Asset Workflow Unity

Creating models with Maya and importing to Unity for animation

Project Description

I was tasked to design, model, and texture a crate, crane, and vehicle around a specific theme, and then import them into Unity to animate using Unity's timeline animation. I decided to make the theme around Christmas! Around the theme, I named the crane model "Candy Crane" :)

🔵 Roles: 3D Modeller, Texture, Rigger, Animator

🔵 Collaborators: Solo

🔵 Year: 2022

🔵 Timeline: 4 month

In-Engine Development

Unity's Animator component was used to animate this entire scene. Using the concept art as reference for the scene's layout, I began by animating the camera and framing it to capture the moon perfectly when it stops. The crane was most challenging to animate as it's movements are complex and requires many more layers of rotations to apply.

To the right is the hierarchy set up for the Candy Crane rig. Instead of using bones to animate, I made use of parenting the different parts of the crane together to replicate an forward kinematic (FK) rig. This made animating the CTRL points much easier to keep track of.

Substance 3D Painter

I used Substance 3D Painter to apply materials and textures onto the models. To ensure the texturing process would go smoothly, I created custom UVs in Maya for each object, optimizing the square space usage while maintaining consistent UV scaling.

For the Candy Crane texture, I used a custom Line strip alpha pattern and applied a red fill onto it.

This was my first time using 3D painter and I've learned the essentials of applying materials, setting white and black alpha masks to paint in certain faces at a time, as well as how to export textures properly into Unity.

Maya Screenshots

Concept Art

I began the project by gathering reference art for a crane, vehicle, and crate that matched the theme of Christmas. Using Adobe Illustrator, I created side and front portfolios of each object with consistent dimensions and using that created a mockup of how the final scene would look.

HD Render

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