Modeling Project: Hourglass + Skulls February 2021

 

 Modeling Project - Part 2: Hourglass + Skulls

February 2021

As an addition to the hourglass project, I modeled a skull (with jaw and teeth) that would fit inside. This project was concurrent and was intended to compliment the aesthetic of the overall model project.

This project overall was inspired and modeled in reference to this image, depicting an ominous hourglass with skulls inside. I wanted to replicate it in a 3D space, and put my own spin on it with the realistic textures and particle simulation.

 The skull in particular was another means to practice and brush up on my modeling skills. This was no uniform modeling project like a box or machinery. I needed to visualize and understand the organic shaping and context for the curves and real-life measurements of skull and bone. I started out with orthographic references, plotting vertexes and extruding where necessary. To complete the final product, beveling and solidifying edges gave the smooth look. I took some liberties with the modeling in order to make the model fit into a 3D space. Some angles are sharper, and others are wider than their projected measurements according to the reference pictures. Overall, it was a successful attempt to replicate and also make the project my own.

 

Some noticeable hardships with this project were figuring out which edges needed more thickness, and which needed to be smoothed out more. One challenge was the gap on the side of the skull, where, from the front, its hard to notice, but on the side there is a noticeable dip where the dome of the skull expands into the front-facing features. Additionally, the jawbone has much more curvature and volume on the inside, which I did not realize until I later down the line. As a result, I had to do some extruding and sewing back of vertices to try to recreate the gaps which were lost. I am not sure what an easier alternative solution would have been, but the compromise seemed to pay off. After all, not all skeletons are the same. In fact, this model may well be too uniform for a realistic standard.

This project was a big step in understanding my current limits with modeling. This model in particular ended up very nice and about what I anticipated when I started. The topology was about as tight and well-formed as I could get. With more time and effort (and polygons to manipulate) I could definitely improve things like spacing, smoothness, and much more. I could have modeled the interior of both jaw and skull, not to mention focusing on the individual teeth. However, for what I was going for, this fits the bill pretty spot on.

 pictured: model without smooth shading

 Once I exported the skull model into the hourglass, it was smooth sailing. I created two skull duplicates to place in the upper and lower sections of the hourglass, clipping them into the "sand" geometry. Then, I gave them all a particle effect, paired with weight painting, to give them a bit of sand buildup along the sides. This certainly could have been refined more, and the sand could be made to look closer to the textured material, but in the interest of time and computing power, I settled for what I could. I replicated the collision effects from the previous plain hourglass render for the bottom-half components, so the sand particles would interact and fall off in a realistic fashion. In this version, the sand interacts with the skull, sand, and glass if necessary. Some tweaks to the dampening and friction were needed, and in the end it all came together practically perfect. This was a lovely multi-part experiment, and I am very thrilled with the results.

 

 

 

here is the final render, animated

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modeling Project: Hourglass - February 2021

 Modeling Project - Part 1: Hourglass

February 2021

For this project, I aimed to brush up on my modeling skills, starting out with a simple hourglass. In addition, I tried out and added a particle simulation to the finished product.

This model took only a week to complete, as far as this part of the project is concerned. The first step was fairly easy, starting with primitive shapes and slowly modeling them into the necessary forms. Only three unique shapes needed to be modeled individually, as the base and top share the same base form, as do the two poles. Meanwhile, the glass itself is one whole shape, with two sand shapes being booleans which were scaled down to give the illusion of mass within the glass.

After the initial modeling, I marked and unfolded the UVs, and proceeded to organize them for texture mapping. For this project, I used a single sheet for the hourglass components, and another for the sand. If I were to optimize it for more professional use, I would condense the UVs all into a single map. But for experimental purposes, I elected to keep the sand texture separate. The sand texture in particular was interesting to work on, because I used displacement and randomization nodes to help add more depth and detail to the render, despite the object having flat geometry, with a flat texture. It was especially fun to see that in renders in conjunction with the glass which gives its own distortion of the inner objects.

 

Once finished with the modeling portion, I wanted to take it a step further. Since this was meant to be a semi-realistic hourglass, I wanted to add sand actually falling from the top of the glass to the bottom. Initially, it would have been ideal to forego the faux sand shapes and instead use a particle simulation to then generate a mass amount of "sand" to fill and fall through the hourglass. However, seeing as particle simulations are very taxing on renders and computer processing and I am new to the subject of particle simulations, I opted for something much easier. Implementing a simple particle spawnpoint in the neck of the glass, I only needed to set up the amount, velocity, and constraints on the sand particles. This particle simulation only needs to flow in one direction, with the particles only requiring collision feedback from 1-2 surfaces: the lower sand, and the glass if necessary. In addition, I learned how to randomize factors for the simulation such as color, size, dampening, and friction upon collision.

