Dan WIP 02 - It got legs!!

Hey Andrew,

Cheers for your previous feedback. Have been cracking on with the dog-bot and this is how it is looking at the moment. Have changed a few minor details as I have been modelling, pretty much knew that would happen. Still pretty happy with the way it is all going at the moment.



Added an extra bevel detail around the edge of the bodywork to take more advantage of the light play you mentioned and have finished almost all of the components off with bevelled edges of various sizes.

Now just have to think about how the neck is going to be made!! All fun and games.

AM - Emma Landscape

Your concept is looking really impressive! The unique shapes and overall design are begging to be rendered out in all their glory. Are the lights fixed in position, or will they be animated like some of those crazy deep sea creatures you always see on the Discovery Channel?

If you're worried about attempting a creature too, then don't be. This is your world and you can design a character to look anyway you desire. It could just as easily be a nicely textured and shaded blobby thing(technical term). I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but you get the idea. This way modeling will take no time, rigging will be simple, and you can concentrate on animation more.

As for environment construction it's always dependent on what shots you want in the end. There is never enough time on any project to make a scene look beautiful from every angle, you need to previs what you want first. This is why so many big previs companies are popping up everywhere... it saves Directors copious amounts of time and money so they can go buy exotic islands around the world.

You have the right idea though so don't be afraid to spend time at this point developing and fine tuning your previs test. It will save you an incredible amount of time further down the track.

It would be great to see a block test when it's ready!

AM - Yo Ahmed

It's always good to see a CAD user moving over to software that is more user friendly and designed for artistic freedom rather than precise numeral values :)

I must say that there are still times I wish I had a copy of Solidworks for some of my hard surfaced models.

Bring on the sketches!

AM - Yo Phil

I always like seeing great preparation when it comes to building a character. Your orthographic drawings are going to help you immensely and the design has heaps of potential.

If you will never see your female anywhere else, then I would model her in riding position. This way you won't have to worry about correcting the mesh after changing the pose from default XSI pose. The best thing to do would be create two low resolution models and make sure you are absolutely happy with proportions and positioning. Then you can start upressing each model individually and bring them together for fine adjustments and integration.

I'm not exactly sure what you want to achieve with the wings, but the concept sounds cool.

As I've mentioned before, make sure to have reference close at hand when modeling. Even if the final model will be biotech and have intense biotechnical membranes you can never underestimate the importance of good pictures of insects. It's always the small details that make an extraordinary model.

The colour concept is a great starting point and I like where you're heading with it. You could even take advantage of some subsurface scattering or simple translucency to see inside a little or allow light to play with your surface details.

AM - Dan Dog

Great start Dan! Your model is already matching your concept really closely so you're obviously on the right track.

It never really matters how you start fleshing out the volume of your models. Use poly cubes, planes, nurbs surfaces, poly-grids, what ever you need to get the form of your model looking cool. You can always come back and shrink wrap a clean mesh to a crappy underlying mesh at any time. There is no one absolute way to do it, just whatever works best for you.

For a creature like this I would keep all pieces separate. Ultimately if you were to built this in real life you would be creating separate panels and components too, so there is no need to do anything totally different. It will also make life easier to handle the complex shapes without having to worry too much about topology and merging high resolution areas with low res areas. Another reason to keep them as individual parts is so you can easily assign different shader properties. Oh yeah, one more reason... when it comes time to animate you won't have to worry about any full on skinning techniques, just simple node placements for rotation.

I'm sure you will anyway, but make sure to apply a nice bevel to every surface, even if it's a tiny edge. This character is going to react really nicely to light so make the most of it.

AM - foxy polygons

Nice update Ollie.

The model is looking much better but I think it could do with a few minor tweaks before you move on. Generally I feel the body is a little thin and could do with a bit more muscle. I know it will be covered in fur, but muscle definition and thickness will really help your final result. Even an extra hours work adding volume and shape will really help your fox.

One thing to remember is never be afraid to just add in detail! I know you will have been trained to keep your topology clean and tidy, but it's not a bad thing to get a little messy some times. Nothing in nature is perfect, so why should models all have four sided polygons :)

The general rule I get my team to abide by is:

“Use 4 sided polygons most of the time, but never be afraid to use 3 or 5 sided either”

There are times when using a 3 or 5 sided poly can really help when converting to sub-d.
Try it out!

