Creative Development: Organic Modeling II (with Rigging!)

Since I finally have a workstation in my room (computer desk, TV, mini-fridge, the works!), I don't think I'll be leaving my house for a while. As a matter of fact, I was once again inspired to to more organic modeling!

After being chewed out by classmates from trying out a different way of face modeling, I just went on back to the good ol' edge-by-edge method. And since I understand more about edge flow than I did a year ago, this was a MUCH easier process. About 2-3 hours on-and-off.

In my opinion, this one looks better than the first one, especially in the nose and ear. Definitely a lot of geometry in the mouth area, but I'm working on my poly count in the next attempt. EVERYTHING is a quad, which I'm definitely proud of! 

Also, using my knowledge of rigging to complete a face rig from scratch! The bones controls are all set up and once I finish painting weights and actually texture this head, I'll demonstrate the rig to show that it's working. 

Until then, happy Saturday!

 - Jason B. Russell

Creative Development: Organic Modeling

Out of a pure will made of motivation, and determination, I have decided to go against my own grain and get better at something that I hate to do: Organic Modeling. 

Note: This is not a class assignment or anything, just personal practice.

I believe that the only reason I hate organic modeling is because it intimidates me. Everything must be so precise in order to achieve a pleasing result. The human face... everyone looks at hundreds a day, so one polygon in the wrong place can set the whole thing off! That always scared me. But today I decided to jump in head-first (no pun intended) and just go at it. Since taking Character Modeling and Rigging almost a year ago, I've gotten loads better with Maya, so this only took a few hours, on-and-off. I'm trying to get to the point where it only takes me around 30 minutes, and it looks great topology-wise. This one is decent in my opinion; I understand that I went wrong in a lot of places when it came to edge flow, but it was my first time modeling a head in almost a year, so I did what I could.

As you can see, it's pretty low-poly (ignore the "poly count" on the left, it's counting subdivisions), and the top of the head is very lopsided, but practice makes perfect! I'll try another from scratch tomorrow.

 - Jason B. Russell

Level Design I: Update

It's been a while since I've posted any progress on my level, but best believe that progress is being made. Screenshots follow.

 

 Right now, I'm just unwrapping UVs and preparing textures. By Wednesday, hopefully, I'll have everything in Unity ready to be tested!

 - Jason B. Russell
 

Advanced 3D Animation: Finished Rig

At long last (after about 3 hours of skin weights painting), the rig is 100% complete! The actual controls haven't changed from the last post, but the skin weights have been tweaked so that the character can actually be animated!

A close-up of the face rig (eyes, eyelids, brow, mouth, and jaw).

A quick pose just for fun!

Most likely between now and Thursday, I'll end up tweaking some stuff (I can tell now that the legs are a bit weird), but your comments are appreciated!

 - Jason B. Russell

Advanced 3D Animation: Rig in Progress

Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! 

Below is a screenshot of my finished rig for Advanced 3D animation. The model was provided for us (I believe from Team Fortress 2), but the bones and controls themselves were done from scratch by yours truly. I'm highly pleased with how this is turning out, and I might actually make rigging one of my focuses for my demo reel.

Orthographic and perspective views in Maya.

After I get some good skin weights painted on this fella, I'll render out some poses and zoom in on some of the finer details of the rig.

 - Jason B. Russell