Today I created my sword to add to my characters island, I really enjoyed doing this as I didn't expect to be able to create such a nice looking weapon. First I made my side and front view designs in Flash then I began creating the object in 3D in Maya. It took quite a long time to do but I am very happy with the results, when I made this weapon I think I may have sub divided it too many times, but I really wanted the curves to have a good quality and not a block look, I settled on the high quality and high poly count because I for a movie and not a game its not too big of a problem. However is this object was to be a live item in a game I would definitely undo the last two subdivisions to half its poly count and make it lightweight. Once I had the object complete in Maya it had a really evil feel to it so I decided to change the color scheme of my design slightly and make it all metal with a dark metal handle rather than wooden. Below are some screen shots of my work in progress.

 Flash designs.

Maya production

And there is my final complete quality sword.

Today I worked through the animation challenge, I had some Maya version difference difficulties but was pretty simple. I created my own objects as I could not open the file ones, they are pretty much the same.

Here is a video of my final animation.

Today I began creating a rig for my character to do this I am following a series of Youtube tutorials starting with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDebgY3N724

Although these tutorials are titled "Basic", as they progress they get very complicated, I was also surprised to see how similar different versions of Maya are as all the steps in this tutorial are almost identical to my different version, which is handy. So far I have made some bones, controllers and handles for the bones. I need to progress further in to more tutorials before I find how to link these bones to my character. Here are some pictures of my progression.

Today I first improved the quality of my character, I did this by smoothing the body section of him because I was very happy with my polygon count and as my production is for a movie instead of a game I decided the improved quality would be worth the increased poly count.

Character before smooth.

Character after smooth, if my character was being created as a game character rather than a movie I would have found the specific areas of the model that require more detail and manually split each of the polygons around these areas to improve the quality. However as my character is now at the quality I want him at, I decided it was fine to do a smooth in order to curve of the low quality edges.

After I had done this I began to create the ground for my character to stand on, this was a simple matter of creating a polygon cylinder, then deleting the extra faces so I was left with a circular plane and then raising the middle vertex with the soft selection tool switched on. This gave me a perfectly symmetrical island for my character to stand on.

I then followed a tutorial online in order to create a realistic grass texture to add to the shape.

I created this texture in Photoshop using the following tutorial as guidance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG74ksdmQkI

It was a very nice tutorial with a fast and effective result. Once I had my complete texture I then applied it to my model and remade the UV map for it, in order to even out the scale of each section of grass. I then scaled the entire UV map until I was happy with the size of the grass.

The only modeling left for me to do now is to create a sword and then stab it in to the grass next to my character, I will then texture the weapon and my characters teeth. Once all the modeling and texturing is complete I will begin rigging and animation.

Today I followed a tutorial on how to make some realistic eyes. I began searching for tutorials on how to apply circular textures to spheres but while searching a found a good tutorial on how to make a more than reasonable effect all within Maya. I will add a link to the tutorial at the bottom of this post.

I chose a more Orc like color and also deformed the shape of it slightly in order to let it fit correctly in the shape of my Orcs head.

The tutorial showed me how to create the eye in Nurbs so once I had finished it I converted the shape into polygons. By doing this it subdivided the shape a lot more that I wanted it too, but I suppose it is required to make to make a smooth shape with polygons. In order to save on the poly count I then decided to go inside my Orcs head and remove some of the non visible polygons on the back of the eye. While I did this I was also careful to leave a few polygons behind around the edges, just in case I decide to animate the characters eyes later.

Now my characters eyes are complete and I'm happy with them. However there is one small thing I would change about them if I had more time.

If you view my characters face from the side I think there may be a little too much white part of the eye visible due to the shape of my characters face. This will not be so much of a problem for my final render and is an arguable issue. However if I had more time I would add some eye lids around my characters eyes to help control how much of the white section can be seen.




Here is a link to the tutorial I followed in order to create my characters eyes:
http://www.spafi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=449&Itemid=29&lang=iso-8859-1

Today I worked on creating my characters head this was just as hard as I expected and took a few attempts before I was happy with my model. Here are some images of my first attempt.

