ANIM2001 CG Character Production Logs

Session Notes Taking a moment to resume progress with the character I have made sure each part of the model's vertices, uv mapping, textures and topology areas clean and organised as possible before attempting to pose the character in Zbrush. using a plugin named Transpose However, while successfully importing a clean model of my character into Zbrush using the spheres to rig the character proved challenging considering I am still new to some of Zbrush's features and thus proved far too time-consuming for the academic deadline. Nevertheless, I have downloaded KeyShot 5 and attempted to render features of the nomad such as the tribal mask and truly show it off by making the render look as detailed as possible. Browsing ArtStation once more and observing others renders I pasted and edited a lovely forest green grunge background along with applying subtle lighting effects I learned from Photography to create a colour and vibrant render sheet. Henceforth, after combini...

Session Notes During my meeting Isaiah commented on the feet of my character and said it needed further definition such as defining the toe and heel ares as well as showing the boot was something that looked like my character could take his foot out of not something glued to his foot. Furthermore, I refined the clothing and armor further by studying the military standard uniform of a roman soldier and took elements from tha ans well as an English medieval ranger and predator. (figure a) Figure A ... Key Words roman soldier armor beetle shell medieval hunting boot male medieval make boot turnaround References https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/85/46/39/85463909d4e84c5b728878484c482106.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8b/5c/27/8b5c276044eef88f1d8537e960b9036d.jpg https://img1.etsystatic.com/017/1/6763691/il_fullxfull.487587233_rgqs.jpg https://img0.etsystatic.com/051/1/6763691/il_fullxfull.663840364_1840.jpg http://downloads.bbc.c...

Session Notes After playing around with colour hues of natural skin tones taken from some f my test shits in studio photography. I have reshaped the nomad and toned down the intensity of the purple and created a softer and more natural purple skin tone that looks as if the purple "Anthocyanin" pigment is really flowing through the skin of my character. ... Key Words cotton texture References https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/eb/ca/26/ebca264d7ac3e68006b2888dea0f41ad.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VHvSg7hv1qk/WDphd1aa16I/AAAAAAAAOBg/eElLE2hKPksu_VX4XMmNeoanvVo08uqiQCJoC/w388-h220/portada-3-388x220.jpg https://static1.squarespace.com/static/559b25b4e4b00228d05289b3/t/55bb7bd5e4b0165d50c3b476/1438350294498/2thors2?format=750w http://media.comicbook.com/uploads1/2014/07/unworthy-thor-dauterman-103321.jpg By Sebastian Jones

Session Notes Compared to the previous mask which resembled a mixture of the green goblins helmet and clone trooper instead of a tribal shaman mask. Furthermore, after carefully following my new characters head and tribal-mask references I have crafted a design that surpasses the old version aesthetically and topology wise (figure a) Figure A ... Key Words english medieval hunter african tribal mask mantis head ant head beetle shell natural wood texture Wooden mask texture References https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/49/37/99/4937991661c08b8c9c97b190f4b02460.jpg https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2v_IkBKAFj98auAjZowDid4jTU6T6piv_-tdfypRDbVrCdle8-Bk43JzW9hGTPuewpTUl1tD3V1KU_apmD7wveSNGwX440BJW-cvU7rdzcbxcseftZ-Abc9eJ1MLTqhsnVXbWPiUULel/s1600/tansybeetle1_woodwaltonfen020814_mps.jpg http://skevsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/a-lot-of-fen.html http://gehyra.deviantart.com/art/Praying-Mantis-Head-156341687 https:/...

Session Notes As the aesthetic details such as muscle, texture and the few graphic glitches in Maya have been solved, I am still contemplating overselling the purple skin of my character as a character since as I stated before creating human being after human being can become tiresome. Furthermore, concerning my discission ith Jaime Pardo during the second year module of altering the anatomy of the nomad further until it no longer resembled a home sapien at all could be a possibility for me if I am still personally displeased with his human head. Interestingly after poking around the internet  I came across a man named Brandon Sanderson who expressed that "Ideas are cheap. A good writer can take the worst idea and make a good story out of it.". Therefore with the research, I conducted on biological pigmentation my character appears to share characteristics with a berry and insect notably a  Mantis. ... References https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3JlBLG7xOI ...

