a bit of movement in the bathroom...

object modeling for practice

plain and simple, for fun and practice. polys.

I promised myself i wouldnt touch maya today.

...and this is what happened. facial modeling, a go at texturing and aim constraints on the eyes.

Day and Night, Interior modelling and texturing

I have been working on very small projects for the last couple days, so i wanted to push myself for something ambitious so as not to stagnate.

I decided to model the bathroom in the house I'm living in at the moment as it would be close to hand for reference, and is both simple and stylish. Enough of bigging up my bog though. As it was a confined space it was hard maneuvering around my scene so i used layers and xray to help.

i modeled in nurbs, and polys, depending on the needs of the individual object, and i textured and lit as i went. it took around 12 hours to get to this stage and i dont think i'll go further. it has been a great experience and I am very happy with the outcome.


Due to flicker being money grabbers I'll have to upload individual photos later. check out the video atm :)

what can you make with apples, tomatos and eggs

I wanted to continue with my experimentation with textures, as this is probably my biggest void of knowledge at the moment (apart from rigging ofcourse!)

I cant believe its not Tuna

refference


label


i cant believe its not Tuna

fame is the perfume of heroic deeds

Reference:




Results:




I've really enjoyed the workflow today so i decided to continue this evening/night and model one more object, this time just for fun. I used a lot of what i learned and practiced earlyer and i am very pleased with the result. i used illustrator and photoshop to make the labels, polys for the models this time, and phong for the glass.

finaly replaced that broken glass.

Reference

playing with another bit of easy modeling but this time combining it with experimenting with phong refractions.


experimenting

because you always need teaspoons

just had to. with nurbs.

Just a cup

I have been noticing my recent projects have been ambisious and i have felt that because i am not producing my best work. pushing youserlf is always a good practice, but i also believe that simple exercises like this remind you of the basics and show you the kind of level that you are working at. for these reasons i have spent a little time modeling a plain cup. no nonsence. heres what i came up with:
(nurbs, phongs, photoshop used to create the floral pattern from a photo i took)


real reference


modeled cup

Sony Vaio Mouse

for a break from tutorials today i just decided to try modeling an object....close at hand. sorry, i hate puns. anyway, i used a number of different techniques to easily construct the shape without throwing in millions of verts. bot polys and nurbs were used and the vaio logo was very un-expertly placed as i am still pretty clueless about texturing. i took some reference images, but i didnt actually bother importing them to image planes, as im not sure this is always the best way to approach a model.

Cartoon Muscle

So i was kinda bored last night, so sat down with a couple movies and just started modeling from imagination. I knew i kinda wanted some very exaggerated muscle and i had in mind that rhino guy from the old spiderman cartoons. heres what i came up with by the end of the movie :)

soft and rigid bodies

Dammit Dan!! why didnt you tell us we could do in 5 seconds what took us
hours to animate by hand! :P

nahh i know he was teahing us the principals of keyframes, timing and making us look at the graph
editor. still, i think i would have gotten a better mark had i known about this!



by adding active and passive nodes to polygons, then applying a gravity field to the active nodes, you can easilly create a bounce effect as shown here. what is recomended is that you only use this to generate a base effect. then bake the simulation into keyframes and go in and really make it your own (and what you actually want from the drop/bounce). This was very fun to learn and i urge others to play too! its like a better version of LBP!

a morning of rendering introduction

I was rudely awakened by the dustman this morning at 7:30, but decided to capitalize on this by running downstairs and jumping on to some pre-breakfast Maya training.

I learned a lot of the basics of render nodes, and how to connect them, most of which is very dull and hard to sum up in a few simple words. However my favorite piece of knowledge gained from this morning's session was the benefits bump maps can have to you default modeling textures. Below is my explanation of this using a simple lambert and fractal, connected in the hypershade and set to low alpha gain. hope it is useful! :)

why you use sub-div surfaces in conjunction with polygonal modeling

I have been learning how switching your model between polys and sub-divs can really let you model in a whole new way. the best way i can think to describe it is that modeling with polys is like carving out of wood, which is the best way to build up a primary form to work with. Then sub divs are like changing your model from wood to clay, alowing you to sculpt curves easily without creating creases  or unwanted hard lines in your work. by using a combonation of the 2 i think you can very quickly get the results in your model that you are after. Here is my video explanation of the two, displayed by first a poly model, then the same model after around 10 mins of sub-div editing:

Un-Incredible Animation

I decided to try rigging my character again tonight, and i had more luck with figuring out weights ect. I havnt really watched or read much about rigging so most of its guess work at this stage. Here is what i came up with:

Mr Incredibles not-so-incredible brother

Here is how i spent a  very relaxing sunday. I have tried realistic modeling of a male and female, and so that i didnt just repeat the same exercise i tried modeling a pixar like character. It is a totally different experience modeling a character, than a realistic rendition as you feel a lot more confident about your work. I also used this as an excuse to add lots of fat and weight to this model. here is what i came up with in around 6 hours:

just a bit of fun...

last night i played about with rigging and painting weights, not on a quest for perfection, but just because it was really fun to think about unique ways to do it! here is what i came up with:

Because i couldnt stand it....

I have updated the problem with the packs on the abdomen as it was really irritating me!

here are the results:

Male Muscle

After my experiments with curvy female topology yesterday i wanted to try the more rigid male chest and abdomen. I was very careful only to add edge loops where needed, and i concentrated on having a good flow around and over the muscles and chest. Here is what i came up with in around 3 hours, I am quite happy, although the mirroring was done very quickly at the end so i wasn't able to add the definition between the abdomen packs:

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Female Topology

I have been playing with creating good topology around the female form. I choose this form as it involves many curves and therefore a great excuse to concentrate on edge loops rather than detailed geometry. Here is what i came up with:

Because you have to start somewhere.....

I have been playing around with modeling the human body again, and I am happy to be able to see improvement since my earlier work. I still need soooo much more practice to join the level of my peers, but y'know, gotta start somewhere!

Homage to LBP!

using some competition leaflets for some drawing competition as reference, i decided to spend my saturday afternoon paying respect to one of the best games ever!

The iDrill

just a maya doodle project purely for fun.