Model Development - Alien

I've been developing the mesh for the alien model to be used in the animation. I've made it very long because it will stand upright sort of like a snake, and needs the length to be able to curl back on itself without standing on the tip of it's tail.

I've put a dip at the bottom of the neck to accommodate for the fact that it will be looking down slightly because of it's size. There's still plenty of work to be done on it though.

Model Development - Poltergeist

The modelling for the poltergeist I'm a little more comfortable with as I've modelled a humanoid model before, and drawing from that experience, I think I'm able to make this one better. It's already looking to be much more correct in terms of anatomy, even with the adjustments to be made such as with the size of the hands.

As part of my testing process for Mudbox, I brought the models in only to find that there were problems - problems that have taken a long time to address and correct - but in the process I have developed skills in problem solving that will come into use later on. 

Model Development

This is the nightmare model, rigged with joints in it's upright posed. It is posed resembling a snake or a cobra in it's attack position, as this makes it seem threatening and dangerous.

One of the problems I had when making this was getting the joints bound and constrained correctly. At first I simply tried parenting one to the other, forgetting that I needed to constrain them. I realised this was an error when I came to see some of the joints simply vanishing after being parented, leaving them unconnected. I then tried constraining them, but they did not respond to the controllers I had set up. This is because I was still using the earlier method of parenting - in terms of which one was child to the other. I was clicking the joint as the child and then the controller as the parent, but for whatever reason, this meant the controller couldn't control the joint first. When I tried it the other way round, it finally managed to work.

I lost quite a few hours working around this problem, but overall I feel that learning the workaround for myself was ultimately progressive to my development and proficiency in using maya.

Textures / Bumps

Whilst I've dabbled in the textures and bump maps used for the environment, here are the ones for the character models.

Once the mesh was appropriately laid out in the UV texture editor it became available to paint. I prefer this much more than manually painting the details in photoshop and applying it directly, as it feels more natural to literally paint onto the model. That said, I can only wish I had more experience in it, but I'm confident that the lessons I have learned producing these models will come in later when I come to produce more.

That said, it was partially necessary to use photoshop in the production of the alien model because it took a long time to paint, and the way the polygons were arranged (a fault on my part admittedly) made it hard to paint in some areas because of the range of size in which one polygon came to play a part. For example, it was hard to paint a part of one spike because the spikes were made of only a few polygons each in total. But in photoshop I wasn't restricted.

So all in all, I've learned important lessons regarding the advantages and disadvantages concerning mudbox and painting textures, and I do feel they have helped better my proficiency in using both of the softwares.

Model Development II

I don't particularly like the modelling phase, but I like the animating. This is the poltergeist after he was given a skeleton, although at this point I was still having trouble with the controllers and so had to pose him without the use of them - which was easy enough.

The textures I had made in Mudbox worked perfectly, and binding the rig to the mesh using heat mapping - which to my knowledge is a new feature of Maya 2014, dramatically reduced the amount of weight painting necessary. In contrast to the last humanoid model I built it is much cleaner.

Though more work could have been done on the hands in the modelling, rigging and animation processes all, I knew he wouldn't be using his fingers so much - even so, his fingers are functional as independently posable extremities.

Rift Concept Art Contest: Part III

In the end, this is what I produced.

I, at least, put effort into it to warrant confidence enough to win. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, but I've since taken a moment to reflect on why.

I think it was creative enough. Having played the game, there aren't any existing two-bladed swords which I know about. A simultaneous strength and weakness it had was that it was both uncreative in it's design as it was fitting.

I had designed the sword to fit into one of the games factions, the Guardians. Throughout their gear and general aesthetics, in architecture, armour and everything else, they make use of a similar colour motif and theme. Gold, white, blue, angels, fists, wings - a sort of holy look, fitting for a faction of god worshippers. I stuck to this theme because I wanted to score full marks on the Rift-appeal, but it may have knocked down the points I scored in creativity because it wasn't anything new, or perhaps anything they had seen before.

