chico blog - BA Games art

Finally looking up

2012-02-10T21:50:00.000Z

Hi guys,
since I last posted (over a month ago! sorry) Things have changed for the better.
My 3 month contract as a web designer has now been made into a more permanent position, and to top it all off, I have also now got a job as a lecturer in St Helens college!
I will be the 3d specialist for the level 3 graphic design, and interactive media students!.
I can't wait to start because I know that I can help people, and this will also force me to do more 3d stuff. I don't want to be coming across as a hypocrite in class :p
I feel that I owe so much to some people in that college, and hopefully this will be a nice way for me to pay it back a little.
I'll be doing this until July, but should all go well I should be carrying on in September on a more permanent basis!

I really hope things go well, as I have always wanted to teach, but didn't want to sacrifice my dream. This is a nice compromise I think.

I'll keep you all posted after I start.

See you soon,

Chris

ちこ

I've not forgotten

2012-01-05T14:00:00.002Z

Hi everyone,
Welcome to 2012!
I'm sorry I've not posted on here for a while, I've been a little pre-occupied.
I currently have some work as a web designer on a temporary 3 month contract, and since it is a 39 hour a week contract, I don't get much time to update this blog or my portfolio, but don't worry, I haven't changed my career path, I'm simply funding my future at the moment.

I know that it seems like a radical change, but this isn't the case. I actually studied web design to get onto my BA Game Art course, so it is still a passion of mine.

Once I know what is going on with this contract, I will be able to allocate more time to my 3d work, so I will keep you all posted on what I will be doing.

Expect great things this year people, I can feel a fantastic year coming on!

Catch you soon,

Chris
ちこ

portfolio update

2011-10-17T14:06:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,
I have finished this wave of updating my portfolio for now and here are some of the new images,

As you know, I really appreciate feedback, so if anyone has any, then please do tell.

Thanks guys

Cx
P.S. If you want to see the rest of my portfolio, you can find it at http://robochrish.carbonmade.com

Another portfolio update

2011-10-17T03:23:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,
Just another quick update, because as you will see in the post time for this, its now 03:20 ish am!

I have been working on some more of my portfolio pieces and here is what I have so far.

Ignore the cross beam at the back of the bottom picture. I think I might get rid of that.
Anyway, what do you guys think?
I'm off to bed now.
g'night all!
cx

Portfolio update

2011-10-15T22:12:00.000+01:00

Hey guys,
Just a quick one again. I am currently re-creating my portfolio pictures so that they are of a higher standard, and I am uploading whatever I have done to it.
Here is what I am currently working on, the stocks,

What do you think so far?
I still need to do normals etc, but next I am going to re-create the Judas cradle behind it.

thanks guys,

Cx

Painting

2011-10-08T14:32:00.001+01:00

Hi guys.
I decided to go ahead and paint the wall in mudbox because I wanted some sort of close to finished result to see how it will all come together eventually.
Here is what I have so far;

I think that doing this has taught me a lot and I am now considering how I'm going to do the rest of the scene.
Let me know what you guys think please,

Thanks
C x

Quick update

2011-09-28T00:29:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,
Just a quick one, I have just spent a little while adding some more detail to the lower res wall.

It seems to be taking a while, but I am not going slowly, it's just a slow process. Does anyone know of a quicker way of doing this?

Thanks guys

cx

wall again

2011-09-27T14:51:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,
I have decided to try another way of creating the lower res mesh of the wall, but creating a rough version of the stones over the original ones, rather than manipulating one big block over the top.
I think that this technique is working better, but it is taking a while.

This is the medium res mesh from mudbox

This is the lower res mesh I am building around it that I will be adding the normal information to

I haven't just been doing this though. I have also been updating some of the medieval assets that I created and I will show them to you when they are finished.
I can't wait to get this wall section modelled because I really want to start texturing it.

Let me know what you think please guys,

cx

small detail

2011-09-25T22:20:00.001+01:00

Hi guys,
Just a quick one.
I have now added the smaller detail to the rocks, so now I'm going to sort out the lower res mesh and apply the higher res normals to it.

Let me know what you guys think please,
cx

P.S. I just realised that my last post was my 200th!
WOO, 200 milestone! Let's make it to 300 hey guys? ^_^

Wall time

2011-09-25T11:38:00.001+01:00

Hi Guys,
I realised yesterday that I hadn't used mudbox for a while, so I decided that I would use it a lot more, since it is a fairly important part of next gen game props. Usually if I wanted to create something in mudbox, I would create a low poly mesh in maya or max, export it into mudbox, then up-res it and sculpt into, bake off the normal and AO map and implement it to the lower poly model. In the past I have had silhouette problems with this, so this time I decided to create the model in mudbox and import a medium res version of it into maya, then built a rough mesh around it. That is the stage I am up to at the moment.
Here is a section of the wall in Mudbox;

I still need to add the secondary bump to this to give the stone a bit more of a stoney feeling.

I then took it into maya to do this;

As you can see, I've not finished yet, but it was stupidly late last night when I was dong this, and I was very tired. I want to carry on with it now, but I have to leave for work soon.

Let me know what you guys think please,
It's time for me to raise my game, and show what I can do, so join me along the way.

cx

new building

2011-09-23T13:10:00.000+01:00

Hi guys.
After a lot of looking round, i decided that the next thing that I would create for my new portfolio would be a water mill.
Here is the reference that I am working from

And here are some W.I.P. renders and wires for you to look at;

I know that these are bad renders, but they are just for a quick W.I.P. reference at the moment.
I am working into it now and trying to get more refinement.
Once I've finished the model, I think I will take parts into mudbox to add some detail to.

Let me know what you guys think please?

cx

Hi all

2011-09-22T10:57:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
Sorry I've not posted in a while.
I am still currently updating my portfolio and applying for positions all over the country, and I am about to do my first Japanese application so I am preparing for that as it would be a dream company to work for.
I have been putting my Tokyo scene into the unreal engine, but that is on hold for the tie being because I really need to create new assets etc with my current skill set, because I am better than what my portfolio is showing, but it takes time to create new images, so that is what I am doing now.
I am planning to get one asset at least modelled today, and do this every day to eventually get an entirely new portfolio ( with the exception of a few images).

I will try my best to keep you all posted on how it's going,

Chris x

future

2011-09-01T19:33:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I am updating my portfolio because I have been applying for artist jobs, and my portfolio needs work, so I have decided to remake my Tokyo scene, at game quality. I am using the knowledge that I have gained from my work placement and using it to efficiently work on this scene.
I am looking forward to getting this done, and I also plan on adding the scene into the unreal engine, to see how it would look in game.

