Amanda Bendandi

Side by side comparisons

2011-12-16T18:59:00.000Z

More side by side comparisons using Google streetview

New Demo

2011-12-16T18:56:00.000Z

Finished just in time for christmas work on our latest project/demo/presentation. We've been modelling a part of Shrewton and working on getting it into both Unity and VBS. Its not picture perfect yet and there are some minor issues to sort out but we'll get back to that next year I guess.

First Contract

2011-12-16T18:41:00.000Z

This September we got our first major contract - or rather sub-contract creating various police and marine vehicles for use in a military sim. Models are below.

Catch Up

2011-12-16T18:32:00.000Z

Well its been a while since Ive updated, but Ive done a fair bit since my last post. A couple odds and ends - houses and shops for the DotSim demo over the summer and working with a couple game engines and their unique quirks etc.

DotSim - FV510 Warrior

2011-07-23T19:20:00.004+01:00

Heres my tank more or less done. Still a bit i could do but im being "encouraged" to move on to new projects. Fun times!

DotSim - FV510 Warrior - Treads

2011-07-20T11:18:00.000+01:00

Tank treads are up. With and without alpha maps. Other textures will be done shortly

DotSim - FV510 Warrior

2011-07-16T18:46:00.000+01:00

DotSim - 1950's Detached House

2011-07-13T09:36:00.003+01:00

DotSim - Victorian Semi

2011-07-10T18:40:00.005+01:00

DotSim - Terraced Houses

2011-07-05T18:43:00.001+01:00

More quick props for DotSim's demo project

Car - Textured

2011-06-30T15:14:00.000+01:00

Ok so the car texturing is pretty much done - its a little low resolution for my taste but thats the way the specs were - and speed seems more important than quality/detail in this job. there are a couple small tweaks to fix but pending approval this is it. (@3000 polys)

Police Car Progress

2011-06-27T20:44:00.000+01:00

Finished up the modelling today& spent a little time cleaning up the mesh where needed. Almost finished with the unwarapping as well. Current poly count is 2,387

Progress

2011-06-26T21:24:00.000+01:00

More Cars

2011-06-24T22:48:00.000+01:00

New Project

2011-06-23T23:08:00.000+01:00

So in between packing and frantic job-hunting I have started a new project for a friend who is starting a company and needs a bunch of new models - for now I am starting with a police car - Ford Focus Sedan version. Here is what Ive got to so far.

Temple - Final stills

2011-05-18T18:53:00.000+01:00

Been rendering all week - takes an awful long time, but ive got most of the temple stills done now.

Test Render

2011-05-14T16:49:00.000+01:00

been messing about with the lighting and render settings last night. Am somewhat satisfied with what i have now - its not perfect but better than earlier efforts and this time the normal maps are showing through which is a relief (...heh... get it?) the only trouble is the render times - high def is about 9 min per frame - SD is better at about 4 mins though still will take a couple days to render on my laptop. Ill try fiddling with the settings to see if I can reduce it more, if not Ill have to just start rendering on Monday which means I have to finish up the last little bits of texturing by Sunday night - shouldnt be a problem though as most everything is final. Still I feel as if Im pushing it a bit time wise.

Temple Progress - Courtyard Fountain

2011-04-20T16:08:00.000+01:00

Temple Progress - Furniture

2011-04-19T17:36:00.000+01:00

Lamia Progress

2011-04-17T20:07:00.002+01:00

Heres where ive got to with my Lamia - Im going to stop for now on this one and spend the next 2 weeks getting my environment up to date + more work on props if poss. I shall do more work on this one after first submittal hopefully

Video turnarounds

2011-04-17T00:29:00.000+01:00

Collab Project - props

2011-04-07T21:21:00.002+01:00

Lamia Progress

2011-04-05T12:01:00.000+01:00

Im much happier with the skin now and have done the tail as well - got a couple troublesome seams to work out but more or less I consider the body done. The hair is a bit flatter from some angles than I like, but for a gamechar I dont see another way to do it. For high poly images I might just use max's hair and fur (rendered it out for low poly) now all I have to do is the clothes & accessories & im thinking of adding some stuff that wasnt in the original design - will see.

