Demons.

Started the mudbox module and ive opted for a demons head. Iv decided to play around with the sculpting tools and design some heads through inspiration of my research, then take it into max to build a base mesh to then resculpt the final high poly from. Heres one play around..

   

Lights.

Ive been considering my final major project and have decided i want to place emphasis on the characters by use of lighting. Having moved over to mental ray and the wonders of the new lighting systems I have been playing around with them..

ME Head

modeled the head, planning to go into mudbox and try some sculpting to define features and maybe produce a normal map too. overall the character is 12K i may look to cut this back down at some point. but the head is as i want it.

Mass Effect

Ive decided to enter the mass effect competition. heres a WIP.

 

Ped

We started the animations and so far i have a fairly decent walk cycle, a run cycle, a couple of idles and a taunt.
The taunt needs some work and the idles arent perfect but they are a start. 

Stitches

Ive spent the weekend working on the cloak portion of the texturing. Im about three quarters of the way to completing all three diffuse maps now; all the major colours are blocked in with overlaying textures its just all the little intricacies to add now. For instance the stitching on the seam of the cloak.

Crinkles

Begun the texturing and im happy with how its going albeit at a slow steady pace. After Blocking out the majority of the colours Ive been focused on getting the creases into my pants. I used a corduroy texture for the material and a simple base beige colour.

Guns

Looking at the atomiser again i found a way to quad the loops from the barrel to the handle.

Wraps

finished the unwrapping of my character now just the weapons to do now. But im currently in the process of acquiring the latest studio max so i will wait till then and use the spline unwrap feature as my bow is slightly more complex. Ive filled two UV maps with the cloak and body and half of the third with the extras like the quiver guantlet and shoulder guard, the rest will be filled with the weapons.

Renders

Quivers

I forgot to add a quiver to my character so today i have spent drawing up some blueprints and modelling it. Now all i have to do is model some arrows to go in it.

Boots

With some guidance ive been removing redundant edge loops to tidy up my character, in the process i managed to remove around two thousand polys. I then spent some time adding some extra detail to my boots as before they were very bland and straight. Now they have folds around the ankles and straps to break up the linearity, a little heel was added to add some definition to the base of the boot.

Bows

Ive become a bit stuck with the character so to keep productivity up and have a change from Isaiah i modelled the bow he will be weilding. Here it is.

Seamless

Today i spent remodelling the cloak without the seam in, second time round was a lot quicker as i knew all the tricky areas to lookout for. I dont think it looks as good but i think it has been modelled far better and will be a more efficient use of polys. anyway i included both as a comparison.

Capes

Ill be honest over the christmas period i did no work until the 1st of jan which is bad i know. I figured that if i took a break the work i would do would be far more rewarding and enjoyable. What i have done since last time is model the cloak in two parts and started on the armour piecing. The armour is no where near finished but ive included it give a better feel of how the character is turning out.

The cloak was tricky in parts because i wanted to incorporate the fold down the right cheek that would flow into the cape; i realise this could have been done more efficiently with normals im no expert but i didnt think it would look right.

Chears

I stumbled upon a tutorial to model an ear, so i gave it a go. Unfortunately it produces a mesh with 600ish polys so i wont be using it on my final model, however i believe we have to hand in a copy of out face so if i can attach it to my head then ill have a pair of nice ears.

Tries

Ive attempted to model the boots, and have produced a very crude pair. Im definitely going to rework them some more once ive blocked out the rest of the characters armour and maybe even the weapons. I had a spot of difficulty around the base of the boots as i cant figure a way of looping them without the forming a triangle, ill have to come back to it and see if i can spot a better way to model it.

Faces

I returned to the face, and added the back of the head and neck in. I struggled somewhat around the ear and im pretty sure i could do a better job but im going o leave it for a bit and come back to it. So yer, still needs alot of work but i think its coming along nicely. Im looking forward to modelling the ear should involve alot of cursing.

Quads

Ive attached the hands and arms together and target welded the arm to the chest piece, i found that by chance i had created the perfect amount of polys around the arm socket for the arm to attach directly to it. This wasnt the case for the legs as i had to do some jiggery-pokery to get them to align i think i got it right, but i may have a few too many polys as this comes in at 2320.

Meet Isaiah

Ive drawn up blueprints for my weapons and added them to a concept sheet.
The bow is a hybrid between a long and short bow, somewhere in between the shape gives extra power and range and the wood is made from a single spanish yew tree.

The atomiser is a compact shotgun style pistol, firing a mixture of penetration and blunt impact rounds for a devastating single shot.

Shadows

Added a slight shadow to the front perspective which adds a bit of depth to the overall image. also been working on weapons concepts but haven't got anything finalised yet.

Blueprints.

At first i was inking in my sketches to scan in then rework in photoshop. Then our tutor showed us this very laborious but very nifty technique to produce blueprints. Im quite fond of the result it produces so might do some concepting using it. anyway heres my blueprints:

tablets

Ive not had much chance to use my tablet so far since i got it so i decided to spend some time working with it in photoshop and have produced these two concept. They could be alot better but im pleased at how they have turned out for my first effort.

The guy on the left i was going for a ninja-esque medieval look, with his time travel device being the guantlet equipped with a long bow and sword.

The guy next to him i took inspiration from faramir's traveling cloak and diablo II's chain mail boots, gave him a dagger and a time travelling cloak clasp.

Fire.

Ive had a few problems in the past week, with my bsp disappearing from the playable map but remaining in the editor, weird. Anyway by reverting to a backup i got round that but havent been able to fathom why.
Spent some time playing with the particle emitter and managed to create a flame effect for my torches using sprites. Now all i have to do is populate the outside with more meshes and then sort out normal and specular maps.

Yard

Almost there. Added texture to the fence, lamp post and ground to finish of the texturing. Will make normals for them tomorrow and the day after will spend writing up while my renders render.