MAYA : *HALOWEEN SPECIAL* ZOMBIE

I was given a basic skin and model in Photoshop and Maya respectively. My task was to work into the skin to change a normal woman into a zombie or zombie looking creature. This was an intresting and fun task and I enjoyed doing it. I decided to first change the stock coat to having a leather effect. 

GIRL DIFFUSE ORIGINAL.

This was the original skin we were given and as I have said I wanted to add a leather texture to the top I also wanted to change up the trousers and obviously "ZOMBIE-FY" her. I decided I wanted to do this by revealing the skull and changing the skin tone. I did some research and found a leather texture as well as a side profile and face on view of two different skulls. 

LEATHER TEXTURE.

SKULL FACE ON.

SKULL SIDE VIEW.

I added these into the different parts of the diffuse lightening and slightly changing the leather whilst also blending in skin and parts of the face to cover the skull (whilst also darkening the skin) resulting in this : 

GIRL DIFFUSE ZOMBIE-FIED.

I also added some blood splatter to keep with the character. Finally I applied it to the model resulting in this as my final piece. 

ZOMBIE MODEL FRONT.

ZOMBIE MODEL BACK.

MAYA : FURNITURE

I am making some other game objects used to fill space such as furniture. I will be adding textures soon but feel I need more practice at this first. this piece seems simple as it is an object we see every day. but because of that it is actually difficult and must be precise. just a few measurements out and the human eye will notice it just doesn't look right. it must look like it would function as a chair. that it works to human proportions. 

First I bulked in the structure as shown in the tutorial. 

MAYA CHAIR STRUCTURE.

As you can see I have bulked in the seat and legs. making sure I got the measurements correct. at this stage I had even added a taper to the bottom of the legs and a bend in the back to to form the curved back of the chair.

I started to add detail. using different views to put the pieces in the back and under the seat to make it feel more solid. I curved the top section of the back of the chair to create that familiar shape.

 

MAYA CHAIR DETAILED 1.

MAYA CHAIR DETAILED 2.

Finally I added bevels to the edges to create a more fluid feel to the seat back pieces and top of the legs. I'm very happy with this model in Maya. after the bulking in stage and the first bit of detail I completed it completely independently and in a decent time period too.

MAYA CHAIR FINISHED 1.

MAYA CHAIR FINISHED 2.

MAYA : TOOLS

Another Maya task I have undertaken is to create game objects that fill up scenery and or can be effected by physics e.g. moved. in this piece I will talk about the 'tools' that I have made. (A hammer and a crowbar). these objects need to be detailed enough to keep the player immersed in the game but with a low poly count as there will be many of these objects within a game. 


The hammer took a bit of work. I had to taper and flatten the handle and when creating the head i had to crate the octagonal look but keep the centre in more of the original shape. the tutorials helped me greatly on this one and i think it greatly improved my understanding of maya.

MAYA HAMMER 1.

MAYA HAMMER 2.

If the hammer helped improve my understanding a little the crowbar accelerated my understanding in a very short amount of time. by halfway through this I had completely abandoned the tutorial and worked completely from knowledge. 

The crowbar required a fair bit of work too but once its done I'm very happy with the results. 

MAYA CROWBAR 1.

MAYA CROWBAR 2.

DRAWING CHALLENGE : WEAPON

This drawing challenge was to produce a design for a futuristic weapon. I thought this would be interesting and could help me design a weapon for my game at the same time, I already had an outlined idea for my game so fitted the weapon to that description, the only difference was that this weapon had to be futuristic whereas my game is steam-punk, however I used the same weapon type and layout but details will be changed for the game to give it a more industrial feel.

I quickly made a research / mood-board on guns I remembered from games such as borderlands and that fitted the requirements.

MOOD - BOARD.

From this I used the silhouette technique I have been using in my character design to get some ideas down that showed eye-catching shapes and forms. for this I used Japanese brush pens in my sketchbook, something I will be using in my character design to quickly get ideas and forms down before moving into shaded silhouette drawing in Photoshop.

GUN SILHOUETTES 1.

GUN SILHOUETTES 2.

From this I took design 4 as my base as it fitted what I wanted to do and shows a unique eye-catching form. Using sketchbook pro I started drawing up slightly more detailed parts such as the handle etc.

SKETCHBOOK PRO DRAWINGS.

After this I moved back into my sketchbook to put these components together into a shape that represents what I want and could possibly work. I tried one in side view and one in perspective.

SKETCHBOOK DRAWINGS.

I liked this design but wanted to make it more futuristic and try and draw it completely in perspective. I decided to use a line method using a protractor to create perspective lines which helped greatly with this more complex shape.

PERSPECTIVE SKETCHBOOK DRAWING.

Now that I had a definite shape in my head I decided to produce another side view drawing. I wanted to add some more details to flesh it out and did this with grips and by adding details to the sight and barrel.

SIDE VIEW FINAL SKETCH.

SIDE VIEW FINAL SKETCH 2.

From this drawing I wanted to create a final coloured design in sketchbook pro.

The first stage was drawing the basic shapes with shape and straight or curved line tools. Then I added a little detail and coloured it and had this.

FINAL GUN BASIC.