I'll show you all what it looks like when it's done and I will also try to do a "work in progress" on the project as well.
Sorry if I don't update on this too much, I just have a bad memory,

See you all soon,

cx

and that.. as they say... is that

2011-08-26T19:56:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I had my review at work today and unfortunately the company I was working my placement at, TT Fusion, Dont have enough money at the moment for extra staff as they have an allocated amount, and they have currently used it all.
That's fine and I understand it.
It makes me sad that I wont be walking back into their any time soon, but I look forward to what the future holds and I really hope that I get to go back there some day.
I have had the time of my life there and I want to thank every one involved in getting me there and helping me for the duration of the placement,

So thank you;

Dean,
Stas,
Will,
Adam,
Dave,
Roger,
Mike,
Jake,
Luke,
Bobby,
Ste
And any one else that I have forgotten to mention.

Hopefully I will be putting a more upbeat and happy post up here soon about my job search, but for now I'm fairly sombre.

Oh well, chin up, keep at it..

Thanks everyone,

cx

The end is nigh

2011-08-25T20:50:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
I know it's hard to believe but I have been at TT Fusion for6 weeks already!
It is my last day tomorrow and I have a review with my superiors. I really really don't want to leave, and I hope that they like me enough, and that I have worked hard enough, to earn a more permanent position, but who know. Only tomorrow can tell.

I am really excited and nervous about tomorrow and I really hope it goes well.
I'll let you know when I find out,

Catch you soon,
cx

P.S. Wish me luck :p

still going strong

2011-08-11T08:46:00.002+01:00

hey all,
just thought I would do a quick update on how things are going on the work placement at TT fuson. I am now almost 4 weeks through the placement, and I am still loving it! I have been given greater responsibility than i was expecting to get and it id really good because it is giving me the confidence that I needed.
when I realised that the 3rd week was upon us, I became fairly sad because it now feels like the beginning of the end, but hopefully that wont be the case.
I feel that I have proven myself whilst here and I will continue to do so.
I still can't tell you what I'm doing, or show you what I have done, but don't worry, as soon as I am allowed to there will be a lot to show.

Hopefully I will get to chat with you guys again soon,
until then have a nice day and see you soon
cx

Placement and the real world

2011-07-22T21:21:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
I know I haven't updated in a while because I have been extremely busy. I have now finally started my work placement at TT Fusion , and I am extremely excited and grateful for it!
I can't tell you what project I am working on, but I can tell you that I a having a fantastic, if not slightly daunting time. I have realised over this past week of minimum 9 hour days, just how the real working world is and I have to say I LOVE IT!
I know that the getting up at 6:30 is not the most fun thing in the world, but it is so worth it.
This week I have worked on 2 Props for a game, and I have learned a heck of a lot about low poly modelling.
I can't show you anything that I have made yet, but as soon as I can, I will.
I am one week down, with 5 more to go, and hopefully if I prove myself I may be there on a longer basis.

I'll chat to you all again soon at some point, hopefully with good news,

See you all soon
cx

update

2011-07-08T15:50:00.002+01:00

Hey guys,
today I have been working on the wheel of the truck and I have been fiddling with normal maps. I have also don ea very small part of texturing, but today was focused on figuring out normal maps in Maya.
here is what I have so far:

let me know what you think please guys?

cx

texturing

2011-07-07T16:02:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
sorry that I haven't updated recently, I've been really busy.
I finally got the model unwrapped and myself and bob are currently texturing it.
bob textured the body, and I textured the other parts of the model.
Bob's address can be found here: http://www.xerxius.blogspot.com
Here is what we have so far:

There is still lots more for me to do with the texture, as I haven't even started the back yet.

let me know what you think please people?
cx

me again

2011-06-23T22:00:00.002+01:00

hey again,
I fiddled about a bit with mental ray to get some better renders to show you what I have so far and here they are.

let me know what you think please folks :)
cx

almost finished

2011-06-23T20:02:00.002+01:00

Hey all,
I tried to post yesterday, but I couldn't upload images for some reason, so I will upload the images and today's progress as well.
Today I have finished the modelling stage of the vehicle, besides part of the gun, and I have almost unwrapped all of the different sections of the vehicle.
Here is what I have so far

I can't wait to start to see some textures and normal maps on this thing!
Let me know what you think please folks?
cx

anoter truck update

2011-06-20T14:39:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone,
I'm sorry I haven't updated much recently.
I have started to unwrap the model and I have now continued with some more modeling so here are the results.

I really like how this is coming along, but I feel that it is going a little slow so I am trying my best to speed up the process.

Let me know what you think please guys,
cx

truck update

2011-06-15T14:45:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
here is a quick update of how the truck is going.
I've now added some more parts to the back and top.

I think that now I am going to attempt to unwrap some of model and see how it goes. This is still a learning process for me as I am not totally familiar with the maya unwrap tools yet so it should be fun.
See you soon,
cx

hello again

2011-06-14T15:59:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I have been working on the truck some more and here are the results,

I am thoroughly enjoying working on this model and I can't wait to start texturing it.

Let me know what you guys think please
cx

P.S. I know the renders are a bit rubbish, I haven't remembered how to do nice renders in maya yet so this is what you get for now .

DREDD

2011-06-14T09:48:00.000+01:00

Hi guys.
Now that class is finished, I am working as a team with a Judge Dredd level that one of my friends has designed. I have been asked to do the street scene section of the level and so that is what I am doing.
I have decided to do all of my work in Maya so that I can get used to it properly again, so that is what I'm doing.
The first thing I did was make an extremely basic manhole cover. I did this so that I could figure out how to unwrap and texture in maya. I did this with no help from tutorials and here is the result:

I know it's not the highest quality asset in the world, but it was a first time so I am quite happy with it.
Now I am working on this beast:

Its called a JGSDF type 96 and it is a Japanese armoured vehicle. I will be building it, then adapting it to a more futuristic design because it is supposed to fit into the judge dredd world.
Here is what I have so far:

It's still in the very early stages at the moment, but I assure you that it will look great when it's finished.
I thought that this project will be good because I trust kev's designs and I also thought it would be good because I don't really like judge dredd so it would be a good chance to show that I can also work on a project when I don't like it. I am enjoying myself though, and I am learning new things every day.
Catch you all soon.
cx

P.S sorry about the lack of posts recently

gun update

2011-05-27T14:20:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,
I have kind of finished the tommy gun that I was making in Maya.
Here is what I have ( in progress);

I have never made a gun before, and I haven't made anything im Maya for a long time so it was nice to be doing it again. I can work much faster using Maya and I prefer it to max. I was fiddling with the render settings in maya to see what could be done and the bottom image was the result. I know it's not a great render but I just wanted to see what I could do.

