Wgdblaaaaah

Rather like the fear response in a gazelle once he's seen a cheetah, this eloquent title is my reaction to technical problems in Mudbox. I've started painting but I'm running into UV issues. Again. Yes, UV mapping STILL gives me problems. I don't have a full grasp on it, I hate it, and I'm sure other people in my field would think I was a moron for having so much trouble with it but bleh.


Anyway, here are some progress shots. I know full well the teeth and eyes look strange so far.

Lucky for me, this guy doesn't have a lot of color on him. His skin is pretty much that flat. One of my pet peeves in seeing other people's character designs is when they overload on everything: color schemes, clothing styles, accessories, etc. The beauty of characters like Simba and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny is their lack of detail. They're simple and sleek in design, easy to remember, which is what makes them so iconic. And no, I'm not just saying this as an excuse to be lazy and not paint so much. I really believe it.


All that being said, this character certainly isn't finished. I may end up waiting until I get back to school, though, to finish him entirely, because those computers are a lot better equipped to handle this work. After painting, I'll pose him. Something else I need to get good at.

Creative Title

Think I'm finished sculpting. Parental units suggested I add small horns somewhere along his head, so I may go back in and do that. Added all the teeth, a bit more detail around the jawline, and scars. Every time he does something evilly evil, he gets a new scar. He has a lot of them.

PAINTING TIME YAY!


I feel like I need to make a kitten or a unicorn after this, just to even things out.

What Large Teeth You Have

Starting work on the teeth and tongue:

They remind me of a barracuda. This is like old grandpa gone terribly, terribly wrong. Like Grandpa fell into a vat of nitric acid and got changed into this monstrosity.

I like cats. I got to play with a kitten today but he bit me. Hard. Hard enough to break the skin. I must teach him the ways of love and gentleness.

Sleep is Overrated

Listening to creepy music in the middle of the night and looking at reference pictures of this...

...and this...

...and this...

...mean absolutely no desire for sleep whatsoever! -nervous giddy laugh- That's okay, who needs sleep, right? It's overrated, right?! Am I right?


On the bright side, I've gotten a better handle on the face of my demon. I kept trying to do it while listening to stuff like "Everytime We Touch" and that wasn't producing creepy results for whatever reason, so now (at the price of insomnia) I've gotten something that looks like this:

He may not end up looking exactly like that. He's also going to have sharp teeth, buuuut I haven't figured out how to model those yet. I can't wait to start painting him!


Oh and I added ribs:

Now to go curl up in bed with nothing but a good book and a crucifix and a vial of holy water and three different versions of the Bible and maybe a large scythe if any of the other things don't work. 

Long Time No Sculpt

All right, I admit it. I took about a two-month vacation from modeling. However, I did fill that time with some traditional artwork, freelance included, as well as teaching an art class (which has been a great experience so far).


I'm back into it now, and I plan on learning rigging and 3ds max before school starts up again. In the meantime, I've completely revamped my demon character, starting from scratch all over again, mainly because I was having problems with the head and claws. I'm liking this version better so far. Here are some progress shots:

I'm really having problems with the head design. I don't want him to look entirely like a beast; rather, I want him to have some humanistic features (mostly in the face), because I think that's creepier than a wholly animalistic design. It would also stay truer to his character. He can switch between this form and a human disguise, but when in this form, he retains his intelligence, which I want to show up in the face. I'm also trying to figure out how to not make him look puny. He's supposed to look that emaciated, but he's still much stronger than a human, so...yeah. Pff. That's all.

Moar Progress

Added extra gruesome detail. Trying to work out how to make the teeth.

Yay Sculpting!

I'm finally on to the fun part, which is sculpting. Here we are so far:

The head is (hopefully) going to end up looking quite a bit different than that. Right now it looks like a sagging Pac Man's head. I also got rid of the claws, because they were giving me problems and I didn't like them anyway.


He needs to eat a Big Mac or something, put on some pounds.

Down On All Fours

Well he has all his legs now, he just needs a head. I'm not sure I like the claws yet, but I can always do some modification while sculpting.

Someone Call an Exorcist...

...'cause we be havin' demons all over dis place.

But no seriously, summer's here and I have time to work on personal stuff now. So without further ado, meet Ashrai:

Or the beginnings of him, anyway. This is one of my characters, and no, he isn't really headless, though that would be creepy. I just haven't decided on a final design for the head yet. He also has a full set of four legs, but like I said, this is just the beginning of the model. Though this is what he really looks like, he can choose to take on a human disguise...but I don't wanna make a human, I wanna make a creature.

Besides the image plane I drew, I'm also referencing dog and cat skeletons for this guy. I had to google emaciated dogs. It was horrid. But he does resemble a skeletal dog-ish thing, so...anyway. I'm super excited to work on this, and I also plan on doing lots of creatures over the summer. Good experience.

Final

I'm going with someone dropped him and broke pieces of his body, and they had to glue them back together.

In hindsight, I would have used ZBrush. Mudbox gave me too many problems.

