Time for another WIPping

WIP - But for the most part done. Minor anatomical corrections and building up of the muscles are needed, but as a whole it's done and ready for rigging/binding - next up are the pieces of its costume - sketches to come shortly.

So this Thursday is the big day - SCHOOL STARTS!!! It feels so fraking late. I feel like it'll be Thanksgiving in another week or two and then the easter bunny will be popping his head out of the groundhog's ass to see if there's two more weeks or Heroes. So this semester i've eliminated those pesky art classes that never seem to benifit me and always take up my free time or three hours before my deadline...either way they were a pain and i'm going to avoid it like a gay man trying to be straight.

So the only classes i've got this time are 3, count em, 3 that won't be as time consuming as before. they are:

ANM 202: Maya 1 (a more involved and detailed version of the first Maya class i took - much better amount and quality of information being dispensed and absorbed).

LA 256: Topics in Contemporary Mathmatics (the kind of math i like to do/talk about - statistics, probability, math in "principle" and not application).

FND 131: Figure Modeling (still not 100% sure what we're going to be doing....but it'll be made out of clay...clay figures....figure modeling.....yeah).

So the class that i'm really looking forward to, as anyone who knows me can tell you, is tha ANM 202 Maya class. I've spent a lot of time this summer practicing things i already knew (so they come easier) and learning knew things so i can apply them - whever they are needed or not - and get professional feedback...cuz the only people i ever really show things to don't have experience with them, so i get a lot of "That's kewl" (trust me....you can almost feel the W roll off their tongues). So i've already had a chance to look over the instructional videos for the whole semester and it looks like, though i don't know yet because i haven't looked at the syllabus, we're going to be making a polygonal character model after a character we chose (pre-existing or entirely original - for which i'm going to be using the Red Mage from FFXI) and learning how to rig skeletons and bind them to the character (as the last class had us model the character "over" the bones which were provided), render, light, ...basically all the things i did last fall but with more understanding and better advice.

Well there's not much else i can go on about right now because i don't have the sketches of the Red Made handy to post, but since school starts soon, i should have quite a bit to show you as i'm going to try and be the person in the head of the class this semester...so lots and lots of maya each week (hopefully posting anyway)

The Texture Of It...

So i know it's been over two weeks since my last post, but i swear i've gotten a lot done - esp. in Maya; a few oculuses and texturing aside, i've got the "Altar" exterior completely finished (the interior is going to be the real challenge...no joke when it comes to lighting). So since i'm trying to go to school to eventually work in some kind of pipeline (and i'm not studying to be a pro surfer), i figured i'd try and adhere to the order of things as best i could; i wasn't going to texture or worry about lighting a single thing till i was as done with the majority of the model as i was ever going to get - and it worked pretty well.

Once i was done with the model, i was kind of on a Photoshop binge, so i finall came up with a logo/title for this Sonic/FF collaboration that i think turned out pretty well. Nothing too goofy like most Sonic logos (for a while i was considering the Sonic 3 logo, and putting the comet behind it somehow...ever having a pink ribbon around it to reference Advent Children - but there would have been too much going on), but it's vague and "Times New Roman" enough for a Final Fantasy logo. I'm going to eventually try and make this into a 3D model so i can do more with it in the trailer, but we'll see when we get there.

So once i started to get into the grove of texturing, i realized - although i always knew - that i didn't just want to have some stone texture endlessly tiled for all eternity. So i spent more time in Photoshop putting great detail into some of the major areas where a nicely developed texture will be appreciated. So one of the major areas i focused on was the front door - or rather two doors.

I didn't just want to have it be blocks of stone tiled up and down; i wanted it to kind of tell a story...like a mural does. So i went through my vast folders of 'royalty free' images and though about what would pertain to the main story of Final Fantasy VII (as that's the story we're following, only with the 7 Chaos Emeralds rather than rare pieces of Materia). And i think what i came up with works pretty well for those who know the FFVII story. I'm going to try and get the red around the right wings to look more like spplattered blood, and there's going to be some things that come out from other models laid over this that you can't see or get out of the picture (like gold lining...the kind of gold the Rings are made out of) but i think, for the most part, this works to my standards and what i wanted to accomplish.

So i've got the model finished, but i'm not going to show any updated pics of it until i've got it all textured....that way you can really take it all in. Another week or two and it should be done (floors and some things will, of course, be tiled and not have that much detail to them).