What do you guys think?
cx

results!

2011-05-26T12:32:00.000+01:00

Hi guys, just a quick one.
I got my results today for my Ba (Hons) Game Art and I am extremely happy to say that I got a first!!
I have spent the entire year trying my hardest to g et a first and I am made up that the hard worka actually paid off. I have never achieved anything that I actually wanted to, grade wise, during my education, so this is a real morale booster for me now. I feel comfortable that with more polish and practise, I am industry ready.

thank you all for following me during this extremely important and valuable time in my life,

chris x

i know , i know

2011-05-23T16:22:00.000+01:00

Hey folks,
Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I have been slowing down a little after hand in since I was pretty much burned out, but now I am kind of back, and almost ready to go.
I have been using maya today to try and get used to it again, and I think it is going well. It's going kind of slow at the moment but I think that's fine.
Me and bob decided to create a tommy gun, since we have both never modelled a gun before.
Here is what I have so far,

What do you folks think?
cx

All ready now

2011-05-09T21:12:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,
I'm in a very good mood at the moment because I have just finished gathering all of the information for me to burn to disc to hand in tomorrow.
I feel extremely relieved and saddened at the same time, because it's the end of an era, one that I have particularly enjoyed, and thoroughly wish I could do again.

I have also finished the degree show pictures so here they are,

What do you guys think?
cx

DONE!

2011-05-09T13:35:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
Here it is, the Final video that I will be handing in. I have fixed the problems that I spoke of earlier, and here is what I now have,

Now I need to finish the document and the renders for the degree show so I will speak to you all later,
What do you think?
cx

Almost there

2011-05-08T16:44:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I think I am almost there with the video, and here is what I have so far;

What do you think? Do you think the voice needs to be a little quieter?
I'm now going to look into the splashes and see what I come up with,
cx

Getting closer by the hour

2011-05-08T01:10:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
Today I have been working on getting the video as close to finished as I can.
Here is what I have so far;

Tomorrow I plan on adding the voice over and adding splashes to the rain. I may also try to fix the seam on the specularity map on Frank's hand's in te POV shot, although this is only a short shot so I doubt it would really be noticed unless I told you.
I also need to make the schoolgirl part start a little earlier, so that Frank has less face time, and that the scene will flow a little better.

What do you guys think?,
cx

Almost there

2011-05-06T23:34:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I have re tweaked the images that I had previously uploaded for the degree show and here they are,

I have also just rendered out the first part of the Frank shots, and composited it with the previous video and here are the results

I am excited to see everything finally starting to come together. Just a few short days and this will be done.
Let me know what you guys think please, if I need to make changes, then it need to be now rather than later,
cx

pictures

2011-05-04T20:55:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I told you that I would be back soon with some pictures, and I think that these 3 may be finalists.

What do you guys think?

By the way, I will have 2 a1 posters of work up at the end of year degree show, at St helens college on the 17th May id anyone wants to come and see my work. I would appreciate any support that could be given.
thte layout of my posters is as follows:

What do you think folks?
cx

very quick update

2011-05-04T19:40:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday, it must have slipped my mind.
I had planned to get my animation done yesterday, but it all went to pot and started to drive me crackers. I originally planned to use the footsteps function in 3ds max to create the walk cycle, then edit it to make it unique. However, when I tried it it went very wrong, so I decided to key frame the animation instead. The results of this were not very good, but workable, and then my tutor, Stas pointed out to me that he knows how to use footsteps correctly, so he showed me how its done, and I can now use it. Even though I had a lot of problems with it yesterday, I feel that I am now in control of the animation and I am not too far off finishing it. I haven't started on the layer above the basic walk cycle yet, but I plan to tomorrow. Tonight however, I need to get renders done for the end of year show. Unfortunately, these images need to be done by Friday, so that is a little awkward when it comes to timing since our hand in is on Tuesday. Oh well, I will get it done. I have 7 images to render and I will show you what they are when I decide on what ones will be the final ones.

I will try my best to keep you guys updated, but I can't have the Internet open whilst I am working at the moment, because 3ds max is being very RAM hungry.
I'll catch you all later,
cx

P.S. My sexy new graphics card arrived ^_^ goodbye ATI Radeon HD 4670, Helooooooo ATI FirePro V4800!!

quick update

2011-05-02T15:24:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
Just a quick one here at the moment,
I just thought I'd show you that I have now made Frank and the book look wet via specular. I used the same effect as the buildings so that it wouldn't look out of place, but I have done it slightly differently so that it looks more realistic.

As you can see, I have also added the stubble to Frank's head and I have altered the normal maps on his hands so that they don't look so freaky anymore.
I am now going to start animating Frank, and I will be attempting to use the footsteps biped tool in 3ds max to create the initial walk cycle. This should save me a lot of work, so long as it works.
Let me know what you guys think please,
Cx

hey all

2011-05-02T13:42:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
I have resoled some of the issues from yesterday. Thanks to my own stupidity I had to re render a whole bunch of frames but oh well, it's done now. I have rendered those frames out and I have also discovered a way of using the shadow from an object when it isn't there, so the lighting problem on Frank is now a thing of the past.
I now need to work really quickly in what I am doing so that is what I have been doing.
I have done a very quick test of the rain in after effects and I am fairly happy with the results so far. The render times are also fairly good. Took about 7 minutes for 45 seconds of footage, which isn't too bad considering the way I wanted to do it would take about 10 hours for 3 seconds of footage.
Here is a video of what I have so far

I now need to go and edit Frank's texture map so that he has stubble on his head, and I also need to give him a wet specular map, and re-normal his hands. I also need to get him animated ASAP, which I am a bit worried about, but I'm sure I can pull it off.

Let me know what you guys think please,
cx

again with the GAH!

2011-05-01T22:22:00.000+01:00

I'm currently having a hellish time.
apparently the frames that I have rendered so far are useless because I stupidly had a layer hidden that contained a lot of assets that should have been in view.
Also the camera was wrong, so I am now having to re render everything. This isn't too bad however when I try to render Frank now, for some reason his hair doesn't show up. I didn't like the hair anyway so I have decided that it is going. Instead I will paint stubble on the texture. I think this is fine since the character has thinning hair in the book, so I imagine that he would shave it every now and again.