Lamia Progress

2011-03-30T20:58:00.000+01:00

So, got alot done today - mostly messing with the skin and tail though im not too happy with it and may decide to start over tomorrow.

Lamia Progress

2011-03-28T20:05:00.000+01:00

Spent most of today working on the Lamia. Starting to texture - been working on the tail quite a bit but its still needs too much work. Got the face close to completion as well though the eyes and hair need more work.

Collab Project - props

2011-03-23T17:34:00.000Z

Lamia

2011-03-23T14:02:00.000Z

been working on my lamia char

Got rough modeling done - next will unwrap and refine more in mudbox

Temple Progress

2011-03-18T00:05:00.000Z

Done alot of work on the market square - stalls, arbour and fountain. Ended up doing quite a bit of tweaking to get the scale looking right. Also spent a bit of time sorting out the lighting - its nowhere near done though and a bit of a headache - esp getting good lighting that doesnt take massive time to render. still have quite a bit of texturing to do, but modeling is more or less done, bar small bits (some chairs and tables i think). Also re-did the palm trees slightly.

Temple Progress

2011-03-16T00:34:00.002Z

Temple Progress

2011-03-15T21:06:00.000Z

What Ive got so far on my temple project - unwrapping and throwing on basic textures as I go along - when everything is in place i will take more time to refine the textures more.

Collab Project - props

2011-03-02T00:13:00.002Z

So ive finally gotten started on props for my second collab project. Lost most of last week desperatly trying to get my disertation done in time, so not much modelling got done unfortunatley.
Gotten started on props, but they are still rather unfinished.

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-21T16:46:00.000Z

Ok, so just little touchups on this pass. Mostly fixed a lot of little stretching issues throughout - legs, blade, shoulders etc. Reduced some of the rust on the weapons housing and ears & polished up the blade edge.
Its reading week and no tutorials so Ill have to hold off on the Illumination for now.

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-19T21:49:00.003Z

Ok, as per request heres some renders with stronger directional lighting. Im not great at lighting though. Ive fixed up the diffuse maps slightly and replaced the specular and normal maps. Ive also added a glossiness map to sharpen up the wire bit. Im having trouble getting the self-illumination map working, so will wait till monday tutorials to see if I can get help. Ive also added some highlights to the corners on the legs.

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-18T12:26:00.002Z

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-17T20:08:00.000Z

Ok, so Paul wants waaaay more contrast. So ive gone way crazy, im inclined to dial it down some, but will wait to hear what he thinks. Re-did the spec maps some and got rid of some of the detail normal maps as they were interfering with the lines of the model. Will try some more later.

Tinaman - Textures

2011-02-17T17:02:00.000Z

Adjusted the normal maps slightly. Spec maps are still screwed up though. Spoke to Paul and he confirmed the sword should be less rustly esp on edges. Ill be waiting for further feedback from the RUST guys before doing too much more though.

Tinaman Textures

2011-02-17T14:09:00.003Z

Tinamorous Texturing progress

2011-02-15T13:35:00.001Z

Head and Legs Base Tex are done. Will finish up the arms today and tomorrow morning and then work on adding extras.

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-14T16:18:00.001Z

OK, after a couple false starts where I tried to figure out the best approach to Tinman, Ive started to make some real progress. Mudbox was out due to it melting all the nice sharpness, so Ive been making highpoly elements and using those to render to texture. Have been using Viewport Canvas in Max to make the base texture. Once everything is in place I will refine more in PS. the 2011 version of Viewport canvass is much better than the previous which i had the hardest time getting to work in the past. I'm making rough Norm and Spec maps as I go along as well, though still some work to be done on them. Im considering taking the highpoly version into Mudbox and getting some rust Normals if it works - might not though.

