Advanced Lighting & Texturing: Chimi Materials Update

These are just some minor updates to the color and bump maps, as well as the properties of the skin of the Chimi character. 

Thesis Project: Alex ZBrush Sculpts

This week I took my human character, Alex, into ZBrush to do the fine detail sculpting.  This is where a lot of the fun is in 3D modeling, because you get to push, pull, carve, pinch, and soften your mesh using a stylus and tablet.  It's much more intuitive and rewarding than working with floating polygons in space, and I imagine that most people could pick up on it quick enough.  Pixologic, the company that makes ZBrush, just announced some new voxel sculpting tools that makes the conceptual process of 3D modeling a lot more streamlined and artist-friendly.

For the most part, Roger wanted me to not worry about the technical details of the model as I went into ZBrush and just to have fun.  He introduced me to a retopologizing program called TopoGun, which I can see as being an indispensable part of any 3D artist's toolset.

Changing around materials is one way to see how different areas are looking in your model.  I switch between materials many times during a sculpt and it helps me to see different areas better.  Some materials are better for small details while some are better at showing where the cavities on your model are.  And there are some that are just goofy...

The goal with this sculpture is to get it looking as close to Mr. Freddie Boath as possible.  Unfortunately, I don't have many high resolution reference photos of the young British actor, so I'll have to get it close enough.

I could take it all the way up in sculpting even to the small textures, but that is for the future.  Plus, I will probably do that in Mudbox, considering that there are a few textures that have geometric patterns on them.  Now that I've done this, though, I want to try out some of ZBrush's new tools.  Alas, if I only had the extra time.

Advanced Lighting & Texturing: Chimi Texture Maps

After gathering a bunch of photos of clothing and textures, I got to work this week texturing Chimi.  The surfaces were all NURBS, which are a pain to texture as they are without doing some very difficult texture work.  So I spent about a day getting the surfaces into polygons and getting the UV maps on them.  I was a bit rough at UV mapping, so you'll have to forgive the roughness, although the textures seem to hide most of it.

I mainly used photographic textures for the clothes, taken from Sarah's wardrobe.  I then took the hair and arms into Mudbox to essentially paint in the details by hand.  I wound up sculpting the hair and exporting it as a normal map as the bump.  The skin required painting the colors, then creating separately saturated and desaturated color maps for the epidermal, subdermal, and back scatter layers of the skin shader.

All in all, it was a good exercise, but it took way too long.  I'm sure we'll have more work to do on this or other models, so I can't dilly dally on just one for too long.

Plus, I've got a thesis project to work on.

Alex Modeling Progress

I'm very happy to have Roger Ridley as my one-on-one advisor for my directed study.  Roger went through AAU before in the same program as me and has since worked as a modeler on such movies as A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms.  Currently he does programming at Lucasfilm and shows a real passion for what he does.  He will be a great asset to draw on while I'm in school.

The model I am having him work with me on is the Alex model.  He found some problems with the model (problems being some topology issues that are a real "no-no" in the industry) which were easy enough to fix.  My hope for this week is to fix a few more small topology items, then get to work on UV mapping Alex.  This Wednesday will be the first time I'll have to bring him into ZBrush and try out some detailed sculpting.

However, I must admit that seeing how Roger does some of his work is a lot more intuitive than my current approach.  We'll chalk this model up to a learning experience.

Professional Practices: Artist's Statement

Another class I am taking this semester is a professional practices class.  This is very similar to classes I have taken in the past where you prepare yourself for the real where where they expect results.  One of the first assignments was to write an "Artist's Statement," which basically amounts to telling people why you do what you do as an artist.  Here's what I came up with:


Ayn Rand once stated, “To achieve, you need thought.  You have to know what you are doing, and that’s real power.”  The gift of man’s intellect has given him the ability to collect, organize, interpret, and transform the materials of his world into something that previously only existed in the ethereal realm of the mind.  Man has the power to create.

Creation is the business I am employed in.  Although I run the gamut of tools to turn imagination into reality, the creative power of my mind is the driving force behind my work.  Whether it be my own ideas, creations inspired by others, designs of my peers, or a collaborative production, my love of the creative process is what fuels my passion for imaginative work.  As I began my career path, I tried to conceive my work through a three word mantra: Design, Energy, Motion.

Design: The structuring of elements into a cohesive design is a crucial part of our existence.  Design brings order from chaos, definition from ambiguity, peace from turmoil.