Whilst I was trying to animate before, I was getting a lot of weird things happening, but I think I may have Finally fixed them.
I am really worried about the amount of time that I have for animation etc, but I must do it.

On a lighter note, I have done an extremely quick test on whether or not the layering would work in after effects, and it does, so here are the results for that

I'm not entirely sure what to do about the light on the side of his face, but I shall worry about that tomorrow. I am too wound up at the moment to be thinking of that.

If anyone has any sort of tips or anything for this, then they would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Cx

power cut update

2011-05-01T17:01:00.002+01:00

just checked the render, all is good. The power cut 111 frames before the end, so they are now rendering. Whew.
cx

slow but steady

2011-05-01T16:52:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Just thought I would let you know what's going on at the moment.
I am still doing the background render but I have doubled the frames so that they are slower. I am excited about how it is coming together, however it is frustrating that I can't really use my pc whilst it is rendering because the renders take up all of the ram. So I have borrowed my muum's laptop so that whilst i am rendering on my PC, I can look into tutorials for adding the rain in after effects, which I have decided to do since I am having so many problems in 3ds max. I know that this is sort of a cop out, but it is more of a contingency plan than anything else. I have found a few tutorials, but there is one that I really like, however this may take a while to render so I have also found a slightly easier one, that would be less resource heavy.

I am also working on the required documentation for the course whilst the renders are going on, so I am trying to adapt my production document, and dissertation whilst I'm waiting. I hate feeling non-productive so I am trying my best to keep doing work instead of just waiting for renders to finish.

I will upload whatever footage I have later on, and I am also planning on doing a quick test of Frank for a few frames, so that I can see how the layering worked.

..... GAHH!!! as we speak, we have just had a power cut, so my renders stopped!! nooo! I'llk keep you posted later
xc

little ray of light at the end of the tunnel

2011-04-30T23:44:00.000+01:00

Hi folks.
After a stressful day, I think I have managed to kind of solve my problem.
I have figured out how to render in separate layers so that I can render Frank in his own file, by importing the same cameras from the scene file, thus having the same animation and key frames. and then try to match Frank's movements with the timing of the shot.
I have been doing some tests of the background render so that I can see the timing etc and here is what I have so far.
Please be aware that there will be a voice over and rain on this video, but I will be adding them later, so the parts that are still for a while are either dialogue, or Frank is doing something, but since he's not in there yet you wont see that.

I am aware of problems with the video at the moment, but this is why its a test file. I am figuring out the shot in 3ds max, then rendering out that shot, then taking it into after effects, then going back and adding the next shot in max, but this makes the previous shot smoother, so I will have to go back and re render it all at the same time, but for now I have this test file to work with.
Let me know what you think please,
cx

gah!

2011-04-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,
To put it bluntly, things are currently going awfully. I can't even render a single frame when I have Frank and the scene in the same file, so I am going to have to find a way of rendering Frank out separately and then composite him on top of the renders o f the scene. I will have to do this so that they sync up obviously, so I will have to use place markers in the Frank file, so I can animate him from point a to point b. This is going to be very hard indeed as most of it will be guess work, but I have to try my damned hardest to get it to work.
I think that what I am planning will work, but only time will tell.
Anyway, I have to go and stress out some more now, so I will post later with an update (if my PC survives that long)
cx

quick update

2011-04-30T01:04:00.000+01:00

Hi guys. I did plan to get some animating done today but that didn't happen. I ended up finishing the skinning, and then organising the scene so that everything was in the correct layers and naming sets so that there would be no confusion at a later date, and also in case I could render in layers.
I may have discovered a way to render my rain without it crashing. It involves rendering the rain without the objects, but still having the rain collide with them. I found a way to do this and here is a very quick video showing the test result.

I also realised that I hadn't modeled the book that Frank is meant to be holding so I did that today as well.

What do you guys think?
cx

lights and skin

2011-04-29T16:43:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday.
I spent yesterday finishing off my lighting of my scene, and attempting to add my rain. The latter deemed difficult. I have added some but I am testing to see what works best, as I keep getting crashes etc.
Here is the comparison of the lighting in my scene in 3 stages.

Before any lighting

After my spot lighting

After fill lighting

I also attempted to add rain by using the rain that I had already created in previous test, but this appeared to be too processor heavy, so I looked around and discovered that there was another way of doing rain, called spray. So I tried that and here are the results of some tests

Since I am having to many problems with this, I may have to look at alternative ways of doing it, e.g. adding it in post production via adobe after effects, but this may results in complications so I'm not sure yet. I also may be faced with the problem of not being able to render the trailer out, in which case I think that I will render still images, but still animate them by panning over them whilst the voice over is playing. This will be a cool effect, but it is a last resort should everything else fail on me.

Now that I am home, I appear to be having problems rendering any kind of rain in my scene, so I carried on skinning Frank, because this needed doing so that I could animate him, so that is what I have been doing today.

I have also rendered a short video to show the effect of the skinning

Now I need to create a quick pre-viz animation to try and figure out all of the timing etc for the scene, so that is the next job.
Let me know what you guys think please.

P.S. sorry for this kind of lengthy post

LET THERE BE LIGHTS!!

2011-04-27T23:01:00.001+01:00

Hi all,
I have almost finishing lighting my scene already!
I still need to add some lighting to flood the scene with moonlight etc, but here are a plethora of images of what I have so far.

Before any lights

After the lighting I have added so far

What do you guys think so far?
I plan to finish the lighting tomorrow, and then start the animation,
cx

Hello all

2011-04-26T16:49:00.000+01:00

Hi guys,
Just a quick update on today's progress so far.
I have got my small assets in the scene now and they are scattered around. I have also fixed some uv errors that I had, and have fixed some of the specularity layouts that I had in place.

I have also started lighting my scene from scratch and I am fairly happy with the results so far.

I am looking forward to lighting the rest of this scene as I really could do with getting my animation done so that I have time to render it all.
What do you guys think?
cx

quick update

2011-04-25T23:58:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,
Today I have finally almost finished the build segment of this project.
I have gone around and tried to fix some textures that were being temperamental, and I have also altered some of them.
I decided that the brick texture on the floor was a better one so i decided to use that.
I have also created some small, basic assets to populate the scene a little to break it up.

These textures are obviously not finished, I plan to do that tomorrow.
Tomorrow should be a good day, because I am planning to texture these assets, light my scene, and maybe even get the rain in.
I need to get those things done shortly so that I can move onto creating my pre viz animation to get the timing of the scene and then my final renders
What do you guys think?
cx

yaay!

