Focus

I had a great meeting with Chad today. He had an excellent suggestion, for me to concentrate on finishing one model at a time now. We're in crunch time here. I need to have the thesis, which means the demo reel, done by early to mid-December! The time does fly.

So, finishing up one model at a time is a way to focus completely on one task, then the next, then the next.

First, I'll finish Creed, then Anna, then Coconino. Compared to the first two, Coconino should be fairly easy.

In order to make Creed's wounds look more believable, I'm going to separate them out into their own sub-tool. There are a few ways to do this. I'm going to try this way first.

1. Duplicate the body model.
2. Delete the non-wound areas.
3. Push the wound areas on the main mesh inward, so that it really looks like there is a layer of skin, and a layer of muscle underneath.

On to that!

Coconino Base Mesh

The base mesh for Coconino has taken shape, and I'm just starting to sculpt him!

Anyway, more in the vlog:

Movie Musings

I've been getting a lot done since Monday, when the summer semester started.  The thing is, it doesn't feel like I'm getting a lot done.  That's the nature of any sort of artistic work, I suppose.  It just takes longer than the artist estimates.

But yes, I am getting some done every day.  And once I get the hang of something like clothes stitching or painting in muscles, those tasks become easier and faster.

I'll get a video up in my YouTube vlog soon, and talk more details about the progress of Bodacious Creed soon.

For the moment, I wanted to briefly address a related topic.  Many writers and artists like to think about who would play their characters, if their project is ever made into a movie.  I'm no different.  I've been doing that game since I started writing short stories, then novels, years ago.

My dream duo cast for Bodacous Creed would be...

Hugh Laurie as US Martial Robert Creed

and

Anna Pacquin as Anna Lynn Boyd.

Can you see it?  I can. :)

Early Summer Turntables

Here are the turntables I mentioned yesterday, in my vlog:



You can get an idea of how the stitching looks from this video, though here's some detail from the back of Creed's duster:

Here are Creed's and Anna's guns:

In addition, I"ve started working on the base mesh for Coconino, the coyote character.  It's very basic right now, but I think the topology is good.  You have to start from a good base to have a really good high resolution character.

And, since the semester is half as long as a regular semester, and it looks like Ann will be responding to my work frequently, I'll be posting my work to our class section daily.  So, even though that mesh is super brand new, I've already posted it there.

More work to do now!

Summer Semester Starts Today!

Summer classes start today!

Now, as you know if you've been reading this blog, I have gotten some work done on Bodacious Creed over the last four weeks.  Over the next seven, I'll have a ton more to do.

Yes, the summer semester is just seven weeks long!  That's eight weeks less than a regular semester, which means all work must be done and in twice as quickly.  Summer semesters are intense, but this isn't my first.  I actually enjoy them!

Right now (literally in between writing this blog), I'm preparing my thesis materials to show what work I've done so far.

I'll show some of these in my vlog later, so keep an eye on the blog.  I'll post it here!

Books on the Wild West

I want to write a novel about Bodacious Creed. Of course, even if I do, the thesis comes first. This is a "if I have the time" thing. Even over my brief summer break, I'm working on the thesis, on a commission, and on a contest entry.

But in either case, the time period it's set in--the Wild West--has grabbed my attention. I just got a couple new books to read on the subject.

A zBrush Quirk

This is more about stitching, or really any sort of zBrush detailing. It also probably won't make a lot of sense to anyone not familiar with the program. But the main point of this vlog is to document my progress and take notes on what I'm learning, whether others understand it or not.

I finished the stitching on Creed's jacket and pants. But then I thought about when I'll go through and add wrinkles, and I wondered how that would affect the stitching.

So, at the highest ordinary subdivision level (as opposed to the HD geometry), I sculpted over some of the stitching with the clay brush.

And the stitching was brushed away.

Damn.

Or so I thought.

Then I tried something else. The stitching was done in HD geometry, the clay just one subdivision level lower. What if I brought the subdivision level even lower than that, applied the clay brush, and then brought it back up to the highest?

Low and behold, that worked! The stitching remained detailed, and the shape of the clay went along with it just fine.

And, the truth is, most of the clothing wrinkles won't need to be sculpted at a high level of geometry, anyway.

For me, that means I can happily continue with the seams without worrying too much about how that will affect the wrinkles later on.

WHEW.