Saturday 30 October 2010

il have a beg and acon BAP please

So end of week blogging for bap well he's changed a lot over the week as i roughed out his basemesh and after putting a basic skeleton on him and a bit of rough weightpainting using the new interactive skin bind tool in maya. I found that bap's topology needed a lot of work to make sure his skin would deform correctly when he moved about. So thats pritty much what ive spent most of the week working on his topology and workin closely with simon on his body shape and proportions and also have had to move the shoulders back from the ears so that when he moves his arms they dont go though his ears. This was one of many things that needed to be changed in order for him to work as a character. I also had to build him a butt as in the original design he didnt seem to have one. So far ive got the topology of his chest and shoulders flowing well and back and next week i will resume work on his legs and butt. And i will also start working on the hands and face soon once the body's topology is all flowing correctly in acordance with the movements he will need to be able to do.

See below for images showing my progress with bap this past week. The first roughed out basemesh with only the left side of the model being worked on as i will duplicate later once the character is more refined. The topology is only set out so to difine the shape rather than allow for good deformations.

I then started to work on improving the edge flows of the character looking at many other different base meshes to see how people refine the topology to allow for good deformations when weightpainting and thus animating the character so that weird deformations do not occur. Also the character has been drawn out longer and more athletic to allow for some interesting movement when running.

Front view showing the improved topology but will rpobably still need working on later.

And here is the back view of the shoulder which still has a lot of work to do once i start correcting the back legs topology.

jingly jingly jingly


Finally got the pocket watch handle and chain attached and moving during the week via parenting in the correct order and grouping correctly and also positioning the ik handle in the correct place so that the chain flows from the top. See below playblast.




The last prop i started work on was a telescope for the hunter to be placed inside his study on the blimp. This is only a rough shape as i have now had to prioritise the character modelling this past week. See Below.

Saturday 23 October 2010

whats the time.

Below are some images of the low poly model for the pocket watch, once we establish the shots for the watch I will put in more detail like the roman numerals and engraving and glass ect, and the ticking of the clock to be set as an expression. I have also made some dynamic chain for the links of the pocketwatch so that the chain moves realistically but it still needs to be attached to the handle of the watch, I will post some animation examples of this once iv connected it all up. below is just a quick screenshot of the low res watch. Once again also uv unwrapping this as I go. Also the hinge between the faceside and the clockside have been centre pivoted correctly so they can close in either direction.

Friday 22 October 2010

more modelling of the grammerphoneeee

Below are some images of the grammer phone which was the next thing on my checklist, Which didnt take very long to model due to help from my little new friend nurbssssss mmm. During this model i found myself becoming more and more comfortable with using nurbs as it was useful to get down curvy shapes really easy and quick. Once again the handsome sketch in the background and designs are by royzz, which were quite helpful for getting the basic shape and thinking abt key features on the grammerphone.


When talking to royzz about the designs he was saying one of the features he hoped to add character to the grammerphone was the steam pumps moving up and down like pistons, so i made some blend shapes quickly and also gave the record a little spin, unfortunately i havent got the nib handle moving up and down yet to the rythem of the bumpy surface of the haggered and bumpily surfaced record thats paying. But the video below is just a quick example animation i did to give some life to the grammerphone.




Modelling work so far...

The last to weeks for me have been quite productive, ive done a few low res models and some high res models for the main project, but not in too much detail as the extra detail will be put in later. The amount of detail that will be put in will depend on how close up the shots are.

Below are some shots of the Missile which Royzz designed and made some handsome orthographic views for me to get the base shape down which was really helpful, and cut my modelling time down a lot.
Once i got the base model down me and Simon went over the look of the Missile, and i started to add a few extra features like grenades and patches of metal on the rear of the missile to give it age this will all be highlighted more when textures are added later. I also added a cluster bomb on one side to make the bomb feel more make shift. See image below.


Below is a shot of the high res model once all the accesorys where added to enhance detail. There may still need to be some more detail in more areas later on if close ups are required.

I then went on to uv unwrap the missile, hunters gun and the crate which the missile comes in at the start of the scene. As we now decided to go through a process of uv unwrapping our models as we go to save time. Below is just the missile and the gun to show as examples of the uv unwrapping so far. We have been using roadkill which is free and easy to use and saves a lot of time uv unwrapping as it makes it easier to select seams for the textures.

Saturday 9 October 2010

The final countdown...3rd year begins

When we got back this term, we had to pitch our intentions for the year and any ideas. With the same group prity much as the pitch in 2nd year, me, emma, simon, matt and tom and now roy i think our idea had changed from a game trailer for release the beast to a short animation of a hunter of rair animals and the antics that ensue when his apprentice tries to stop him. I intended to do as much modelling this year as possible on the project and some animation later on in the project. I will also be helping out with rigging and uv unwrapping and maybe texturing and anything else that needs doing.

Wellwellwell for the first week we all sat round and decided on a solid idea which Tom and Emma have refined through a Series of different scripts. Once they got the rough idea and storyline down the more 3D Orientated of use me and Matt.L set about doing some of the low polygon models for the key props. The first Bit of modelling I did this term was the hunters gun which over the last week ive refined and tried to keep the poly count low on. I will also put some more detail in later once we know how close up we are going to be and where the detail will be needed on the gun. Below is a few images of the low poly model. My main goal was to keep the poly count as low as possible and to try not to put detail in places where it wont be seen.

Perspective view

Orthographic view

Also today as we are a bit low on things to start modelling until we have the storyboard finalised tomorrow, Tom commisioned me to make a crate which I am immensly proud of so I thought id put it up here so that everyone can revel in my glory haha Its possibly the best crate......in the world. I think its for the super dart which im going to model tomorrow fingers crossed. Fun times will ensue as Matt.L put it, we pull verticies all day long. mmm verticies. But on a serious note I cant wait to get fully stuck into the modelling this term as there is going to be plenty to do, as it looks like im going to have to take on the rigging again but should be a interesting challenge.