I'm not too crazy about the blog system, I guess I just don't like blogging. I kind of paid for it last project - I've done a crazy amount of work, but didn't get graded for it because I didn't put much effort into documenting it, and much of it didn't show up in the film.
Should be noted that spelling and grammer are out of the window as it's 3:50 and I'm not that awake. Should also be noted that I'm aware of how boring this section is going to be. In fact I'm aware of how boring the whole blog is. I'm doing this as ass-coverage rather than out of a genuine will to blog or to record my process. So if nothing else at least I have some self-awareness as to the level of excitement going on here.
Modeling: I found modeling environments and buildings quite easy. You just modeled something to look like you want it to look. They weren't alive and they weren't all that appealing. In fact, because we did post apocalyptic, the messier the better. Modeling for the sake of animating is a whole different animal. Modeling people is also really different than modeling objects. A lot more time consuming, a lot more to keep track of, but also a lot more rewarding to see your character coming to life slowly. The final model is about the 3rd attempt or so. The other two attempts were done in a day, so I didn't lose too much time on them. The first one had to be binned because there were too many vertexes too early. I cluttered the geometry because I thought It'd make it easier to model. So as I was building the torso, for example, I'd add edges wherever I thought my character might have to move or twist eventually. After a bit of reflection I realized It's probably better to take the modeling one step at a time - first blocking out the character very roughly, and not worry about the amount of edges and vertexes. Keep it to a minimum, in fact. And so that's what I did on the second attempt. Only then I started pulling the vertexes to make it look smoother. And it did look smoother and nicer. Problem was, I didn't block out the fingers, and adding fingers to a smoothed hand proved to be a pain. The third and final attempt at modeling the body was just really blocking everything out as simply as possibly, and only when everything's blocked out start modeling.
The head was the biggest challenge. I've followed the book 'Stop Staring' In my free time on holidays, but have only gotten up to the nose bit. So I could do the lower face quite well, up until the nose, and indeed that part I've done quite fast on my model. It was after that that I got stuck. I tried continuing the face with pollys by extruding them, but after about 4 or 5 failed attempts t just didn't feel like I was going anywhere. This is where Jamie came to the rescue. With his help I've redone the upper face, this time with curves again, until finally I got the whole shape. Then with a lattice deformer I've changed my face to fit the original drawing exactly (my model has shrunk a little, so the lattice helped me scale it up in areas that were scrawnier than they should be). One more helpful tool I used was the average vertexes tool. It does something not unlike smoothing, only without adding any extra vertexes.
Throughout the modeling stage I kept looking at other characters and other models to see how they've coped with not having triangles in areas where they feel needed
One thing I think my model is lacking is more definition on the clothes. I was waiting for a reply from Alex regarding what's the best way to approach clothing and a dress - do it seperately, or model it with the mesh? By the time I've gotten my answer, I've already spent too much time on my model. The clothing ended up not looking very convincing at all. Oh well..
Texturing: Most of what I've done last project was texturing and UV mapping. So in this project texturing has taken me about 2 days of not too hard work. I think I can safely say that I feel very confident about working with UV maps, and enjoy the combination of photoshop. I've introduced to a lot of people on the course the PSD Network option, which is a really good way of doing complex layer-based textures in photoshop and updating it immediately in Maya. It's surprising how really helpful you can discover almost by accident.
I think last project was a bit difficult for me in terms of artistic fulfillment. I was mainly applying someone else's textures to someone else's models, 90% of which were never even seen anyway. I felt like the uncredited behind the scene guy, but I've also made a conscious decision halfway through to project to just get on with it and be a team member rather than thinking about this project in terms of personal goals. I think maybe this led me to really go to town a little with texturing in this project. I was texturing my own character for my own story, etc, and had no one else to consider. I stuck to the claymation style the brief has set, but only to some extent. I felt that pure claymation look actually compromises the character a bit, and decided to add a bit more colours and shades, and generally more of a complex texture. I do think the result is quite lovely, though not entirely plasticine-like.
To be continued another time, I'm boring myself here..
The first image is halfway through my attempt of gettingt he right clay-ish texture using aardman picture as a reference