Altar Ego...

So i've been working on the design of the altar that i'm going to use for the FF/sonic collaboration between me and DJ this summer (or hopefully this summer....and if not then through the fall semester when i get a whole lot of professional guidence in the art of character modeling). So i wanted to leave it open for my mind to wander - because it obviously has to reflect the Final Fantasy part of it, but having it be a lot larger than the one in VII leaves it open to have random - no excuse being there - objects that adhere to the Sonic world (random rails to grind on, loops. long paths to run along...thins like that).

So i spent a few good hours in Maya last weekend - things started to pick up once i realized I could use "Instances" and save myself some remodeling and duplication time. And then it helped to remember i could reposition the Pivot Point to make rotation and alignment extremely more accurate and easy. So this is what i've got so far, some varied renders and the sketches that i did before hand. Another few good hours (or a good day and it should fairly finished and ready for textureing - depending on whether i feel like modeling the terrain/location it's set in).

So here's part of the sketching i did for the basic idea of the altar (but once i actually started modeling it....certain things needed to be scaled way up for it to be plausible). What it originated as, was a fairly sizable Dais, above which was a free floating Roof. The only place the Roof was connected to the Dais (where the Altar would be located) was by two columns that formed the "front" entryway. The Roof, as it's size is pretty formidable, would be supported by Flying Buttresses (not only because they are really the only way i could think of supporting something like that....without forcing the viewer to 'believe' me - but because i'm always a fan of arches, collunades, and romanesque architecture).


So here you can kind of see how the "Towers" (though i usually refer to them as 'posts' while sketching for some reason...) are cylindrical in shape (they're not 'square') and have a small domed roof with an area you can freely walk around underneath. They have Paths leading from one Tower to the next, and each tower has an inclined path (with some stairs and handrails - cuz Sonic characters will need something to grind on; walk up all those stairs...Knuckles Please....) that leads from the ground, or nearby rock face, up to the tower. It then has another inclined pathway leading from the Tower to the "Floating" Roof.

So those are the basic plans i started with. Last weekend i got quite a bit done - although i'm trying to do the whole thing in a pipeline style resembling the industry's standard: Concept -> Design/Reference -> Modeling -> Lighting -> Texturing -> Animating (if needed) -> Output. So you shouldn't see anything textured till i'm finished with it as a whole. So here's some of the renders of the "Towers" i spent most of that particular day modeling:



Here's a shot of every detail of the Tower. I had only made a basic design for it - height is easily adjustable. I extruded the pathways just a little bit for easy connection later on.






Here's a reference to how tall the archway/entryways are as well as a look at the railing system (in it's most basic form) - posts and such will be added later.





Here is a look at the underside of the Tower floor's rim - to show how i's supported. I ended up changing this to where the underside of the 'paths' only have the outer support so the buttress/arch can fit between them.





Here's a shot without the roof on; again, to show scale and open space. Once i'm done modeling the "Roof", "Altar", and "Pathways", i will return to add small ornamental details like hanging torches and Oculuses and such.



So there you have the "Tower" portion of the whole scene. What i spent the next bit of time on was forming the pathways between posts, how far apart each post was from each other (as well as the degree of rotation between each: if the middle of the altar is the "Origin" and you have any post, what degree do you rotate a duplicated post to get it to where it's supposed to be). After careful consideration and though, the value for rotation between each Tower is 39.375°.

So once i got as much detail in the Tower as i felt i was going to, i saved it and stared a new scene. I imported the tower (because if i kept working in the Tower file and screwed up beyond repair.....i would have to do some major remodeling and 'starting from scratch'). So i took the Tower, moved it out in 3D space, and crated a "donut", if you will, to represent the size of the roof so i could figure out how far away from it the tower should be. Once i did that, i started to Instance everything. I then connected the pathways (only the floor) between each tower and instanced those as well. This is what i got:

This is a dead on view from the "Front". it shows the basic size of the Roof's floor - of course it might not be so thick in the future. It also has a small platform in the middle of everythihg (on the 'ground') that represents the size the actual Altar is going to be - Manni is in there too if you can make him out. Mostly everything besides the Towers is used for reference...so don't think it's actually going to be so 'bulky'.



Here's a better view of the Altar's size and reference to everything else....although because it's rendered over black it doesn't help that much.





A shot from above and behind to better illustraite the spacing, rotation, and connection of each Tower.

