Week Summary

On Monday, I merged the legs of my model. I may need to edit the legs still such as the scale and adding subdivisions so it gives certain areas of the legs a smoother surface as the legs are hard edged.

Also on Monday, I did play around with the UV master plug in build into Zbrush. As I would like to texture my model I will need to UV my model to get a clean texture. I did only have ago at UV master to get a feel for it when it comes to the final UV stage. It seems fairly easy to use.

I have also started the second hand of my model. I aim the hand to have the same concept as the Terminator hand (Image below).

I like how the hand has a delicate impression I wanted my characters hand similar to this to give the idea that the robot original arm and hand has been replaced by a new one like this.

At first I was going to bring in a insert mesh of a hand and sculpt on top of that, as I did for my rough practice but I did continue that but it was difficult to get a clean sculpt so I opted to bring in a insert mesh of a hand and add and mold to it using tube brushes (Wires), move brushes and high polish brush and other mechanical looking meshes from Zbrush and from another source from 'BadKing'. (http://www.badking.com.au/site/).

On Tuesday, I decided to go to my anatomy session as I have not been to a few in the last weeks. I would like to keep up with them from now on. In the session I found out that I was not too behind which was good as this meant it didn't take long to catch up with some of the others. This session consisted of building the rib cage. I had to use the wax to build the ideal shape of the ribs then to mold them and take away the wax I did not need. When this was done I added the bones on top of the shape, which then formed the the complete rib-cage. Also I continued to finalise my robot character second hand.

On Wednesday, My main focus to get the characters second hand completed. I did manage to complete the hand, I find that there is a lot going on with the hand because of all of the details and wires. I do wonder if this will be hard to UV later on, I do find this may cause some problems...I will have to talk to a tutor before the Easter break, It would be great to have a tutor look over my work.

 (Completed hand)

I decided to redo the first hand again because when I was analysing my model I felt like the original hand wasn't up to standard to the rest of my model. So I did decide to do it again using similar tools as before such as the ZModeler brush.

I still went with the two finger concept as I liked that design, I will add more subdivisions as it is still hard edged and I would like it smoother. When it comes to posing the character I will pose the this hand.

On Thursday, I went into University and spoke to one of my tutors about UV my model. They also looked over my model and gave me some tips on how to sharpen some areas of my model such as the hips, by using the masking brush and creating a group then edit the mesh by using polish my features. This worked really well.

Both images above show the model with cleaner and sharper edges with using the poly group method.

Also while talking to my tutor the idea has changed for the UI element of the project. At first I was planning on doing a complete inventory piece with made icons and all, and displaying the robot in the center of it. While talking to my tutor I was told to think of showing the UI  in a different light. From this I will do my research and think of other designs methods to creating an interesting piece that can still display my final model with UI aspects as well.

Also I spoke to my tutor about the UV stage of my model and while looking over the my model it was clear it maybe very difficult to UV because of the details such as the wires. I have decided to poly-paint the model instead. I will poly-paint my model using new methods that I did not use in my last project. I also was told because of this change I should try and create my own meshes such as the leg joints due to having time now as I will no longer be UVing.

On Friday, I went into University as employees from Ubisoft where visiting. I spoke to someone from the HR department. They came over and looked over my project so far. They liked my design but we spoke more about the UI element of the project. They spoke about the game 'The Division' which Ubisoft created and we spoke about the UI in the game.

The UI in the game is holographic and I think this is where I will go with my model now.

It was good to talk to one of the members of staff at Ubisoft and gain some advice and idea share, it really helped me get back on track on where I will be going with the UI part of my project. After I got home that evening I did look more into hologram UI designs and I believe I have found a great reference image that will represents my idea well.

Just to add, I was looking on my phone and was looking through some of my photos and found some images from last summer. Last summer I went to London and they had an exhibition at the science museum of robots around the world. The exhibition displayed many different kinds of robots such as robots that are used in factories,films to social robots. The exhibition was great and very interesting. This exhibition drove me to the idea of my final project.

Some images from the exhibition.

 

Week Summary

On Monday, I was traveling to London and did not have my laptop with me so I did not do any Zbrush modelling Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday I attended the Vertex 2018 event. While I was there I made sure to attend a few of the talks that interested me. First I went to the talk to see 'Simon Holemodal'. "Art of the title sequence". The talk was interesting and wasn't related to video game design but it was fresh to see and hear someone talk about there works and projects on a new subject. He used a piece of software called  'Houdini'. It is a 3D animation application. He showed us how he created and gain the results he achieved in the software. He has done project for Nike Trainers and others. 

