As we come to the end of this project, all except the presentation done, I felt that as a group we worked well. We didn’t actually organise that many meetings between us but the few we had set out very clearly what we were to do and obviously we talked whilst in the scheduled lecture every week.
In our final meeting a voice-over was created by Adam for our presentation to explain our video. I was not present for this stage of the meeting due to having a presentation in another module, however once I had finished there I joined the group and we set about organising the animation in video format so that this sound clip could be added. All went smoothly and we even managed to prepare for our presentation by stating who would talk about what and the order we would speak in.
To recap the roles of the group members here is a list:
Craig – Modelling the ‘left’ or ‘small’ side of the pump and main research into pump workings due to having contact details of museum staff.
Adam – Modelling the environment/room that the boiler pump would be featured in.
Steven – Modelling and animating the centre of the pump (pistons)…Steven’s role also led into fixing the whole scene together due to having 3ds max 2009, a newer version of the program than even the Uni Labs had. This was unfortunate as with most programs the files are not backwards compatible.
Ryan (me) – The ‘right’ or ‘large’ side of the pump and fire/connections for power input. My role also extended into creating the camera for the final product.
Looking at the final product I can say that I’m not 100% pleased. Although I still believe that the final animation has come out in an acceptable standard it is not to the quality I would have liked. This is primarily due to rendering times, and the unfortunate circumstances that it all had to be rendered by Steven on his laptop due to having too new a version of the program. The predicted length of render when all materials were set to their original settings from our modelling was in excess of 36hours to my belief. Steven had to remove several material maps and even objects within the scene to cut this down.
The objects removed were:
My fire emitter and material, Adam’s bump map on the flooring and Adam’s Water Tank. I also believe that the lighting had to be adjusted to a lower level.
Although I can’t say I was pleased by this, I can understand why they happened. In hindsight if we had known that Steven’s version of 3ds was newer and not compatible with the Uni system, we would have agreed to work solely on the Uni computers so that we could split the rendering to several different machines and not have to compromise the quality of our final piece.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Evaluation Of My Work
Looking back on my work I am happy with what I produced. My favourite part of which is my fire. Having never created fire before and only limited use of particle systems before I am surprised at how realistic I managed to make it look.
As I went along through this project I found I was going back to different parts of it just to make slight edits until I thought the model was perfect. This was very much the case with the part of the pump I created. I actually created two different types when initially modelling. One from several shapes pieced together and the other made all from a solid box. The solid box gave the best image by far and seen as I actually started work on the other one first, I actually got frustrated with myself for not realising how much easier this would have been…Needless to say I deleted the first file in anger! Looking back on this I probably should have made some screenshots – or pushed myself to make an update to my blog at the time showing what I was doing.
I would have liked to included a liquid of some sort in my modelling but it just proved too much of a task to me. As shown from my initial modelling I had a concept but lacked the knowledge in progressing this into a convincing substance. I’m sure as I gain more experience with 3ds Max I will attempt to model water once again and succeed in time. For now though I feel as if I have become more confident with the program and much more time efficient in what I can produce.
As I went along through this project I found I was going back to different parts of it just to make slight edits until I thought the model was perfect. This was very much the case with the part of the pump I created. I actually created two different types when initially modelling. One from several shapes pieced together and the other made all from a solid box. The solid box gave the best image by far and seen as I actually started work on the other one first, I actually got frustrated with myself for not realising how much easier this would have been…Needless to say I deleted the first file in anger! Looking back on this I probably should have made some screenshots – or pushed myself to make an update to my blog at the time showing what I was doing.
I would have liked to included a liquid of some sort in my modelling but it just proved too much of a task to me. As shown from my initial modelling I had a concept but lacked the knowledge in progressing this into a convincing substance. I’m sure as I gain more experience with 3ds Max I will attempt to model water once again and succeed in time. For now though I feel as if I have become more confident with the program and much more time efficient in what I can produce.