Unwrapping

2011-02-09T12:47:00.001Z

OK, so I havnt updated in a while. on Friday I sent in the model to Darren for him to have a look at and make some changes. Got it back on Sunday and have been working on re-unwrapping since then. Just finished now and will start texturing work.

Tinaman - some renders so far

2011-02-03T14:14:00.001Z

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-02T16:38:00.000Z

Started blocking out the rest of the torso & head

Tinamorous Texturing

2011-02-02T13:58:00.000Z

Getting started with texturing - a bit later than i wanted to, but... started with the torso and assorted wires - using R2T for this - first attempt below - there are still some slight niggles to work out but not too bad.

More Progress

2011-02-01T17:15:00.000Z

Ok, things were a little slow last week due to pc issues ... good news is that i have got my laptop back and have (mostly) finished re-installing (and upgrading) all my software.

I have also FINALLY finished unwrapping Tinaman which took freaking forever due to all the tiny fidely elements he is composed of. I have also collapsed all the diferent objects into one mesh and one UVW map - which will prolly have to be large as its composed of so many bits.

Anyhoo heres my guy ready for texturing: I adjusted the head and shoulders as per Darren & Pauls emails and lengthened the legs and changed the sword as well.

Ive also done a quick test of him with "bent knees" jsut to make sure it works. Thank god im not rigging tho :D.

Tinamorous - Modelling Progress

2011-01-25T12:23:00.000Z

OK, one more update. Sorry for the delay in getting this up, my laptops CPU overheated and crashed it so its in the shop getting fixed. Luckily I managed to backup my work before this happenned.

Updated head as per lastweeks emails from Paul & Darren at Rust. Still need to do back armour and make sure proportions are right then (yay) lots of optimising and unwrapping.

Tinamorous Modeling Progress - Head

2011-01-20T17:01:00.000Z

Aaaand more progress. Finished up the head - will have to take a break to back up my laptop - courier is coming to take it away from me tomorrow *sniff* hopefully it will be fixed quick and I can get back to using it without overheating.

Tinamorous Modeling Progress - Head and Neck

2011-01-19T20:22:00.002Z

Tinamorous Modeling Progress

2011-01-19T16:33:00.000Z

Tinamorous Modeling Progress

2011-01-18T12:00:00.000Z

Tinamorous Modeling Progress

2011-01-17T16:42:00.002Z

CV Take Two

2011-01-17T16:39:00.000Z

And here is my CV after making some changes to the front and the cover letter.
Will be rediesigning the business card from scratch tho I think.

CV Project

2011-01-17T16:34:00.000Z

Heresmy CV and Letterhead for the Business Studies Module - My business card was rubbish and needs a complete redesign

ProjDev: Tinamorous Turnarounds

2010-12-08T19:38:00.000Z

Been working on the Tinamorous Turnarounds. Only have rubbish pics from my phone atm as my scanner broke - also im working in A3 so I will have to go into the uni to scan - perhaps on friday. Been getting feedback from Darren and Paul and adjusting as I go along.

SpecProjects:Textured Turnaround

2010-12-01T15:58:00.001Z

SpecProjects: Deadpool Lowpoly Textured from Amanda Bendandi on Vimeo.

SpecProjects: Texture Maps

2010-12-01T15:07:00.000Z

Here are my texture maps for this project:

Deadpool Body - Ambient Occlusion, Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Unwrap, Self Illumination

Deapoool Props - Ambient Occlusion, Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Unwrap

SpecProjects: Photoshop work

2010-11-26T00:30:00.000Z

Ive done a bunch of work in PS, and I think I killed the main texture by too many tweaks. May have to take a couple steps back. Its prolly cus im working too late so Ill wait till the morning to decide.

SpecProjects: Lowpoly char

2010-11-25T16:51:00.000Z

Ok, so just for curiosity's sake I imported the lowpoly version from mudbox to see the difference between the original lowpoly mesh. Right away I think the normal map looks much better, but Im not sure if it looks good enough to justify double the amount of polys.
I like the silouettes much better - but is 7000 still lowpoly? Must check.

