The 3D Thread

[Rossco]

Ladies and Genetlemen, I give you... Tears of War. A story of violence between two of this generations most popular video games characters, Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.

This is for a Character Animation module in my 4th year of Computer Animation degree. The models obviously are not mine, they are ripped from the games. Everything else has been done by myself. The facial animation and lip syncing are not my strong points, I have a lot to learn in that department but to be honest I don't plan on ever doing any character animation again so no big deal right now. The voices were recorded by two of my fellow students at uni and incase you're wondering, I use Newtek Lightwave for my character rigging and animation.

Any comments are welcome.

[fatbob]

Love it!

[Rossco]

Cheers mate, hope everyone else does too, really looking to get a first class honours.

Although the rest of my work is really stressing me out now. So much written work to do I'm finding it hard to focus on the 3D aspect!

[10000Hz]

Who's your supervisor, John McQuillan? I had him for Computer animation technique and Computer modelling for my 3rd year at UWS.

Mind you 4th project was a bit of a departure from 3D modelling. The title was 'Virtual Social Environments and Communities:Providing Medical Information and Support Online' , looking at Virtual Worlds and the medicalisation of cyberspace etc. Got to do some modelling though, which was good . ^^

[Rossco]

Yup that's him! That project sounds a bit odd. What degree were you doing?

[10000Hz]

I came away with a 2-1 Hons in I.T . I studied at one of the outer campuses, where modules were short in short so at time we had to take what was going, which lead to pretty mixed bag of skills I picked over the years.

In 3rd year I decided to head to Paisley and study some modules there, mainly Unix/Linux modules but I did dabble in a bit of animation and modelling to keep my creative mind going and to fill some spare slots during the trimester. So yeah I got to fart about with Lightwave in a few of John's classes, I think I got an A and B1 for both the modelling classes. It's a shame that the modelling/animation modules weren't available at my campus early on as I might have considered heading down that route instead of I.T.

As for my honours project, we'll it was suggested to me by Daniel Livingstone, again slightly away form my main course of study but it was great fun once I got my arse into gear. Looking back It's funny how it involved all of the skills I had learned over the year, Unix servers/networking ( for OpenSim - the virtual world ), project management, 3D modelling etc. Still the honours project was one hell of a stressful times I can tell you.

Good luck with it mate.

[Rossco]

Cheers. Well that's quite a varied degree you ended up doing! I think I know that name Daniel Livingstone too but can't picture who it is.

4th year is just killing me anyway, so stressful as you say.

[Dude Ranch]

My honest opinion, aside from well done , is that I'd lose the domestic abuse text. It sounds soppy but it's not a funny subject and you never know who's gonna take it the wrong way. It could backfire on you which would be a shame. I might be over reacting but I thought I'd mention it.

[Rossco]

Thanks for saying, appreciate the honesty as I've asked loads of people about it and no-one has thought twice about keeping it in. It's not due until Friday so I might omit it before I hand it in but I don't imagine I will. I know it's a bit risky but what the hell, you only live once!

[Asura]

My honest opinion, aside from well done , is that I'd lose the domestic abuse text. It sounds soppy but it's not a funny subject and you never know who's gonna take it the wrong way. It could backfire on you which would be a shame. I might be over reacting but I thought I'd mention it.

I had assumed the project was a task to tackle a social issue through the medium of animation.

[Capwn]

Picked this up again and finished it...

[Rossco]

I had assumed the project was a task to tackle a social issue through the medium of animation.

No chance, my uni aren't as imaginative as that with their projects. Maybe it was a bit silly to put it in but it's too late now. Time will tell if it backfires.

Really like the style of that Capwn! Is this done using Maya?

[Capwn]

Really like the style of that Capwn! Is this done using Maya?

Thanks, nah this is Max.

[Rossco]

Whats everyones thought on the best package to know for working in the industry then? I was swaying towards learning Maya after uni is finished as it seemed that's the most widely used?

[Capwn]

Whats everyones thought on the best package to know for working in the industry then? I was swaying towards learning Maya after uni is finished as it seemed that's the most widely used?

I have this impression from my experience of job hunting that it's about 60%max,40%maya and 10% xsi. Thing with max/maya is that if you're good enough most studios will just teach you the other software. Usually, in 2-4 weeks in their environment you'll be able to pick up the basics if you're proficient with working in 3D, enough to do project work. So just go with what you feel more comfortable with. I can't say really as I've never touched Maya but from what I gather Max is more fussy and less user friendly though ultimately gives the user more control.

[Capwn]

Modeling a Hearse now. My first vehicle. Not looking forward to connecting the wheels to the chair/carridge

[Ran]

Whats everyones thought on the best package to know for working in the industry then? I was swaying towards learning Maya after uni is finished as it seemed that's the most widely used?

Been looking for work myself of late and noticed a much higher requirement for Maya knowledge than last time I was looking five years ago. Like Capone points out if you're proficient in one then they'll likely be prepared to train you in the other if your work is deemed good enough!

Nice Hearse by the way.