In the Final Video
Although I stated that my work was finished for the group this did not mean i was now inactive.
I created the camera angles shown in the final animation, as the other members of my group were not entirely sure how to do this.
I used a free cam and key points to make the motion. We decided as a group it would make sense to start at the top of the stairs in Adam's environment and then pan round to show everything else. Once this camera was put in place, Steven could adjust the lighting to where he thought it best placed.
I created the camera angles shown in the final animation, as the other members of my group were not entirely sure how to do this.
I used a free cam and key points to make the motion. We decided as a group it would make sense to start at the top of the stairs in Adam's environment and then pan round to show everything else. Once this camera was put in place, Steven could adjust the lighting to where he thought it best placed.
My work for the group complete
This was my work complete for now, and so I decided to make a quick fly round render of my scene after throwing in a few quick components (a wooden crate and a floor) both of which I knew weren’t to be used in the final model and were created using a bitmap material.
Chimnea and Pipes
I created the housing for the fire originally from a sphere. I stretched out this shape by modifying the vertices placement. My rough aim was for a chimnea like shape. I felt as if the top would need to narrow to allow a pipe to join and channel the steam up and through. I also decided to flatten out the front port where you can actually see the fire so that I can easily affix a door on a hinge. I created this space inside the ‘sphere’ by using the Boolean tool subtracting a box.
I would also need to start modelling my pipes to connect the pump to the chimnea so I set about this. The beginning and end would both use a flat round plate to bolt onto either object to cope with the possible stress it could come under. Creating the pipes was simple, I created basic cylinders of the same radius and put them into position, obviously using the bend tool where needed to change direction. The main setback I found from making the pipes this way was that they looked as if they didn’t join into each other where I had made separate cylinders. I soon realised that in most cases with piping a larger cylinder would be present adjoining two sections of pipe-work. So once I added this I felt it looked much more professional and went about creating my materials. I used very similar materials for the pipes, chimnea, nuts and bolts; all using the same principle of using an anisotropic shader with a smoke map. The only adjustments were to the colours used and level of bump map.
I would also need to start modelling my pipes to connect the pump to the chimnea so I set about this. The beginning and end would both use a flat round plate to bolt onto either object to cope with the possible stress it could come under. Creating the pipes was simple, I created basic cylinders of the same radius and put them into position, obviously using the bend tool where needed to change direction. The main setback I found from making the pipes this way was that they looked as if they didn’t join into each other where I had made separate cylinders. I soon realised that in most cases with piping a larger cylinder would be present adjoining two sections of pipe-work. So once I added this I felt it looked much more professional and went about creating my materials. I used very similar materials for the pipes, chimnea, nuts and bolts; all using the same principle of using an anisotropic shader with a smoke map. The only adjustments were to the colours used and level of bump map.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
The Right Side of the Pump
I created most of this part out of a box. I added multiple segments so I had more vertices to work with when it came to modelling. Once I had created the general outline of the pump I added in the detail. This specifically meant the cylindrical parts at first. I created these in two ways. The first, being the most simple, for the ‘side’ cylinders was to simply create the cylinders and weld points down the middle to make them one object and place it in the middle of the box. The second, for where a pipeline will join, I used the Boolean tool to unify the 2 object into one, creating a weld effect on the metal.
The next set of detail I went into was on the box where a groove appears. I created this groove/lip by creating more vertices and dragging them in. I felt that this effect came out very well. The final part to this pump would be the nuts, bolts and embossed text on top. All of which were very simple to make. All the nuts were created from one object and cloned, these were created from an Ngon. The bolts were simply cylinders and of course the text was created using the text tool and modifying it with extrude and bend to get the shape I needed.
Now that I had the general shape of my part of the pump I could set about making a house for my fire, since this would then need to connect up to my pump.
