Devlog #6 The Cake Is A Lie

The Process

We're finally at the last model needed, and by "we" I mean I am!

The last model was the cake, and I really had fun this week while making it. Mostly, because this time it wasn't a sci-fi mechanical contraption, and instead a big chocolate cake with cherries and a candle.

I figured this image was enough of a reference for this model, and I now I realise that I forgot to mention something important.

I constantly compared the models size with reference to each other, and the human height.

Keeping the scales right was a practice I learn is indeed very necessary for game ready assets, that's why I kept bringing in the assets from previous weeks into my new blender files in order to get a correct sense of scale, in relation to other models.

Now with that in mind, I started by getting a cylinder with a moderate amount of faces, as I didn't want the "low-polyness" of this model shining through, I used a mirror modifier to add the creams, and cherries on top of the cake. However, I didn't apply the modifier until I have UV unwrapped them.  The candle was made with another cylinder, and I added some extra geometry at the top to achieve a melted effect, and a little base on the bottom. The last part was the plate at the bottom of the cake, which I made by duplicating the last loop of the cake and extruding it out, then bevelling the outermost edges and pushing them out some more, got get a little gear-looking effect.

I did something different with UVs this time around. I started off as usual, and placed all the seems in the correct places, unwrapped to see if it looks alright, fixed some mistakes and repeated that process. Throughout the process of packing the UVs, I never applied the mirror modifier, like I did the previous times. This means that when I apply that modifier at the end of the process, all the UVs for the mirrored objects will be stacked on each other. This is great because it saves UV space, and while all the mirrored objects will looks exactly the same, none of that will be visible from a distance.

The Substance Painter work I did on this model was really fun, as I had to create some new materials this time. I based the texture of wood bark and played around with the displacement and roughness levels to achieve this look. I also layered additional masks with dark and lighter colours to create a varied material across all the maps. The plate was as simple wooden-like material, and the rest of the model was really basic with base colours, roughness maps, and some "grime" here and there for visual interest.

 

The final cake looks fabulous. I think I perfectly recreated the look of the original with some higher quality textures, and model. I like that I managed to capture the grandness of the cake by making the icing of it really uneven and chocolatey. I think it was a really nice break from all the previous sci-fi models that I had to create.

The Evaluation

I really enjoyed working on this non-sci-fi model, and it felt like a refreshing change. I experimented with applying the mirror modifier after UV unwrapping, and although it saved UV space, it did mean that any mistakes in the base unwrapping would be repeated across all the mirrored parts. Lastly, while the texture work in Substance Painter turned out well, I think there were opportunities to add even more detail to the icing and cherries to make the cake pop even more, but let's be honest, it won't be visible from a zoomed out shot.

The Reflection

Overall, I’m really happy with how the cake turned out. Working on something as fun as a big chocolate cake with cherries and a candle was a great break from all the sci-fi/mechanical models.  I felt like I was able to capture the grandness of the original reference perfectly. It was superb to see how reusing the same techniques from previous models helped me maintain consistency in scale and texture, even when trying something new. I’m excited to carry this energy into the last stage of the project, bringing all the new-found knowledge together, as well as old trick I know about rendering to create the final piece.

Next week I'll be finally bringing it all together and getting the scene setup!