Ecomm End Of Semester 1

Sculpting a 3D Character in Mudbox

Starting Out:

The start of a 3D model in Mudbox begins with a Sphere or a Cube, for my model I chose to use a sphere and I began by getting a basic shape of the helmet, while getting the shape for the helmet i'm thinking of how I want the helmet to work "Is this a Futuristic helmet or is this set in 2016" I chose futuristic because I like the possibilities of the designs. 

I started by thinking how a futuristic soldier would by fighting and what environments they would be in, the first that came to mind was Space and Chemical Warfare/Radiation. For the armor I wanted it to look like they had finally developed chest rigs and bullet resistant vests that could withstand shrapnel and bullet damage longer then they can today, but also keep in mind that they may be in space also. The front of the Helmet is modeled after a gas mask, I was keeping trying to keep the look that there is a air filtration mechanism just below the red eye glass, hence the 2 oddly shaped lines there. as for the eye glass part I like the look of Halo Spartan Helmets so I kept that look.

After the Helmet was Finished I moved onto painting it, I liked the color scheme of a warm eye glass mixed with a battle hardend dark body color, I also went back to add some highlights with a nice gray color and also colored in some of the shadows because Mudbox lacks a good lighting engine.

The Chest Rig is not specifically modeled after a present day item but I could not help but visualize a medieval looking chest piece, I felt it represented a sense of belonging to a Coalition or Federation - Some Star Wars esk stuff right there. I also added in some logos on the Chest Rig to make it feel as though they belonged to a Country or Group.

Modeling the rest of the body, legs, arms, was a challenge i'm still not comfortable with how it turned out and I plan on going back and changing it because right now it does not fit with the theme I have picked for the character. I think I was too eager to get finished with it and rig it up for an animation.

The Process of Sculpting was time consuming and tedious, Adding volume then smoothing it out, adding more sub divisions then repeating the whole process till i had a high poly model. I think i'm sitting at just over 10 million Polygons right now.

Final Thoughts:

I think for my End of Semester Learning project, it turned out well. I still have plenty of things to learn about sculpting but I plan on continuing to work and develop my skills. Character Modeling and Animation is the route I want to stick to and perfect for the future. 

Till next time.

Aaron Cole

Senior, ONW Highschool

e-Communication Review 2016

2016 In Review 

This year i improved a lot of my skills in Maya 2016 ranging from basic modeling all the way to rigging, i started a project which i plan on using for an animation where i fully rigged a pair of hands to grip a medieval weapon and animate to chop something in half, another example would be my city scape where i have started giving it color and textures to make it look better.

This semester i switched to watching youtube videos and other guides to help me get better at rigging and texturing which included painting skin weights for rigging and applying bump mapping to texture which i used for my cityscape 

Learning these small skills is important for me because i want to pursue a career in 3-d modeling with the knowledge of other essential skills such as the ones listed above. I'd say y greatest strengths are modeling and attention to detail - which is also the reason why i don't finish projects that often because if its not perfect than i usually hate what i have created and scrap it. id say i have improved in my modeling skills, the cityscape goes to show that as well as the current project i'm working on a tank.

This summer I plan on continuing my unfinished projects and also working on my own projects and getting advice from my teacher as i go through it. if I were to change anything from this year it would be my seating arrangement, I didn't get as much done as I wanted to this year but i'm still satisfied with what i have completed

My 2015-2016 school year was full of great learning experiences and I hope to continue expanding on my skills next year.