Weekly Update – April 2, 2015

Posted on April 2, 2015 by SusanG

I would really like to say I got a lot done this week, and I did. I just don’t have a lot of art work to show for it.

If you remember I have the main character for the TKD Project created and it’s in a state ready to rig. The thing about that is that I have to learn how to do that. So, I have been watching an Introduction to Rigging in 3DS Max tutorial at Digital Tutors. A side note here. I love my subscription to Digital Tutors. It is some of the best training money I have spent. Now back to my week.The course I have been watching is 32 smaller segments and I have managed to watch them all. A few of them more than once. There was another course recommended repeatedly in the course I was watching and after looking at what it should cover, I have decided that I want to watch it too. It has 78 segments. I’ve got some homework to do for sure.

Just because I have the tutorials to watch doesn’t mean I have to stop work on the project. I still have a lot more modeling to do which you will have a chance to see and read about. I did work on some of this modeling this week. I got a couple of things for the TKD studio modeled. I started on a chair for the lobby and realized that I didn’t have a good enough picture in my head of it and how it worked. This send me to the web to an office supply place to look for pictures. I found some and have added them to my reference file. Now I have them to work from. Unfortunately, it meant that I had to completely scrap what I had
already done. A little disappointing but that seems to be how it is when you jump into something only partially prepared.

I did a little more work on that Dolphin sculpt in ZBrush. I started getting the eyes workedDolphin_03302015a out. I had tried to work on it a few days before and was just not having any luck. I was so not happy with how it was going that time that I didn’t even save any screenshots or renders of what it was looking like. This time though, I have made enough progress that I’m ok with, to save out a render or two.

As I was looking at some of the shots I found that I may have a little proportion issue happening. We’ll see the next time I go to work on it, if it’s still bothering me.

Dolphin_03302015c

There was a notice this week that patch 3 is out for ZBrush 4r7 and it is highly recommended it be installed. It would be awesome if this would auto update from the menu but it looks like it is an uninstall and re-install update. These don’t make me really happy and it will take some time away from me getting other work done when I do it. But one of the things that is getting an update is the ZRemesher and since I am becoming a fan of that tool, I think I’ll update.
I don’t remember if I told you about this Sleigh Project I’m working on. If I haven’t then I will tell you, I have been working or creating the sleigh or sled in 3DS Max. It started out as me being curious if I could start with a tube and deform it in a manner to make it look like a sleigh body. Once I figured out that I could, I decided I want to develop that. So I worked on that a bit this week as well. Here’s a quick peek at it.

Sleigh_03292015d

Though I did spend a lot of time working on the Sleigh and the TKD project and watching tutorials, I really don’t feel like I got much done because what I can show is so little. But there has also been a lot of thinking work happen as well and that by nature doesn’t always give you something physical or digital that you can hold up and say “Here. I did, this.” Some of that thinking time included a little clarification and direction for the story for the TKD project. That will help a lot. It looks like it is going to add a lot more work to it but if the story works out, I will be happy to have done the work.

I’m also still working on a logo for the business side. SusanG Productions, I think, should have some sort of visual to go with it besides just the name in a nice font on the business card. I’ve been working on all kinds of possibilities and I think I may have finally hit on one I like. I need to get it into the computer and test it out. If it works, I will be really happy. Sometimes the hardest person to do design work for is yourself.

Pixologic had announced that they will be holding the 2nd Zbrush Summit, once again at Gnomon School in California. It’s going to be the end of September. The exact dates are September 25-27. I’m very excited about this. I watched last year’s from home since they streamed it and it was really awesome, they will be streaming it again this year. However, since I have enough notice of when and where it is, I’m considering attending in person.

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One More Thing Before It Gets Rigged

Posted on March 31, 2015 by SusanG

Yeah, I thought I was done with the Mannequin too. Well really I am as far as the modeling goes. There’s just one more thing that has to be done before it is ready to be rigged.

Mannequin_03252015d

I need to put it is a particular type of pose. It’s called a T-pose. It’s basically what it sounds like. It looks like a T. This with the arms stretched out to the sides away from the body. It’s not a tricky pose really. I imagine some of the other poses I will be attempting will be much more difficult.

