STEVEN CHABEAUX

The finished Traffic Cone (Well nearly)

2010-09-07T16:53:00.001-07:00

It was now time to texture the Traffic Cone and so i set about unwrapping the object in Maya until i produced the following UVW layout of the model:

Having completed the unwrap of the Traffic Cone i set the UVW layout in Photoshop and produced the following texture:

Texture size 256 x 256

Note: It is important to reduce the texture size to as small as possible when building a in-game asset as texture sizes take up most of the memory in next gen titles.

Here are some renders i produced in Maya this model is nearly finished now but im sure there is still room for improvement. I am never satisfied with what i have produced as i always think i can improve something but for now i am going to call it a day on the Traffic Cone and move onto my next model.

Optimizing to the Max

2010-09-07T16:50:00.001-07:00

It was now time to fully optimixe the Traffic Cone as much as possible as the pictures below show i have now reduced the tri count dramatically without loosing any of the original shape.

Here are some comparisons that will better illustrate the actual optimization that has taken place.

Tri count now stands at 78.

With my Traffic Cone now fully optimized as much as possible i had reduced the tri count down to 78. This was alot more acceptable and i was happy to leave it now as it is and it was now time to move onto texturing the Traffic Cone.

First full sculpt of the Traffic Cone

2010-09-07T16:46:00.001-07:00

Here is the first full built of the complete model as you can see i went back and re modelled the base of the cone as i had previously done and now i had modelled the underneath section of the model as well.

Tri count 114

I wasnt happy with the tri count at this point and i could see in the model that alot more tris could be reduced, so the next stage of the process was to reduce the tri count down to the bare minimum without effecting the silhoutte of the object.

More changes needed??

2010-09-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

At this stage i was still trying to work out how i should reduce my tri count and i refined the model like the pictures below show. However if we look at the base of the cone i had not took into consideration that i would have to model the underneath of the cone as this asset would more than likely be interactive in a game such as Motorstorm.

As you can see from the picture below i had optimized the top of the cone but i knew that this could be improved on and alot more tris could be deleted so there was plenty of optimizing to be done until i would be happy with the finished result.

Current Tri count 58

This Tri count was getting it down to more that i would like the finished model to be but having to consider it being interactive my tri count will end up abit more than what i had originally planned.

Early adjustments to the Traffic Cone

2010-09-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

With Nicks advice i decided to go back re-model the Traffic Cone and here what i proposed to do:

After looking at my model i went away and made some adjustments to the traffic cone and at this point i started to think about optimizing for the first time. Here is what i produced:

Here is some more advice Nick suggested that i should take on board notice that he points out that there are some verts on my model that dont serve any purpose.

Current Tri count 64

Modelling the Traffic Cone

2010-09-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

For this project i will be using Maya as this is a program that i have studying over the past few months since graduating but not really got my teeth into and thought that this will help me gain more confidence in Maya.

I started to model the traffic cone starting with a cylinder and re-shaping it accordingly mostly with the scale tool creating a very simple base.

Here is what i produced:

This was very much in its early stage but i decided to seek some advice from Nick Sadler at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. I sent my work to Nick and Nick sent me a screenshot of some early observations he had made. Here is that screenshot:

Even at this early stage my tri count was very high considering that it wasnt the complete build yet and at present the tri count stood at 128 tris. This would need to be address further on down the process.

Learning to model as done within the Video Games Industry

2010-09-07T15:05:00.001-07:00

Hi guys well i haven't posted anything up here of late and i have been thinking of a project i could get stuck into. So i have decided that i am going to start modelling some environmental work that you may find in a game like the Motorstorm series or any driving game for that matter.

The first thing i would like to point out is that there seems to be a dramatic difference in how a developer would build an object for a video game and the way that a student would be shown how to build academically.

In the industry optimization is very important and the artist must optimize their models as much as possible. So artists have no problem using triangles in their models to get the best results. I still believe that a developer would attempt to use quads where possible but the priority is to to keep tri counts down to a bare minimum.
In college or university speaking from a personal account i was always shown to work in quads as much as possible. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being told to work in quads and in fact it is very good practice to do so. If there is anyone reading this i would suggest to keep to quads as much as possible.

I have decided to start off with something quite easy to build, well when i say easy as you will see things are not as easy as it seems.

I started off by picking some reference material from the internet and i have chosen to try and build a traffic cone. Reference material is vital to any build that you will make so get as much material as possible. Here some of the reference material:

This is very much a learning process for myself but thought that i would post everything that i have been shown by people in the industry. Hopefully John Dwyer and Nick Sadler at SCEE will put some input into this process, but please feel free to add comments.

More Maya work

2010-07-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

Creating my Portfolio

2010-07-19T01:32:00.000-07:00

Hi John here is what i have produced for my portfolio so far i have still got plenty to do so let us know what you think?

My Graduation 14/07/2010

2010-07-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

I just thought that i would let everyone know that i have now fully graduated from Huddersfield University. It took place last Wednesday on the 14th of July and it was a great day and by far the proudest day of my life :)

Here's some pics from the day:

I have also got some very exciting news but unfortunately i cannot talk about it at this time but i will make a announcement very soon so make sure you check back in the coming week or so.

2010-06-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well today is results day and here is how i have done:

Student: Steven Chabeaux Progression/Award: FIRST
Course: BA (Hons) Entertainment Media Design (St Helens College) (Topup) PT

- Overall for each module -
09/10 Module Credit Mark Grade Result
THD1065 Production 40 80 A Pass
-
Production of a creative outome for entertainment media 80 A
-
Project model book 80 A

08/09 Module Credit Mark Grade Result
THD1063 Contextual Dissertation 40 60 B Pass
-
Dissertation 60 B

THD1064 Pre-Production 40 70 A Pass
-
viva voce & research and project management doc 70 A
-
Pitch Bible, Treatment Document or equivalent 70 A
----------------------------------------------------------

Thankyou to everyone who helped me throughout my course i will add more to this post tomorrow. Im off out to celebrate now i am so pleased with my results happy days :)

Building my first object in Maya

2010-05-31T02:21:00.001-07:00

Well over the past week i have been trying to get to grips with Maya following some tutorials. Here is some screenshots of what i produced whilst just messing about without any tuts:

The following images are of what i modelled last night when i got home from work, I followed a tutorial provided to me by Jake Gainey thanks mate :)

I have covered the main building of the fire exstinguisher in Maya on this tutorial. It also covers applying a material and normal map to the object so im going to look into this in the next couple of days. Im quite pleased how it has turned out. Im have to say that from what i have seen so far there isnt a lot of difference between Maya and 3DS Max, im looking forward to producing some more models in Maya in the future.

A time for a change....

2010-05-26T17:19:00.001-07:00

Well after having a couple of weeks off since handing in my work i have been toying round with some ideas for my next project. One of my ideas was to see if i could work in Maya instead of 3DS Max i thought this would be a good for me on a personal level as if i can show i can work competently in both of these applications i would stand a better chance of getting a job in the industry. Today i also received a email off Nick Sadler and he wants me to model a building preferably in Maya. Nick hasn't actually sent out the details yet but as soon as he has i shall post a new thread with the brief he has set out. In the mean time i shall be looking into how Maya works, so if anyone has some tutorials they could give me it would be muchly appreciated. The brief is to be sent out next week i think so stay tuned :)

End of Year Show St.Helens College 2010

2010-05-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today we had our end of year show in St.Helens College it was a chance for us to show off our work and also to see what everyone else had produced. So here is some pics from the evening:

My work here is done. A big big thankyou to the following people....

2010-05-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well i have finally finished all my work and it was handed in for assessment today so there is no more that i can do now but wait for my final results. I believe that i can find out my results on June the 14th via the Huddersfield University website. So as soon as i have any news i shall let everyone know how i have done.

