Texturing in Maya

My first day of texturing on my own.... feels similar to my first time driving alone 'after passing my test'!

Applying wallpaper to the dolls house in Maya.
To get different textures on different surfaces of the object, I've first had to apply a Lambert material (which I've decided is pretty similar to a 'primer' paint finish in the real world) - and then I can choose whatever textures I want...
in this case a twee dolls house wallpaper....
Scaled, repeated and rotated in the texture attributes editor

Blend shapes - getting the hang of it!!

Creating blend shapes, for Character expressions and lip syncing in Mudbox and exporting into Maya,,,,

This was so much fun!

This made a lot more sense this time around and I am beginning to spend less time figuring out the interface, and more time having fun creating shapes....

Love these default light settings in Mudbox too....

Head with layers pallette ringed in pink.....the control sliders on the right of the layers, slide from from 0 - 100% strength. The pose is set in it's extreme position at 100%.

                                                                                                                                           

We created a smile using the 'mirror' mode and the grab and smooth sculpt tools in Mudbox; this manipulated the topology symmetrically.  Using the 'Mask' tool (shown in red below), we painted the areas that we wanted to be 'masked' and not affected by the face controllers. Wherever the mask shows, the face doesn't move; thereby enabling the left and right sides of the face to move separately....allowing for as much control and options with the expressions as possible.

Commands when exporting to Maya

Blend shapes option box, alongwith 'set driver key' pop out window, in Maya....this is so much fun!

Experimenting with a shouting mouth (this was done in about a minute, so I will be searching the net for good photos of shouting faces, for references for the Trolls.)

The model is highlighted vivid yellow in Mudbox, to show that it's selected...

The same model once exported into Maya - with the blend shape controller box...

The Monuments Men - Critical Review

The Monuments Men - Critical Review...

So this week we watched 'The Monuments Men'.
Official Trailer

From the perspective of critical review, I think the trailer gives a good indication of the 'weight' of the storyline and drama the film.
The script and storyline were good, and there was a very humane emphasis, on how the character's interacted and a compassionate portrayal of their war experience.

However, I would argue that the music, which is in the clip below, was very upbeat and, to me, slightly cliched. I commented during the film that I thought the storyline was 'fluffy'. On reflection, I don't think the storyline, or acting, or characters were fluffy. I hadn't realised quite how much I was influenced by the music score...
I think watching this film with the music turned off, would showcase the script and the acting to better effect...

                                  

First ever edit in Premiere

My first ever edit in Premiere! Importing rough visuals and audio and mashing together to form a rough storyboard animatic.

This is an additional scene idea to create a new ending to our Toy film....awaiting feedback from the group, to see what they think.

Troll Doll photogrammetry and topology

So a new learing curve - and more experience with Maya and Mudbox and Zbrush!
And file imports, send to's and polycounts!
Here's a little Trolls journey from the Ebay post box to virtual reality

 Photogrammetry - still shot

An .obj file 'captured' on 123D Autodesk capture - imported into Maya - hundreds of thousands of Triangles!!!

Retopologized in Mudbox - and the triangles turned into quads

I tried to 'send to Maya' but there was some glitch with the polygons - so I imported it as an .obj file and this is how it looks!

A virtual Troll and a good base to clean up and model from - now over to Aimi and Sheila to tidy up and create good topology for lip sync - this innocent looking Ebay Troll has got to be able to shout and holler at the top of it's lungs!

Dallas Buyers Club

Date night this week....

Movie night..... Dallas Buyers Club.

This had some of the best film editing I have ever seen. It reminded me of some of our storytelling lectures, where we were encouraged to look at how 'film' storytelling can time jump.

Unlike in a theatrical play, a character climbing stairs, doesn't need to step on every single tread. We can cut from a character climbing a couple of stairs and then cut immediately to them arriving at the top - and the viewer still knows and believes that they have ascended the entire flight of stairs..

Well the lead protagonist in this film manages to get to and from Europe and do business deals in 10 seconds....

Brilliant acting - in fact I googled whether or not the actors were really HIV positive - they were so convincing...

Photogrammetry and Zbrush !!

Wow!
Well I'm set to rock and roll - fun Friday night planned, getting to grips with new software (free trial) of ZBrush - very excited about this!
I'll update my progress, with how I am getting along, modeling a Troll Doll!

As a group today, we made the most of the 3D Make lab, and Rob gave us a group tutorial on Photogrammetry and how to photograph our model, ready for upload onto Autodesk 123D capture....

 Ebay No 1 Dad Troll Doll!

Troll Doll on the potters wheel. The black and white pattern that the troll is stood on, is irregular, so when viewed from any angle it will look different. This avoids confusion for the software that knits all the images together, 

The process being explained...He_Man looking a tad uncomfortable in the background.

Now to see if our uploaded photos will create a good working .obj file.....