As you can see the edge flow was terrible as I began working from a sphere. Due to the poor edge flow I was forced to "Smooth" early which lead to slow modeling and poor structure.

After I reflected on this head I decided to try again and look up a few tutorials on modeling heads. I found a really good tutorial on Youtube, guiding me on how to create the model from a single plane and then extruding it around in order to create more appropriate facial edge loops.

After using the tutorial as guidance and my new head design I was able to create a much better head model, below are some screen shots of my character.

Next I followed a tutorial from the same Youtube user on how to create ears in Maya I then created my own ears using the tutorial as guidance and copy pasted these ears on to my model.

The final thing to do was import the head in to my character file and then add the textures and UV maps to match my character. It was at this stage I decided to give my character only one head. I decided this because of the ratios involved between my characters shoulders and how its armor effects it. It simply looked more appealing with a single head. If I where to do it again or I two heads was a restriction I would increase the size of the body to make two heads fit. But a single head looks just as good in my opinion.

Next I will create a teeth texture by unfolding the teeth object in my character, I will also create an eye texture.

Here are some links to the tutorials that helped me create my character.

Head tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xls25e08sSg

Ear tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcYrUHRIqsE&feature=channel&list=UL

Next I added a few spikes to my characters gloves and began texturing them. For the main section of the hand I decided to add chain mail, so I created a chain mail texture in Photoshop.

I then placed the texture on my character and remade the UV map in order to apply it accurately. After I had done this I was not happy with the appearance so I remade the texture several times until I created a texture I was happy with.

From doing this I can confirm it is a lot harder to create chain mail textures than you would first expect. I tried out around four or five different textures before I made one that I could settle on, however if I had more time I would probably try to improve this texture further.

The final thing for me to do now is redesign, create and texture some heads for my character.

Today I decided to design and create my characters gloves. First I looked at some medieval gloves online to get a feel of how I wanted my design to look. Then I created a front and side view of my gloves in Flash in order to reference with in Maya. Once my design was complete I began creating them in Maya.

I did expect creating hands/gloves to be hard before I began making them, but once I began modeling it was very much a matter of fiddling around with the shape repeatedly until I felt happy with each angle. This did take a while but eventually I got a hand shape I was happy with.

 

After the hand was complete I added some armor/gloves over the hand, I did this so I can then add a chain mail texture to the hand itself, by doing this I can avoid having to model the nails and extra tedious details that are unnecessary for now.

Once this was complete I then imported the glove model in to my main character file in order to add the hand to my model.

Now my glove is in place the final thing to do is duplicate and rotate the glove to the other side. But before I do that I will add some addition spikes to the glove and textures. I also reduced the size of the top plate armor in order to help it attach to my models shape more accurately.

Today I begin adding some textures to my character. I started out with some basic block colors, on the sections of my character that don't require too much detail.

Then I decided to create a high quality skin texture using Photoshop. I wanted to make my texture a small file size to save on loading and increase performance. In order to do this I also need to make my texture tileable. So I made it around 200px square and then filled a layer with a mid tone green orc skin color. Next I found a royalty free image of a frogs back, I then cut this image to a relevant size and moved it over my color and lowered the opacity. This gave the skin a nice texture but I also need the texture to be consistent for where it may be impossible to perfectly match up UVs. In order to make my texture more consistent I then duplicated the frog layer three times and rotated each layer and lowered the opacity. Next I used a few different brushes to remove any out of place colors and textures and I finally changed the offset of the texture in order to repair the harsh edges and make it a tileable texture.

It was important to make the texture as consistent as possible, because when my UV's unfold on to the texture there will usually be a gap between one side and the other. This can create a crease line on the model, by having a good consistency of color and texture it helps to hide and blend in any texture edges that cannot be connected.

Next I created a new set of UV's for my model in order to match up the texture more accurately and to controls which side of my model will have any unavoidable creases. As you can see from my UV map the crease lines will be on the bottom of the stomach where it folds inside, out of view and on the very outside of the arms. As I know my texture is tileable and could be split in to four smaller squares with each square being the same I can position the UV map so that the arms match up in the top and bottom square in order to cover up the crease on the arm. This worked slightly but not perfectly due to the different angles on the arm edge, however I moved around the UV map until I was happy with its position and the edges where hard to identify.

