Figure 6. Notes and views of buildings.

In the drawing to the left, you can see my initial idea. From the start, I had the concept of making a few buildings and showcasing the interior of them. I wanted something interesting, so I decided to go with a Geisha house and the workshop of a master calligrapher. The idea of scattering different scrolls and working materials of a calligrapher seemed very alluring to me. I really wanted to have a go at making paper posters with beautiful calligraphy. It’s an idea that I got after seeing a few old photos in some of the books I borrowed.

I quickly realized that if I were to make the exterior of everything, and then had to tackle multiple different interiors as well, I wouldn’t be able to make it in time. Not in 2 months at least. As such, I scrapped the concept of a Geisha house and left just the Calligraphers. I had some thoughts about making a garden too but quickly dropped that as well. After all, I knew I will have a go at making a shrine as well.

I included those notes in the picture, wanting to mention modularity again. I am going to share with you a mistake I nearly committed to. There are lots of other mistakes I did commit to, but let’s explore this one for now. It will probably sound basic but might prove helpful to someone out there. Look at the wooden scaffold in the picture above. As I said I had blocked that out with basic brushes at first. Those brushes were multiple, all varying in size. I went and measured each one. It came out to 12 individual pieces. I was actually very, very close, to modeling 12 individual pieces… Then I would have to texture each individually too. I quickly blocked most of them in Maya. I then decided to take 2-3 different in size into Zbrush, sculpt them and texture them after that. Just to make sure I can make one look the way I want, before committing to multiple. I was fortunate to do that, because after I did the initial two, and tested them out, I immediately realized that I can use those, rotate them, scale them around, have bits go underground, and replicate all of the scaffolding, with just those two pieces, instead of 12… Not only does this save time, but it also is amazingly more optimized for the engine, in case that this was to be an actual game. I knew to work modularly, but still nearly missed on that. As the old proverb goes – measure twice before you cut.