Wire Mesh

So aswell as making my 3D model, I've also been making a wired mesh for my plasticine model, this was my first time creating a wire mesh so took me a while to get use to it but I really enjoyed back it, it was weirdly relaxing to do once I got into it but quite difficult to start off.




Its not the tidiest or the best wire mesh but I think it will be fine as a base to use for my model. I will continue to post updates.

3D Model.

So these past couple of weeks I have been working on creating my 3D model ready to put into Zbursh.. Surprisingly there was not any major problems with it thankfully but as I know, the fact that the model looks nice doesn't mean it will animate nicely but I can hope. Here are afew
pictures of it;









The only major problem I had which was not so much a problem but an annoyance was that I had tris on my model when I should only have quads so I had to spend alot of time making them into squares so that I will not have any major problems afterwards, there is afew tris left but they are in areas what won't be animated so hopefully will not cause too much of a problem. Overal I am happy with how it has came out with so far.

ZBrush

So, my original plan for this project was to create a model in maya, make it detailed in zbrush and then animate it but obviously as I've found out and realized, the detail I add to my model in zbrush would make the model too complex to animate so recently I've been looking into how I can solve this problem and the best solution for it.

I've done alot of research into this to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I've researched into;

Normal Maps, just to research my mind and make sure I have a basic understanding of it;
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Normal_Maps

then from there I went on to look at bump maps for the same reason;
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Bump_Maps

This was just abit of reading so that I have an understanding of maps because well, through reading tutorials and forum posts alot of maps are mention which could become confusing if I did not know what they meant.

Displacement maps, these are the maps I shall be attempting to use to add detail to my maya model so that I am able to animate it. Phil Shaw originally informed me of these maps when I was asking him the best way to go about doing what I want to do, from there I began to research into them to understand what they are and how they work, which including reading some tutorials and alot of forum posts such as this one;
http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Displacement_Maps

and it does seem like the best way to go about doing it, sure my model won't have the same high quality finish it will have in zbrush however the displacement maps should make my model look detailed without causing too many problems when animating. This will most likely be a trail and error thing but I've found a useful tutorial to help me;

http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/ZBrush_To_Maya_Displacement_Guide

So this is where I will begin, however talking to Phil he said I could do the UV maps in Zbrush which would be easier using there MasterUV addon tool since I'm having problems sorting out my UVs on Maya.

Once I've done that I might try using diffuse maps to try and increase the detail however if that causes animation problems I will delete it.

Design.

Here is the design for the creature that I'm going to be modeling and animating. The design of the bird came from doing an automatism drawing of my friend which got me the shape of its head and from they I thought it looked like a bird so just designed the shape of its body. I can't see it being too much of a problem to model is Maya, I think the challenge will come from trying to model the head area but I don't see it being a major problem most likely more time consuming then difficult.

Right now I'm going to be looking into getting the skeleton of this creature done so that when it comes to rigging the model I can make it as accurate as possible and give it a good amount of realism in its movements. I will be looking as the skeletons of animals that I think my design is most like, things such as chickens or penguins and then looking into the way in which they move i.e walking and running. Another focus will be on the neck of my creature, that seems to be its most distinctive feature and I will have to look into how it bends and moves, how far it will be able to bend and the way in which it bends.

First Post.

So, for this project (FGA6) I decided I would try and improve my 3D modeling and animation skills mainly for employment purposes and also because I did 2D on the last project so doing this will keep it fresh and stop me from getting bored with my work (Hopefully!) The main thing I will be doing is a 3D model of a character I have designed on the last project and then hopefully add some detail to it with zbrush and then animate it on Maya hopefully this won't cause too much trouble.