SpecProjects: More Painting

2010-11-25T16:20:00.001Z

Ive been working more on painting and airbrushing in Mudbox. Its great for getting rid of seams. Anyhow this is how far Ive gotten today.

Before going further I thought I would export the maps I have done so far and see how it looks in Max - see if everything is working right and stuff (dont want another big issue like the last one ruining all my work. This is how the low poly model looks so far:

There were some issues with the unwrap seams showng etc - but those were more or less fixed by some rescaling. Theres still some work to do on the back of the head and arms. Its not quite where I want it yet, but getting there - I think its time to take out of mudbox and work on more in PS. For some reason the Spec map isnt showing up well at all and the normal map isnt as strong as I would like - though I think thats just cus the model is a bit too low poly. I dont know if I should refine it some more or not though.

SpecProjects: Initial Painting

2010-11-23T22:49:00.000Z

Ok, well here is what Ive been doing all afternoon. Havnt really started painting yet - just stuck on the base color to get a feel for how it will look.

SpecProjects: Setbacks

2010-11-23T19:02:00.001Z

Well. Turns out there were some slight issues with my unwrap - a lack of "relaxation" here and there that I didnt notice until I tried to paint in mudbox. Fixing the original mesh of course made all my work today moot. I tried a couple methods of projecting the mesh anyhow and while they worked the finished result was a little bit messy and not at all as good as i wanted. So. Scrapped all my mudbox work todate and started again. Fun Times! Ive mostly resculpted all the muscles and stuff already - seemed to go quicker this time around - Still have some minor sculpting to work on - wrinkles and such, but I tried painting and its working great. Ill probably try to mostly get the body sculpted and textured this week and work on his accessories next.

I also got to rework the UVW layout some as I had changed my mind about having it all on one page, so that worked out well anyhow.

SpecProjects: Mudbox Progress

2010-11-22T17:55:00.000Z

Started with Mudbox today - a couple false starts due to issues in the mesh, but I think I have sorted most of them out now.

Heres what ive done so far. Im totally loving sculpting - its loads of fun. Gotta do a little more work on the muscles in places and then start adding clothing wrinkles + a bit more work on the face. Also I have to figure out what to do about the cuffs & boots - in hindsight it would probably have been better to make these as separate objects and texture them together with his other acessories.

SpecProjects: LowPoly Turnarounds

2010-11-19T18:37:00.002Z

SpecProjects: Low Poly Wireframe from Amanda Bendandi on Vimeo.

SpecProjects: Low Poly Shaded from Amanda Bendandi on Vimeo.

SpecProjects: Deadpool Model

2010-11-19T12:57:00.000Z

Ok. More or less done with modeling for now. May make slight changes tho. Overall I am quite pleased with it though. Its a real fun character to build.

SpecProjects: More Progress

2010-11-19T11:29:00.002Z

Finished body and added boots and cuffs. Started on harness.

SpecProjects: Progress

2010-11-18T11:36:00.002Z

Ok. Added hands and knees & further defined muscles

SpecProjects: Progress

2010-11-17T18:06:00.000Z

Progress so far:

SpecProjects: Ref

2010-11-16T19:01:00.001Z

Got the new brief yesterday for the Mudbox project. Ive decided to go with Deadpool - Mostly because I've found a readymade turnaround for it. Also as Im doing a female character and a robot as major project, I wanted to try and get a male character this time. Ive still done my own based on it as it was an older design and didnt have all the elements I wanted. Started modeling today, though I wont post progress until I have a slightly more complete version ready.
Following are reference pics and turnarounds.

ProjDev: RUST - Tiamous Melee Weapon Redesign

2010-11-05T15:52:00.000Z

I'll be building the robot character Tiamous for the Rust Project. Ive been asked to get together some ideas for a melee weapon redesign based on the concept art they have. Been throwing a couple ideas around, though TBH weapon design isnt really a strong point.