The next set of detail I went into was on the box where a groove appears. I created this groove/lip by creating more vertices and dragging them in. I felt that this effect came out very well. The final part to this pump would be the nuts, bolts and embossed text on top. All of which were very simple to make. All the nuts were created from one object and cloned, these were created from an Ngon. The bolts were simply cylinders and of course the text was created using the text tool and modifying it with extrude and bend to get the shape I needed.
Now that I had the general shape of my part of the pump I could set about making a house for my fire, since this would then need to connect up to my pump.
Fire!
To create the fire I would be using a particle system, in this case called Blizzard. The first step obviously was to rotate the emitter round so that rather than falling particles they were rising. I originally followed a tutorial to create my fire effect, which was very useful. However as with most cases I have found if I tweak little things from their tutorial I will end up creating something much more realistic in my opinion. This was the case yet again. The most important aspect for the fire was the material applied to it. The tutorial helped me get the basis of this but produced far too smokey a fire. Here is a screenshot of the material preview:
After much thought I set about reworking the material following the general structure of using smoke maps for multi layers and which map slots to include. The major change I decided upon however was to change from a Blinn shader to a Translucent Shader, this was my key to avoiding the smoke. Opacity and translucency were the key to this material as it needed be bright at the base of the flame but then the colour would need to fade away and become slightly smoke-ish. My material ended up being a lot brighter than the one from the tutorial and all the better for it, here is the preview of the material:
The emitter for the fire required a shape for the flames, since I did not believe that ticks or dots were good enough for this I set about creating my own geometry. This was created from a sphere that I added a noise modifier to setting its scale to 4.777, checking the fractal box and adjusting the iterations. Once I applied this to emitter and made a render of the fire I could see that the flames were looking good. Here is a screenshot of the tutorial’s fire compared to my adjusted fire.
A note to a problem in which occurred whilst i was working on the fire. It turned blue! Yes, for some reason when I added some lighting into my scene the flames turned blue. I managed to solve this problem by adjusting the properties for the emitter to not receive shadows. This solved my problem instantly and my fire was now red hot again.
For now I decided the fire was done, until I decided to create the housing for it and any other bits that might accompany it. I moved on to creating the ‘right hand side’ of the pump.
After much thought I set about reworking the material following the general structure of using smoke maps for multi layers and which map slots to include. The major change I decided upon however was to change from a Blinn shader to a Translucent Shader, this was my key to avoiding the smoke. Opacity and translucency were the key to this material as it needed be bright at the base of the flame but then the colour would need to fade away and become slightly smoke-ish. My material ended up being a lot brighter than the one from the tutorial and all the better for it, here is the preview of the material:
The emitter for the fire required a shape for the flames, since I did not believe that ticks or dots were good enough for this I set about creating my own geometry. This was created from a sphere that I added a noise modifier to setting its scale to 4.777, checking the fractal box and adjusting the iterations. Once I applied this to emitter and made a render of the fire I could see that the flames were looking good. Here is a screenshot of the tutorial’s fire compared to my adjusted fire.
A note to a problem in which occurred whilst i was working on the fire. It turned blue! Yes, for some reason when I added some lighting into my scene the flames turned blue. I managed to solve this problem by adjusting the properties for the emitter to not receive shadows. This solved my problem instantly and my fire was now red hot again.
For now I decided the fire was done, until I decided to create the housing for it and any other bits that might accompany it. I moved on to creating the ‘right hand side’ of the pump.
My task
My task in the group is to create elements of the environment. My aim to create water (or some other liquid) that will be held in a container as if it were to be fed through the pump. And fire, which of course provides the steam to power the pump itself. I will also be modelling parts of the main pump itself, to which we are referring to as the 'right' side of the pump.
I started first by attempting to model water. Seen as I thought this is a pump and the water will move I looked into the particle systems in 3ds, for example the hose effect. This was simple to set up and after a couple of quick renders I made a short video, shown below.
However after seeing this I decided that perhaps this is not the best idea. I couldn’t make the material fluid enough for a liquid and so abandoned the idea of having moving water coming out of the pump.
