Summer blogs - Maya Exploration

This summer I wanted to set myself the task of learning the basics of maya. After reading books and following tutorials I thought It was best to start off by modelling a simple environment.

I also wanted to get a taster at creating environments. Possible environments for games and to look through using VR.

I wanted to go for a realistic approach.

I started off by modelling a tree and applying such textures to it;

and this is the bump map I used to give the bark an illusion of texture;

This was my first render test with the grass which was a fur element, added to a plane. Using the sculpt geometry tool I modified the plane to have hills;

So I added some atmosphere, some physical sun and sky along with some leaves.

In Photoshop I created a branch using layer masks and added some leaf photos on;

 I also created an alpha channel so Maya can effectively read the transparency of the image, and applied the texture I had made to a plane in Maya, where I was able to manipulate the branches to give the illusion of a tree full of leaves;

This is a technique you see commonly in video games, for example here are some bushes modelled for the video game Sims;

I am very happy with this short task. I feel I have learnt a lot about Maya in the process of making this small environment.

I felt my scene needed some water. So using a NURBS plane, effecting the transparency, creating a bump map and keying its disturbance, I had the illusion of water!

I then wanted to create a bridge to go over the water.

I made a wooden plank and took it into Mudbox!

It was great to get a feel for this other software, I really enjoyed sculpting and carving. I carved intricate grains within the plank..

I then exported what I had made in Mudbox as level 0 normal maps;

and effectively applied the maps to my planks in maya!

The bridge now looked like it was really wooden, the normal map alongside the use of the texture, effectively created the illusion of this old wooden grain.

After I had made my bridge I thought I would rustic it up with some rope;

To achieve such an organic shape, I made a CV curve and created cylinder and extruded its face to snap to the curve. I then could change its divisions to be as organic as I wanted.

Here are some other perspectives;

I really enjoyed modelling this mini scene in maya, I have learnt a lot that will aid me when I create in Maya in the future.

Game Creation - Asset Modelling

Next I needed to build the buildings that Boris is going to run and jump across.

These are the final renders;

I included 3 variations of brick for randomisation, and 3 variations of chimney pot for him to jump over. Complete with aerial, satellite dish and drainpipe for realism.

I also created the UK flag for him to collect;

Game Creation - Rigging and Animating

Rigging

The rigging process was where all my problems started.

I rigged and skinned boris when suddenly my textures fell apart.. After messing around with the UV's I was able to save him but it meant his hair was skinned separately to his body, for some reason the textures all became offset because of the hair texture which wasn't grouped to the main body UV's.

I watched tutorials on IK and FK switching and none of them were helpful to me at all, I thought I could switch by turning off IK blend. But turning that off caused the whole IK rig on the arms to collapse so It had to be deleted. He only has IK's on his legs that I don't dare touch anymore...

Overall it was so difficult learning this process solely with tutorials. The tutorials were patchy, the only one that covered the whole process did IK and FK switches that I didn't understand, I only wanted an FK rig yet nothing existed to me. Tutorials also aren't helpful when you have a problem, they don't describe where you are going wrong. Like Boris' co-ordinates are all wrong, one side of his body is - the other + when he moves, yet when you FK move the same body part either side they move accordingly..? When technically they shouldn't. The worst part is, I have no idea where I went wrong in the process!

I'm looking forward to starting college again and being able to talk to someone and find out the issues of where I went wrong, and get a nice solid tutorial on one of the hardest parts of Maya.

Animating

Surprisingly considering how many issues I had with the rigging, the animating of Boris went well.

I could tell there was issues with rigging though because of the graph editor being nonsensical, lines everywhere..

But I managed to create the basic movements I needed and made them looking nice!

This is the run cycle;

and the jump cycle;

I really enjoyed animating Boris. I just felt that I wasn't doing it right, or correct for that matter, because of the issues with the rig that became evident in the graph editor.

Game Creation - Character Design and Modelling

So I have teamed up with a computer scientist this summer to create a VERY simple platform game.

We decided to do a take on the game "Temple Run", but instead from a sidewards perspective. A character running endlessly dodging obstacles and collecting something along the way to get points.

The game took a very random and comical twist, because of Boris Johnson just being everywhere on the news at the time, we decided to do a "Boris Run". 

The game objective was to control Boris running on the rooftops of London, jumping over chimneys  and jumping from building to building collecting UK flags. It could be interpreted Boris is running from conservative leadership or running from the problems he has partly caused with Brexit, or that he is just a secret ninja who involves in rooftop parkour.

So I started to character design Boris...

I wanted to be quite caricaturey with my design, cartoony yet keeping a realistic aspect so he is easily identifiable. 

The things I wanted to exaggerate with his appearance to create that caricature look were his nose, messy hair and rotund middle.

Here were my final character designs;

As you can see his nose is certainly exaggerated taking the core position on his face. His hair is so exaggerated it covers his eyes (cleverly saving time modelling eyes..) his body is enlarged to a certain extent his arms look small an his legs tiny, enhancing that cartoon aspect.

The realistic aesthetic will come out with the texturing in Maya.

Modelling

Modelling the body was a simple and easy task, however when It came to the head because I was avoiding high-polygons things got tricky.

Boris ended up more high-poly than I expected unfortunately due to the smoothing process... But he will be okay in the game due to its simplicity.

These are the finished renders of him;

For my first ever character model I am very happy with him. There are a few issues with his geometry unfortunately, but I have learnt now not to make the same mistakes again...

I hand-painted him in Mudbox, thats how he got his realistic skin complexion on his face. He is exactly how I drew him out! (if not his arms a little shorter but hey-ho). His hair I applied using the same technique as my tree branches previously, applying an alpha image to a plane to make it transparent aside from the image, it works well to create that shaggy, messy aesthetic I wanted.

He is easily recognisable I believe, I have captured a cartoony resemblance that I am happy with,