I would just like to thank a few people on here for helping along the way whilst on my degree:

I would firstly like to thank my tutors Stas, Dean, Kate and Dave Woods for all their guidance and advice, "Thanks guys!"

I would also like to give a big big thanks out to John Dwyer my mentor, "Thank you John for everything you have done for me. I really appreciate you taking time out for me from your busy schedule. I couldn't of done everything i completed without your input i muchly appreciate it. Hope we can continue meeting up and creating some more work together."

Would also like to thank Rob Hannah and Nick Sadler, "Thanks chaps your input and opinions really helped me and will never forget what you have done for over the past two years."

I would especially like to thank my mum and dad for putting up with me especially over the past couple of months when i have been trying to get everything finished, "Thank you mum and dad it was a struggle but i got there in the end. Sorry being a bit snappy at you whilst finishing my work i was mega stressed, sorry. Hopefully everything i have put you through will be worth it. Love you xxx"

I would also like to thank my girlfriend Laura for being so patient and understanding whilst on the course, "Thank you babe for everything you have put up with, its been really difficult not seeing you as much i wanted to but it had to be done. You have been amazing and i wont forget what you put with over the past two years. Love you xxx."

I have been on my knees trying to get everything done over the past coming months and i believe that i couldn't of done anymore than i have done. I have thrown everything into this course and i can stand up tall and say that i couldn't of possibly done anymore than i have done. It has been very enjoyable and i have learnt so so much as well as improving on the skills that i already had.

I am going to continue on with this blog with my future projects that i shall create so please keep checking back for new updates throughout the year and beyond.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog as i have gone along and it is now time for me to have a long hard break away from my work and re-charge my batteries, i am fiscally and mentally drained.

Cheers,

Ste.

Hover Bike Final Renders

2010-05-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

Mini Gun Final Renders

2010-05-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

Assault Rifle Final Renders

2010-05-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

Character Final Renders

2010-05-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

Group Final Renders

2010-05-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

Start of the Model Book

2010-04-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

I am going to make a start on my write up today in the Model Book, the Model-Book will contain the following:

· Rationale including selected audience translated into a working brief
· Project management schedule revised and updated
· Proposed methodology for production
· Chosen distribution channel
· Record of process through journal entries
· Evaluation of methodology used

After this is complete the last thing that is required of me on this course is to collate all my work into the correct folders and produce some high quality renders and i will be ready to hand in my work :)

I probably wont be updating my blog until i have some final renders to show everyone so keep checking back to see what i come up with.

My character released to the public

2010-04-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today i have uploaded my character to the Epic Games Forums and already i am getting good feedback. Im pleased about this as the people on the Epic Games Forums can bit very critical of peoples work, so to get good feedback is very pleasing.

Here is the link to the thread that i put up;

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=726629

In this thread there is a link to download my character or alternately here is the direct link;

http://www.filefront.com/16276699/GENERAL-MOLENAR-.UDK-and-.INI.rar/

Anyone reading this if you can leave some comments on the Epic Games forum thread for me i would muchly appreciate it, or i suppose you could always leave a comment here on my blog.

It would be good to get some general feedback off everyone and to know what everyone thinks about it out there.

Cheers

Ste.

Character in Unreal Tournament 3

2010-04-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Here is my character in the character selct screen;

Here is my character actually in-game.

Here is my character in a Capture the Flag match;

Tomorrow after i recover after todays stressful day as part of my brief i said that i would upload my character to the Unreal community at the Epic Games forums and i will have then covered everything in the brief :) I am so pleased to have my character fianlly finished and running around in UT3 Happy Days!

My character is finally UT3 after 17 hours

2010-04-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Well after spending all day attempting to import my character into UT3, 17 hours to be exact i have successfully done it after the fourth attempt.

The problem that i was having was in the .ini file which i will show below

Parts=(Part=PART_Head,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_Head",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Torso,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_Torso",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_ShoPad,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_XShoPad01",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Arms,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_Arms",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Thighs,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_Thighs",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Boots,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_Boots",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Helmet,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENRALMOLENAR_Helmet",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Goggles,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_NoMesh",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Parts=(Part=PART_Facemask,ObjectName="GENERALMOLENAR.Parts.GENERALMOLENAR_NoMesh",
PartID="GM",FamilyID="IRNM")
Characters=(CharName="GENERAL MOLENAR",Description="He who dares wins! Grrrr!",CharID="GENERALMOLENAR",bLocked="false",Faction="Ironguard",PreviewImageMarkup="",
CharData=(FamilyID="IRNF",HeadID="GM",TorsoID="GM",ShoPadID="GM",bHasLeftShoPad=true,bHasRightShoPad=true,
ArmsID="GM",ThighsID="GM",BootsID="GM"),AIData=(Tactics=1.0, StrafingAbility=1.0, Accuracy=0.5,FavoriteWeapon="UTGame.UTWeap_ShockRifle"))

In the above code i have highlighted the problem basically in the last bit of code the Family ID "IRNF" when it should of been "IRNM". So just because one letter in the code when i loaded up UT3 and went to the customize character screen no bosy parts would show up.

Just the character to import into UT3

2010-04-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow i am going to import my character into the Unreal editor and get him imported in UT3 for hopefully for the last time fingers crossed :)

Creating the Normal map for the Hoverbike

2010-04-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here's is the Normal map desaturated in Photoshop and the brightness and contrast altered before the NormalMapFilter was applied to it.

Here is the normal map created by Photoshop;

Here we can compare the Hoverbike with and without the normal map applied;

Creating the Specular map for the Hoverbike

2010-04-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the specular map for the Hoverbike from Photoshop;

Here we can compare the specular applied to the Hoverbike and the Hoverbike without the specular applied

Creating the Mini Gun Normal map

2010-04-22T03:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the Normal map for the Mini Gun with all layer desaturated ready to apply the NormalMap filter

Here is the normal map Photoshop generated for me;

Here is a comparison with the normal map applied and without the normal map applied

Creating the Mini Gun Specular map

2010-04-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the specular map that i spent doing over the past two days unflatterned;

Here is a comparison between the specular map applied to the Mini Gun and without;

Creating the Assault Rifle normal map

2010-04-20T03:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the Assault Rifle normal map unflatterned back in Photoshop;

Here is a comparison with and without the Normal map applied to the Assault Rifle;

Creating the Assault Rifle Specular

2010-04-20T02:59:00.000-07:00

Carry on with how i created the specular for the head and body of the character here is the specular unflatterned in Photoshop

Here is a comparison with and without the specular applied to it;

Creating the Head Specular

2010-04-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I was getting quite used to doing this by now and so i produced the following i shall start with the Photoshop file and then so a comparison of the with and without a specular applied to it.

With the specular applied to the face this is how it compares with and without it on;

As with teh normal map on the face i didnt want the specular too high either just very subtle and im pleased with how this has turned out.

Creating the Head Normal map

2010-04-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

Using the same technique as before on the body i desaturated all the layers and started to manipulate the brightness and contrast until i was happy with it. This is very much a trial and error type of process switching between the two applications Photoshop and 3DS Max.

Here is the Normal layers in Photoshop before i flatterned them all and applied the Nividia NormalMapFilter;

Here is the actual Normal map that photoshop generated for me;

If we now compare what it looks like with and without a normal map i only wanted it to be very subtle around the face area but as you can see this does add abit more realism into the face.