2011-04-25T15:32:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Remember the 56 textures that I was talking about having to complete yesterday? well thanks to me working until 3am last night, or should I say this morning, I have completed that list.
I have now moved on to create the curbs and road of the scene, in preparation of lighting the scene. I feel like the quality of my work isn't great at the moment, but I think that this is due to the lack of lighting in my scene.

The next step is to light the scene correctly, fix the sky dome, and if I have time, build some small asset's to populate the area some more.
What do you guys think?
cx

specular

2011-04-24T20:06:00.001+01:00

Hi all,
I just thought I'd give a quick update on what I'm doing at the moment.
I have now added an emissive and normal map to the arcade machines.

I have also started going around every texture and adding whatever necessary maps are required e.g. specular maps, normal maps etc. I counted them all and there are 56 to do, so I've got a challenge on my hands.
I started adding specular maps to show rain dripping down the object, since the scene will be raining however I have since found a better technique that I think I will implement instead.
Here is what I started doing

As you can see, I have not got any special lighting in the scene at the moment because I discovered that the reason for 3DS max crashing all of the time was something to do with the lighting, so I deleted it all since I hadn't even began to light the scene properly yet. You can see here that the specularity on the signs looks like liquid dripping, but I discovered that if I use the render option in photoshop to render fibres, that I get better results like this,

I have completed 5 specular maps so far, so I will go back to them and apply my new technique to them before I get too far ahead.
What do you guys think?
I think that it is all starting to take great shape and I can't wait to light it all properly and make it all look pretty and dark, and wet.
cx

grr

2011-04-23T20:23:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I have been working hard again today, however it has been a bit of a stressful one. 3ds max is deciding to be really fun and crashing alot. I think it has something to do with lighting, but I am not certain.
I am planning on buying a new graphics card that will hopefully help me out, however I dont think that it will help me with this project.
Today I have been working on the arcade again, as I realised that I had bypassed doing the arcade doors. I decided to do a low poly interior of the arcade so that something was there, and I also decided to include the picture booth. Here are the results.

I know that the models aren't great, but they are only low poly background assets, that will never be seen up close.
What do you guys think?
cx
P.S. My sexy new hard drive arrived today. WOO!!

Bar auge

2011-04-22T17:05:00.000+01:00

Hello again people,
as promised, I have finished the texturing of bar auge.
It is fairly basic, but It wont really be seen all that much, but I still have time to go back and add parts to the scene.

What do you guys think?
The good news now, is that that was the last building to be textured, so now they all have some sort of texture on them.
I now need to go and texture the arcade doors and populate the scene. I don't have much left of my list to do now, but here is what's left:

do Arcade doors (maybe stairs and escalator)
Create picture booth for arcade?
Create floor tiles (Maybe curbs?)
Create specular and normal maps for everything that hasn't got them already
Light the scene correctly
Finish the sky dome and add rain (fog?)

Finish skinning Frank
Create and render a pre-viz animation to add the voice over etc
create the full animation
render scene
Edit together with voice over and added images etc.

That's it!. I'm really happy that there is only that much to do. The list used to be a heck of a lot longer than that. I have given myself two weeks to do the bottom part of the list. It shouldn't take that long, but I want to allow room for error.

What do you all think?
cx

oops

2011-04-22T12:54:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Sorry I forgot to update yesterday, I have been working though.
Yesterday I was focusing on the vending machines that are below the hotel.
Here are the progress renders

I did spend a while excluding the bottles from the emissive map, but it ended up just not looking right, so I included them.


Here is the final result

I also added a tiles floor to the hotel, instead of it just being brick.
I have now moved onto bar Auge and I have started by adding the shutters to the front of the building.

It is only basic at the moment, but this building is in the early stages.

Let me know what you guys think please?
Should be done soon!
cx

Hoteru

2011-04-20T13:58:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Just a quick update today as I am really busy,
I have been working on the hotel today. I was just going to do a texture of the doors on the balcony, but I decided to creatae a rough interior of the room so that it was a little more dynamic. I also created some quick blinds to cover the door so that it has a touch of privacy, it is a love hotel after all.

What do you guys think?

what you bin up to?

2011-04-19T11:59:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Today I finally go the bin bag into mudbox. I am extremely happy with the results.

Here are all the bags together in the bins.

I think that they look brilliant even if i do say so myself and I am extremely happy with the results.

What do you guys think?
cx

update on bar/club

2011-04-18T20:42:00.000+01:00

hi all,
Just a quick update today, I decided to add a notice board, based on my reference pictures. I also added a power box with cables coming from it, and I added a wire with lanterns hanging from it.
Here are the results,

I have also added another sign to the building. In the reference image, there are two signs, however this seemed distracting in my scene, so I stuck to the one sign. This section is yet to be lit properly, but I will do that tomorrow. I am considering having the neon bulbs blinking, or at least have some of them blinking as though they are broken.

Let me know what you think please people,
cx

bar/club

2011-04-17T20:36:00.000+01:00

Hi all.
Today I have been working on the bar/club at the end of the road.
I had a look around the Internet and managed to find a picture of the place at night which was interesting

This was the first time that I had seen what was past those glass doors, and this had been somewhat of a problem in the past because I was wondering what to do when it came to texturing the door. However, now that I have seen inside those doors, I see that it is a small room that would be very easy to model, so that is what I decided to do, just like I did with the koma theatre.
I started today with the plan of texturing the signs and adding a texture on the door, and i ended up modeling that interior as well, so here are today's progress pictures,

Here I added the textures that I had to create from scratch, for the signs.

I then planned to use an alpha plane to add this sign, however I ran into a problem when the alpha was only at half transparency the whole time, it should have been opaque. I solved this problem however. It was a setting that I had changed earlier on for something else, but since I was sharing the texture sheet it also effected this.

The finished article

Let me know what you think please people,
cx

yaaay!

2011-04-17T13:05:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Thanks to my wonderful Japanese friend Miya, I know have the correct kanji for my sign. It turns out that it was a price list for a bath and massage house that is downstairs.

This is the finished version. I have also gone with teh easter egg idea and the writing above the price list says easter egg in japanese "イースターエッグ" or "Īsutāeggu"

What you think guys?
cx

Last one for the day

2011-04-16T20:35:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
This is my last post for today, as I have done more than I expected to today and I have abused my blog thoroughly.
I had been toying with the idea of doing a rough low poly model of the inside of the phone box, rather than just texturing the glass. I thought that texturing the glass would look odd, especially when there would be moving cameras around it, so I went ahead and modeled the interior. I used reference images of Japanese phones and they are all this strange green colour.

