Character Creation: Modelling, Texturing and Rigging.

In this project I had to model, texture and rig a character of my own creation. To begin we had to model a classmates head. This was to practice modeling heads as we had never done this before. I learnt about loop flow and where to put cuts to create shape without causing there to be any tris. This was done in a day but even though it was quick, it built my confidence for modeling a whole character.

Next I went onto creating my character. Because we had so much to do in such a short time with this project, we didn't get much time to create and design a character. I had to quickly draw up a turn around so I could go straight into modeling.

I spent a lot of time in Maya on my low poly model. ( probably more then I should have) I really enjoyed the form making and the fact I was creating something entirely my own. I tried my hardest to keep the model clean and neat so when I got to high poly sculpting, it would subdivide nicely. I had some trouble around the jaw, neck and shoulder area and spent a lot of time deciding where edges needed to be and how I could create that without causing other problems like tris. After modeling a whole body for the first time, there are definitively different ways I would go about things now I know how they should be. I wanted to go straight into modelling another character once I had finished this. I was happy with how it turned out and really enjoyed creating it.

Next I moved onto high poly sculpting in Mudbox. I have a lot of fun in Mudbox because I don't have to worry about a clean wire frame. I got to add all the little details I wanted and also add the texture and secular shading. It was fun to play with different material textures and the brushes to create different effects. Sculpting is something I would like to spend more time practicing at as I really enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

Here are the maps for the model (created using mudbox)

Texture Map

UV Map

Displacement Map

Normals Map

AO Map

Spec Map

 Finally I had to rig my character. This was the first time I had rigged anything from scratch. I found it fairly challenging but once I had wrapped my head around how everything worked it wasn't too bad. I had a few problems with the feet and the shoulders but I eventually managed to get them working to a standard I was happy with. Unfortunately I didnt have enough time to go into any advanced rigging with this project (such and a facial rig, finger curls etc) Though I intend to go back to this over the summer and add more to it.

Deformation test of rig:

I would definitely like to work on my rigging skills in the future. I think it will help me a lot as a secondary skill to animation. I love the idea of being able to design, model, rig and then animate my own characters.

Hand Modeling

For this project we had to model our own hands. First as a low poly in maya, then we had to take it into mudbox for some high poly sculpting and finally we had to take it back into maya, and using maps we created in mudbox, we would make our low poly model look more like a high poly model. I believe this is used a lot in games, as for obvious reasons, models cant be crazy high poly.

First off the low poly modeling.
Using photos of my own left hand I modeled a low poly model. The most challenging part, I found, was making the wire frame neat. It was important for the next step that our low poly was clean and clear. This was so when in mudbox and subdividing the polys, they are all of equal size. It was quite a brain challenge to figure a way to make sure there were only polys in the model to. Triangles will forever more be a shape a strive to get rid of.
I think learning how hard it can be to get rid of tris it will effect how I begin to model in the future. A lot of problems I faced could have been avoided knowing what I know now.
Here is how my low poly model turned out:

After this part was done, we went on to take it into mudbox. I really enjoyed this part as this was where I could make hand look good and not have to focus on the cleanness of the model. This was my first experience with mudbox and although it took a bit of time, I eventually found it really easy to use (especially with my tablet.) I enjoyed it more and more as I worked up to the higher division levels of polys as you get to a detail level that would be very difficult with physical clay.
I also enjoyed the texturing part in mudbox. Some of the tools were really cool and aloud me to get a realistic skin effect.
Here is the final look out of mudbox:

I was quite happy with how this turned out. I would have liked to have done some more work on the nails and some other places here and there but over all I  didn't think it was too bad.

After making and saving out maps from mudbox, I was back into maya. I applied the maps from the high poly model to my low poly model. This was much more difficult then I expected. They definitely did not work straight away, they required a fair amount of editing. This was probably the hardest part of the project and I would have liked to have had more time to make them work better, but unfortunately I spent a lot of time getting the low and high poly models look nice.
Here is the end result of the whole project:

Over all I am pleased with this project. Looking back there are a few things I would like to change, but for a first proper modelling attempt, I think it was ok. I would have liked the maps to have turned out nicer, but of course the final maya version will never look as nice as the high poly mid box one.

I really enjoyed learning to model, and although I ultimately want to pursue animation, I am happy I have a basic understanding of modeling in both maya and mudbox. I would like to do more modeling in the future and I am extremely looking forward to a character design project we have coming some time after Christmas.