Next I repeated this process for both my characters legs with the same texture, I enjoyed this process and I'm happy with how it looks. Next I will design some gloves for my character so I can create them in 3D as well as some new improved heads.

Next I followed a Maya texturing tutorial, the tutorial I followed was extremely detailed and slightly over complicated the processes but it was clear and helpful. I only wish Maya had a developed a more user friendly texturing system, as I may struggle to remember how it is all done. But I'm sure it will grow on me. Here is an image of the work I produced during this texturing tutorial.

Today I reviewed all the remaining NURB tutorials in order to complete the NURBS challenge. Before I did all these tutorials and the challenge I hated NURBs and didnt really want anything to do with them but this work has shown me they can actually be very helpful.

The first thing I did was set up the reference images and place them on their own layer so I could quickly show/hide them.

Then I began using different NURB tools and techniques that I had previously learned via all the tutorials in order to create my character. While doing this I faced a few issues, as working with NURBs is extremely different to working with polygons. Some of the tools I attempted to use that would work for polygons didn't work for NURBs. One of which was the technique I use to duplicate and then scale in order to copy and paste the arm parts on the other side. With polygons this can be done easily by combining the objects and then detaching the object once they have been placed in position. However when this is attempted with NURBs it is harder to combine them, meaning when a selection of them are rotated or scaled simultaneously they all move individuality around their center points rather than as one object. I'm sure there is a way to combine them that I still need to learn but for now I moved and rotated the objects one by one. My point is that, once you start working with NURBs its like working in a whole new application as your knowledge from polygon editing is not effectively cross compatible with NURBS. Because of this point I'm tempted to avoid using them in my final character due to the time restriction and how much new information I would be required to remember simultaneously.

Here are some images of my final character's front and side views.

NURBS 1-5

Today I experimented with Nurbs and compared them to polygons. Below is some screenshots and conclusions to my findings.

The sphere to the left is made from polygons and the sphere to the right is made from Nurbs. As you can see suing NURBS is a more efficient way of creating curves. This is because in 3D work the Polly count is highly important. This is because an object with a high poly count will have slower loading speeds than an object with a low poly count. This issue is not so bad in videos because the video is rendered before it is presented to the user or viewer, but an object with a high polygon count will require a longer render time, due to more detail and a wider range of visible angles and pixel colors.

This issue is then amplified if the object is to be animated live in a game. This is because a high polygon count can cause game play lag and again slow loading depending on the processor of the users computer. In order for a game to be successful it must be playable by as many customers as possible this means creating a game with minimal requirements. By creating models with a low poly count owners of common computers, old computers and top quality gaming computers can enjoy the product. And more customers means more profit.

As my final peace of work is going to be a rendered video rather than a live active character in a game I don't need to worry about the polygon count too much. However after this module is complete I do plan to embed the video within a flash game. This means I can still benefit from a low poly count due to lowering the file size of the video. This will help me by lowering download time for the game in which the video will be contained. Because of this is it moderately important for me to be careful with my polygon count and try to minimalism polygons when possible, meaning the use of NURBs for curves may be in my interest.

This next image demonstrates the flexibility of objects created by NURBS. As you can see again the NURB shape on the right contains a lower poly count but a higher quality curve and more unique controls. The controls available in NURBS is unique and easy to use, however they are slightly restrictive compared to polygons. The best way to describe these differences is by comparing how the systems work for the rendered outputs. For example polygons are like rasterized bitmap images, with each pixel having its own variable unique properties and colors. Where as NURB renders are more like vector graphics created by mathematical geometry. Overall this means NURB's are fast and effective for smooth curves, they have fast loading speeds, a low polygon count and may require high quality textures in order to appear realistic. Where as polygons can have higher texturing detail, can be used to creating a wide range of shapes with sharp edges, generally have more polygons and generally have a larger file size.

This image displays some of the controls and possible shapes that can be made with NURBS.

This image displays how the CV's, Isoparms and Pathes can be altered to manipulate a NURBS object.

This image demonstrates how the surface editing tool can be used to manipulate NURB objects.