This is the press structure/enclosed crowd section of Fenway Park; I created in Maya for the MLB 2K series of video games.

Modeling involved creating: the stadium, outside environment, field, props, color/normal maps, UV work, shadow volumes, and light glows; the crowd and sky were modeled & animated by other artists. In addition to modeling/texture work (on a per stadium basis, which would change from year to year), I was also responsible for: collecting reference, lighting, optimizing, animating pause menu cameras, integrating into the proprietary Take2 shading system, and placement of: collision detection, non-interactive characters, animated props, jumbotrons, lense flares, foul poles, updateable advertisements, and field shadow casting. I’m probably leaving out several things, but you get the idea.

Because sports titles are created in less than a year, there isn’t enough time to recreate all of the major league stadiums from scratch. Instead, we retro-fitted the original Xbox 3D models (I also worked on) by improving the lighting/shaders, and remodeling essential areas of the stadium. Each year we would recreate marquee areas of the larger market stadiums and update the look to reflect changes in the real life environments.

I modeled the press/crowd structure behind home plate in Fenway Park for the 2K8 edition of the series. Areas of the stadium that are seen in the pitching and batting cameras are the highest priority; and while this structure isn’t generally seen in the pitching view, it’s frequently shown and received a full upgrade. The old version was simple cut out shape with a color map texture consisting of: building side, sign, banners, and opaque windows. I created a real-time 3D area, and filled it with crowd polygons (replaced in game by animated 3D version); included: 3D stair/aisles, semi-transparent glass (with color/normal/reflection maps), 3D exits, props, and press tables/booths. The structure’s surfaces were created with a combination of tiling color/normal maps and a separate layered “multiply” texture to break up the tiling.