I moved on to thinking about water in a container above the pump, as this would not be moving. The main modelling aspect to this would be the material, and so I created a basic pebble like shape from flattening a sphere so I could morph it later to a water-like quality. I set about creating my water material following the basic principles of glass.
The ambient and diffuse colour settings were set to black, with specular level at 275, glossiness 45 and soften 0.1. I then added a falloff map to the opacity channel, the settings of this were kept to default except for the falloff type which was changed from perpendicular to fresnel. The material itself was now clear but too smooth, so a bump map was needed. Set at a level of 30 I added a noise map into the bump adjusting the size and phase levels of the noise to a level I thought was acceptable. Finally a refraction map was added with raytrace qualities set to 80, this would give the water its liquid appearance. A short animation later, after cloning the material and changing the phase in the bump map to create a slight rippling effect, I had the ‘pebble’ of water moving about. This was due to simply dragging a few vertices about with soft selection on and tweening. Here is the video:
I still wasn’t satisfied with the water effect so attempted adding the melt modifier to it; this looked really good whilst it was melting but soon disappeared for unknown reason as shown below.
In the end I decided not to include water in the project, as it seemed rather troublesome to make and I would still have other parts to model. So I decided to move on to modelling the fire.
I started first by attempting to model water. Seen as I thought this is a pump and the water will move I looked into the particle systems in 3ds, for example the hose effect. This was simple to set up and after a couple of quick renders I made a short video, shown below.
However after seeing this I decided that perhaps this is not the best idea. I couldn’t make the material fluid enough for a liquid and so abandoned the idea of having moving water coming out of the pump.
I moved on to thinking about water in a container above the pump, as this would not be moving. The main modelling aspect to this would be the material, and so I created a basic pebble like shape from flattening a sphere so I could morph it later to a water-like quality. I set about creating my water material following the basic principles of glass.
The ambient and diffuse colour settings were set to black, with specular level at 275, glossiness 45 and soften 0.1. I then added a falloff map to the opacity channel, the settings of this were kept to default except for the falloff type which was changed from perpendicular to fresnel. The material itself was now clear but too smooth, so a bump map was needed. Set at a level of 30 I added a noise map into the bump adjusting the size and phase levels of the noise to a level I thought was acceptable. Finally a refraction map was added with raytrace qualities set to 80, this would give the water its liquid appearance. A short animation later, after cloning the material and changing the phase in the bump map to create a slight rippling effect, I had the ‘pebble’ of water moving about. This was due to simply dragging a few vertices about with soft selection on and tweening. Here is the video:
I still wasn’t satisfied with the water effect so attempted adding the melt modifier to it; this looked really good whilst it was melting but soon disappeared for unknown reason as shown below.
In the end I decided not to include water in the project, as it seemed rather troublesome to make and I would still have other parts to model. So I decided to move on to modelling the fire.
Museum of Power Pump
On to the second half of this project!
As per usual with me, posting on my blog always seems to be put off to actually do the work. I honestly don't know if this is a good thing or not, as it does show my commitment to the modelling but doesn't provide anyone with an update unless they come directly to me...anyway here we go!
As per usual with me, posting on my blog always seems to be put off to actually do the work. I honestly don't know if this is a good thing or not, as it does show my commitment to the modelling but doesn't provide anyone with an update unless they come directly to me...anyway here we go!
Friday, 23 October 2009
My 'Final' Model
Although I did not get to the overall completion stage I still managed, in my opinion, to produce a good quality model. Here is my final image of my head, set with a omni light with ray traced shadows to give some depth. I also have included a front on image.
Looking back on the project I am pleased with what my model looks like at the stage I got to. This is the most complicated project I have ever had to do in 3d and so feel like I cant fault myself too much. I am more confident with the program but obviously still have lots to learn, otherwise I would have been able to get the UVW mapping to work. Looking ahead to the group work for the Museum of Power I am not worried. I would have never thought it possible to even attempt to create my own head and face in a 3d program, so making some machinery does not seem so daunting. I look forward to becoming more familiar with this program as the outcomes of my work always make me feel a sense of accomplishment.
