Got the body done (and the head attached with the collar), plus the hind legs. Turns out all the issues I was having with rigging digitgrade legs can be solved by a good model. Had to rig the legs to straighten them out (for rigging later- he’ll probably never be fully straight, but anyway). Did a front leg/arm, but didn’t like it. Will save that for tomorrow (plus the joys of wings, and the tail). The hind legs aren’t attached yet, which is why he still looks funny (the protrusions you’re seeing around his groin area is actually his pelvis- it’ll get hidden when all that is attached, but for now, that’s how it looks). Also, he won’t be so big when he gets animated and so on.
Feeling kind of sick, plus my fingers are FREEZING, so I think it’s time to call it a day.
Screenshot of a random lady warrior/steampunk type I’m working on in photoshop. As always click through for larger image
just with the wireframe and such like. click for the big image 
Eyeballs are seriously annoying to texture, but once they’re in, they do look nice.
Mortimer’s looking much better now that he has eyeballs. Still pretty sad without fur/feathers though…
(click for bigger)
Poor sad, naked, featherless Mortimer. He’s starting to look semi cute with his ears on though.
Also, some head shots of Arkady Jones (monster hunter), a random character I’m working on, in zbrush (imagine she has hair…)
Just some wips of mortimer’s head. Basically the workflow with zbrush goes like this:
1. Open Maya. Get a cube. Extrude it until it kind of looks like your character’s head (using your reference- in this case i had to redraw my reference of poor morty without fur…he kind of looked like a chicken).
2. Bring it into Zbrush and “sketch” (really, more like sculpting with clay) it out to how your character looks (roughly- like nose, ears, eyebrows, blah blah blah).
3. Then you have retopologize (because things sculpted in zbrush are very very not animatable)- basically add in the edge loops that form your character. It takes awhile but is kind of fun.
(as per usual, click the link for the bigger image. I’m going to model his ears & eyes separately, which is why he has eye sockets and holes in his little skull. Also, he’s currently sans fur/feather…)
final head design for mortimer, plus what i’ve modeled so far in maya of his head:
and also, the fully textured and lit interior: (click thumbnails)
orthographic views (click for larger view)
some concept art for my character (we’re going to do them in 3d soon), Mortimer. He’s a bird dog (so gryphon but back half owl, front half dog, with bits mixed up together). He started out being more traditional border collie-ish, but I think now i’m going to go with making him a little smaller (almost lap dog size) and i really like having his back half be owl, so I may stick with that. I think as a character too, he’s going to have a small owl/dog personality- thinks he’s bigger than he is.
click the thumbnail through to the image.
(the usual- click the thumb for the full size image)
Some of the lighting isn’t quite there yet, but it’s looking a lot better! Remind me next time I want to do a needlessly complicated scene…well not to. Won’t be able to do a full fly through (I don’t think), as maya freaks out if all the layers are on at the same time…sigh.
Just some shots of texturing. I kind of hate myself for modeling all those teeny little butterflies…bleh.
Our current module is interior modeling- the assignment being to work off real photos to model a room. Since I love science, and modeling dead things, I chose to make my interior based off of Darwin’s Study @ Downe House. Loosely, though, so I could add my own stuff. Modeled everything in the room- anything you see clutching something or posed, was rigged independently, and then posed in that way (I modeled and rigged that shark in the jar, the stuffed jackalope, the stuffed owl, all of the feet of the clawfoot furniture, the butterflies, the bird feet…yeah.). Anyway, here are some wips! (click thumb for full size)
Spent the afternoon working on the pelvic back limb of a dog (or similar- this one is looking a bit more like a bear leg, which are actually plantigrade, but do have the reverse knee business). About have it, though could probably use a more realistic model (I pretty much did this one on the fly and it deforms kind of funny). Also needs some tinkering. But this is what I have for now:
I added an extra joint to the ankle (so there’s a real ankle and there’s a fake ankle) and then did an IK handle from the hip to the real ankle & then a second one from the hip to the fake ankle- basically for the sole purpose of constraining the knee further. Then I set up the rest of the leg as you would for a human leg, but moved some of the pivot points around. i also added the phalanges roll (which rolls off mid toe). Still a work in progress.
Well not necessarily a *dog* leg, but for any creature that has a digitgrade leg (walks on its toes) and the reverse elbow in the back. I haven’t quite figured out how to rig the pelvic limb (it has the double knee, maybe work on that this afternoon), but I think I’ve about figured out the front leg. Obviously the model I’m using is just rough and probably needs some tweaking as far as the deformations go (I also have to figure out a mel script to do the claw curl without having to move them each individually), but it’s looking pretty good so far.:
Basically, I treated the “leg” as a combination of hand/arm & leg (as you would in a biped rig). The hand joint (technically there is no “hand” joint- but in rigging it’s used to keep all the finger/toe joints steady) is functioning as a toe joint would in a human rig. Then I used the toe tap, peel heel, toe pivot (claw), foot roll & heel twist the same as you would in a human rig. The Ik handle for the elbow actually goes from the “shoulder” joint to the ball joint (instead of to the ankle). The foot ctrl controls all of the paw/leg movement, save the individual claws (which are controlled by the hand ctrl).
Apparently this is strange, but I really like rigging.
