Finals Fiasco

I have returned! I know it's been quite a bit since my last post, but in my defense, I have yet to even nail down an official posting schedule. Either way, I'm here and I've got a lot to share.

When I last updated, I talked about some difficulties I ran into with my character project. Well if you haven't guessed already, the reason for my absence is exactly that. As it turns out things did not go as smoothly as I had hoped they would. 

I went through with my plan to step backwards on the jacket and retopologize it using 3D coat, unfortunately, when I brought the new topology into Maya and attempted to UV it, I found that I was unable to because Maya kept telling me I had more than one object selected. I have since attributed the issue to a bug with the auto-unwrap UV tool that can be found under the bonus tools. Unfortunately, at the time I had no idea what was causing it, and since I was running out of time on my final I decided to just bite the bullet and start over.

Quick note on the Bonus Tools : They are absolutely fantastic add-ons that users can get for free by signing up for Autodesk Area on the Autodesk website (Click Here For More Info). If you haven't looked into them, I highly recommend it! The Auto-Unwrap UV tool in the bonus tools is, in my opinion, 99.9% more effective than the auto-UV tool that comes built into Maya, and unlike the standard tool, it actually works! Aside from a few bugs (like the one I found) it's fantastic! I've found that it's far more effective than doing UVs by hand with planar, spherical, and cylindrical. It still might require some adjusting after wards, but it saves a lot of time.

That's when things started to go down hill. I restarted the jacket, almost from the very beginning. Except this time I was sure to UV it before taking it into Mudbox. I re-did the whole thing in Mudbox, and tried to take it back to Maya, but things where still just not working right. Bottom line, somewhere along the process I had my workflow messed up and I was running out of time for my final. At that point I had a little over 2 days left to UV and texture the whole thing, plus get the jacket figured out. 

It became pretty clear that as much as I wanted to learn these new modeling work flows, trying to figure them out right there and then was not an option. I had to fall back on my older methods and ended up recreating the jacket again for a second time, only this time, all of it had to be done in Maya. I managed to model in the folds without any issues (I've found that my drawing experience with cloth has really helped me when modeling it in Maya) but I had to take out his front pockets because I didn't have time to really add them in and make it look like they weren't rushed. I managed to get the jacket redone and everything UVed half way through the second to last day. I started texturing as soon as I could, and managed to pull off decent enough textures for my final. I even found time to add in hair while my ambient occlusions were rendering.

And here he is! Texture-wise, he is far from finished, and I have a long way to go. I did almost all of his textures by hand using Photoshop and some filter forge to generate the tile able cloth patterns.

Overall though, considering the obstacles I ran into at the last minute, I am very pleased with it. I think I have some great base textures going. I should be able to build off of this without too much difficulty.

I do want to mention that while the actual zipper is a texture, the material on his zipper pull is just the mea material default chrome shader and that I do not plan on keeping that. I will be replacing it with my own textures. 

Aside from that I'd really like to add more dirt and tears to his clothes. They look far too perfect and don't really fit in with the idea of him being an orphan. 

I hope to start working on him again very soon, but I also need to work on my portfolio overall this holiday break so it might be a little while until I can work on him again. 

Right now, I have to redirect my focus to fixing up my resume, putting together some turn tables, fixing up my portfolio site, and showing more of my process in my portfolio overall. Winter is when companies start accepting applications for internships, and I'd really like to get one for next summer if possible. I've spent the last two summers working for Bethesda Softworks as a QA Tester, and while I have enjoyed every minute of my time spent there, I really need to try to get an internship where I can do actual 3D work. Ideally I'd like to stay at Bethesda, but unfortunately they do not always have openings for 3D interns so I have to look elsewhere for the time being. 

With any luck, I'll get a decent portfolio together in time and hopefully land myself an internship. Keep your fingers crossed!