Creating the Body Specular

2010-04-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Creating the Specular is in the same fashion as creating normal maps, the darker the brightness and contrast less light will bonce off that particular are and the opposite the brighter it it more light will bounce off this area here is how i set up the specular in Photoshop;

Here is another comparison with and without the specular map applied;

Creating the Body Normal map

2010-04-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Its time to create the Normal and Specular maps now and i have made a start on the body of the character first. The first things that i done was to bring in the diffuse map that i had already created. Once i had had this in place i Desaturated all the layers to make them greyscaled, still keeping them all on their own separate levels. I then went to the brightness and contrast in Photoshop and would experiment with the levels until i was happy with how the Normal map is produced. The way the NormalMap filter works is if the layer is all black it will stay uneffceted and stay flat, the lighter the layer goes the more bump you will see in the normal map.

Here is a pic of the diffuse map destaturated and i have also altered the brightness and contrast on each layer as i see fit:

This is the Normal map that Photoshop produced for me and i was very pleased how it turned out, i seemed to have produced much better results.

If we compare the character model with and without the normal map you can see a massive difference. Without the normal map applied the body texture is very flat and with it things are really starting to come to life.

Characters Body Diffuse completed

2010-04-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

Well my diffuse maps are finally finished so here is how i completed the body diffuse as you can see added the dirt and scratches and also adding the Ambient Occlusion has really brought everything to life. Hopefully when i create the Normal map and Specular things will look even better :)

Here is the diffuse map that i have created;

As well as creating the general diffuse i also need to produce a diffuse map for the red and blue team colours when i am importing the model into the Unreal Editor here are those diffuse maps i have created;

More work done on the Body Diffuse

2010-04-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

Before i carried on with texture the body i remembered that i could possibly use some of the older textures that i had created a couple of months ago so i have copied and pasted these layers into the new Photoshop file this has saved me abit of time doing a complete rework on the texture.

Here is the work i done today adding in more detail into the diffuse by the end of tomorrow i should have it finished. I need to add more dirt and scratches and also apply the Ambient Occlusion to it.

Now time to create the final diffuse for the body

2010-04-12T04:06:00.000-07:00

I have now finished all diffuse maps aprt from the body for my character i am going to spend over the next few days completing this task. First of all i have created a base colour for the panels as the pictures below will show;

The darker grey areas when im creating the normal map will stick out more and give me a more gears of War type of effect hopefully. Tomorrow in the next couple of days i shall work into this alot more and start to add more finer detail.

Re-skinning of the Character

2010-04-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

After i had made some changes to the Character i.e. deleting polys and adding new extra detail to the arms and adding in the straps. I have spent the last few days re-skinning the character so he will be ready to import into Unreal. Since i had already done this a few times now i felt more confident this time round and I'm glad to say that he is now ready to be exported into the Unreal Editor, before i do so i must finish off the diffuse for the body and create the normal and specular maps as well. I'm still on target to finish all the work for the 26th. this will give me 2 weeks to create my model book and get everything together for handin on the 7th of May.

Finishing off the Mini Gun Diffuse

2010-04-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have just finished the Mini Gun texture adding more dirt and scratches and also some switches near the air intakes adding more dirt etc to the models have really help them come alive and look more like something you would find in something like UT3 or Gears of War maybe.

Here is some screengrabs of the finished texture applied to the model;

Below is the finished Diffuse texture;

Finishing the Assault rifle Diffuse

2010-04-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

With everything that i had learnt whilst creating the Hoverbike and the advice John and Dean had gave me i wanted to go back and apply this to both the Assault Rifle and the Mini Gun. So i started with the Assault rifle. Dirtying it up alot more and also changing a few colours around really did seem to help and below is the final result.

You may have noticed also that i have added an attachment near the barrel area this was suggested by Dean as he felt that the barrel wasn't looking quite right and that it didn't look like it was part of the gun. I never even noticed until he mentioned it and i think it was a really good idea it makes the Assault Rifle more compact now and looks all as one. looking at the picture below you can really see a difference between the old and new textures and i was very pleased how it has turned out.

Here is the finished diffuse map that i came up with;

I total re-think about the Hoverbike texture

2010-04-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

After finishing the Hoverbike texture i sent some pics to John and also met Dean in college and when they saw what i had produced they said exactly the same thing to me. They said that i had got the whole diffuse map wrong in referring to the panelling. Basically this type of panelling should only be used on big destroyer type ships and never when a model will be seen close up. John suggested looking at how the vehicles in UT3 are textured and so i went into the Unreal Editor to have a closer look on how they had constructed their textures. So i went away again and deleted all of the panelling i had done and created a new texture here is the result of the new texture applied to the model.

I was alot happier with the overall texture now and this also met the approval of both John and Dean so i started to add some more decals into the model.

With this now complete it was ready to have the normal and specular maps applied to them which i shall producing in the next couple of weeks.

Here is the finished map i had created;

The start of the Hoverbike texture

2010-04-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

I am really enjoying all my texturing at the moment it is one of my favourite parts of the whole process seeing the models actually coming to life. I have been busy working away on the Hoverbike texture and things are going well. i have managed to get hold of a nice texture off google images. Here it is;

Using this texture as a base i again slowly started to build up the Hoverbike texture piece by piece here is the progress i made over the last few days.

Ambient Occlusion

2010-04-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

I have forgotten to mention about something that Dean showed me to try out on my models and this was to generate an ambient occlusion. An ambient occlusion is baked into the diffuse map and gives the diffuse map alot more depth i have found this to be very effective on my models. At first Dean showed me how to generate an occlusion map in 3DS Max, however after learning about this type of technique X-Normal also can generate them. Having tried out both of them i decided to use X-Normal as this seemed to give me better results. After X-Normal generates the occlusion maps it is copied and pasted into the Photoshop file and the layer is either changed to Overlay or Multiply i found that certain diffuse maps i made got better results. Here are those Ambient Occlusion maps on their own;

Head and Body Ambient Occlusions

Assault Rifle Ambient Occlusion

Mini Gun Ambient Occlusion

Hoverbike Ambient Occlusion

Here is an example of my Hoverbike texture with a Ambient Occlusion present and one without it, as you can see there is a massive difference between the two of them.

Start of the Mini Gun Texture

2010-03-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have been busy working away on the Mini Gun texture applying the same technique i used to create the Assault Rifle i have managed to get quite a good texture built in a matter of a few days.

Here is how i built up the Mini gun texture slowly adding textures as i go and at the same time i tend to do a quick render back in 3DS Max to ensure that the new pieces of texture applied look OK when rendered out.

Here's flat colours where applied to the model:

I then started to darken up the whole gun as the first base colour was to light i wanted my weapons to look battle scarred and used.

As i went along i built up little details here and there to help me visualise how the finished texture would look. Here i have applied little bolts to the magazine clips and main barrel chambers.

I wanted all my model to have a similar theme and look so whilst creating my textures i had to ensure that i was keeping consistent with the Assault rifle.

I eventually got to the point were i could add more decals and extra detail into the model i was particularly pleased with the decal i added on the side of the main gun barrel chamber i think it works really well. The whole model was starting to come to life and look more realistic i was happy with the last few days work.

Whilst creating the Mini Gun texture i managed to hold of a copy of V-Ray a renderer i had seen people use on the Internet. I wanted to experiment with V-Ray because in the back of mind i was thinking ahead and about when i come to doing my final renders of the models. It was interesting to see how V-Ray worked i liked the way the shadows where cast in the scenes, however i was not sure if i would use V-Ray as a final renderer or not.

Some quick adjustments are needed to the Assault Rifle

2010-03-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Before i carried on with my texturing of the Assault Rifle i decided to get some feedback off John. He was fine with how the diffuse was coming along, however there was some issues he had with the overall shape and functionality of the weapon.

The below images should explain what was needed to change, the scope sight needed to be brought forward in order for the character to properly look down the sight correctly. The magazine clip should be made longer in length for easier access when changing magazine clips & the ridges on the barrel should be removed as they would only get in the way in combat.

With this now in place i was able to carry on creating the texture for the Assault rifle after several hours work i eventually came up with with this design.

