2nd Feb blog entry & UV Mapping Blog Entry.

2nd Feb blog entry.

Unfortunately Diogo didn't turn up again for our group meeting, this was because his laptop had to be re-formatted twice. w also didn't really get any work done, individually nor as a group. Jared confirmed with us that we need to send Diogo consistent reminders to ensure that he comes in on Tuesdays as this is when we get together as a group and go over what we have done and then confirm what we need to have done by the following week.

Fortunately this absence hasn't put a spanner in the works in terms of production as this week and next week are modelling and texturing. In addition Diogo, from last week, gave us a mock up of the scene so we have something to work with and Fahran is going to get an animatic done which will be posted on our group blog.

I have finally got the base mesh done for my statues. To be honest, I think I won't have enough time to model a minotaurs head so I will stick with human anatomy for this project; if I did otherwise then I'd probably be shooting myself in the foot production wise. There are still tweaks to be made on the base mesh- sort out triangles and diamond shapes on the face. Which I will be doing tonight. I aim by the end of tomorow to have 2 posed and sculpted models.
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UV mapping blog entry.

I have spent the last week and a half modelling and UV mapping. These have taken a lot longer than I would have liked and expected to take. This is becoming quite a consistent issue for me and something Jared (tutor) calls optimistic planning.

One could say- not enough practice/experience with modelling and UV mapping.

I am however, in my opinion, an optimistic planner, who says they will get things done really quickly and then will realise that they need to ask for an extension.

Proof.
I planned a day for making a base mesh and 3 hours to get UV mapping done. But in reality:
-modelling- 7 days
- UV Mapping- 2 1/2 days.

During this time I was panicking that these tasks were taking too long and that I wouldn't have enough time to do the Zbrush and texturing. Would I have to cut corners? But after thinking about it, it's worthwhile to invest in these areas, focusing on edgeflow, polygon count and UV mapping- this way, it saves me time and yields higher quality results later on when it comes to rendering. It can also save time down the production pipeline.

What took the longest was ensuring that the textures wouldn't stretch, I used a checker texture to see a fast preview, but what I did find was that my computer lagged quite a lot whilst sorting this out, again something that took up my time. The reason why this happens, I figured out, was because the computer is trying to move the UV's and display the results on the mesh.

During the UV mapping stage I was understanding the concept of seams and the importance of planning where they would be located because on my model it was very obvious. So I needed to think about locations and where the camera won't really focus on. In addition the camera won't really be up close to the statues either which works to my advantage. So something I did well on was focus on the necessary details and planning ahead.

Looking back on this, 2 days, isn't that much, especially if I compare it to my character design project where I spent over a week on UV mapping alone. And a week for modelling a base mesh isn't bad for me as I can now re-use this mesh again and again for current and future projects.

So overall I am learning to plan ahead and more realistically and I feel more confident with modelling and UV mapping.

Planning ahead.
Do not move the base mesh in maya after exporting it as an OBJ.

Whilst sculpting in zbrush do not go above subdivision level 3. Anything above that level of detail is unnecessary, plus Maya is unlikely to be able to cope with that amount of polys. "Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you need to do it." Jared Taylor.

To-do list.
Adjust scale of feet on base mesh.
look in to texturing and normal maps on Digital Tutors.
Put the base mesh in to all the poses and save as individual .mb and .obj files.