ANIM2001 CG Character Production Logs

Session Notes Progressing further with the new low poly head, an issue was encountered where I could not use a tool named the "Mege Vetex Tool" normally found in maya 2015 and previous versions. However; in later versions of maya such as maya 2016 the "Target Weld Tool" appears to do the exact job of merging vertices together. .... Referances https://www.reddit.com/r/Maya/comments/2gvbby/where_is_merge_vertex_tool/ http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php?t-1217876.html By Sebastian Jones

Session Notes Reluctantly resuming progress with the modelling of the new head. I have only just discovered that shift right click grants me quick access to useful tools throughout the tutorial such as "Multi-Cut" and "Connect Components". (figure a) Figure A The following week later I proceeded to craft the vertices of the eye cylinder and forming the outer circle of the eye the "Oculus Orbit" was tedious (figure b) . Since my side reference was not completely accurate despite my measurement lines aligning perfectly in adobe photoshop. Figure B Moreover, after slowly transforming my cylinder into an eye I was confused once I had to refine the edges with the "Crease Tool". In order to smooth down the inner eye-ring, I had to drag the middle mouse button while the crease tool was selected. Also as a small temporary note, I will make sure all of my written production logs are coherent and readable once each project is brought to...

Session Notes Resuming progress with the new nomad head model. I finally adjusted my reference image to have accurate measurements for the eys, nose and lips in order for me to accurately use the tutorial and model a geometrically clean head. (figure a) Figure A Furthermore, during the past sessions of creating the old nomad model I found the tutorial by James Taylor to complicated to follow although using cylinders to create the eyes and mouth area is a faster and more efficient approach to creating a loy poly character head. (figure b) Figure B Interestingly as I slowly adjusted the vertices for the second cylinder to form the lips. The multi-cut tool (figure c) as used in James Taylor's guide, was extremyl efficent at creating intricate edge loops. Figure C However, I had to delete some o the additional vertices the tool created and simply reconnected the vertices together in order to form a clean line with three verts on each lip line. Referances https...

Session Review Before i model the new head for the nomad character it was essential I found and set up a head reference image with both the side and front images facial features aligning evenly. (figure a) Figure A Furthermore, the previous low poly head I created in 3ds max 2013 was suitable at the time although that low poly head lacked enough facial details and still possessed the rigid square aesthetic, despite many attempts smoothing the object. In addition after talking with my supervisor Isaiah Ferguson once more he expected me to completely finish the new head and create a set of new textures for the nomad character by week eight of this academic year which would be before the Christmas holidays. In conclusion, I have imported my new head reference and will be ready to model the new low polygon head as shown in figure b. Figure B By Sebastian Jones

After submitting the nomad character in the second year there was a allot of features of the character's anatomy that I personally found dissatisfying. So for my negotiated project, I am pleased that my supervisor Isiah Ferguson has approved of my continuation of working on the nomad character model. Further, besides my other projects, I cleaned up a few features such as the nomads' hands and feet during the summer holiday in order to continue practicing in maya 2016. Figure A However,I may need to recreate the characters feet (figure a)  , hands and head instead of attempting to edit a broken piece of anatomy. The reason for my recreating the head is due to the old head model having far to many uv lines and despite me smoothing the nomad still has a cubed shaped head. Although after tediously and aimlessly attempting to refine the nomad's anatomy by following male anatomy tutorials I decided to simply use a Sinestro injustice game model as a reference and adjust...

Session Review During the events of this final academic session of the nomad, my current concentration was focused on applying more detail to the nomad's helmet and creating a new skin texture. Moreover, the reason for me creating a new skin texture from the previous face skin was because of the previous skin had a harsher completion on the character and a fellow classmate found it unnerving. Moreover, browsing through my photography CDME module folder, I used a portion of my skin an d re shaded indigo in order to create a smoother and more tillable face skin for the nomad. I must say I was very impressed with the quality of detail with the final skin render (figure a). Furthermore, returning to the class I continued to face difficulty successfully, uv mapping the characters head.  However, thanks to constructive criticism from both the lecturer and fellow classmates I proceeded to follow a tutorial from Vimeo, which I personally felt was much simpler to follow a...

Session Review Figure a Following on from the previous session, over the past week I have proceeded to create a series of my own texture in order to replace most of the ones I located across the internet in order to avoid plagiarism and make the nomad character as authentic in its production as possible. Figure b Moreover, considering that my other classmates have applied bump maps to their characters in order to add definition to their character's clothing. I recalled a free piece of software known as "Crazy Bump" which is a quick and easy way to create bump maps from image files. It is also worth mentioning that when applying the bump map that the type of bump map is set as shown in figure a.  The reason I chose to use my map as a "Tangent Space Normals" is because to my understanding from the tutorial it is normally used for standard game models according to the instructor. Additionally, the bump maps have applied a tremendous amount ...

Session Review Returning  to the nomad after experimenting with the available materials in maya ( figure 1) . The decision was made to return to make another series of uv mapping attempts and it was through the guidance of a classmate that I discovered a useful uv mapping tutorial that required time to observe in order to drink in the information. Figure 1 Moreover, the methods James Taylor used were simple and easy enough o intellectual follow as well as practically follow;however, I noticed that each limb of the instructors character was a separate mesh so I referred to auto desks website read their methods of separating areas of a model until the operated pieces are individual objects. Furthermore, while I was repeating the methods of un wrapping to the leg it was tedious but pleasing that I noticed several vertices in the leg were not merged together. In addition, I had to create a new foot purely because the previous version I had had terrible topology and at...

Session Review Proceeding from the previous session, I returned to progress my experience with uv mapping sand create a successfully flattened UV map of the character's arm as instructed in the tutorial. Moreover, this time I had certainly learned to allot and my work rate was faster, however, after trying to go to Create UVs > Projection and make my cut UV's appear in the UV editor window it did not display my selection with the edges of the model selected. Instead, I had to select the arms faces not edges in order for something to appear on the screen. Despite the fact I made the arm appear in the uv editor window. It appears that my multiple attempts to unfold and flatten the arm out was unsuccessfully(figure 2) and purely because the program itself appears to be glitchy. Figure 2 The Irony Naturally,  half an hour later I discovered a useful video boasting how to create a successful uv map by ??? Furthermore, before I returned to uv map the character, I dup...

Session Review It is worth mentioning that I will not submit as many frequent logs as usual, Instead I will simply submit a production log for each major discovery or change has been applied to the nomad character. With hthat clarified, this session continued after the vents of the last session and I proceeded to merge the new model together and work on the mouth area of the model. I proceeded to observe the modelling techniques in another tutorial by Ryan Kittleson and continue to use the Hulk character rig a further reference and I realized in order to create a more relaxed and more organic lips I had to pull the upper lip down an the bottom lip upwards. I find the new mouth as shown in (Figure 1) to be more aesthetically pleasing to my artistic eye and with enough room from the lips to the nose allows an animated nomad character to freely move his lips. Figure 1 In addtion, I retunred to the ryan kittleson turorial on lynda.com in order to use his merthodfs for...