For now i am going to leave this Assault Rifle as it is as i am sure that there will be minor changes to the gun later on but i was pleased with my days work and it was time to move onto the Mini Gun.

Start of the Assault Rifle Texture

2010-03-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Today i have been making a start on the Assault rifle diffuse at first i started to experiment with different colours until i was happy with a base colour i wouldn't bother attempting to add any real detail today was just a foundation.

With this in place I'm hoping to have the Assault Rifle diffuse completed by the end of tomorrow fingers crossed.

Looking at other Weapons

2010-03-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

I thought i should mention at this point that i am a massive Gears of War fan so with this in mind i wanted and also keeping in mind that i was building these mods for the Unreal community i collected lots of reference material to help me along with my texturing. Here are some of the pictures i collected whilst doing my research.

And so on with texturing the weapons.....

An exceutive decision has been made

2010-03-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

After going to college today i have decided that i am not going to use Z-Brush to create the panels for the character. Dean kindly showed me how to use a plug-in for photoshop that is free to download that can generate normal maps from using the diffuse map that will be created. This plugin once installed can be found under Filter>NIVIDIA Tools>NormalMapFilter

Dean showed me a demonstration of this in college and it seems very easy to use with great results. This is really going to help me manage my time better as well as spending all that time in Z-Brush has set me back hopefully this will speed the whole process up now.

You can find this free plug-in at:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

A happy accident Z-Brush may be useful after all

2010-03-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

During my time looking over the Internet looking for good tutorials on how to use Z-Brush correctly i stumbled upon this great video tutorial called - ZBrush Tutorial - Zapplink / Image plane Plugins

Here is the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcsYWqhxV2M

Basically this tutorial shows you how to create great looking textures using in conjunction Photoshop and Z-Brush. I decided to have ago at this technique and see what would happen. Below is how it was built up:

Here is the diffuse that this tutorial helped me generate when it exports it out into Photoshop:

If we do a quick comparison between the old texture and the new texture you can see a massive improvement.

One last try at Z-Brush

2010-03-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

After the last two days things have been quite disastrous and I'm gutted that things have not turned out the way i planned. I decided today that i would have one last go at the torso area using the stencil technique that i tried with the characters face yesterday. Before i started sculpting again in Z-Brush. I took some images into Illustrator and created my own stencils like these images below:

These would be place in the Alpha and act as a mask with black area being unaffected and white ares could be extruded upwards. With this in place i attempted again to create the panels and below is the result:

As you can probably see there is a big improvement in the straight line edges and there is alot more definition to the panels now. Since i was happy with the panels i started to poly paint over the model in Z-Brush to start to bring out the panels alot more.

I thought that i was getting somewhere and i showed my work to both Dean and John to get some feedback. They both came to the same conclusion that i had put way too many panels in and added too much detail. They explained to me that if you was to look at the character from a distance that the panels would become all blurred and the user would not be able to make everything out. They said that i should go back and make the panels alot bigger in size so it was more pleasing on the eye. So with this in mind i would have to start all over again :(

Things have not gone well again :(

2010-03-18T02:24:00.000-07:00

Well after yesterdays attempt at creating the panels i have got up early today to try and resolve the problems i had. Unfortunately i have started again and i am still getting the same results not very smooth edges everything looks rough and the panels were also not straight and flowing properly with the characters torso.

I have highlighted below the area that i am not pleased with and not giving me the results i was looking for:

I decided put this to one side after i had attempted to create the panels again and have ago at the head. Within Z-Brush you can create a stencil and import an images and use this to help you create very fine detail so decided to have a crack at this. Using my reference material i had collected back in Pre-Production i place the images over the model of the face and started to sculpt out the wrinkles and skin pores on the face. Below are the results of what i produced for the head area:

Like before with the torso area i really wasn't getting the desired result that i was looking for with alot of rough edges being created and unnecessary lumps and bumps. I think i am going to have to re-think my work flow here as the Z-Brush work wasn't working for me. As i am fairly new to Z-Brush this could be the main factor and i now realise that alot more time is needed to perfect my skills within Z-Brush. Time that i simply haven't got as deadlines are getting tight i may have to look at alternatives to create the normal and specular maps for my character.

Working in Z-Brush again

2010-03-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

It was about time that i made a start on texturing the character properly and i made a start using Z-Brush. I have decided to start with the Torso and make a start creating the panels. The kind of look that i was aiming for was like out of Gears of War. I really like the way the characters armour was built up in this game and it looks really effective. Here is some quick pics on what i mean:

With this as good reference material i decided to have ago myself and see what i could come up with. It had been a while since i had last used Z-Brush i had not used it since i was on the FD course here at St.Helens college. After a couple of hours getting to grips with it again i had produced the panels but i wasn't happy with how things had turned out.

Looking at what i had produced the edges and strap areas where not coming out smooth they was coming out very rough and didn't look natural and at the same time i was struggling to get the desired effect like the Gears of War characters.

Ive decided to call it a day at this point as i have found this very time consuming and and very exhausting, I will have another go at it tomorrow.

Both Weapon Unwraps finished in no time at all.

2010-03-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

After not logging anything for the past 3 days due to me unwrapping the two weapons the first think i want to point out is how much easier the weapons were to Unwrap compared to the Hoverbike. I think this was down to the fact that there was far less polys to consider and maybe it was due to having spent such a long time on the Hoverbike unwrap that i was just getting more used to the whole process.

I shall first display the Assault Rifle Unwrap and UVW Layout.

Below is the checker applied to the Assault rifle to again check for strecthes in the texture etc.

You may notice that on the grenade launcher Dean suggested to add in some riggers where the character would hold his weapon to make it more stable when firing or easier to carry around with him. I think this will be prominent once i start to texture it.

Now to show how i got on with the Mini Gun Unwrap, if you look at the picture below this was my first draft of the unwrap. Throughout unwrapping Nick Sadler gave me a piece of advice which was that when unwrapping all squares on the checker should be of equal size and length, i tried to keep to this rule throughout the process.

When Nick seen my Mini gun unwrap he said that the gun barrels where taking up too much space in the uv layout compared to the main body of the gun and that i should rearrange the layout by putting on all the gun barrels on top of each other and scaling up the main body so that more detail could me put into the texture later on. Here is the finished Mini Gun UVW Layout:

As you can see now there is alot more room in the UVW Layout for me to texture the main body area better. I was alot more pleased with this because the main body area would be what people focus more in on when looking at the Mini Gun fully textured.

Here is a series of screenshots with the checker applied to it:

With all models now fully unwrapped it was time to make a start on creating the final finished diffuse maps. Once all diffuse maps are created i will be able to it takes the diffuse and create the specular and normal maps.

Vehicle Unwrap complete

2010-03-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

Well after 4 days of solid hard graft i have finally finished the Hoverbike Unwrap i found this to be much tougher to complete than the Character Unwrap trying to get the checker to sit correctly on the model was a task in itself. However the 4 days hard work i put into it have paid off as you will see below:

Here is the Unwrap work in progress as you will see it a very complicated Unwrap to do.

Here is the UVW Layout of the Hoverbike.

With the checker applied to it like i done with the Character i was able to see that once i create the Diffuse map for the vehicle everything will sit correctly on the model with no skewing or textures being stretched.

I am very pleased with how the Unwrap has turned out and once a diffuse is added i feel confident enough that the texture will not be strecthed. With this completed it was now time to move onto the Weapons.

Adjustments to the Hoverbike

2010-03-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

After blocking out a early version of the Hoverbike yesterday i have made some amendments to it. Firstly i wanted to change the wings on the bike so i rotated them 90 degrees to make it more slimline in design.