[utero2001]

dare to be digital 2010

got a few guys who got some awards at our place now, worth looking at if your a student

[Capwn]

dare to be digital 2010

got a few guys who got some awards at our place now, worth looking at if your a student

Hey man, applied to Ruffian today. Mentioned that you could back up me being hardworking and passionate if needed from our days together in the uni era

[Anaardvark]

I must say, I'm having trouble with character modelling at the moment. I've got a basic character in but I'm just having trouble adding detail. I'm scared to make cuts and add geometry in case I get it wrong and it creases and does stuff it's not supposed to. I've just finished one deadline to submit the animatic for my Major Project of the year which has been stressful (I'm doing a film trailer remake of Bioshock but in a more futuristic setting). We also have a deadline next Friday to fully model a Superhero and the pressure is mounting. We have to Poly model or Patch model a head and I've box modelled the body but I'm really struggling to do the head.

It's all a lot of very hard work :|

[Rossco]

dare to be digital 2010

got a few guys who got some awards at our place now, worth looking at if your a student

Had a wee presentation about this in uni. Would love to do it but really don't see myself having the time to get an idea together before the end of the year. It's a bit silly to expect people to complete an hours year at uni as they prepare for this.

Anaardvark, I really didn't get on well with character modelling either. Didn't have the patience or interest in trying it for longer. Glad I stuck with environmental to be honest though.

[Rossco]

So eventually got my prison environment finished. I keep changing my mind on how happy I am with the results. I do feel I've let myself down a bit. The interior is quite nice and looks the way I wanted but the outside area just isn't up to stratch. Some of the buildings are nice but the environment as a whole with the terrain, sky etc just doesn't work for me. Should still be an A so I imagine I'm still well on track for my first class honours but the project just isn't as good as I had wished. Alot of time was wasted and I did not plan it correctly. But that means alot has been learned and I shall produce better next time. Everything is a learning process!

Anyway, here are the results. It originally was going to be a prison only, then I decided to flesh it out to the area around. The prison is loosely based on Alcatraz, the same goes for the various buildings in the surrounding area too. Mainly on the modelling though, the textures I just made up to look the way I wanted, obviously going for a grungey look. As usual, everything is done in Lightwave v9.6.

Youtube links below:

Click on all below thumbnails to see high res versions:

[Ran]

On the whole I think you should be very pleased mate. The interior shots as you point out yourself are much stronger than the outer environment so perhaps you should have retained focus on one or the other if that would have still satisfied your modules requirements. The main shot alone though shows some wonderful use of texture and understandings of atmosphere, light/shadow.

Best of luck with it all. (Only real criticism I would add that isn't entirely relevant is I think your music choice for the flythrough is a bit jarring with the content of the clip. That could just be personal preference though)

[Asura]

Are you totally done Rossco, or do you have time to change anything?

To fix the slightly bland terrain you could go for the misty, Silent Hill look. Still, if you were supposed to make the prison and that's just extra, you should be ok I think. It's a good piece of work.

[Rossco]

Thanks again for the comments guys, always appreciate it.

Unfortunately it had to be an outside and inside environment so I will obviously get a better mark for the interior. It has been handed in now so no changes can be made but I really like the idea of making it foggy instead. I had played about with that a bit last year so I might even rework some of it just for my portfolio to show the exterior area off better.

[Anaardvark]

I like it, looks good. How long did it take?

On an unrelated note I have a character modelling question

Right, I have a poly modelled head and a box modelled body, what's the best way of connecting the two? The problem is that the head has a lot more geometry than the body and I'm not sure how to connect them to avoid creases.

[Asura]

I like it, looks good. How long did it take?

On an unrelated note I have a character modelling question

Right, I have a poly modelled head and a box modelled body, what's the best way of connecting the two? The problem is that the head has a lot more geometry than the body and I'm not sure how to connect them to avoid creases.

I'm not a character modeller, but I think the only "proper" solution is to try and model the head so that, as you get to the neck, it should just weld onto the body.

The only suggestion I have is to clothe the character and use the neckline of their shirt (for example) to "hide" the join.

[Anaardvark]

Yeah that was the plan, however we also get graded on how clean our geometry is and whether there are any pinches or out of place things so the mesh has to as good as possible, regardless of what covers it.

I decided to put a few extra cuts from the bottom of the neck, all along the arm to where I needed to join the hand to the arm but then i start to wonder, how much geometry is too much geometry?!

[FozZ]

Yeah that was the plan, however we also get graded on how clean our geometry is and whether there are any pinches or out of place things so the mesh has to as good as possible, regardless of what covers it.

I decided to put a few extra cuts from the bottom of the neck, all along the arm to where I needed to join the hand to the arm but then i start to wonder, how much geometry is too much geometry?!

Hope this helps:

[FozZ]

Wierd how drawing that out last night completely cemented the idea in my head. Today at work I've successfully modelled the female form in all its (fucking annoying to model) curvy glory..... <drumroll>...... without a single triangle (and by that I mean 100% quads)

ahthankyaw!