Female 3D Model - Low Polygon Model Done

 
So today is the due date for my project that I've been blogging about for a few months. As you can see on the screenshot above, I have the low polygon model of both the dress and shawl on the body of my character.

As I said before, I tried to finish the model before so I could make a texture for it, but I ran out of time. I will be going on vacation in a few days, and won't be able to touch my project for about a week. When I come back, I will start working on laying out the UVs and eventually I will texture the model. I still don't know how I want to make the character look, but I think I will go for a stylized look.

My plan is to eventually: texture, bake maps, rig, and make a shader in Unity. I don't know how long it will take me to get all this done, but I think that its a good goal for early 2016.

That's all for now, and have a happy new year (in case I don't post again this year). I don't know how many people (if any) actually read this blog, but thanks for reading!

Female 3D Model - Shawl Retopology in Topogun

So I did more work on the shawl in ZBrush to get the folds looking the way I want. This time it was really simple since I used my work on the dress to guide my work on the shawl.

I then took the high polygon model into Topogun just like I did with the dress before. This time it was much quicker to get this done, specially since its just one really long rectangle. Now that I am more familiar with the tools, I was able to just start putting points on the model and quickly worked my way around it. Tomorrow is the due date for this assignment, so I don't think that I will have a texture for it by tomorrow. While the texture is not required for the assignment, it was just a personal goal I had.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Female 3D Model - Dress Detail Rework

So a couple days ago I thought I was done with the dress for my model, but after showing it to my professor he gave me some feedback on the folds. I decided to go back and do more work on it and I think this looks a lot better.

I went back and tried to add a few more folds, but I wanted to keep it light. I didn't have to worry about doing the retopology again since I didn't change the overall shape of the dress. I don't know if I will get to baking out the normal maps before I turn the assignment in, but since I will continue to work on this project I don't think of this as wasted work. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Female 3D Model - Dress Retopology in Topogun

So last week I was talking to a fellow classmate in my class and the subject of retopology came up. I told him that I would do the retopology for my dress in ZBrush. He told me that he would use Topogun and that its super easy to learn.

So today I decided to buy a license, its only $100 so I decided that it was worth it if it was even slightly easier than ZBrush. Well, I can say that it really is super easy. I didn't even watch a tutorial on Topogun and I figured out how to use it. I'm probably not using it to its maximum potential, but I managed to do the retopology for the dress in a couple hours while I learned the software. From here I can just export my work as an Obj and done.

I will work a little more on the shawl and I will also do the retopology in Topogun. Anyways, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Female 3D Model - nCloth for Dress & Shawl

So after trying for a bit to make my dress in Marvelous Designer, I failed. I got a really good basic dress, but it just wasn't turning out how I wanted it. So I have now decided to go back to Maya and do more work with the nCloth system and get a good base dress and shawl that I like.

The above picture is of where I am right now after subdividing the dress a few times and playing with the settings for the simulation on the dress. I had to pin/anchor most of the dress from the hips up, which is why it looks really flat/unchanged on the top and with folds on the bottom.

From here I will take both pieces of cloth into ZBrush and try to do as much as possible there. I also don't have any experience making cloth in ZBrush, but I think that I have more control in ZBrush than I did in Marvelous Designer.

This project is due on December 20th, so I have to hustle and try to finish everything as soon as possible with the sculpt so I can get a texture started. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Cloth in Marvelous Designer

Front View

So here is my first attempt at making cloth in another software package called Marvelous Designer. I've honestly never used software like this before, but the gist is that its a tool used for making cloth and getting it to drape on your model in a natural way and its super easy to use. Now, this doesn't mean that I am now an expert at this, but this was my first crack at trying to make my dress in MD (short for Marvelous Designer). 

3/4 View

What I really like about this tool is that it works just like sewing in real life, you have to know where to make your cuts and what not. This is probably what gave me the hardest time, and still does. I know nothing about sewing or fashion, so I am having a hard time knowing where to put my cuts on the "cloth". I have been looking at how other people doe in real dresses, and I think I'm getting closer but I still have a long way to go.

Side View

Anyway, I will give it a few more attempts at making the dress in MD but I don't want to spend a lot of time learning a new software package when I need to get this textured within the next two weeks. If I give up in trying to make the dress in MD, I will make sure to come back and visit it since I am super impressed with this tool. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Female 3D Model - Version 1.0 Model Almost Finished

So I was a little lazy over thanksgiving break, and now I am mad at myself because I feel like I wasted a week. Now that I'm back, I'm done with the model that I've been working on for a couple months now. I know that it has been a really slow process, but this is the first time that I pushed myself this hard to do a character model.

Once I was done with the dress, I felt like she was still missing something, so I decided to create a shawl using the NCloth simulation. I'm not too familiar with it, but I think I will have to go back and rework it since the shawl drapes really weird on her shoulders. Once I'm done with that, I will have to reduce the polygon count on it, but I think I will do that part in ZBrush. 

I also worked on her shoes this week. At first I didn't want to give her high heels because I think its really quiche, but since she is wearing an evening-like dress, she has to wear heels.

Next I will finish the shawl and move on to doing the UV layouts for the model. For this assignment its not required that I texture her, but I do want to turn this into a portfolio piece. I will post progress on that as well, and over winter break I plan on working on a shader and on a rig for her. 

The reason for the shader and rig is that I was talking to my professor and he though that I should know the whole process a character goes through while in development for a game. And since I am now learning how to code, I think I'm starting to lean on becoming a Technical Artist. That's all for now, thanks for reading.