Here are the wings rotated 90 degrees:

I then added more detail by adding some Exhaust pipes, a set of mini guns on the front and also adding in some jets underneath the wings:

I was alot more happier with the Hoverbike now and i felt i could move on to the next job in hand which was to unwrap the rest of the models both Weapons and the Hoverbike ready for texturing. Unwrapping may take me a few days to complete so there may not be any diary entries whilst I'm doing so unless there are problem that arise.

First look at the vehicle in 3DS Max

2010-03-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

Today i have took my Blueprints of the Hoverbike and i have create the following I'm not entirely happy with it i think some improvements can be made but its a start at least. Things looked alittle too bland and no real form or shape to it, adjustments or additions will have to be made i think.

Here are some screenshots of the model:

Deadline Handin of work is.......

2010-03-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

For a couple of months now i was wondering when we would know exactly when the Handin date would be for the project and today i can say that D-Day is officially the 7th of May. This is good to know now and i can now plan out the final few months knowing when everything has to be handed in. I have set myself to have everything modelled and textured round about the 26th April. Finishing around this date will give me plenty of opportunity to collate all my work and create the Model book that needs to be done for assessment. Another piece of good news is that i have managed to book off lots of time off work in order to complete everything so expect lots of updates in the next 2 months :)

Making a start on the Vehicle

2010-03-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

It was about time i started to model the vehicle, however after discussing at some length with Dean i wasn't happy with the vehicle i had produced back in Pre-production. I felt it was a little weak in design and didn't really seem to fit my character as i wanted them to look like they belong together. Me and Dean talked about my character having more of a chopper bike type of vehicle to move around on and this would look much better and fit more into the Unreal universe. So i started to look into other vehicles in UT3 and came across the "Manta" that already ships within UT3 when you buy it from the shops. Here is some screenshots of the "Manta" and i decided that i would base my design upon this vehicle:

Having researched into the Manta at some length i started to create some rough sketches like i had produced back in pre-production below is some examples of the sketches:

In the end i narrowed the kind of shape that i was after down to the above picture with this as a template i created some Blueprints for the actual build of the Vehicle.

Here are those blueprints:

A change in the workflow

2010-02-24T14:42:00.000-08:00

In my original rationale i proposed to import all of my models into UT3 however after a discussion with Dean my tutor we decided that this would be a massive under taking. Since i had never used the Unreal Editor before this project, also after all the problems that i had encountered importing the character into UT3 it was decided that i would only import the character. I believe this was a good idea otherwise i doubt that i will finish everything on time, having said that i did say that i would look into importing the weapon/s and vehicle after i had finished the course. I found it very useful actually importing the character into UT3 as this gave me a much better insight into how much work really does go on implementing models into a game engine such a s Unreal.

Time to loose some poly's.....

2010-02-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

After experimenting with Z-Brush and XNormal i decided to look at my model again and see if i could lower my poly count down to my original budget that i had decided upon at the beginning of the year with Stas and Dean. My budget for the character model was 10,000 polys or 20,000 tris.

After adding all the new added straps and extra detail i had well over stepped this budget and my character was now standing at a whopping 12,0019 ploys or 23.674 tris. I was not happy about this and i don't believe it is good practice to over shoot by so many. In what experience i have i do know that poly budgets are a big issue in the industry and these poly budgets must be obeyed.

So i looked long and hard at my model and started chipping into it using target weld and deleting any polys that i felt were of no use or did not have a purpose or did anything to the silhouette in any way. After a couple of hours of refinement i was alot happier with the model as now i came below my agreed poly budget. Also i believe that my actual geometry looks alot better now and a hell of alot cleaner as some of my model still looked messy.

Below is exactly how many polys i was able to save which I'm very pleased about:

Old Mesh = 12,0019 polys or 23,674 tris

New Mesh = 9,904 polys or 11,099 tris

I think i should point out that i could probably could look even deeper into getting the poly count down even further but with time ticking i am happy to move on from this stage. I also think with getting my poly count down it will also help my model run smoother in UT3.

If we look at the two images below there doesn't seem to be much loss of detail either between the two models can you tell which one is which?

And the answer is ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

the new lower poly model is on the left with the higher poly mesh on the right. So as we can see there isn't a great difference in to two meshes at all.

Experimenting with XNormal and ZBrush

2010-02-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

After making some refinements to my model i thought it was best to make a start with the Z-Brush work. So with my High and Low poly meshes ready i decided to put the torso into ZBrush for 3 reasons really.

To familiarise myself with Z-Brush once more as it has been a while since i had used it.
To bake out a normal and Ambient Occlusion map.
Experiment with XNormal.

So i began to do this and after having alittle play about with ZBrush i decided to take my High and Low Poly Mesh's into XNormal.

Following some tutorials on the site i found XNormal really easy to use and i thought everything was going great. I baked out the Normal map really easily no problem and i also baked out the Ambient Occlusion. (I have to say that the Ambient Occlusion that it produced was way better than the previous Ambient Occlusion i produced in 3DS MAx itself.)

However things did not run smoothly, when i applied the Normal map to my lower poly model the Normal map did not seem to work properly and i wasn't happy with the way things had turned out. (I'm sorry i haven't got any images to show the result as i accidentally deleted the Normal map that i produced by accident).

After thinking things over i believe that the error was occurring because when i produced the lower and high poly meshes i deleted all the straps and fine detail on the lower mesh and this is something i shouldn't of done. I could be wrong on this maybe i was doing something in 3DS Max I'm not entirely sure. So this got me thinking??

Time for some adjustments..

2010-02-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Having successfully getting my model into UT3 and running around, i met up with John once again and he suggested that i should go back and study my model and see what modifications and adjustments i could do to make the character even better.

The first thing that we agreed on was, my model through the production stage had lost all its muscle definition definition.
The human anatomy was wrong i.e. arms length to the leg proportions in particular.
Looking at the model i decided that some more added detail was needed.
A higher poly character would be created to add in straps and other fine detail. This high poly mesh would be taken into Z-Brush and this would create my Normal map, specular maps etc. Once the Normal maps were created the normal map would be applied to a lower poly mesh.
Also added into the model to bring out the silhouette even more and to make the model more interesting some blades were added to the left arm and a rocket launcher on the right. I shall be adding a emissive map onto the blades in order for it not to look like a Predator rip off. I think this will look rather cool as well and add something extra to the model.

Here is a closer look at the extra detail i have added to the character:

First Pass successfully accomplished

2010-02-14T04:51:00.000-08:00

After having all the problems with the textures in-game and after importing the new model into the Unreal engine i finally had success :) My character was now successfully running around in the UT3 with all textures present. This was a huge relief to me and although this error occurred i was pleased that i was able to resolve the problem be it setting me work flow back by a week or so.

Here is some videos of my character first pass successfully running round in UT3:

Problems a foot in-game...

2010-02-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

After importing the character into Unreal it was time to test the character in-game. After going to the Customize Player screen via settings in the main menu, it appeared that all textures where present and there was no errors. I was quite pleased to see the character in UT3 and things were looking good:

Character on the Customize Player select screen.

However things changed dramatically once the character entered a match and the camera view was changed to a third person view (This was done by press the tap button and typing in behindview with no spaces) As this video below shows, for some reason the characters torso, arms and bottom of the boots were coming out completely black:

Torso, Arms and bottom of boots are coming out black in-game.

Although all textures were not present it was still pleasing to see that my character was running well within UT3 and worked well with the animations.

After a week of pulling my hair out what hair i have left may i add, i was able to get to the root of the problem. Basically the error was occurring because back in 3DS Max and my mesh was created certain parts of the mesh had different Material ID's assigned to it and the mesh also had different smoothing groups assigned to it. For example the torso would have about 3 material ID's and the same for the smoothing groups. So once imported in the Unreal Editor i had to apply the body texture several times in order for it to appear correctly. I found out via the Epic Games Forums that each material slot within the editor should only have 1 or 2 material slots available to it. So i had to select each part of the body (Helmet, Head, Torso, 2 Shoulder pads, Legs and Boots) individually back in 3DS Max and ensure that all Material ID's were set to 1 and smoothing groups set to 1 as well.

