Modeling the hair (13/1/2014)

* Today I was planning to use the lecturer's online tutorial on how to make a Simpson's head and the same book I took out last week in order to try and model my stylised head better. 

Unfortunately, at this late a stage I  recognise that I do not have the time to do my intended style, especially since the lecturer wanted us to be animating by now. 

I am incredibly disappointed by this and it was caused by me not having the correct resources available this year. However, on the plus side I will be able to mention this in my final evaluation, where I will be able to explain the differences between my original concept and the one I ended up with.

* Instead of doing the above I decided to go back over my original model and work on the hair today using the following steps...

First I highlighted the polygons on the head that matched roughly to my photos hair cut. Doing so I then used 'Detach' to separate it, making sure it was a clone. Thus if I made any mistakes on the hair I could fix them more easily. 

 

I then attempted the hair in numerous ways. I first tried to make good use of the book only for its example hair to either be dread locks, alien or far too detailed for my current level. Then I tried to see if the lecturer had a tutorial on Moodle, but he didn't. I then used Youtube and found some videos that made the hair look great, but would need a lot more time analysing the process and discovering new things from myself. 

Therefore, I went with a far more simple approach using an abridged version of one of the easier Youtube tutorials.
Ignoring the cut out hair I made a plane and made the middle of it pointed. Then I copied and layered it over the head numerous times. Sadly, however it didn't come out as well as I hoped it would, since my 3D ended up looking like a porcupine.

I also tried another technique I saw a friend doing in order to see which one worked best for me.
Extruding inwards the lines within the cut out hair, I then made it black so as to be distinctly different to the head.

Unsure of this technique, I went back to the previous one in which my lecturer said that it was possible, but I had to do it in bigger layers. Therefore he showed me the way he would do it as seen below.

I then followed up from where he left off by trying to do the back of the head. Unfortunately this was far more difficult than I thought it would be and just looked odd whenever I tried to make it look natural.

Something I noticed, and that the lecturer also pointed out was, that if I merely copied each layer of the hair then it would look less realistic and more obviously duplicated.

Therefore, I hope to pick up from where I left during the next session. 

*Hopefully next week we will be looking at some example rigging which I am looking forward to as the animation side of things is what I have most been looking forward to doing.

Back to modeling (6/1/2014)

* Returning from the Christmas holidays, today's session was again spent working on my character, as I wasn't able to over the holidays.

Noticing that my model still hadn't taken on the appearance of a 'One Piece' character, as I had intended from the start, I decided to try and model my head in the show's style.
When trying to edit my existing 3D head in this style, I found that I couldn't due to the complexity of a human head and the rounded heads seen in Anime. Therefore, I tried to make it from scratch as you can see below.

 
* As you can see, I used a plane before making the model a 'Editable Poly' and adding 'Symmetry' to do both sides at once. I then added the face's simple pointed nose by merely extruding a Vertex. I aldo decided to go from the side view face with the large forehead using this as my base instead of the straight view face. This way I can animate the mouth to appear larger than life separately, thus also avoiding a gigantic mouth and tiny eyes whenever the it is closed.

* My lecturer felt that, if I wanted to do a stylised character then it would need even more work than a realistic one as, despite the simplistic style, it is more difficult as you have to animate more.

With my model in general, he felt that I needed to include the topology / facial loops despite its style, otherwise the mouth moving would be more puppet-like.

Therefore, my lecturer took me to the library and suggested that I take out a 3D modeling book entitled 'Character Modeling' (Blanche P, Cortina F, Stahlberg S - 2008) which showed numerous examples of how to make 3D faces that I can try for myself in order to figure out the best and easiest process for me.

I also asked whether he would prefer a realistic model to a stylised one and was told he didn't mind, tho the latter would be more work as stated above. I can see the differences more clearly provided I look at his tutorials on Moodle and see how he made his stylised 'Simpsons' esk character as that animated quality may be what I am looking for.

Harvard Referencing:

• Blanche P, Cortina F, Stahlberg S (2008) Character Modeling. Australia: Ballistic Publishing. 
• Unknown (2012) Thread: W.I.P One Piece anime character: Luffy sculpt [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/threads/42911-W.I.P-One-Piece-anime-character-Luffy-sculpt (Accessed: 6/1/2014).

Photoshop and tips (9/12/2013)

* Before carrying on with our models our lecturer decided to show us some boxes created by previous students that demonstrated good lighting. They did this by using 'Normal Map' under 'NVIDIA' Tools which is something you have to download onto Photoshop. Using this you can add three light sources to a map instead of just two e.g. not just light and dark but, also shades in between.  

* He then showed us numerous techniques to use on Photoshop in order to get the same quality as the boxes explained before. He did this by taking us through his process on mapping a face on both Photoshop and 3dsmax.

* By making the erase tool a spray instead of a whole fill, you can far more easily merge each layer of the face, especially when using multiple angles for reference.

* Also, if I hold down Shift, Ctrl and 'I' it removes the rest of the layer around the object I am tracing. Thus proving to be a useful technique for getting rid of the parts you don't want on a piece. 