Session Notes Continuing on from the last session, I am applying further detail in the textures this time to match the improved quality of the mesh. Furthermore, as I cleaned up the project file and updated the export file (.obj) out of curiosity I imported the character in the earlier Maya 2015 version and to my surprise not only could I see the topology lines in smooth mode but the issue with the UV mapping was apparently fixed when the model was exported out. ... Key Words leather texture objExport Plug In Manger References http://www.wildtextures.com/wp-content/uploads/wildtextures-leather-Buffalo-antiquebeige.jpg http://www.wildtextures.com/category/leather/page/2/ https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-2CF7D90B-EF10-40D1-9129-9D401CCAB952-htm.html https://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23793 By Sebastian Jones

Session Notes Isaiah fixed ea and together we shaped the ear to appear as if it is par to f the heads anatomy and not glued on the side of the head.(figure a) Figure A Furthermore in the following "Worcester Week" a period free of  throat, chest and other areas that should display muscle definition. (figure b) Figure B However, out of curiosity, I attempted to permanently smooth the nomad body mesh in order to see if it would solve the UV mapping issue. Though this only resorted in the program Maya crashing. (figure c) Figure C .... Key Words human male back muscles Riddick References http://www.livescience.com/images/i/000/078/567/original/human-ear.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&downsize=*:1000 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/f9/db/ef/f9dbef62fbfabd98bb1726e0be108ea9.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/4d/8e/08/4d8e089a1a7c08b0a528679abd95c743.jpg http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?173890-Re...

Session Notes Concerning my monthly meeting with my mentor Isaiah Ferguson, he presented some minor yet agreeable issues such as creating a pair of elbows and accurate ears for the nomad. In addition to applying further mesh details. I am still attempting to carefully fix the UV mapping issue when smoothing is applied. Which Isaiah suggested was due to the model not permanently being smoothed and this is needed for Maya to have a piece of stable information for Maya to keep track off. Considering the observations I made with Isaiah carefully, I used a game model of the character Deadpool from the model resource once again to study the muscle definition which was an excellent reference as I adjusted my own character's arms. (figure a) Figure A In addition to defining the nomad's muscles, the clothing and affections that were placed over the character. Were refined further as I adjusted small details such as the tooth necklace and scaled the teeth to resemble a more...

Session Notes Shortly before convening with Isaiah Ferguson to review my progress. I continued to attempt to solve the issue of Maya scrambling the UV map of the character's body when smoothing is applied. Despite browsing on CG society and Autodesk forums for a solution it seems there is no definite answer to this issue. Nevertheless, I proceeded to apply a place holder texture for the armour plates just to get a feel for the tone of the character. In addition, I continued to edit the nomad's skin by using some of my old textures for the game Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. In orer to decide where to place skin highlights and shadows. (figure a) Figure A Key Words beetle armour  texture tribal face markings References https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c7/30/45/c730450a39ac1b1f76d237efe2396851.jpg http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/35802-armor-style-what-do-you-expect-or-want-image-heavy-thread/page-136 http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/thr...

Session Notes Using the Injustice Game Model and texture sheet as a reference I successfully manged to export my uv maps as a Photoshop file and slowly painted the face of my nomad. (figure a) Figure A Which surprisingly is starting to look rather impressive begin compared to the Martian Man hunter game model. (figure b) Figure B However, when the mesh is smoothed the uv mapping is distorted with vertices going all over the place. Attempts at deleting the modelling history has done nothing yet to solve the problem apart from detaching some of the mesh which appear to somewhat clean up the distortion. References https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQJAP1AtZI4 http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=1362634 https://www.3dbuzz.com/forum/threads/183860-Smooth-is-messing-up-UVs-Maybe https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-D53B9E3D-E6E3-4CC3-A38F-3AA3A09205E5-htm.html By Sebastian Jones