Looking back on the project I am pleased with what my model looks like at the stage I got to. This is the most complicated project I have ever had to do in 3d and so feel like I cant fault myself too much. I am more confident with the program but obviously still have lots to learn, otherwise I would have been able to get the UVW mapping to work. Looking ahead to the group work for the Museum of Power I am not worried. I would have never thought it possible to even attempt to create my own head and face in a 3d program, so making some machinery does not seem so daunting. I look forward to becoming more familiar with this program as the outcomes of my work always make me feel a sense of accomplishment.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Attempt At Hair
Well I found that trying to add the hair and fur modifier is a bit tricky overall. Particularly once a turbosmooth had been added. I managed to apply hair and style it to a degree of accuracy but on the low poly model.
This is the result:
The problem I found by adding hair to a turbosmoothed model was when trying to select faces for the hair to grow from. If I were to select the top of the head, for some reason it would also select faces around the bottom of my neck/shoulders. Due to this I decided to stop attempting to apply the modifier as my system simply was not powerful enough to render the areas I was selecting and so led to confusion. If I had a more powerful system able to cope with the demand and a little more research into how to use the hair and fur tool I believe I could model the hair to a relatively good standard.
This is the result:
The problem I found by adding hair to a turbosmoothed model was when trying to select faces for the hair to grow from. If I were to select the top of the head, for some reason it would also select faces around the bottom of my neck/shoulders. Due to this I decided to stop attempting to apply the modifier as my system simply was not powerful enough to render the areas I was selecting and so led to confusion. If I had a more powerful system able to cope with the demand and a little more research into how to use the hair and fur tool I believe I could model the hair to a relatively good standard.
UVW Mapping
After much playing about with the Unwrap UVW modifier I have decided that I hate it.
I have watched the tutorial videos through several times now, pausing as it goes along to follow the steps yet I still do not seem able to match what he achieves. I managed to get to the point where I had mirrored my UVW for the checkered example. I could not seem to get the points to line or join up.
As much as I hate to admit it, I feel that I am defeated here. I believe that its possible the reason for this apparent dead end could be something to do with my earlier modelling, which shows the importance of the initial topology.
Here is the edit UVW screen I progressed up to:
And how it looked in the main window:
Even though I have not managed to apply my skin as the texture to the model, I will attempt to place a generic material to it in an attempt to give it some life. If possible I will attempt to add some hair, though I recognise how complex the modifier can be for such a thing so do not expect wonderous things.
I have watched the tutorial videos through several times now, pausing as it goes along to follow the steps yet I still do not seem able to match what he achieves. I managed to get to the point where I had mirrored my UVW for the checkered example. I could not seem to get the points to line or join up.
As much as I hate to admit it, I feel that I am defeated here. I believe that its possible the reason for this apparent dead end could be something to do with my earlier modelling, which shows the importance of the initial topology.
Here is the edit UVW screen I progressed up to:
And how it looked in the main window:
Even though I have not managed to apply my skin as the texture to the model, I will attempt to place a generic material to it in an attempt to give it some life. If possible I will attempt to add some hair, though I recognise how complex the modifier can be for such a thing so do not expect wonderous things.
Simple Animation
Well its not much but its something.
I decided to throw together a little animation.
Originally this was going to be of the mouth moving as if it was talking...The reason for this not happening is because it went horribly wrong! So wrong in fact Max actually crashed and refused to do that kind of movement at all when I tried twice more.
So! In the end Max allowed me to animate a simple smile and a blink. I made this by selecting groups of vertices and moving them, whilst using the auto key frame tool so that it would animate the movement stages.
Like I said its not much but its something, enjoy...
Now hopefully I can get this mapping done; otherwise I will remain a very smooth skinned, bald individual for eternity
I decided to throw together a little animation.
