Category: 3D CG

For the assessment we had to make a simple camera pan around the mask that we’ve been working on. This is my final result.

Taken over about a day and half of rendering, this is a 120 frame shot showing around the mask. Using an AI Sky dome, I used the choice that I liked the most which was taken from the website below.

https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?c=urban&h=concrete_tunnel_02

Coming across various technical difficulties, one of which involved updating my version of Maya, I realised only after the final render was completed, that I wasn’t too happy with the physical property of the mask, it being too rubbery and hence not as reflective. The colour of the main mask part seems to be too light, burnt out even.

Having worked on the model, texture and paint, this week the task was to transfer the files and information back to Maya from MudBox and set up a small scene inside Maya. I went back over to the mask, changed a bit of the topology, re-did the paint work and this was the result that I imported into Maya.

It was hard to export the displacement map from MudBox as my laptop would never not finish the task, hence instead I exported the normal maps, as well as paint information.

In Maya I played around with the preset for the material properties, choosing a rubber at first. Then, looking through Arnold render, I adjusted the roughness and IOR to achieve what I wanted. Thinking about setting up a scene, it was decided to make a simple object like a wall and use textures from the free resources website Textures Haven. This was the result.

Playing around with the bump map properties for the wall, I decided to go with the option of Bump with the depth of 0.1, compared to the Tangent Space Normal with the depth as 1.

Finally, I exported a shot of the rendered scene from Maya as an EXR file to be worked on at in Nuke.

This I worked on the texture of the mask. As originally I used a simpler version of a mask which did not have a lot of details or textures, I had to search for other masks which would be as my starting point for texturing and colouring.

Looking back at the mask, I don’t feel too happy with it’s overall topology and it should be worked on a bit more. For instance, defining the brows area, the lips and adding more texture to the teeth would be something I want to work on, before exporting back to Maya and setting up the scene to be rendered for week 8. The overall paint of the mask could also be better, specifically the main colour of the mask and the teeth and mouth painting as well.

This week I worked on making sure the UV maps are correct and good before exporting all the details and opening the mask in MubBox for texturing and colouring.

This week I focused on the addition of extra details, worked on the horns, teeth and smaller nuances regarding the topology of the face in Maya.

There is a lot of integration and interchange between Maya and Mudbox, which helps with easier application of the tools and direct practice of both programs. The objective during the next week is to finish all the details such as teeth and adjust the face topology more correctly (such as fuller lips, mouth and eye shapes, better definition in the eyebrow area), find a reference picture for details and colouring to be created further in MudBox.

In the 2nd part of the lesson during week 3 we started learning about head scan and using a CGI head model. Understanding the topology of the head and how to create a model for a mask using quad-tool in Maya was something we focused on. It is important to figure out and follow the correct way to build the topology such that further down the pipeline, if you had to animate it, the joints would bend correct way, the muscles will be build naturally and all the movements will seem to be as realistic as possible.

Using a 3D model of a head we build up a mask for half of the face, which we then mirrored and created the following.

The file was then taken to the MudBox, as on week 4 we started working on adjusting the mask and bending it to fit our inspiration for a kabuki/demon mask. This is the result I got by the end of week 4.

The following link shows the mask which I am using as my reference.

This week I continued perfecting the shape of the boot, adjusting it to the reference photos. Then it was exported to Mudbox, in order to work on the texturing and sewing detail. We tried the basic colouring on as well. Here are shots from the side, back and a close up of my work.

The finished result was then exported as bump map, such that it could be applied as a bump map in Maya on the boot.

Starting off learning Maya in week 1, it was decided to model a boot. Specifically a ladies boot, whilst taking inspiration from Isabel Marant ankle shoe. Trying off various sculpting tools, such as grad tool, we manipulated the original shape of a cube into a boot.

This is my first attempt at creating the boot and the base during the classroom sessions. After getting acquainted with the program and adjusting to the software I decided to re-do the entire model, as I wasn’t too happy with the various bumps and the uneven surface. I also noticed that in my first attempt, the back part of the boot appeared to be lower compared to the reference picture.

This is how my boot looked after the second attempt. I also added an extra layer to the inside of it, such that later whilst working on the textures it would resemble the original boot closer.

The next stage would be working on textures and adding the detail of sewing stitches. The extra part on top of the boot that seems to go over, it is something that should also be worked on and added using a new polygon primitive.