Color!

Yes, the back hooves look ghastly. Yes, there are still unsightly gaps in the poor thing's body. Other than that, I am fairly happy with the sculpting, considering this is basically my first Mudbox project. I've started color:

Swawelnlnablerhdsflj

The aforementioned title is roughly how I'm feeling right now.

There are problems with this, and I foresee that there will be problems with this even when it's finished. I have no idea how to get rid of those creases and openings where the legs meet. Right now my goal is to just be as finished as I possibly can.


Anyway, I'm fairly proud of the mane and tail. My problem is, I just don't know Mudbox well enough to do a decent job on this; I've only been learning the thing for a couple of weeks now. I'm hoping this model will improve as I go along.

RAAAAWWWR

Another tutorial, this time a T-rex. Again, not meant to look super realistic, just playing around with colors and sculpting tools.

I didn't create the model, I just added the texture and color, and posed him a bit. The nice thing about dinosaurs is that we have no idea what color they were. I should've made him a rainbow rex.

Further Progress

Made more progress on the horse. He actually looks like a horse now.

I probably won't do much more modeling on him here in Maya, I'm fixing to take him over into Mudbox to pretty him up. He looks a bit too skinny to me, but I followed the image plane pretty closely...maybe he just hasn't been fed in awhile. I'll model a carrot for him.

Dragonfly

Here is a quick pic of the dragonfly I'm working on through a Mudbox tutorial. The colors are very saturated and not at all realistic; I was mainly playing around with this and having fun with it.

The base mesh was already sculpted (not by me); I just brought it into Mudbox to add detailed sculpting, like this:

The advantage of using something like Mudbox over Maya is that Mudbox can handle many more polygons (as in millions more) without slowing the computer down. This means much higher resolution sculpting.

The One-Legged Horse

Well this isn't going to be the next Seabiscuit anytime soon...he's only got one leg. But here he is:

Made by merging vertices (points).

Carousel Horse

Our new project is to design a base mesh (model) in Maya, then take it into ZBrush or Mudbox for more detailed sculpting. I have stopped learning ZBrush for the time being and have switched over to Mudbox, whose interface is much more similar to Maya's, so I like it better already.


Here is the reference photo for a carousel horse:

I've returned to Tutorial Guy for some tips on modeling a horse in Maya, which is very different from modeling architecture. Creatures are obviously much more organic, but I figure I better get used to that, because I'm much more interested in creating characters/creatures.


So, I started off with the base...

...and then used the side view of the horse for reference in creating the base mesh...

From what I can tell so far, this model will be made primarily with cylinders. The nice thing about them is that they already have some bulk to work with, whereas if you use something like curves, you're starting with only a line and you have to create your own geometry from there.


Again, this model isn't meant to replicate the horse exactly. It's only a starting point to be used in Mudbox.

Finished, Part 2

Dan in my class suggested adding physical sun and sky with an image plane of a sky, not a dome. The dome messes with the lighting too much; the plane works well. So here are the real renders!

Finished

I have two renders:

I like the first one because I think it's a more dynamic camera angle. I like the second because it's easier to see the plane, and you can also see the ground detail where the plane crashed and left ruts in the dirt. I may keep both images.


The light I used was called a point light. I'd offer to explain what exactly that is but I don't have any idea don't want to bore you with technical mumbo-jumbo.




By the way, the reason there is almost no plant life (and the plant life in question is dead) is because this church was damaged in a nuclear war, and this scene would take place sometime during nuclear winter--the period after a nuclear war in which everything is dead or near dead. Cheerful, huh?

Erm...

Okay, here's what my rendered picture should look like, in theory...

Problem is rendering, which means Maya actually turns it into the final image it's going to look like. Sounds simple, yes? Not if you're Maya. It's killing my computer.


First I tried a "physical sun and sky," which tells Maya to put in a blue sky and horizon line around the model, as well as incorporate realistic sunlight. Here are a few of those as examples:

While I liked what the light did to the model itself, I really didn't like the cheery background. I much prefer the foreboding stormy sky, and I like MY foreboding stormy sky. So...still trying to get a good render. Other than that, the model's finished.

Close Close Close

Almost finished. Gotta add in some minor adjustments still. I may play around with a few things, like the front doors. I also need to add lighting. On the whole, I'm so happy with this.

Moving Along Swimmingly

Oh my gosh, guys. Knock on wood here, but things are going really well so far. No major problems. Just need to adjust some things, like the sizes of the bricks on separate pieces of the building.

Unfortunately, it looks more like a game environment than a realistic one to me. But I think the realism will come with more time and practice. I'm trying to add bevels to the edges of the building (making them more rounded) to take away some of that "game" effect. As Tutorial Guy once said, things in real life are rarely that sharply edged; most have at least some roundness to them.

Quick Update

Just like the title says. Beginning texture work:

This is a test texture to see how it looks on the walls. I plan on going into Photoshop and adding in detail, such as smoke streaks, grime, etc.


I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!