Kid helmet texture

A few shots of the textures for the kid (The Deep). It is quite a simple texture, made in Photoshop. I used a photo of some brass/metal sheets which I layered up with some dirt. I drew up those four holes on the back to give some detail. It is not my best nor most detailed texture work but seeing as our environment for the film is underwater, with a lot of intense/dark atmospheric lighting, it is not even going to be that visible for most of the duration of the film. So the thinking behind it is to give depth which is relevant and not go crazy when the final results will not even display the full thing.

Uv map for kid's head (Heroes 1.0)

Here is a shot of the child's face UV mapped in maya. What I did for this was fairly straight forward, automatic map half the face, and planar map certain sections, which I could easily stitch together efficiently. This has become my preferred method of unwrapping (utilising the different projection methods together). I used to exclusively use automatic mapping, which was quite stupid as the amount of pieces generated can sometimes be extreme. So what I always tend to do now through practice is to automatic map the model, then break down sections with planar mapping for example. I find it to be a great workflow and saves alot of time.

I did this map as fast as I could as always. My goal with uv mapping is to get through it as fast as possible whilst maintaining a high standard of quality. While I do enjoy it, I also get bored sometimes as it is not the most artistic part of 3D. None the less, it usually is fun, the key is to treat it like a big puzzle.

Textures for kid

So I spoke to Andy in class on monday, and he basically told me once I am done with the blendshapes I am to texture the kid. So having now finished the blendshapes and passed them onto Clym, I began texturing. So far I have done the air tank, the head and body. The texture for the body was made using the normal map as a base, and I painted some very subtle tones on the kids head. These two are both quite subtle as I did not want to take away from the simplicity of the model. For the air tank, I used the sub and Andy's drawings as ref, so they look similar. I will see what Andy thinks next. I used Photoshop for the texturing and uv mapped what was needed in maya.

New blendshapes done

Right, so I have finished the blendshapes for the kid, I used the facial ref sheet Andy provided to create them. I think I have done all the ones needed, although Clym will let me know if anything extra is needed as I am going to pass them onto him now. All that is left is to mirror the left side shapes to create the right and everything will be done. Clym did show me a technique for it but I seem to have forgotten a step so I will ask him to see if he can do it, unless he wants to show me again. Here is a shot of the shapes.

New blendshapes

So after UV mapping the head, I have now gotten onto work on creating brand new blendshapes for this head. It annoys me because it means I wasted time making the previous blendshapes which are of no use now, but oh well, guess these things happen. I have done quite a few already, mainly with the mouth, I will get the rest done tomorrow in class.

UV mapped kid head

Here is a shot of the uv map for the childs head. There is close to no stretching, and since the majority of the head is hidden underneath the hat I did not really worry about seams. The face is the most important area so that is more or less perfect.

Deadline for monday for the kid

So the whole group was in on monday, and I showed Clym the blendshapes I had done. He was happy with them and then we had a discussion with Andy about the character. He basically said he wants the character finished/ ready to be rigged by monday (7th March), so we can get to animating as soon as possible. So Clym just needs to add his tweaks and we will be ready, as I finished my part already.

Edit* The model is now ready, but because the head was not uv mapped prior to me making the blendshapes I am going to have to redo them once I have mapped the head.