I hope that this adjustment does indeed work out better. I think it has.
Let me know what you think please folks,
cx

Backlit!

2011-04-16T18:39:00.000+01:00

YES!
Hi all,
I have been trying to figure out how to back light a sign successfully to no avail.
I tried initially with light behind the sign but this was the result.

It looks awful and just didn't work well. So I was sitting thinking, and it hit me! I could just use an alpha'd plane with a blurred version of the Koma sign on it, make it white, and place it behind the sign and here is the result.

I am extremely happy with this as it has been annoying me for some time.
There are no lights at all on the second image, that is just a plane with an alpha texture on it. I'm so glad it worked.

Let me know what you guys think please,
cx

Not glamorous

2011-04-16T18:02:00.001+01:00

Hi all, me agaon.
I decided to go ahead and model the interior of the Koma theatre. It didnt take long and I thnik that it paid off.

I am happy with the results, and I think that it helps give the scene more of a sense of depth. I know that the inside isnt exactly beautiful, but it is not meant to be seen upclose like the second image.
I am really happy with the progress that I am making today. I feel that I have made two good decisions, and I hope to continue making more.

Let me know what you think please folks.
cx

*Edit* Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, icase you didn't notice, I changed the poster between the doors. I liked the one that I created but something just wasn't right about it, so I chopped up the main billboard, altered it a bit and used that. I works because the actual koma theatre had this kind of thing all over it when it was there.

Where's your pinky?

2011-04-16T15:22:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I just nipped onto Yakuza to get some reference of the doors on the koma theatre. Since the place has been demolished, and there doesn't seems to be much reference online that is close enough to see, I went on to the game since they have re-created the building. I was going to just texture the doors, but I think I may do it the way that they have. They have added clear glass to the doors, and made an extremely simple interior. I think that it looks good and that it is the best option.
Here are the pictures;

I think that this is what I'm going to do, as it looks really cool, and i think that it would give much better results than the texture.
What do you guys think?
cx

we will rock you!

2011-04-16T14:16:00.001+01:00

G'day all ,
I'm feeling fairly jolly today. I'm working hard and I am listening to GACKT so all is good with the world.
I looked at my list of things to do today and it consisted of three things:
1. Create a door texture for the koma theatre,
2. Create a sign for the Koma theatre,
3. Backlight the main koma sign correctly.

I set out to create the Koma sign, which is basically a poster that sits between two of the doors, but I took a look at my reference images and decided to also include the huge billboard that is on the building. I am so glad I did this as I feel that it looks really good.

Added the first light

Added more lights

Final result

I am really happy that I decided to add this as I think it looks pretty awesome. Oh by the way, the poster in the frame is the actual poster from the actual Koma theatre. I am trying to be as authentic as I can be. The lights are also a repeating asset. Im so glad that I made it as I have used it alot so far. It saves a lot of time.
I also created my own poster to put in the location that I mentioned earlier.

It still needs work, but I like the way its heading.

As usual, let me know what you think, and I will be working hard.
cx

tall sign

2011-04-15T20:18:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Here is what I have for the tall sign so far,

I didnt like how flat this looked


So I added an inside shadow

Also, I was thinking that if I can't get the correct Kanji for the other sign, I could just put the words "easter egg" in japanese on it, or the authors name "ryu murakami".

Let me know what you think please folks

cx

is it a sign?

2011-04-15T15:26:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Ok so I have updated the arcade signs from last night. Each sign now has a unique image.
The main thing that is giving me a problem at the moment is the big sign by the stairs. The problem is that there is a price list at the bottom, and the image that I have is too low res to use as a texture, so I am re creating it, however I cant read some of the kanji so I am struggling, but I have managed to get most of it done.

Herea are some pictures to show the progress so far.

Let me know what you think please, and if any of you can read japanese then please feel free to help me out :)

Here is what I have so far

Update

2011-04-14T22:21:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Just a quick update. I have done some more things from the list.
Here is the gate to the bins

On the left I have altered uvw so it isnt repeating


I have done it to both sides here

I have also added the texture to the vents on the hotel roof

And, we finally have some sort of signs on the arcade!

I still need to finish these signs, but I wanted to show you what I have so far.

Let me know what you think please folks,
cx

Vents

2011-04-14T15:23:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Today I have been adding vents and modular piping to my scene.
I also added a low poly background to the scene so that the gaps that you could see the sky dome through, are covered.

Let me know what you think please folks.
cx

p.s. I think that I will try and get the scene finished by the April 26th, so that I will have 2 weeks for rendering and editing. I don't think that this will happen, but I am aiming for roughly that time.

Here is a rough list of what I have left to do by the 26th

Create sign textures for arcade X5
create door texture - Koma theatre
Create sign - koma theatre
Backlight sign - Koma theatre
Texture - phone booth
Model rough interiour? - phone booth
Texture doors - bar/club
Texture signs X3 - bar/club
Create large neon signs X2 - bar/club
Texture gate - bin site
Texture bins and bags - bin site
Texture wall - bin site
Texture doors - hotel
Texture sign - hotel
Texture vending machine X5 - hotel
Texture AC units - hotel
Texture roof - hotel
Texture shutter - Bar auge
Texture signs - Bar auge
Texture balconies - Bar auge
Texture main building - Bar auge
Backlight sign - Bar auge
Create floor tiles (curb?)

I will also be creating filling assets as I go along.

what version of windows is this?

2011-04-12T23:32:00.001+01:00

Hi all.
I have spent most of today working on my dissertation so that I can get it out of the way for the hand in on Monday. I have finished it, so now I can focus on the scene.
Today I worked on the windows in the scene. Here are the results

.I created an emissive map so that certain windows would be lit up, and other wouldn't.

What do you guys think?
cx

P.S. I have been having problems with my PC today, so I have had to struggle against that as well.

Another update

2011-04-10T21:20:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I have been working hard to improve my scene and add parts that I have been meaning to add.
I have created the bins now,

I also imported the Vending machine model that I made a while ago,

I also looked closer at my arcade reference images and I have decided to alter my arcade.
Here is how it looks now

I'm having fun working on my scene, but it is really tiring me out, and I think that I need to approach it with fresh eyes, so I have decided to have a day off tomorrow. It will be the only one that I have had in months, so I don't feel bad about it. I also feel that I am currently running ahead of schedule, but time will tell.
Let me know what you think please folks,
cx

Emissive

2011-04-09T18:24:00.001+01:00

Hi all,
Just a quick one. I wanted to see if I could create a black and white map as a sort of self-iluminate mask for te signs on the shop and it worked!

