VOYAG E TO

MARS

THIS MISSIO N BO O K L E T B ELO N GS TO
I N IT IA L S
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Plot 4
Your Part 6
References + Inspiration 8
Personal Goals 9
Production Schedule 10
Tools 12
Leadership + Training 13
Energy Map 14
Naming Conventions 16
Naming Textures 18
Asset Tracking 20
Grades + Evaluations 20
Notes 22
 THE PLOT
It’s the year 2045, the singularity is a matter of historical
record and the colonization of Mars has begun.
Travel to Mars is still reserved for the wealthy class and
massive corporations who have profit margins larger than
the GDP of some industrialization nations. However, a more
affordable mode of travel to Mars is through virtual reality
simulations that are safely hard-wired to the human nervous
system. This is the method by which the average person
(with modest means) can travel to Mars and it can be done
from the comfort of any local VFXYZ Virtual Travel Center.
Mars vacation packages are both fast and affordable,
since the six-week experience lasts only a couple of hours in
reality time.
Travelers will be treated to first class services en route
to Mars and luxury accommodations upon arrival to the
VFXYZ Mars Resort (biosphere).
Travelers are encouraged to hike one of the many well-
groomed Martian trails on foot and by speed rover during
their stay at the VFXYZ Garden Resort.
Virtual travel has never been more safe, fun or realistic
— it’s better than the real thing!

4 5
 YOUR PART
You are part of an elite virtual reality creation firm called
“VFXYZ” (slogan: Virtual Travel Anywhere Anytime). The
firm specializes in creating unique and highly realistic
virtual reality experiences. VFXYZ’s most popular product YOUR NAME

is a virtual reality trip to Mars. Clients vacation in VFXYZ’s Virtual Reality Artist
email@umassd.edu
famed “The Garden” biosphere where genetically altered
613.613.5542
lifeforms from Earth flourish and are also part of a healthy
and balanced gourmet Martian diet prepared by the best
chefs in the solar system.

-- Create a VFXYZ travel center with a VR travel recliner.
-- Collaborate and design a space vehicle that can travel from
Earth to Mars and back again. The ship should have room for
16 occupants to travel first-class, plus crew quarters.
-- Create planets, moons and asteroids that the VFXYZ
spaceship will fly by.
-- Create a space suit built to endure the many trials of space
travel, including space walks and martian walks across the
exquisitely desolate Martian landscape.
-- Create VFXYZ’s “The Garden” biosphere. Create unique
plants, trees and lifeforms to inhabit the biosphere
ecosystem and be eaten by guests.
-- Create living spaces (houses, tree houses, huts, etc.) for
guests within The Garden.
-- Re-create an area of the Martian surface surrounding
“The Garden,” create hiking trails and speed rover
scenic routes surrounded by beautiful golden
Martian canyons, mountains and valleys.
-- Create matte paintings for the elements too far away to be
explored as a 3D model.
-- Create unique sounds for the virtual travel experience.
-- Integrate all assets into the Unity game engine. Build
functionality for a first-person VR walking experience.
-- Design a 20-30 second advertising spot for the VFXYZ
virtual travel package to Mars.
-- Design a poster for the VFXYZ virtual travel Mars package.

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 REFERENCES + INSPIRATION -- Gravity (2013)
-- Interstellar (2014)
Maintain an active sketchbook with research, technical -- The Martian (2015)
notes, thoughts and designs. Make some popcorn and -- Black Mirror, USS Callister (look for Season 4, Episode 1,
check out these fantastic science-fiction films as part of 2017, Netflix)
your research into space travel, artificial intelligence and, of -- Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, Real Life (look for Season 1,
course, virtual reality. Episode 1, 2018, Amazon Prime)

-- The Wizard of Oz (1939)

-- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) PERSONAL GOALS
-- Star Wars (1977)
-- Empire Strikes Back (1980) What are your personal goals for this project? What are
-- Blade Runner (1982) your career goals beyond this project? What inspires you?
-- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) What sort of things would you like to create?
-- Total Recall (1990)
-- Jurassic Park (1993) 1.
-- Contact (1997)
-- The Fifth Element (1997) 2.
-- eXistenZ (1999)
-- The Matrix (1999) 3.
-- Minority Report (2002)
-- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
-- Wall-E (2008) Circle any existing skills that you bring to the production:
-- Avatar (2009) Storyboarding, Illustration, Painting, Photography, 3D
-- Star Trek (2009) modeling, Rigging, Animation, Dynamics, Lighting and
-- Europa Report (2013) Shading, Enthusiasm for UV Mapping, etc.

