Robit

How to pronounce the title.

Anyway, behold my robot, modeled completely out of NURBS... ugh. The design is a mix of The Iron Giant and Liberty Prime. I'm pretty pleased at how it turned out. During my winter break I'd like to convert it to polygons and texture it. It would be a good addition to my portfolio.

I just finished a character which I will upload soon, just want to make a few tweaks and add hair before I do. I Will probably try to texture this over winter break as well. Oh yeah, and finish my other character (in the yellow plaid shirt)... good thing I have a month and a half off!

School Update

Well, I finished up my first year at RIT with a few small projects done; nothing to put in my portfolio but good exercises nonetheless. That is except the final project, which you'll see near the end of this post. Here we go!

(I'm not posting the first project we did because it's super lame. It was made to introduce the students to Maya using very primitive methods, so seriously, you aren't missing anything.)

A:  The second NURBS model done for the class, the first being the one I'm not showing. This one was a pain in the ass to make because of the requirement of modeling with NURBS, which only 5% of you will know what that is. For the rest of you, hopefully this analogy will help:

     You know in math class how the teacher will teach you one way then after everyone gets frustrated with that way the teacher then shows you a simple one step method which will get you the same answer; NURBS is sort of like that. It's outdated, cumbersome and does not apply to 90% of 3D jobs in the field. So why teach it? I don't know, ask your math teacher.

     Despite all this, I was pleasantly surprised of how it came out. Having lots of experience with Maya already, I was able to use many tricks to sort of cheat my way through NURBS. It also helped that I own that practice pad and stand, nothing beats modeling something on the computer that you can physically hold and look at from all sides. Plus, I couldn't imagine doing it with little knowledge of Maya, those poor students...

     I hate NURBS. Can you tell?

B:  Back to Polygonal modeling! The assignment was to make an object... simple enough. Easel. Simple. Done.

C: This assignment I thought was kind of cool. We were instructed to "stylize" some object/inanimate object with the option of using our past project (the easel). Can you guess the theme/style?

D - E:  Same as before, just more practice.

F: This was the final project of the class. I talked about my concept for the piece is the previous post. We only had to get the model done (no texture, rig or animation). I added in some solid colors to an idea of how it would look when textured.

     While creating the character for class I planned to complete as much of textures as I could over the summer before school starts again. I managed to texture everything, except the shorts and shoes, to about 85% completion. The remaining 15% is just tweaks and polish. During the break between semesters this school year, I'd really like to finish the textures. I might even get it rigged and posed if I have enough time. We will see.

First step was to create the high-res sculpt in ZBrush. How high-res? Over 1 million polygons.

Next I made some normal maps out the ZBrush model and created the textures in Photoshop.

The texture I am most proud of is the hair. I love how it all came out despite the challenge and monotony of drawing it by hand, one lock at a time. Totally worth it.

I am very excited to finish her as well as a set around her, filled with props and what not. It should be a great piece for my portfolio, incorporating several skills in 3D development.

As for this year, I've already finished two projects, the next project being to create another character! I've already thought of a concept which I am pretty excited for. Updates on all this in the next post. Bye!

Long Time No Post - Hands!

Sure has been a while since I last posted... over a month, yeesh! Well, it's definitely not because I haven't been working. Most of what was keeping me away from personal projects was school work, since I am taking a 3D class all the time I spend in Maya is for school.

Speaking of school work, look, hands! (fingernails coming soon!) They are for a character (final project for the class), same idea for the character I posted about quite a while ago. Some differences to it though. As far as the design goes, I am doing a sort of Disney-esque design mixed with Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. (Btw, how about that character design eh? - How about a picture of her, just cause the design is just that awesome.)

Disney Eyes, yeaaaaa

Anyway, don't expect that quality (I'll certainly shoot for it), I'm still pretty new at this :)

Finished Wall

Added some extra details, and I'll sticking the fork in this. Added to my portfolio!

Skyrim Mod - Luftahraan - First Model Finished

Blam! Finished some wall pieces for the mod team I just joined.

Check out the mod! http://www.moddb.com/mods/luftahraan

Look! Article on PCgamer.com! http://www.pcgamer.com/tag/luftahraan/

Super excited for more work. Next might be a much more unique piece. A weapon of some kind? Some character concepts are being worked up at the moment, I wonder if I'd get assigned them.

Here's to the future!

