Dumpster Low-Poly Practice

I wanted to try making an entire video game asset from low-poly to high-poly, to baking and texturing.  Dumpsters seem to be the typical beginner exercise for these sorts of things.  Here's a low-poly.  I think I might be able to optimize it more as I think the tri count is a little high right now.

Fail Fern

So I've been working on this fern plant for a little over a day now, and somehow the normals on the leaves went weird and I don't know how to fix it.  I had to flip the model 180 degrees to fix this while transfer mapping but it doesn't have the same look that I wanted.  So I'm scrapping this for now until I have a better idea of what I am doing with normal maps, maybe try something simpler for next time.  I didn't do any work on the diffuse map, it's simply one colour for contrast purposes.

The high-res version of the leaf:

The low-res version of the plant:

Life Drawing

I haven't done any real nude model life drawing in a while.  I went to the Emily Carr hosted life drawing session last Monday to get some practice in.

Also did some sketching with friends at the Aberdeen Mall Food Court a few weeks ago.

MiniComi Update

I had my very first artists' alley table last week-end at UBC's MiniComi event.  It was a lot of fun even though I would have liked to sell more (at least to break even) and actually go out and look at other artists' displays.  Regardless, I would definitely try out the artists' alley again in the future since it is a good networking opportunity.

Here's the main print I was working on for my artists' alley "debut," a Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) fanart featuring San and her wolf, and of course, the little kodamas in the corner of the image.  It didn't sell very well but I received lots of compliments.  I have a better idea of what people are looking for at these events now.

Red Iron Trailer (HD)

Trailer for my upcoming student animation film 'Red Iron.'


Director: Melanie Stride

Sound Designer: Tinjun Niu

Voice Actress: Sharon Lo

I concentrated on a first person perspective to make to make it scarier.  My favorite scene isn't shown here, but it involves a first-person run down a corridor while the monster chases after her and I feel like it highlights the idea of panicked fear which I tried to achieve.

Also including some of the models from my film that I made:

Rigging

I never had a class teach me how to build bones, rig or skin a character.  I've always relied on youtube tutorials and the like to teach me these things.  Unfortunately, there is only so much knowledge that you can acquire from such a source...  And while the youtube tutorials were an amazing source of information that pulled me through some decent rigs in the past, I needed something more... professional and in-depth.  My 3d teacher told me to seek out these rigging dvds from cg academy - the ones made by Paul Neale.  They were at the school library and in 2 days I learned so much about rigging and skinning - even if the information was a bit dated.

This is the 3rd time I am rigging this model, and it will be the last.  I am quite proud with the arm bones and their rotation (previously I could not get it to function), as well as the foot controls.  She also has "breast bones" so that they can bounce using spring controls while animating... so I have less work to do down the road.  I thought it would look strange if they were.... hard as rock.  If you are trying to achieve realism, EVERY BIT HELPS.  Every tiny bit of movement that lends to the believability of the character is necessary.  Living breathing humans are never static, we are always breathing or doing some kind of task.  And in 3d, it is even more important that the characters are constantly moving because as soon as they stop, they look unnatural and the illusion of life is shattered.

I am paying close attention to these tiny details (or at least trying to).  I have almost finished skinning.  I have done skin morphs, however, at some point, they stopped working properly... and so I have to redo them.  The joys of 3d.  I am also simultaneously working on the facial morphs (and eye morphs) of the character but that is another post entirely.

Some examples of the foot and hand controls.