So that's what i got done in the better part of a day ( imagine what i could do with 7 *wink* ) and am going to try and spend the better part of 2 days finishing up the Tower section of the scene, which will unclude roofing, railing, support arches, and making the base of each Tower look like it was cared out of the earth (you can what i mean by looking in the second sketch picture above). Once i've done that, i'm going to move on to the "Roof" section of the scene which will unclide a good sized Collunade, railing, decorative recesses, and if i can find a model of a gargoyle somewhere that isn't insane in poly-count, i might import it to give it some gusto.

Renders to come by Sunday

Manni And A Pedi

          So this is Manni (short for Manniquin) and he's what i use in Maya to give a scale reference. He's 6' and likes long walks in any environment created by God I mean Jeffery. His hobbies include lounging and partaking in a good animation every once in a while.

- Manni -

A New Baluster....I Mean Post

          Baluster without gamma correction (so textures are washed out)








          Same as above, but with gamma correction node.








          With Gamma & With Contour





*Does not open in new window


          Final versioin, including minor tweaks in difusion and bump mapping - this is what's going to be used in the Altar i'm going to be working on, a revamped version of the one Aeris was killed in. Should have posts late tonight or late tomorrow night.

4 Out of 5 Hylian Dentists Recommend...

So this is basically the same thing as the Oprah's Book Club post below, i just grabbed an image of the "Hylian Crest" from my vast folder of reference images of...well, lets face it, random shit - and used it to make a 3D model of something. Still trying to work out the kinks in the contour rendering...i think if i upped the anti-aliasing it might look more smooth - but i'm really only using it to convey poly-counts and such.


So here is a list of all the things in this "scene":

1. Vertices: 5,060
2. Edges:10,014
3. Triangles:10,100
4. Faces:4,967

So there were quite a few faces in total for this model...despite it being something as simple as the Hylian Crest.

Oprah's Book Club

     So i was trying to think of something to model today, but couldn't for the life of me come up with anything that would be of use later...but i did figure out how to do "Contour Rendering" which allows you to render the lines that make up the polygons of the model so that people who know what they're looking at can get more out of it. So i decided to make a book...cuz it's an easy thing to model, but i also wanted to practice with deformers (what i used to give the paper that curve to it...cuz it was easier than trying to model it that way).


     So i got the basis of the book done (spine/cover and pages) and wanted to add some of those antique metalic corners and possibly a lock...but i couldn't really find any good reference, so i decided to use the Crown Symbol from Kingdom Hearts and use that...so that maybe the book can be used later for the FF/KH project me and DJ are going to be working on. And i didn't decide to add the page texture till i was almost done...so that's why only one image has it shown...just for visual aid.

It's Been Spiked

     So here is what DJ came up with as a preliminary sketch to see how Cloud's spikes would translate to a sonic character's head and such. Front, Side, and Top views for me to import into Maya to make modeling easier (as i can model while using these images as a kind of 'stencil'). and then a perspective one that i started to go over, planning out how each object would be oriented and how the edges and faces would appear (to also make texturing and painting easier). So the only thing left to do is go into Maya and start making a first attempt at modeling the head/spikes/eyes. Once i've done that, we'll see how it renders and if there's anything that should be modified (maybe some more spikes added or moved, or whatever).

Weekend Work

     So this is basically what i got accomplished Saturday. Not all day Saturday, but from start to what you see in the renders is maybe 3 hours (i spent a lot of time learning how to 'Sculpt' geometry and then wasted about half an hour trying to paint it...which never worked).
     So this little 'Island in the Sky' is called Rho (Greek letter for "R"). And i've been using it in my story forever, i just never got around to making a good enough model of it.


     There's a whole long reason why it's floating and why there's a 'shaft' coming from it, but i won't go into it now. But the bridge (if you couldn't tell that's what it was) was built because the people of my story's world believed Rho to be the Land of the Gods (similar to Olimpus; able to be located, but no mortal can ascend to the top). This whole scene is incomplete too. At the end of the bridge there's supposed to be a few mountains to which the bridge connects to.