Session Notes Playing around n ZBrush! ..... References http://docs.pixologic.com/getting-started/sculpting-a-head/ http://docs.pixologic.com/getting-started/basic-concepts/2d-and-3d-navigation/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4WL11hCGGA https://shop.3dtotal.com/training/training-ebooks-zbrush/cedric-seaut-s-character-modeling-download-only.html IMPORT FROM MAYA TO ZBRUSH http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=129098 http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?3878-Maya-model-into-ZBrush windows->settings and preferences->plugin manager enable the objexport plugin and you will see the option available in the export menu. The import button is located into ztool panel on the top left ! Yes, the Import button at the top of the Tool palette lets you import an OBJ mesh. If you ever wanted to import a DXF model, you would have to select the Polymesh3D tool and then use Tool>Inventory> Import with the DXF option active.26 Aug 2003 By ...

Session Notes After displaying the new mesh to my colleagues their critical feedback led to further adjustments to the ears and neckline of the new head. Figure A Furthermore, with the 3d mesh appearing to feature a clean and evenly spaced topology I began to create a new set of UV mapping before I excitingly create textures. (figure a) ... References https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLhazEa8wmw http://blog.digitaltutors.com/ngons-triangles-bad/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou5WIHhJNak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOVwT-KfsYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou5WIHhJNak http://img13.deviantart.net/d612/i/2010/289/3/b/seamless_human_skin_texture_by_hhh316-d30v1tg.jpg By Sebastian Jones

Session Notes Continuing on from last night, filling in the remaining empty area of the skull and connecting it to the face mesh. I contemplated on the visible triangles on the side of the face before I connected my existing ear from the old nomad head mesh. Furthermore, I later imported the old nomad head and combined it with the new face in order to visually understand how the topology lines would connect and form around the shape of the head. I also created this fusion of the new and old head in order to serve as a Frankenstein backup should my current progress with the clean new head take longer to model. (figure a) Figure A In addition, there was a slight error of the old imported ear not displaying the smooth preview. Thus, in order to solve this issue, the model history was deleted and I combined it with a cube in order for Maya to think the ear mesh is a freshly created cube with no errors. ... References By Sebastian Jones

Session Notes After frustratingly contemplating on the changes James Taylor made in his tutorial. I decided to stop attempting to match my character head to his exactly and simply use his steps as a guideline instead of a rule. Furthermore, drawing the final moments of adjusting the upper vertices of the face. James Taylor interestingly makes use of a sphere to form the shape of the skull. However, as adjustments were being applied to the sphere's vertices. I had to grudgingly repeat my steps since the edge lines of the sphere did not accurately align to the face mesh. (figure a) Figure A In addition, to those issues, I had to reacquaint myself with the soft selection feature which allows me the flexibility to move the vertices of a mesh fluidly compared to the standard rough and cut movement. Figure B However, the soft select feature was incredibly tedious since I had to change the "Fall off Radius" settings. Meaning the area in where I could drag the ...

Session Review Still continuing with the new character head, I am starting to finally form a face. Though, the reason for theis new head consuming allot of time wad due to other projects and this time making sure I keep track of the topology and make sure it is simple and the lines are easy to follow with the eye. I presumed I could connected the other vertices until I had the viable option to fil the squre hole in with eh"Fill Hole Tool".(figure a) Figure A Moreover, II compensated by using the bridge tool to fill in spaces for the face instead of the "Fill Hole" tool in Maya 2016. (figure b) Figure B In addition, to filling in the rest of the empty parts of the characters face, new tols such as the "Edge Ring Tool" brought up by Ctrl Right Click and was apparently necessary to link the laugh line around the mouth together. However, as I proceeded to fill in the majirty of the empty holes int he face an error occured as I tried to  ...