ProjDev: Lamia - Further Designs

2010-11-03T14:06:00.000Z

ProjDev: Temple Compound - New Design

2010-11-02T16:08:00.000Z

ProjDev: Temple Compound - Research

2010-11-02T16:06:00.000Z

ProjDev: Collab Cityscape Initial Concepts

2010-11-02T15:59:00.000Z

ProjDev: Collab Cityscape Research

2010-11-02T15:58:00.000Z

ProjDev: TempleCompoundConcepts

2010-10-30T15:41:00.002+01:00

My second personal project is an egyptian temple complex. Instead of ruins I want to do a reconstruction of how it would have been back in the day - Lots of nice colors and textures, brightly painted bas reliefs etc. Instead of just building and stone work Ill be adding a temple garden/ trees/ water features etc which they were big on back then. Doing alot of general research on egypt and egyptian living & the temple buildings etc.

ProjDev: Lamia Initial Designs

2010-10-29T22:00:00.003+01:00

Here are some of my initial designs for the Lamia. Instead of going for the cobra hood (which seems a little cliche) Ive been playing with using hair to flair out with the same effect when she is about to strike. I quite like the idea of dreadlocks as well as they are sorta snakey & go with her whole cave dwelling persona. I need to push these ideas around a bit more though (think piercings!)

ProjDev: Lamia

2010-10-29T21:52:00.004+01:00

Ok. Been a while since Ive updated here. One of my project for MajProj this yr will be Lamia. Im basing my character on the greek mythological creature rather than the D&D version. In mythology Lamia was a queen of Lybia & grandaughter of Posidon. She got into an affair with Zeus and had a couple kids by him, Zeus's wife Hera took exception to this and killed her kids in revenge. Lamia went a bit nuts and became blood crazed, killing and eating children, seducing young men and drinking thier blood etc. Eventually she became a half snake-half woman monster who hung out in dark damp places feeding her bloodlust. She has affinity with snakes, dragons and sea serpents (both her two surviving kids - Skylla and Akhelios are sea serpents.

Oh and Zeus felt bad about his wifes leetle over reaction and "gifted" her with the ability to remove her eyes in order to see the future. Unfortunatley she is a trickster and sorceress and in order to get this information she must be either defeated or tricked out of it. She spawned a race of creatures called lamias all with the same characteristics, a lust for handsome manflesh and blood. Actually the whole species reminds me of vampires so Ive been using that as reference as well.

Johhn Keats wrote a rather lengthy poem that has some rather gaudy descriptions of her, but which is too long to write here. You can read it at http://www.bartleby.com/126/36.html

To research this project I have been looking at (of course) images of the Lamia, both classical and modern as well as researching snakes & snakeskin of all variety, eyes, fangs etc.

As she is a Lybian queen I have also been looking at costumes from the region, though admitedly most of what i get seems to be a choice of Burkha - but arab bellydancers have some nice ideas too.

SpecProjects: Maya

2010-10-15T10:12:00.000+01:00

Done most of my rendering last night. Still not 100 percent pleased with the flythrough but i spent ages trying to get the camera animation done - major headache. Rendering out HD images & sorting out the flatwork this morning.

Summer Sketches

2010-10-15T01:24:00.001+01:00

Some sketches I did while in Italy over the summer. The top two are views from my parents place (in the Laquila mountains) overlooking the valley. The last one is from Lago Campotosto - one of the largest artificial lakes in europe I believe. Done with Pen and Marker.

SpecProjects: Clouds

2010-10-13T16:35:00.000+01:00

Re-did the clouds. used the same tecniques as for the gold in the cave. Had to rework the lighting a bit as the directional light didnt work for them.

SpecProjects: Sea

2010-10-13T14:32:00.000+01:00

Ive used a displacement map + Normal map to add some "waves" to the sea. Im not really convinced its an improvement though, so I may not keep it.

SpecProjects: Gold Piles

2010-10-13T12:38:00.000+01:00

Cave treasure is in. I used transfer maps dif/norm/alpha and spec for these projected onto a plane. I think it works better than just a flat image.

