Week Summary - BA3b Week 11

Low-Poly Model

I worked on actually painting my texture this week, after using last week to lay out. I put a lot of thought into how to approach translating the fur from my design into something appealing on a collection of flat planes, while still keeping the style in line with that of the previous character. I didn't want to hand-paint the fur completely, because that level of detail would be incongruous with the other character, but at the same time it needed some texture to it.

In the end, I settled on using the lasso tool to create block shapes which I could fill in with a soft gradient. A quick test revealed this method to have a really pleasing effect on the actual model, and it was then a matter of applying the same technique across the model, being mindful of texture seams and places where the image might end up stretched.

At this point, I asked for a few opinions on the design, and decided that the suggestion to lower my contrast was one that would be very helpful for me to follow, and I think it makes the design much easier to look at as well as focusing more of the viewer's attention on the face by keeping the highest contrasts in that area.

I did try to get a preview for the transparency map in Maya so I could get a better idea of how the final product would look, however I couldn't get it to work, and decided that it would be much quicker to put the model into Marmoset Toolbag or substance painter for my preview than continue to use Maya.

I would consider the textures at this point to be almost completely finished - I'm a little behind in not having my rig done but not to a point where I'm worried about not completing the project; I have the next week to rig and animate. I've had a few issues with Maya crashing that I'm hoping to get resolved, hopefully this won't pose too much of a problem.

Wax Model

This week started with adding more of the upper arm muscles and the erector spinae group. The shape here is really starting to fill out and look like a completed model.

In addition, we also added the abdominal muscles, including the external obliques. The internal layer of muscle wasn't added for the sake of simplicity.

I realised while doing this that my hips were very much the wrong shape, and needed flattened off and adjusted.This was mainly something that could be done just by heating and carving the wax, so it was fairly easily remedied. I've also carved out some sections that need fixing for next week, including areas where the glutes could do with being filled out a little more.