Project Week 1: Reference Images

After many nights of slaving over computer screens, trying to discover the intricacies of the human body and the Easter Island head, I came up with these (rather horrible) reference images:

There is a reason why I am in Animation instead of Drawing.

As you can see, they aren't the greatest. Their purpose is to give me a decent foundation to build the beginning of the character, which they will try their hardest to do. Once I get the foundation down, I can modify it free-form to make it look good.

I have more information pertaining to my character: he is an alien scout that landed on Easter Island and began to take the shape of the denizens he saw: the heads of the Moai statues and the bodies of rich corporate executives on vacation. He isn't actually wearing a suit, it's his skin. He has a larger upper section than lower section, relatively stubby legs, and hands with only 3 fingers. Why does he only have 3 fingers? Because hands are REALLY hard to draw.

I will post more next Friday, after I hopefully have his model finished.

First Quarter Project Planning

As a junior in e-Comm, the time has come for me to begin my first project.  As my first post regarding it, this will include my outline that I will follow.

My idea for the project is to model and rig a character in Maya, in addition to some basic lighting and rendering in mental ray. I do not plan on texturing the character, as I am afraid time constraints would limit my ability to do so.  At this point, I believe the character will be an Easter Island head with a normally proportioned human body wearing a suit.  Provided below are some images that inspired that idea, as well as my outline and schedule for the project.

(Images from learningthenow.com)

Character Reference Drawing (Due Friday, August 29th)
Create a reference image of the body and head of character (2 hrs)
Include top, side, and front view (2~3 hrs)
Blog: All of the reference images

Character Modeling (Due Friday, September 5th)
Watch Lynda Playlist: "Modeling a Character in Maya" (Done)
Create head (~1.5 hrs)
Create body/clothing (2 hrs)
Create hands (1 hr)
Blog: Simple renders of the individual parts


Character Rigging (Due Friday, September 12th)
Watch Lynda Playlist: "Character Rigging in Maya" (~5 hrs)
Create body skeleton (1.5 hrs)
Create facial skeleton (1.5 hrs)
Blog: Images of the skeleton system

Character Shading (Due Friday, September 19th)
Watch Lynda Playlist: "Creating Textures and Shaders in Maya" (~4 hrs)
Create shader for skin
Create shader for clothing
Blog: Images of model with shaders

Lighting (Due Friday, September 26th)
Watch Lynda Playlist: "Lighting and Rendering in mental ray" (5 hrs)
Set up lights (3~4 hrs)
Blog: Various renders of lighting

Mental ray Render (Due Wednesday, October 1st)
Create a few test renders (~2 hrs)
Final render (~1 hr)
Blog: Test setting renders, final render