I added the details and eye sight to get this.

FINAL GUN.

And Finally I added a few highlights to lift the design off the page slightly.

FINAL GUN HIGHLIGHTS.

MAYA : TURRET

I have decided to involve myself in more complex modelling in Maya, I was set the task of creating a turret based on a source image. unfortunately  my turret was lost during a computer crash (a reminder to save constantly) however until I make it again I have been able to use the source model for UV mapping and so have something to show for it. 

TURRET FILLED

TURRET FILLED WITH FRAMEWORK

This is the turret I used for UV mapping, I still do not fully understand this process but Im sure it will come in time. The next images will show my first ever attempt at UV mapping.

For my first attempt at UV mapping I'm quite happy with the result. everything seems to be the right size and nothing has been missed or lost in the process. I will be producing more models in Maya of varying complexity and hopefully this will show my progress. 

LIFE DRAWING : WEEK 1

I have been producing a few life drawings and will continue to do so. I will be keeping this updated weekly, showing progress and different styles. I have a fair bit of experience in life drawing so have techniques and styles to draw upon. I particularly like pencil drawing and have a specific order and technique I use to do so.

Here is some of my previous work :

6 MIN CONTINUOUS LINE DRAWING IN PENCIL.

30 MIN LIFE DRAWING IN PENCIL.

LINE AND SHADED DRAWING OF A COW SKULL.

40 MIN LIFE DRAWING IN PENCIL.

These were some of the results of my life drawing last year. I am very happy with them (though I do have a habit of leaving heads until last and subsequently often leaving them out)

And these are the pieces I have produced in the last week (in different styles) :

THREE 2 MIN DRAWINGS LINE IN CHARCOAL

This is Three Drawings in one just quickly getting use to producing form again and using negative shapes. my third and final drawing is my favourite (far right).

CHARCOAL 'ROULETTE' DRAWING.

I called this a 'Roulette' Drawing because for this piece I produced a 3 - 5 min drawing and then moved along to the next persons drawing and mine was taken over by the person to my left. this shows about 6 stages of this and shows how people concentrate on different areas shading or line and also how different eyes see a subject differently. 

15 MIN LIFE DRAWING IN PENCIL.

15 MIN DRAWING IN PENCIL.

20 MIN LIFE DRAWING IN PENCIL.

These three drawings were produced in my original style and I think show a progression as I get use to life drawing again. I like the third drawing particularly mainly due to the form of the model.

(NOTE : These photos seem to have been taken at a slight angle distorting some parts)

20 MIN LIFE DRAWING IN PENCIL

Finally i produced this. in this piece I used pencil again but combined my original technique with some shading in tight circles and zigzags. this created a very nice effect and I think I will use again.

DIGITAL PAINTING : OLD WOMAN

I have found a couple of images from a piece I produced a couple of weeks ago. it also happens to be what I consider my first serious digital painting. The Task was to reproduce a given image using painting using no line work in Photoshop with my Wacom. This was new to me as I usually structure with my lines etc. but I enjoyed it and found it has opened up my range of styles and adds to what I can produce.

Here is a close up of  what i had done in an hour. I first blocked in sections of colour, I then added in shadows and highlights slowly to create a 3 dimensional effect. the black lines you see in the ear are how I told myself where shading was. I would first draw in these lines over the colour and then work from there. 

These images show the painting 15 - 20  minutes later. I have added shading and detail to the ear and also started on the neck and arm. I am very happy with what I produced for my first digital painting and another should be up soon. 

GAME : LEVEL DESIGN 1

I have been taking on the task of designing a level to be made by Christmas, the game that it will be for is a first person partially open world game and partially broken up by mini games where the world is closed. I want my game to be fully navagatable by climbing running and jumping etc.. I will be Posting my character design, story etc. but these will be separate to the level design. a basic back story is that we are in a Steam-punk world and the story is based on oppression.

with that in mind designing a "level" for an open world game will be tricky so I've decided to design and build a small section of a map that could be used for a mini game within the open world. I want a dirty grungy Steam-punk look to my game and specifically this level. As you move through the world into higher class areas the world will get more glossy and clean but this level is based in a "Down-town Market Street"

First I decided to just plan out a basic birds eye view of the level in block shapes (The middle section and connected are the lower ground e.g. streets. the other sections are rooftops etc.

BLOCK FLOOR PLAN

Next I produced another birds eye view floor plan but this time with separated buildings to understand where one ends and one begins (and to tell me how many buildings I need to model).

BUILDING FLOOR PLAN

This told me i need 10 buildings and that i will also need to model a "wall" or similar to block of the right side of the level. 

I Then produced a 3D version of this. 

3D LEVEL PLAN

I now had to think about what my buildings would look like, i did some reaserch and developed a couple of "building Skins".

BUILDING SKINS

I now produced a quick sketch implementing this style onto the level but this time from a players view. 

PLAYER VIEW

Now I decided to just take one building and start drawing a detailed version. this needs to be finished but it also helped me work with perspective etc. 

BUILDING PLAN (WIP)

CLEANED UP BUILDING PLAN (WIP)

I will be adding detail to these and also posting character designs, weapon designs and the story soon.