To get the mannequin in the T-pose I first had to figure out if I wanted the shoulder included in the rotation or not. I decided not but that the pivot point needed to be at the shoulder. So I grouped the parts of each arm into their own group. For the right arm I created a group of the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, and upper arm. Then for the left arm I created a group for the same on the left side. Then I selected one of the groups and under the hierarchy menu I used the affect pivot only and I moved the pivot to about the shoulder. Then I turned off the affect pivot and tested it. I was able to use the rotate gizmo
and rotate the arm straight out. Yay! So I did the same thing on the other group.

Now we have a mannequin in T-pose.

Mannequin_03252015g

It’s going to be a while before you get to see any poses or animation. My next task for this part is to figure out exactly how to rig this character. I will be spending a lot of time reviewing tutorials and tinkering with the bone tools to get things just right. Before I get too far, I know I will need to freeze the transforms so that if I get things messed up it will be easy to get back to this pose. I hope I remember to do that before I start.

Don’t worry. There is plenty more modeling to do on this project besides this Mannequin.

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Finishing Up the Modeling on the Mannequin

Posted on March 30, 2015 by SusanG

I thought I was on a roll and was going to be finishing up the refinement of the Mannequin pretty quick. I had taken care of what I thought were the hard parts. Just the leg and foot to touch up. And that’s how I proceeded.

Mannequin_03222015aI started with the hip sphere and re-sized it a little as well as moved it up a bit. And then on to the thigh. I adjusted the ends so that the spheres sit in them better and added some edge loops to on the end caps as well as the end sides to help keep the edge crisp. I did some lengthening on the thigh and the lower leg sections. They were a bit short for the overall height. I did the same adjustments to the knee, lower leg and ankle sections and then I started on the foot.

I got started on the foot. I first wanted to create a bit more of an indent to accept the ankle sphere. So I began by moving some of the faces. But that wasn’t enough so I added some edge loops to give more more to work with. Ultimately I ended up adding some vertices to so I had points that I could connect with edges to get an extra ring around the indented faces. It was a bit tedious and fiddly. I had some trouble convincing the program to put points where I wanted them. Ok. I also had to remember how to do it. I had to remember that I couldn’t just create points, or vertices, I really needed to insert them and as odd as it might seem this had to be done under the edge select menu not the vertices menu. Once I remembered how to add the vertices then I had to remember where and how to connect them. I got it figured out and was able to create the new faces and make the indent look better. And then I started trying Mannequin_03242015bto refine the shape of the foot some and strengthen the shape by adding more edge loops in the areas that I didn’t want to go too soft if I add a turbo smooth modifier. I was adding vertices to the nose or toe area when I got interupted. When I finally got back to it, I couldn’t remember exactly what my intent had been. But I figured they needed to be connected so I could smooth out the transition from foot to toe. So I did that. I had a lot of trouble trying to get the insert vertices to take and found I had a lot of extra vertices that I had to remove. You can’t just delete vertices. If you do that you end up with holes. You have to use the remove button. I now have a nicer looking foot and the toe is more rounded than pointy.

At this point I thought I was moving along nicely and making lots of progress. I was ready to start on the arms and hand. As I started to work on the shoulder sphere I was looking closely at my physical model and my model on screen trying to figure out exactly what I needed to do so that the upper arm didn’t end up part way into the chest section. I want Mannequin_03242015gthere to be space between them so that it doesn’t look like one has gotten stuck in the other. Looking closely at it I found that there is a small taper with the very end so that it cups the sphere and then there is some additional shaping for the arms. There is the bulge on the upper arm for the bicep and a slight bulge on the forearm as well for that muscle. This was fine for the arms. And then I looked at the legs and found that this same taper was present. So all that work that I thought I had just finished, had to be touched up again to include that taper. Though it meant going back over something I had just done, I’m glad I did. I think it makes a big difference.

