Work Schedules, References and Character Updates.

Micromanaging

         In the last post I spoke about my plan of action to carry out the work that was required to complete this module. I have now made a more detailed schedule of the work I plan to do on each day to help micromanage as much as I can in order to keep me on track for completion. Admittedly I have not modelled a character in a number of years, and so the time slots I have given for certain aspects of my work might be more or less time than is actually required for me to complete it, however as it stands if I keep on track and follow the schedule then the work should get done without too many issues, with the 'polishing' time being enough to correct for any possible contingencies.

Things may have to be moved around according to the updating state of the work and unexpected issues.

Schedule:

Schedule for aspects of A3D module

References

          After the first attempt at the character creation I decided to do a bit more referencing to find the type of hard surface, armour wearing Nordic look that I was aiming for. I had already found and used references from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; the dwarf stone statues found in the film were very useful for hard surface inspiration. To help out even further I gathered references from the game Skyrim, the armour there is very Norse-esque, and from the Tomb Raider: Underworld concepts.

Fig.1 Skyrim Nordic armour

Fig.2 Tomb Raider: Underworld  concept art

Character Update

          I have completed the character base mesh and have begun UV mapping it. It stands at around 50% UV mapped. I made the decision to use ZBrush's polypaint tool for two specific reasons. The first is that it is something I would like to gain a skill in considering this module is about learning new techniques and technologies in the production of the cinematic. The second reason is because I believe it will produce more interesting results rather than using photo images. This makes the process more linear in its pipeline also, as I can now create the different texture maps and high poly mesh in ZBrush without the need to swap to Photoshop. This means less time spread across multiple pieces of software.

         I created the base mesh using an organic male body as 3D reference for anatomy scale. I have been using Maya's latest set of modelling tools, namely 'Quad Draw' to quickly build a low poly mesh with intuitive methods for repositioning polygons and edge flows for the sake of an animation-ready topology. 

I knew a decent amount about topology for animation already, due to just the nature of being an animator and wanting to know more about the specialisation. However building a model with the correct topology was relatively new to me, and so I found two great sources to understand edge flows and the placements of polygons here http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryTopology and here cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-courses/learning-mesh-topology-collection/. The second link is focused for blender users, but the knowledge is cross compatible with any 3D software.

Fig.3  Example of topology for animation

I took into consideration that although it needs to be anatomically correct the character is a statue and would have exaggerated features, therefore I increased the volume of the chest / arms. The idea was to keep it looking 'blocky' and hard surfaced like you would expect from a stone statue.

Character base mesh (Front)

Character base mesh (Persp.)

Character base mesh (Side)

From here I need to complete the UV process and then begin rigging and sculpting.


Bibliography

Fig.1  The Elder Scrolls Wiki. (2013). Ahzidal's Armor. Available: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Ahzidal's_Armor?file=AncientNordArmor-Ahzidal.png. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014.

Fig.2 Tomb Raider Hub. (N/A). Tomb Raider Underworld. Available: http://www.tombraiderhub.com/tr8/extras/images/environment42.jpg. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014.

Fig.3 Polycount. (2010). Shoulder Topology. Available: http://wiki.polycount.com/ShoulderTopology?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryTopology%5Cb%29. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014.