The next assignment, in extend to last one, requires me to transform the bixi thinggie to a set of weapons. It is actually up to me to do how many of them. I went to a family trip during new year break, in the middle of production, which was inevitable :p. Rather than rush it to the end, I and my professor agree that I will take the time to polish one weapon to perfect.
Well this course should be about Z-brush. But the software is not installed on the computers in our labs, so… everybody learn Mudbox!
As usual, begin working with some sketches. Bi Xi is the dragon turtle who always be seen underneath pillers and monuments. I am turning it into ancient mass destruction weapon pod. Keep an eye on it!
Just a quick recap. I did not enjoy this as the horn. Because the upper part, lower part and the eye lash are sent to mudbox and painted separately, I experience some problems while bringing them back to Maya. Sometime the texture’s gone. Sometime it is visible but gone after rendering … Btw the fur is quite easy to make. I feel like I am cheating with technological advance.
final render:
While the eye is mostly in-shape, I focus on the form of the horn. This horn should be part of a evil donald duck. (Wonder if i mentioned before) See figure:
After a bit of extruding, scaling and finally putting the “rod” to lattice deformer. Yay there you go!
Lattice deformer is extremely handy to create organic form after you have the basic form. The only thing I am worrying about is the faces may have crossed by each other if the distortion is over while i am not paying attention.
While I am kicking off my unwrapping journey, ultimately unwillingly, Melissa brought us interesting tool to look at: the Mudbox. As the assignment did not specify any restriction on method. why not try sth new! I am always happy to hv potential shortcut.
This is insane. I felt like the effort we put in early quarters in texturing with photoshop were wasted. Of course the case is not like that. But this painting way and the brushes are just too easy. Mudbox even has an interface similar to photoshop, particularly the layer part, but in 3D. I KNOW! THEY ARE ALL JUST TOOLS!
It is obvious that I enjoyed that pretty much.
In this quarter I am taking a modelling class entitled Sculptural texturing for games. From the name texture should be the focus of the class. But it seems like my professor want to kick start our study with some modelling. So there you go here is my progress in the first class. We are preparing for the first assignment which we need to create an creature’s eye and horn. Should be a great class!
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