There was quite a bit of work to do on the upper arm and the forearm. They had to be lengthened, as did the hand. I figured it was easiest to start with the hand the right size Mannequin_03242015Land in the correct spot so I made a copy of it moved that copy over next to the reference stack. If you put the heel of your hand at your chin and then lay it against your face, take off your glasses first, you will find that the tip of your middle finger should end up at about your brow. So by using the reference stack of heads I could judge the correct size of the hand. Once the reference hand was the correct size I moved it to about where I thought it should be and then I moved the hand I was working on so that I could scale it correctly and put it in line with the arm. I also had to make sure that the tip of it, which would be the tip of the middle finger, would come to about mid thigh. From here I was able to scale the forearm and the upper arm to so there were long enough that with the elbow and wrist added in they all met up with the hand.Mannequin_03252015a

All that was left for the arms at this point was to add the bulge to the upper arm and to the forearm. The forearm required selecting some of the edge loops and scaling them. Mostly I did just one edge loop at a time instead of trying to use the soft selection tool. I was able to make even finer adjustments this way. For the upper arm it was a matter of selecting one or two edges and then pulling them out a little and the selecting the vertices to get a smoother transition.

Mannequin_03252015cNext up, I need another arm and I need to replace the leg that I didn’t work on with a copy of the one I did work on to make look good. So the arm from the shoulder sphere down got copied over to the other side. Then it had to be rotated so that the hand faced the right direction. Then the old leg got deleted and the refined one copied and placed where it should be. And now I have a mannequin.

One last thing before I start trying to make it ready for a rig. I needed to do something on the head so that I know it’s all facing the right way. I selected an edge and pulled it out to make something of a point, sort of like for the nose but all the way down the face not just in one spot. Then I selected the edges to either side of the one I had just made pointy and adjusted them so the weren’t pulled as far out that way I could soften the transition.Mannequin_03252015d

 

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Weekly Update – March 26, 2015

Posted on March 26, 2015 by SusanG

It’s been another one of those busy weeks. At the end of last week I took a day off from my paying job so that I could continue working on things without worrying about the alarm clock going off the next morning. It was great and really successful. I got so much more done.

So what did I work on?

Well, I’ve been working on a re-do of the business card for my Mom’s publishing company. I made some good progress on that and may even have come up with a solution. There are a few minor adjustments to make or test and a secondary layout, with different information that I need to put together. It’s now a lot closer to being ready for her when she has the final details for me to put on it, like phone number and address.

I worked on the picture of Elsa some more. I got it part way there and then stepped back for a couple of days and worked on it again and think I finally have it. At least, I’m as close as I’m going to get with this piece.

ElsaFromSketch_4

I was able to work a bit more on the TKD Guy project. I have been working on refining the shapes and the proportions as well as height and I’m just about there. I have already worked on the head but realized, I need to go back and make a minor tweak or two so that I can tell front from back. I’ve still got the foot to work on in the leg stack and then the arm stack to work on.

If you’ve been following the progress of other projects you may notice that I have not had quite the pace with the TKD Guy as with the others. I had a revelation this week as to what might be holding things up. I seem to have conceived, and started a project with no real story. It has purpose but no real story. While you would think just having purpose would be enough, apparently, not. So I will have to work on the story of the project or shelve it for a while. I’m inclined to work on the story as I am not ready to work on the next project that I have in mind. And I am starting to formulate a story for the TKD Guy, however, it is likely that it will mean a bit of a shift in the project scope and focus. Stay tuned on that one.

I did a little more experimenting in Photoshop and with my lovely Cintiq. Ok, yes, I’m chameleonlikely to rave about this for a while. I’ll stop drooling and mooning over it at some point.

Up to this point I have created my works on paper and then used my sketch as a background to trace and then create on. This is infinitely easier with the Cintiq. This week’s experiment was to try to create something entirely from the beginning in Photoshop. I used a reference picture to draw from but not trace and then
freehanded it in Photoshop. That’s right, I did the whole thing in Photoshop, no preliminary pencil sketch. This is a huge step for me. I think it’s looking pretty good so far.

Instead of getting back to the Crane in Zbrush I went with my urge to work on something different and started a dolphin. Many years ago, I spent a lot of time drawing dolphins just because I like them. It’s been a while since I created one so I thought it would be a good exercise in Zbrush. So I pulled out a sphere and got to work pushing and pulling at the sides and edges with the move brush and then using Zremesher to give me more to work with and pushing and pulling again. I also used the rotate and move tools successfully. I mention this because in the past when I Dolphin_03252015bhave tried to use these, well, it hasn’t worked out very well. But I figured out what to mask and then inverted the mask and then I rotated or moved or both as needed. When I was done with that part I used the smooth tool to fix the hiccups in the surface. After about an hour maybe a bit more I have something that has the basic shape of a dolphin.