With all material ID's and smoothing groups all sorted now i went back into the Unreal Editor and began to bring all the assets in. When it came to apply the body texture to all the body parts that i had problems with previously instead of having several Material slots now all texture would only require one material slot, with this now corrected it was time to see if this problem had been sorted in-game.

Unreal Editor naming conventions

2010-02-11T15:56:00.001-08:00

Having no prior knowledge of the Unreal Engine / Editor i was slightly apprehensive on how i was going to get on importing the character. As mentioned before in previous posts experimenting with just actually getting the UT3 Male character into UT3 really helped me get used to the whole process. Following this video tutorial http://www.veoh.com/collection/HouseofUnreal/watch/v3378005eMBr65b9 provided by John i set about importing my character into the Unreal Editor.

I think the main thing that i must first point out is how important naming everything correctly is. The Unreal Engine is very particular about this and if not followed correctly the character will simply not work properly.

Unreal requires all texture maps to be saved out as .bmp files and up to 2048 x 2048 but i believe that a 1024 x 1024 is used most of the time so the character runs smoothly within the Unreal engine. Also these textures must all be named correctly in order to save any problems that may occur further down the line in the process.

Here is how i set out the naming conventions ready for the Unreal editor:

Here is how i should name the body textures:

CharacterNameHere_MBody01_D01_V01_SK1.bmp (Body Diffuse map)
CharacterNameHere_MBody01_D01_VBlue_SK1.bmp (Blue Body Diffuse map)
CharacterNameHere_MBody01_D01_VRed_SK1.bmp (Red Body Diffuse map)
CharacterNameHere_MBody01_N01_V01_SK1.bmp (Body Normal map)
CharacterNameHere_MBody01_S01_V01_SK1.bmp (Specular map )

Here is how i should name the head textures:

CharacterNameHere_MHead01_D01_V01_SK1.bmp (Head Diffuse map)
CharacterNameHere_MHead01_N01_V01_SK1.bmp (Head Normal map)
CharacterNameHere_MHead01_S01_V01_SK1.bmp (Head Specular map)

CharacterNameHere_BioPic.bmp (This is the profile picture within UT3 on the character select screen)

Here is how i should name the body parts in 3DS Max:

CharacterNameHere_Head.psk

CharacterNameHere_Torso.psk

CharacterNameHere_Goggles.psk
CharacterNameHere_Facemask.psk
CharacterNameHere_Helmet.psk
CharacterNameHere_Arms.psk
CharacterNameHere_Thighs.psk
CharacterNameHere_Boots.psk

CharacterNameHere_LShoPad01.psk
CharacterNameHere_RShoPad01..psk
CharacterNameHere_NoMesh.psk

Skinning the character...

2010-02-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

With a basic texture now down on the character i really wanted to get my model into the Unreal engine so the next phase of the process was to add the bones inside of my mesh. Way back in September in order to get used to the Unreal Editor i imported the UT3 male default character that is free to download successfully into Unreal. However way back in September i didn't need to skin the character as this was already done for me. I had only previously touched upon skinning once before back on the foundation degree and even then it was a bit daunting to say the least. With this previous knowledge of Skinning i seemed to quickly get to grips with the whole process and after a while quite enjoyed it, it was very relaxing.
The first thing that i would like to point out and which was probably the hardest part of the skinning process was understanding which bones should be added to each part of my mesh. It took a while to get to grips with this and it was a case of experimentation in order to get the mesh correctly interacting with the Unreal skeleton.

Below is a list of which bones i settled on and to which area of the mesh they were assigned to:

Helmet (Top of Head) - Bones assigned to Helmet = b_Head

Head - Bones assigned to Head = b_Head, b_Neck and b_Spine2

Torso - Bones assigned to Torso = b_Hips, b_LeftClav, b_RightClav, b_Root, b_Spine, b_Spine1 and b_Spine2

RightShoulderPad - Bones assigned to the Right Shoulderpad = b_RightShoulderPad

LeftShoulderPad - Bones assigned to the Left Shoulderpad = b_LeftShoulderPad

Legs - Bones assigned to the Legs = b_Hips, b_LeftLegUpper and b_RightLegUpper

Boots - Bones assigned to the Boots = b_LeftAnkle, b_LeftLeg, b_LeftToe, b_RightAnkle, b_RightLeg and b_RightToe

Some experimentation had to be done in order for my mesh to correctly follow the Unreal skeleton. This part of the process was basically shifting the weights from one bone to the next after a bone had been weighted i would play the simple animation that had been added into the Unreal Tournament male skeleton to see if my whole mesh followed the bones correctly.

Below is some before and after videos of how the skinning process went:

Torso before Skinning

Hand before Skinning

Arm before Skinning

I found skinning very much as a trial and error type of process as to get the mesh to fit along side the skeleton was very experimental. I found that not all vertices would have the same weight assigned to them. To solve these issues i found it easier to solve the problem by rotating the skeleton to extreme body angles. Although in the real world a human body cannot move to such angles i found this the best route to go down.

With the whole mesh now attached to the skeleton i noticed that when i played the animation the shoulderpads did not follow the arms correctly. At first i panicked and thought that i had made an error somewhere down the line. The arms would go right through the shoulderpads but after some guidance from Dean he reassured me that this was perfectly OK as the shoulderpads would be moving independently with the Unreal Engine/Editor.

I think it is worth mentioning another problem i encountered when i had successfully imported my character into UT3. When the character died in-game part of the waist area would stay upright and cause the poly's to stretch. I think this was to do with not skinning the character properly and assigning the waist area to the wrong set of bones.

Stretching of the polys in-game

X Normal??

2010-02-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Before i talk about skinning the character i just want to mention an application that John has told me to use to bake out my normal and ambient occlusion maps in. This application is called X Normal, it is free to download and generates much better looking results regarding normal, ambient occlusion and displacement maps. There are plenty of tutorials actually on the site and looking at a few of the videos it looks very simple to use with a great end product.

X Normal can be found at the following URL:

http://www.xnormal.net/1.aspx

Feedback from the Unreal Community

2010-02-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

Having created the basic texture i decided to post this work up on the Unreal Community forums to get some feedback off them. I have to say that i have some really good feedback off them regarding the textures and it was even suggested to do different types of camo outfits for the character i.e. Urban, Forest, Artic, Spec Ops etc.
I thought this was a great idea and so i went away and fleshed out some textures to see how it looked. I have even received a 5 star rating which im absolutely chuffed about as the Unreal Community take things very seriously :)

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=716007

Below are the texture that i produced that was requested by some of the members of the Unreal Community:

Instead of posting up new threads all the time Ive decided to keep this thread open and update this thread on a regular basis.

Texturing the character

2010-02-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

With the Unwrap complete it was now time to start texturing the character this part of the process i really enjoy as to me it is at this point that things really start to seem to come to life. I started off with a base colour for the body and slowly built up the texture also checking back what it looked like on the model. Here's is two images to show the base metal texture and then some more finer detail added:

Base texture Concept texture

Again for the head texture i quickly put together a texture just to get something down:

This texture is by no means complete i just wanted to get a general texture down and apply it to my model to get a feel for it. Below is the above textures applied to my model:

Front view Side view

Although these textures are not fully complete it gave me a good idea on how the character is looking and with some basic textures laid down i thought i should move on to skinning the character in order for me to be able to import into the Unreal Editor.

I would like to also say at this point that during my texturing i have found a couple of websites that provide good quailty textures available to download for free.