Medieval House - Skyrim Mod

Starting another environmental piece, in a medieval time period. More specifically, Skyrim time. Why? Other than that the game is awesome? Well because I'll hopefully be joining a mod team to make some content for Skryim. They really like what I've done already, just want to see something Skyrim themed to prove I can do the work. So I'm working on getting this done in a week or two. I'm super excited to finally work on something as a team, hopefully it all works out and doesn't fall apart like many mods do. Either way  it will be another piece showing the wide range of modeling themes I can do.

Textures and UVs

Some of you might be asking: "What the hell is a UV?" or "What do these different texture types do?"

...Or not ... but I'm telling you anyway.

Above you have three types of texture maps most commonly used. Just about every model will use these three. There's the diffuse (color), normal (illusion of depth), and specular (shininess - white is shiny, black is not).

First we have the different textures and what they each do to a piece of geometry (mesh). In each window there are 4 meshes; 2 low poly meshes on the left, 2 high poly meshes on the right (high/low polygon count).

• The "No Textures" window, are the meshes without any textures applied (they be naked).
• The next window is when the normal map is applied. The normal map creates an illusion of depth on a piece of geometry that would otherwise look smooth (like the low poly box in the "No Textures" window).
• Next the diffuse map is applied. The simplest of textures, it just adds the color.
• Last the specular map is applied. This dictates what is and isn't shiny on the mesh.

These are the three basic types of texture maps and how they affect a mesh. Additional texture maps could be: alpha (dictates what is transparent), glow (dictates what glows), and others.

So what's the deal with UVs?

Firstly, the U and V don't stand for anything. On a normal graph you have the X and Y axes, with textures you have U and V axes. Nothing special.

So how do they work? Check out this picture!

UVs are how the computer knows where to display the texture on the mesh. Each side of the die is its own separate UV shell (the red boxes in the "UV Map" window). In the second window the diffuse map is applied; whatever is in the UV shells is displayed on the geometry that that particular UV shells represents. The one dot side of the die is in the first UV shell, which represents the top of die in the upper left corner of the "Final Render" window, the two dot site being the second UV shell... and so on.

There you have it, a basic lesson on textures and UVs for 3D modeling. Simple right?

Door Modeling Process

 The pictures below will show the process of modeling. Explanation in each picture. They are big pictures, you may have to download them to properly view them. I hope this enlightens you on the process, albeit a rough representation; if I was to show every step of the entire process, it would probably bore you.

Version 1

---------------

Version 2

---------------

Version 3

---------------

For SnG's here are the 143+ layers and folders in the Photoshop file for the textures. 

(plus because there is even more, but were flattened in previous versions)

There you have it, a little bit showing the work that goes into making the door. Note that this is only the modeling and texturing phase; there is still the UV setup, re-topology and baking phases (sometimes more).

Additional Door Pictures

Here's the additional renders. On top you got the basic perspective angle with the dude to show scale.

The second being how it opens. Step 1 is the closed and locked state. Step 2 is the first lock releasing. Step 3 is the second lock releasing by lowering into a space beneath the floor (which would close once the lock is lowered, so vehicles might drive over). Step 4 showing how the door would open.

Unfortunately just as I was 98% done I came to the conclusion that this could not be the final piece that would be used for the pipe. The way it opens would just be impractical for industrial use. Opening as it does takes up far too much space in order for the door to completely open, it would also require unnecessarily complicated mechanisms to actually open it, which would take up even more room; a sliding door would just be the best bet. This was my initial plan, but at the time, I could not think of an original way to do it. Thankfully when I do redesign it, I can reuse many of the parts (including the locks) keeping me from having to re-texture the whole thing, which would take much more time than necessary.

All in all, I am quite pleased with it. I am very happy with the textures and the overall design of it (aside from how it opens).

The Door is finished!

Kablam!

Pretty much all I am going to say right now. I am really, really sleepy >.<  Later today I will post a few more pictures. Enjoy!

Starting to texture

Just started texturing. Pleased with the weathering. Probably going to change colors around, I'd like the stains to look more like, well, stains, not rust. ... Scratch all the things!

Really early, but finally got the licence issue settled and was able to get started. I'm working with a 4k texture file (4096x4096 pixels), which is HUGE. Most games today use 1024-2048 for current gen. So why am I working in 4k? As shown in previous posts, the door itself is huge and I felt if you were to look at it in first person, you would need a lot of information to show it clearly. ... Also, it's fun to work with this kind of detail :D

I rendered this in a newly discovered program, Marmoset Toolbag. It's a super cool real time render program that will load your textures on the fly. Trying out the free trial for now, and someday when I have fifty bucks lying around, I might pick it up.