SpecProjects: Texturing

2010-10-12T13:51:00.001+01:00

Bushes are in as well as clouds. Im sticking to just one variation for now and if I have time I will add the second.

SpecProjects: Texturing

2010-10-12T09:20:00.001+01:00

Did some more work late last night - Added a spec map for the trees and a couple backlights to soften the shadows of the mountain. Also made the sea texture seamless.

SpecProjects: Lighting tests

2010-10-11T21:09:00.002+01:00

Ok - Not done a whole lot with the lighting yet. Tried out using daylight system but I wasnt happy with the results so Im using a directional light instead. The lava glow is a volume light. I'll need to still tweak the shadows a bit and also add a backlight to brighten the shadows, but I am quite pleased with the progress so far.

I want to add a bit of shine to the palm leaves I think. Also the extra modeling I put in the volcano seems to be clashing with the normal maps so I will probaly remove that

SpecProjects: Texturing

2010-10-11T19:07:00.000+01:00

Thankfully I got the issue with the normal maps sorted. Started on the assets for the scene. Had to do some tweaking to the dimensions of the island and made the volcano a bit taller so it peeks over the trees. Changed my mind about the palm leaves because of a material I found that I thought would go well with an alpha map. Its not too different from the design though so it should be ok.

SpecProjects: Texturing

2010-10-10T22:49:00.000+01:00

Been having some issues with Maya crashing during R2T which has kinda been a pain. Started on the volcano + Lava. Lava will do for now though if i have time once everything is done I'd like to work on it a bit more (Less pink more red i think). Volcano needs some work still in the cave part of the unwrap. Also the Ambient Occ didnt take for some reason so will need to try it again. Same issues with Normal maps - cant get them to work properly.

SpecProjects: Texturing

2010-10-09T23:24:00.000+01:00

Ok. Here is what I have so far. Texturing has been a bit of a pain tbh - nothing working quite like I want it to and not having the slightest clue what to try for troubleshooting when things go wrong. Hopefully somebody will be around for tutorials Monday cuz I have run into a couple snags with getting Normal maps to render properly.

Anyways, this is the main part of the Island what I have done. No spec maps yet and I might leave them out for the ground.

Now that Ive got so far, it should be much quicker to do the rest of the island - and the assets are all pretty simple too so I should be done in time. If I have time Id like to work on the way the sea looks as its a little flat right now - Though that may not be an issue once Ive got all the assets in place.

The sea texture is just a placeholder for now but I'll probably end up keeping it with just a little work.

And here are the Unwraps, Diffuse, Ambient Occ and Normal Maps so far.

SpecProjects: Island

2010-10-06T15:24:00.000+01:00

I think I have mostly gotten my island and various props done. At least as much as I can get to without unwrapping - once they are unwrapped I can work on making the different variations as well as the texturing. Unfortunatly I havnt the slightest idea of where to start with the unwraps. Will look around some and see if i can find some tutorials online to speed up the process - if not I will have to wait until tomorrow PM's lecture.

In the meantime I've gone through the textures I have and started collecting more online as well. Will work on some texture design sheets too - I didnt get the time to do that during the design stage.

Anyhoo - here is the latest version of the island with cave and pit trap in place plus Lava!

SpecProjects: Raft

2010-10-04T22:02:00.000+01:00

SpecProjects: Chest

2010-10-04T18:26:00.001+01:00

SpecProjects: Bushes

2010-10-04T16:52:00.000+01:00

Bushes are done. Ive worked 2 variations from the same components and plan at least 2 color variations if poss. to give a bit of diversity.

SpecProjects: Maya Beginnings

2010-10-04T12:58:00.000+01:00

Ok, well Ive been working over the weekend trying to familiarize myself with Maya - Its slow going but getting there. I am pretty glad Ive chosen a somewhat simple design as there is a bit of a learning curve and its taking xalot longer than it would in Max. Mostly basic stuff like different shortcuts for manuvering etc...