Later I attended a talk by 'Adam Dewhirst', "How to build a human in one day". He works for a VFX company in New York called 'The Mill'. This was more of a demonstration talk on how to place a digidouble inside a film, advert etc... and how to do it in less than 24 hours. It was good to listen and see how something new it created and put to life. He show us an advert the company put together with a man growing a beard a real time. He shown us step by step how they achieved the desired effect, using photography and a scanning software to project the image on top of a 3D model of a man. 

During the talk he showed us an advert that happened to feature the creature on the front cover of this 3D world magazine given to me for free. 

This is a image of the talk in which he is showing how the projection of the image is created. 

I also went to another talk later with 'Jess' she works at 'Dovetail' She is a previous NUA student. She has spoken at university before. She went more in depth in how she creates the environments inside the games she works on. 

The last talk I went to was to see 'Shayleen Hulbert' "Creating characters for games". She was also a guest speaker at university, In the talk she spoke about similar topics like she did when she visited university, but she did go more in depth and gave us good tips on how to create a character for games. it was a engaging talk. 

I also spoke to someone who works at 'Creative assembly'. He asked me what I do and what I plan to go into after I told him I'm a near graduate student. I spoke about my interest in character art but also my interest in UI. He told me that there is big competition in character art and that it could be very hard to gain a job. I did know this already this is why I have looked into UI design. He said with UI design I am a lot more likely to find a job. This is why in my final project at university I decided to combine character art with UI, these are both subjects I enjoy and want to get better at. When I leave university I will focus my attention on UI design. UI design has been something I have thought about before starting university but I never took it further, now I will and continue to produce more UI art for my portfolio, 

While on my journey back home on the train, I decided to do some very quick sketches of some UI title screens and inventory screen for my main project which will be theme on my sci-fi robot. 

These are very rough sketches, I will use Balsamiq Mockups again like I did in my UI Art test to get clean wire frame designs. 

On Wednesday I dedicated my time to continue with my robot character.

I did complete the upper part of the leg, I do still need to add some more details such as bolts and wires. I may even smooth the surface a little and give it a softer appearance.

This is the middle lower area of the leg (Shin area), all using the same methods as before.

On Thursday I did not do any of my model due to a appointment and other commitments.

On Friday, I completed the leg, I only need to add some details later. The focus was to create the foot.

This is one of the toes I wanted to use. To do this I bought in a sphere then used the move tool to edit and used the high polish brush. When the toe was finally added to the whole of the foot, it did not flow well so I decided to start the toes again and to go for more of a box/harder shape and edges.

I wanted the leg to be chicken like. As I thought this detail works well with the theme. As the robot is a environment similar to Fallout/Mad max where the terrain will be uneven, I wanted the character to be able to function well when in movement and to hold itself well.

I will need to mirror the leg to the other side and I may shorten the leg slightly but overall I am happy so far. It is near completion with the modeling stage.

Week Summary

On Monday, I continued with my robot character. The focus was to start over with the hand, I did not  like the design of the first hand that I produced so I decided to start it over using the same method as before which is using the Z modeler brush.

Here is the robot hand created using the Z modeler method. I like to use this method as it gives the model a hard surface appearance which is what I want with this model. I still need to edit the hand and add finer details at a later date, but this is the shape that I am going for. I will soften the edges slightly by using dynamic subdivision. This gives the model a smoother look and it can be edited the way you like it.

Here is the arm and hand attached to the rest of the robot body. Both arm and hand still need detailing. I tend to add more open wires and tubes to the arm. I also downloaded some free insert brushes to help with the detailing and to help with more of the complex shapes I will struggle to achieve without some help or guidance.

Website where I downloaded the free insert brushes: http://www.badking.com.au/site/products/

On Tuesday, I went into University to do some of my work. I decided to start the second arm. I wanted the second arm to be a replacement arm, as the original was damaged through battle. When it comes to texturing the arm I aim to make it a different colour and material than its original.

As the theme of the robot is dystopian and steam punk like, I wanted to go for a hand that represents more of a open mechanical skeleton hand similar to the images above. It shows the hand has not got protective armour surrounding it. It may not be as detailed as the ones above but this is where I would like to go with it.

This is a rough try out. I decided to give the arm ago by inserting a arm insert brush and I used the clay build up brush to mold on top of it to add in the details. At the moment it looks like this is the method I will go for to achieve this effect.

Also while I was in university on Tuesday I spoke to one of my tutors about my project so far and showed them what I have created so far. They did like the character and were impressed with how I achieved the hard surface method in Z brush without going into Maya first. I spoke to them about the texturing stage as I am worried I will come into problems through lack of confidence with knowledge on how to set up a character for the texturing stage. I am focusing on getting the model completed first with all details before I start to think about the texturing stage. I am trying to keep my model as low as I can in poly count.

