February 6th, 2024
This week I planned to address the creature model. After struggling intermittently for months on the creature model and repeatedly putting it down to try to return to it with fresh eyes, I decided to reach out to a close friend and creature model expert DAC Alum Sten Weed for help. We sat down on a Zoom call and looked at all of the reference boards together and assets and went back to the drawing board to overhaul the character to make him more "creature-y" as I'd been consistently getting feedback on for a while in Production reviews. Sten recommended that I make the head much more bug-like, exaggerate the hunch in the posture, make the limbs very stretched and long, as well as make the fingers and feet bony and spindly. After an hour of sketching this is what Sten came up with.
February 9th, 2024
After I met with Sten I briefly sketched out the design again in my style just to figure out how I would tackle it. This is the quick sketch I came up with.
I then moved on to laying out all of the basic forms. In 4 hours I was able to take the body base mesh I started with for the Painter model and stretch out the limbs, add more bug/bird-like legs to match with a lot of the visual inspiration, refit the Painter model clothes onto the base mesh, import the existing wing meshes, and create the bug head. I'm really proud of how far I was able to get in just a few short hours and I think it's a real testament to how much I've improved as a character artist over the past year that I can resourcefully build an entire character model in just a few hours. Some details need more polish on them but to be able to get everything in the scene file that needed to be there that quickly is a huge step for me.
I rendered this turntable out of ZBrush which shows a bit more detail and depth on the model.
February 13th, 2024
After recently discovering an issue with the front environment set I went in and addressed scaling and placement issues that happened to our forest environment assets. I also went through a handful of the Act I shot cameras and repositioned them according to notes and feedback the group had been given. I placed some of the stylized matte paintings I previously made based on assets produced in Terragen and Terragen Sky for the clouds and mountains. I also replaced some of the more heavy tree assets with trees from our approved asset library to reduce the file size and increase file speed.
While I was working I had my perspective view up on one side and all the imported shot cams on another monitor which greatly sped up my workflow as I could see all of the assets arranged in each camera at once and see in real time how moving an asset in one camera would impact the other cameras for continuity.
The lighting will be adjusted again on a shot-by-shot basis at a later date and custom textures are currently in progress for the tree assets which I think will be very helpful in bringing the shots to life. These renders are also using an untextured version of the house as those textures are also in progress.
I'm hoping with the textures we will be able to recapture some of the magic of this earlier render I made back in November with some of the tree assets that were determined to be too heavy.
February 19th, 2024
As the final tweaks and updates are made to the Painter character rig I made sure to finalize and update the UVs for each hair model and the beard scruff planes. I separated each mesh with its own head model to bake it within Substance Painter.
The UVs now look like this absolute nightmare but what must be done must be done. The first tile is the head, hands, eyes, mouth details, and face details, as well as the beard scruff planes. The second tile is all of the clothing bits. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth tiles are each of the four hair evolutions from short and tame to long and wild.
February 20th, 2024
I ran into a bit of an issue painting the hair where I couldn't use hair materials I've used on previous projects that made hair detail based on anisotropic noise when all the shells are aligned on the tile in the same direction due to some of the shells being curved the noise not following the curved of the mesh. Instead, I tried hand painting each piece with a randomized rake brush meant to replicate the look of hair strands. I ran into another problem with this method where because the Substance brush tools will paint across shells if they're on the same tile and will jump the brush stroke onto other shells if the mesh you are painting is interpenetrating or near another mesh. Because of this, some of the hair painting has misplaced strokes that don't match the direction of the hair pieces. I got quite frustrated with this but I tried to push through it. I'm hoping that if I use this method mixed with faint layered anisotropic noise and the highlight and shadow maps I've created based on curvature and ambient occlusion I can get something that looks decently convincing in render.
I worked on each mesh and got it to a decent level of color. I would like to return to it and polish it up quickly and just make sure each hair model is as clean as the first one, but for now, I exported and published the textures onto the rig model.
Other Production work that I've done for Bathroom Stall Galactica can be seen here:
Alien Textures and Character Model Corrections (2/16/2024)
Character Model Updated Sculpt (2/1/2024)
In the realm of personal professional development outside of Production class, I have been working hard on seeking out career opportunities and connections. This past month I have:
Applied for the Disney Character Artist Internship for Summer 2024
Applied for the PIXAR Art Internship for Summer 2024
Applied to volunteer for Siggraph 2024
Applied to be a 3D Animation Teaching Assistant for LYNX Camp 2024
Applied to the Women in Animation Breaking in as a CG Artist Mentorship Circle for Spring 2024
Applied for the Women in Animation Talent Database
Secured tickets and travel to the Animation Expo in Salt Lake City March 22nd-24th over Spring Break.
Will soon be applying to DreamWorks Visual Development Internship for Summer 2024
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