Countdown to Finals

There's only one week left of classes for the year and I'm still in over drive. I've been working to hammer things out so that I wont be down to the wire come next week when I have to present my work for final critiques. As of right now, things seem manageable but based on past experience I know I can't let that distract me. The unexpected is always possible and I can't afford to let any thing throw me off.

I am currently working on balancing my rendering final with my Project Pipeline Final. It's been tough because I can never be at the same point with either of them. Working on one means putting the other one off and they are both equally important.

Right now I'm behind on rendering as I made a big push for progress with project pipeline. This week I textured almost my entire character.  Unfortunately not everything went as planned with the character and I was unable to practice painting normals in mudbox.

 Right now I just have the flat color worked out and I'm really hoping I'll have time to add some bump and fix up the specular map, but I can't say for sure. Ideally I'd want to continue working on the color as I think it could stand have a lot more details but I'm having to put that off for now in order to get this thing done.

Rendering is turning out well, but I'm not as far as I wanted to be at this point. I have the displacement maps almost done, some of them need to be fixed up some more and I've only just begun the colors.The issue was figuring out exactly how to get the look I wanted, which took quite a bit of trial and error in terms of painting the displacement and colors.

 The Ottoman is not the right color and I will absolutely be changing it. I also need to change the pictures on the wall.

I was hoping to have the whole thing textured by the start of this week, but things did not work out that way. My plan is to finish them tomorrow so I can begin working on the lighting and the render settings. I also want to add some special paint effect toon lines to give it that outlined look that Van Gogh often used, but I am unsure as to whether or not I will have enough time.

Despite the crunch for time I'm extremely happy with the direction things are going and I'm staying positive about the outcomes. We'll find out after next week if things worked out or not. I am confident however that everything will be ok and I'll be able to manage my time effectively enough to get things done.

Making Mistakes and Moving Forward

It's been a few days since I've given an update on my project. The reason is because like anyone learning how to use a new program there are new workflows that need to be learned. And seeing as I am brand new to mudbox, I made one of the most basic mistakes in my workflow that has set me back a little bit. I forgot (queue dramatic music) to lay out my UVs prior to importing my stuff into mudbox! Which means I cannot bake out displacement maps to use on my lower poly versions of the models without having to start over. I could move forward with the mesh at it's higher level, but the amount of geometry is such that it would make UVing it jus as difficult and time consuming as starting over.

Luckily, there are a number of ways I can back track and solve this problem so all it not lost! I am planning on using a program called 3D Coat to help me re-topologize King's jacket and hat so that I can keep the details and have a more manageable mesh.

Normally a person would probably be very frustrated in this situation, but if I've learned anything from being in leadership positions in group projects, it's that staying calm at times like this is essential. Freaking out over a situation, no matter how far it might set you back will only set you back further. Panic not only prevents progress or rational thinking but it spreads very easily from one person to the next. So rather than panic, I've decided to look at the positive side of the situation.

First of which being that making this mistake early on during my introduction to Mudbox is likely to help keep me from repeating it later on. Not only that, but the fact that I am also forced to now find a solution to this problem will allow me to be better prepared in the event that it should happen again. I'll also be learning another useful program because of this. 

Overall, I think the set back is manageable and while I will be losing some time it will not damage or hurt the final outcome of the project in any way. Once I finish re-topolgizing the coat and hat I'll be ready to finish up the UVs and texture the character. I'll post some updated images as soon as I have some.