Final Results

Well with the Winter quarter over, I have the final results of my classes.  At least, that is, I have final projects.  In all honesty I don't have as many this year as previous years, but I will be posting a little more in the near future from my Action Analysis class.  It was all drawing, and a really great and fun class, but I have to get together from images first before I am willing to show them.
The biggest project I did was actually the scenes I did in Autodesk Maya 2012, which I posted earlier.  However, I do have something else to show from that class which got me an even higher grade, and an A for the class (YAY!).  That would be a character modeled in Maya using "edgelooping" to follow the flow of the muscles of the character to allow for better animation and rigging.

Originally my design was a lot more... conservative than this... and it was boring as a result (boring as in my teacher said it looked like a men's room sign and required I change it).  So with some help from teachers and colleagues, I *ahem* enhanced it.  This was supposed to be a modernization of Annie Oakley... and I did quite a bit of research on her.  In the end, she should have an another layer of clothes at least.  That and I didn't model a gun.  So for now... screenshots of "Annie".

Oh... and if you are averse to nudity... 1) grow up... 2) avert your eyes.  But really... no details or anything, but the clothes are removable (which means I should be able to make better clothes later) but some of these might be NSFW.  Also, all of these are using the smooth preview so they are not renders, just screenshots.

Overview Front Shot

Upper Torso Shot

Face with Edgeloops turned on

Face without Edgloops

Upper torso Dynamic Angle Shot

Closeup of buckles around boots

Closeup of medals on coat

Closeup of gloved hand

Closeup of ear

Money Shot :P

Back with Edgeloops (without coat)

Back without Edgeloops (without coat)

Front with Edgloops (without coat)

Front comparison to character design sketch

Side comparison to character design sketch

So I made her body first, then duplicated the faces of her body to make the jacket in pieces and merged them together.  I actually used a cloth dynamic in Maya to let the coat and skirt rest on her body better, but the coat is so tight it didn't move much.  The gloves and boots are part of her body and don't come off.  Her hair was made one "strand" at a time, with about 2 dozen modeled individually.  The hat was modeled separately, as well as the buckles around her boots and the epaulettes and the medals. She was a LOT of fun to build, and I am working on fixing up her modeling a little, especially in her coat.  Maybe I'll add an undershirt option as well.  Her face isn't perfect either, so I will go back and tweak it some more till I have a better shape.  But all said and done, I made this model in about a week, and it is my first character model ever!  Pretty impressive for a first I think.

I will post more pictures later with better lighting and so forth, but I am having an issue where the coat is under "stress" (apparently a few vertices are poking through unnoticed...) which results in a funky artifact where the clothes are full of "banding"...  Check it out...

So I'll be fixing that at some point and posting more images later.  I'm pretty happy with it.  And yes... I've noticed she has a large chest.  Everyone keeps reminding me.

So next time I'll post some more on my Action Analysis class, as well as a review of Arriety.  I also got a request from someone to compare GMU and SCAD, so I will be writing up a comparison, although I think it will end up being more about the differences between my experience, a typical public college, and a specialty school like SCAD.

Aloha!

Final rendered scene

Well I have finally been forced to stay up overnight this quarter.  I was getting scared there and thought it wasn't going to happen.  Of course it had to be the night before a big presentation.  But I'll get through it, that's what Think Geek caffeine gum is for.  :)

Well today I will share with you the final rendered scenes of my project for Digital Form, Space, and Lighting.  All those objects I showed earlier, well now they are all put together, with lighting, camera effects, and even environment fog.  Enjoy!

More 3D goodies

Hello again!

I'd like to start off apologizing to anyone who has listened to 7th Row Center and figured out I had some bad information about The Secret World of Arrietty, and Studio Ghibli, and Hayao Miyazaki himself.  I realized that Patrick Stewart was in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, not Tales of Earthsea.  I was thinking about another fine British actor, Timothy Dalton, who played Ged/Sparrowhawk in the English language version.  Also, Miyazaki did not direct Arrietty; it was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who was a key animator for several other Ghibli (and non-Ghibli) films, such as Spirited Away and Ponyo.  Miyazaki has been credited as a writer and executive producer, so he was involved, just not as the director.

I'm sure I got more wrong, but if you have any questions, complaints, or comments, feel free to drop us a line at 7throwcenter.com, or on facebook, or reach me directly on this site or my facebook page, or find me on twitter at @WeaklyAnimated.  I know I haven't been that active on any of these lately, but I want to make sure I get good grades first, everything else comes after that.

Now that THAT is out of the way, I have some more images for people to view.  I have been working on modeling and texturing these models for a few weeks, in preparation for a scene focusing around the life and world of Harry Dresden, one of my favorite characters of literature.  If you are unfamiliar with Harry Dresden, I HIGHLY recommend you check out the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher, or the audio books narrated by James Marsters.  So while I work on the lighting, take a look at the objects themselves.

For those with keen eyes, yes that is Discord from My Little Ponies.  Don't ask.  I still have more tweaking to do, but these are pretty much finished.  The rest of the scene is all about lighting and camera work.  Soon, I should have fully lit scenes using 3-point lighting for you to enjoy.  Comments and feedback are welcome as always.

Cheerio!

Meet Bob

Bob is just your average guy.  He's a a little short, bald, and a little nerdy, okay a lot nerdy.  He lives in his friend's basement, and he absolutely LOVES the ladies.  He has also amassed a library of knowledge about the supernatural and arcane.  Did I mention he's a possessed skull?  More accurately he's a spirit of intellect which resides in a skull in Harry Dresden's subbasement lab.  Yes, Harry Dresden, the wizard.  Doesn't sound familiar, look up the Dresden Files books, you will not regret it!
So why did I bring this up?  Simple, I'm modeling Bob in 3D software (Maya) for one of my projects in class.  We are to design a scene focused around a character or person, and I chose Harry Dresden.
So people who are real fans of the books (or audio books) will realize I did NOT get everything right (yes I know about the metal shelves, the table should be metal too, and the room is probably too small... and I am sure there are more things I missed), what I do have does give me the impression of Harry Dresden's lab.
So without further ado, I allow me to present a still of Bob, still in modeling (it is not finished, he needs teeth and texturing), but I spent a lot of time, and really pushed myself to make a skull in class.
Enjoy!

Bob says 'Hi'

So I will be posting more from this class soon, but first I have a busy weekend ahead of me of rendering and drawing.  I will also post some drawing from my Action Analysis class later.  I hope you look forward to them!

Ta ta!

Mid term update

Sorry about having no updates so far this quarter, with my wife in town and classes in session, things just got a bit busy and I haven't been updating as a result.
Today I'd like to let you know that I will be posting some images of files I've modeled in 3D software (Maya) for one of my classes later this week. I am still perfecting it, but since midterms are here, I have no spare time and need to get these files onto the next step, texturing.
Till then, Sayonara!