FaceGen IT!

Winters Coming

We recently had an interim for the 3D Modelling and Sound module which I managed to reach with some ease, now the audio side wasn't too taxing as I only had to write a short paragraph talking about my soundtrack for the cut scene animation I was going to create. 

However for the 3D Modelling side there was more to it and that was to have your Character model sculpted or modelled and textured ready for what we will be doing after the Christmas Holiday which is tackle the animation side so this will include the rigging, weighting and motion capture. 

Because I modelled the armour pieces separately in 3DS MAX it made it so much easier to tart the armour up because I had the basic layout of the armour which allowed me to add detail pretty easily and quickly. I don't think I spent more than a couple of hour sculpting into the armour before I was happy with what I had achieved, now I wasn't brilliant at it so that was why I satisfied with what I had achieved. 

However I didn't leave myself with much time to do much detail because I had spent so long trying to figure out how to do armour and because I wasn't sure how long the texturing would take I swiftly moved onto the texturing side which as it happened to be quite simple really. It was just a case of painting the colour onto the separate armour pieces, although when I started this process I did come across a small snag and that was when I painted onto one armour piece, the exact same detail will appear on all of the other armour pieces and this had me baffled for a while so in order to resolve this I asked our Modelling Tutor who recommended I create a new material for each piece which in turn solved the problem and as result I managed to texture my character with ease.

The last stage of creating the character was to normal map which essentially takes all the sculpted detail from the high poly mesh and transfers it onto a low poly mesh as a texture. following this we also got to grips with the software FaceGen which creates a 3D model of your head when provided with 3 profile images, this was for the purpose of adding to your characters if you wish to do so.

I haven't really done much mile-stoning leading up to the Christmas Holiday as I felt this was still a Pre-Production phase as I was producing a comprehensive Game Design Document and because I getting to grips with new software I didn't really feel like I could have set realistic mile stones, however when I return from the Christmas Holiday its going to be focused on production in terms of a 2D Game, Cut Scene and 3D Game so there will be much that will need Milestones. 

However after a few months working on the Character here is the stage it has reached ready for rigging and animation come January.