Energy: Every sensory experience that we are exposed to evokes an emotional impact within the beholder.  It is essential that the underlying elements be imbued with the correct proportions, materials, and hues, so that it successfully and responsibly fulfills its purpose.

Motion: Time is always in motion.  Solutions that are reached during the present will not always stand the test of time.  There is always a better way to accomplish something, even if the necessary means to do so are not yet within our reach.  Adaptation and a course of continuing education are essential for success in our rapidly advancing world.

I seek after the best possible iteration of an imaginative idea, whether from myself, my clients, or my peers.  By witnessing the best of both individual and collaborative creations, I am constantly inspired to continue to seek after that which is just beyond the horizon.

Advanced Texturing & Lighting: Chimi Base Materials

One of the classes I am taking this semester as directed study credit is an advanced lighting and texturing class.  I'm hoping to pick up a few techniques to help out in the texturing of my thesis project. This class will feature a lot of texturing work, but hopefully will teach me a few new things about lighting and rendering that I don't know about yet.  One thing about that area of the industry is that it is always changing.  Programmers are always looking at quicker ways to do rendering and advanced lighting techniques, so that's one thing to stay abreast of.

In this class I was given the model of a character, Chimi, and this week we were to create and assign all of the base shaders with no texture on them.  I mainly used a combination of different shaders from the simple Phong (the name of a particular type of shading algorithm), to anisotropic (which renders out very elongated highlights, like what you would see on brushed metal), and a subsurface scattering skin shader for the face.

I also made a quick 3-point lighting setup and did a turntable rendering to see how the light moved across the surface of each shader.

Unfortunately, most of Chimi is comprised of NURBS surfaces, which are a pain to texture.  So this week my task involves converting the surfaces into polygons and UV mapping them.  Typically, that is the job of a modeler, not a texture artist, but this class is unfortunately out of date.  Oh well, it's just more experience, right?

Thesis Project: Robot Modeling Progress Continued

I'm getting closer to getting this model completed.  Mainly I've been working on it until I could start getting consistent feedback at school.  Since classes just started, I might switch back to the Alex model for a while to finish that one up.

This week I divided out the torso and started work on the head and joints of the neck.  I changed the hands a bit because I didn't like how they looked in proportion to the rest of the body.  I might go back and redo both the hands and head because I'm not really pleased with the topology.  Too many artifacts are showing up in both previews and renders.

Either way, though, I'm a step closer.

Thesis Project: Robot Modeling Progress

 This week was the last before school started and I was busy trying to get as much possible completed on the robot.  There were some sticky situations with the topography of the mesh, but I managed to get something working that I didn't mind looking at.  Once I start adding textures, a lot of the little imperfections will probably start to disappear.  After completing the torso, I will have to rebuild the abdomen, but it shouldn't take too long to do.

Back in the saddle again: Thesis Project Beginnings

I have been noticeably absent from the blogosphere this summer, and for good reason.  There have been a lot of personal changes going on in my life at the moment, most of which were actually school related. After preparing for a number of weeks for my mid-point review, I finally got it scheduled and under way.  The entire process lasted less than about forty-five minutes, but it was a fairly positive experience for me.  I had my presentation reviewed by a committee of five people from the Academy of Art University, all of which had prior professional experience in the field.  Gratefully, I passed and got some great insights on how to make my project go smoother.

I started a few weeks later on my project, but ran into a bit of a snag as I was planning on moving my little family closer to school.  I did what I could to get things started and wound up blocking in the basics of one model and getting closer to blocking in another.  Even though classes haven't started, I wanted to stay up with my schedule.

First off is the block-in for Alex, based off of photographs of the young British actor Freddie Boath:

I've still got a few divisions to make and such before I start the high-resolution sculpting on the model, but this is a fairly good head start.  I need to consult an expert before I go much further on this model, but the next step will be to UV map the sucker and then import into ZBrush.

Next, I started work on the robot:

I initially started with creating the body in NURBS surfaces, but I struggled in getting good continuity across the patches.  So I set that part aside and started modeling the arm and abdomen.  This next week I should be able to finish up the blocking for the main body and part of the head.

Welcome, Leah Lourena Reynolds!

We thought it would be a boy, girl, ninja, or puppy.  Looks like we're getting a ninja girl.  It looks like she is already starting her training on avoiding cameras.