Here is what it looked like before

And this is after

I am really happy with the results, as is was quick, and this is one of the processes that I was hoping would work, as I will be using it a fair bit in the scene. It may only be something small, but this is a good morale boost for me.

Let me know what you think please.
cx

UPDATE:
I also did it to the noodle shop. What do you think?

Update on the shop

2011-04-09T16:43:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I have been updating the scene again today. I added some rough lighting into certain parts of the scene to try and help get a feel for the finished article. I have updated the shop because it was looking bare and something was just not right about it so I looked at the reference images and added more items.

I think that it looks miles better now, and it is really starting to come together. To save time, I have decided to seperate the windows in the hotel from the wall, so that I can re-use them throughout the scene. This will save me a lot of time.
Let me know what you think please folks,
cx

Uv'd and ready

2011-04-09T00:10:00.000+01:00

Today I decided to prepare the scene for texturing. I had already UVW mapped everything and now I have added a basic texture or colour to everything. It is an exciting move as things are starting to come together. It shouldnt take long to set everything up, and the next step is to add decals to the scene.

Let me know what you think please folks
cx

Texturing update

2011-04-07T14:35:00.000+01:00

Today I was planning on doing the main animation for the scene, but on the bus into class I remembered that I was yet to finish the texturing on Frank's face, so that's what I've been doing today.

I changed the colour of the scars and added detail.


Had a slght malfunction with the hair


Full body


Changed the eyes to Brown from Blue.

Let me know what you think please guys
cx

Frankie the red nosed pervert

2011-04-07T12:24:00.002+01:00

This render happened by mistake, but was promptly named "Frankie the red nosed pervert" by Bob, so here it is forever. He might come back out at christmas.

update of skinning and scene

2011-04-05T19:45:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
Sorry I've not posted for a couple of days, I've not been mega well.
I Had my good friends Beef (Andrew Sarsfield), and Simon Whybourne of Vanguard Film in my class on Monday to help me out with the final shots for my scene. Here is what we established so far,

This will make a lot more sense when I upload a pre-viz video of it.
As a Brucey bonus, here is a recent render of Frank during skinning.

Let me know what you think please folks,

cx

Just a quick update before bed

2011-04-03T00:53:00.000+01:00

Here is a quick update of what I have just done. I have been adding textures to the signs on the shop.
Here are the results so far;

These are obviously not finished, they are the clean versions, as in no dirt or scuffs etc.
I have made every texture on te signs by hand, and from scratch so it has a nice clean look.
Let me know what you think please.
I came across this picture during research on google streetview and it made me think, should I add a hinged gate to the doorway?

What do you think?
cx

Frank and scene update

2011-04-02T22:55:00.000+01:00

Hi people,
Since my last update I have Rigged, and have been skinning Frank ready for his animation.
This is taking a while, but is taking shape quite nicely.

So that I don't go totally scatty, I have also been working on the scene.
I went around every building to make sure that all my modular pieces where instanced, so that textures would be correctly uv'd etc. I also gave everything a basic uvw map unwrap, so that it looks a bit better to work with.

I modelled the sign for the shop today and wanted to show you the progress, so here you go.

I can't wait to get this scene done. I am excited to see it all come together and I am now confident that I will have it done on time.
Let me know what you think please people.
cx

P.S. No I am not perverse, this type of shop does exist in that are of Tokyo lol

hair's Frank

2011-03-31T23:03:00.000+01:00

I have been doing a little bit of testing about with the hair modifier on Frank.
Here are the results so far.


This was an accident, but I found it funny

I kind of like the results I'm getting so far, but I will carry on tomorrow. I'm pretty tired now but I'm going to look into rigging now to see if I can get some of it done tonight.
cx

Frank is almost done!

2011-03-31T20:21:00.000+01:00

Hello all, how are you?
I'm jolly. Partially due to being really tired and not quite with it, and partially because I am slightly ahead of my schedule at the moment.
Frank is all together now, but he is not finished for texturing etc yet.
Here are some quick renders

I will be continuing with the textures, rigging Frank for animation, and giving him some hair.
Let me know what you think
cx

building 02

2011-03-30T01:17:00.000+01:00

Whilst I am waiting to chat to Dean tomorrow about what to do next, I have unwrapped the second building which is the condomania shop.
Here is what I have so far.

I may try to finish this building tomorrow, but I am in work after uni unfortunately so I will have to see.
see you in the morning, its bed time now
cx

All coming together

2011-03-30T00:06:00.000+01:00

Here is the first render of the body parts of Frank together in one file.

Tomorrow I will be making the hands and I will hopefully start rigging the entire character.
The reason for this is that I can continue texturing whilst the character is being rigged because that shouldnt effect it.
As usual let me know what you think please.

cx

Frank again

2011-03-29T23:09:00.000+01:00

Here is an update on Frank.
I took his head into mudbox to add detail.

This is the result of the normal map being added to the lower poly model.

It doesnt look fantastic at teh moment, but I think it does look. It will look a lot better once it is textured.
Let me know what you think,

cx

Revised schedule

2011-03-28T22:42:00.002+01:00

I have now revised my schedule to fit my feedback.

Enjoy

woops

2011-03-28T22:21:00.000+01:00

I had to give a small 10 minute presentation today to my class and tutors to show them where i was up to and I received feedback and they kindly informed me that I am doing really well but I need to hurry things up as I may be short on time to finish all of my assets.
I was planning to spend this week finishing Frank's head and attaching it to the body, but now I have been informed that I should have Frank's body done AND rigged by the end of the week.

This will be, for lack of a better word... fun.
I'll keep you all posted with progress.
cx

Texture sheets

2011-03-28T14:00:00.001+01:00

Here are the texture sheets so far

enjoy
cx

update of schedule

2011-03-28T12:52:00.001+01:00

Hey all,
just a quick update on a revised schedule.
Here is an image that shows where I need to be at what time during the production.

