Office Lockers 3d Model Production

For my third model I started to create a more stylised Chest of Draws model, compared to the more realistic Sofa I previously made.This is designed to have a more defined yet stylised look to it, in order to fit into a more cartoony indie PC game that isn't majorly graphically intensive. I first started looking at some referencing images, and found that these draws with handles built into the draw with a more boxed design help match the stylised visual style I'm going for with a more cartoony nature to it.

A good and modern design for a chest of draws.(John Lewis, 2016)

The second chest of draws image, I took inspiration from the plated and boxed design but used the first image more as a form of reference. (John Lewis, 2014)

I first started out with a simple box and I insetted the top, back and sides to create wooden panels around the edges. I then deleted the insetted front face to create the hole for the draws to slot into. For the draws I created a box shape, connected lines at the top and insetted it in. From there to create the gradual slope where a person were to grabs the handles I chamfered the edges as to not make them so sharp, and not look like someone would stab their own hand when opening the chest.

Afterwards once I had the basic shape in place, I could rescale it to the correct size and created duplicates of it to create a bigger wall of Draws instead of a single column of them. From there I created another box for the inside of the chest, and cut away at their shapes to look like contains that would hold clothes and objects when pulled out. From this box I also insetted and extruded the sides to create the appearance of a wooden border around the side, which makes the model look like a much more ornate shape. To add to this kiddy and bolted appearance I added some big wooden bolts onto the side of the object (as shown below), which are simply created from 5-sided cylinders and me deleting the sides the player normally wouldn't see for optimisation purposes.





After making the model more slim and taller (shown above), I also removed the extruding and chamfer for the sides of these draws that will be hidden when sat next to other draws, as a good use of professional optimisation as I reduce a few unneeded polys from my scene. As shown below, the player will never see this side, so it doesn't matter if it only takes up a single poly.



However I received some peer feedback from Ben Musgrave during development which caused quite a drastic change from this point forward, since the model more and more began to look like a traditional office locker/ filing cabinet than a chest of draws due to the slim, tall shape, I decided to take my model in a different direction and redesigned various aspects of it, keeping the stylised appearance I set out to achieve while also moving a step forward into realism, as I plan to give the finished model a metallic shine. I used used new reference images for the new design I wished to create, as shown below.

A new reference image used to help shape the model into its new look. (Staples, 2016)

From this point forward my first action was to redesign the draws completely, matching the appearance of the image above (complete with a name card, handle and unlocking draw knob). I also redid the inside of the draws too, extruding in some ridges to make it look like it could easily slide in and out along a shaft, as before it was a very flat shape since I had the mentality that the player's never really going to see it when playing a game. I will take advantage of this change and extra polys added though, as at the end when the model is finished I will move in and out a few of the draws (again, like the image above) to add a false sense of variety to all of the individual objects, despite them being exact duplicates of each other. This shows good personal development as I continued to redesign the model for the new look and improve its overall quality.



Afterwards I also redesigned the base to move away from the rigid and boarded look of the chest of draws and created a more natural and smooth look. It follows a design prophecy where simplicity actually can look better, as currently with the previous draw it just looked too 'busy'.

















Now I have the main model complete, it's time to unwrap the UVWs and texture it in Photoshop as always. I only had to unwrap a single draw, due to all of the others being a duplicated reference of the main object. This saved a lot of time and is a good example of me working to professional practises, as you save a lot of potential time when texturing clones of the same object than doing them all individually. Also, because these filing cabinets are made out of metal, I decided to create a separate metallic map alongside the regular texture BMP file using 3ds Max's material editor, to give it more of a shine that follows how real metal reacts to light. Baring in mind each draw has a slip of paper on them, it's important to avoid giving that section of the object metallic properties, or else it'll instantly break the player's illusion of metal I was going for. Here is the cabinet after the textures and metallic mapping has been applied:

Now onto the metallic hue, which is visible in the image above. I used the material editor for this alongside the separate texture file inside the same material, as I modified specular and glossiness to 75 values, and added a reflection map with a value of 85, which gave the object a strong gleam all over as you turn the camera. This really makes the filing cabinet look like it's made from metal, regardless of its simple and stylised look. Because without these extra additions the colours look very flat and absorb all of the light in the scene, when real metal reflects light instead.

I got some peers to give me some peer feedback, as an insight into what they think!

Jason Wood: "It looks like a very nice set of office lockers, I like how some of them are pulled up, it gives it character. I like colours and the little details with the name badges. I can't fault it!"

Adam Dyer: "I like the Labels in the texture. Could be smoother, maybe round them out?"

Ben Musgrave: "It's good i guess, i mean it has nothing on your other models, i love the kinda unique style of your other models, but this doesn't really follow the same style. Which is good as you're doing your own thing."

Overall I feel that these cartoony Office Lockers have a very solid final design, and keep to a simple, yet iconic tradition of using singular blocked colours on individual pieces of the model. The model has progressed a long way through its many design changes from a Chest of Draws, however I feel it was for the better and this is a much better result and design choice as it looks much more well made with more details on it (such as the locks and handles), so I'm happy I went with it.

I uploaded the model to Sketchfab so it can be viewed online in a well rendered setting, which really shows off the 'glossiness' of these office lockers. Here is the link: https://skfb.ly/MVGt