Sooo, Progress has been slow and steady since the midterm. A majority of my time was spent troubleshooting the aforementioned problem and eventually doing retopology. Currently my model has been retopped, and I am in the process of transferring details between my old high res mesh and the newly retopologized mesh. Retopology devoured a huge chunk of my time, now that it is finally completed I can pose and finish up my final render in the next few days.

Example of an organized face mesh. The orange loops seen here are what make animation possible.

Retopology is a horribly repetitive mind numbing process. There are programs that help facilitate this  but I only have access to Maya here in the labs. Unfortunately the Retopology process within Maya is extremely tedious. Retopology is the act of creating an organized mesh with a clean topology. You are literally "redoing" the topology flow that exists in your model. This is done for many reasons, sculpting loops, animation loops, but for my purposes as a way to troubleshoot my unresponsive Mudbox mesh.

• Retopology all begins with the high res mesh in your sculpting application. The desired edge flow must first be decided upon. The examples above were done by painting the edge flow as a texture file on top of the high res mesh.
• Once this was completed, The high res model along with the texture file containing my edge flow was imported into Maya. The high-res was turned into a transparent template that the retopologized mesh was built upon. This mesh is created by hand, polygon by polygon, snapping onto the high res as a guide.
• The tools seen on the left are used  in a pattern.

• Create Polygon Tool is used to create a strip of polygon.

• This Polygon is then "Triangulated" and ultimately "Quadrangulated" to transform the strip into an even strip of Quads. 

• Once a number of strips are completed, The separate meshes are then "combined"

• Moving on to Vertex mode, Making a large selection over the newly created area and selecting "merge" combines the strips in one retopologized mesh. This method is repeated ad nauseum.

The completed low poly Retopologized mesh. Note the edge flow following major muscle groups.

• The completed Retopologized mesh was then imported into the Mudbox file containing my original high resolution mesh. The "transfer details" option was used. This bakes the high resolution details onto the new lower resolution retopologized mesh. This change can be noted in the photos to the left. The original mesh can be seen showcasing a problem area. The polygons are stretching because the lines do not flow in the correct direction. Notice the Black painted topology flows with the muscle to correct this deformation.

• Notice how the polygons now flow with the muscle groups. The geometry now follows the black painted guidelines seen in the previous follow.

 

 The photo above showcases one of the problems with Mudbox's "Transfer Details" command. Transferring details from one mesh to another almost always brings along artifacts such as these along with the high resolution detail. One way to try to combat this is to transfer the details onto a separate layer. This allows you to "erase" or "mask" out the problem areas and keep the nicely transferred details.

My main focus for the class so far has been the study of human anatomy.  I spent the first two weeks of the class studying the major muscle groups in the body. This entailed learning the different pieces and how all of the muscles flow together. The major insertion points, along with a few protruding sections of bone, all end up being the main landmarks on the body. 

 

Once I completed the anatomy videos I took this knowledge, combined it with a set of reference photos, and set out in Mudbox to learn the anatomy first hand. I started with a low poly base mesh in maya. My end goal for this project, as stated in my proposal, is to create a portfolio worthy 3d figure study. The project is very near complete. I still need to pose the model as well as complete the texture. Photos of my current progress along with a turntable are posted below.

I plan to produce at least 3 pieces to add to my portfolio during this class. The main focus of these pieces will be on modeling the human figure in order to expand my modeling portfolio.

1. The first piece will be a roughly 3 week figure study. The only goal here will be to create an extremely accurate and beautiful representation of the human body that will work in a portfolio setting. This project is simply a springboard for the rest of the semester. The experience and anatomy learned here will be reflected into every piece hereafter.
2. The second piece will be a character study. I do not yet have specifics for what direction I want this character to move in. I will possibly explore different body types, as well as create a piece or two for one of the monthly internet contests. This will help get my name out there as well as help channel my ideas into one of the monthly subjects.
3. This semester I will also be working with Siggraph to produce a short film. I will be the lead modeler on the film and be creating the main characters as well as a large number of other required models. Depending on time restraints I will possibly bring this work into the class.
4. I am very interested in gaining experience working with a client. I will definitely be a major contribution to the Roxxy Ballet project this semester.

This piece was created using both Maya and Mudbox.  The base mesh for the sculpture was created within Maya and then imported into Mudbox for high res sculpting.

Croquis page.  This page contains all ten croquis from the beginning of one of our class sessions.

Additional out of class drawing.  This is a self portrait done using charcoal and conte crayons.

Skeleton Drawing.  Done using charcoal

One of two Figure drawings from class.  Graphite pencil.

Second figure drawing from class.  Graphite pencil.

Figure/Character drawing.  Both drawings were sketched from the model in class.  Clothes were imagined onto the upper figure to create a character. Graphite Pencil.

This warrior has been an ongoing exploration in Mudbox that I have been working on.  The warrior is based on the story of Cu Chulainne, the legendary Celtic warrior.  The base models were created in Maya and imported into Mudbox.  This is the project so far.  Sculpting still needs to be finished and the model needs to be posed and then textured.

3 drawings:

Week 2 homework.  The high level egg was sculpted and textured in Mudbox.  Displacement and normal maps were then baked out of Mudbox and imported into Maya along with the base egg mesh.  When applied to the low level geometry they give the illusion of detail that is only attainable with hundreds of thousands of polygons.