* I even asked during the session if we could have the ex-student who he taught and now works on Lego games come in and show his work. Then he could compare his old uni work that the lecturer still has to his industry standard. Therefore, showing a contrast to what we do now and what we will be expected to do in the industry itself.

* Our lecturer also hopes that we will be able to further work on our 3D character models over the holidays in order to try and complete them for when we come back.
I decided to be truthful to my lecturer by saying that my laptop doesn't seem able to run the newest version of 3ds max, thus I may not be able to do this. Therefore my lecturer hopes that I will be able to find a way in order for me to do so. Otherwise I'm hindering myself more than him which I understand, but can't help.

Unwrapping our 3D Heads (2/12/2013)

* Today we were reminded about how to unwrap our 3D heads as this is meant to be the most difficult part to unwrap on a 3D human body. After all, you have to 'peal' a lot of the face e.g. flatten the 3D head. Therefore, the textures end up meshing into one another and become distorted which is something you don't want.

In order to show us how to best unwrap, he demonstrated on 3ds max using one of his 3D heads. Afterwards we tried it for ourselves by using Target Weld to connect the pieces.

* Next week will be a Photoshop session in which we will design our Diffuse Maps.

Presenting my 3D model (25/11/2013)

* Today we were given more time in order to further develop our 3D models. This was very useful as I had many setbacks with my 3D character model in the form of non-available rooms, broken laptop and not being able to use the lecturer’s tutorials as Moodle wasn't working. Therefore, I had to resort to adapting the rough one I had. 

* Although I was concerned about my work, looking at my character model my lecturer could clearly see a vast improvement thanks to the hours I had clearly put in. Thus filling me with more confidence, especially when he said it was looking a lot better.

* Since I struggled so much with my character model, I also promised my lecturer that I would try and remodel my character during the rest of the course. After all, that way I'm fair to him, I produce a 3D model to his standards and I can still rig my character model to the animated skeleton that I will eventually create.  

* My lecturer even helped me to further design my character by sharing with me a number of techniques. Clearly, he wants me to feel as if I have learnt something from the course and can go away saying that I am happy with what I have done. For example...

• I should get rid of the back of my t-shirt as since I'm wearing a waistcoat no one will see the back of my shirt and it will save me polygons. 
• Try and stretch the squares that make my model, that way it makes it look smoother and less blocky as was the case with the clothes, especially the back of the waistcoat. 
• Arms and legs are surprisingly easy to make as all they require are cylinders in which you extrude their lines. Therefore to prove his point he quickly remade my arm and therefore it came out far more rounded than its previously stiff self. 
• With sleeves and the opening to the waistcoat I should try and put the polygons into the body. This is a sneaky and effective method of connecting all your pieces and stopping your audience from looking down an open sleeve and seeing nothing.
• Taking the advice of my lecturer, I removed some of the polygons on my t-shirt.

* I then spent the rest of the session tweaking the smallest of things in order to add to the overall model.  

* It seems that I will have plenty of time to create my 3D character model after all as, although I thought we would be animating today apparently that won't happen until after we have textured and fully completed our models.  

I was also told that I should focus on completing my character before I make it in the style of a 'One Piece' character as I had planned. Once it is done then he will help me make it in the style that I want.

Finishing the head and hands (21/11/2013)

* During my art session I cracked on with some of my 3D modeling, as I got a lot of art done the previous day. So I rounded the head more fully and added the back of the skull, neck and eye balls.

* During the creation, I was also told how to remove lines without deleting the whole thing by selecting a line, then right clicking, but before you press 'Remove' hold down 'Shift' and 'Ctrl' and it will keep it in tact (minus the line you selected). In this way I was able to get rid of triangles which my lecturer doesn't like to see on 3D faces. 

* I was also shown how to add lines. To do so right click on a Vertex and select 'Cut', then merely connect the dots and create lines as a result.  

* After the basic head was done, I then focused on creating the hands as seen below. Sadly however, I had to use pictures of existing hands in order to create them as my hand photos mysteriously disappeared.

* I then combined the head and hands to the overall body and even made my drill necklace. I also created the lines that would be used for the necklace's and goggle's straps/strings which I hope to make thicker in the future. 

More 3D modeling (19/11/2013)

Today I carried on modelling my body using the photos I took recently to help with the clothing. Before any of this however, I used Photoshop to scale the photos (see below).

You can see the rest of my progress below. As you can see I had to rescale the body to fit my more slender and sadly less muscular body before I could do the clothing.

When I did get to the clothing, I used planes and went over the body I had made.

Before adding the sleeves to my t-shirt, I used  it as a template for my waist coat as all I would need to do next is copy it.

When I did get around to adding the sleeves I struggled with them as I couldn't remember how to add other lines in order to make it look smoother without using 'Turbosmooth'. Thus I have left them as they are, so I can fix them at a later date.

I then started to model my trousers.

With the basic clothes done, I then started to remove the original body so as to have a clearer view of the clothed character that will feature in my animation. I did however, save on to a separate save file so as to have the body if I ever needed it again. 

I was even able to create my steampunk goggles using 'extrude' and 'inset' to edit the cylinder used.