A 3D turntable of my Dino-Saw model, rendered in Autodesk Maya.
The Design Brief
During my Senior Year at Miami University, the professor of my IMS 215 course gave my class an assignment to model, sculpt, and texture some sort of prop. The primary goal of this project was to create an asset that could hypothetically be used by a character in a video game, such as a tool or interactable object.
The Concept
For my prop, I was really drawn to the idea of creating something a very rustic, primitive-looking form of weaponry. I envisioned the sort of tool that a caveman would create out of the materials he could find in his environment. Therefore, the idea for the “Dino-Saw” was born, a wooden paddle with two bladed edges made from the jaws of a dinosaur, with vines crudely holding the entire structure together.
I drew up a piece of concept art to showcase the basic construction of the prop, and how I wanted everything to be detailed, including cracks, wear, and tear on the weapon to show its use and roughness.
The Research
In order to best represent my prop, I needed to conduct a sufficient amount of research on what it would be made of. Since the saw uses dinosaur jaws for its blades, I referenced the skull of the carnivorous dinosaur Utahraptor, a roughly bear-sized dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period. This dinosaur is unique due to the fact that its mandible, or lower law, curves in a sort of buzzsaw shape, making it a perfect reference point for my prop.
As for the rest of the weapon, I referenced some of the clubs and tools from the video game Far Cry Primal, which is set during the neolithic period. I wanted to replicate the rough, scratchy textures present on those weapons in order to capture the same rustic, weathered feel. Furthermore, I also referenced an Aztec weapon known as a macahuitl, which has a similar double-edged saw shape as my prop. I assembled a crude reference board for all of my inspiration.
The Process
For the first phase of this project, I constructed a low-poly model in Maya. The primary goal for this phase was to simply construct the basic shapes of the model, such as the teeth, paddle, and vines, utilizing simple geometric shapes in order to crudely rough out the object’s construction.
After finishing the modeling and mapping out all of the proper UVs, the next step would be to port the low-poly model into Mudbox, wherein I would begin the process of detailing and adding polygons to the mesh. In Mudbox, I would add finer details such as scratches, wear, and cracks in the mesh to make the model more organic, and therefore evocative of prehistoric technology. Once this high-poly mesh was created, I exported these details into a bump map which I could later use for the final render.
The final phase of design for this project came in the form of texturing, which was done entirely in Adobe Substance Painter. Using a combination of smart materials, I assigned each part of my mesh different textures, such as bone for the jaws and a wood grain for the paddle. I also hand-painted additional textures as well, primarily the old blood stains on the jaws. This detail added a degree of storytelling to the prop, communicating not only that the tool has been used, but that it is also very clearly a weapon.
Finally, after using all of these disparate applications, I went back to the original low-poly model in Maya, applying the bump maps created in Mudbox and the textures created in Substance Painter to this model. From there, I rendered out a turntable to showcase the end result.
The Reflection
All-in-all, I’m very proud of the end result of this project. I feel as though I not only captured my initial concept well in the 3D sphere, but I even improved upon it as well. Working in 3D space is a challenge, however utilizing multiple different programs and moving in between them created a streamlined process that was enjoyable to work within.
The final Dino-Saw is a fun prop that communicates both ingenuity and brutality. It is easily a prop or weapon that I could envision being used in some sort of prehistoric combat game, and I feel there is a great deal of story communicated just in the weapon’s appearance.