Anyways I am quite pleased with the loft tools - they seem simpler and work better than Max. The way the Modifier Stack works will take me a while to get used to though.

So far I have got a start on the island though I think I will need to redo the loft and include the cave in it - seems the cleanest approach - will discuss it with Dai though.

I've also done the tree and feel I can provide sufficient variation on the design by tweaking the modifiers. Will wait on populating the island though till the unwrap is done.

The breaks in the leaves (see turnaround) I think I will do via alpha channel.

SpecProjects: Chest Turnaround

2010-10-01T10:47:00.000+01:00

SpecProjects: Gold Piles

2010-10-01T10:19:00.000+01:00

Gold piles in the cave will be in 2d on overlapping planes to give a depth effect

SpecProjects: Raft Turnaround

2010-09-29T19:01:00.000+01:00

The logs are bolster cushions tied together with ribbon. The sail is also tied to the mast with a ribbon and pinned to each side of the raft with a safety pin

SpecProjects: Island Top View

2010-09-29T18:51:00.002+01:00

Top view of the island - footprints make a path from the boat to the cave, stopping at points of interest throughout. I wanted to add a few more but I was worried about time so am sticking with this for now. If I have extra time I may add some bamboo structures.

Side Views and close up of cave.

The magma in the volcano is going to be ribbons - like the thick satin ones you get with wire in them for wrapping gifts.

the island itself will be a fabric patchwork - I have several ideas for the type but am leaning towards a loose-weave hemp (with mebbye buttons laying around instead of seashells?) I need to think of a way to get the footprints in there since theres no sand. Maybe it can take impressions like memory foam - or possibly watermarks - not sure yet.

SpecProjects: ShrubsTurnaround

2010-09-29T18:49:00.000+01:00

Leaves are dark shiny silk (possibly watered silk if it is not too shiny). Deep green
leaves with thick red blanket stich highlights.

Make at least two color variations for variety.

Leaves are arranged in three layers around the stem in groups of seven, five and
three leaves per level

There are two variations of the plant. The leaves of the first one droop down over
eachother, while the leaves of the second plant keep stiff and pointing upwards.
The upright version is topped with a bright colored silk tulip flower (same color
as the blanket stitch on the leaves)

SpecProjects: Tree Turnaround

2010-09-29T15:58:00.000+01:00

The palm leaves will be textured using a fabric with a strong directional
grain - dark green with brown stitching down the middle.

Tree trunks will have the cross patterns quilded into the material using
normal maps

Use a brown felt type material for the coconuts.

(I have initial design sketches for everything but my printer/scanner died on me so will try to get them up later)

Specialised Advanced Projects - Maya Basics

2010-09-29T15:48:00.000+01:00

Ok... back to blogging.

Got our new briefs this week. We will be spending the next 3 weeks building an environment in Maya, so I am pretty glad for the experience with it last year.

As there is not a whole lot of time and we are learning new software I have decided to go for a simple styalized cartoon style for this project - Much like you would get for an online childrens game level - lots of bright primary colors and simple rounded objects. Its also quite diferrent from what I have been doing so far, and I figure it cant hurt to have experience in several styles, even though I would prefer to work in more realistic games etc.

Im thinking of doing a small contained area - a park or garden or perhaps an island with simple props - perhaps a pirate island.

Texturally, to add a bit of interest and keep the whole scene from looking plasticy Ive decided to use fabrics as textures. Ive been wanting to do something along these lines for a while now and I think it works quite well with the simplicity of the design. Almost like a 3d collage I guess - that way I can keep the models very simple yet have plenty of visual interest by using normal maps to get the fabric textures. I looked at alot of collages as well as the Lenor "Clothworld" series of advertisements which is quite similar to what im looking for.

Squidmobile - textures

2010-05-13T22:27:00.001+01:00

Render to texture has been giving me massive nightmares but sloooowly making some progress. Still got a bit of tweaking to do, but at least it looks like i'll manage to finish by the deadline. Yay!

Still got to work on the new lanterns for the cave too.