Bird Number One WIP 4

Well I finally have a general profile and set of proportions for this bird that I am happy with. As you can see I still have a lot to do, but I think the main structures are in place. Next I will work on tying in the shoulder to the first wing section and then move down to the legs, which need some additional structures to allow for greater articulation.

Bird Number One WIP *Design Changes

After a good deal of deliberation and discussions all around, here are the re-designed wings for our bird friend courtesy of Nigel Sussman:
As you can see they are greatly modified functionally and structurally. I will be working on these this weekend, and will provide posts once I have made some headway.

It is too bad to have to lose the work (rigging-wise) that was already put into the previous wing design, but it was helpful in exposing some limitations in that design, for our purposes.

As is the case with all of the concept art, this is not set in stone but rather a guide, many finer details will be finalized during the modeling process itself. That being said - This design will serve as the structural and artistic basis of what will be (I hope) the final wing design.

Bird Number One WIP 3

Here are some screen grabs of the progress today. I was able to add most of the broad facial details in as well as (very) basic wings and a tail section. The tail and wings will be refined a great deal - But I needed something simple to get things started.

I modified some things in the model to make him feel a little more aggressive especially around the beak, which is larger than in the original art. Also I decided against the small metal supports on the sides of the mouth, as I want this guy to look like he could really open wide and BITE!

The wings were today's real head scratcher.

As I had mentioned in a previous post - Since this creature is metal - I cant have any pieces interpenetrating - And with the complexity of the wings , that was one tall order.

I didn't have a drawing of this in any type of bind pose, so I was having a hard time understanding how the wings would move as they were folded and unfolded.

I opted to create the scissor frame at a fairly high level of detail and then rig it. By doing this I can test the wings as they open and close, and by rigging a more detailed piece, I wont have to do it all over again later. (no user friendly controls or anything for now - Just basic parenting)

The scissor action on the wings is really creepy..! But I think I will need some additional support structures for them so that they seem strong enough to support the bird in flight.

I then keyframed the wing unfolding so I can check it through its range of motion while I refine the structure of the wing panels.

Once I had this set up I noticed that I will need to do some extensive re-working of some elements of the design - especially with these wings. Stay tuned.

Bird Number One WIP 2

Due to the complexity of this model, I am using a hybrid approach here - Generating geometry from curves, edges, positive thinking.. Hey - I'm not picky. For now, I am concentrating on getting the basic structure sorted out.

Maya 2008's smooth preview is very helpful - and the features Barry mentioned in his last post are some of the main reasons I decided to bite the bullet and install it a home.

(That and the fact I have been using it at work since its release.)


As you can see things are not really far along just yet, as I am having to flesh out some aspects of the design as I go .


Because this guy is mechanical, as opposed to organic - I have to make sure all of these bits and bobbles will move correctly once assembled. That means a lot of minor adjustments as I rough in these pieces in a way which serves the design while allowing me to get the performance I need in the end. The frames here have the poly smooth preview on them for clarity - but the mesh I am actually working on can be seen in frame 1.

Also, I feel like the original concept bird is a little too friendly, so I may be tweaking the overall proportions some as I go.


Death from above!!!

Maya Tip of the Day #4

The subtitle for this post is, "Getting To Know Maya 2008."

I'd planned on being cautious about moving into Maya 2008 on this project. It started, back in the "way-before time" on Maya 8. We were wishy-washy about moving onto 8.5, so wishy-washy in fact that Maya 2008 was out and about by the time we upgraded to 8.5.

Well, lo and behold, I look at James' latest post and, "what the hell!?!" Holmes is rocking the bird in fully up-to-date '08 style. Thusly, I'm happy to present the following post.

Unlike James, who's actually working in the program, I've only opened it a few times and clicked around on some of the "What's New" links. Two things that are new, that've drawn my eye, are the Poly Smooth and the "X-Ray Active Components" shading option.

I've not yet spent much time with the new Poly Smooth but it may be usable enough to replace the Connect Poly Shape scripts that I've come to know and love. Well, maybe not entirely replace them as they do lot beyond simply creating a smoothed proxy but it looks like a nice little addition to the toolset. I look forward to putting them to a more extensive test. The ability to quickly toggle the low-poly cage on-and-off, and to manipulate either it or the higher-poly model is great.


As to the new X-Ray shading option, I think it works for me.

When I'm modeling, I spend a lot of time jumping from X-Ray to regular flat shading. I'm always having to check if I've selected an extra face here or a stray point there. The gesture to toggle X-Ray shading via a marking menu is pretty damn ingrained in my workflow at this point. But this new shading option, which doesn't X-Ray the entire shape or scene but only the selected components, it's pretty clean. One of the tenets of creating usable interfaces is, "only show the things that are important At This Moment." The old X-Ray option, when you were trying to check your selection, showed more than you needed to see. It showed you what you didn't want selected as well as what you did want. Too much information.

Having said all that, I don't think I'll take the old X-Ray out of my toolbox entirely. This new option won't do anything for you if you're trying to add to your selection. In that instance, X-Ray is just what you need.

Okay, I've gone on long enough on very small subjects, but stay tuned for further "Getting To Know 2008" posts in the near, or far, future.

Cheers.

Bird Number One WIP 1

Nothing too exciting here, since I am at the first stages of modeling this guy. One thing of note is that I don't have an orthographic side view, so when I sliced and diced the original concept art to create the image planes (see screen grab) I created one from the perspective view. These image planes are hooked to 3 ortho cameras within the scene and on separate display layers, so that they can be easily toggled. Also, I am not really counting on these image planes to be 100% accurate (to scale, etc.) - Since some minor elements may be changed as I go anyway. The perspective one is something to look at while I figure out the best way to tackle this model.

Bird Number One Concept Art

Here is the concept art for bird creature #1, provided graciously by Nigel Sussman. Stay tuned as this progresses into out first completed character.