Lighting and hair (24/2/2014)

* First the lecturer showed us how to add lighting to a scene, just in case we wanted to include it with our character model. These included 'Mental Rays' and 'Photometric lighting' that he used in a previous student's 3D environment.

From editing this student's environment with lighting and colouring, he was able to show off the difference that certain colours make when mixed with light. For example, a yellow floor with lighting bouncing off it gave warmth, whilst blue appeared cold. Thus you could use the same environment twice in a game and still have two completely different ones.

Whilst all of the above was impressive, I will admit it was a bit too complex for my understanding. Therefore, I will go back to these lighting techniques in the future in order to add to my overall animation presentation.

* I then looked back at the texturing and unwrapped UVW's I had started before.

Having had the waist-coat's UVW map finished during the last session, today I added it to my model to see if it made an improvement or not.

Quite pleased with how the t-shirt looks even without editing the UVW map, I decided to skip it and work on the trousers as seen below...

 
* The lecturer also showed us how to add realistic hair to our models. I decided to do this as admittedly multiple plains stacked on top of one another wasn't doing it for me.

First I had to select my head and go onto the modifier list and select 'Hair and Fur (WSM)'. Doing so comically covers the whole head in hair, thus making my self look like the lion from 'The Wizard of Oz'.

Instead, to make the model look more realistic you have to select the polygons you want and then click 'Update Selection' in order to make only those sections hair. 

Selecting 'Guides' I was then, for no better a word, able to comb/style my hair to look far more like my own.

Wanting hair that better suited mine, I then went into 'Presets' and choose 'Load' in order to bring up the 'Hair and Fur presets'. With a whole selection available, I picked 'meHulkaaaar.shp' that best suited my style despite being grey as seen below.

I also tried to work on my goatie with some, interesting results...

The only problem with the above (apart from just the grey) is that this style makes 3ds Max run incredibly slow. Thus I will continue to edit the model before going back to the hair that I want.


Therefore, I went back to the old hair style to work on the goatie and eyebrows and now their placing looks fine, they just need to look more like my own.

UV Mapping (10/2/2014)

* Having missed last week's session, I decided to use Unwrap UVW in order to texture my model with the images I had taken. Also making sure to 'Collasp All' on every piece of the model so as to take up less memory. 

* First I decided to make sure that the textures suited the models by not connecting the UVW mapping and simply seeing how the model looked when textured. Making sure to change the textures brightness and contrast when necessary e.g. make the t shirt whiter and the waist coat blacker.

 

Finally I set each newly textured part of the model to 1 on the 'Smoothing Group' in order to make it look less jagged. You can see how the model looked with the added textures below... 

* With the basic textures done and looking good, I decided to go back to the unwrapped UVW's and connect the pieces. I only had time to get the waist coat done as seen below.

* Looking at my model so far, the lecturer feels that it should receive a pass at least thanks to the evidence clearly shown by the model's existence. Obviously, I know my modelling isn't perfect and therefore will try and continue to raise my grade through the animating stage. However, the lecturer pointed out that the rigging that leads to the animation is difficult and will be more so for my model since it will need to bend and as a result stretch some of the polygons. Still, once narrative is handed in today I will be able to continue to model and animate at the college where I haven't been able to before.

Photographing fabrics (3/2/2014)

Unable to get in to college, due to bad weather today and still not having access to 3ds max at home, I decided to photograph the fabrics I needed for my 3D model.

Making sure to two get two variants of each, you can see my images below...

Trousers:

T-shirt:

Waist Coat:

Overall, I feel that I was successful with the first two set of pictures, but not so much the waist coat as it is meant to be black, but the lighting makes it look grey. Unable to get the photograph quailty correct I will see if I can make it darker by raising its contrast on Photoshop and see it that fixes the problem.

Rigging (27/1/2014)

* In this session I carried on layering the hair, see below...

* I also added the eyes using two white cylinders. I also made the hair black in order to see if I was on track.

* Using the symmetry tool, I was able to look at the whole head of hair alongside the body, making sure it had some semblance to me before making the skin tone mine for authenticity.

* The lecturer then went through some rigging with us in order to introduce us to animation. 

Selecting the helper named 'CAT Parent' and placing it down, you could then select from a whole host of 'bodies' to animate.

He also showed that we could build a character ourselves by creating a 'Pelvis' and then adding other limbs such as 'Add Leg' as seen below. We can then edit them using simple editing tools.

Using the default 'Base Human' rig I then started to animate. Making sure to go into 'Motion' and provide the rig with an 'Animation Layer'. Then by selecting the green button you switch on the animation which in turn allows you to start animating. You then 'Set Key' the whole model and start to move it with ease by making sure 'Auto Key' is switched on whenever you make an edit.
I even learnt that I could add fingers by adding 'digits' to it.

Using this above technique I was able to animate a head banger.

We were recommended to give the scene a background and save videos of our creations, I did the following. After all, if we hand in our final animation without a background then it will drastically affect our marks!

To render a video go into 'Render Setup', select 'Active Time Segment' (as that includes all the frames), then save it as an AVI file and a 'MJPEG Compressor' before selecting 'Render', then you're done! 

I then messed around with the lighting so as to make the figure look like it was in a club.

Next week we will hopefully be animating one of our existing models to see our own individual skills. Personally I am looking forward to this as so far it seems rather easy to do (though doesn't it always?)

* Afterwards I asked how much of the module is graded on the modeling stage and how much on the animation? I admitted that my 3D modeling isn't brilliant, but I am enthusiastic about the animation process and therefore hope to raise my grade with that aspect.
The lecturer himself wasn't sure on the grading as the brief wasn't up yet, but he will look into it. 

* Weekend target - Try and photograph the fabric of my clothing so I can start texturing my model. After all, the model may look far better once it's no longer just flat colour.