Chapter 4

Model Construction

City Phase 0: Pre-construction test builds

Figure 12 : Standardized columns for use within the city model	Figure 13 : More ornate columns for use within the city model

Before the main city model construction was initiated a number of test pieces were built in order to create a mood board. Among some of the pieces created were various column and pillar models with associated temporary materials and textures. A few character models were started with the intention of animated use within the final model and animation. Due to the overall geometric size of the proposed model some historical inaccuracies were already accepted, in particular the type of columns that would be in use throughout the city. The reason for this was due to the geometric complexity of a single column, and the fact that many would need to be reproduced throughout the city model.

City Phase 1: Initial City Construction

Figure 14 : The imported vector based version of the city map

Once a suitable map of the Central City was found, the details needed to be digitized for use as a 3d construction aide. A few methods were tried as to their effectiveness, i.e. tracing the contours within 3dsmax using the city map as a backdrop, but in the end Adobe Streamline was used to convert the map into a vector image and importing this into 3dsmax through the Adobe Illustrator *.ai file format. This created a reasonably accurate spline that gave enough detail to be used as a construction template. As the model was to be created to scale the units within 3dsmax were set to mirror the units used on the map.

As the information accumulated so far had no height data, a recognizable feature within the city needed to be built and in doing so this would set the standard for the city’s doorways, walls, etc. The feature chosen was the King’s Bridge as the foundations were easily recognizable on the map and there had been a few archaeological sketches found that gave a good representation of how the bridge was assumed to have looked when built. The King’s Bridge was also a central feature to the city and once built the rest of the construction would radiate from this point in a logical order.

The King’s Bridge was built using the box-modeling technique from a basic cube, with roof supports created from standard cylinders resulting in the model shown below.

Figure 15 : The King’s Bridge model showing additional foreground construction.

The initial construction work for the model was deliberately kept to a low resolution for a number of reasons:

·        In order to ‘flesh out’ the city model in as little time as possible.

·        To minimize errors in details that may be found out later to be false, and allow for speedy correction.

·        To maintain a low-polygon version of the city that may be used for real time applications.

·        To minimize computing overheads during initial construction.

City Phase 2: Refining the geometry

Once the city was blocked out the model was split into sections and given more geometric detail where necessary, taking care not to overload the model as a whole. With a model as large as this (over 4 million polygons at finish) care had to be taken to optimise the model during construction, this minimised system overheads.

Figure 16 : The Final City Mesh.

Main areas that needed refinement included the temple pylons, doorways and the riverside. Some of the main city complex needed to have their edges bevelled in order to look more solid. The riverside needed to have rocklike structures built – a straight forward process of distorting a sphere with a noise modifier and scattering the rocks along the edge of the river. The trees were built in a separate file and merged into the main scene ready to be scattered also. A large proportion of reeds were created to fill in areas between the rocks, but as this added considerably to the overall polygon count, the larger density was kept to specific viewing angles.

Constant versions of the model were saved for safety and in case there was a need to backtrack for any reason. This became necessary when, part way through the project, it was found that some of the buildings and layout were not in keeping with the findings of the Amarna Survey.

The 18^th Dynasty Boats

As the city lay along the side of the River Nile it seemed appropriate to include some form of shipping. Research led to the artefacts found in Tutankhamen’s tomb, one of which was a model of a large boat, so, a 3d version was created to eventually sit along the Royal Quayside.

Figure 17 : The 3d models of an 18th Dynasty Boat.

The hull was created from a spline cage which was then converted into a polygon mesh for further editing. The ropes were created as a renderable spline which allowed for any future animation to be added to them with ease.

The Two Faces of Akhenaten

Figure 18 : The Statue version of Akhenaten.

Figure 19 : The ‘Living’ version of Akhenaten.

Figure 20 : Morph targets created for the ‘living’ Akhenaten.

Although the Akhenaten models did not make it into the final animated piece, both were part of this project and as such deserve a mention.

The two versions of Akhenaten were built to represent the stone statues surrounding the main Palace Courtyard and the actual human Pharaoh. Both models were created from spline cages and then surfaced. The human version was also created with morph targets to enable facial animation to be used. The bodies were not built at the time of writing this document, although construction had begun. The statue version, as mentioned before, was to be copied around the Palace Courtyard, but as time was pressing on, a previously constructed model was modified for the task.

The Bugs

Figure 21 : Nasty Bugs from Hell!

The bugs were created prior to the start of the project and are represented here only for completeness. The sections were all created from spline cages and surfaced, the creature itself was linked together to form a complete IK hierarchical structure ready for more complex animation. Although there are no representations of any creatures like this in Egyptian art it is to be remembered that these are still demons from hell and would be a nightmare for anyone to cope with, so why not have these creatures tearing around Amarna during its destruction?

Anubis and the Priestess

Figure 22 : Anubis construction views.

The Anubis and priestess characters were also created from spline cages and surfaced.  In Egyptian art the god Anubis was always depicted as a man with a dog-like head, but for this project it was decided that his ‘real-world’ version would be more animal-like, hence the structure of the legs. There were to be many more gods created and animated for this project but with the timescale it was decided that this model would represent all the others. At the time of writing, construction had already started on Horus and Set.