I did continue to work on the mannequin for the TKD project. I may need to address the story issue but I decided while I did that I could work on the model and finish up the refinements I was making so it is ready. I’ll be writing about that process soon. I’m about ready to rig it so it’s time to start learning about rigging.

I’ve watched more of the tutorials on rigging and they are interesting and will be helpful I’m sure. However, I find that I’m just ready to get to the meat of the situation. I know that’s probably not going to give me enough so I am being diligent and watching the entire tutorial instead of just the sections that I think will tell me what I need to know. Chances are, if I did it that way, I’d miss out on some key point that I need to know and I would mess it up and get really, really frustrated. So…tutorials.

A little progress has been made on the business side in that I’ve worked on the information I will post on the Patreon site when I convert it to a creator. I also worked on logo ideas. I want something that will be versatile so it’s taking some work.

And that’s been my week. I have a full slate for the weekend and the next week coming up.

Look for another post on the mannequin soon.

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Time to Refine

Posted on March 25, 2015 by SusanG

I have all the parts created and a reference or guide for the height, so now it’s time to start to refine the shapes of the different components that make up the Mannequin.

As a refresher, here is what I’m starting from.

Mannequin_03112015b        IMG_0381

And a picture of the little Mannikin that I started out using as reference for the pieces.

IMG_0382

Now here is a picture of the large version of the Mannikin that I decided to use as reference for refining the parts of the Mannequin.

I didn’t think I was going to do anything to the head. And all I really did was add and edge loop at the base to sharpen up that corner. I did adjust the neck sphere. I adjusted it’s scale and seated it better in the bottom of the head. Also in the upper body section. So far nothing big.

Working my way down from the head and neck is the upper body, torso, area. This got some serious refining. First I trimmed up the lines along the sides. They looked more like a stubby body with some little extra around the belly. Ok so this would be realistic for most of us, but not what I’m going for at the moment. So I smoothed out the sides and the transition from the chest to the belly. I also flattened the shoulders instead of having them so rounded. I also did some work on the back. Because the torso was created from a sphere, even though I had scaled it in a manner to make it more oval when looked at from the top, the back was still quite rounded. That doesn’t match up with my model, or really what I want so I needed to flatten it.

Flattening the back was another of those processes that wasn’t quite as easy as I would have liked. The soft select tool didn’t work as I would like. It works in a radial fashion by default and I needed it to be more linear. I wanted to select a set of faces, or edges horizontally along the back and then gradually impact those to either side of my selection. I haven’t figured out how to make that happen, or if I can so I did what I could and then once again went about moving points to get things to line up the way I wanted. I also usedMannequin_03172015b more of the wire frame viewing as I did it. It makes it easy to check how the points and edges are lining up with each other.

It’s a little difficult to tell from this shot if this is the front or the back since there is nothing to provide a reference. However, you can see, or at least get an idea of the work done on the torso. The transition for the waist is more tapered and the lines will be smoother.

Just as the neck sphere needed some adjusting so did the waist sphere. I made it large but also scaled it down some in the front to back direction. Doing that let me make it a little larger to better fill the space between the torso and the pelvis segment.

I knew I was going to work on the pelvis segment. It’s looked a little short and not quite right for a while now. The first thing was to taper the top so that it more closely matched Mannequin_03172015cthe dimensions of the waist sphere and the bottom of the torso. I also did some refining of the lines of the pelvis so that the transition was not as pronounced. It also had to be stretched, or lengthend. It was too short. The pelvis being too short was the thing I noticed the most until I started working on it. I had already done a little flattening on the front so I only had to do a little of that on the back side. Yes, it needed flattening. Not a lot, not like the back of the torso. But a bit.Mannequin_03172015d

So now I’ve got things looking nice from the head down to the bottom of the pelvis. Though I needed to sharpen the edges at the bottom of the torso and both the top and bottom of the pelvis. I did this by adding some edge loops on the side and on the end caps. I need to start at the waist spheres next. I will probably only do one side from the hip down and then copy it all to the other side, like I did before. But I’ll leave the original in place for spacing and it might allow for seeing the differences as I make changes. Much like you can see the changes if you compare this picture with the picture of what I started with at the top of this post.

 

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