Inspirational Model - Final Renders

These are the final renders of the finished character.

In these renders you will see two different light effects that show the character in different ways.

Harsher Lighting:

These two renders show off the 'harsher' lighting choice that I created. This type of lighting helps to show the Specular map and Normal map that I created. 

The harsher lighting on the back of the character casts a darker shadow over the front face of the character, which, if you refer to my lighting blog earlier on is the effect I wanted to create.

Softer Lighting:

This softer creates the sense that the character is somewhere near a sunset. This type of lighting is softer that the others before; which creates a lighter hearted feeling about the character.

Inspirational Model - The First Renders (unlit)

These are rendered images of the character are from Marmoset. The lights haven't been placed into the scene yet.
One of the reasons why I decided to show these renders is because it will allow you to see the difference between a light scene and an unlit scene.

Inspirational Model - The Textures

My model will contain three different types of maps. The first being a Diffuse, second is Specular and the third and final map is a Normal.
The reason why I have chosen to use these three maps on my model is because, well, they are the more common types of maps available; there are other popular maps such as Bump, Alpha channel, Opacity, Reflection and Refraction.
I have chosen to use a Diffuse because, obviously, without it the character would have no colour or design. The Specular map allows me to create a more realistic feel to the character as I can control how light bounces off of the character in certain ways on certain areas. The Normal will, again, allow me to push the realistic feel and imagery of the character further, by using a Normal map, I can create the illusion that the sack weave is actually a weave and doesn't just look like a flat image. It also allows me to create engravings in the metal on the zip of the character.

Diffuse Maps:

These are the two Diffuse maps I created for the character (check UV post for why there is two). I wanted to go for a lighter colored weave for my characters fabric, rather than the more traditional and popular dark brown. I didn't want the character to look completely clean, because nothing in the real world is perfect (in the sense of undamaged). By creating the dark areas around where the stitching would be on each section it shows that a lot of strain goes on these areas as this is where the coloration of the character is rubbing and fading away.

I wanted to keep the eyes a traditional black, this is because nearly all sack boys have these types of eyes; to push the eyes further and bring more life into them then refer to the specular maps.

Specular Maps:

These are my two Specular maps for my character. The specular maps look fairly simple in design, however once lighting is incorporated into the scene with my character, I feel that this map will bring out and help to develop some of the details of the character.

When a light is directed at a sack weave, the cloth that the sack has been weaved in is relatively reflective, not in the sense that you can see your reflection or it will blind you if you look at it but you can the beams of light across the strands. By manipulating the levels of black and white I was able to pull back the inside sections and make the weaves whiter; this will create a realistic effect of the fabric I am trying to replicate with the character. 

Normal Maps:

These are my two Normal maps for my modeled character. The main reason why I wanted to use a Normal map on my character is because it will help me to push the detail in the sack weave. By manipulating the layout before converting it into a Normal map, it allows me to bring forward the individual weave strands and push back the ares between the strands. This creates the illusion that there is depth and perspective to the textures, rather there just being a flat texture placed over a model. 

To finish up the details I added and engraving on the character's zip. It's fairly simple in design, with there being a few lines and the letter 'YKK'. YKK is a zip brand that is seen on a lot of zips. When you look at the Diffuse map, you won't see the 'YKK' there; this is because I wanted to create the engraving illusion so therefore no extra colours go onto this section but as light passes over the zip section you will see the engravings. 

Inspirational Model - UV

Now that the modelling of the Inspirational Model is finished its time for me to move onto UV-ing the character so I can then advance onto texturing.
During the weekly sessions with the tutor we have looked into and used a few independent UV-ing softwares.
To UV my character I used Max's own software as I felt more comfortable and familiar with it than other independent softwares.

Here are my UV renders for my character:

I used two UV maps for my model because having two allowed me to put more detail into certain aspects of the model, without having to cram everything into one uv sheet.

First UV map:

This is the first UV map. I contain the head and body section. This is the reason why I used two maps instead of one; having two allows me to focus a lot of space within the UV map so therefore I can put more detail into these areas. The body and head are the bigger models and generally is where the focal point of the character is.

Second UV Map:

This is the second UV map. This map contains the other sections of the character; sections like the arms, legs, zip and zip teeth. You may notice that there is only one arm, one leg and one zip tooth UV'd. To save on UV space I have piled the UVs on top of one another. 

With the zip teeth I first modeled one, UV mapped it and then made copies of it; because models use the same UV layout when copied this allowed me to 'cheat' out more space.

With the arm and legs, once I had modeled one of each section, I then used a modifier within 3DS Max known as 'Mirror'. This allows you to copy the model and mirror it along a plane within the view port; X, Y, Z, XY. ZX and so on. 

Inspirational model - The model

Once I had finished modelling the body, arms, legs and zip of the character it was now time to start working on the face of the character.

Below are the screenshots of the character as it sits now:

Week 19 - Texture Tutorial

Over the past few weeks, both outside of the lesson and in the lessons with the tutor, we have been focusing on improving and working on the development of our Inspirational Model piece.

However, this week the tutor ran a tutorial session on texturing skills within Photoshop. This lesson was a massive help as we have other projects; like this one, that involves lots of texturing inside of Photoshop and working with UV's.

He began by uploading the files we needed for the tutorial to the shared folder on the computers, he then went through and showed up different techniques in painting an organic object.

Below are images taken from my work:

Here is the UV layout that the tutor gave us, our goal was to create a basic rock texture around this 'underwater' rock.





We then created a base rock texture for the object, we did this by duplicating the base texture and removing the seams between the materials.





