Finished Model

While I was shooting for my post production project Phil finished the model by filling out the hat and adding a bulge to the back of the head where the hair texture will be. We also added more bulk to the waist to fatten him up a bit.

I started the rigging process today by mapping out the reference curves for the joints. I decided to give the antennae 6 sections for flexibility. You'll also notice I only mapped out half the curves. This is to save time, as obviously the joints on the other side will just be mirrored.

bag modelling

Phil and myself spent a somewhat stressful day trying to get past this rucksack issue. I resorted to trying to model it out of seperate objects thinking it would be easier, but it turns out making the straps become even more of an issue using this method. So we basically took a deep breath and did it the old fashioned way of working into the mesh. We learnt a valuable gem of wisdom here, and that is that modelling something complex seems to be about creating triangles and then getting rid of them. Either way modelling does seem to be something of a jigsaw puzzle if you're aiming for a purely quadradic mesh. Still! we eventually got it done. Special thanx to Phil for this one for working solidly with me even though modeling technically isn't his responsibility.

Of course, it was only afterwards when I realised that a lot of time could have been saved here with more careful planning before starting the model. If I had thought about what primitive shapes maya had to offer for example, I could have started with a pipe transformed to make a strap and worked from there. Never mind though, live and learn!

We modelling only one strap, and then used this opportunity to half the mesh, and then mirror it to ensure an even model and also to save going through the complexities of the strap again.

Next steps are to fill out the hat a bit more, give it some depth. I also remembered today he needs a magnifying glass still. All in all though a good days work, and while it was a shame to miss out on the Musion studio visit to get it done I really think it was worth it for the solid distraction-free work time we gained.

texturing tutorials

http://www.3dmd.net/MAYA_texturing_tutorials.htm

just a quick link Phil found for texturing/uv mapping tutorials

further details

http://plissken.fatalunity.com/tutorials/subdiv/index.html

Using this excellent tutorial on modelling hands I got them done today. I was fairly worried about the hands as my previous attempts were all, how should I put it, crap. You can see what I mean from the set driven keys post early on. This tutorial however proved that I was in fact seriously over complicating things as I often tend to do, and actually it was a very easy process. I skipped a lot of the stuff to do with detailing such as knuckles and fingernails as my model needs to be simpler than that to suit the style. However it was extremely useful for the sake of getting the opposable thumbs right.

I also whacked in some rims to divide the clothing. Im not sure about the hat though, but I've saved it in stages in case Phil or anyone else has any better ideas. As you can see I did all this on the nice clean model before I attempted the bag, as I still need to work out a way of doing the bag that's not going to result in ridiculously unclean, complex, or triangular geometery.

For the eyes I used simple spheres squashed up and positioned, and the eyebrows are basically shaped cubes. These parts of the geometery are seperate to the head, though they will still be either combined or grouped with the main mesh. This should make blendshapes easier, and also saves complex extrusions that may mess up an otherwise smooth face. Similarly, the antenna are primitive shapes that are seperate from the mesh for the same reasons. (Extruding from the top of the head will do nothing but ruin the shape, create unnecissary triangles and generally involve complex work on the mesh.)

We are fairly behind now, so Phil and myself plan to take two days of straight work on this to get the last bits finished up. I.e hair, bag, hat, textures.

Bag troubles

The bag has been a complete nightmare. Not the bag itself, but the straps. The way they go around and under the shoulder is very difficult to model without leaving it impossible to place edge rings. I may need to take a different approach to simply extruding faces.

Facial Modelling

(The attempt that worked!!)

(Creases in the face resulting from a model that has rough topology.)

This has been a lot trickier than I anticipated. As I have never modelled a face properly before it's been a bit of a process. My first attempt was modelled using the Stop Staring tutorial, whereupon the face is constructed entirely from the mouth outward with polygons. The issue this presented is severe difficulties with keeping the surface smooth, as you can see from my test render. Softening edges, converting to subdivision and smoothing did not sort it out.

So I made a second model, this time constructing the mouth from nurb circles to ensure a smooth finish, using the curves to adjust the surface. Then I converted the surface to polygons and attatched it to a polygon spehere with appropriate faces removed. This made for a far smoother model, as you can see in the other screen grabs.

Texturing/Blendshapes: before or after skinning?

Having spoken to Alex Hulse, I have a clearer idea of what order I should really be doing things in. Both texturing and blendshapes should be done before skinning. With blendshaping the head, it's important that the head doesn't deform due to weight influences. I did a quick test and sure enough that's the way to do it. Here it is.

Thanks Alex!