8 9
 PRODUCTION SCHEDULE FEBRUARY 26

Over the course of the next 15 weeks, we’ll have 26 classes FEBRUARY 28
together. Use these dates to keep track of your task due
dates and major milestones for the overall project. MARCH 5

JANUARY 22 — PROJECT START MARCH 7

JANUARY 24 MARCH 10-18 — SPRING BREAK

JANUARY 29 MARCH 19

JANUARY 31 MARCH 21

FEBRUARY 5 MARCH 26

FEBRUARY 7 MARCH 28

FEBRUARY 12 APRIL 2

FEBRUARY 14 APRIL 4

FEBRUARY 20 — MONDAY FOR TUESDAY APRIL 9

FEBRUARY 21 APRIL 11

10 11
 APRIL 18
APRIL 23
APRIL 25
APRIL 30
MAY 7 — FINAL DELIVERABLE
TOOLS
Be sure to acquire these analogue and digital tools:
-- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After
Effects, Audition — $19.99/mo.)
-- Autodesk Maya and Mudbox, 2018 (Free for education)
-- Unity version 2017.3 (Free for education)
-- A digital drawing tablet.
-- We’ll use Basecamp for group collaboration. Sign up here:
https://3.basecamp.com/3462855/join/ktktVxWzyuX4
-- A small, easy-to-carry notebook for sketching and ideation
(keep it with you at all times, especially to class).
-- Pixologic ZBrush (Optional, industry-standard organic
modeling software).
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LEADERSHIP + TRAINING
This is a team effort (with variable experience levels) and
in order to ensure group success, the more experienced 3D
artists must help train other members of the team. Use the
Basecamp forum and seek help early and often. It is your
responsibility to manage your time and learn the material.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES
• The Autodesk Maya Product Manual
• Maya Learning Channel — youtube.com/channel/
UCHmAXsicpLK2EHMZo5_BtDA
• Daryl Obert — youtube.com/dto911c4s
• Lynda Training — lynda.com
• Unity Channel — youtube.com/user/Unity3D
• The Gnomon Workshop — thegnomonworkshop.com
• Pluralsight — pluralsight.com
• Michael Swartz — youtube.com/swartz3d
• Arvid Schneider — youtube.com/URsProductions
• Lester Banks — lesterbanks.com
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 ENERGY MAP
Chart your most productive times, plan accordingly.

