Modeling 2

For Modeling 2, we worked in Maya and primarily ZBrush (then I played around with Shave and a Haircut). I decided to create a 3D modeling of my musk ox, which was DIFFICULT. Cartoony characters are hard to do, and it still doesn't look right. He's an energetic happy character so I wanted him to be round. But, I need to learn more anatomy and extrapolate the cartoony form from what the real anatomy is like. I wish I did something realistic. Plus my guy is intended to have fur all over him, so it was hard to capture his form underneath that fur. 

Here's the video of my 3D model. I modeled everything, but the environment was done super fast in Maya. 

Creative Pre-Production

In Pre-Production we come up with a character and a story, storyboard, maquette, and animatic.

I don't remember, but I actually think that this is actually a scribble drawing I did from Concept Art...

 Germaphobic door handle. The door freaks out whenever a human is trying to use him to open a door. Realizes that if he just refuses to work and get jammed all the time, the person will stop using him, which seems to work for awhile, until he's replaced and tossed into a garbage can and dumpster.

Guy showing down on the beach. He's about to be attacked by a hungry persistent seagull. 

Musky ox again, for the musky ox love story. A musk ox is trying to be musky enough to attract a girl that he's had a crush on. 

Cute nerd. 

Prickly Bird. A super lovable bird in a pet store wants to be picked up by a loving owner. However, parents buying pets for their children consider him to be too dangerous due to his spikes. He tries to be super affectionate, cover his spikes in leaves and wood chips, and tries to break off his spikes as a last desperate attempt. Nothing works, until one day, a girl comes and slips a custom made hooded sweater around him that is thick enough for his spikes to not poke and brings him home.

 Rhino with tree in place of horn. I was thinking about doing an environmental piece of a relationship between the rhino and the birds that perch on her tree. 

Wanted to keep going on Musky ox (also more liked by people). Here are some sketches of him. He's really happy and energetic. He gets sad, but never angry or mad. 

He's on an Alaskan plain near water. He likes flowers and in the end I wanted it to have more flowers surrounding him as he prances off. 

My maquette of Musky Ox.

My animatic. I have a version with sound but my voice acting might be too distracting in a bad way. Hahahah.

Texture and Lighting 1

I really loved this class! Will try to get better at this for sure!

First did a photoshop painting that with an AO layer and a key light layer. 

Then modeled it and lit it in Maya, adding atmospheric perspective and z-depth.

Then we learned how to texture it with color, spec, and bump maps.

I took a set and lit it in Maya. Going for late in the afternoon. 

Took models and set dressed it, then lit it. I wanted to insinuate a story with the juice box and present. Decided against this idea to have the subject back lit on a desk in the far back corner of the classroom. 

And did this version of it in the middle of the night with a suggestion that a lamp is close to above the desk they're on.

We unwrapped a texture map of this crazily dense stock game statue model and tried to make her look like a real person. Oh my goodness what a nightmare it was to unwrap it! Then we textured it. It was really difficult to make her not look creepy. I decided to fake her eyes being closed. (Critiques for this assignment were the creepiest ever.)

Final project for this class: I took my model from Modeling 1 and textured and lit him. Used Maya, Roadkill, Mudbox, and Photoshop.

Remember this sad sad version from Modeling 1?

Haha. Still struggling to try to texture a model to look human:

Here's a version I had at a mid point. of my project. 

Final version after about 1.5-2 weeks, so I should be able to do this faster next time right? I'll be taking Texture and Lighting 2 soon, so hopefully I can learn how to do subsurface scattering better. I attempted to do it for this project, but I don't think it's coming across very strongly.

Animation 1

Oh, so impossible to learn even very basic intro to 3D animation in 5 weeks!

sigh. made it worse adding a tail, but I know how I'd fix this now!

Oh, so hard to fix stuff in the allotted amount of frames. I think I should've cut some poses so that I would have room for him to spend more time struggling to get his fingers under the box.

Here's my performance eval on the last day:

Compositing 1

In this class we worked in Photoshop and Nuke. I didn't like many of the assignments for this class, probably because we had to choose from stock footage that the school had to incorporate into an environment, and the selection was just super weird.

However, here's a quick sketch and a composite I did. The bear, me, book, blanket, and other teddy bear are all on separate layers. Still need to fix the lights and shadows and make his fur seem longer where the hand and arm are.

Intro to Animation

For Intro to Animation we did traditional animation. So fun! But really difficult, especially to grab timing. Wish we didn't have to double track with another class this term (and that we got to take this for longer than weeks.)

Here are some of the assignments I did:

Modeling 1

First 3D class where lots of my peers encountered Maya for the first time.

We had a few small assignments such as model a chair, wagon, etc... then we did a hardsurface and then organic model. Here are my attempts for the last two assignments:

My wolverine, that I use to look much better later...

Professor Bare is an Earth Biology Professor from an alien planet, whose inhabitants secretly view Earth from afar. He's on the mission to save Earth's endangered species from becoming extinct by secretly shuttling the last of their kind back to his home planet. He's incredibly interested in humans and their cultures, and is a big fan of Indiana Jones since he is also a professor and a hero. He also has a huge pet peeve of humans who shave, because he has an uncontrollable balding spot on the top of his head.

A Musky Ox Love Story: A male musk ox tries his best to be extra manly and musky in order to attract the girl he likes.

Farm during transitioning seasons from winter to spring.

Professor Bare in an out on the field outfit.

Some color options. I want him to look immediately alien with the green, but it seems like some people are more comfortable seeing him in fur color we're used to seeing.

Musky Ox sketches

The plain that the musk ox story takes place in. 

Prickly Bird: A loving prickly bird who struggles to find a new owner.

Happy man at the beach, is about to be bothered by a hungry persistent seagull.

3-point lighting study painted in Photoshop.

Wolverine modeled, textured, and lit by me using Maya, Mudbox, Roadkill, and Photoshop.

Value study using pencil based on photograph from Vogue Magazine.

Another value study also from a fashion photograph.

Life and figure drawings plus gestures.