We the started to add on detail to the surface of the rock. We used a porous material provided in the shared files. Once we had positioned the material where we wanted, we then changed the layer to 'soft light' to get that faded appeal, making the material look like it belongs. We then went through removing any hard edges left.





Once the porous texture was done it was then a case of creating the streaks seen at the bottom, the streaks were to simulate the effect that water takes on a rock over the years as it brushes past.

The process for the streaks was the same as the porous material.



This is the raw texture that I created during the tutorial without the UV's.

Inspirational Model Update - The Pinch Problem

As, now, I am pretty much finishing with the modelling process of my Inspirational Model, I am at the stage of doing final checks of the model, making sure the polys run smoothly and are creating what I actually want with this project.

Whilst I was checking the body of the model I noticed a strange 'pinching' effect towards the bottom, as illustrated in the screenshot below.

Not only does this not look appealing on the model but also I could affect the textures when I come to add them to the model, it could distort or stretch the textures; ruining the model.
I believe this is caused by the turbo smooth that I added to the model to create the smooth flowing polys.

To overcome this problem I began by deleting the 'Turbo smooth' modifier that was applied to the model. This instantly got rid of the pinch but the model now looked rough and low poly. I then tidied up the bottom part of the body by re- shaping the polys around that are. Once this had been taken care of I then went through the body section, applying smoothing groups to the surfaces, which created the same type of smoothness from the turbo smooth but didn't create that pinch effect at the bottom.

Below are images of the new and improved body of the Inspirational Model:

Inspirational Model Update - Low Poly Arm Model

The next step for my inspirational model was to model the arm.

The images coming up below are of the low poly version of my model.

Once the character has been blocked in I will go back through the model and add more edges, giving the model a smoother flow and look to it.

Week 14 - Photoshop matte painting drill

During the session this week the tutor set a 45 minute Photoshop drill.

The drill involved us using our sketches that we did in the drill last lesson and incorporating it into anything that we wished.

Below is my final product after the 45 minute drill:



























If I had just a little bit more time I would of liked to incorporate the title of my Photoshop matte piece 'On a walk' .... I tried to create the illusion that the sketched characters had 'come to life' and went for a walk across the other paintings.

Below are several images with annotation to describe my process of creating the final Photoshop matte painting piece.

 I began by working on the original sketch that I had scanned into the computer, I needed to remove the two signatures from other students, so I used the healing brush tool to cover them.

Then I needed to remove the characters, so with the sketch layer selected in Photoshop I took a copy of just the individual characters by using the lasso tool.

Then to remove the characters from the sketch scene I needed to use the clone tool to 'rub' them out but at the same time replace them with the paper background of the sketch.

I then used the clone tool to replace the gaps in the sketch from the character's feet with grass, so that the sketch looked believable.


Once I had separated the characters and placed them in another file within Photoshop, I could then go through and remove the background to just leave them.

To do this I used the magic wand tool to delete the background surrounding the characters .




Once they had been separated it was just a case of fitting the 'new' edited sketch into the frame that I had selected.

Simple scaling and reshaping of the frame made this process easy.

Inspirational Model Update - Modelling the Zip

This is a blog update showing my current process with the model.




Here is a distance shot of the character as it stands, I have changed the colour of the zip itself and the teeth of the zip just to help pull it away from the rest of the model making it easier to see and evaluate.

I started by looking into the most common types of zips that are seen on clothing and what actual style of zip is used on the sack boy model. I then free handed the design and model, eyeing up the positioning and scale.










Here is a close up of the zip and the teeth that I will be using on the model. The majority of the zip model is made up of primitive shapes that have been tweaked slightly to create the shape of the zip that I wanted.





The next step for the model will be to create the arms. Once the arms have been modeled and placed the overall shape of the character will be finished, leaving the final details in the face and any tears in the character's body, legs or arms.

Week 13 - Sketch Drill

This week the tutor gave us a 45 minute sketching drill.

This was the original piece of art work:

After the 45 minutes were up this is what I had done:

After the 45 minute sketch the tutor told us to show our work to two other students in the lesson to; one, acknowledge that we had in fact done the sketch, and secondly, to kind of present our work in a quick way to other people to build up our confidence up when showing work. 

Also during the 45 minute sketch drill the tutor walked around the class room and watched over our shoulder whilst we were sketching, this was to create an actual working environment for our industry. As, from what the tutor told us, there will be people (our superiors) looking over our shoulder whilst we work. 

Overall I am very pleased with my final sketch. There are areas that could be increased, for example, the proportioning and placement of the two character (tiger and the child). However, as I can step back from my work, look at it and evaluate the sketch as a whole; picking out the negatives and critically evaluating myself, shows that I am starting to understand more about traditional art, and therefore how I can help myself to improve.

Research into Zip designs for model

The next step for my inspirational model is to model the zip and the teeth that is seen running down the front of the character.

To create the zip and add my own design spin to it, I began by researching into the different designs of zips that are most commonly seen on items of clothing.

Below are the most common designs found:

By looking into the varying designs of zips it gives me a broader understanding of how they look and work; it will also allow me to gain a perspective and proportion for when I come to model the zip for my character model. 

New Year Research of Inspirational Model

To understand more about my inspirational model piece I decided to do a bit more research into the possible development after I have finished the basic model.
I searched the internet, Google, and official gaming sites that feature the game 'Little Big Planet'; which is where my character is from.

Below are several images of the more interesting designs that I managed to find:

By looking at all the different costumes and variety of this character really motivates me and helps me to understand more into the development of the character. The more research that I conduct into the different costumes will help me create my own costume, if and when, I come to create my own.