Snowscape textures in Maya

Applying a Blinn material and Stucco 1 texture to create a displacement map. At the default imported scale, the stucco 'noise' is too much.

To scale the map, select the texture node in Hypershader, and find it in your viewport (hard to see, but should be a dark green cube) and then scale the texture node to scale the size of the map. The bigger the pattern the less the disturbance.

Change the stucco attributes in Hypershader, to change the red/blue to black/white

 Applying a snow node in Hypershade. Quick render test, placing the mia physical sun in a similar location to my original footage

Maya rigging complete: hierarchy in Outliner

Rigging completed!
Showing the joint and controller hierarchy in Outliner, foot rolls, finger rotation and all controllers...
Now for the bind...

Maya sculpt tool: sculpting a landscape

Defining shapes, against a referenced image plane....

Using a polygon primitive plane, and component mode, soft selection 'B' button, to create peaks and troughs....

Soft select the plane edges; and scale down on the Y axis, to make sure the edges are flat. (this is good practice, if you need to duplicate the mesh to create additional landscape.

Triangulate mesh. Select Y axis + CTRL to lock onto Y axis, adjust the soft selection brush size [B button] and move (whilst Y axis is locked) to create ridges

Duplicate the mesh and sculpt additional landscape, to suit the camera set up

Creating a landscape in Maya; using a polygon plane and the sculpt tool

I've checked that the footage I shot at Glenshee at the weekend is suitable, both from a script and technical point of view...and it is.

I'm following the tutorial below (Stathis, what a star, sent me the link) and am recreating the snowy hill using a polygon plane and the sculpting tools in Maya....and a still from the footage, imported as an image plane for reference...

                                           

Timelapse footage, OnePlus 3T

I shot some extra timelapse footage at the weekend...to keep things simple, and rather than trying to film snow laden trees, my idea is to use this shot as the background for when my character has a sense of shift and turns to face the light...
I'll recreate the snowy mound in Zbrush and Maya and then light it to match the real thing...
                             

Foot roll attributes in Maya

                      

Setting the attributes for foot roll, toe tap, toe twist, heel twist in Maya

I'm using Sean's great handouts to follow the steps on how to create IK controllers for the legs and feet, plus I've just managed to make the foot roll!

Now I've done some simple tests of the ice men melting, and I've realised that they can't melt too quickly, it may be best to show some melting and then cut away to a close up reaction of the woman; and then cut back to various shots of different parts of the ice figures melting.

I think the rig will come in useful for various poses...

Toe Tap

Toe Twist

Heel Twist