[Major Project] 16: Hydrogen Character; UV Mapping Complete

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 15: Oxygen Character; 3D Modelling & UV Mapping Complete

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 14: Oxygen Character; 3D Modelling Nearly Complete

After multiple previous retries due issues stemming from former unnecessarily high levels of geometry, I am pleased to finally say Oxygen's modelling is finally nearly complete. All that's left to model is the eyes, which will likely require deformation with a Lattice to have them fit snugly within the head.

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 13: Iron Character; Face Cam Complete

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 12: Iron Character; Brow & Blink Set-Up Complete

Last things to do with Iron are creating the mouth blend shapes and his Face Cam. After Iron is posed in preparation for his turnaround, I will move on to retrying my modelling of Oxygen.

Iron's eye joints

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 10: Hydrogen Skinning 01; Skeleton Progress 01

The very non-humanoid yet inherently simpler nature of my Hydrogen character requires a unique skeleton, here is my progress so far. The independence of the mouth & eyebrows from the head / body has given me the opportunity to use carefully oriented joints to control them; this will be particularly useful for the mouth by allowing easy transfer between a smiling, neutral or frowning expression. 

I have also given myself the opportunity to control the extension & retraction of Hydrogen's 6 protrusions. Perhaps they could become more prominent the angrier he is, and less prominent the calmer he is; their current position is representative of maximum prominence. Update: Since posting this, I have noticed that most of the protrusions main [inner] joints need to be reorientated so their axis face Hydrogen's centre, rather than following the World axis. The inner-southwestern protrusion joint correctly illustrates the intended positioning.

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 09: Iron Rigging Progress 01; It's Alive!! (Mostly)

Both sides of the rig have been set up, but I have only shown one side animating to save unnecessary keyframing at this point. Next up will be facial rigging.

One Problem Solved, Another One Arises
This post has been delayed by my solving of the issue of the Head_Rotate_Ctrl_Off_Grp having unexpected transformation values, causing the Head_Shake_CTRL to appear to have values, solving this required me to unparent the relevant portion of the controls chain and remove its constraints, however after sorting the issue, re-parenting and re-connecting the constraints, a new small problem involving the brow control has arisen. Note: The brow moves fine when all but the Head_Rotate_Ctrl or the Head_Rotate_Ctrl_Off_Grp are activated.

I have spent hours yesterday and this morning trying to solve this new supposedly basic issue, to no avail. It appears I am going to have to give in for now and get help with it asap at Uni tomorrow. I'm at least glad I managed to independently figure out the source of & solve the original transformations issue.

In preparation for help I have removed the constraints between the control & joints for the*:
Head_Rotate_Ctrl_Off_Grp
Head_Rotate_Ctrl
Brow_Ctrl_Grp
Brow_Ctrl

Eye Spy
Another issue that has arisen since I first wrote this post is the pupils being extra temperamental in relation to their controls, I will show this issue in person when I seek help tomorrow. This has resulted in the odd cross-eyed state of Iron's pupils seen in the video.

*The issue still happens without the constraints, so it would appear it is not caused by the constraints themselves, but possibly by some issue within the parent chain.

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 08: Hydrogen Modelling Progress 03; Complete!

Because of the size of Hydrogen's eyes and the spherical nature of his body, spherical eyes did not fit correctly into the head. Using previous advice from Alan, I deformed the eye geometry with a Lattice and avoided deleting the new history to keep the Lattice; I have shown the benefit of keeping the Lattice at the bottom of this post. Development screenshots will finally be properly compiled now that the modelling stage is complete.


Hydrogen 3D model with temp Lambert textures & temp pupils geo

Hydrogen 3D model - Wireframe-on-shaded

Hydrogen 3D model - Orthographic views

{previous} {next}



[Major Project] 07: Hydrogen Modelling Progress 02; Nearly There!

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 06: Revised Hydrogen Modelling Progress 01

At the moment I have encountered issues with Iron's rig, which I'm getting Alan's help with solving. Meanwhile I have moved on to re-modelling Hydrogen. Development screenshots will be sorted and uploaded in a future post. My Side orthographic for Hydrogen turned out to be unsuitable for the eyes and brow. I have had to improvise the length of the eyebrow, because when I strictly followed the Front orthographic it did not span the entire width of the eye.

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 05: Iron Skinning 03; Hand Skinned

{previous} {next}

[Major Project] 04: Iron Skinning 02; Head Skinned

Because Iron doesn't have a physical neck, the complexity of the head skin weighting process was reduced. I have attempted to minimize volume loss caused by the jaw's rotation while at the same time reducing the level of movement of the chin's point.

{previous} {next}