{CG Cookie} Blender 2.8 - Low Poly Rocket Takeoff and Life Update

After a long and exhausting battle with depression, lack of motivation and a lost spark since graduating UCA Rochester's Computer Animation Arts course in 2016 caused by my lifelong struggle with Inattentive ADHD and living with Asperger's Syndrome, completing this tutorial meant a heck of a lot to me.

Switching to Blender

As mentioned on my Twitter when I uploaded the video on 19th August, the low poly rocket launch marks my first proper foray into Blender since first stepping foot in Autodesk Maya in 2011. I made this difficult decision for two reasons:

🔘 I had not kept up with the technology due to said lack of spark (last Maya version I worked in is 2016) and after my free student version finally ran out I couldn't reasonably afford the £36 a month for Maya LT, let alone the £222/m of the full version. I had also switched to GIMP as my image editor, again, after my discounted student version of the Adobe Creative Suite ran out.

🔘 I'd heard of the free software and its many possibilities through my occasional writings with the GarageFarm.NET render farm, and was strongly recommended Blender by a staff member who I'd developed a rapport with.

CG Cookie & Regaining my Spark

The 3d modelling side of things had long been my passion until the conclusion of my studies, after which there was a smattering of 3d projects, all but two of went unfinished - the exceptions having been commissioned by my friend, a 3d printing and cosplay enthusiast. This July I became a CG Cookie "Citizen" for $29/m (about £23.50) and I'm so glad I did. I'm gradually regaining my spark for 3d modelling, and it's helping me gain an appreciation for the later stages of the 3d animation pipeline, ones I had developed a great dislike for within the pressure cooker of uni.

Current & Future Projects

At the moment I'm following parts of their Blender Mesh Modeling Bootcamp to learn about the various tools Blender has to offer, and have found myself often impressed by just how amazingly intuitive it can be! After I have completed the current tutorial I plan to switch back to some previously long forgotten creative work that I'm excited to turn into a 3d model and maybe, just maybe, take forward into the once-dreaded texturing and animation stages. Watch this space!

[Major Project] 26: Water Character; Modelling Complete

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[Major Project] 25: Water Character; Modelling Progress 01

Orthographics

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[Major Project] 23: Oxygen Character; Vinyl Texturing Complete

Final Texture

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Texture Development

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Texture Maps

Body Texture

Eyes Texture

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@Alan [Major Project] 22: Hydrogen; Complete Rig Demo & Brow Scaling Issue

In future I will be creating a Face-Cam for Hydrogen, a Pose Library for his brows and mouth, and a Controls Interface using MEL Scripting. However since Hydrogen's primary set-up is now fully complete (modelling, skinning, rigging & texturing), I will complete these 'extra bits' at a later date.

I have encountered one final problem, this time involving Hydrogen's eyebrows not scaling correctly with the rest of Hydrogen's geometry via the World CTRL, even with Inherits Transform turned off in the appropriate areas (the Geometry_Grp and Brows_Misc_Grp).

The eyebrow ribbons scale absolutely fine...

...but the eyebrow geometry does not.

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[Major Project] 20: Hydrogen Character; New Brow Joints & Vinyl Texture

This marks the end of the texturing and skinning processes for Hydrogen, next up is rigging him.

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[Major Project] 02: Iron UV Mapping 02; Complete

Model Shots

UV Maps

UV Map: Iron's head, brow, eyes and throat

UV Map: Iron's torso and feet

UV Map: Iron's hands

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[Major Project] 01: Iron UV Mapping 01; First Attempt & Custom UV Grid

My Iron character has been fully textured to look like a Vinyl figure, however this was achieved solely within Maya. Without creating a reference object, the bump map would animate when Iron moved, which is not what I want. Rather than trying to avoid UV Mapping, I have decided I must get over my aversion towards it, especially in preparation for the eventual UV Mapping of my Oxygen and Water characters, because both have features that will definitely require a UV Map. My first attempt at UV Mapping Iron's head has turned out messier than expected, due to me performing an over-complex Automatic map, so I am going to restart the UVing process.

My custom UV Grid was created in Photoshop using this tutorial for the basic process. The UV Grid uses darkened versions of Graphite, Helium, Hydrogen, Iron, Oxygen and Water's primary colour schemes for its background. The letter squares use the Erlenmeyer flask from Elements Academy's logo.

My Elements Academy UV Grid

Current UV Mapping Progress

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Iron Head Close-Up with Maya Textures

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{Adaption B} 36: Interim Crit Presentation

This may need re-uploading, for some reason Scribd badly impacts image quality.

[Character Design] 50: The Hexes - Line Art

Colours are not final.

The Hexes: Final Line Art

Hex development

Hex influence map

[Character Design] 48: "Breeding Ground" Concept Art COMPLETE

Final Concept (1920 X 1080)

Concept Art Development

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