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

12 AM 12 PM

1 AM 1 PM

2 AM 2 PM

3 AM 3 PM

4 AM 4 PM

5 AM 5 PM

6 AM 6 PM

7 AM 7 PM

8 AM 8 PM

9 AM 9 PM

10 AM 10 PM

11 AM 11 PM

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 NAMING CONVENTIONS
Consistently clear naming conventions for a project this
complex is critical. Here is an overview of how assets should
be named so that everyone in the group understands the
language of the production.
When naming an asset, consider the category and/or
context of the asset — where does the asset belong? What
is it? (Character, prop, vehicle, vegetation, etc.)? What is
the name of the asset itself? Are there multiple variations?
What are the initials of the artist? Version tracking: How
many days has the asset been worked upon (noted as
a number preceeded by “v” for “version”)? What’s the
iteration for the day (noted as a lowercase letter)?
Where? What is it? Multiple? Initials? Version?
context_name_01_MS_v01a
We will be using Maya ASCII (.ma) file format for all
assets in this project for greater flexibility with different
versions of Maya. Large scenes may be saved as Maya
Binary (.mb) on a case-by-case basis.
It is important that the group project directory contain
only the latest assets (not every saved version). This is to
avoid clutter and confusion and to keep the project directory
light. If you update an asset, backup the old copy.
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SCENE LAYOUTS
scenes/LAYOUT/marsGarden_01_MS_v01a.ma
scenes/LAYOUT/earthLaunchPad_01_MS_v01a.ma
PROPS
scenes/REF/props/prop_loungeChair_01_MS_v01a.ma
scenes/REF/props/prop_roundTable_01_MS_v01a.ma
SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS
REF/planets/mars/planet_mars_MS_v01a.ma
REF/asteroids/asteroid_01_MS_v01a.ma
REF/spacejunk/junk_01_MS_v01a.ma
PLANET DETAILS
REF/planets/mars/marsDetail_mntn_01_MS_v01a.ma
REF/planets/mars/mountain_mars_MS_v01a.ma
VEGITATION
REF/veg/mars/marsPalm_01_MS_v01a.ma
REF/veg/earth/earthMapleTree_01_MS_v01a.ma
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 NAMING TEXTURES
All textures should be organized into sub-folders within
the Maya sourceimages folder. Save flattened TIFF files
alongside each PSD file for diffuse, bump, normal, specular,
etc. Note of the following examples (textures don’t require
artist initials — the model already has that noted). It’s also
helpful to note the pixel resolution of textures (1k, 2k, 4k,
512px, 256px, etc.)
Textures should be standard 72ppi (screen resolution)
and RGB 8-bits/channel (16-bit or higher is fine for work-in-
progress PSD files, but should be parsed down to 8-bit for
the final output.
Carefully review this example list of file naming
conventions, it’s part of our group’s common language.
PLANETS
sourceimages/planets/mars/mars_spherical_diffuse_8k_v01a
TERRAIN
sourceimages/rocks/rock_large_01_v01a_diffuse_4k
sourceimages/mountains/mntn_01_v01a_diffuse_2k
sourceimages/boulders/boulder_01_v01a_diffuse_1k
sourceimages/cliffs/cliff_01_v01a_diffuse_4k
VEGETATION
sourceimages/vegetation/palm/palm_01_leaf_v01a_normal_1k
sourceimages/vegetation/grass/grass_tall_01_v01a_spec_1k
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VEHICLES + RELATED PROPS
sourceimages/vehicles/shuttle/shuttleHull_01_v01a_diffuse_4k
sourceimages/vehicles/speedRover/
speedRoverWheelRim_01_1k
sourceimages/vehicles/launchPad/launchPad_01_diffuse_4k
PROPS
sourceimages/props/furniture/chair_01/chair_01_bump_1k
sourceimages/props/coffeeMug/coffeeMug_01_v01a_bump_1k
sourceimages/props/tv/tv_large_lobby_01_v01a_diffuse_2k
ALPHAS
sourceimages/alpha_library/cracks/cracks_01_v01a_512px
sourceimages/alpha_library/grime/grime_01_v01a_512px
sourceimages/alpha_library/dents/dent_large_01_v01a_1k
sourceimages/alpha_library/rivets/rivet_01_v01a_1k
MATTE PAINTINGS (PSD AND TIFF)
sourceimages/mattePaintings/mp_mars_mtns_01_MS_v01a
sourceimages/mattePaintings/mp_mars_sunset_01_MS_v01a
AUDIO (WAV OR AIFF)
sound/environmental/audio_garden_birds_01_MS_v01a.wav
sound/electronics/audio_electricHum_01_MS_v01a.wav
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 Unity-

ASSET TRACKING
Audio
Ready

The status of every asset must be tracked in a shared Animation Task Texturing
Categories
spreadsheet online (such as Google Docs). Keep track of the
following (as a starting place):
UV Modeling
Mapping
File Name
-- Task category (modeling, UV mapping, texturing, Unity asset File
Location
preparation, etc.) Assigned
Artist(s)

-- Task Context (where does the asset get used?)

-- File name, location and description Due Date

-- Task assigned to
Time Asset Tracking Context
-- Task due date Estimate Spreadsheet Data

-- Task time estimate (how long will take to create?)

Actual Time
-- Task complete (make note of the date) to Complete

-- Notes
Status
Notes

GRADES + EVALUATIONS
20% Shared Group Grade (All for one, one for all!)
80% Individual Output (The buck stops with you!)

Please review the course syllabus for a detailed description of

grading policies.

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 NOTES

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This Mission Booklet and Curriculum was developed by
Professor Michael Swartz at UMASS Dartmouth, 2018.
Photo Credits: NASA