Maya Environment - Uni Work

Hey heey! =)

Okay, here's the start of my Uni work, we have to make an environment, I got permission to render it out in UDK which I'm pretty excited about =) HOWEVER, we have to do most of the modeling using Maya, as we have to get experience using it. So my plan is to keep things very simple and just add hints of detail with Zbrush =) Atm, I'm interested in doing an alleyway, think New York City-inspired alleyway =)

Sorry I don't have any drawings tonight, it's all just ref/inspiration, but it's been hammered into me time and time again, good preparation and research. Also I decided to spruce up the background a bit on my reference sheets, cuz it was looking really flat and uncreative. I used some grunge brushes, here's the link to whole sets of them. I ended up using these brushes, as they had a nice smooth feel to them! =)

I quite liked Prey 2, although I'm going to stay away from too much sci fi and complicated geometry, jus simple stuff for this seeing as we have to use Maya to do the modeling.

In short I'm going for, Alleyway crossed with RAGE. Cheers guys. =)

Klara

Klara (wip)

Minor Project for Game Art

Bouncing Balls Animations

A bit of nostalgia tonight.. last year's Bouncing Balls assignment, I dug these animations out and put them on YouTube.

Tennis Ball - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFUzK13eRjQ
Cannon Ball - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKydKVFh_NE
Balloon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBd5ZEFtMpg

I would like to look at them and try to improve on them. So, we see, don't hold your breath though, but going to try and get them nice at least.

Perspective - Kitchen in Maya

The kitchen was made with some basic cubes in Maya, just simple stuff for the moment, not doing anything complicated or jazzy.. no cathedrals yet.

Head Sculpt 7 - The Ear

Oh boy.. I'm exhausted.. but it's done...

Head sculpt 7, The Ear, one of the most difficult parts to make...

The process is to create a basic shape for the ear like a rectangular cube of sorts, and rotate it to the proper angle (reference is essential).

Btw, the rectanglar cube thing is extruded out of the side of the head. That side is basically a merged face of poly's, on the side of the head.

This rectangle is then extruded outward to give a basic block in for the ear shape.

To this, the Polygon Split Tool (Maya) or Cut Tool (in 3DS Max) is used to almost "cookie cutter" the shapes of the ear.

Be careful not to create tris when you do this, it is important to keep things clean and have four sided poly's as much as you can keep it.

Shapes cut out include all the inner parts of the ear, as well as the flappy outer part of the ear.

The flappy part of the ear is then modeled from the vertices which were cookie cuttered.

The inner part of the ear is then extruded and moved downward into the ear, scaled down, and rotated, naturally trying to follow the curves of the ear as it spirals much like a funnel into the side of the head, where the ear drum is.

Any questions, feel free to ask...

Head Sculpt with Edge Loops - Adam's Apple (using Maya, part 6)

Head sculpt 6, the Adam's Apple as well as where the cheek bone protrudes are sculpted in..

Edge loops are added to show extra detail, and to remove detail, edges are removed using the Loop Tool (both 3DS Max and Maya have this) to select, and then using the Remove Edges Tool (Maya, it's just called Remove in 3DS Max).

Any questions, feel free to ask away...
 

Head Sculpt 5 - Nose

Head sculpt 5, the nose, okay so here the nose was extruded from one of the poly's, this face is then extruded subtly downward a few times (twice I think) and then the vertices are arranged to create the shell of the nose.

The underside of the nose, to create the nostrils, some faces were merged, and then this merged face is extruded upward several times to create the interior of the nose.

Scaling and shifting the vertices around creates a natural look.

Any questions, feel free to ask..

Head Sculpt 4 - The Eyes

Here is the eye, I'm not quite happy with the eyelid but fiddling with it only made it worse.

Rule of thumb, add more edge loops for finer detail but be careful of how spaced out they are.

Also used the Split Polygon Tool (in Maya) to add folds near the corners of the eye. If you're using 3DS Max, the Cut Tool does the same thing.
Inner parts of the eye (hidden from view) are folded back, to create a seamless edge between the eyeball and the socket. The lacrimal caruncle (little ball of the eye on the left) and the lacrimal fold (stretchy bit near the tear duct) were roughed in.

I'll be coming back to this later to punch out the design of the eye much better.

Any questions, feel free to ask..
 

Head Sculpt with Edge Loops - The Mouth and Lips (using Maya, part 3)

Added edge loops for around the mouth area and lips and began adjusting the vertices to sculpt the mouth and lips.

Any questions then feel free to ask..

Head Sculpt with Edge Loops (using Maya, part 2)

Going to make a fully clothed character in Maya, starting with the head.

One of my objectives is to learn how edge loops are made, so today I got them to flow perfectly around the head, and although the actual shape of the head is rubbish, the loops are nice which minimises the tris.

Head Sculpt with Edge Loops (using Maya, part 1)

Started to sculpt a head using edge loops.. although I messed up somewhere.. going to redo it tomorrow.

My plan is to sculpt the whole figure and clothe it in a few weeks from now..

Made in Maya btw.