On Wednesday, I continued with the second arm and started to add to the bottom of the model.

When starting the arm I used the same method as before with the first arm. I knew I wanted this arm less detailed and wanted it to consist more of rods to form the shape. I did use an insert brush for the joint in this arm.

I still need to add the second hand, and add tubing to parts as this is a open arm.

This is the start of the lower body area. I inserted a sphere then used Dyna mesh and Zremesher to edit the topology of the mesh so it was more manageable to edit. I used the move tool to set the shape and used the high polish brush to gain the sharper edge. This area will still need to be modded but this is the basic shape so far.

I also added a pole base that supports and connects the torso to the bottom. This was done but bringing in a cylindrical shape and editing it but using the Z modeler method.

On Thursday, I continued with the bottom half of the robot. I was going to use the group panel method same to how I created the head and areas of the torso, but it did not end up as planned. I decided to leave the bottom area as a single poly group and keep it whole.

I changed the shape of the area slightly and added a panel to the front. To do this I masked an area and used the extract method and used the polish settings in the deformation tab.

On Friday, I started to create one of the legs. The legs will be duplicated after completion. When starting the legs it was first trial and error but the more I continued the ideas flowed.

I used a insert brush for the joints I did try to create my own using the Z modeler method but I did not like the results. By using the insert brush above I think it gives the model a more crisp appearance. I also duplicated the top area of the arm to create the top half of the leg to match the style of the model throughout, I decided to not keep it and decided to create another of my own using the Z modeler method trying to keep to the same style as the arm.

The top half of the leg is not yet completed but I will continue this area next week. I aim to get this model near completion by the end of next week. Next week I am off to London to attend the Vertex show so I will have two days off working from my model but I aim to catch up mid next week.

Week Summary

This week I got back into my robot Zbrush character model. As I missed a week, as last week I was focused on the UI art test I wanted to catch up with my model, so on Monday I started to give the head more detail by adding in wires at the back of it's head. More to the head will be added at a later date.

I added the wires by using the curve tube insert brush, By using the lazy mouse setting you can get a smoother result and keep snapping turned on so it snaps to the base mesh, this way it is easier to edit. I like how the wires overlap each other with these settings enabled it gives it a more of a realistic look.

I was also thinking of adding the head piece above (Still in rough stage) but I though it represented to closely to the robot 'Chappie' and I didn't really like the idea after I saw it on my model.

On Tuesday, I started to sculpt the body of the robot. I started the body off by inserting a sphere and by using the same method as before with the group loops in which I would slice selections of the sphere first then group loop them. With this I could take control of each panel by using the move topology brush and edit it the way I wanted to.

With the basic shape down I started to move areas where I wanted them. I started to add higher details along the way such as more wires to the stomach area using the same method as before. And I attempted to create one of the robots arms. I still wasn't so sure on how to do this and decided to put a insert brush object of a arm in and extract from that, like I did in my previous model the (Sci-fi roman character).

I did not really like the outcome of how the arm was going and thought it was a harder way of creating hard surface parts. I decided to delete the arm and start again at another time.

On Wednesday I could not get much work done as I had an appointment to attend that day. But I did start to place down and shape a new arm by inserting meshes such as a cylindrical shape and working with that using the Z Modeler brush. I have never worked with it before but I think it will be a great way to finally get the arms created and other parts of the body as it is good to get hard edged results.

I did go into shadowbox and create a gear shape but I have not yet used this for my model, I may do or not but it was good to have ago in shadowbox and get familiar with it.

On Thursday, I did not continue with my robot model as I had a hospital appointment.

Due to being fairly busy with appointments this week, on Friday my main focus was to get more of my model produced and spend longer doing so. I wanted to get one of the arms near completed. Because I was still new to using the Z modeler method I was quite slow but I did experiment with it and found it to be very useful and it is becoming easier to use.

This image shows the Z modeler in use, with this you can insert other poly-groups in which you can edit such as extrude, scale and bevel and other options if need be. The ones I use the most so far are the extrude and Q mesh. The image above was my first attempt but I thought it looked to clean in style. I wanted to go for a a steampunk/dystopian theme.

This image shows the end result by using the same methods as the one mentioned.

This is the full arm just missing the hand. The arm is not yet finalised I will add smaller details such as wires and bolts later and to keep in mind about retopology, as I would like to make it a little softer, but not to much as I would like to keep that hard edge and keep the model fairly low in poly count. I did insert a mechanical IMM brush for the bend in this arm, and I will in areas where I think it's needed but I will tend to create my own.

I did create a hand but I do not think it fit well with the rest of the model.