As for the UVs, they have been laid our nicely, but these are the changes I would make.

-reduce the area used for the mouth interior (not hugely important unless you're doing a closeup growl or something similar)

-increase the head area. This will allow more detail around the eyes and nose which are not hidden by fur

-increase the area used for the paws. Once again, these are not hidden by the fur

I'm keen to see how this one turns out! Keep the posts coming

Hi all, i thought i'd update the blog with my concept painting of the enviroment (looking a bit dark on here).

I also been having some re-thinks about my project, as although i came to the course to focus on modelling and texturing, its starting to feel like a shame that I'm closing the door slightly on animation at this point. So i would like to involve some more animation and have decided to try and introduce a creature (probably a small alien bug of some sort). It's a little scary trying to do it all but I am looking at ways of making this happen at the moment. I wonder if you have any advice about techniques used in environment construction i.e i plan to use the back landscape as a matte painting - maybe i should consider more matte painting. i am also starting to think of what will be seen and for how long through the camera and developing a block test.


thanks
bye

OH update, Bring on thy hair! W.I.P. 2

Hey guys,

Here's a fue pics of my work so far. It's a bit ruff around the edges at the moment... I'm trying to get the fox to a certain standard at this point, allowing me to start the other character. As you can see from my UV map I have decided to concentrate the detail on the parts of the model the viewer will see most of. And the rest I've left to be covered in hair. (Hopefully!!!)



This is my first hair test on his tail. Apart from the high specular, I'm quite pleased with the result and would be happy with this sort of coverage. Renders are quite slow, but think I can knock these down a little but reducing the number of segments that make up the hair.


And here is a little grooming on the feet! Feed back would be greatly appreciated,
Cheers Ollie

Ahmed T.'s Bio

Hi Andrew

My name is Ahmed T Hussein, first of all thank you so much for letting us join this blog, and sorry my bio has come in so late

As for my background
I have studied a B.Sc. in Architectural design and CAD.

I have worked as an Architect both in the UK and abroad. Since I got my degree 5 years ago I have been working part time as an Architect and 3D artist and also been a senior CAD demonstrator at Plymouth university.

My role at work has evolved a lot during the years and I have found myself focusing on 3D visualisation of buildings and their environments more than the construction side.

I was thrilled when I found out about this course that has enabled me to work outside the realms of Architecture.

For my second term project I worked on a game called 2145
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8xV01jido4

I wanted to focus more on character design and animation ... and still do parts of the environment, I was solely responsible for an extra level I created for a german magazine

that was intrested in our work.

For my final project I would like to design a "transformer style" Robot, an environment and maybe a high detailed cockpit.
I am very influenced by Anime and Japanese robots from the late 70s early 80s
I will upload the sketches very shortly.

Again thanks for your time

Philip Pendlebury - Character Profiles

Hi Andrew and Fellow Geeks,

Heres my Character profile (Side and front views) to be used in XSI... this means i start to model soon!! unless you have any reccomendations.. would be much appreciated

This next image was created before the images above.. but it shows some textures and how the colours could be. Im liking the leaf like legs and wings.

Its been through a number of changes, mainly been playing with the idea of having what was once the female part of the hybrid change from a fusion role, ie part of the bottom legs and abdomen...and become more of a pilot/rider.. a more Symbiotic relationship.

The vehicle is predominatly Biotechnological, and links with the pilot augmenting the rider with navigation HUD's, Extra sensory information relayed from insect engineered membranes.....anyway, Its airbourne, it flies damn fast.. and its as high biotech as you can get..,. Nough said.

So, modelling wise, i was thinking of having two main modelling sections; 1st the vehicle itself, without the rider, and then another model which is the rider herself,

ill model her (using the XSi female default model as a starting point) and then make a simple rig to bend her knees and place her in the riding position and then go ahead with detailling her geometry out.

The tricky bit is joining the two. The question is..Should i just model her in place from the beginning? As im never going to have her seperated from the vehicle.

The other task is to then arrange the model with the canopy/wings closed over her, should just be some clever moving of existing mesh.

Then its the grand task of creating the wings. Ill be putting up a more detailled version of those up here soon.

Well, any ideas are welcome.

cheers,
Phil