Originally this was going to be of the mouth moving as if it was talking...The reason for this not happening is because it went horribly wrong! So wrong in fact Max actually crashed and refused to do that kind of movement at all when I tried twice more.
So! In the end Max allowed me to animate a simple smile and a blink. I made this by selecting groups of vertices and moving them, whilst using the auto key frame tool so that it would animate the movement stages.
Like I said its not much but its something, enjoy...
Now hopefully I can get this mapping done; otherwise I will remain a very smooth skinned, bald individual for eternity
Eye See You
A relatively simple step you may think!
Well...for the most part yes. The eyes were created using a sphere and adding a custom material. Once I had scaled the eye down to size I positioned it and realised it was not wide enough. However by simply stretching the sphere I would distort the Iris on the image, so I had to go about this another way.
I decided to make the sphere an editable poly and picked certain vertice points to move about whilst affecting the Iris as little as possible. Once I got these points into the corners of the eyes I smoothed off the overall shape by trying to make them appear rounded - this went ok..ish
Obviously I only modelled one eye here and did the sneaky trick of shift+move tool again. This created a copy of the eye exactly to which I just had to position in the other socket.
Next step I believe is UVW mapping - but before then I may try a little animation
Well...for the most part yes. The eyes were created using a sphere and adding a custom material. Once I had scaled the eye down to size I positioned it and realised it was not wide enough. However by simply stretching the sphere I would distort the Iris on the image, so I had to go about this another way.
I decided to make the sphere an editable poly and picked certain vertice points to move about whilst affecting the Iris as little as possible. Once I got these points into the corners of the eyes I smoothed off the overall shape by trying to make them appear rounded - this went ok..ish
Obviously I only modelled one eye here and did the sneaky trick of shift+move tool again. This created a copy of the eye exactly to which I just had to position in the other socket.
Next step I believe is UVW mapping - but before then I may try a little animation
New Neck!
After figuring out what was wrong with my neck, (Silly me leaving the reference plates invisible, so I couldnt judge the thickness needed) I set about fixing my neck.
I used the exact same technique as describe earlier using the shift key+move tool, and welding the vertice points together.
I also decided to show a bit more shoulder (Saucy I know) just to create a more stable looking base for the model.
The next step I would take would be to add some eyes to my scary eyeless person.
I used the exact same technique as describe earlier using the shift key+move tool, and welding the vertice points together.
I also decided to show a bit more shoulder (Saucy I know) just to create a more stable looking base for the model.
The next step I would take would be to add some eyes to my scary eyeless person.
Ear Modelling
This was a complete pain for me...
You can probably see why from previous photos...Yes I was silly and forgot to move my hair from over my ear. This immediately gave me a problem as I could not create a direct topology. However this did not stop me! I knew roughly where the outline of my ear was on the photo guide so started by marking around that. Once I had this line I create the rest of my ear topology primarily by touch. As weird as it sounds it still came out alright. It was definitely a slower process than just being able to look at my ear and draw, but most probably faster than taking another side profile view of myself, adjusting the distortion and finally trying to line up the angles.
The only problem I found with this process was that occasionally I had too few a lines to work with when extruding parts of my ear. This was simply combated by selecting edges in my ear and using the connect tool to split a single face into 2 or 3 faces. This gave me more points to work with and model correctly.
You can see in this image where I have used this technique:
This was the final outcome of my ear:
You can probably see why from previous photos...Yes I was silly and forgot to move my hair from over my ear. This immediately gave me a problem as I could not create a direct topology. However this did not stop me! I knew roughly where the outline of my ear was on the photo guide so started by marking around that. Once I had this line I create the rest of my ear topology primarily by touch. As weird as it sounds it still came out alright. It was definitely a slower process than just being able to look at my ear and draw, but most probably faster than taking another side profile view of myself, adjusting the distortion and finally trying to line up the angles.
