Tutor feedback - Mandatory check up

Just quickly writing notes on what my tutor said so I don't forget!

- Have a root joint
- Use smooth bind and then paint weights
- nDynamics with wave deformer. Create controls and use just on the places where he lands.
- nCloth for the Polaroids

- Animate robot sliding across the scene and stopping where the Polaroids will land
- animate him jumping
- Animate robot using his hands to take out Polaroid
- Animate Polaroids in last - THIS IS NOT PART OF CHARACTER DESIGN. It is an effect applied afterwards. 

Scene

Use compositing to create the environment. Model very basic environment then add all details and background in adobe after effects.

Lots of work!

Haven't posted for a while. Wanted to get through improving my robot first. I have painted all the textures on Photoshop myself.  I have made diffuse maps using a program called nDo2 and made the specular maps myself. I'm actually so proud of myself. I was finding Uv unwrapping and diffuse/specular maps really daunting and was trying to avoid them, which was silly as I need to learn. Now my model looks 1000x better (in my opinion) and the metals is way more realistic. There are actual dents where there are scratches and and bumps in my texture and the light is shiny in places and not in others and it depends how the light is hitting the metal. 

My model front on. You can see the colour scheme goes and I decided to get rid of the mask and paint it on instead as this looks more realistic and suits the robotic model better. 

Back of head. I downloaded some brushes for metal to make some random, realistic markings. This makes the model look more worn.

I don't know a lot about the properties of aging metal, but I put rust where I think it would go (or maybe it looks like mud?) It's up to the viewer, I personally see it as rust. I put it on the parts that I feel would be most worn and have the most wear.

Like on the edges of the metal and under the knobs on his ears. I also made things like all his gears, knobs ect. rusty. I had a lot of shiny metal on him before and it really didn't suit the environment. 

See how the light reflects onto the brushed metal? Ahh I love it so much! So much better than a smooth texture. I've also put rust under the button holder and around where his Polaroids will print out.

Rust is on every edge of his body and also under his arms which makes him look much more realistic. 

I like the subtle detail I added to his back such as the vents and holes at the top of his body on his back. See how the light reflects on his back on this angle,

But at this angle the light is much duller and not as shiny. This will look fantastic in the animation!  :D

And a side view of him. Now finally time for rigging! I feel so behind but hopefully will catch up this weekend. I'm hoping rigging him won't be too difficult but that's unlikely haha. 

 Beginning to paint my textures on now. Quite difficult and have got to get the rust more realistic looking. Then I need to add a specular map so that that the rust doesn't shine.

Tutorial

Have just been following this tutorial for uv mapping and texture painting. Putting this on here so I know where I'm up to!

Finally making progress

Just editing my characters arms and to make him more logical in how he moves and easier to animate. I also added some dents on his head and body and a slot on his body for the Polaroids to print from. I'm just trying to be sensible so I don't run into any major issues when it comes to animating him. I now need to do some uv unwrapping which I'm not looking forward to teaching myself in all honesty. Hopefully it'll work out and make him look much better though. I found what looks like a helpful tutorial on youtube which is what follows:

Reworking the model

Reach from Luke Randall on Vimeo.

Reworking my character at the moment. This video was featured on vimeo today and I thought its movements were similar to my characters. This could be a good inspiration while redesigning my character. Especially when he tries to run really fast on the spot while being stuck to the computer. Reminds me of how my character will run while he's excited (spinning top inspiration again).

Seriously cool Maya swamp

Just saw this and thought it was a really cool swamp made in Maya. Will be good to look at for reference.

Tutor Feedback from Presentation

The constructive feedback I got from presentation is to improve my model.
The suggestions made are as follows:

• Create dents etc so he's not a perfect shape
• Use secular mapping so he's not shiny - especially on the rusted parts
• Create UV mapping where he is rusty in places that would be worn down such as underneath his arms
• Give him a less symmetrical body to show he's off balance. Such as one side of his body being larger than the other.

I really like this feedback and will begin to improve my model as I agree with these comments. They liked the story and setting so that's set in concrete.

Project 2B

Beginning project 2B now. The first things I need to get done are:

• Texturing the model
• re-working the models shape
• Create the swamp environment
• Rigging

So yes, lots to do and so little time if I let it build up. Time to get on with it.

This post is for my presentation

Orthographic View

 Environment Sketches

Storyboard

Turntable

Character in Movement

Paragraph Describing Character

The characters material is derived from an old tin can and is therefore rusted and scratched. His movement is that of a spinning top so the faster he goes the more balance he has, the slower he moves the more trouble he has balancing. His meaning is a camera. He must capture the important details and memories in life and has a want to capture a living creature which is why he gets excited when he sees a silhouette of a person in the distance. His environment is juxtaposition as he’s a machine living by a swamp. He overcomes this contrast by printing Polaroid’s and using them to float on the swamp which is how he navigates his environment. This is his everyday life, documenting things around him until he comes across another living being. He shows this by using his photographs as floating foot pads in the swamp, therefore soiling his documenting. 

3 Images of Movement

My character is very unbalanced unless travelling fast which I've tried to show in these images. This is why his legs are very small and is body is very large.

Paragraph describing my model and his origins.

The characters material is derived from an old tin can and is therefore rusted and scratched. His movement is that of a spinning top so the faster he goes the more balance he has, the slower he moves the more trouble he has balancing. His meaning is a camera. He must capture the important details and memories in life and has a want to capture a living creature which is why he gets excited when he sees a silhouette of a person in the distance. His environment is juxtaposition as he’s a machine living by a swamp. He overcomes this contrast by printing Polaroid’s and using them to float on the swamp which is how he navigates his environment. This is his everyday life, documenting things around him until he comes across another living being. He shows this by using his photographs as floating foot pads in the swamp, therefore soiling his documenting. 

New and improved STORYBOARD!

Similar story line but more concise and polished now :)

Turntable Animation

Turntable animation. Will probably improve and tweak the model a little more in the second half of this project but I'm happy with him. You can see I've made some changes from my original orthographic view such as making his legs smaller so he seems more unbalances and removing his eyebrows and eyelids so he's more robotic like.

Textures!!

A bunch of different textures I've been editing and trying out. Some are on my model and some I just tried and then decided not to. Thought this is a good way to show my progress and experimentation. Textures have been edited with Photoshop.

Environment Sketches!

 Foggy with trees that have many branches, shadows and silhouettes.

Looking across the foggy swamp. Faded trees in the distance (can do this with an image plane)

The foggy swamp and long wild grass. I painted this in Photoshop and then used a water texture. I overlay fog silhouettes and trees ect.