Model Chest

Project 2: Model Chest

Colin Wright 2/14/2019

Inspiration and Reference Material

Closed Chest

Open Chest

I chose the "shrine chest" from Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. I chose this chest because of its somewhat simplistic geometry, but with the extra challenge of the unique pattern in the center that wraps around the chest. The pattern makes the chest unique and I liked the slight glow effect it has in the game and wanted to learn how to emulate that in Maya. Also the chest pattern changes color when it opens in the game. I took all the pictures from my own Breath of the Wild game because there was no reference material online that I could find. The camera is restricted in the game so getting decent screenshots was a little difficult. I then brought the images into maya and resized them so that their dimensions would match.

top

side

front

Challenges and Process

Creating Side Supports

I created the supports on the side of the chest next. The started as cubes and through a series of extrusions I got them to wrap around the chest. I then looked at the perspective views and moved the vertices around to match the shape to the reference images. Similar to the chest body I also had to make sure the bottom halves of the supports were a separate shape so the chest could open. I tried to find a stone texture but it didn't fit nicely straight away and/or wasn't a very high resolution so I decided to use a dark tan color. I then beveled the appropriate edges to better match the original chest.

pattern imprint

I started by aligning the reference images in photoshop to create a flat version of the pattern. I then used the select by color function to extract just the pattern from the images. I didn't have a reference image for the bottom of the chest so I had to color my own pattern that blended with the rest of it. I then brought it into illustrator and transformed it into a collection of curves. A format maya can interpret. I then brought it in to maya and used the curve to polygon converter tool, then extruded the faces of the polygons to create the shapes I would use to imprint the pattern onto the middle support. I used a series of boolean differences to imprint the pattern on the faces of the chest. Boolean operations are a little finicky, especially when the geometry starts to get complicated. After some trial and error I got all the pattern shapes imprinted. I then used a separate cube, rectangle shape beneath the surface to use the color of the pattern. I used a color shader material to implement a slight glow to the color.

Chest body

I decided to start with the main body of the chest. At first I made it all one shape and attempted to use the detach tool. The result was a little messy so I went back and just made it two different cubes. I created an indent where the chest splits in two and beveled the outside edges. I chose a blinn material for a slight reflection of light to give it a glossy stone, almost metal look.

Middle Support

Middle support, the most difficult geometry to model on the chest. I used a cube and then a series of extrusions to wrap it around the chest body, similarly to the side supports. I then used the difference boolean operation with a cylinder to create the circular hole in the center. I then placed a slightly smaller cylinder in the void. I then beveled all the outer edges of the cylinder and the cube shape. I had to use the detach tool on the cylinder to make it two separate pieces to allow the chest to open.

Rupees

I decided to fill the chest with the currency from the game: the Rupee. I started out with a cube and extruded the top and bottom to create a diamond shape. I then extruded all the faces around the diamond to create a shape that could be molded into the final rupee shape by moving the vertices around a little. I then just copy and pasted them and arranged them in to a natural looking group of five for the center of the chest. I wanted to have a few more scattered around to make it look more like it was overflowing with rupees. I chose an aistandard material to create the glassy reflective texture.