Even so, I felt like I succeeded in that regard. Showing the artwork to family and friends, they found it hard to distinguish which was official art and what I had produced.

I also presented it on the default template that we were given and neglected the visual presentation aspect of the contest almost entirely, and only came to realize it upon seeing winning entries.

The grand prize winner was the one who did not neglect this - perhaps not such a coincidence.

The second and third place winners (after it was discovered the original second place winner was cheating by using unoriginal / not his own artwork) did the same as me, however.

This is my personal favourite sword amongst the winners - outside my own, of course. But I can perhaps see why it won. It could fit into both factions, rather than just one.

The third place sword I did not like so much, but I cannot deny it is a brilliant work of design.

After the contest, I took to the media to find out what I did right or wrong. I got some feedback from Rift on Facebook.

I also took to the game's forums to post in the relevant forum thread.

I did indeed realize that my sword would be hard to model if it was to resemble the artwork at all, and that a concept that could be more easily replicated would perhaps be more likely to win. Even so, I've learned a lot from this contest that I can apply to my work in the future, and I eagerly look forward to the next contest.

Rift Concept Art Contest Part II

Unfortunately one of the things I couldn't find out from the rules section of the contest was whether we could submit more than one application. I decided not to risk it though, nor spread out my time and attention amongst many creations.

We were given templates to work with and asked to create either a cloak, staff or sword. I wasn't all that interested in creating a cloak, simply since I find creating weapons to be far more interesting! I was originally going to opt to make a staff but instead settled on creating a sword.

I needed to reflect on the criteria I had to live up to. I do play Rift occasionally, and so I wasn't as alienated from the game and the contest as I could have been. Each entry is graded out of 10 on creativity, visual portrayal and overall Rift feel. I was content that I could capture all of these, and what I wanted to produce was already manifesting inside my head, and it was simply a matter of producing it.

I acquired a template and set to work, knowing what I wanted to make.

Rift Concept Art Contest Part I

http://community.riftgame.com/en/2014/04/02/rift-concept-art-contest/

I have decided to enter this competition. But before I got started, I read the rules, terms and conditions.

Technical:

The creation must be consistent with the ESRB’s “T” rating issued to Trion for RIFT. The creation must be submitted in a digital format (JPG, JPEG, PNG, or GIF), and may not exceed 2MB in size. The creation cannot have been submitted previously in a promotion of any kind or exhibited or displayed publicly through any means.


This is to be expected, as they want new and original work.

Content: The creation must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights, or that constitutes copyright infringement; The creation must not disparage Sponsor, or any other person or party affiliated with the promotion and administration of this Contest;
The creation must not contain brand names or trademarks other than those of the RIFT universe;
The creation must not contain material that is inappropriate, indecent, obscene hateful, tortious, defamatory, slanderous or libelous;
The creation must not contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
The creation must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of or contrary to the laws or regulations in any jurisdiction where photograph is created.

Similarly, the same standard rules. What I had hoped to find was this - the terms and criteria on which the creations are assessed and evaluated.

Eligible Entries will be judged by a panel of Trion representatives, which shall consist of Trion’s Concept Art Lead and Executive Producer, and members of RIFT’s Art Team, according to the criteria set forth below, and whose decisions are final and binding in all respects. The panel of Trion judges will award each Entry a number of points based upon the following 30 point scale: 0-10 points for creativity; 0-10 points for presentation and visual portrayal; and 0-10 points for overall RIFT look and feel (the “Trion Scale”).

The Entrant whose Entry receives the highest number of points on the Trion Scale shall be the Grand Prize Winner, the Entrant whose Entry receives the second-highest number of points shall be deemed the Second Place Winner, the Entrant whose Entry receives the third-highest number of points shall be deemed the Third Place Winner, and all other Entrants whose Entries receive honorable recognition shall be deemed a Runner-Up Prize Winner (each a “Winner,” and collectively, the “Winners”). In the unlikely event of a tie, Trion’s representatives shall break the tie in their sole discretion.

With these rules in mind, I know what the criteria is and I feel confident I can produce something good.