Western Saloon

Western Saloon model. An attempt to do modular pieces. Based greatly on piece by Justin Superty.

Sculpt WIP of hand mesh

Started on the sculpt of my hand mesh today:

Already learning a lot about the shapes in the hand and I am trying to go from big shapes and keep refining as I work down into the details.

Hand Base WIP

Now that the semester is finished, I have decided to go back and work on a few aspects of the character model that I was not particular happy with. These models will not be incorporated into the last character, but I am doing these sorts of "studies" as a way to practice and improve for my next characters and projects.

So the first one that I have started to work on has been a hand model:

The poly count is a bit high as I am trying to get it set up to take into mudbox/zbrush to sculpt and then come back and reduce the count a bit more. I am also trying something new by positioning the wrist/fingers into a more relaxed position to make the model and the deformation a bit easier.

Aztec Warrior Final Renders and Thoughts

Here are the final renders of my Aztec Warrior Character. 

I've learnt quiet a lot creating this character. I am at odds about it, as on one hand I am happy with what I was able to accomplish, but overall I wish I had been able to improve the character a lot more.

Compared to my past characters however, I think this is miles ahead and on that sense I am very happy, as it is a noticeable improvement on every aspect (even design wise).

One of the biggest parts that I was happy with was the fact that I hand painted all the textures on this character. Most difficult/time intensive was the skin texture, and while all the textures still need more work in the details area, I was very happy with them as it was the first time I had ever attempted to hand paint any textures.

Another point that I think I improved on was the sculpt/anatomy of the model. Overall, I was able to get most of the muscles in the sculpt compared to my past characters.

Overall I think the character has a consistent level of detail and thus it helps it feel like a finished product, however there are areas where I definitely could improve on:

• Push textures even further. I can do this by increasing the amount of detail on the diffuse textures (such as more blemishes, more color changes, wrinkles, hair, etc on the body) and pushing my spec map further to help me give it more information/detail.
• Work on my anatomy even more: While chest/arms/legs are decent, the abs area is still causing me a little trouble. The obliques need to be a bit more defined and the abs need to be a little more asymmetrical (not so perfect) as well as flow better. Could work on my back and hands a bit more as well. Part of the issue with the butt area was caused by seams/normal map extraction issues, however the shape of it could still use a bit more work.
• I was not very happy with the rig at all. It was done very last minute, however I began to have some issue with the deformation, specially around the hands and feet.
• Part of the above issue is thanks to my base geometry. The feet in particular were perhaps not the best built, and so that caused issues when trying to deform. The hands were the other issue and I am unsure if it was a simple issue with the rig or if it also part of the base mesh/construction of them.
• Finally, the face could also use some work to make it look more "natural".

Regardless of these issue, I am happy with the product. I have since acquired better books for anatomical reference, and will work on improving that aspect. Two areas of particular interest will be the face and hands, as those will be important for next year's senior project (a 3rd person shooter) as well as the animation so my base mesh/rig has to be able to deform correctly.

Any advice tips or anything else is greatly appreciated, I know I have a long way to go but at the very least I am closer than I was last year!

Final turntable of an Aztec Warrior:

Final Renders upcoming

More Preview

A couple of more Preview renders...I think all that I have left to do (or will be able to do considering I must turn it in tomorrow) is fix up a few of the textures including some normal maps and some spec maps. Just a couple of more Preview renders, this time a more dynamic pose.

Preview of Final Character

Semester will be officially over next week, here is a preview of my almost completed character: An Aztec Warrior

slight update

Mudbox normal export been giving me a lot of issues...finally was able to get the transfer maps to work in Maya after a lot of headaches...texturing ongoing.

Aztec Warrior Texturing Update

So Spring break is here and what does that mean? That I get to spend time doing homework/modeling/texturing/sculpting!!! YAY!!!! Well in all seriousness, as far as homework goes, its not too bad.

So here is an update on my character, I've started to texture the body and will be finishing the hands and face and starting on the armor soon. I've also added a screenshot from mudbox of the final sculpt of the body mesh.

Aztec Warrior Update

Posting an update for my Aztec Warrior Character.

First picture is a screengrab from Maya's viewport of the base Geometry with no textures

After that, I have posted a turntable of the sculpt so far. I am happy with how things are going, and the only thing I really am not comfortable with is the folds of the cloth around the waist, will have to go back and fix that eventually so that it actually reads as if it is wrapped around the body.

Barrel Asset

For part of the Western House project, we are populating it with different assets, one is a wooden barrel:

I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I tried to make it really dirty and combined plenty of scrunge layers to dirty it up. The metal rings were a little more difficult to get the effect that I wanted, but overall I am relatively happy with it.

Aztec Warrior

Following is the concept art that I came up with for an Aztec Warrior Character for my Advanced Character and Environment Course. After the concept is my current stage on the character. Modeling the base mesh is mostly done, and will start on sculpting very soon on Mudbox.

Old Western House

New semester, new classes and new projects.

For my Environment Modeling and Design course, we were given two images (renders from someone else's model) and asked to replicate it as close as possible.

So far, we have worked on just the geometry itself, and will be starting on the texturing. Here are the two renders of it. I have tried to build the building in modular pieces, as such my first idea was to have each "block" or room of the house its own separate object, however I was asked to separate each face of the house walls by itself to have its own texture space since for this project, texture resolution is no problem (will all be done in 2048 textures).