Term 2: Maya Session 8 and Assessment

This is our assessment task for our second term at UCA, we have been tasked with modelling an adolescent male with the assistance of turnaround concepts. We were provided with a previously set-up Maya project with the front and side view concepts of the character already in place and a mirrored cube in position to begin working on. 

I began with the feet, adding edge loops with the Insert Edge Loop tool sparingly (as and when I need it) so as to reduce the total number of triangles on the mesh, as per the brief we were provided we are to aim for around 8,000 triangles on the mesh.

The second image of each stage is the model as seen in a smooth view (3 on the keyboard)

From here I extruded the edges and scaled them in, once in position I extruded the edges again to start making the calves of the legs. The initial extrusion was to make the shape of the shoe which is a little thicker than the ankle.

Next I extruded the top edge of the leg above, pulled it up and extruded the edge again, scaled the edge out and once again extruded but now I pulled it back down to be level with the top of the leg I made above. This created the inside of the shorts and I could then extrude the edge out again to create the thin edges of the shorts and I could start to extrude up to create the thighs.

The next few images show an incorrect geometry for the groin of the model so after finishing the base model I went back to the groin to sort out the geometry where the edges coming up from the legs curve around and meet at the groin. This is so that during the rigging process after the model has been finished the geometry can be deformed accurately to how the human body moves in real life.

Here I began to pull the vertices of the thigh up so that an edge loop from the groin would rise up over the hip and back down around the back, this was done as the reference images of the human mesh show the edge loops/vertices rising around the thigh.

With the torso I continued the model until I got to the shoulders, at which point I used the scale tool to pull the vertices in to create the edge loops that circle the neck. But due to the model being mirrored instead of being one complete mesh at this point I had to pull the vertices in the middle at the separation so that I could merge the vertices later on.

To create the head I used a technique Robin showed us in class, create a poly cube and smooth it twice, this adds edge loops to the cube and turns it into a sphere shape. However the trick is the edge loops are now exactly how a human head mesh should be, radiating out in circles from ear to ear. Once the head and the hands were complete I combined the 2 halves of the model and merged all the vertices along the central split. After that I smoothed the model to 1 subdivision, creating a more organic model but raising the Tri count to over 8,000. 

So I started to remove unnecessary edged loops to reduce the Tri count eventually stop once I reached   just over 7,000.

Next I set about laying out the UV maps, I did this by (for example) selecting half the faces of the Torso, making a planar map of those faces and unfolding them. I would then repeat this for the other half of the faces; then I would select the edges that I didn't want to be exposed and used the Move and Sew UV edges tool, this connected my 2 planar maps for the torso and I could then unfold them again. Above in the UV texture editor image on the bottom left hand corner is my Planar map for the torso of my model.

With the Planar maps set and laid out to optimise the space I could move onto texturing, to do this I took a UV snapshot of the UV texture editor and saved it as a TGA file which I opened up in Photoshop to begin painting the textures on.

I made use of Photoshop to texture as I could copy the symbol on the chest of the reference image and place directly onto the model without hassle of making it from scratch.

And here is my finished model, I am really happy with how this turned out, I applied all the textures needed and they too came out well. The things I would improve on next time would be working on those laces as they were a hassle to paint on and if given the chance I would try to add some more edge loops onto the face as I wasn't able to shape the face in detail and that can be noticeable. But I believe I did well on this and look forward for more.

Something to note as an after thought, whilst looking at the previous versions I saved for security I realised that the geometry on the head was better. At some point after smoothing the model and trying to reduce the total number of Tris to below 8,000 I seem to have deleted an edge loop on the face, which is why I find the chin (at least) to be a bit off, unfortunate but I still like the outcome.