Here are the URL's for the sites:

http://www.cgtextures.com/

http://mayang.com/textures/

http://www.imageafter.com/textures.php

Unwrapping the character

2010-02-02T13:10:00.001-08:00

Firstly i just want to apologise for not updating my blog recently i have got so caught up in developing my character i haven't had time to post anything i also had a major issue which i will get onto later on another post.

I have to say that Unwrapping isn't my favourite part of the process (I don't think many people do) but having said that i did learn some more things i never knew you could do within 3DS Max. As my character is to be built for Unreal Tournament 3 my UV Layouts had to be set out in a particular way. Below the images show how i should set out my UV's according to Unreal.

Head UV Layout

Body UV Layout

Looking at the layout of the head i immediately noticed how much wasted space area there was as i have always been told to use up as much space as possible as this unused spaces is loss of memory. So why unreal set out the UV's in this way i don't really know the answer to, John or Dean might be able to answer that one for me. Any ideas guys?

So following these rules i produced the following UV Layouts:

Head UV Layout

Body UV Layout

The Unwrapping took alot of hours to do and i had particular trouble around the jet pack area as is such the amount of detail around this area. During this time and experimenting with my Unwrapping i got to know a thing called Pelt Mapping i had now prior knowledge of this. I only found out about it whilst searching on youtube watching some tutorials on it the Pelt Mapping can be found under Map Parameters within 3DS Max. Although this was a handy little tool i never eventually used it as i was 100% confident that i could use it to its full potential, so i ended up unwrapping all the UV's manually. Another thing i never knew about was once a UVW Unwrap has been added to the stack and unwrapping had begun. It was possible to collapse the stack back down the an editable poly and make adjustments to the mesh. Once another UVW Unwrap was added to the stack the previous Unwrap was still present. This was extremely useful as i found whilst unwrapping that i encountered some 5 sided polys and this helped me eradicate any 5 sided polys from my model.

After a couple of weeks work i was finally happy here is how the Unwrap looked on my model with a checker applied from the Material Editor. I tried to keep all the checkers to equal size as much as possible in order to keep the resolution at equal length. Below is some screen grabs to illustrate this:

I'm very pleased how the unwrapping has gone and i have to say its the best unwrap that i have ever done. Having said this its only my second time of unwrapping a character here is the first character i created on the Foundation Degree 2 years ago:

As you can see from my previous attempt of building a character i feel i have greatly improved my skills in this area i understand the process alot more and how to go achieving good results when unwrapping. This will not just include unwrapping a character but also for any other object that i will build in the future.

Whilst i am here doing a crit of my previous work i might as well point out a few things i noticed when looking at my last attempt of a character. The first thing i would like to point out is the actual layout of the UV's if we look below there is alot of unused space in the layout this is also bad as this is wasted memory:

Also i would like to point out how many polys/tris that where used on my last character the following two screen grabs show just how many unnecessary tris was used and therefore this character just simply wouldn't work if attempted to be used in something like Unreal etc.

Looking at other artists work

2010-01-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

I know that i have put up work by other artists up before but i have never really commented on them and i thought that this would be a good time to show some work again and attempt to show how they have helped me in developing my character and making him more unique. Some images you may have seen before i earlier posts and some new ones will be displayed as well. Alot of these images can be found at http://www.zbrushcentral.com/featured2col.php or at http://www.dominancewar.com/

fig.10 fig.11 fig.12 fig.13 fig.14 fig.15

Looking at the Silhoutte

2010-01-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

I would just like to talk about my characters silhouette and how it has changed since Pre-Production. In Pre-Production and designing my concepts i couldn't see that my character had no real shape or form. Something that made my character instantly recognizable from a dist ants everything was very flat & dull. If we look at fig.9 this will illustrate how it has changed quite dramatically in places.

fig.9

Hopefully fig.9 shows the comparison between Pre-Production and the Production stage. I think most notably there has been a significant change from the side view. Adding the Jetpack to the character has helped enormously and also extruding the shoulders has helped the character be more defined, more shape was added to the arms and leg areas in order to make the silhouette stand out more. As my characters shape had to change to conform with the UT3 skeleton this became alot more clearer to me. If i could go back to the Pre-Production stage again now i would definitely take this into account and this would be at the forefront of my mind in future projects. I would even say that i could of taken this a step further in creating a better shape and silhouette but as time is ticking i will have to leave it as it is unfortunately. I now know that having a good silhouette is very important when designing a character as this helps people to instantly identify the character immediately.

Rough Mini Gun build

2010-01-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

I decided over the last couple of days to have a go at fleshing out a rough Mini gun just in case i had time to completely finish it off for handin. Using alot of reference material i created this pics below:

I wasn't happy with this first attempt things were not working right i also had to consider the functionality of the weapon and with this in mind i went back and produced this:

A new addition to the family???

2010-01-07T05:30:00.000-08:00

Having blocked out the Assault rifle and having another meeting with John we both came to the agreement that since my character is heavily built that it might be a good idea to give him a bigger weapon to hold as well as the Assault Rifle. In our meeting we discussed how in Team Fortress 2 there is a character called "The Heavy" this character is also bulky in size and posses a Minigun. With this in mind i decided that along side the Assault Rifle that i would produce a Mini gun also.

Here is a picture of "The Heavy" from Team fortress 2:

I then gathered lots of reference images from http://www.google.co.uk/ to give me a much better understanding on how to construct a Minigun here is just a sample of those images i had collected.

It was agreed that i would stick to the original plan of creating the Assault Rifle first and only if i had time would i carry on this idea of producing a Mini gun for the character as well.

Now its time for the Weapon

2010-01-02T05:18:00.000-08:00

With my character well under way and blocked out i thought it was about time to start modelling the Assault rifle that i had produced concept designs for back in Pre-Production. For now i didn't want to concentrate on detail as much but getting something down rough and blocked out would be a good start.

Here is what i produced:

Lets see what the audience think?

2009-12-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

At this point of the modelling of the character i thought it would be a good time post up some images of my character and get some early feedback on what they thought. Too my surprise my model was very well received and i got some good suggestions on how i should develop the character further. For a while i noticed that the character was looking far too symmetrical and needed to be broken up. So a discussion between a few members of the UT3 community suggested that a scar be added to his face. I suggested a cigar in his mouth and everyone on the forum agreed that this would be a very good idea. So all in all i was very pleased with how this thread turned out and i found the Unreal Community very helpful.

Here's is a link to that thread that i posted up in the Epic Games Forum:

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=711234

Looking at the Arms so far.....

2009-12-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Now on to the arms on the whole the arms have not changed too much from the concept design and blueprints however there has been some alterations applied to it. If we look at fig.7 i have tried to keep the basic shape that i had done in the concept design phase. When i modelled the Arms back in October i noticed that the Arms looked too square and needed some extra roundness applied to them. The result i believe is much better as it makes the Arms more realistic.

fig.7

I was really pleased how i modelled the Hands being able to keep everything as quads was a challenge but i think i was able to manage this part of the task quite well. In my previous attempt at modelling a Hand i struggled slightly and obviously i have learnt from my previous experience. Looking at the Hand up close in fig.8 this shows how i have managed to keep the polys evenly spread.

fig.8

Looking at the Face so far.....

2009-12-10T04:55:00.000-08:00

Since i have started the development stage there is one aspect of my model that i am very pleased with and how it is shaping up and that is the Face that i have produced. I have been able to stay quite true to the concept design that i produced in the Pre-production stage and i am pleased with how the edge loops have come together, fig.6 shows how close to concept design i have kept to it.

fig.6

Looking at fig.6 more closely the front view is very close to the concept design, however the side view i think may need some slight adjustments applied to it maybe using the Soft Selection utility within 3DS Max will help me resolve this problem. I will try to address this issue in the next couple of days before moving on to the next stage.

