Rendering

After setting up textures, lights and renders, I made a quick animation of my scene including my tumbleweed. Unfortunately, due to really low processing power of my machine, Maya couldn't handle animating the tumbleweed itself! I created a sphere of a similar size, knocked up a ramp texture for it, and used that instead.

I used Dynamics for the animation itself, making the tumbleweed nCloth and making changes to mass, wind velocity, friction, etc. I'm happy with the result but would like to try it on a more powerful machine to see what it looks like with my original model.

Maya also couldn't handle playblasting. It could only do one frame before crashing, so I ended up filming the animation on a camera. The textures slowed the animation down to such an extent that I was filming for 11 minutes!

Here are two final images from my scene - the bottom one took 1h20mins to render!

This link shows previs through to the final images:

Digital Environment from Elly Hazael on Vimeo.

Sculpting the Scene

I made some basic objects in Maya to recreate my concept art as closely as possible, then took them all into ZBrush to begin the sculpting.

I'm pleased at how the sculpting turned out, but given extra time I would have loved to have worked on some more large, imposing rock features. I then did some texturing...

In contrast to my model lizard in which I made a number of alphas and painted them onto the body, I just used standard brushes for these textures, as I was no longer going for a photo-realistic effect.

I brought the scene into Maya where I started lighting tests and began the long, arduous task of rendering. Credit to William Arterton for the grass textures!

Getting the Ball Rolling

With the drawbacks of my laptop, as previously mentioned in earlier blog posts, and the limitations of time, I had to make a few changes to my desert environment. I intended for it to be as photo-realistic as possible, but aside from the time it would take to model and texture to that standard, it would take far too long to render on my fragile, broken system. I had to settle to aim for a video game style, and gave up on the idea of including my model lizard.

A still taken from World of Warcraft

So, with two weeks to go, I began modelling the assets for my environment. I began with my tumbleweed - unsurprisingly, I couldn't find any resources online on how to model one, so I had to create my own way of doing so. This involved extruding long, thin cubes, lots of duplicating, and eventually taking it into ZBrush to gain more control over how the branches curled around into themselves.

Once I was happy with the results, I started rendering and testing different light sources:

I then started on the large piece of driftwood - like always, starting out the rough 'sketch' in Maya, then taking it into ZBrush for a more precise sculpt.

 

I took my texture maps into Photoshop for a quick edit - the maps looked almost like silk! I made a number of different versions so I could experiment to see what I liked most.

Edit: I've since added some wood grain to the textures for a subtle add of realism.

He Lives!

After I was finally able to make some progress with my laptop, I was able to start modelling my lizard again - third time lucky! I was still having to put up with countless problems, such as slow laptop speed and my system crashing at least once an hour, so considering the setbacks I like to think that I've done quite well.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have been so determined on getting the quality of detail in Maya, but rather saved it for the sculpting process in ZBrush. Good geometry was always a top priority of mine however, and it was worth spending the extra time in Maya to really become fluent with the modelling tools.

I knew that sculpting scales in ZBrush would be a highly laborious task, so I was apprehensive to say the least. I wanted the model to be realistic and organic, so I looked at some reference photos of scales, and took some of my own photos using my lizard as reference.

I took the photos into Photoshop and made some custom alphas, which I then tried painting on to spheres in ZBrush to anticipate what they might look like. Pleased with the results, I took some more photos and made them into alphas too, which I then used on my model.

This took a long time, but the results were well worth it. I used a combination of different alphas of different scale patterns, painting them on my model bit by bit using the Projection Master in ZBrush. Each limb and every area was a patchwork of different alphas and some of my own hand sculpting of scales.

I had originally want to hand paint the model as I'd never tried digital painting and wanted to give it a go. However, due to time restraints, I largely textured the model by using photographs and the Spotlight tool, much the same way as I'd done with the alphas.

Again, this took many hours, but I'm pleased at how the model looks. He's semi-realistic and looks somewhat organic due to the use of asymmetry. I hope to include him in my desert environment.

This is my final showreel containing the modelling work I've been able to produce for 'Industry Exercises':

https://vimeo.com/68377551

Rigging Practice, Or Not

At the start of term I had every intention of doing rigging as one of my specialisms. I wanted to rig my lizard model and eventually do some animation with him, but I thought I should start out learning the basics of rigging on a biped, not diving into the deep with a quadraped. So, I figured I'd get some modelling practice in and knock up a simple, female biped.

Which started off as simple, but then I started adding in more detail...

I wanted to keep her as anatomically correct as possible, whilst also keeping the geometry as low as possible. Very difficult when it came to the hands and feet!

Using the base mesh, I modelled some shorts and a T-shirt for model to wear, as well as a ponytail for her head and eyelashes for the eyes.

I then took the OBJs into ZBrush and practiced sculpting for the first time.

 I'm proud of the results, and from practicing on this model, I know I want to pursue this skill further. Here are some images looking at closer detail:

 I then applied some simple textures and gave it a quick render in Maya. I'm looking forward to trying to rig her!