The only problem I found with this process was that occasionally I had too few a lines to work with when extruding parts of my ear. This was simply combated by selecting edges in my ear and using the connect tool to split a single face into 2 or 3 faces. This gave me more points to work with and model correctly.
You can see in this image where I have used this technique:
This was the final outcome of my ear:
1st Attempt at Neck
The neck should have been a relatively simple part of the model to make. After seeing my first attempt it didnt look quite right to me, even though I had physically followed the steps I used for when I created my final neck.
Here is my first attempt:
To create the neck I selected edges on the polygons leading up to the area it would start. By holding shift and using the move tool I was able to create a copy of the polygon above it and model it to whatever shape and position that I needed it to be.
The trickiest part of this would be under the chin, although I found if I followed the previous lines of the face I would get a rough shape of what I desired. Once the neck was all put into place I had to make sure it was rounded and not jagged in any areas. The final part to this was to make a slight curve off at the bottom to show where the shoulders/collar bone would kick in.
The next step would be to model the ear, whilst i considered how to make my neck look more realistic...
Here is my first attempt:
To create the neck I selected edges on the polygons leading up to the area it would start. By holding shift and using the move tool I was able to create a copy of the polygon above it and model it to whatever shape and position that I needed it to be.
The trickiest part of this would be under the chin, although I found if I followed the previous lines of the face I would get a rough shape of what I desired. Once the neck was all put into place I had to make sure it was rounded and not jagged in any areas. The final part to this was to make a slight curve off at the bottom to show where the shoulders/collar bone would kick in.
The next step would be to model the ear, whilst i considered how to make my neck look more realistic...
Full Mask Into Head Beginnings...
To create the whole face from half I used the symmetry tool. Although faces generally are not symmetrical this proved to be the best option as it is much faster than drawing topography again for the other side of my face.
Once the symmetry modifier was applied I had to mirror the x axis and flip the image so that I could then position the mask so that it joined up to create a full face.
The next step from here would be to create the back of the head. The initial process here would be to start with a sphere and cut away segments that are of no use to me. This would include the area around my ear and most lower parts of the sphere. The key part for this to work would be connecting it to the mask. This would mean ensuring I had a similar number of polygons lining up around the forehead area. Once this was done I would then weld the 2 parts together creating one object. After joining up my segments to create the 'full' head it looked like this:
I could begin modelling my neck next...
Once the symmetry modifier was applied I had to mirror the x axis and flip the image so that I could then position the mask so that it joined up to create a full face.
The next step from here would be to create the back of the head. The initial process here would be to start with a sphere and cut away segments that are of no use to me. This would include the area around my ear and most lower parts of the sphere. The key part for this to work would be connecting it to the mask. This would mean ensuring I had a similar number of polygons lining up around the forehead area. Once this was done I would then weld the 2 parts together creating one object. After joining up my segments to create the 'full' head it looked like this:
I could begin modelling my neck next...
Setting up My Mask
After creating the topology I needed to set up my reference plates so that I could trace around the lines which would make the essential structure of what would be my head.
The plates were set slightly back from the (0,0) point so that when I created the mask it would not intercept. The mask was then created using the line tool; drawing round each polygon and ensuring they joined by enabling the magnet snap tool.
After creating the 2d version of my mask I would have to see about turning it 3d. This is where the side profile reference plate would come in handy.
I could now pull out my vertices to make the mask 3d. I set the flat mask image at the side of my head and used the side-profile image of myself as a guide to how far certain protrusions are. This gave me a rough draft of my facial structure and would require minor tweaks in placement due to the angle I was working at.
A problem I discovered with this mask however was that not all my points joined up correctly. This gave the problem of 'slits', I originally thought "Oh I can just hide them by moving points together" but knew this was the lazy option so went about fixing it properly.
To fix the slit, as seen above, a new polygon was needed to fill the slot. Although this would inevitably be a triangle, since it was near the brink of my nose some pinching may end up being desirable. The mask was selected and the suboption of faces selected as well.