Looking at the Boots so far.....

2009-12-10T03:55:00.000-08:00

I would like to now talk about the boots and the progression that has been made up to the present day. The boots have also seen a dramatic change since the Production phase has started, my original blueprints had them very thin and elongated and looking at fig.5 i can see a huge improvement.

fig.5

Having to change the shape of the boots to conform with the Unreal skeleton back in November i was alot happier with the shape of the boots but i felt that it needed more detail added to it take make them look more ecstatically pleasing to the eye. Although the shape of the Boots have changed in width and height i believe that i have been able to still maintain some of the original concept design, particularly the back end of the Boot. I think that adding the strap going around the back of the boot emphasis's it better and makes the boot look more unique in design.

Looking at the Legs so far.....

2009-12-10T02:05:00.000-08:00

Looking at the legs there hasn't been a dramatic change since the start of the modelling process, it has mainly just been subtle changes like adding in a belt ammo pack and extra ammo. The legs have also been slimmed down like the rest of the body has to give the character alot more form and definition. The character legs look alot better now that they have been slimmed down and alot more believable.

Looking at the Torso so far.....

2009-12-10T02:02:00.000-08:00

I would like to now show how each body part has changed throughout development from the original concept design to the present day. To start off with i shall talk about the Torso and how it has changed over the past few months. I wanted to start off with the Torso as this has seen the biggest change since i started the development of the character.
Torso
If we look at fig.3 we can see that from my original concept design through to early development in 3DS Max things where looking very flat and un-interesting to look look at. Back in October in order to form the Torso alls i done to create it was to use a cylinder object and re-shaped it slightly. This was easily picked up on by my tutors and John and again with alot of things throughout development i could not see it at first until this was pointed out to me.

fig.3

Back in October i can now say that i wasn't really looking at my original concept design properly and really considering how to create the form and shape that i had originally planned. It was suggested that i should start again with the Torso and this was a very good move i believe. It was at this point that i could see that things where not working or looking correct so i created a box object and started to re-shape the box accordingly. Back in October my torso had no form or shape to it in order to make the characters body stand out. Looking at how the torso is today i can see a massive difference between October and December.

Whilst i was creating the Torso it became apparent to me that i needed to put more detail onto the back of the character as my character will be in third person mode this is what the user would see more predominantly. In November i started to attempt to address this issue by putting in some pipes however it became clear that these pipes had no purpose or funtion. So having a re-think i decided to add a Jet Pack. I believe that this has worked well and really adds to the characters design in making it look more interesting to look at and also this helped bring out the silhoutte of my character.

fig.4

A time for reflection on the process and development so far....

2009-12-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

I think it is about time that should look back over my work and attempt to comment on the production stage of my project and what exactly have i learnt throughout this process so far.

I think i would like to firstly start off by saying that things have not exactly gone to plan, my Gantt chart that i produced in Pre-production had me finishing all base meshes for the character, weapon and vehicle before Christmas. I believe that i have been naive in thinking that everything was going to run like a well oiled machine. Hopefully by the end of this post it will show the problems i encountered in producing such a delay.

fig.1

As fig.1 shows there is a massive difference between my original concept design and and the present model that i have produced. Why do they look so different? The main reason being;

The basic shape and anatomy of my character had to change dramatically in order to conform with the UT3 skeleton. My original concept design was produced to look as realistic and anatomically correct as possible, however before i even began to build my model John suggested that i should attempt to import the default UT3 character that was free to download. Immediately i knew that things were going to have to change as the Unreal proportions of the body did not conform to true life. Why they build their model in this way i don't really understand, maybe they made them this way so they would be instantly recognizable.

My concept design had no real form or any kind of detail that would help my character stand out. I cannot believe that i never seen this way back in pre-production looking back now it looks boring and uninteresting. All the armour was flat and didn't have much shape and detail in it but this was not immediately apparent to me until i started modelling the character in 3DS MAx.

Having imported the UT3 character i realised that if i carried on with my original concept my character would look bland in comparison to other pre built models already in UT3. Hence the reason alot more detail was added into the back area and a Jetpack was added as this is the view point that the user would see more of when playing UT3.

So what changes have been exactly made since the original concept design?

If we look at fig.2 below we can see that my model has gone through a big transformation from the original concept in terms of scale and size. Main differences between the different stages are the proportions have changed both in width and in height. The total frame of the anatomy had been bulked up in order to not look out of place in the Unreal universe. It was strange that i never picked up on this at first or earlier on in the development of the character i think i was distracted by poly counts or something but i was shocked when i realized how wrong the body shape was.

fig.2

Working more into my Character

2009-12-07T17:54:00.001-08:00

Looking at other artists work and how they detail their characters

2009-12-02T02:18:00.000-08:00

Hi John I've been looking at the examples that you sent me and I've posted a couple of them up on here for everyone to see. What I'm not understanding is how detailed do i go in the modelling stage in 3DS Max and when do i stop and let Z-Brush do the work? I'm alittle concerned at the moment as I'm starting to go over budget as my character is already on 11,556 tris. Dean has told me that i can go up to 20,000 tris as this was his tri budget for the characters that he has created. So I'm not entirely sure the correct plan of action John?

Bringing out the Silhouette

2009-11-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

After i have conformed to the Unreal Skeleton And meeting up with John a couple of weeks ago he told me that the re-sized character is now fine to be used in Unreal however i needed to add more detail to my character to create a good silhouette. A good silhouette is vital to any character so when implemented into Unreal players will be able to distinguish immediately who the character is. So i have set about added more detail into the character to create a good silhouette. Here is what i produced so far and i have also added the ear to the character:

Having to reshape the character

2009-11-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have read what John put on the previous post and when i got home from work i decided to have ago at re-shaping my character. I think i know what you mean John in the previous post but i think it would be a good idea to meet up with you tomorrow and discuss it abit more? Anyway i decided to compare my character with the UT3 character that i downloaded and i noticed that my proportions where way off the mark. So as a simple experiment i decided to re-shape all the body parts to more like the UT3 character model and here is the results:

As you can see from the pictures there is a big improvement from the old and new models it isn't perfect i know but at least i can see it now. Am i on the right track here John? What do you think?

All body parts together for the first time

2009-11-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have worked on the character very hard over the weekend getting all the polys as neat as possible i have worked into the models and created the best edge flows as best i can. I have worked on all body part areas Arms, Torso, Legs, Boots and Head. Although i am not finished yet i wanted to see how my character was shaping up and here are a few screenshots to show how its looking. Current poly count is going OK actually I'm not far off the mark here is the current state of play regarding my Poly count:

Total Polygons = 4640
Total Tris = 9142
Total Verts = 4744

Redesign of the Torso

2009-11-02T05:56:00.001-08:00

When i last went to college Dean and Stas were pleased with how my character was coming together, however Stas and Dean pointed out that i should redo the torso as they said it didn't look like it had been modelled, i.e. that i had basically extruded a cylinder and pulled and stretched it to create the required affect. (This was exactly what i had done) So I have gone back to the torso again and Stas told me to start off with a box and shape the torso from there cutting into the box only when required necessary. Below is what i have produced and i have to agree with Stas and Dean it looks alot better.

Start of Modelling the Characters Head

2009-10-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time i got cracking on the characters head so here is what i have done so far. Initially i just wanted to block out the general shape of my character making sure as i go that i stick to quads or 4 sided polygons.

After blocking out the main shape i have continued to work into the face and i am very pleased with how it is now shaping up. I am particularly pleased that i have managed to stick very close to my concept design. I still feel there is room for improvement for now i am going to leave the face until i add in the ear, which is my next step.

Current Polygons = 2238 Tris = 4342 Verts = 2236