Learning maya to mudbox work flow update

Problems and Solution 

It became slightly difficult to catch up with the Maya to mud box work flow . But doing some research and asking questions to my professor helped me out through the journey . First I was even finding out difficult to understand why UV unwrap and why UV map but Some tutorials on you tube sorted the answers for these questions .The tutorial was from this link below

Video Tutorial - Mudbox/Maya - Basic tools - Part 1/5 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFp2Ma7ba48

This tutorial made it so easy to understand the workflow which was related to the UV Unwrap and mapping the checkers on the object .

I also went thought several other tutorials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDOKfvojB2w

which gave detailed description about how displacement map and normal map is to be done . So this Tutorials was the starting point to move  the mesh from Maya to mud box . It also sorted my confusions out with UV unwrap and mapping checkers . It made me understood the step by step workflow from Maya to mud box .

Finally I am ready to jump to the step two now   :)

quick renders of base mesh - Before mudbox

So here I have finished the complete base mesh of  MR Skully -The anthro Croc . He is now ready to  Uv unwrap and take it to mudbox . I am so far happy with the maximum details I have done in maya with ll the crease on cloth , eye lid bump , then comes the spikes on the back and tail , the chain , skull modelling . These are some points which made the character look more appealing , I guess so!

Below are the quick renders of the base mesh ... (note : these are not the final renders  . IT is used just for the update basis .and still not complete . skin texture will be done in mudbox shortly )

base mesh ready for step 2 - Mudbox!

I finally managed to finish the base mesh of the the anthro croc . And it is ready to take into mudbox.  I finally modelled hand for the character and attached it .I am very much happy for the hands base mesh

Below  are the details of the steps - Making of hands

And then finally attached the same to the body, below are the quick renders of the final Base mesh - in smooth view 

Final base mesh 

Anthro croc - WIP _ Modelling In maya

hey ,

I am back with some more Wip of building /modelling process in maya , I have so far modeled almost  whole body except it's hands , teeth and tongue .

Further I used some reference images from Google;  which helped me to sort  out, how to merge the vertices for the head of this character and I also used another reference below to model the dragon like feet and hands of this character .

Further below are the Snap shot of the modeled character 

I am looking forward to quickly finish up the base mesh and get into mudbox for the main detailing . 

Stay connected !

Thank you ! 

Wip - Anthro croc- coloured

Hey ,

So far I have colored the Anthro croc . I used photoshop to do the painting . Here I have done the base color mehndi(heena )  green colour first and then used brush tool to make the scales . Then used FX option in which I used Bevel and emboss drop shadow , colour burn and other option to get the desired effect on the scales to show the maximum details . This technique was really helpful and different then the  usual just painting with brushes .Below is the black and white sketched and the colored image of the character

Sorry for the late update 

But , I have also done the base mesh of the character  using Autodesk maya 

Below is the WIP 

here is the  base mesh of the character 

I used basic cylinder- block modelling method for the complete body and tail .

And for the head base mesh I  used patch method which was tricky to figure out  the starting point  but finally managed to do it by self learning various tutorials .Below is the basic process I went through to build the basic head mesh 

Reference  for modelling base head mesh :

I used the above  reference image to create  the base mesh of the  head . This was one of the difficult part to figure out the starting point and which method to use as I have never modelled an animal head before  , I always find block method to be bit tricky and patch method goes easy for head modelling . So I wanted to use patch method  for this as I have used the same for the human heads too  . I went online to see reference tutorial for crocodile head modelling . But , I could only find block modelling method which was not even easy to grasp . So I further used all the basic techniques and  found my way through patch modelling method .