As you can see, I originaly planned to be finished on the 29th of April, however due to my recent revision I have put the date back to the 9th May.
I have been generous with some of my times so hopefully I will be able to make it up.

cx

P.S. Here is the word document of my schedule. http://www.sendspace.com/file/peerf9

The head of Frank

2011-03-24T15:56:00.000Z

Hi All,
So today I have been working on Frank's head.
After some help from Dean, Frank's head has really taken shape. I have removed the normal map that I did have on it because it wouldn't fit anymore, but I have unwrapped it again so that I can make another one. I am trying to add some detail into the actual model as opposed to adding it in the normal map, because I want more control over it when animating.
Here is what I now have.

I plan to take it all into mudbox and get some detail in it.
Let me know what you think please people.

cx

Shoes lookin at you

2011-03-23T21:37:00.000Z

Hi all,
I spent today working on the shoes and now they are done.

Once I unwrapped the shoes, I then textured them.

Now that is the end of Frank's body, I will be doing the head and hands.
Let me know what you think please people, and wish me luck.
cx

2011-03-22T16:38:00.001Z

Hello everyone,

Today I have been working on Frank's shoes and here is what I have .

The shoe is finished, and I have started on the texture. This may take a while because I am hand painting the stitching on it, but I think that it will be worth it. I am using a normal map to define the overlapping leather of the shoe. Frank also now has a belt buckle and buttons.

Let me know what you think please guys,
cx

Another quick one

2011-03-22T01:23:00.000Z

Hi guys, just another quick update for you.
I think I have finished Frank's body, apart from the shoes and hands.
According to my self made schedule, I have tomorrow to finish Frank's shoe's.
I think that I will add the Hands to the Head schedule, because they are both skin based and it makes more sense to do them together.

Here is a What I have so far:

I will let you know tomorrow where I am up to,
until then, goodnight.
cx

beltish

2011-03-17T11:57:00.000Z

Hey guys,
Just a quick update to show what I'm doing.
I've now added a belt and added a normal for the material, but I still need to add the belt buckle.

I still need to add shoes and hands to this model, but I will do that soon. I will let you see as soon as I have done anything else.

As usual let me know what you think please guys,

cx

textured pants

2011-03-16T15:49:00.000Z

I fiddled with mudbox today and I've put a basic texture on it to match the jacket.

I wanted to use xnormal to extract the ambient occlusion and normal map, as it gives better results, but the machine that I'm on hasnt got it, so I will do that when I am at home.
Here is what I have done today.

Let me know what you think please guys
cx

pants!

2011-03-16T12:53:00.000Z

Just a quick one, here is a picture of the trousers so far.

I only have the Front so far, so now I will work on the sides and the back. Oh by the way, I know that there isnt a belt buckle, but that will be a seperate asset, as will the buttons on the jacket.

Let me know what you think please guys.
cx

Jacket

2011-03-15T16:28:00.000Z

Hey all,
I've been working on Frank's jacket today.
I added the smaller detail, such as seams etc in mudbox, and I have worked the fabric into the normal map so now we have a more realistic result.

Here is the progression of today.

Working in the detail in mudbox

New normal map with shading added

I reduced the amount of shading used

I added a normal overlay of the fabric but it's too strong

I lowered the strength of the weave and this is the final result

I am really happy with how this turned out and I am hoping to get the pants and shirt to a similar standard.

Let me know what you think please people.
cx

Noodle update

2011-03-15T12:38:00.000Z

Hey all,
just a quick update abotu the noodle shop. I worked on the diffuse, specular and normal for my stools on the noodle bar and here is what I have.

I'm going to stop working on this for now and get Frank done, then I will get everything else to this level. I want to make sure that I've got everything at an acceptable level and then I can go back and add more detail etc should the need arise.

Let me know what you think please all,

cx

Frank who?

2011-03-14T23:43:00.001Z

Hey all,
today I decided to give Frank the day off and work on my scene buildings, so I worked on a normal and specular map for my noodle bar. This took a little longer than expected because I haven't made a normal map by hand for a while, since for the duration of the last project we used mudbox to create them.

Here is a quick render of what I have so far.


Before


After

After more tinkery

I also did some test render whilst I was playing with the normals to see what kind of effect I was getting.

As usual, let me know what you think please guys.
cx

Quick update

2011-03-12T23:00:00.000Z

Hi guys.
I didn't get a chance to do too much yesterday as I spent most of the day freaking out about the HUGE earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Spent most of the time checking that everyone I know over there are ok, and so far so good.
I did a couple of tests with x normal to see what gave the better results for normals and ambient occlusion, mudbox, or x normal, and here are the results.

MudBox Ambient occlusion

XNormal Ambient occlusion

MudBox Normal

XNormal Normal

I think that the Xnormal results are better, and more natural but I think that it really depends on the subject that you are working on.

I did a quick diffuse map which turned out like this

I didn't really like the colour, so I have re done it like this

I think that this colour looks a little more natural and worn.

There is still a lot of work to do, but I am enjoying it, but also looking forward to seeing the final results.

Let me know what you guys think please.

Cx

P.S. My thought are with all the people of Japan who are suffering. Please take a moment to think of them.

back in the mud

2011-03-10T22:42:00.000Z

Hi guys. After speaking to Dean and realising that the last jacket attempt was rather rubbish, I re-started it. Hopefully this is a bit better now.
Here is what I have so far.

I think im going to try a quick ao pass and give it a quick diffuse to see how it looks.
Let me know what you think please guys.
cx

Frank update

2011-03-07T16:20:00.000Z

I have been working on Frank's body and it is now unwrapped. I put the Jacket into mudbox to give a quick test of the normal maps and here are the results.

I plan to do the rest of the suit soon. I think this test was ok, but I want better results so I will be tinkering with it.

Let me know what you think please guys?

cx

Fetching jacket

2011-03-06T14:59:00.000Z

I have been unwrapping Frank today. I decided that I like the overall shape that I have at the moment, so I'm going to unwrap him and hive him a test in mudbox for the normals on the clothing.

Here he is in his fetching checkered jacket

I can't wait to get Frank up and running. It will be cool to see him come to life.

As usual, let me know what you think please guys.

cx

Frank update

2011-03-06T00:52:00.000Z

Hi guys.
I have been working on Frank today and I am quite happy with the results.

Here is what I had earlier today.

I then worked into what I already had, using reference all along, and this is what I have now.

Please ignore the feet, hands and head. They are just placeholders for my own reference.

The model is currently in 3 parts. Legs, Jacket and shirt/tie(a.k.a. chest)

I am actually having great fun making this model which I think is impotrant. Because I am relaxed, I think I am getting better results.
I need to add some more things but I think I will take the model into mudbox for a quick normal map test and see how it goes.

Let me know what you think please guys,

cx