I could then use the create tool to draw around the points that the hole formed from and BAM! a new polygon solving my problem.
The next step will be to turn this half mask into a full mask!
The plates were set slightly back from the (0,0) point so that when I created the mask it would not intercept. The mask was then created using the line tool; drawing round each polygon and ensuring they joined by enabling the magnet snap tool.
After creating the 2d version of my mask I would have to see about turning it 3d. This is where the side profile reference plate would come in handy.
I could now pull out my vertices to make the mask 3d. I set the flat mask image at the side of my head and used the side-profile image of myself as a guide to how far certain protrusions are. This gave me a rough draft of my facial structure and would require minor tweaks in placement due to the angle I was working at.
A problem I discovered with this mask however was that not all my points joined up correctly. This gave the problem of 'slits', I originally thought "Oh I can just hide them by moving points together" but knew this was the lazy option so went about fixing it properly.
To fix the slit, as seen above, a new polygon was needed to fill the slot. Although this would inevitably be a triangle, since it was near the brink of my nose some pinching may end up being desirable. The mask was selected and the suboption of faces selected as well.
I could then use the create tool to draw around the points that the hole formed from and BAM! a new polygon solving my problem.
The next step will be to turn this half mask into a full mask!
After Neglection Comes Spamming
As is the way with my projects I always get tied up within making the actual model. Then it comes to the point where it all has to be written up.
I will address the points in the order I completed them in, explaining any complications I hit along the way.
Let the write up BEGIN!
I will address the points in the order I completed them in, explaining any complications I hit along the way.
Let the write up BEGIN!
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Top Shop...I mean Topology
I have now added the reference lines for the topology.
I studied the tutorial video whilst doing this to ensure I was on the correct line. It was very hard and a bit confusing to work out sometimes where my lines should go and how to form quads. In the case of the tutorial using an older person seems easier, more wrinkles!
I feel that I have managed to keep my face shape and the flow, and after checking over it I believe i managed to avoid triangles being formed. The reason I wanted to avoid triangles is because they are my least favourite shape, and they cause pinching in the 3d modelling stage. I don't really want to turn out looking like I have had a facelift.
I avoided creating quads on the side profile view as the tutorial stated I only needed the guides. I also presumed that as he also only mapped one side of the front view that I need only to do the same. If i find that later I have to do the other side too, this should not cause too much hassle.
Ahh! My Head isnt on Straight
For the first part of this assignment I would need to straighten up and flatten the images to later be used for my 3d head.
The pictures were taken and then imported into Photoshop. To flatten and straighten the image the lens distortion tool was used. The reason for this is that cameras create a barrel distortion (a fish eye effect). Once i imported these images i found that my features did not line up at all. Despite this being a knock to my confidence on the scale of my physical attractiveness I went about lining up my features using guides and rules.
Once I had this sorted I printed it off and set off to find the nearest plastic surgeon....
Friday, 25 September 2009
Time to get my face on...a pc
Week 1
After receiving my brief I have learnt that I am to create a 3D version of my own face and head using spline modelling.
This task is to be completed within the first 5 weeks. A short timespan for a seemingly challenging job.
I have already watched a few video tutorials on how to go about doing this; although it looks complicated I believe with the help of the tutorials I should be able to complete the work, once i become familiar with Max again.
I will be taking the images of my face and head shortly to begin my work. I will create a new posting once I have these images and have began drawing coloured lines all over it.
After receiving my brief I have learnt that I am to create a 3D version of my own face and head using spline modelling.
This task is to be completed within the first 5 weeks. A short timespan for a seemingly challenging job.
I have already watched a few video tutorials on how to go about doing this; although it looks complicated I believe with the help of the tutorials I should be able to complete the work, once i become familiar with Max again.
I will be taking the images of my face and head shortly to begin my work. I will create a new posting once I have these images and have began drawing coloured lines all over it.
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