Creating a Walkie-Talkie

This week was the start and end of my fifth project for my honours module at UCLan. For this project I was unsure of what to create. A few suggestions were made to me, one being to create a realistic asset like a walkie-talkie. I liked this idea and I decided to do it. 

I started this project like any other by gathering references for my asset. I looked at various types of walkie talkies and gathered images that I liked the style or shape of. I also looked at the parts of a walkie talkie and what each button does.

Here is an image of the moodboard I created, to use as reference.

I used these references and created some sketches of the design that I had in mind. Here is an image of the sketches:

After sketching out the model I wanted to make, I began creating it inside of MAYA. I started by blocking out the general shape of the asset with block shapes. Once I was satisfied, I started by shaping the base of the model and slowly added more detail and parts. The design changed slightly as I progressed. Here is an image of the model at various stages:

Here is an image of the wireframe:

I then took the model into Nomad Sculpt. In this application, I smoothed the edges, added some variation across the surface, some deeper detail (indents around the buttons and panels), and a seam that goes around the model and the battery cover. Here is an image of the sculpt:

When the sculpt was finished, I baked the information, from the newly made high poly, onto the low poly inside of Substance 3D Painter. I textured the model in a similar way to how I built it. I started with the base material of each section and slowly built them up. For the larger base of the model I created a grainy black plastic with varying bumps all over the surface. For the buttons I created a light-black rubber with white decals on them. I added some wear to the decals on the model using a fill layer on a mask that took away from the decals. For the screen, I created a base layer with a slight green emission, added some faded black text (this made up the 'off' section of the screen) and a darker, more full black layer of text (this made the 'on' section of the screen). For the wear, I used a very light edge wear generator, using a mask so that the screen wouldn't be effected. I then added some deep scratches and some fine scratches. For the screen wear, I used a light fiber glass edge wear generator, added small amount of deep scratches and many fine scratches. I separated these sections as the glass screen would be easier to scratch and the wear would be different compared to the plastic and rubber sections. I added three different dirt layers. One layer was a wiped dirt layer, to give it cleaning streaks. Another layer was a grime layer which is a newer layer of dirt that is yet to be cleaned. The final layer was a crevice layer of dirt, this is dirt in the deeper sections of the model that would be hard for a person to clean. Here is an image of the textured model in Substance 3D Painter:

After I was satisfied with the model and it's textures, I took them into unreal engine and created some render images. Here is one of them:

Overall, this project went very good. I surprised myself on how much I could create in a small timeframe and what I can achieve with my current abilities. The texturing was my favourite part and I was excited to see how the model would turn out as I was creating it. I managed to learn a few new tricks to use in Substance 3D Painter, while I was experimenting, which will help me as I move forward. In the future I will definitely be doing more projects like this one.