 

Overall, this project was a very fun way to brush up on modeling again, as well as learn some new skills that may come in handy for future endeavors. The toughest part was definitely getting re-acquainted with UV organization. While not the perfect or most realistic model in the end, I think this hourglass is a good starting point for even better final products.

 

 

 

Rigging Project: Helryx - February 2021

Rigging Project: Helryx

February 2021

This is the newest project in practicing character rigging. Nothing too special about this rig aside from hose cables that travel between multiple joints. This character includes all standard sets of joints and controls of a biped rig. The rig includes an FK/IK switch for all four limbs, able to be toggled within the root control. The rig also includes a set of accessories to be parented and used during animation. This rig was made as a follow-along to a rigging tutorial set, however it was largely a matter of taking the lessons and retrofitting them for the base model of my own choosing.

The limitations of this rig are largely a matter of the base model used. Very dynamic poses can be accomplished with the rig, so the only thing holding it back is the user's desire for realistic movements or not. For example: the base model's elbows are implied to only rotate and twist on one axis. So, while I have put restrictions on the rig's FK elbow controls for said axis, the IK controls make it so that the arms are free to move around as they like with the help of the pole targets. This may break the immersion implied by the model, but again, it is up to the user and their interests.

 

FK/IK switch attribute panel in root control

 

In order to complete this rig, I needed to learn how to implement an FK/IK switch, which did not prove too difficult a task. Secondly, I needed to include extra joint chains (and pole target controls if necessary) that would deform the multiple hoses. The pole targets for the IK controls move proportionally, such that animations and poses can be made fairly extreme before invoking any wacky joint results.

It was particularly challenging to figure out what joints needed to be parented to one another to properly convey the proper connection points from A to B. For example: the two hoses that connect the head and torso are parented to the spine joint, but the chains' IK targets are subsequently parented to the head, so that when the head moves, it also drags/carries the hose geometry as if they had weight and moved in real space. Furthermore, one hose connects the torso and left forearm, and another connects the torso to the right leg. In consequence, the connections prompt a bit o foresight for users, as the corresponding body parts can only be moved so much before stretching the hoses beyond their limits.

  A rendered image of the model

This blog post will be updated with demonstration video(s) soon.

Animation Project: Dialogue - January 2021

 Animation Project: Dialogue

January 2021

In this project, I wanted to practice animating with audio queues and dialogue. With two characters in the scene, but only one portraying the bulk of animated movements, the task was relatively straightforward. Only one character is speaking and moving through space, so i tried to keep the focus on them, despite the second character being stagnant in the foreground. This animation was meant to help my understanding of timing movements to dialogue from the torso, head, arms, legs (with footsteps) and more.

 https://youtu.be/SGj3TUyP0-I

The toughest part of this project was getting the speaking character from point A to B to C in the time allotted. What I did to start this animation process was block out poses for the major actions I wanted to take place. From there, I animated the holds and in-betweens, which went smoothly. However, when the time came to animate the character moving through space, it then occurred to me how troublesome it might be to retain a sense of balance between realistic and cartoony motion. The dialogue provided did not allow enough time to move while taking a reasonable amount of steps without stretching joints into awkward positions. I feel that I compromised where I could, and perhaps for the future, I should consider earlier on whether I want a more grounded look and pace of actions or a more eccentric style like video games and cartoons.

If I were to devote more time to this animation, I would likely begin work on the second character and their potential movements. While the focus is the main character with the speaking role, I would like to learn about how to make the scene more lively with extra foreground and background movement but without taking away from the primary focus.

Animation Project: Surf Cycle - Fall 2020

 Animation Project: Surf Cycle

Fall 2020

In this project, I decided to animate a character surfing loop. This was meant to be a video game-style cycle, with cartoon motions. I did try to gather references, but most were either too dynamic for what I was aiming for, or too grounded in realistic motion, whereas my animation is only meant to stay in one place, only simulating movement through space. With that said, my animation could be interpreted as a template for further use as a film-style shot, but that would require more tweaking and additional assets to help simulate the scenario.

 

https://youtu.be/i0hkAbEYRys

https://youtu.be/tKuB0zTlAgk

Alt Link: https://vimeo.com/user132541185/review/508151699/a1f28f0f40