Ka blam! - Modeling Done!!

Ok so maybe not 100% done... 85% >.< Just got to add some small tweaks, and hinges. But this is basically the final look, minus the textures and what not.

~~Back on the top, front on the bottom.~~

(save the pictures to your computer to view at full size, they're big)

Some perspective views to show the "slots" at the top that guide the door and lock it into place. To the right, left and center of the top, there are rectangular shapes, they are locking pistons. When the door opens, the center circle will rotate 45 degrees, pulling the pistons up/down to lock/unlock the door, allowing it will swing open (or not) like a double door.

Adding hinges should fill in the outer edges. Just really wanted to post something, so not all the way done, but a day's work left.

Once that is done, I'll be moving onto UVs then textures. My goal is to finish it all by February 9th, if not sooner.

(some more moving stuff, but that will be more clear in the future)

~~Back on the top, front on the bottom.~~

I've set a goal for myself to finish a piece every month. Most likely they will all be environmental pieces as I hope to build a strong portfolio that could land me a Environment Artist gig. With that, I'm doing my best to squeeze in at least three hours daily of Maya work. That isn't too strict as school and such takes priority for now. On that front though, I am getting crazy good grades! Mostly A's with some B's mixed in. So smaht :-)

** Edit Jan 24th - my licence for the UV program has expired so until I re-up that, I'll be shelving this :( **

Moving along...

Made some revisions to the pipe. The original was too plain, had no character (as just the mesh). Added some detail, yadda yadda...

The rectangle area that is circled in red is where the following door will be placed and  used to access the inside of these massive pipes.

Blam! A door, to scale. It's meant to be large enough to get large transport ships in and out to carry equipment, materials, workers, etc. It will swing open inward from the outer edges (like any double door would). You would be surprised how look it took me to decide on which way it would open. Couldn't slide up or down, not enough room for it to go, same with it sliding outwards. It is actually the forth version that I settled on. I thought it was going to be easy, but an easy door doesn't look cool. You need details!

Said details!

Not finished just yet, but I'll be finishing soon and the next post should be it all textured (texturing will help the details pop, and create the character of the door) ... maybe, still gotta do the inside/edges... and the door frame. Poop... Really shouldn't take too long though, already went through the "concept" phase, where I was just "throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping it becomes art", as a teacher of mine has said.

Also, my engineering teacher in high school taught me KISS. Not the band... but Keep It Simple Stupid. ... Really got to work on the one.

Pipe/Tube

This is an asset for a very large project that I've been slowly working on for several years. I'm trying to pump out certain completed assets for my portfolio. There seem to be lots of environment artist jobs out there, so I've got to continue improving my portfolio. That said, next I'll start working on the UVs and textures. Next post will most likely be the finished piece.

To give you a better idea of the size of this, here's it to scale next to your average 6ft person. Yes... it's big. One could even say ginormous, or upon see it say "Whoa...". It's "whoa-size".

The next step for this would be the interior... which will be a surprise for a later time.



Fun fact: "ginormous" is apparently an actual word (http://tinyurl.com/3xf7xy)

Face and neckline progress

Further progress of the face. Was having some problems with creating the right proportions and what not, which took a long time to fix, hence the long time between posts (also the Holidays and midterms).

First picture showing the face, neck and shoulder. In order to not spend to spend too much time on the character, I am only sculpting the anatomy that will be visible when she is clothed. Some day I hope to do a proper anatomy study.

The second picture being a close up showing off much of the detail in the face. Mainly the skin texture and cracks and such in the lips. Adding these little details add some much. Like with most forms of art, for the first 80% or so of the project it will only look ok, but when you add in the little details in the end, that is when it all comes together as something beautiful, which is why many artists are reluctant to show their works in progress. So why am I? For one, I would like to document my progress so I can look back and see what I have learned. Also I do this because a lot of family and friends don't have any clue of what I do, I hope this to be enlightening. Moving on!

There's still a little bit of work to be done on the head. Ears, basic toning and smoothing. Then it's to the hands (ugh), and finishing up the arms. Next would be adding clothing and hair! Very excited to start adding clothing.