Procedure : Starting point

I started modelling from the side view as this view looked appropriate to start with , I used a plane polygon and draged it over the side face of the sketch ,Like shown  below  In fig 1 :

Step 2 : Then divided the plane  from the side view and also from the front view by using Edge loop tool  and shaping it according see fig 2 and 3

Then switch to front view  and extruded till other edge and shaping the vertices accordingly  (only half side modelling and then mirroring ) 

Delete the left side faces of the cube created and neck opening faces  like shown in below figures

Final result :

Delete the left side faces of the cube created and neck opening faces  like shown in below figures

That is it ! I have done this so , I feel sorry that due to my ill health I am unable to show much work this week but I am trying all my best to speed up and cover the the week which has left back . But I am very much much happy with the quality of work coming up . There are some errors In the mesh , Like the vertices looked pinched at some area and some edges do not smooth . I will be looking into these problems once I am completely finish with the basemesh . To finish the base mesh all I have to do is one hand , teeth , tongue and eye socket and merging and mirroring. This expected to be finish by the  evening tommorow . Once I finish the base mesh , I would be exporting it to the mudbox to do the detailing bit and simultaneously will be doing the clay modelling for entire this week .

Now I can see this project speeding up , hoping for the best .

Thank you, stay tuned .. More updates on the way !  

progression

So Far I have finalized the character for my Anthropomorphic Character for and I have done the final design and sketched it with all its detailed texture . Now I Have another 5 days where I have to ad colour to the character and  start modelling it . I am really excited to do this character as I am really happy with the kind of  design I  have created .

Another Thing I  am using Again creative character design book by tillman .This book was really helpful

I m looking on more books for more references , ideas and inspiration for this project

Soon will be uploading some more images which wil include colour , and some poses .

Thank you

Neha ..... Cheers! 

Sketching - Designing character And Ideas

INSPIRATION AND IDEAS

I was always inspired by the weird  looking creatures and  liked to all-ways collect some pictures from google some of them are below :

 

Everything like this really always Inspired me. Perhaps, For this major project As I decided to choose modelling as a subject then I thought this is a correct time to put my ideas on paper . 

I noticed These creatures are weird looking like evil .And big sharp teeth , long nails , and sharp look gives more appealing appearance to these creatures .So I want to do something similar to this  .

Then I thought about humanoid Animal - i.e. also called  Anthropomorphism - which means Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.

Later when I was  doing research on what kind of creature I want to do .I came across a article which says 

Near the Safaniya beach in the eastern province. investigation resulted that there are more than 3500 for this kind of human-animal in the tanajib area. It is 25 years since last time it was seen in the tanajib area a creature with half crocodile and half human was found .

Reported story in 1920

Below is the picture of the creature mentioned in the article :

And this particular part Interested me ......................

"So, I decided to do a Anthro-crocodile "

Then I started looking for the past work for more inspiration and reference

I also got to know about a movie Creatures terror has teeth  2011 which has crocodile character



which inspired me to go for character like muscular with a  tail like croc .
The another very intresting Inspiration  was character Renekhton from Riot games League of  Legends

The one Thing I would like to change in this character is  reduce the clothes  as this character is a crocodile The very impressive part is the skin texture and I would like to add as a major point or can say a attraction point within the my created  character . So I would keep the character open body with very less clothes and less accessories and targeting more on the skin texture.I think skin texture of a crocodile  is wha tit  makes one look at crocodile and say Wow . Therefore the Wow factor of character modelling in this project lies in the texture of the skin .

Therefore Taking all these points in mind I started sketching a character I also used Posemaniac.com site to undestand  the muscular forms to sketch a new Anthro croc  character

Below is the first design  I made(quick snap shot)

Below is the second design I made (quick snap shot)

Further I am Thinking to use second design for this project

Reason One : Its different from all the existing work in its body type as a Anthro croc
Reason two: I like the way I have presented It
Reason three: I took audience pole and majority  select drawing two .

Further I am slso going to add colour in the choose sketch and also clean it up and do more decent sketches on this .

I hope you like my idea . and I am looking forward to go through the pass 1 where my professor will approve the design and I start modelling the character  from 2nd feb 2012 according to the schedule .Untill then I will be doing some more sketches with similar design no 2 !

Thank you ..

Wish me luck !