with how it turned out. 

Medieval Ballista

So for this project, I've used maya as my main 3D software to model and nCloth to create the banner through simulation. I've also used ZBrush to sculpt out some of the wood grains and damage. Textures was all done on substance painter, while lighting and composition was done on Marmoset. 

Rendered Shots

Closeup Shots

Breakdowns 

So the first of these transitions is my wireframe, the second one being the normals that shows the wood grains achieved through zBrush and substance painter. The third one is just albedo to smoothen out the transition to the final rendered shot

ZBrush Sculpt

After sculpting out the wood grains, I imported them in substance painter to bake into my model. 

Base Model with Wireframe

UV Maps

References and Studies

The first image shows the main concept reference I have for the project. Unfortunately real life reference for this particular model is limited so I had to use a few different 3D models and do my own studies to understand the mechanics so I could create a more believable model.

The trigger and torsion mechanics was definitely one of the more challenging ones, while the rope was mostly real life trial and error to ensure that the knot wasn't too bulky on the model. While the second image was my texture reference and studies on wood.

Conclusion 

I'm really glad to be given this opportunity to really put my current 3D knowledge and skillset to the test, and to also share and record my 3D journey here. Despite only picking up ZBrush 4 months before the completion of this project, I'm really happy with how the sculpted details translates in the final render shot. And to this, I'm really grateful to my lecturer for guiding me through this project.