     This is a rendering of the underside of Rho (if it was hard to tell from the render). When i finally finish an acceptable model (as this on is a bit too long and not right in it's overall hieght (when placed over the reference drawing i made a couple posts below, it didn't quite match up...) I'm going to paint it and apply some nice layered texturing (which i also learned friday). It's basically going to be grass on the top (along with more geography like mountains and maybe a small water source), and grass hanging over the side a little bit. Then dirt and soil for a bit, and then it'll transition into real hard rock and earth.
     I'm gonna try and make another model of it next weekend or something, now that i know quick ways to deform the geometry to how i want. Today i'm gonna go learn about Particle Effects:

*Next Up: A Rocket with Particle(smoke) Trail. I might even composite it into the rho scene as i will eventually be using rockets and such in it for good ol' fashioned destruction.

Cheating Mod Hack

*Note* Does not open new window....just directs you to image...

Just a little something for DJ to show her the awesome cheating power of Maya's Paint effects Brushes. Each stroke (like a tree or feather, grass or basic building shape) can be further refined and tweaked to suit your needs. Like if you wanted to create a small city without actually making each building by hand (say you were taking an arial view or something from far away) you can set the number of buildings to appear in between each "step" (like in Photoshop some selection tools are made to put a marker after being dragged for so many pixels), you can set the variations in height (so if you wanted them all to be the same, then both numbers - max and min - would be the same). You can edit the texture so they all look like victorian houses or something. You can even set how many sides, roof details, things like that. Then just click and drag.

Image above contains red down feathers, 1 type of tree, 1 type of grass, a stone path, and some houses. I could have done more, but i just wanted to illustrate a point - so to speak

I'm Gonna Comp Me Some...

     So this is my first attempt at compositing something i made a 3D model of into a real-life photo i took. More to come....and hopefully better.

And so you can see what i was holding on to, or whatnot, here are the two layers i used to make the composited shot above. Basically, in order to make the keyblade render in the correct pose, i took the original photo (of me) and imported it into Maya so that when i look through the Perspective camera, it fits the image to the film gate (so no matter which way the camera moves....the picture stays with it). So just just moved the keyblade/camera around till it looked like they two of them would work together, and then i rendered the keyblade with an alpha channel so it would composite easily.

Key To My Start

     So these are just some perspective renders of the untextured model of the keyblade i made last weekend. There's still some minor things i need to add onto it before i texture it, but for the most part it's done and ready for use.

Iron Mad...

Just a joke for DJ from one of her pictures of Tony Stark....the darker side anyway.

Testing, Testing...

     So i was playing around in Maya last weekend trying to learn some new things, and these are the test renders for the few things i learned and will retain without needing reference in the future. The first pic is of the Maya physicalSun and physicalSky settings for rendering. It's basically an extremely accurate recreation of the lighting effects of the sun and blur/shaprness of the horizon and sky. The 'Sun' is a 'Directional Light' (so it can physically be manipulated lilke any other light in Maya) and based on the rotation (so the Aim of the light) it will adjust the color of the light being emitted from the sun (so early morning blue light = 0-20° or something. Sunset reds = 150-180°.

     So the first picture is me messing around with that and Final Gather, which simulates the way real light bounces off surfaces and provides reflected light.

     The secong image is me messing around with a Maya brush (cityMesh) and combining it with Sun/Sky and Final Gather. For some reason, when you use Mental Ray (a renderer for Maya) it's default texture has high reflectivity - so that's why you can't easily distinguish all the buildings and edges. I didn't feel like changing it because it was just a test for the brush stroke.

Summer Projects: Avatar Rebirth

     So the summer is starting, and it's time to shake the cobwebs off and start getting into the swing of modeling again since i'll have a pretty intense Maya course during the upcoming fall semester. So during the summer i'm going to be doing two things in Maya to freshen my overall skills:

--> FFS: The Final Fantasy/Sonic crossover me and my friend DJ are working on...details in a few posts below.

--> Avatar Rebirth: I'll be trying to model some of the big-scale things from the video game i'm working on.


          So for both projects, i'll be the only one doing the 3D modeling and pushing my skills in as many areas as i can:
Texturing (including 3D paint and UV mapping);
Lighting
Environment Modeling (terrain, trees, grass, clouds, things like that);
Character Animation (which includes modeling, rigging, Inverse Kinematics...*shudder*, and animating);
Rendering (using multiple passes to achieve desired rendering)
Special Effects (like particle effects and such).

     So for right now, since the above drawing is the only thing i have to work with that's detailed enough for me to work with in Maya, i'm going to be working on this over the weekend and should have some WIP renders soon.

     As soon as i've got some good sketches for the FFS project, i'll start posting stuff for that on here as well.